#bromances

FAVORITES:

- Hetero Life Partners/Bromances

- Platonic Life Partners

- Karmic Trickster

- The Calvary

- Final Battle

LEAST FAVORITES:

- Plot Mandated Friendship Failure

- Third Act Misunderstanding

- Liar Revealed

- Love Triangles/Will They Won’t They

- Mind Control

BROMANCES 

Hi and thank you, I'm flattered!

Ah I have watched some, but in general since we have so many more actual BL options now, I don't bother anymore. They mostly just piss me off either way.

I tend to intentionally ignore them - censoring the censors, so to speak.

I have a few posts tangential to this though: 

Devil Judge & Korean Bromance Stuff 

BL fandom picked up on Devil Judge, why? 

devil judge, hallyu wave bromances, & non BL K-dramas

BL tropes deployed in The Devil Judge (2021) 

Devil Judge... is it queerbaiting?

Word of Honor & Chinese Bromance Stuff 

Word of Honor 

Chinese mf censorship, fight me

Mainland China Censorship Be Like… 

Some of the ones I guess I’d call bromances that I’ve watched:  

Untamed (20 ep BL cut) 

Word of Honor 

S.C.I. Mysteries (actually one of my first BLs/bromances in general) 

Find You In The Crowd

Love is Not Easy to Have

Swinging Blossom

The Fairy Fox

Beloved Enemy

His Cat

Till Death Tear Us Apart

Advance Bravely (this is more just censored BL)

Mr. CEO is Falling in Love with Him (same as above)

Legend of Long Yang

Customized Companion

Glass Heart

Past Youth

River Knows Fish Heart

Guardian

Mermaid's Jade

Broken Youth

Youth in the Breeze

Capture Lover

Precise Shot

Every Moment that I Think of You

My Esports Genius Brother

In Your Heart

There’s a bunch of early stuff out of China that is just barely censored, in that they don’t kiss (like the ghost boyfriend series), but it’s a lot more obviously gay than post 2016.) 

I don’t keep track of the bromances from Korea (like At A Distance, Spring is Green) or Japan (with a few exceptions like Silhouette of Your Voice which is a yaoi adaptation) because they piss me off even more than China. It feels so cowardly. Or those wish side nods like Moment at Eighteen  

It’s pretty simple...

if, if the characters were het and would have kissed in the drama under those circumstances, but they don’t because they are a same sex couple - I get really mad about it. 

And I’m unable to get over that anger. Because the anger feels justified. 

All that said, if you are someone who really doesn’t mind the great long con tease with no pay out these are the ones I liked despite myself: 

Recommended Bromances (in order) 

Word of Honor

The Devil Judge 

The Guardian (super under appreciated but a TON of fun) 

Untamed 

S.C.I. Mysteries (if you like police procedurals)

Advance Bravely

Capture Lover

River Knows Fish Heart

Precise Shot

Beloved Enemy (IF you come out of yaoi and don’t mind some seriously triggering tropes) 

Legend of Long Yang (this is kinda the precursor to Untamed & WOH) 

I have not seen Japan's Kei x Yaku (I had spies reporting in on it and decided not to bother, since it was also difficult to get hold of). I have see Korea's Beyond Evil and I am afraid I didn’t get the bromance subtext as much as you, and others, have. I guess the actors didn’t work for me? 

A: "You're like my little brother, dude. I love you"

B: "I am? Awww I love you too <3"

C: "Isn't he 300 years older than you?"

A: "Do you really think that stops him from being my little brother"

the other specialists: ...

sky: you say "you guys" as if you're not part of the family riv

alright buckle up anon, cause i have been waiting Years for this ask. y’all know i love ✨team interactions✨

anyway, we’ll start off with hara and zaki. i personally think they’re the closest relationship in the team. we know zaki started playing basketball because a friend brought him into the sport - that friend is hara. they’ve been buddies for a while, since they were just kids; potentially family friends too (picture dinners together, with their older brothers chatting together, zaki’s sister dealing with hara’s younger brother, cause no one else will put up with him, and then zaki and hara racing off with the dessert. and all the mischief they do - it’s always hara’s idea. and zaki likes to protest that he had nothing to do with it, but he’s smiling when he races after his companion). 

but, back to high school. they two aren’t in all the same classes anymore, so that’s how hara and hanamiya start talking - the teacher assigns them to sit next to each other. and, honestly, hanamiya's a cocky shit in his first year, but hara laughs along with it, and they share a similar taste in ironic/nasty jokes, so it turns out they get along real well. zaki only meets hanamiya through hara too. hara and hanamiya do a class project together, and zaki’s also at hara’s, hanging out cause he’ll be sleeping over tonight. (his bedroom is next to his sister’s, and her s/o’s over, so, if zaki were still there, the banging of her bed at night would keep him awake). anyway, zaki and hanamiya usually wouldn’t talk at all; they’re just different people. but, hara’s presence means they get along a little better.

actually i should probably talk a bit about hara and zaki’s relationship. they come off as just good, playful buddies, but they’re been around each other long enough to really understand the other’s emotions. they don’t have deep conversations, but they don’t need to - they know enough about the other just from glancing at them. in contrast, hara and hanamiya’s relationship - though they are very good friends, and they get along very well - it’s still not that close, and it’s a lot more casual/relaxed than hara and zaki.

moving on! honestly, i’m not sure whether hanamiya’s relationship with seto or hara is stronger, cause he’s not the type of person to let people get that close anyway. but this very much suits seto; in general, hanamiya and seto are pretty similar personalities so spending time together is just easy, if that makes sense. when hanamiya wants to be more serious - whether that’s in terms of talking about tactics, or studying - then seto’s always a good option. frankly, the two are probably closer than either of them would ever admit either. and it helps that seto’s brother is quite a bit older than him, so they both feel like only children. and also, seto’s family thinks hanamiya’s a good friend to have (networking you know - that’s how rich people think), and hanamiya acts like such a bateman-esque sleazeball when he visits seto’s place. (seto knows he’s putting on a performance, but it makes the boring family dinners more interesting, so he lets it happen) (also, on a side note, hanamiya’s mother favours hara out of all his friends. she practically considers him hanamiya’s brother).

right anyway furuhashi next. furuhashi doesn’t really have a bromance with anyone; he gets along with most people the same. a lot of the time, it’ll be him and seto hanging together as hara/hanamiya/zaki argue (that kinda ‘fake arguing’, where it’s just buddies messing with each other). then, furuhashi also gets along with zaki pretty well - but only when hara’s not around, cause then it’s just third-wheeling. and, out of all the team, furuhashi’s probably closest with matsumoto. which is kinda ironic, when you think that matsumoto’s not trying to murder his opponents (although that’s debatable... and i could spend an hour talking about him too. .. if anyone wants to hear that... ;) ), and furuhashi actively enjoys making people suffer. but, yeah, a lot of the time, if matsumoto wants to know what's going on during practice, he’ll approach furuhashi. so that’s kinda a bromance, very faintly? but they don’t talk to each other outside of practice.

also, just cause you mentioned seto/hanamiya as the fathers of the team, here’s my interpretation of the Family structure. hanamiya - the father (of course). yamazaki - the mother, but also the idiot younger brother: he swings both ways. seto - the uncle who really doesn’t want to be there, but is stuck being loyal to his brother (hanamiya), because of what their parents said. hara - the main fucking character, but also (as a metaphor and in real life), the middle child. furuhashi - the oldest sibling, looks after people occasionally but doesn’t want to, contemplates moving country often to get away from the family. matsumoto - i don’t know, the fucking rat that hara caught from a gutter, who’s now stuck in a cage in the kitchen, and gets fed cheese (by zaki) and proper pet-rat food (by furuhashi. what a good son.)

anyway that’s almost 1k words of me losing my mind over the little-known ninth wonder of the world that is Kirisaki Daiichi’s basketball team. tdlr; hara + zaki, seto + hanamiya, furuhashi + a rat (i do love matsumoto though).