This review may contain spoilers
Not a BL...
You make a boy as girly as possible, you make a masculine school bully and a masculine silent one. You heteronormalize it together and make sure the girly boy denies being gay all the time. You produce some drama between the bully and the silent one and have an "happy end" between the girly boy and the silent one as being friends.In 2026 such a queer baiting series is not needed.
In 2026 such a series should not have been produced
In 2026 everyone who thinks this series is fun should think about what the series tell us. If you protect the girly boy from bullies it's ok if he's hetero.
Of course there are girly boys who are not gay. They could be anything from hetero, bi, pan, gay, asexual or everything inbetween but the series was not structered that way. For me it was 100% queer baiting and not commiting as a BL. Besides being in vertical format and good production quality, I can and never will support such a series. It still makes me sick that such a series is even produced. It sends the wrong signal to all the people watching it - or what is more probable girls consuming it will not even think about the aspects. I rate this series just for the queer baiting and the MDL tag "gay romance" is 100% misleading.
Update: The biggest question of all: Why is this shit show on GagaOOLala. I remember the outcry of the community when they tried to put "Wu" on GagaOOLala. But this show is even worse and it's on it.
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“A Simple Yet Engaging Korean Web BL.”
Why was this beyond my expectations?It wasn’t insanely good, but it definitely wasn’t bad either. It felt reasonable, warm, and surprisingly comforting. I personally enjoyed it more than I thought I would. In fact, I was hesitant to even start it because I wasn’t sure it would be my type of drama.
To be honest, I’m a bit tired of Korean high school bullying stories. The “weak student gets bullied” storyline is something we’ve seen many times. However, this one handled it in a way that still felt engaging.
The bullied student’s character was portrayed well, and his dynamic with the stronger classmate — who clearly liked him and stood up for him — made the story more enjoyable. Having someone protect him didn’t feel overly dramatic; it felt simple and sincere.
The tension between them wasn’t intense or overwhelming, but it was exciting in a soft way. Their awkward smiles at each other were actually one of my favorite parts — slightly funny, slightly sweet, and very natural.
Overall, it worked for me. It may not be groundbreaking, but it was warm, decent, and enjoyable.
And at the end of the day, if I liked it, that’s what matters most.
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This review may contain spoilers
A Refreshingly Chaotic and Utterly "High School" Vertical Drama
*MILD spoilers for the ending*I was actually surprised when I saw how low it was rated on MDL, because I had an ABSOLUTE BLAST with this one haha.
— snappy & quick editing -- felt very fresh + upbeat and kept me engaged, NOT impatient
— pretty solid acting -- the actors did a fantastic job with the comedy and were able to still switch over to more raw performances in the more emotionally-weighted scenes
— HILARIOUS -- the chaos and crazy antics had me actually laughing - classic high school boys
— one of the only times inner dialogues enhanced a vertical drama -- the back and forth between all the characters' thoughts while they each spiral into inner chaos made it 10x funnier hahaha PLUS the actor's facial expressions? PURE GOLD.
— I don't know how to explain it, but most high school verticals lean too heavy into "drama" and make the characters feel WAY too mature and serious for actual high school students. These characters, however, felt like actual teenage boys with hilarious misunderstanding, obvious relationship inexperience, and unhinged inner dialogues only boys going through puberty would have. -- it just felt utterly "high school"
— it may be a little thing to some, but the fighting felt fairly realistic -- punches held weight and characters actually had injuries (with decent make-up) afterwards
— sure, the plot was simple, left "unfinished," and a love confession would've been nice, but that honestly didn't bother me much because of the script's quick wit and chaotic playfulness -- I was just in it for a good time and it really paid off
(I would love to see a sequel though!! Turns out I have a soft spot for these flawed yet endearing boys <3 )
Lots of the reviews I saw were criticizing the ending or taking some of the script's satirical choices on comedy. HOWEVER, if you go into it without any expectations and just to have fun, you'll really enjoy it. These characters are hilariously unserious, and this one may be one of the few vertical drama's I could see myself rewatching start-to-finish.
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this is an unconventional friendship story & i think the "gay romance" tag is misleading (& why people's panties got in a bunch, calling this "queerbaiting"), there was/is no gay romance to be had - maybe a bit of gay curiosity & if u think of the ending, there is a sec u can interpret as a an open ending, with the promise of a romance developing between the mains. personally given everything - think platonic, as most of this "BL" was, even the bully's motives didn't stem from attraction IMO he genuinely liked Hong Il Tak & treated him like one would do a younger sibling, that they find so cute they wanna squish & bug... the roughhousing given who he was, wasn't mean spirited in his mind/heart/eyes... of course said sibling, doesn't enjoy this treatment & voices their annoyance sooner or later.
Hong Il Tak didn't, cause he genuinely believed he was being bullied cause he was weak & hated, so like any victim he kept quite, cause saying anything could make the situation worse.
Lee Hyeon Wu might have been bi-curious or he liked cute things so much so that gender didn't matter - he fought it long enough, but then just gave in... even though that took on a bullying nature later on... so we don't really know enough about what was going on in his head. but by the end both leads bonded cause of the beat-down.
also i don't think Hong Il Tak was made out to be "as girly as possible", that is such a strawman description. he wasn't effeminate or camp, he was a normal teen that was small of stature & build - the fact his beauty is softer & more boyish then manly, doesn't make him girly - like WTF. & other then one scene, where he thought about some femme fatale from the Joseon era & how she bewitched armies of men - there was no flirting done from my POV. his approaching Lee Hyeon Wu was genuinely how one would approach another in curiosity & trepidation, if u see them as stronger then u & want to befriend them.
there was not an ounce of eyelid batting on Hong Il Tak's part, the fact that there were times from Lee Hyeon Wu's POV it looked like that, it's cause he was charmed by him even before they talked. that doesn't make this "queerbaiting" like plz.
this was a sweet, fun & funny youth, friendship drama. it's not a romance or a BL & i enjoyed it all the same, cause it was sweet & wholesome - pity the bully didn't become Hong Il Tak's friend too, but those wires that were crossed, got disseminated the sec he went to the 3rd yr & got him to beat down Lee Hyeon Wu. so other then that part (were i kinda felt sorry for the bully cause he wasn't a bad guy) i really enjoyed this & i for sure will rewatch this when i want something light & fun to binge watch.
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This review may contain spoilers
had potential, unfinished in the end
Overall: the acting was good, but the one sidedness was too much/long, I hesitate to call this BL. 50 episodes about 2 minutes each. Aired on Lezhin Snack app and later Shortime app and GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/verticals/8458/high-school-boy-2026Content Warnings: bullying, fights, violence, blood, homophobia, manipulation
What I Liked
- actors did a good job
- easy to understand premise
- some character growth
Room For Improvement
- a main character needed to stop professing he didn't like guys
- open ending that didn't answer it either way
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