BL Must Watch

cw: rape jokes, cheating, homophobia, rl shipping 

dont listen to sotus truthers, this is the first thai BL. essential viewing. the characters are great

cw: hazing can get infuriating, homophobia iirc

you just need to have seen it if you wanna make it in this BL world. season 2 isnt required tho i say this because i tried to watch it and it was BORING

cw: rape (played for laughs. kengkla -> techno), gang rape (tar's backstory), attempted rape (on a rape victim!) (tum -> tar), bullying, casual homophobia, homophobia, stepbrother romance, nonconsensual kissing, nsfw
ae's actor was 16/17 when this was filmed, which can be pretty uncomfortable  considering the heavy makeout scenes

its ok to skip this one. yes i put it on this list because it really shaped me as a person but i would never rewatch the whole show i just rewatch the tincan cut every now and then

cw:  murder, homophobia, homophobic bullying, gang violence 

OG korean BL, way ahead of where your eyes linger

cw:  this is a gang drama  so there's death, violence and all that jazz. attempted rape in episode 14 (or likely 7 if you're watching on viki), unhealthy age difference between the one heterosexual couple

quintessential taiwanese BL. lifechanging stuff

cw: homophobic parents, internalized homophobia, violence, irl shipping (sort of) 

the first korean BL with more than 4 episodes or something like that. broke some boundaries for Sure and we love to see it. its success opened the doors for future KBL

cw: some homophobia kind of, one of the leads has PTSD

i think this is the best kbl and thats why i put it on this list. ive seen it at least 8 times.

dont watch season 2 (joke i think you probably should but prepare to cry etc)

cw: suicide, ptsd, irl shipping 

it should be in your dictionary

cw:  transphobia, homophobia, stalking, assault, animal death (a chicken), attempted surgery without consent (they tie him up and everything, and then its played for laughs a bit), probably the most misogynist show ive seen in a while 

i know a lot of people went to watch this after they watched word of honor (because of gong jun) and for that i am sorry. nonetheless, this show is ridiculous and i love it so much. the author of the novel also wrote addicted heroin BTW

cw:  transphobia, death of a (minor) trans character, suicide, casual homophobia, casual biphobia, gang violence, rape, attempted rape,  domestic abuse, murder, nsfw, cheating, nudity

just do yourself a favor and watch this

cw: off's character specifically is kinda homophobic iirc

this is where offgun was born. congrats its a mainstay bl couple! pretty boring show tho

cw:  cheating, nonconsensual kissing 

to me this is THE offgun show. not me is good too, but this one is an emotional rollercoaster and i think any experienced BL watcher needs to have seen it

ok i never watched the whole show just the Official BL Cut that gmmtv themselves uploaded to youtube a few years ago.

i have mixed feelings on petekao as a relationship. but their circumstances are funny. not a must watch if you want to watch dark blue kiss, but i still recommend it. as it birthed taynew! poor new (not because of tay. if you know you know)

cw: dubious consent in some scenes involving petekao, homophobia, violence, attempted sexual assault (handled appropriately) 

its good

cw: cheating but not really??

the birthplace of maxtul lol

bad romance is insanely BAD. watch at your own risk

cw: cheating, nsfw

this is the kornknock backstory - so it takes place before the events of bad romance. dont ask me which one you should watch first but it probably doesnt matter

cw: some scenes are basically SA played for laughs. jsut be aware

why did this show both advance bl and set us back a few years. when this came out, japanese bl was basically 100% movies and no tv shows at all. kind of changed the game in that way. also iconic for being about working adults

quintessential japanese bl movie duo.  based on an iconic manga of the same name

one of if not the first korean tv show to feature a gay couple. get your history books out

cw: SA, rape, stepbrother romance, underage characters in nsfw scenes

i put this in the list because its legendary but i do also think you should skip it if any of the warnings above even slightly bother you because thats basically all the "romance" is. its rape

but you should at least know /of/ this show, because its basically responsible for why chinese BL is largely censored these days. because it was so explicit. the actors are also not allowed to ever act in something together again

this work is still notorious. it also since had a censored chinese remake which is quite ironic. but i prefer that one because. you know. i think the story is a lot better if its not full of sexual assault. its also getting a thai adaptation soon which features an underage actor so addicted heroin is truly an infamous bl to say the least haha. it also never finished airing because it was banned before the last episode could be released

iconic japanese bl movie. why havent you seen this?