#shigatsu no tokyo wa

[bellepark]

"Ren, you are my everything, my life... My Tokyo in April."

SHIGATSU NO TOKYO WA ４月の東京は (2023) final episode 8

#tokyo in april is... #shigatsu no tokyo wa #kazuma x ren #shigatsu no tokyo wa... #tokyo in april is #jdrama #jdramasource #asianlgbtqdramas #boyslovesource #lextag #userginpotts #userstorge #ninisdarlings #why all this fluffy j bls always has short eps... #likeeee i shouldn't complain bc they gave us a warm lovely ending #but likeeeee gimme moreeee (crying) #belleparkgif

[absolutebl]

Hey. Ty very much for your posts. As a woman in my 30s I got hypnotised by the beauty of the novelists and was wondering if you had similar high heat intense recommendations (also watched the samurai one "taboo"), bi or mlm with older leads and non fluffy storylines.. Moody atmospheric and venomous is my weak spot

Moody, atmospheric & venomous BL

Like, the Novelist? really?

AKA Pornographer movie series AKA The Novelist, Mood Indigo, Pornographer Playback (Japan 2018-2020) - emotional manipulation, cheating, obsession, seduction, May/December, kink, touch of necrophilia, explicit.   

Okay I got one right off the bat: seek ye....

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese

AKA Kyuso wa Chizu no Yume wo Miru (Japan 2020) - obsession, cheating, breakup, reunion, then break up again, explicit, mature characters. 

Now let me think about some more:

high heat

intense

non fluffy

older leads

The last one is a doozy, so I'm not gonna use it as a qualifier. BL is most, well, about "boys" not men.

Some others that might work for you but don't meet all your criteria:

Your Name Engraved Herein (Taiwan 2020 Netflix) - this movie is fantastic but it is also seriously depressing, it’s a self acceptance journey, but if you wanna wallow in high quality acting and serious gay drama, this’ll do it. 

Innocent (Taiwan 2021 GaGa) - mental health, childhood trauma, actually kinda sweet. 

The Eighth Sense (Korea 2023 Viki - This isn’t in the KBL bubble, there’s sharp edges and lots of triggers. For a KBL the darkness of the content left me feeling unsettled but it's really damn good.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho (Japan 2023 Gaga) - Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. They're hot, young, in love, and total idiots.

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Thai 2023 grey or YT) - IFYLITA is an exquisite BL, elegant and classy… from Thailand which normally doesn't even try for classy. The main couple (both as a pair and individuals) were excellent, it gets hot more that explicit, but it does have sharp edges.

Tokyo in April is AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan 2023 Viki) - Two young men with a shared tragic past reunite and fall in love all over again, but the past will not stop hunting them. It’s Japan in full on soft focus which means it gets emo, abusive, and chewy. These two characters are giving parts of their souls away in a desperate attempt to shape themselves to the expectations they have of each other it's heavy and cutting.

Moonlight Chicken (Thai 2023) - I enjoyed this complicated little show, even though it’s spectacularly messy gay with lots of shrapnel and authentic pain. EarthMix turn in their most compelling performance to date.

Bed Friend (Thai 2023 IQIYI) - Office frienamies transition a flaming hot one night stand into a f-buddy relationship that is built on a puppy/cat dynamic (and kinks into it at one point). Our puppy is loyal, smitten, and protective with endlessly longing eyes, while our cat is snarky, prickly, and deeply damaged (ALL THE TRIGGERS). NetJames give lovely high-heat with excellent chemistry and tuned-in performances of surprising depth.

Big Dragon (Thai 2022 Gaga) - This is a decent execution of true enemies to lovers, these two spy on and bully each other, exploring darker themes and self worth issues. The way the leads transition between anger, resentment, titillation, and flirting (and the way, with kinksters, this can all be the same thing) is really well done. A pairing that proved itself to be a lot more sophisticated than I expected with excellent chemistry, but something went askew around plot, directing, and ending. Still if you're in it for the sexy, go to, they did.

My Beautiful Man AKA Utsukushii Kare (Japan 2021 Gaga - One of the most Japanese BLs to release in the last decade, as weird and as messed up as any 2000′s yaoi: emo af and hella warped, entirely true to itself with no attempt made to modify its POV for modern sensibilities or current BL fandom. It used seriously old school problematic and kinky tropes, like whipping boy, for a truly uncompromising piece that also manages to hit up themes of communication, consent, and self acceptance. It’s a wonderful BL but uniquely dirty and harsh, in the best possible way - Japanese cinema, uncompromising.

End of the World With You

Junjou: Pure Heart

The Egoist

No thoughts on those three, not my thing.

You also might consider some of the stuff on this list:

Hope that gives you some options!

#moody bl #venomous BL #atmospheric BL #The Novelist #Mood Indigo #The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese #Your Name Engraved Herein #The Eighth Sense #My Personal Weatherman #Taikan Yoho #I Feel You Linger in the Air #japanese bl #thia bl #taiwanese bl #kroean bl #Tokyo in April is #Shigatsu no Tokyo wa #Moonlight Chicken #bed friend #Big Dragon #My Beautiful Man #Utsukushii Kare

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

#Shigatsu no Tokyo wa #tokyo in april is... #tokyo in april #japanese bl #bl jdrama #jdrama #japanese drama #jbl #asian lgbtq dramas #asianlgbtqdramas #bl drama #bl series #４月の東京は… #ren x takizawa #takizawa x ren #rosygifs

[sololunes]

"Something about dressing a person up feels more intimate than dressing them down."

#Tokyo In April Is... #Tokyo In April #Shigatsu No Tokyo Wa #Shigatsu No Tokyo Wa... #４月の東京は… #４月の東京は...

[piningintrovert]

Tonight, Ren didn't go back to his own home. The next day and the day after that, too. Ren stayed in my bed, sleeping beside me the whole time. I don't know why, it's just... with my eyes closed or open, Ren is there. That alone is enough, and nothing else matters. The only thing that matters to me is Ren.

Sakurai Yuki as KAZUMA & Takamatsu Aloha as REN TOKYO IN APRIL IS… (2023), dir. Ishibashi Yuho 

#tokyo in april is... #kazuma x ren #shigatsu no tokyo wa... #tokyo in april #shigatsu no tokyo wa #tokyo in april is #sakurai yuki #takamatsu aloha #jdramaedit #jdramasource #bl drama #mjtag #userbillkin #lextag #tonanons #userspicy #raemakes #s:tiai #tiai ep4

[blmpff]

✨ Various Tropes: Wait, Don't Go (1/?) ✨

TITLES IN ORDER: 1. Semantic Error (2022) 2: Kiseki: Dear To Me (2023) 3: La Pluie (2023) 4: My Personal Weatherman (2023) 5: 7 Days Before Valentine (2023) 6: Happy Merry Ending (2023) 7: House of Stars (2023) 8&9: Love Class 2 (2023) 10. Middleman's Love (2023) 11. Love Mate (2023) 12: Tokyo In April Is... (2023)

#TITLES IN ORDER: #semantic error #kiseki: dear to me #la pluie the series #taikan yoho #my personal weatherman #7 days before valentine #happy merry ending #house of stars #love class 2 2couples #middleman's love #love mate the series #tokyo in april is... #shigatsu no tokyo wa #various tropes #wait dont go #wait don't go #part one #blmpff

[sensazioneultra]

men in love are so pretty

#shigatsu no tokyo wa #shigatsu no tokyo wa... #tokyo in april is #tokyo in april is... #jdramaedit #jdrama #jdramasource #takamatsu aloha #did i say the l word already well. yes #tbf they have History #nico.gif #these look better on desktop can i get a sad mobile user noise !

[heretherebedork]

It's just the way Kazuma loves Ren. It's entirely all consuming and self-sacrificing for the sake of pleasure with such this feeling of someone loving someone that is so much better than them on some invisible scale that they would willingly blind themself, deafen themself, just for the chance to be there with them in that moment.

And that's absolutely heartbreaking knowing that Ren loves him in return but sees the situation entirely differently, watching him on a different kind of pedestal, both of them placing the other entirely out of their reach but in way the other person doesn't recognize. @absolutebl This show is going to kill me.

Just the weight that Ren has been carrying this whole time, the entire world of guilt on his shoulders that Kazuma has no idea about, that Kazuma would be horrified to know he thought was true....

Again and again with both of them placing the other on a pedestal of love and warmth and brilliance and brightness. Both Kazuma and Ren look at the other and see someone that is better than them, perfect to and for them, someone that they cannot ever have and cannot ever deserve to be close to.

Ren is just here, ripping my heart out. To himself, even to this day, he is convinced that Kazuma must be straight, must not like him back, must have been hurt by his choices. And no matter how much Kazuma pulls him back into his life, seeks him out, tries to keep him... Ren goes back to this trauma, these answers, this pain and this fear and this loss.

And now he knows that Kazuma has been looking for him this entire time.

The sheer weight of the guilt that Ren has been carrying... that he thinks he forced Kazuma, that he is the reason he got sick, that both their parents think he did this, that he got disowned, that he is so scared Kazuma will die and it will be entirely his fault...

But to see that Kazuma has been searching for him this entire time. That Kazuma wanted to seek him out again and found him with so much joy and so much love and now they're doing everything together and he's just barely holding himself together by a thread. How much can one person hold without sharing that part of himself?

The sheer joy they find in being together is so overwhelming but it's also a cover over so much pain, a thin coating of joy over years of agony and loneliness and desperation and the only hope is that the joy is enough to start healing, that the joy and the love can hold them together when everything beneath the surface begins to break down.

And let the momentary boyfriend era begin!!!!

Boyfriends.

But also just absolutely glorious. The chance they can take to love each other, to be loved, to be together, even though there's so much behind them that they need do discuss.... there's still comfort.

(The pedestals they have each other up on, the love they have between them, the absolute agony of looking at each other and seeing the person they've loved for so long but not realizing how much they are loved, wanted, needed, adored, in return.)

Far too much love. Far too much. How dare they.

Disgusting.

More please.

At some point, all of this is going to have to come out into the open. They're going to have to actually talk about the past. But the more love and the more understanding they share now... the more hopeful I am for them to be able to understand each other in the past.

(Ren is going to break Kazuma's heart when he finds out what he thinks happened and I am going to break with him.)

#tokyo in april #tokyo in april is... #shigatsu no tokyo wa #ren x takizawa #ren x kazuma #bl series #japanese bl #bl drama #asianlgbtqdramas #asian lgbtq dramas #japanesebl #bl japan #jbl #jdrama #bl jdrama #japanese series #bl japanese #kazuma x ren #shigatsu no tokyo wa... #japanese drama

[save-the-data]

SHIGATSU NO TOKYO WA… | S01E08

Japanese Drama - 2023, 8 episodes

~ Episode List ~ |  ~ Japanese Drama Master List ~

#Tokyo in April Is... #JDrama #Gay Romance #Workplace Romance #Gay Male Lead #Childhood Friend to Lovers #Adapted from a Manga #４月の東京は… #Japan #Sakurai Yuki #Takamatsu Aloha #Furukawa Tsuyoshi #4gatsu no Tokyo wa #Shigatsu no Tokyo wa #Kiss Episode #Final Episode

[hokkienmee]

Sakurai Yuki in Shigatsu no Tokyo wa… (2023) ↳ Episode 7

#i don't necessarily think yuki is a great actor but he was good in this ep! #he just needs a little extra guidance he has room to improve! #4-gatsu no tokyo wa... #shigatsu no tokyo wa... #shigatsu no tokyo wa #tokyo in april is... #tokyo in april is #４月の東京は… #sakurai yuki #櫻井佑樹 #dw yuki i will fill your tags with gifs! just keep acting #.gif #jdrama #every time i tried to color this series it's like im trying to tame an untamable beast

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Top 5 shows that you enjoyed giffing this year

Shan, thank you for this question! 💚

Now I can come up with five more fantastic shows I enjoyed giffing this year, what makes things way more easy for me to decide on the shows! 😊

Basically, I liked every series I giffed... those I stopped giffing were the ones I lost interest in over the episodes. But there were some series which stood out for me, be it because of the story itself or because of how visually pleasing the show was.

So for this answer I'm gonna start with one of the most beloved shows of mine this year:

I Feel You Linger In The Air

This show has everything for me. The love, the romance, the most saddest fuck this year, the intimacy, the cinematography, the story, everything was pure beauty and I enjoyed watching every piece of it so much. I am still waiting patiently for the special episode and I will wait for it till the end of my days.

In second I present you another beautiful series with two people who desperately needed to talk to each other about their true feelings:

Tokyo in April is...

On a technical aspect, it was fun coloring this show. I like to destroy filters and make the sets look more natural. And with this show it felt like they used all the yellow or all the blue and sometimes it was impossible to make it look good, but other times I felt really good with my coloring. The other side was my personal and @nieves-de-sugui's love for this story that made it so enjoyable to gif the scenes we loved the most. Thank you again for all your requests! It really made the experience of this show a very special one!

Next in line is a show I didn't know I would love as much as I do. Like Last Twilight I went into this show without great expectations and was blown away by its perfection:

Be My Favorite

The lovestory of Kawi and Pisaeng was one of the most beautiful written stories for me this year. From the first moment on I loved Kawi and his awkward and depressive ass. Yes, the drunken kisses weren't my favorites, but at least he finally came clear with his emotions and those two made the best couple and I lost it, when the series showed us how they live their happily couple-life. I want that with all of my favorite couples. The beginning of a relationship is always beautiful in those shows, but the life with the person you love the most and who loves you the most is something I really want to see from time to time. They will forever live in my heart!

Without many words we come to number four:

Kiseki: Dear To Me

Taiwan and its lightning! Those gifs are so satisfying to make and to look at. The camera work and angles made those scenes so fucking beautiful and overall I enjoyed giffing this series very much. I could play with my coloring without ruining the scene too much, because it was overcolored from the beginning. And it felt good to clear those scenes up a little bit. A plus was the fact that I loved AiDi's and Chen Yi's kissing scenes and watching them doing exactly that over and over again wasn't the worst 😅

I end this top five which is a secret top ten with a series that touched many of us with its great storytelling:

The Eighth Sense

JaeWon was the most depressed, most precious character for me this year. I thanked the series to show therapy sessions, it gave depression and trauma a face and him punching his "friend" was so fucking satisfying to watch! Sometimes it felt like a dream far away and other times it felt way too real.

Ask me Top 5 BL Anything from 2023

#bl game #ask game #anything bl 2023 #bl drama #bl series #i feel you linger in the air #ifylita #shigatsu no tokyo wa #tokyo in april is... #be my favorite #kiseki: dear to me #the eighth sense #thank you for this ask! 💙

[mysterygrl20]

WE GOT TWO (2) JBLS DOING CUTE GOODBYE KISSES THIS WEEK

[Tokyo in April is... and Minato's Laundromat 2]

#minato’s laundromat #minato shouji coin laundry #tokyo in april is... #shigatsu no tokyo wa... #bl series #jdrama #tokyo in april is #shigatsu no tokyo wa #minato shouji coin laundry 2 #minato's laundromat 2 #gifs #beck liveblogs #beteaed #beck makes gifs

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Multiple Thrupples are Forming

June 2023 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Step By Step (Tues WeTV & Gaga) ep 8 of 10 - Emotional blackmail from the ex notwithstanding, I guess it’s Pat’s turn to break hearts. I have to say Up was really well cast in this part - extremely believable. Well done all around. Jeng is so smitten, so awkward, so cautious, yet so sharp when it comes to a seme confrontations. I LOVE how sensitive Jeng is to the fact that he has a one-sided crush but also deluded by how much he wants the fantasy of the relationship. The agonizing roller coaster we watch him go through in this ep did a lot of work to elevate and expand his character. (Oh hi Green!) Poor Pat: thinks he’s teasing his straight boss, is actually slow dancing with future husband. Happens to the best of us. 

La Pluie (Sat iQIYI) ep 8 of 10 - Don’t kiss someone else. Just argh. Dumb plot divice. I expected better of you LP. Everyone is so overdramatic and overreacting. I wonder if (in addition to all of the other tropes this narrative is scrutinizing) it’s examining bisexual identity through Pat + his ex? Like, this episode is actually about trusting the bisexual to choose his gay lover when he has the so called “option of being normal.” That soulmate is an allegory for gayness & identity & choice (and whether we even have a choice in who we love and are attracted to) and the interplay all of this has with one's own perception of self and other's perception of you… Or am I giving it too much credit? Meanwhile... l flipping adore the love triangle twist, and really wonder if they’re gonna have the guts to take this aspect to its inevitable triangular conclusion. Such a good show. 

Be My Favorite (Fri YouTube) ep 4 of 10? - Screw all y’all, I’m eloping with Pair & Max. We forming a thrupple and pretending Jittirain doesn’t exist. Trash watch here. 

Luminous Solution (Sat Gaga) ep 4 of 6 - I love the high school boys so much it’s scary: flirting, biting, frankness, roughhousing + lap sitting! Also messy high school gay triangle. Gah. All of this for little-old me?! I was mad every time we jumped forward in time (to the adults) or whatever the hell is going on. Thank goodness this is only 6 eps. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

 Love Tractor (Korea Weds iQIYI) eps 3-4 of 8 - I LOVE IT SO MUCH. IT IS EVERYTHING. SHUT UP I AM FERRIL FOR THE BEAUTIFUL CITY BOY & HIS YOUNG FARMER. Come on. Korea. Have mercy? Plus some language play? Slayed. Right... the episode; This show reminds me so much of a Korean style Restart After Come Back Home. I’m not even slightly mad about it. It’s the BL I didn’t even know to ask for. Soap opera tumble and baby in hospital is SUCH a princess moment and I am living for it. Although the reversal is even cuter, princess turns out to be a caring tsundere Dom. And then obligatory water-hose frolicking! Oh, stop, you. (Allegory much? i being to think hose spraying is just another way of BL saying... well... hose spraying) AND “there is only one bed but they slept together on the floor together anyway”. These boys are hitting all my favorite tropes. BL please never lose your sense of childish wonder. And... the hose spraying is nice too.  

Tokyo in April AKA Shigatsu no Tokyo wa (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 1 of 8 - Based on a NSFW yaoi, this is a reunion romance that takes place in an office. Look, this is a weird little 2nd chance at love that reminds me a bit of Our Dating Sim. But it’s more traditional yaoi office romance with evil boss and inter-departmental politics. The leads are cute childhood (almost) sweethearts and I adore it unreasonably already. 

Vian the series (Vietnam YouTube ) ep 6 of 12 - Vertical video prod is stupid. I’m sorry young people. Stop it. BUT the cuddling is cute. Christ BV can kiss. Is there anyone he doesn’t have amazing chemistry with? Oh the sunshade trope I haven’t seen that one in forever. Also clearly his character has a type, and that type = ultra-bitch. 

Stupid Genius (Vietnam Fri YouTube) ep 2 of 6 - It’s fine. 

Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 9 of 12 - Oh dear. Baby is hurt and rejected. Faen fatal knows her competition is a boy, she also knows what jealousy looks like. But this baby has his own boy. This is all feeling rather Thai BL. There’s even an ep 11 of DOOM coming up next.

It’s Airing But ...

House of Stars (Thai Mon iQIYI) 12 eps - I bounced at ep 3. Will binge if told it is worth it at end.

Stay (Pinoy YouTube) 7 eps - It’s mostly in English and set in LA so I’m not bothering but the first one did drop.

Ever After (Pinoy ????) - I got nothing.

Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa (Japan Sun ????) 10 eps - NO ONE ASKED FOR THIS and no, I have no idea where to get it, why would I? (Say it with me everyone: Oh Japan, must you?*)

Boys Love Omegaverse (Japan ????) - honestly tho? Who tf cares? You’ll still tell me if you find it, because inquiring minds... Irony of this airing at the same time as Takumi-kun. Full circle much, Japan?

Ended This Week

Tin Tem Jai special showed up on Gaga as ep 11 & 12 under the original show. (Indebted to spies reporting in.) Also on YouTube. What was that I just watched? Did I watch something? Was there anything? I suppose the bathtub scene was cute. Subs are bonkers. Seriously. Do. Not. Bother.

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku (Japan) - pay attention TTJ THIS is how you do a special. But I’m gonna do a series review, here ya go: I was always gonna love the show if they stuck to the manga (which is very dear to my heart). And they did, paralleling it almost exactly. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me with the best of what Japan can do (like Restart After Come Back Home), it’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, it’s OK with me, but not totally BL. 9/10

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting this Week

6/22 About Us but Not About Us (Pinoy movie from 2022 on Prime) - A professor grieving the loss of his partner meets an ambitious literature student.

6/24 Tie The Knot AKA Under the Same Sky (Pinoy movie on Prime) Trailer - I guess Prime is coming for our Pinoy BL? From OXIN Films (Rainbow Prince), announced for 2022 based on a true story, Briggs's family runs a bridal business but he has never had a chance to fall in love until he meets Shao, a groom to be.

6/24 Why You (Khmer BL ????) - Billed as a horror romance, not sure if this is a movie or a series or where it will air.

6/25 Dinosaur Love (Thai iQIYI) Trailer 5 eps - from Ultimate Troop about a uni student, Rak, whose partner cheats on him with Rak's best friend. This gives bad boy hazer Dino an opportunity to hit on Rak at last. From The Yearbook people so I will not watch this as it airs. After Remember Me? Never again with them.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Step by Step knocked it outta the park this week. 

Stupid Genius (speaking for all BL) 

No baby. Pretty much every human on the planet would react that way. (Love Tractor) 

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? IVE’s I Am 

#this week in BL #BL gossip #bl news #upcoming BL #BL reviews #korean bl #thai bl #Japanese BL #Vietnamese bl #live action yaoi #Rakutan Viki #gagaoolala #GMMTV #Step By Step the series #La Pluie #Luminous Solution #Love Tractor #Restart After Come Back Home #Shigatsu no Tokyo wa #Our Dating Sim #Vian the series #Stupid Genius #Zenra Meshi #Tin Tem Jai #Bokura no Shokutaku spin off #Bokura no Shokutaku review

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

You're the one who's like the sun. That's why I'll never let you go. I'll never lose sight of you again. Ren you are my everything, my life, my Tokyo in April.

#tokyo in april is... #４月の東京は… #Shigatsu no Tokyo wa #tokyo in april #japanese bl #bl jdrama #jdrama #japanese drama #jbl #asian lgbtq dramas #asianlgbtqdramas #bl drama #bl series #ren x takizawa #takizawa x ren #rosygifs

[sololunes]

#Tokyo In April #Tokyo In April is... #shigatsu no tokyo wa #4月の東京は...

[alwayspining]

Tokyo in April is… (2023) part 1

#tokyo in april is... #shigatsu no tokyo wa #4gatsu no Tokyo wa #kazuma #ren #kazuma x ren #yuki sakurai #ahora takamatsu #kiss #jbl #japanese drama #asianlgbtqdrama #lgbtqia+ #compilation #video post #by alwayspining