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absolutebl · 4 months

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TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on.

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL.

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table).

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023.

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like... okay, back in familiar territory.

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023.

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit.

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan.

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon.

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like...

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age.

And yeah... it totally worked.

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting.

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely.

Never Let me Go

My School President

Bed Friend

The Day I Loved You

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down.

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV.

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us.

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV.

5. Cameos are the norm now

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.)

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular.

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters.

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.)

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain...

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year.

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it.

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand's price range (even GMMTV's) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic).

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that's much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn't be too surprised.

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn't think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan.

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this.

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.)

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea?

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it.

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense.

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding.

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it.

9. BL got trendy

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay.

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not.

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do.

10. The Vampires are coming

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR.

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened).

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV.

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.)

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either.

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline.

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field.

FYI we had approximately

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source)

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mssethii69 · 26 days

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hotmenbooties · 7 months

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#gay #gay men #gay tumblr #gaylife #gaystagram #gay boys #jock #gay man #gayboy #gayhot #flexing #dancing #nudity #hot nude

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fartrumba · 4 months

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dance! sniper

young and sweet, only 17! (+10)

#art #sniper tf2 #tf2 sniper #team fortress 2 #team fortress fanart #fanart #tf2 #tf2 fanart #dance #go white boy go

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liulith · 2 months

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Radiostatic reverse-verse where Alastor is the one who's obsessed with Vox. Nothing lustful or romantic about it. He's in his radio tower giggling, twirling his hair and kicking his feet, starting a new broadcast which will be dedicated to roasting Vox for the 17th time this week, from the shower gel he uses to the subpar brand of ramen noodles he ate two days in a row because he was on a time crunch for a new product release. He doesn't have his own surveillance cameras but who needs those when he can travel through shadows? Plus, TV, cell phones, radars and wifi all work thanks to radio waves. He has full access to Vox's entire empire and he sure knows how to use it for his nefarious purposes (being a shameless stalker).

He sends him silly little drawings through the mail, and charcuterie boards made with the meat of whoever annoyed Vox this week (Only HE is allowed to bully Vox). At any moment of the day Vox is at risk of turning around and finding himself face to face with Alastor staring unblinkingly at him with the creepiest smile on his face.

People tease him for acting like a kid pulling on his crush' pigtails. Vox himself propositions him so that he can "get him out of his system" and finally leave him be, and Alastor is just like. Huh. Gross?? No thanks??? This is a purely platonic unhealthy obsession, thank you very much. What type of underwear are you wearing, though?

Basically:

"What do you see in him?"

"He makes me laugh!"

---

((Vox is, of course, scared shitless.))

((A psychopathic, serial-killing cannibal is stalking him, killing his subordinates, sending him drawings of the two of them covered in blood, Sinner meat... (and a recipe for jambalaya? is this code for something? some kind of hidden message??). Someone help this poor man.))

#radiostatic #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin hotel alastor #one sided radiostatic #but not in the traditional way lol #aroace alastor #he basically wants a qpr but doesn't know what qprs are #surely if he bullies vox enough they'll somehow become besties #alastor @ vox: dance clown boy dance #vox: someone HELP ME #radiostatic qpr #hazbin hotel thoughts

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dance-world · 1 month

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Tommaso Spadaccino - Opéra national de Paris

#Tommaso Spadaccino #Opéra national de Paris #ballerino #danseur #tänzer #dancer #bailarín #ballet men #boys of ballet #dance #ballet

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ladyofthebears · 7 days

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Do you ever think the dragons get sad that they arent small enough to be held by their riders anymore?

Do you ever think Syrax longs for the days when she and Rhaenyra were young and she could curl herself on her riders shoulders and feel her heartbeat through her skin?

Do you wonder if Dreamfyre ever misses when she was still slender enough for Rhaenas arms to fit around her neck and hold her, when she was still small enough to rest her head in Rhaenas lap and longs to be able to be that close to Helaena?

Do you imagine that maybe Silverwing longs for the days she spent curled around the baby Alysanne as they grew together?

Do you worry if in his last moments of panic and pain, Stormcloud wished he was tiny enough to be carried around and doted on by Aegon iii one last time?

Do you think that as Tessarion died, her mind reached out for the one person she had never known a life without?

Cause i think about it all like a lot.

Ps if you like dragons you should def go look at my dragon inspired makeup looks, namely my latest of Meraxes https://www.tumblr.com/ladyofthebears/748888503847403520/finally-finished-my-meraxes-makeup-look-hope-you

#house of the dragon #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #helaena targaryen #rhaenyra targaryen #dance of the dragons #baela targaryen #jacaerys velaryon #aegon iii targaryen #daeron targaryen #i dont like daeron but i will admit out of the targtower boys he seemed to be the closest to his dragon in an actually healthy and cool way #rhaena targaryen #stormcloud #syrax #dreamfyre #tessarion #silverwing #alysanne targaryen

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rileyclaw · 1 year

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we all fall down

#guess who rewatched hollow mind this morning ! and is in anguish!#i was thinking about the shock i felt when i saw it air and hunter got yoinked into the ground. i thought that boy was GONE #the owl house #toh #hollow mind #phillip wittebane #emporer belos #hunter toh #luz noceda #fanart #my art #hehe they do their lil dancey dance

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shapelytimber · 8 months

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✨Le dernier jour du disco✨

[PRINT] - [COMMISSIONS]

Sketch and thumbnail below vvv

I've wanted to experiment with a looser and quicker painting style, and what better way to do that than with a Disco Elysium fanart ?

I imagine this happening like the day before the game begins. The last day of disco for pre amnesia Harry Tequila sunset

PS : You should go listen to "le dernier jour du disco" by Juliette Armanet <3 this was the song that inspired me for this

PSS : I won't be remembered for my subtilty

#this bear can dance #The green pants aren't game accurate but I wanted something to contraste the orange without having to put him in his jacket #disco elysium #harry du bois #harrier du bois #disco elysium fanart #cw alcohol #art #my art #prints #digital art #illustration #fanart #digital painting #artist on tumblr

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aemonds-wifey · 1 year

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To me that’s cinema 🤌

#ewan mitchell #aemond targaryen #house of the dragon hbo #aegon ii targaryen #tom glynn carney #hbd #dance of the dragons #lord of the tides #it’s a masterpiece #beautiful boys #team green

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gayforbagels · 2 years

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Pouring one out for Afghanistan and Anguilla and Antigua and Aoteoroa and Barbuda and Australia and the Bahamas and Bahrain and Bangladesh and Barbados and Belize and Bermuda and Botswana and Brazil and Brunei and Canada and the Cayman Islands and Cornwall and Cyprus and Dominica and Egypt and the Islas Malvinas and Fiji and Gambia and Georgia (the country) and Ghana and Gibraltar and Grenada and Guyana and Hong Kong and India and Iraq and Ireland and Jamaica and Jordan and Kenya and Kiribati and Kuwait and Lesotho and Malawi and Malaysia and Maldives and Malta and Mauritius and Montserrat and Myanmar and Nauru and Nigeria and Pakistan and Palestine and the Pitcairn Islands and Qatar and St Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Helena and Ascension and Tristan da Cunha and St Vincent and Grenadina and Scotland and Seychelles and Sierra Leone and Singapore and the Solomon islands and Somaliland and South Africa and Sri Lanka and Sudan and Swaziland and Tanzania and Tonga and Trinidad and Tobago and Turks and Caicos and Tuvalu and Uganda and United Arab Emirates and United States and Vanuatu and Wales and Yemen and Zambia and Zimbabwe tonight

#text #op #dancing crabs #and many more #sorry if I missed you trust me when I say I am still popping the FATTEST bottle for u TONIGHT #edit: guys I copy pasted a shit ton of countries from fucking Wikipedia for a shitpost it’s not that deep #edit: the amount of y’all that are tagging this as ‘except us and Canada’ are missing the fucking point #it isn’t cute lol #EDIT: WHATS UP GUYS IT’S ME YA BOY COMING LIVE FROM. GLASS ONE OF WINE #I CHANGED MY MIND FUCK IT IM ADDING EVERYONE I MISSED INTO THE OP #AND ANOTHER THING #SOME OF YALL HAVE TO REMEMBER THERE ARE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN CANADA AND THE USA TOO #SAYING THE USA AND CANADA DOESNT DESERVE TO POP BOTTLES IS DISMISSIVE OF EVERY INDIGENOUS LIFE DAMAGED BY THE BRITISH EMPIRE #AUSTRALIA TOO #THE MONARCHY HAD A VERY PROMINENT ROLE ALONGSIDE THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS AND COLONIAL VIOLENCE #IN SETTLER HISTORY #ALSO TO ANY OF MY BRITISH HOMOES I AM SO SORRY YALL HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT PROPAGANDA MACHINE RN #GFGFGFFGGG I’m not changing that

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