Welcome to my weekly blog post where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether I’m at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week I recapped episodes 5-6 of Thai BL Knock Knock, Boys!, where things took a sharp turn for our silly housemates. Why you gotta make poor Almond so sad show?
I also recapped episodes 5-6 of Thailand’s version of BL My Love Mix-Up and enjoyed our lead’s sincere moments more than the overdone comedy.
What did I watch this week?
First, Japan has another awkward-weirdo-hot-guy combo so I’m here for that. I watched:
Takara’s Treasure – タカラのびいどろ – 2024
A currently airing Japanese college BL, I’m at 3 out of 11 episodes.
An adorable weirdo enrolls in college so that he can thank a tsundere senior who was once nice to him. A strange romance ensues.
I’m a sucker for this kind of character combination as we know thanks to My Beautiful Man and My Personal Weatherman.
Of these three, this show is the sweetest. Our odd guy is not socially withdrawn, he’s a naive kid from the country whose best friend until recently was a bird. Our handsome senior is a typical tsundere, and it’s not unreasonable for him to be put off by this strange kid who followed him to college because he was nice once.
We start with our country boy struggling at college with this new world he’s put himself into. He can’t help but look to the senior who comforted him once for further guidance. Our senior sees that he’s a well-intentioned guy with a fondness for flowers and starts to thaw towards him.
If this follows the usual Japanese BL plot map, we’ll get a few more episodes from the POV of our country guy, then a few episodes from the POV of our city senior, then they’ll get together. We’ve already seen their meeting from our country guy’s perspective, will we get it from our city guy’s perspective in the second half of the drama? I wouldn’t be shocked.
So I’m not holding my breath for originality in the story structure. But I like these two very different characters and I want to see them and their relationship grow, so I’ll keep watching.
It’s worth noting this drama is based on a manga that will be available in English later this year.
I finished:
We Are – We are คือเรารักกัน – 2024
Currently airing Thai College BL with 16 episodes.
A group of friends at various stages of college work on their academics, drink a lot, and fall in love. That’s kinda it.
I went into the details about the characters in previous reviews, so I’m not going to repeat that here.
Here’s a link to my initial review.
Here’s a link to my follow-up review.
But I nailed it with my initial two-sentence synopsis. The show is just a bunch of guys hanging out and dating each other. It’s like Pit Babe, without the omegaverse or any conflict, plus a few female characters who show up from time to time. There’s a beginning and a middle and after relationships have developed to a certain point and they’ve had enough time on scenic trips, the show ends.
I still liked it.
That said, it didn’t need to be 16 episodes. It feels silly to say a show about guys hanging out could have been tighter at 12 episodes, but this would have been tighter at 12 episodes.
Another thing that could be a flaw or a feature depending on your mood, being LGBTQ+ isn’t an issue in the We Are universe. Anyone can date anyone else at will and no one worries about anyone else’s disapproval. The only danger is whether that person will like them back.
(If you want to see a smaller group of silly guys having fun drinking together and occasionally confronting LGBTQIA+ issues you can check out Knock Knock, Boys! which I am recapping.)
What kept me watching was the characters, a group of friends with their various quirky personalities. In particular, I enjoyed our lead pairing of nice-guy Peem and closed-off-rich-guy Phum. I loved how they took care of each other and supported each other. There were never any dramatic conflicts or misunderstandings. But I liked all the couples, and I liked seeing the characters interact as friends too.
This is another app sampler of a show, you can enjoy the different flavors but after eating it for hours you won’t feel full. Are you in the mood for that or do you need something meatier?