Soul Mate

Why do non-BLs always have to be sad and tragic?

This is not a BL, it's a queer series. It's slices of live spanning over around 8 years or so. The beginning is a bit strange because there are too many coincidences in the first episode. And of course while we know they are gay, there is no explicit scene about confessing and of course no kissing at all. I don't need any nc-scenes at all, but their relationsship is not defined. We can asume they are together because they love each other but it would not have hurt to give as at least one fluffy moment.

On the other hand this slices of life are mostly a series of negatives. For me it was very emotional because every negative stroke of fate just happens. Ryo gets confessed to but he can't handle it. The confessor get outed and jumps (we do not know from how high), but survives, Ryo runs away to Germany of all places and gets nearly killed in a church were another gay persons throws molowtov-cocktails at the altar and is saved by a man who just before listenes to his guilt-confession.

And the list goes on... Is there a happy end? Kind of, but not really. Of course there are also happy moments but anything happy will be destroyed by a tragic event. Is it really necessary to make queer series where everything is tragic? Do we get only stupid, crappy BLs for happyness? I don't mind if there are tragic elements in a story, but this was too much.

I can't fault the actors, they did their best, but watching this series is very taxing. I can only fault the script & direction. I wish we get realistic gay stories which do not end always badly, or where at least the good and bad balance each other out. So, I'm a bit disappointed that they choose not do so. It's very emotional and I needed some tissues. I can't even say it was "bad". Yes the script had it's flaws, the story-arc is not what I wished for, some scenes are too slow for my taste, but it was done mostly in a good way. If you crave for something tragic, this series is for you, if you want something happy, this is definitively not for you.

Read More

Not a Bl but Queer Story

I’ve seen a lot of mixed (and even negative) reviews about Soulmate, But honestly, I feel like that kind of thinking misses the whole point of the story.

Not every relationship needs a label like “boyfriends” to be meaningful. And intimacy doesn’t always have to be physical to be real. What Soulmate shows is something quieter but deeper—a connection built on understanding, respect, and simply being there for each other.

The title “Soulmate” fits perfectly. Their relationship feels like more than friendship, but not something that needs to be defined as lovers either. It exists somewhere in between, in a space that feels very real but is rarely shown on screen.

Another thing I really appreciated is how the drama portrays family. It reminds us that you don’t have to be blood-related to be a family. And you don’t have to fit into traditional stereotypes either. A family doesn’t always have to look like “one mother and one father.”

In the story, two men step up to take care of their best friend’s child after her husband passes away. The three of them build a life together, taking turns, supporting each other, and raising the baby with love. It’s such a simple but powerful way of showing that family is about care, responsibility, and connection—not labels.

What I loved most is how they live together, find happiness in small everyday moments, and respect each other’s boundaries. It’s not dramatic or intense in a typical way—it’s soft, calm, and emotionally intimate.

Honestly, this is the kind of relationship I would want in real life. Just living peacefully with someone who understands you without needing to explain everything.

I feel like this drama introduces a kind of “new genre” for many viewers—one that focuses less on labels or physical romance, and more on genuine human connection.

And maybe that’s why it feels so different… and so special.

Read More

A different kind of love story

... and I say this because its not about romantic love, but a love between soulmate friends.

Overall I kinda felt tricked. lol
But that's because at the beginning I felt like this would be a feel good series,
but it made me cry in the end.

Anyways, I`m writing this review because I really don't understand the other bad reviews here.
This is a must watch if you are a fan of bittersweet story lines.

**Directing**
Overall I really liked the directing, because it has that special vibe throughout the whole series.
Which not all directors are able to do tbh. It really pulls you in. Like I said, the vibe and mood was
the main reason for me to like this series and is often overlooked from other ppl and in reviews in general.
But if a series pulls me in just with the mood, I know its gonna be good, but a lot of ppl usually don't appreciate it sadly.

**Music**
Music fits really well and supports the mood I mentioned above. Nothing noteworthy from my side, which is actually a good thing.... otherwise it would be bad music. >.<

**Acting**
I was really surprised tbh, because you see so many different nationalities but they made it work perfectly. All actors were great, no overacting, just a great fit. Also, its my first drama with Taec Yeon (I think) and I was positively surprised by his good acting. Isomura Hayato was great too and he took a great part to portray & support the mood too.

**Story**
The story follows 2 young man that are stuck in their life and also experienced some kind of trauma I might say. They first meet in Berlin after an accident and somehow grow closer. I really like how their meeting changed both of their life and also made it possible to overcome their trauma. It really shows what it means to have a soulmate and what kind of support it could be in your life without being romanticized. Both characters experience bad things in life, but also are able to overcome those things. Its really great to see, thats why it sometimes feels like a feel good series. In the end it just shows life and life isnt always an easy walk. I say its a good story, not because it is. Its a slice of life, so I would not call it special itself, but the directing, acting, etc made it into one.

**Overall**
If a series is able to pull me in and make me cry with emotional scenes (and I dont cry easily even when its emotional) I rate it as a good drama. Simple as that. Because not many directors are able to make me cry. In the end its all about the acting and directing that make ppl cry, not the story. So, my rating is a 9.5 for that reason (and I didnt skip lol).

Read More

A Ten-Year Journey to the Center of the Soul

With Soul Mate, Netflix delivers a proposal that defies the conventional labels of its genre. Starring a charismatic Ok Taec-yeon and an introspective Hayato Isomura, the series steps away from the fireworks of adolescent romance to submerge us in a mature narrative about human connection in its purest state.

Unlike other productions that seek immediate impact through physical scenes, this work is built on silences, glances, and unconditional support. While it walks the fine line between a high-intensity bromance and a BL drama, the series chooses to focus on:

How one person’s pain finds refuge in another.
A respectful treatment of the scars of the past.
The powerful message that bloodlines do not define a home; a family can be built far from traditional stereotypes.

The story is in no rush. We accompany the protagonists over the course of a decade, traversing urban landscapes that reflect their emotional states: from the cold introspection of Berlin to the vibrant yet lonely rhythms of Seoul and Tokyo. This international setting, combined with a deliberate pace, allows the viewer to feel the weight of time and the genuine evolution of their bond.

If you are looking for a "love at first sight" story with a frantic pace, you might find it slow. However, if you are looking for a work that explores what it truly means to "find your other half" without the need for labels or gimmicks, this drama will move you.

Key Strengths:
Masterful Performances. The chemistry between Taec-yeon and Isomura is organic and heart-wrenching.
Emotional Focus. Prioritizes mental health and personal growth.
Immersive Visuals. Beautiful cinematography across three major global cities.

Things to Consider:
Slow Burn. The narrative takes its time, which may feel sluggish to some viewers.
Lack of Explicit Romance. The connection is spiritual and deep, rather than physical.
Melancholic Tone. This is a series for reflection and, quite possibly, a few tears.

In conclusion: Soul Mate is an ode to relationships that require neither names nor definitions. It is a slow, aesthetically stunning, and deeply emotive drama that redefines what it means to be a family in the 21st century. A brave production that proves the greatest love is the one that helps us heal.

Read More

Why it's NOT soulmates (at least not between yohan and Ryu)

It's supposed to be romantic but it's not, I actually went in with low expectations such as that they won't kiss or be too affectionate in general so that's not even the thing that bothered me.What did bother me though was that sumiko moved to Ryu and stayed there to raise kanau with them. I don't have a problem with sumiko herself, but making her move in and stay just took the focus away from Ryu and yohan. Ultimately yohan moves away and those two keep living together, raising the baby.Ryu just completely accepted it that yohan moved out, from one day to another, without even trying to stop him. Without ever contacting him after that. That's how deep his "love" for yohan was. Literally stopped caring for his "soulmate" as if they didn't had a bond for multiple months, as I said he clearly didn't even check up on him not even with a call or text message. They went from friends to strangers again.Then at the end after idk how many years he goes to yohan and they act as if they weren't apart for multiple years, as if their bond is still as strong as in the beginning. Like they want to tell me that it was OK for them to not see each other again etc while they should have been full of emotions then but years later everything is OK as if none of them could have "fallen out of love" with one another. Besides Ryu says at the end that he loves him, implying he cares for him, but at the same time he's moving to a new house with sumiko and even marrying her. If anything he is more soulmate with sumiko than with yohan in the first place and I don't even mean this in a romantic sense, clearly sumiko is his childhood friend, they lived together shortly in Germany, then shortly in Japan when sumiko came back and then longterm after seiichi dies... Their bond is much deeper because seemingly they cared and helped each other much more, as far as to marrying each other and raising a kid together. Thats probably one of the reasons why it fails to portray yohan and him as soulmates, romance aside although it was promoted as such. That's my opinion at least

Read More

While I understand the disappointment from BL fans who expected more from this series, I think many people misunderstood what the story was trying to be. I do not think Soulmates is perfect, and I will talk about the issues I had with it later, but I also think it has many positives that are often overlooked.

I do not think the director or writer were scared of making this a BL. Instead, I think the fact that the relationship was never made explicitly romantic was intentional and part of what made their connection unique. The series presents Ryo and Johan’s relationship as something that exists between friendship and romance rather than fully fitting into either category.

One of the reasons I believe this is the storyline between Ryo and his friend. The series did not avoid topics like LGBTQ identity or homophobia, which it easily could have done if the creators were truly afraid of making it queer. To me, that subplot shows that the writers were aware of the audience’s expectations and intentionally chose to keep Ryo and Johan’s relationship undefined.

Their bond was not written as a typical friendship or a conventional romance, but as something more personal and difficult to label. That is why I think the idea of them being soulmates fits the story better than forcing their relationship into a specific category.

I will continue this review in the future (my issues are with the mix in the mood and how the storyline felt at times incomplete and messy)(i loved the creative view, the relationship and the acting)

Read More

Actually..what is the problem with this series?

I’ve been waiting for this drama since the casting stage. I remember clearly how it was promoted as a BL, and both the trailer and the plot gave off that vibe. However, once I actually started watching, I find that it’s not romantic at all ,I wouldn’t even go as far as calling it "bromance."
Personally, I don’t want to box it into shallow genres that set certain expectations. Doing that makes it hard for people to appreciate the side stories and character growth, instead of just looking for a romance full of sweet moments or happy ending.
​Instead, the show is about a journey of self-discovery for two people whose paths crossed at the right time. It supposed to be a "soulmate" kind of bond where they found healing in each other despite all the pressures and hardships they faced together.

I want to talk a lot about the supporting characters' stories and the acting , but to keep it short.. the casting, the acting, the plot, and the cinematography were all good,
even though the plot were "tragically depressing" but I was somewhat okay with that.
But what I found totally unacceptable though was the script. Not a single dialogue between the leads stuck with (me) or felt unique compared to other dramas. I felt like there are many points didn't get the depth they deserved,there were specific moments where I expected a lot to be built upon, but the characters' reactions kept reminding me that I was just watching a series.
I don’t know if anyone else felt this way, but I felt completely detached from the characters.
Their emotions didn't quite reach me, and I couldn't bring myself to feel deeply what they feel or get affected by what was happening.
So regardless of the genre, the marketing, or how the ending turned out, i think this would have worked much better as a movie rather than a series with Disjointed storytelling ..

Read More

beautiful, worthwhile, undeniable queer narrative that trades in imagination for a tinge of cruelty

soul mate (2026) exceeded my admittedly moderate expectations due to the association with netflix and delivered an intentional, tender queer story. the show maintains a theme of salvation until the end, which is likely why so much of the romantic relationship between ryu and johan, two people who were seeking dignity and courage in their lives, was organized around care, mutual trust, and being a place of emotional stability for each other. the relationship progression between ryu and johan was constantly affirming in nature. to me, the show understood that we need to have capacity to be able to love someone and that is often deteriorated when we are hurt and traumatized, which was the case with both in the beginning. ryu's late "eccentric" uncle's words became the emotional center of the show: the idea that you are only truly lonely when you don't have people you care about.

the queer narrative in this was not subtle at all but i loved all the nuanced ways they have repeatedly affirmed the relationship between ryu and johan, through their families and friends taking notice, through drawings and objects, through the unsaid. now, beyond that, there were many things i loved about this show. for one, they showed me that a bl being co-produced between two countries does not immediately have to result in exploitation in content and narrative. a lot of bl co-productions are more interested in proving "freedom" through explicit content they may not have been able to add on if, say, produced solely by south korea or china. however, as we have been seeing in these bl co-productions, when sex becomes the primary evidence of "liberation," stories often end up losing cultural relativity, subtext, TEXT, emotional density, and so on. but in soul mate, the cross-cultural context exists for cross-cultural communication and not to meaninglessly insert sex scenes between the couple. i loved all of these cross-cultural embeds in the narrative. ryu did not expect mutual understanding just because johan speaks some japanese; instead, he made a conscious effort to learn korean words/phrases to better communicate his feelings to johan. for once, a co-production does not feel exploitative.

one of the running themes of the show was found family. it started with ryu and sumiko. i found it very significant that the show centered ryu and sumiko’s relationship as a safe, dependable connection for both because many bl stories either erase women entirely or trap them in misogynistic narratives. depicting meaningful relationships between men and women is important, especially in queer narratives, because it shows us men can be vulnerable, kind, /human/ even outside of romance. then, their family starts to take shape when ryu's parents treat and take on johan, who was an orphan and had to work all his life to /earn/ a living, as their own, even inviting him to an intimate memorial ceremony reserved for people inside the family structure. as this family structure was taking shape, we also saw johan’s relationships were already structured around queer kinship (re: the gay jazz bar owner) because he does not have normative family structures to rely on.

i think my favourite moment in the show comes after they discuss sumiko's pregnancy. ryu talks of childbearing feeling like a miracle but johan responds, this too! what he is saying shifts the focus from a “queer impossibility” to meaning produced outside of heterosexual reproduction. he says, our shared life, the home we built together, it is also extraordinary, isn't it? by that point, it was clear the show was very intentionally refusing the assumption that “real” family is produced through blood relation, heterosexuality, or legal structures; instead, they asserted that family is an active practice of care and mutual recognition. when sumiko's husband, who was ryu's very close friend, died, it was clear the show was setting up a non-normative family structure between the couple and their pregnant friend. i saw that a lot of people thought of this pivot as "losing focus" but, in fact, sumiko’s plotline doesn’t distract from the romantic relationship; it expands it because sumiko and seiichi are ryu and johan’s family. a lot of bl narratives isolate the couple from the rest of social life and political realities but love is not enough and people need networks of care! the response to this storyline made me think people do not understand how important family (intimate support systems) is to queer people. romance isn’t the ultimate narrative endpoint. more so, their new family structure is what queer futurity is all about; it isn’t them imitating the nuclear family but reimagining it through queer relationality. statistically, even in queer relationships, labor associated with childrearing falls on women; so, it was crucial to see queer men involved in childrearing and domestic duties, men whose lives aren’t defined by romance or sex or individual freedom detached from responsibility and commitment.

now, the finale, i understood johan's decision to leave upon finding out he has a neurodegenerative illness with no cure available. seeing kanau grow up without johan and knowing he is battling his illness alone felt unfair but, based on his upbringing, it was more so understandable why he would choose to distance himself. when you haven’t been made to feel like you deserve to exist in the world (by expectedly your parents), you try to take up as little space in people’s lives as possible. however, i do think the ending lacks imagination especially considering the ideas they’ve developed on refusing isolation and found family. i do get johan’s side but i felt that there should have been more of a commotion when he wanted to leave. in the end, when johan talks about ryu, he says he gets hurt easily, and maybe this was why, but i believe a strong enough connection warrants a bigger fight because intimacy changes what we feel entitled to ask of each other. character death as a plot point isn’t an issue but they deserved to have each other by their side instead of spending their last few years together, with sumiko and kanau as well, isolated from each other's presence, thoughts, feelings.

i think the director/screenwriter hashizume shunki has an inclination for melancholy and although he “corrects” a lot of more than words (2022) in this show (hush! (2001) still did it better!), soul mate still carries that tinge of cruelty. i think it would have been so much easier as a viewer to see johan die slowly with his family by his side and that would have still been tragic because death and illness themselves are enough of a tragedy. i cannot wrap my head around the fact that johan left and life just moved on for the both of them. albeit, maybe there was more of an effort to communicate on ryu's side but we do not get to see this so it feels unfilling. i also do not find it believable that just because johan said he found someone else, ryu was hurt enough to cut off all contact after all of those years together.

finally, since this must clearly be reiterated to bl fans, the “bury your gays” trope is relevant when the death of queer characters reinforces the idea that queerness itself leads to misery or punishment - it does not apply here. soul mate allows their queer characters dignity, love, a family, and full emotional arcs. even before we get to the final arc, the show does feel disjointed with regards to plot transitions. it sometimes felt like things did not linger as they should have. nevertheless, although not perfect, soul mate must be one fo the best japanese/korean bls of the last few years. a beautiful, worthwhile, undeniable queer narrative.

Read More

Prepare the tissue box

Came into this show with very little expectations. I had seen the debates prior to its release about it being BL or not, and was curious about the intercultural aspect of this show.

First I have to say that the intercultural aspect is the best I've seen from a show like this. Usually I can't help but cringe when two characters speak two different languages at one another, but this time by having the characters all speak Japanese that eliminated that fear for me. I do wish the show would've explored (even superficially) the specific difficult relationship between Japan and Korea, but since this is a Japanese production I'm not surprised they didn't.

Next, onto the BL aspect. This is undoubtedly a queer show. The relationship between the two protagonists is clearly more than friendship and very beautiful, and I don't mind queer works that have little to no intimate scenes. However, from a storytelling perspective, I did feel that making the characters almost asexual did impede my comprehension at times as well as realism. For example, when the two main characters live together, I found it a bit jarring that they never discussed dating or having partners, yet are not explicitly in a romantic relationship. And especially when Johan leaves the house he shares with Ryu and Sumiko by saying he met someone he wants to live with, it lessens the impact of seeing Ryu be upset because we don't know if it's two friends who are in denial that they're in love or if they know it and have explicitly shown it off-camera. That sort of blurry relationship is interesting to showcase, but I wish we'd gotten more reasons as to why they never explicitly said they loved each other until the very end of the show (aka when it's too late). As I said I would be okay with showing little to no intimacy (although I do feel that if you are telling a queer story, you should not be afraid to show the intimacy that comes with it too), but in terms of characters' motivations and actions I think it could've been more developed.

Lastly, this show will destroy you. At least it destroyed me. The more this show stays with me, the more I realize how deeply depressing it is, but in that poetic indie way I still adore. I loved the themes of found family and the characters of this show. This story was both simple yet something I hadn't seen before, and I've rarely cried this much in front of a show. It definitely surpassed my expectations which were very open to begin with. If you're ready to experience a sad yet enriching story, I recommend it.

The quote that will stay with me from this show is: "Maybe losing yourself isn't always a bad thing."

Read More