My Strawberry Film (2024)

Go Girl! Give us nothing!

I've only watched up until episode seven as of writing this review. So please take that into consideration as you continue reading.

First and foremost, this is most definitely not a BL. It has ELEMENTS of a BL, but they're so scarce and non-existent that they practically don't matter. Only adding a little bit of drama alongside other one-sided crushes. Which basically sums up the entire plot of this show. They're all Pearl from Steven Universe. There that's your synopsis. And while there is a key mystery as to who the girl in the film is, its not really addressed throughout the series as much as it should be. One of the characters even mentions that it seems like no one really cares anymore about the mystery. The only time its really brought up in a meaningful manner again is episode seven. Which, honestly wasn't surprising when the new friend to their quartet was in fact...the girl in the video. Now why she hid it or why the teacher is involved is anyone's guess.

I won't sit here and lie it did have its interesting moments but overall this show is just high school relationship drama and it's most basic and immature. Just with the mysterious strawberry girl added in for extra flavor praying it keeps you intrigued throughout the eight episodes. Having said all that I do plan on finishing it, might as well after watching the first seven episodes right? Although I wouldn't have even of started if I knew this wasn't going to be a true BL.

UPDATE; After having finished watching the final EP my opinions have only changed slightly. The reveal of the person who recorded the footage being the female teacher was so obvious I couldn't even pretend to be shocked. And the girl in the video was actually the mother of one of the girls in the friend group. Although the reason WHY the teacher and girl in the video had a falling out I did appreciate. I also do like how each of the characters remained single but were all able to stay friends. Opposite to the teacher and mother's friendship. Honestly could have just been a mini series and it would have been 10X better.

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A soulful BL and GL

The discourse about whether this series is a BL or not is asinine. Of course it is. Male-male love does not have to be consummated to be a BL; it merely has to be perceived. At its core, this series is that. Most assuredly, it is a love story of unrequited love. In addition, this series is certainly a GL. More overt but never fully realized.
The story is a deeply reflective, pensive at times, coming-of-age narration of four inquisitive high schoolers. Each is hiding an inner secret not atypical of individuals of their age. But for all, it seems crushing and perhaps overwhelming. That is the burden of youth they must carry - until their next quest.

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I honestly dropped it for this reason

Okay, I wasn't going to talk about this series because it honestly just annoys me but here I am.

This series is listed as a BL, it also has "Gay Romance" & "LGBTQ" in the tags under this show on Mydramalist. Here's my problem for those who haven't seen it. It's 100%, not a BL (We have two eps left so they could throw it in there At the last minute or not) but it's borderline bromance but more of a one-sided crush.

I think it annoys me because if you take away the excitement of the BL aspect, it's a decent little high school Japanese drama. When you throw at us that it's a BL and "Gay Romance" we who love BLs are going to assume it's a BL, you cant even call it a bromance because the other guy looks like he has no interest in the one who has the crush. I definitely would have liked it a lot more if it was just considered a J-Drama and you took away the tags and the BL concept.

I don't use the word "Queerbating" loosely but that's what you could depict from this series, now I'm not denying that the one who has a crush is part of the lgbtq community, that's not the problem. The problem lies with it being called a BL, if you aren't going to give us BL ( BL means, physical intimacy (i.e kissing and such) and confessions), you can't label it a bromance either (Bromance means a close relationship between two males without confessions or physical intimacy) This series gives neither of those. They are just two boys who are simply best friends.

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