I’ve been watching Weak Hero, which is very much in the vein of shounen anime “these guys are obsessed with each other while they beat each other up/beat up people together” but more realistic about how that violence plays out. All of which is a big departure from the BLs currently on...I would love a BL that is more fully enemies to lovers. More serious Bad Buddy?
Currently Watching (on air)
Sweet Tooth Good Dentist: I nearly screamed when Mim showed up in this episode—I saw her in the background before Yada introduced her to Gugg and went oh no rip this poor boy. ViewPoon will never be reality...
As for the actual main couple, I’m a little surprised how quickly the love triangle was resolved, but also it’s clear there’s a lot to work out with regards to both Sant’s financial situation as well as whatever happened to Jay. I feel like there might still be more to learn about Jay and Captain’s friendship as well, so I hope Captain sticks around and not just because I find Jimmy absolutely hysterical in this role.
My Stubborn: I’ve gotta admit, this show has got me. I still have to 2x parts of it, but that’s mostly because it makes some batshit directorial choices and has very weird pacing. But the insane dynamic between Sorn and Jun is compelling—I like that their dynamic doesn’t really change once they’ve had sex, and I love that Sorn is very clearly romantically into Jun but has to approach it at an angle. In many cases it’s hard to sell that, but they’ve given us enough examples of times Sorn has tried to be nice to Jun only for Jun to assume Sorn is fucking with him that I’m like yeah, okay, I get it.
A huge part of why it works for me is that I think Jun’s actor especially sells the role and they have better chemistry than I expected, so their scenes are actually fun to watch. I still don’t think this show is “good,” mostly because of the above-mentioned direction, but you know what, it gave us a hysterical conversation between Jun and his situationship about how Jun thinks he’s a bottom now.
One thing that’s been actively distracting me is that I’m pretty sure the incidental music they’ve been using is the instrumental of “Movie” by Adam Turley, which was also used in the trailer for Burnout Syndrome and I’ve had on my playlist ever since. So every time I hear it, I get this weird Pavlovian reaction lol.
Pit Babe 2: Well, the bitch is back, that bitch being both Babe himself as well as this fucking deranged show. Started off with a bang with Babe having a PTSD nightmare about Way followed by him and Charlie having their mommy/daddy kink sex, and I can already tell they’ve upped the limit in this season with how much skin we were seeing.
I do feel like I’m stunlocked with this whole franchise, or possibly stuck in a tractor beam, because I need to see it for myself while also being like, the fuck is going on. They’re trying to make me care about racing again, which is a hard sell, but the addition of the prettiest boy in the world as Babe’s new rival as well as Kim leaving to join another team For the Honor of Racing will help. (I love Kim, he’s the only bitch at X Hunter I respect.)
They’ve got a lot to juggle this season since they want to include more couples and it’s apparent already that a lot of the less-explored characters will be getting more screen time (North and Sonic, for example), so we’ll see how it goes. And judging from the preview for next week, where Charlie says he can smell Alpha on Babe, we haven’t totally left the omegaverse behind. Which, while I don’t particularly want it, I would think them cowards if they cut it out.
The Next Prince: This show was exactly as over the top and sumptuous as I thought it would be. I was surprised how invested I was, particularly in Khanin’s surrogate dad, and I’m genuinely sad that he has to take one for the team. This episode was a lot of set up, which might be why it was less cringe than I expected. I was trying to explain to a friend how, while this show takes its premise seriously, it doesn’t feel overly serious—it’s a tough line to walk with something this YA, but so far I think they’re doing okay with it.
I absolutely died when it was revealed that kissing is, like, marriage vows in Emmaly, especially since we know Prince Jimmy and his boyfriend are definitely fucking, so do they fuck and not kiss? This is the Wandee Goodday life. Insane bit of worldbuilding, 10/10 no notes.
Other things: I keep remembering they have a full composed soundtrack and orchestra for this and laughing because THE BUDGET!! The excessive use of English by clearly non-native English speakers this episode I was able to ignore because I convinced myself that since they’re all in fencing club, these are all rich foreign students in England, which tbh would track. Nunew’s acting has noticeably improved since the Cutie Pie/Naughty Babe era, and it might be contributing to why this was selling way more. Also, are he and Zee’s character cousins?????
Boys in Love: As I said last week, this does seem to be a show that’s going to be about being in love rather than falling in love. The B couple is already together and WOW!! They’re so cute and obsessed with each other. Also, during that confession scene, Aston did this little slinky lean forward and glance from under his eyelashes that was so unspeakably horny that I went NO, CHILD. Kim is delighted that he gets to kiss Mon, but Mon wants to fuck.
I really loved Shane and Kit this episode—both of them are so dear and full of anxiety and stress, and I thought it was so cute at the end when they both tried to go to each other’s houses. I love how different their journey is from Kim and Mon, and then of course different from their fool-ass teachers, who are killing me. Papang’s funniest role yet??
SponCon of the Week
Welcome to my new corner where I will be outlining some of the best product placement of the week. (Side note, I came across a reel recently that referred to the spon in Thai shows specifically—as though other countries don’t do it too—as unnecessary, and I’m like the word you’re looking for is egregious, because it simply is very necessary. That’s how they pay for the show!!!!)
The printer spon in Sweet Tooth has generally been very funny, but when Jay came over and Sant was like, I can’t do anything, I don’t know how to change the ink in this printer, I fucking howled. Incredible, no notes.
Commiseration Lactasoy on the roof of the observatory for Boys in Love. Sorry you’ve given up on your crush, have some soy milk.
The extended seaweed snack bit in The Next Prince (and possibly also Pocky for the Pocky game segment). First introducing it as from Thailand (which raised the question of is the Emmalian language just Thai or in-universe are we supposed to think it’s like, a dialect or something), then carrying it through the ensuing scene was just impeccable sponcon writing.
BL News:
Jeff and Barcode (along with the rest of the KinnPorsche cast) reunited at Jeff’s recent concert and Barcode is so much bigger now...he has top coded himself and I respect it greatly.
Trailer for The Ex-Morning came out and on the topic of tops, I’m just like, if they want me to believe that Krist is a top they’re going to have to work a lot harder. One of my favorite things about the SOTUS tag is how emphatically people rejected the idea that Arthit is the top, which is simply correct.
urs,
hk