Welcome to my Saturday blog post, where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week, I recapped episodes 3-4 of Pursuit of Jade. This show is moving FAST, already our couple has committed their lives to each other. Kinda.
I also recapped episodes 3-4 of Love upon a Time. No one has gotten married yet here, but there is a fair amount of shirtlessness.
What did I watch this week? Finally, I got to spend some time with the wealth of shows being sent into the air lately. So I’ve got two full series reviews from two different countries.
Let’s start in Japan:
Contrast – コントラスト – 2026
Recently aired High School BL with 8 episodes.
Two very different young men spend time on the rooftop together and grow closer as they learn about each other.
Here are some highlights from the first two episodes.
Yes, it’s yet another Japanese High School BL. This one combines rooftop + opposites + past trauma. Think something between If It’s With You and Depth of Field.
This time it’s the quiet, bookish nerd who gets to be the angsty one
Not that our more outgoing guy doesn’t have his own secrets and his own problems, but outside that, he’s pretty honest and straightforward about his feelings. Because of this, he’s the one to make the first move in starting a friendship, and the one to first reveal more of himself to both his new friend and us.
It’s not until our more outgoing guy has gotten well into the relationship that he realizes our angsty nerd is keeping things from him. Things our angsty nerd thinks will destroy their relationship.
I have to put a bit of a spoiler here, though it’s one revealed pretty early on, one of those secrets is a relationship with a friend of his older brother. This predatory relationship is handled in a rather wishy-washy way that I didn’t love. The predator gets more screentime and forgiveness than he deserves. While he didn’t ruin the show for me, he left a bad taste in my mouth, and it could be a deal breaker for others.
But I ignored him as best I could.
Because I was all in for our straightforward sweety, trying to help his more complicated friend with the problems he wouldn’t open up about. And watching our angsty nerd get past his shame with the love of another good high school student.
It’s an above-average Japanese High School BL, but it’s still a Japanese High School BL
We’ve got the warm, slice-of-life cinematography without sound effects or extra background music.
We’ve got the raw, exciting feeling of being young and figuring out complicated feelings while attending class every day.
We’ve got the shorter episodes and low episode count, making this an easy way to pass a free afternoon.
These things are lovely, but if you’ve seen a Japanese High School BL, this one isn’t going to set your mind on fire with anything new or revolutionary. It’s the usual tropes, arranged in their own particular way for this story.
But for me, as tired as I say I get of them, I was still filled with warm fuzzies at the inevitable conclusion. And I can see myself rewatching it to feel those same warm fuzzies again.
The manga it’s based on, and follows closely, is available in English here via my affiliate link.
I also finished:
Fourever You Part 2: The Sun From Another Star – อาทิตย์ดาวตก – 2026
This section of Fourever You Part 2 is episodes 9-16.
A college student who can see ghosts saves money by moving into a nice place infested with them. But it’s his alive neighbor who really bothers him.
Our leads here, Arthit and Dao, win for the most unique couple in the Fourever You series, but their storyline is a mix of unique and not-at-all-unique.
For me, the courtship era lived up to the novel, but not to what I wanted to see from this couple.
Let’s talk about the unique parts of the characters/story
Because that’s where the show starts as well. We’ve got Dao, a young guy who can see ghosts and is completely unfazed by the experience. Khem and Thup could take lessons from him.
His new neighbor is Arthit, a friend of all Dao’s friends’ boyfriends, a rough, rude, overly casual, piranha attack survivor. He can’t see ghosts, but he can sense and hear enough that he finds them totally annoying. He’d like Dao to do something about it. He’d also like Dao’s help when he gets drunk and loses his keycard.
Dao would rather not have anything to do with Arthit.
This first section of the story is a delightful, off-beat, living-with-ghosts-and-neighbors story. After the more serious, suspenseful tones of Khemjira and Goddess Bless You From Death, I loved the lighter, quirky feel of this part of the show.
Gradually, our two leads get to know one another while helping out a ghost or two. Arthit discovers that underneath Dao’s flat expression, there are actual feelings. Dao discovers that underneath Arthit’s rudeness, there are actual feelings.
And then we hit the Courtship Phase
I’ll be honest, the Fourever You novel series is based on the very old-school tropes of dominant toppy-tops who are wildly aroused by their oblivious, sweet bottomy-bottom counterparts. They will do anything to have them as a boyfriend and in their bed.
The appeal is in the bottom not having to lift a finger to set their big, strong partner on fire.
This worked for me with Johan and North because North was just so… North. I loved North, and I loved how obsessively Johan loved North.
This worked for me with Fah and Phoon because Fah was the sweetest, nicest toppy-top in the world.
This doesn’t work for me the same way with Arthit and Dao. It’s not that I mind how Arthit’s passion for Dao. It’s that he pursued him in a forceful, aggressive way while Dao flatly turned him down. They are so unique and interesting, it’s disappointing their courtship wasn’t unique and interesting.
Surely a man bitten by piranhas can come up with something special to woo his ghost-seeing guy?
Adding to the problem, the second half of the story was rushed. Much as I loved the quirky ghost stuff in the first half, that’s not where the romance is, and this is a BL. I want to see romance. At the same time, the second half had ALL the BL tropes (racing anyone?), flying by so fast it made very little sense unless you’ve read the book.
I’m being hard on this drama because it had the potential to be something more
But if someone has read and loved the book, this follows it pretty well and so wouldn’t be disappointing.
Arthit and Dao are still a fun pair with good chemistry.
And I still enjoyed seeing all our other couples together as part of the friend groups. This is pretty much our last chance to see them all together, as the final couple for this series is more their own thing.
So I’m not warning anyone away from watching this, just adjust your expectations as needed.
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