My last tier of my favorite Asian BLs for this year is, of course equally eclectic as my first two lists were. Perhaps these, of all the series I have watched this year, are the ones that have left the greatest emotional impact on me. Equally important, they have also made me ruminative and reflective. Wondering and pondering most whether I would have taken the same actions or gone down the same path or felt the same way. Mostly, I saw something within me in each of the main protagonists. Some characteristic force, strength, flaw, weakness, emotion, or perhaps desire that helped me identify more with how they felt, who they were, and/or more importantly why they did what they did. I felt deeply engaged in what was happening and could feel their emotions with them:

Ossan’s Love Returns (Season 3)

Shhh. This includes all three seasons and special episodes and a movie beginning from 2016. There are just no proper words to describe this beguiling and poignant franchise peppered with perfect comedic timing. In addition to an overabundance of human warmth as well, the latest series results in complete sublimity. It is both magical and heartfelt with all its engaging and sometimes quirky characters. They make everyday living feel special. This saga from Japan defines and then redefines love to greater heights that will have you laughing and crying. Sheer perfection.

Love For Love’s Sake

This series uses a combination of allegory, fantasy, and twists in realities to present an Avant-Garde look at life and love. It uses all the principles of video-gaming to creatively view love in all its dimensions. We find that fate and destiny are not the same. This brilliant gem is from South Korea.

Playboyy

A series much deeper than it is given credit for. It is a gay story and is an erotic roller-coaster ride through the world of homo-eroticism. It has one of the most eclectic ensemble casts ever and is focused on the rawness and explicitness of various forms of sexual pleasures all leading to love. A very unusual series from Thailand.

Love In The Big City

This is a rare gem that tells such an aggregate story in an uninhibited way. Not from a BL slant but from a gay man’s perspective. It goes beyond classical definitions of love and allows us to see affection, devotion, attachments, friendships, and yes passion and intimacy all within its location of a big city but only as an afterthought. A breathtaking character study from South Korea.

Every You Every Me

An anthology of love stories, each unique and different, done by the same actors but with surprisingly completely different personas. While not all with happy endings, the one consistency is that they are always together. The last two episodes unveil the love story brilliantly as a cinema within a cinema but remain consistent with its theme. A different approach to BL storytelling from Thailand.

7 Days Before Valentine

A brilliant esoteric and profoundly moving series completed like a Greek tragedy and presented as a theater-in-the-round performance. We are only observant of their destinies and like them, powerless to change the inevitable. Changing places, would we still do ‘the right thing’? It is one of the most comprehensive series I have seen and is exceedingly and painfully driven by the intensity of the characters. This series breaks the traditional mold of a Thai BL.

While the entire list represents the finest BL series this year, these last six are deeply emotive and fervently reflective ones. However, my choice for Magnum Opus is “7 Days Before Valentine.” This diegesis is a breathtaking masterpiece of storytelling and acting. It stands out because it presents a love story that had disintegrated and even though one had the power to magically make it ‘right’, nothing will make it so. The reason it became nonextant was not because of something outward but inward. A powerful lesson to learn that the answer to love lies within you, yourself. The story provides us with a moral compass and forces us to see ourselves as we truly are. It is not a splashy or enchanting tale. All the same, it encompassed raw, deep, evocative, and profoundly introspective amorphism about oneself. Perhaps even ugly ones. Yet, truthful and honest. It is a narrative of our own journey into the ugliest parts of ourselves. It forces us to confront who we really are. Yet, it does provide us with a redemptive choice with a chance to become better. That is its beauty, if you choose to see it.

These are highly subjective selections to be sure. But they are also quality productions as well. You likely will walk away from these with vastly different emotions or feelings than perhaps I did. But regardless, they may now acclimatize you to experience BLs in nontraditional and different ways than before.