I still can't believe just how many BL's we got this year. I haven't watched even half of the ones I have on my list, partially because there are so many and partially because I'm in a weird mood right now where nothing feels right so I keep starting shows and then dropping them. I do plan on finishing them, especially if I got pretty far, but I also don't wanna force myself if my heart's not in it.

That being said, I did get to some BL's that came out this year and it's honestly been a mixed bag. My favorite one so far has been Sammy's Children's Day. There's no competition, honestly. I did not expect to love it as much as I did when I started it, but I just had so much fun watching it. It has romance, yearning, drama, action, comedy, a little bit of everything, really. Not to mention it's a slow burn and it's almost a guarantee I'll like a BL if it's a slow burn. There are also some scenes where the cinematography is simply gorgeous. I'm really hoping we'll actually get that second season.

I also have to give Love You Teacher an honorary mention. An issue I tend to have with some Thai BL's is that the start is strong, and the ending is good, but that middle part can feel meandering and without clear direction. But I did not have this issue at all with LYT, it really felt like every episode had a purpose. It also felt like everyone working on this show really cared about it, that's the impression I got watching it. There's some things I could nitpick, but overall I really did enjoy it.

My biggest disappointment this year was probably Cat for Cash. It's not like I had the biggest expectations going into it, but I thought it'd be a cute, heartfelt little story. And I did get that from the first episode, but then it all went downhill from there. The rest of the show felt boring despite how hard I tried to like it. I was two episodes away from finishing it when I dropped it, and I have no desire to go back and finish it. It sucks because I really do like FirstKhao as actors and I think they have great chemistry, but for some reason I always end up disliking the shows they're in.

I'm trying out A Winter Sun Wakes the Wind in Spring Hills' Dream and while I've only seen the first episode, I'm liking it quite a lot so far. It's a visually beautiful show and I'm curious to see where the story is going.

I predict The Grim Lover will probably end up being my favorite BL this year, or at the very least it'll be in my top 5. But I am very biased since I love pretty much anything PoohPavel star in.

I think this year has made me even more excited for the future of BL, although I am slightly apprehensive about it at the same time. BL has definitely gotten more and more popular over time and usually when something goes from being kind of niche to having a bigger audience, there is a lot of disruption and discourse that takes place from newer fans and I'm kind of dreading it. It's nice to have a big community, of course, but…I don't know, I just feel like there's less of a desire within fandoms/communities to actually discuss art and plot and characters, and more of a desire to engage in discourse and fight over who's right to the point that the show that was being originally discussed becomes irrelevant to the conversation at large. This is a problem I see basically everywhere, not just in the BL fandom, but it does bother me and I'm not too excited about seeing even more of it. But maybe I'm just being too pessimistic. I just wish more people cared about making friends in these communities, or at least being civil. It feels like people either do not engage at all, or they only engage when they see an opportunity to start fighting or insult others or only care about showing off how right they are without listening to other people. And it all results in fandoms and online communities feeling lonely and sometimes downright miserable.

I know this was about BL's that came out this year and I went on a little bit of a tangent, but I guess I couldn't help but reflect a bit beyond the shows themselves and look at the fans, as well. There's still really cool places online for fans - I've really enjoyed seeing all the conversations everyone has had here, for example - but I think they're much harder to find in comparison to places online that are just people arguing over and over about the same things, trying to prove they're smarter or have the objectively right opinion.