#quick Japanese

[peachssodapop]

the mention of their different dialects and languages immediately had my enraptured

so here's a very quickly drawn comic based on I cannot seem to find a good german equivalent to silly

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu hyrule #lu wind #lu four #lu legend #lu time #lu twilight #lu warriors #my art #hii german speakers are there any good translations #unfortunately I am scared of internet strangers and if anyone else in my family still speaks german at all I don't talk to them #from a quick search in japanese it seems the first suggestions are also things like stupid and dumb so like #there's the guys who's hylian can be translated directly into english #and the ones where their hylian is based on japanese instead #which i think leaves a giant gap where there are just going to be things that don't translate well

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - it was a pretty darn good time, frankly

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Feb 2024 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

The Sign (Sat YT) ep 12fin - Everyone looked like they were having a lot of fun in the fight sequences. I’m very happy for them. I’m not surprised they shot Khem and Chart. A little shocked it wasn’t also Yai, TBH.

I found this final episode rushed. According to rumors, The Sign was originally slated to be 14 eps, and it probably should’ve been. And I don’t say that often about Thai BL. But we all knew it was getting too bloated for its britches, so I'm not surprised they fumbled the ending. For me personally, it just wasn't that bad. It was fine and I was fine with it.

Tho, Billy does not look good with facial fur, messes up those gorgeous angles.

I was ultimately amused that the solution to the mythology thread was simply to talk to the river god and persuaded him to give up... off screen. It felt very old school wuxia. Or like Aeschylus or something. I did adore the stinger, Saint was basically like “I want wings too”. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

This show is literally everything (except straight) all at once. It's BL, queer, band of brothers, romcom, erotica, PNR, fated mates, police procedural, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and slasher. It’s the king of genre mash-up chaos. Sure, it's madness but there is genius in it. Was it a crazy unhinged mess +1 roll for damage? Yes. Yes it was. Did it manage to hold all those tangled threads together? No it did not. Was it also a charming, sexy, engaging, non-stop piece of entertainment? Sure thing. I think this show is basically my KinnPorsche, and frankly I’ve been chasing that dragon naga since KP aired. Is it perfect? No. But it was balls to the wall FUN and that gets a 9/10 from me.

I'm thinking of doing a full recap review (partly because I have so many great screen shots.)

Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube grey) ep 10-11 of 12 - Since this series is following the yaoi so closely, I knew these were the separation eps. (Also I knew with would be a soft non-doom ep 11, Japan rarerly does these.) I like that they used it to show improve communication and development in all relationships, but, frankly, TayNew are just best when they are TayNew together on screen. So yeah. Let’s keep them back together, please?

Meanwhile, TayNew gifted us a gorgeous loving sweet sex scene. Thanks OG for doing us a solid. 

I wanna add, it sure is fun to see New play as soft and vulnerable character, I feel like he hasn’t done that since SOTUS. 

(Read all about distribution issues here.)

Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 12fin - 1/3 of this is a sweet romance about a student doctor falling in love with a student chef, and the rest of it is utter dross. Look the OffGun bits were GREAT.. In fact, I think they’re better AS A PAIR in this show than in any of their other BLS. And I'm a hard sell on any OffGun being better than PickRome. Saying that, how can I review a show where I could only tolerate 1/3 of it? Because I didn’t like any other aspect of this show, no other pairs and no other plots. That gives me: 9/10 for the OffGun bits, 5/10 for everything else. Frankly it probably should be an 8 but I gotta go with my gut and it's upset about this so 7/10. Sorry boys. It’s GMMTV’s fault. Your heart was in this show, mine wasn’t. 

City of Stars (Fri iQIYI) ep 4 of 12 - These two are so good at making heart eyes at each other. It’s ridiculous. They don’t need any cartoon images or noises. Moot crush but "I wanna flirt and court more" is so flipping awesome. I love this for them… and us. 

1000 Years Old ep 2 of 12 - It’s very silly and we have been gifted with the dorkiest vampire ever. But... the smell thing makes me so happy. And I like that the vamp uses chan/nai or tan = v old fashioned. Nahlak. I love our ghost girl. Did you notice she wasn’t in the room with them but they left an empty chair for her? Also nahlak.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Perfect Propose (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 5 of 6 - Kai was pretty much just “you're a workaholic but I basically married you whether you like it or not.” SMOOCH. What can I say? I'm a sucker for this dynamic.

AntiReset (Taiwan Fri Viki/Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - How is this show so cute? How do they both love and hurt each other so much. They are both just scared of loosing each other. Gah.

Unknown (Taiwan Sat Youku YouTube) 1 of 12 eps - Youku dropped the first ep to their YouTube channel but I doubt we can expect that to continue. Still, it was nice to be able to watch it in a convenient way. I enjoyed it. But I am cautious about it. Of course this is possibly two of my favorite tropes of all time (stepbrothers or a variation + hyung romance). So I’m looking forward to the romantic thread, but from the gritty style, it feels a lot more like a Taiwanese short. Which means it could go very dark and may not end happy. 

Although I Love You and You AKA Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 7 of 10 - I just don’t know if the main couple should be a couple. But when they finally get around to talking to each other, they sure are lovely. Also how great is it to see a uke initiate a kiss? Even if it’s not a very good kiss. 

My Strawberry Film (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 8 - I am still not sure about this one. I am not contesting its quality, just saying it’s not for me. Also I’m not wild about what amounts to basically a redo of everything that already happened in the first episode from a different perspective. I know it’s a tall order with Japan, but I would like (when it’s a short series) for each new installment to actually move the plot (such as it is) along in someway. Am I asking too much?

It's done but I have no time

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have any spare time. 2024 is crazy busy for me so far.

The Servant and the Young Master - from Vietnam, it's on YouTube. I will give it a try when I have a window of time.

Began Beginning (Myanmar YouTube) - A Burmese BL? @heretherebedork vouched for it, so I will give it a watch.

It's airing but...

Dead Friend Forever (Thai iQIYI) - rumors are it's interesting but full of unlikable characters. I'm waiting to know how it ends.

Ossans Love Season 2 (Japan Gaga) - 5 years later, will anything have changed? This is Japan so… probubly not. I won't be watching this. I disliked Season one and actively hated the follow ups. No thank you.

Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far. Ends next week TF.

Time the series (Tue Gaga/YT) 10 eps - dropped it at ep 4.

A Secretly Love (Thai WeTV) - I tried but I can't get into my WeTV account anymore and I'm way too lazy to figure it out. Should I bother to go grey for it?

To Be Continued (Thai C3 Thailand YT) - High school sweethearts who had a bad break up reunite when both of them have full time jobs but coming out is still a problem. You can watch this on YT but it has no Eng Subs.

Next Week Looks Like This:

We're light on content right now, but frankly I'm so busy with work I don't really mind.

3/6 Born to be Y (Thai ????) 10 eps - 14 contestants who audition to compete in Born To Be Y, a program that searches for the best couple of the year to work together on a giant project. Described as semi-reality series. So I probably won't bother.

3/7 Deep Night (Thai iQiyi) 10 eps - Multiple romances set in a host clubs. Nice to see First back on my screen but this is not my favorite setting.

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

The eyes have it.

Your random BL moment brought to you by my ult-bias being a hyung smartass to his maknae.

(Last week)

#the sign the series final thoughts and quick pitch #the sign the series #thai bl #cooking crush review #cooking crush #OffGun #i loved it #cherry magic th #cherry magic thailand #cherry magic #live action yaoi #thai adaptation #taynew #bl kisses #what the hell is happening in my tags it's like we are back in 2016 #city of stars #thai bl pulp #japanese bl #perfect propose #AntiReset #taiwanese bl #unknown the series #Although I Love You and You #Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka

[twinkskeletons]

can a 39 year old man be moe?

#kind of bad loll but i wanted 2 do something quick to post while i spend 4ever on my comic x__x #my art #fall out boy #also. please don’t judge my japanese. i thought it would be cute 2 add but there is a probable 100% chance that isn’t what he said #i think it’s at least close though :]

[racesundae]

chrome

#lewis hamilton #f1 #3d art #japanese grand prix 2023 #lh44 #my art #i am once again messing around in nomad sculpt because blender keeps crashing on my tamagotchi sculpt <3 #my mini review: i like it for quick sculpting like this #obsessed with this helmet actually

[fullcravings]

Quick and Simple Castella Pancake

#castella pancakes #castella #pancakes #quick and easy #skillet #japanese #asian #breakfast #dessert #baking #recipe #castella cake #maple #cookinginchinglish

[ccssketchbooknstuff]

they probably would've trained as kids before they went to foil and épée respectively

#cc draws things #kagami tsurugi #seiji katayama #miraculous ladybug #fence comic #mlb fanart #fence fanart #pov: you meet another emotionally constipated japanese child fencing prodigy #kagami would've made great lesbian rep if THOMAS ASTRUC WASN'T A COWARD #this was a very quick coloured sketch #sorry i haven't posted for a while peeps! getting over some grief-induced artblock #fence graphic novel #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir

[madgear]

x

#mods are asleep quick post gerard in japanese plushie shop

[sew-much-to-do]

DIY Gyoza Soup (Japanese Dumpling Soup)

This 10 minute gyoza soup is the perfect speedy lunch/dinner. Similar to a Japanese dumpling soup, it’s packed with veg.

✖✖✖✖✖✖✖✖

sew-much-to-do: a visual collection of sewing tutorials/patterns, knitting, diy, crafts, recipes, etc.

#DIY #recipe #food #gyoza #soup #japanese #japan #dumpling #lunch #dinner #simple #easy #quick #veggie #veggies #healthy #green #yummy

[julyaut]

Some doodles from roblox free draw<3

#undertale au #undertale fanart #undertale #horrortale #robots #art #drawing #doodle #horror #horror sans #frisk #japanese #quick sketch

[xelasrecords]

The varying levels of Vyn's anger in different languages are so fun to hear because in Mainland Chinese he's calmly seething, in Taiwanese he's about to snap, and in Korean he's deathly chill.

#the japanese one isn't out yet so i can't compare #i edited this on my phone real quick so pardon the font i just picked whatever was available #tears of themis #vyn richter #tot #mo yi #xela talks

[mbbookblr]

"A book that sits on a shelf is nothing but a bundle of paper... But a book that has been cherished and loved, filled with human thoughts, has been endowed with a soul."

#i liked this one! #translations from japanese always feel funny to me because i always feel like an element of the story gets flattened out #but this was a quick engaging read and i enjoyed it! #the cat who saved books #bookblr #july 2023

[ashi-cookie]

onigiri and mochi....

#ashi draws #rottmnt #rise of tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt fanart #rottmnt leo #rottmnt mikey #a quick little doodle bc i am passing out #idk what japanese food donnie and raph would be so some suggestions woupd be great

[flipp-ppilf]

g-g-girls.... just a little study

#artists on tumblr #quick sketch #sapphic #should i turn this into yuri aziracrow #like if yes #recite the bible in japanese if no #i think i turned her cigarette into a joint

[wormswurld]

y’all japanese breakfast heard of oliver quick and decided to read the shit outta him in this song godddddd i love music the song is called “posing in bondage” btw..

#oliver quick coded part 38783 #oliver quick #saltburn #saltburn posting #barry keoghan #felix x oliver #cattonquick #felix catton #jacob elordi #lgbtqia #japanese breakfast #songs #song lyrics

[queennai714]

Random hcs I have because I may be cringe but I'm free part 27 (Ninjago)

More platonic oppo (but still mostly Kai centric) because their friendship has infected my brain (strap in, it's a long one)

Ok so this one is kind of a mashup of 3 different headcannons, the Chinese Kai hc, the "oppo are best friends" hc, and the one im gonna talk about here that possessed me to write this in the first place, but hear me out-

(Tbh, this could take place at pretty much any point in the series but I usually imagine it somewhere between seasons 4 and 8)

Just take a second to imagine, Kai peacefully going about his life as his proudly bilingual self, until he realizes: outside of Ignacia, its insanely rare to find someone who speaks Mandarin.

This, in turn, sparks two more revelations: One, that just makes the fact that he was born and raised speaking Mandarin all the more cool, and two, that he would have virtually no chance to use/show off his first language with someone other than Nya or Zane, and he would only ever get to use Ninjargon.

This motivates Kai (desperate to keep his spot as one of the most cultured on the team) to learn THREE more languages, those being French, Italian, and Spanish (as any reasonable person would do)

The only person he ever outright tells is Wu (seeing as he's fluent in like every language ever so he's great to practice with) and he mostly keeps it a secret from the others so that he can keep surprising/impressing them by pulling another random language out of nowhere whenever its needed.

What he didn't expect however, was how Zane would react.

Turns out, being a total bookworm and a literal walking computer means that not only does deciphering other languages come easy to Zane, he also absolutely adores studying languages in all their forms. So, when he heard from his friends that the criminal they were supposed to go question didn't know any Ninjargon and that Kai had managed to hold the rather intense interrogation entirely in French, he was beyond delighted. Once he had finished cleaning up after dinner he practically ran to Kai's room to talk, and of course, he immediately insisted Kai do all his explaining in French for the rest of the night.

From that day on, anytime the two of them wanted to have a private conversation and couldn't just pull the other to the side (or, more commonly, if they just randomly felt like it) they would simply start talking in one of the four languages and fall into easy conversation with the other as if they hadn't just simultaneously stopped making sense to anybody else around them.

TL;DR (and the simple seed from which this essay of a hc was born)

Kai talks shit about people to Zane in different languages

#and not sure if i put this in the og chinese kai and nya post but of course he talks shit with Nya in Mandarin #and nya was lowkey jealous for a bit bc gossiping about people in another language was kinda a 'siblings only' thing for them #until Kai started pulling new languages out of nowhere #but she got over that real quick when she realized she could listen/join in anytime they decided to use Mandarin #and kai eventually starts learning Japanese too #cuz he cant cope with the fact that jay knows a language that he doesn't #and cuz he wants to know what jay and okino are always talking about #and cuz he just genuinely wants to learn but he would never tell anybody that (he's just as huge of a language nerd as Zane) #ninjago #ninjago headcanons #random hcs #ninjago kai #ninjago zane #platonic oppositeshipping #fun fact: this behemoth of a brain child was born because i randomly remembered that part in the Brent Miller interview #when Vincent Tong just randomly dropped little bits of Italian here and there

[absolutebl]

Old Fashion Cupcake - Courting Your Person with Pancakes

quick pitch

Old Fashion Cupcake 

Japan June 2022 Viki 

9/10

Foundational Romance Tropes? office romance, age gap, employee/boss, food is the love language, coming of age late in life 

This show had me from the moment they broke the egg yolk with the chopsticks in the opening credits for episode one. It’s about a younger man with a long cherished crush on his boss (ten years older and going through a mid life crisis) who decides to save and seduce said man with pancakes. It’s wholesome, comforting, sexy, and a very necessary narrative about still having hope, interests, and openness to affection at any age. It’s coming of age/queerness packaged in a subtle critique of expectations around masculinity and love and loneliness... and it’s beautiful. 

It utilizes hand-held and super close camerawork, long shots, dirty framing, and marvelous acting (stagecraft) from everyone. The directing style it subtle but very precise and tailored dirty framing (AKA lots of objects and other people’s bodies interrupting shots.) 

Notice the frame is only direct and uncluttered when they are eating or being extremely intimate with each other? 

This show manages to make things that shouldn't be sexy so very sexy (like Togawa’s hamster cheeks - boy just wants to gorge himself, and not on food). It's truly art.

But there is so much more going on here.

Japan has a long tradition of using food, both the preparation and consumption, as an allegory for intimacy... ALL KINDS of intimacy (give Tampopo a shot, it’s a remarkable movie). And in this show the discovery of desserts, and the enjoyment of the experience of indulging, is explicitly both sexual seduction and emotional tethering. This is not just an exploration of youth for Nozue it is an exploration of desire and identity.

On the other hand, the want drips off of Togawa at all times, like true starvation. It’s epic levels of pining we are looking at and not just love but pure lust. It’s actually quite remarkable to see this done with Japan’s signature reserve, because the through line of the filming style and food allegory dictates they will simply have to show physical intimacy at soem point. But not of the explicit kind we get in the darker BLs from Japan (although they could easily go there), but of a truly sexualized romantic passionate kind that we don’t normally get from Japan in their softer BLs.

You see, there comes a point, when the food allegory has gone as far as it can, and Nozue recognizes that in episode 3, even as he doesn’t recognize Togawa’s desire. Because for him the desire has been made manifest though the medium of desserts... and now that sensation has been satisfied, he feels like that’s good enough.

But when Nozue shuts down the eating intimacy, Togawa was always destined to break open into into sexual need, just the way the egg yolk is broken open in the credits.

What is truly genius about this show is that when this finally happens at the end of episode 4, the camera switches to one long hand held shot. This kind of stage-craft reliant shooting is the ultimate form of filming intimacy - it is the camera’s form of trust:

The directer is trusting the cameraperson not to waiver,

the camera is trusting the actors to pull through for the entirety of the shot (no forgetting your lines on a long take, no missing your marks, no slipping out of character),

the actors are trusting the crew to capture it in that one moment when they give it their all.

This is the kind of theatrically-based close work is as near to sexual intimacy as actors and crew can get.

Thus the shooting style is, itself, a reflection of Togawa’s needs, of Nozue’s shock and realization and crumbling, of the levels of trust between them that are fracturing and reforming. It’s absolutely brilliant.

All that said I did find the final episode bit of a let down. Narratively it reverted back to pretty standard light Japanese live action yaoi, of the style I talk about here. I did expect a little bit more intimacy from this specific narrative even with Japan at the helm, at least showing the two of them cuddling in bed together or something very domestic if not kissing. I’m not surprised or upset that they returned to status quo, and this is still an amazing comforting unexpected gem of a show, but it’s not the 10/10 I thought it was going to be at the end of 4. 

Still, solid and watchable and 

DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED 

I wrote some more on this show with regards to age gap romance comparing it to Minato’s Laundromat here. 

(source)

#recommended bl #beloved bl #bl review #review bl #old fashion cupcake #pld fashioned cupcake #old fashioned cupcake #japanese bl #live action yaoi #adapted from a manga #TogawaNozue #office romance #japanese drama #quick pitch #bl quick pictch