小馄饨

THAI BL MASTER POST

So this is a master post about Thai BL. It’s long. I’ve divided it into parts. Skip to the bits you’re intersted in. 

Am I an agent of trust? At the top I talk about why, or why not, you might want to believe my opinions and how my taste was formed. 

What to watch? In the middle there’s recommended watch lists/orders. 

What else to know? At the bottom there’s links to other posts I’ve done on the subject of Thai BL. 

My experience with the genre: 

I’ve been watching BL since 2017. SOTUS was my first, then Love Sick, then mostly what was on YouTube. During lockdown I decided to try to watch every BL Thailand has ever made. I went back to 2007′s Love of Siam, and to date I’ve watched over 100 Thai BLs. 

My education/career is in social science, pop culture analysis, market research, literary and film criticism, and I currently work in the entertainment industry. I’m a touch OCD. I keep a spreadsheet of all BLs I’ve watched with ratings (about 250 total), and I also use My Drama List. I started with Thai BL but I now also watch anything I can get from Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. 

I come to BL as a reader of Japanese yaoi, mostly the stuff we got translated into English from about 1997-2007. I also watched many of the first North American and British queer romances and romcoms at about the same time. I don’t consume much anime or European cinema. 

My Taste & What I Lean Towards Recommending

What I like about Thai BL is that is has longer series, is very pretty, and tends to stick to the lighter end of the spectrum with happy endings, rarely gets too serious, and usually has comedic elements. 

What you should be warned about. Production values can be low and the filming techniques are pretty amateur. There are usually sound issues from cartoon noises, to bad looping, to poor recording, to terrible music choices. Makeup and wardrobe is usually subpar. Acting can be cartoonish and awkward including chemistry between couples. 

What I don’t like about Thai BL is that it uses tropes I dislike: gay for you, dubious consent, stalker/obsession, heterosexual dysmorphia, vilification of femme and other visual queers, sex negativity, and lack of healthy female representation. When I rate something highly it’s often because it has fewer flaws as compared to other Thai BL, not because it’s necessarily better acted or has a fab story. 

The Basics of Thai BL

BL: stands fo Boy’s Love, in Thailand prior to the rise of BL dramas, there were Y-novels (books featuring a gay romance mostly written by and for straight women) and some translated yaoi manga. The Thai language still mainly uses the term Y to refer to these stories. All Asian BL can trace it roots to the Japanese yaoi tradition which spread during the 1990s. The first BLs depicted on screen were in Japan and were called live action yaoi. 

Thai BL can be divided into two types:

Regular Thai BL: good stuff, generally better acted, higher quality. It is sourced in SOTUS.

The Thai BL pulps: poorer all around, very low production values, cheaply made and churned out, always set in high school/university. It is sourced in Love Sick. 

Most Thai BL is university/high school set, but lately (2021) they have been branching out, which I’m excited about.

Thai BL is either original (somewhat improvised) scripts or based on a Thai Y-novel (written yaoi romance not manga). Generally the second style has better story and end product than the first. 

Thai BL series tend to run longer than most other BL shows with 8-15 episodes of 40 minutes each. They tend to be happier and more up beat than BL from other countries. They almost always have a happy ending. 

Insider Trading Lingo 

Seme/uke & tsundere: The terms are Japanese, and these archetypes come from yaoi manga. 

Seme = active pursuer or romantic aggressor/dominant.

Uke = passive pursued or romantic receiver/submissive.

It doesn’t necessarily correlate to personality, sexual preference, or physical desire. Generally, in Thai BL seme/uke DOES conform to a heterosexually dysmorphic imposition where the seme is inappropriately conflated with boy/top, and the uke with girl/bottom. In other words, Thai BL does not believe in gay without imposing heterosexual rolls onto that gayness. They also fetishize a height difference. (If you want to avoid this you’ll need to watch Korean BL or here’s a list of BL from all over that has no established seme/uke.)

Tsundere = a character that appears prickly/angry/grumpy at first but softens as the story progresses. (Can be the seme or the uke character.)

Gay For You AKA If It’s You, It’s Okay, the character isn’t “actually” gay he’s just into this one person. There are a ton of issues with (and damage done to the queer community by) the Gay for You trope not the least of which is  bisexual erasure. You can read stuff about this from:

a romance author perspective here

a queer perspective here

from the fanfic/TV-trope side here

High heat: term from the romance genre that means the characters do more than just kiss. A series can qualify as high heat (e.g. Why R U?) or a pair can be classified as high heat, in that the actors are good at portraying that level of physical chemistry (e.g. MaxTul). Thai pulps are rarely high heat, so is most BL set in high school, and GMMTV avoids an R rating so they don’t do high heat. (This can also be extended to countries, Taiwan leans towards high heat while Korea tends to avoid it.)

Thai Bl Specific Lingo & Knowledge 

Signs of gayness in Thai BL: an engineering smock, the gear symbol, (both from SOTUS), pink milk, a clear umbrella, (both from 2 Moons book), black & white horizontal stripes and the little yellow backpack. I’ll go into endemic Thai BL tropes later. 

FEAR EPISODE 11: There’s an urban myth “the doom of ep 11″ because in 12/13 ep arcs a breakup/drama usually falls during episode 11, so we fear emotional suffering when an episode 11 is coming. 

Faen fatale: my term for a femme fatale archetype in BL, faen is the Thai word for boyfriend/girlfriend/lover. Thai BL often has an ex/wannabe girlfriend/boyfriend turn up as a plot device.  

The 2 Moons curse: 2 Moons is the most popular BL book (Y-novel) amongst Thai readers of the genre, yet adaptations to screen have been plagued with issues. Both the first and second seasons have been riddled with controversy, including accusations of bullying and cast members quitting. Rumor is Call it What You Want is an exposé of the behind the scenes events of 2 Moons 2.

Other weird things to know:

In Thai BL no character locks or plugs in his phone or respects posting privacy.

Doctors discus medical issues with anyone in the room.

Going out in the rain can make a boy sick.

Friends are UP in his business.

Parents are mostly not present or plot devices.

Women are evil or absent.

Thai BL Production Industry & Actors 

Actor pairs or BL couples: sets of actors will be cast in different stories, as different characters, but always as the same couple when it’s BL. i.e. These boys don’t mind kissing each other. Pairs will also be used together for product advertisements & fan-meets, as cohosts, in magazine spreads & look-books, for OST & concerts, and modeling campaigns/catwalks. GMMTV piloted the concept after SOTUS took off. 

This kind of co-branding of coupledom can become the primary way the 2 actors make money. However, perforative gayness on talk shows smacks of queerbaiting. Pairs often end up dealing with some crazy fans, skinship obsession, stalker behavior, mismanaged expectations, and more: e.g. the good (MaxTul), the bad (ZeeSaint), the ugly (MewGulf). I suggest avoiding this cesspit if you can. These are actors. They are acting. End of discussion. 

GMMTV (the maker of SOTUS) is Thailand’s biggest studio that consistently makes higher production value BL and puts them on YouTube with subs for an international audience. Thus their BLs tend to be better known. They keep a stable of actors, old 1930s Hollywood style, and use them in (and as hosts for) talk shows, advertising, game shows, variety shows, travel/food shows, and other non-BL dramas. GMMTV’s pairs include SingtoKrist, OffGun, TayNew, FrankDrake, PluemChimon & BrightWin. The short series Our Skyy showcases some of their pairs. 

Studio Wabi Sabi is a smaller but popular BL studio that is following in GMMTV’s footsteps by keeping a stable of actors encouraged to do other activities, but paired up for BL. They produce shows like Until We Meet Again. Their pairs include OhmFluke & BounPrem. The short series Seven Project will showcase some of their pairs. 

Directors you’ll hear fans talk about: 

Backaof who mostly directs for GMMTV and is pretty sophisticated. 

New directs a lot and for several studios and has a very workmanlike approach. 

Cheewin who mostly directs for indie houses and has a very candy-colored, comedic, and erratic style. Some pairs he reuses include BoomPeak, YoonLay, MaxNat & JimmyTommy. 

Bloggers will occasionally use the P’ honorific for directors. (I do not. I consider it inappropriate as the correct address would be Khun.) 

Pairs relatively independent of studio or director (now) include: MaxTul, BothNewyear, YinWar, KaownahTurbo, JeffGameplay, JimmyTommy, J9, and PerthLay. Broadly speaking, pairs that self govern and self promote (or have moved into that) tend to make for healthier brands than those controlled by studios and are less likely to turn toxic. 

MAME: the author of Love By Chance, A Chance at Love, and TharnType among other Thai Y-novels. She’s a popular writer (now semi-producer) in Thailand but her style and choice of tropes is extremely controversial with international audiences, (she includes a lot of statutory rape, dubious consent, and intra-couple violence). However, her characters are appealing and her casting choices tend to be strong. Some of her origin actor pairs include: MewGulf, JaFirst, MawinRun, and MaxNat. 

LIST: Most Significant/Impactful Thai BL Over Time

By year, not necessarily worth watching. Just FYI. 

2007 - Love of Siam (queer movie, critically acclaimed, sad ending)

2014 - Love Sick (Thailand’s first real BL, hugely popular INSIDE Thailand), My Bromance (out gay actor in a main role) 

2015 - Love Sick 2 (longest BL season ever) 

2016 - SOTUS (GMMTV’s first BL, Thailand’s first global hit, responsible for Thai BL becoming the soft power it is today), Make it Right (first Thai BL pulp) & Puppy Honey (BL side couple OffGun origin) & Kiss the series (BL side couple TayNew origin)* 

2017 - Together with Me (first major MaxTul vehicle), 2 Moons, the concept of short spin offs and specials starts to be explored

2018 - Love By Chance (first MAME offering), My Tee (GMMTV’s first pulp), Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cut (first BL cut by a studio rather than a fan), the rise of the pulps 

2019 - Great Men Academy (Thailand tries manga filming style), The Effect (Thailand criticizes its own worst BL tropes), 3 Will Be Free (queer poly suspense), TharnType (MewGulf break the internet, other people notice BL), He’s Coming to Me & Until We Meet Again (Thailand applies complex story structure to a BL foundation) 

2020 - 2gether (everyone learns about BL), Theory of Love (an established pair given new roles), YYY (how weird can Cheewin get?), Why R U? (how high a heat can we take?), Ingredients (BL as advertising), My Engineer & Oxygen (first major non-pulp BLs from unknown studios), I Told The Sunset About You (first high cinema BL since Love of Siam). 

2021- 1000 Stars (first high cinema BL from GMMTV), Manner of Death (gay romantic suspense using a grown up BL couple), Lovely Writer & Call it What You Want (Thai BL gets meta with self criticism) 

Thailand has experienced exponential growth in BL output since 2017, adding to the number of BLs it produces each year by a factor of 25-35%. 

* The GMMTV Holy Trinity of Thai BL (OffGun, SingtoKrist, TayNew) all started in 2016. 

WATCH LIST: Understand the History of Thai BL

This is basically an ingredients list for a Thai BL cake.

If you want to understand how Tumblr talks about Thai BL and go on the journey many early watchers went on with Thailand, this is it. It’s designed so you can see how the industry in Thailand has evolved, and get all of the inside jokes. So I would watch in order, if you can. 

Love Sick - Thailand’s first real BL, hugely popular INSIDE Thailand, a pretty decent story of bisexual self discovery and messy teen angst and one of the most appealing honest sweetheart uke characters ever. If you like Love Sick you’ll be compelled to watch Love Sick 2, and it’s LONG so you’ve been warned. On Netflix or on YouTube (watch the BL fan cuts if you can). 

SOTUS - Thailand’s first global hit, responsible for Thai BL becoming the soft power it is today, also caused the engineering is gay, pink milk, and gears tropes. (You’ll enjoy SOTUS S, the follow up, only if you loved SOTUS.) On Netflix. 

Make it Right - the first Thai BL pulp, origin of BoomPeak, if you liked Love Sick you’ll probably like MIR. If not, you should skip it and the pulps in general. On YouTube. 

Love By Chance - first MAME offering with the least offensive main couple, but watch out for those side couples they trouble (trigger warning on KlaTechno for rape). On YouTube.  

Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cut from GMMTV (Dark Blue Kiss is their main series, watch it if you like TayNew’s dynamic & chemistry in Kiss, otherwise don’t bother). On YouTube. 

2 Moons 2 - slightly better than 2 Moons and covers the same territory but with more developed side couples. Watch it to understand the origin of J9, why everyone loves Pavel, and where the pink milk and umbrella tropes come from. On YouTube. 

Until We Meet Again - Thailand applies complex story structure to a BL foundation with a killer outcome. Origin of OhmFluke and BounPrem. (This is my favorite Thai BL). Trigger warning for the original version of trigger. On YouTube. 

TharnType - some of the most problematic tropes with some of the best chemistry, MewGulf broke the internet and caused other people to notice BL, and everyone still talks about it & them. Watch this to learn why and about all the issues that follow. Trigger warning for statutory rape & child abuse. On Line TV online international. 

Why R U? - if you like TharnType (or couldn’t face it because of triggers) this is a much less problematic take on high heat, with a great soft boi side couple. The story is pants but it’s worth trying to track down for chemistry reasons, and because FighterTutor rep both safe sex and verse. On Line TV international. 

2gether - the fluffiest BL that everyone knows about, watch this to see the pinnacle of GMMTV’s style and Thailand’s most ubiquitous BL. On YouTube. 

My Engineer - first major non-pulp BL from an unknown studios, classic Thai BL with multiple pairs. On YouTube. 

Second Chance - Thailand’s current reigning campion of the pulps (may get unseated by Nitiman) but if you want to know what a Thai BL pulp is, it’s this, this is what it is. On Line TV international. 

Ingredients - BL as a story advertisement with a weak seme/uke dynamic and a great soft indie pair in peak domesticity. Extremely comforting and remarkably innovative for Thailand. Shares certain stylistic trends with Vietnamese and Pinoy BL. On YouTube. 

I Told The Sunset About You - first well regarded widely watched high cinema BL, BL using a traditional coming of age narrative, shares some stylistic trends with Japanese BL. Hard to find. 

A Tale of Thousand Stars - first high cinema BL from GMMTV trying to grow up a bit, long form but it shares certain stylist trends with Korean BL. On YouTube.

Manner of Death - BL tries on gay romantic suspense using wildly popular BL pair MaxTul, Tumblr went mad for this one. Shares certain stylistic trends with Taiwanese BL. Hard to find. 

Lovely Writer - Thai BL gets meta with self criticism but using a strong story and great acting. On YouTube. 

WATCH LIST: The Best Thai BL  

This is a tasting menu of Thai BL.

These are the ones I think are the best that Thai BL has to offer. Including some of the most popular, that people seem to enjoy the most. These tend to be the ones that western audiences find the least offensive.

Until We Meet Again (2019) - a non BL trope reliant fated mates romance 

1000 Stars (2021) - strong story concept that nods at BL tropes but manages to elevate them and itself  

He’s Coming to Me (2019) - boy and ghost boy fall in love, must solve ghost’s murder 

Oxygen the series (2020) - uses every Thai BL trope in the playbook for one of the gentlest sftest lowest angst BLs ever made, bit slow for some

Love By Chance (2018) - AePete are a model new BL couple, soft and gentle with each other, subversive of the seme/uke dynamic, sweet, kind, and low angst. All the other pairs (TinCan, KlaNo, and TumTar) are old school dysfunctional yaoi couples thrust into a modern narrative. 

Love Sick (2014) - has very few traditional yaoi tropes, but it started several BL tropes of its own, that Thailand now perpetuates.

SOTUS (2016) - All the Thai BLs that followed owe their existence to this series.

2gether (2020) - if Love Sick started it and SOTUS pushed it forward, 2g made Thai BL a phenomenon.

TharnType (2019) - if 2gether reps for the new BL, Tharntype is the last gasp at traditional yaoi. 

Theory of Love (2019) - iconic as the first primary vehicle for OffGun, one of the biggest BL acting pairs. 

You can read about why I made these choices and why some are missing in the original post. 

OTHER TOP TENS 

Top 10 Highest Production Values in Thai BL

Top 10 BLs Out of Thailand 

Top 10 BLs from GMMTV Thailand 

WATCH LIST: BL That Best Represents Thailand’s Take on the Genre

This is a full course meal of Thai BL in its most concentrated form. 

These are the BLs that I think best showcase Thailand’s style of BL, as opposed to the origin yaoi, and the BL from other countries. Each country that produces BL has a particular taste that dominates its shows. Thailand was influenced particularly by the popularity of Lovesick & SOTUS. These two basically formed the foundation of everything we have today. While there is better BL out of Thailand, these are the shows I feel most accurately represent Thailand’s style (some of my favorites are not on this list). 

Love Sick

Make it Right

SOTUS

Puppy Honey

I Am Your King 

My Dear Loser: Edge of 17 

Together with Me

2 Moons &/or 2 Moons 2

My Tee

Kiss Me Again & Dark Blue Kiss

Love By Chance

TharnType

Theory of Love

So Much In Love or Friend Forever

YYY

My Gear and Your Gown

Love By Chance 2

The En of Love

My Engineer

Why R U?

2gether & Still 2gether

Oxygen

Tonhon Chonlatee

Gen Y

Second Chance

Lovely Writer

Y-Destiny or Close Friend

Top Secret Together

Fish Upon the Sky

Nitiman

Links to Further Reading & Deep Dives into Thai BL 

These are posts in which I make further recommendations, do deep dives into pop culture, story critique, market analysis, or social analysis. 

Country by country analysis, how does Thailand compare? 

Chef de Smooching - Recipes for BL (Thailand production houses & other countries) 

Let’s Play Frankenstein’s BL (best worst production by country) 

BL Wave Data - Quick Summary (Thai BL is growing exponentially) 

BL Roots Week 

The Pulps of Thai BL

ABCs of Thai BL

Links to Understand Thai BL Actor Pairs 

These are posts about actor age dynamics, relationships, skinships, and so forth. I don’t IRL ship because that kind of behavior freaks me out, but I am very intersted in the psyche of obsession, fanaticism, tribalism, celebrity worship, etc… So I pay attention to ships especially from a brand management perspective since I empathize with the celebrity 99.9% of the time. 

A Guide to Thai BL Actor Pairs for New Watchers 

Thai BL Couples as my High School Friendship Group 

BL Actors & Age Dynamics 

Do I think skinship has to do with Thai society? homophobia, Intimacy, plutonic affection, touch aversion, touch starvation 

Favorite Subtle Character Attributes in Thai BL 

5 Love Languages of Thai BL 

Links to Understand Thai BL Tropes 

Thailand has developed its own set of visual tropes in BL and spread some of them to other countries. Also it gravitates to specific narrative elements, like archetypes, in its stories as well. 

Thai BL & Traditional Romance Tropes

First Kisses in Thai BL 

SPECIFIC TROPES THAILAND LOVES 

Engineering = gay (and all the other departments)

Pink Milk

Under the clear umbrella

Sponge Bath 

Sing Me Your Feelings (I have no idea why Thailand thinks any boy with vocal cords can sing - they CAN’T - but they’re obsessed with putting it on screen 

Beach trips and forest frolics (origin Love Sick)

Rooftop assignations 

In Thailand, Mosquitos Leave Hickeys

Baby is a floppy drunk (origin Love Sick)

Boys feeding boys 

Matched outfits and sharing his closet 

Post It love notes 

Pinky swears 

Symbolic gift exchange 

Kiss me in the pool 

Drying his hair

Piggyback 

My massive tropes list. 

Links to Understand the Nuances of Thai Language & Culture’s Impact on Thai BL 

I’m not a linguist but I love the interrelationship between language and culture. There are many things we miss about BLs when we watch them in translation. I started to study Thai in order to understand some of this. These are posts that tunnel into elements we miss as outsiders to Thai culture. 

Explaining Thai to the Casual BL Watcher - It Has Registers

Linguistic Fun In Thai BL + Thai Nouns, Thai Verbs, 

Thai Military Service & Thai BL 

It’s Thai BL cocktail hour! 

Thai Desserts in Until We Meet Again 

BL Filming Techniques

Yaoi filming, staging & framing techniques in BL

Backlighting & Silhouettes 

Diffuse point lighting, AKA Fairy Lights 

Unidirectional focused lighting 

Staggered couple framing - when characters are staged so that one appears offset or smaller than the other

Central Aperture Framing - Linear framing using pathways and apertures to draw focus to the central figure(s).

Peekaboo Framing - When the director uses doorways, windows, mirrors, or other apertures to give the audience the impression of looking at something they maybe shouldn’t.

Poetic loneliness 

Oh my goodness okay let's see. Honestly it depends on your particular taste and what tropes you like, but maybe I should do a Thai BL master post? People have been bugging me for that for a while.

However if you come out of reading BL (particularly early Japanese yaoi - by which I mean the stuff that we got translated from about 1995-2005) then we may share taste.

What I like about Thai BL is that is has longer series, is very pretty, and tends to stick to the lighter end of the spectrum with happy endings, rarely gets too serious, and usually has comedic elements. What I don't like is that the production values can be low and the filming techniques are mostly pretty amateur. There are always sound issues from cartoon noises, to bad looping, to poor recording, to terrible music choices. Also Thai BL consistently uses tropes I hate like: gay-for-you, dubious consent, stalker/obsession, heterosexual dysmorphia, vilification of femme and other visual queers, sex negativity, and it lacks healthy female representation. All of these are also in yaoi, and I'm telling you this only so you know that when I rate something highly it's often because it has fewer flaws.

Thai BL can be divided into two types:

Regular Thai BL: good stuff, generally better acted, higher quality which is sourced in SOTUS.

The Thai BL pulps: poorer all around, very low production values, cheaply made and churned out, always set in high school/university which is source in Lovesick.

Most Thai BL is university/high school set, actually. But lately they have been branching out, which I'm excited for.

The character visuals by HIGGA from TGCF Book 3 and 4:

The Crown Prince who Pleases the Gods

Little Hong-er

Pei Ming

Green Ghost Qi Rong

Wind Master Shi Qingxuan (male form)

Water Master Shi Wudu

Black Water He Xuan (I don’t know what’s with him and the Jojo pose)

I came to BL via the Thai oeuvre and as such I initially thought one of BL’s defining features was a guaranteed “happy ever after,” like modern day romance novels. It remains one of the things I personally look for and rate highly in BL. But it actually isn’t a requirement of the genre. 

There are a few offerings out there that even HEA obsessed self, still thinks are satisfying and worth watching, even though they don’t include a strictly happy ending. 

Top 10 Non HEA BLs

1. Ingredients the series (Thailand) - the characters end up a couple but apart, since one of them is going away to pursue his dreams, it’s understood (but not depicted) that they will eventually be reunited. 

2. Addicted Heroin (China) - the show was censored mid run so it remains unfinished. If you stop watching after the main sex scene in the final episode it makes for a pretty solid HFN ending. If you don’t stop, it just sets up the next plot point that never happened. 

3. 2 Moons 2 (Thailand) - is kind of a must watch for Thai BL because the original source material is one of the most popular BL novels in Thailand and is responsible for many Thai BL tropes (like pink milk and sharing an umbrella). The main couple PhaYo is the least interesting. They get together, only to then end on a cliff hanger, which is why 2M2 is on this list. However, no one watches for PhaYo. We all watch for ForthBeam and MingKit and both of these side couples get HEAs. 

4. Gen Y the series (Thailand) - a bloated drunken mess of a show but the main couple MarkKit is wonderful, full of super saccharine cheese while simultaneously poking fun at Thai BL tropes. It’s the opposite of 2 Moons 2 in that the main couple ends up HEA but all the side couples are left up in the air. 

5. HIStory 3: Trapped (Taiwan) - is a great mafia action romance, and while the main couple ends up together, they’re anticipating forced separation, so it’s HFN. The fantastic side couple ends up HEA, though. 

6. Silhouette of Your Voice AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Japan) - a beautiful sweet slow burn romance between a grumpy seme who is going deaf and the loud sunshine uke who is one of the only people he can still hear. The ending is amorphous, we aren’t sure if they will get together or not.  

7. My Tee AKA Cause You’re My Boy (Thailand) - such a confusing show told partly in flashbacks but without distinguishing those flashbacks so you’re never sure exactly what’s going on. The story and directing are bonkers but the characters are awkwardly endearing. The main couple ends up HFN but at medical risk. This is probably only worth watching if you are a fan of the early Thai BL high school shows (Love Sick, Make it Right) and the pulps that followed them. What’s good is that these two were given a follow up Our Skyy with an HEA.

8. My Dear Loser: Edge of 17 (Thailand) - the BL arc is for a side couple but they are a GREAT side couple. If you slogged through Puppy Honey for OffGun or Kiss Me Again for TayNew then you can do MDL17 for PluemChimon. This is one of the better high school offerings. The main couple (het) ends up HEA but our boys end up HFN. However, these characters were also given a follow up Our Skyy that solved everything. 

9. HIStory: Stay Away from Me (Taiwan) - technically speaking this one is HEA, it’s just that they don’t really end on a kiss, but more platonically together and since this is a stepbrother trope that make the whole thing a bit amorphous. Of all the HIStory series, many of which could have done with second seasons, I really wish this one was the one that got one. 

10. Advance Bravely (China) - the second major victim of censoring after Addicted, if you love WoH you owe it to yourself to watch Gong Jun playing the spoiled rich kid sunshine uke role against an utra buff hot bodyguard grumpy seme. If it helps, GJ still has his fuck-off fan. The ending is straight up WEIRD but basically HFN? 

(I do not include shows like Love Sick or Make it Right where the second season solved the non HEA of the first.) 

3 BLs That Will Destroy You 

These are fantastic BLs that have extremely tragic endings. Each one starts out so perfectly gloriously BL that if you end up watching them to their conclusion they might actually wreck your psyche. 

1. HIStory 3: Make Our Day’s Count (Taiwan) - of course this is number one on my list. Basically it’s a pitch perfect BL with all the best tropes, high heat, and great chemistry between two sets of couples. 

But the main couple! 

The main couple features BL’s premier hot himbo jock who falls so gloriously ridiculously goofy in love with the quiet timid broken nerd he once bullied, that it almost hurts to watch him yearn that earnestly. The couple battles the demands of school, family, and society, rising above it all and moving in together into domestic bliss and then… the nerd is killed in a car accident. 

AND THEN H3 graces us with two additional episodes of watching our beloved himbo SUFFER FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE. I can hardly bare to type about it. 

2. Forbidden Love (Japan) - gah it’s so pretty. It’s the servant who grew up in the sinister mafia-esk family trope, which I love. It’s a killer pairing of spoiled, rich, loose-cannon seme madly in love with the older, somber, moral-compass uke. It’s a second chance at love since the uke has been abroad and the seme has been waiting and spiraling and pining. 

It goes right up to the edge of “yes they’re going make it!” and it’s hot. And then… it dives deep into murder and incest. 

MUST YOU JAPAN!? 

3. The Effect (Thailand) - betcha thought Thailand wouldn’t make this section, but once upon a time even they dabbled in the darker side of BL. The Effect is Thailand’s commentary on the dark BL that forms its yaoi heritage. It’s also kind of an acknowledgment as to why Thai BL is so different from its roots.  

Adorable uke is in love with the hottest most popular guy on campus. That guy is a typical ultra-controlling seme, and once he decides to love the uke back, he wants full ownership. The uke’s reticence with regards to sex and the seme’s internalized homophobia and terror about coming out combine into the worst possible outcome: physical violence, rape, self harm, and eventual suicide. 

Basically it’s Thailand saying: look if we depict the type of possessive unhealthy relationship almost always shown in BL in a realistic light, this is the real world result. It’s almost worth watching because of that. It’s fighting the tropes we love with the reality of obsessive love, and it hurts but at least it’s honest.

HEA in BL  

“HEA is guaranteed” is an audience contract that comes to romantic cinema out of Western romance literary traditions. Basically the cinematographic version of a “happily ever after” is to end the narrative arc by visually depicting a kiss/hug, an engagement, a wedding, sex, or domestic bliss for the main couple (AKA Acts of Unity). 

A guaranteed HEA is actually not a defining feature of BL on the whole. Although Thai and Korean stuff tends to lean that way. 

Yaoi actually has more in common with the Western erotica genre than with traditional Western romances. That’s because in origin yaoi manga, the objective was the physical relationship of the main characters, not necessarily an emotional/romantic connection. Since BL comes out of yaoi, a great deal of it, especially the early stuff from Japan and China, is high heat but does not end happily. 

Up until about 2017 when Thailand started to dominate the market, fully half of all BL (and prior to that even higher percentages) did not end happily. 

Types of Endings - TERMS 

HEA - happy ever after (as in “they all lived happily every after”) characters end up together and happy in the Disney fairytale romance sense of the concept 

HFN - happy for now, characters end up together but there’s still tension or looming threat to their unity 

amorphous - things are left up in the air either intentionally (common in indie and art films) or unintentionally, because the show did not get a second season/installment, was censored, or lost funding/cast 

tragic - one or both characters die by suicide, murder, or accidental death (AKA kill the gay) 

This is an extra to my series on top 10 BLs from each country coupled with a history of BL. 

Japanese BL

Chinese BL

Taiwanese BL

Korean BL

Thai BL