Boys’ Love may have fallen under the business model of Yaoi, with its softcore porn over plot in many recent Thai series. But happily Japan skipped that memo, continuing to put out thought-provoking series that take the established BL genre to new places. Using pre-existing notions of what to expect from a series where two men kiss, and applying the societal views on the character’s specific circumstances.

2024’s “Love is Like a Poison” from TBS premiered on September 10 and aired til December 3rd of the same year. It’s currently streaming on Netflix. The series follows Lawyer Ryoma Shiba (Hama Shogo) who is a successful lawyer coming up on his 100th win. Beside him is the mysterious Haruto (Hyodo Katsumi), a young man who seems to appear ‘coincidentally’ where he shouldn’t. The two become instant confidants (Haruto’s doing) and soon Ryoma is closing in on that 100th win. But with Haruto comes a avalanche of secrets, intrigue, and romance, that could ruin Ryoma.

The series starts in that ultra HD which makes it feel like you are watching it through a window. At times, it was very immersive and other times like near sentient succulents swooning down right surreal. Watch it, that line will make sense. The series based off the novel “Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru” and plays like a live-action anime. Silly moments like cacti making any form of noise is acceptable in Ryoma’s wacky and isolated home, a man who prefers their company to that of humans.

The series isn’t short on clichés and uses them in the best ways; like Ryoma being tall and pale, while Haruto is taller and dark skinned, playing into who’s the dominant and submissive in their interactions. Haruto is the golden retriever and Ryoma the black cat in their love styles. It moves fast and even though the episodes feel shorter without flashbacks, each has a running time of 22 minutes and does a wonderful job of telling their portions of the story.

Spoiler Zone

The series revolves around the two men and doesn’t clutter it with side characters often. Kogaken (Kazama Kotaro) is Ryoma’s meddling coworker, offering advice no one asked for. Saki (Kawai Aoba) is the sage like bartender, serving scotch and advice. The pacing is fast and has a charming score accompanying the scenes; whether it’s mini plot twists, or con artists moonlighting as brawlers. It’s surprising to see the twists and turns come, it reminded me of if the Nintendo game “Phoenix Wright” were live action made.

It does take two episodes to get good so definitely wait until you watch the third episode, the first two are spent establishing Ryoma and playing up the mystery of Haruto, seeing how our preconceived notion about the man can be turned upside down. The script and acting were superb and I found myself personally invested in the series. Also, keep your eyes open for “Indigo No Kibun” alumni Yoshida Munehiro. He does a cameo as the ringleader for the con artists and has a interesting interaction with Haruto. There were two homosexual eluding moments of note which if this show was a Yaoi could be quite dark, indeed! That one and near the end, the “Evil Man” boldly talks of his plans to make Ryoma his bitch. (Just saying, watch and it will make sense).

Hoping for a Season Two!!

Rating- 5 out of 5

Streaming on- Netflix