A Hilarious BL Parody & Appreciation Show

A Man Who Defies the World of BL airs on Viki as a four episode series. This comedic fantasy tells the story of "Mob," an average college student who realizes that he lives inside of a Boy Love world. Trying to avoid becoming the protagonist of his own BL story line, Mob researches all the tropes of Boy Love manga so he can avoid them in real life. He watches his classmates, friends, and even his younger brother fall into a boys' love plot. The more he fights the reality of his world, the more inevitable it becomes that he cannot avoid it despite wanting a girlfriend.

Mob is hilariously played by Atsushiro Inukaj. His hysterical inner monologue and over-the-top facial expressions truly sell the ridiculous notion that Mob can avoid the pitfalls of living in a BL world. The show is funny even if you're not familiar with shoujo/BL romance anime or manga tropes. If you are familiar with them, the show is even funnier as the viewer knows Mob will not escape this story line without falling in love.

Although the brevity of the series makes it easier to complete in a day, I wish the ending was bit a longer and more fleshed out.


According to Viki, this series/movie was adapted from the manga of the same name.

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Nishi & Ito--A Beautiful and Realistic Love Story

Ito and Nishi are two high school students who meet and fall in love while playing a balancing game on the white line of the street. Throughout their courtship and lives, this line always brings them to each other. Ito lives a reliable yet boring life, and has no true ambition straying from that path. This goal is further reinforced as his free spirited older sister continues to frustrate their parents by not following a more traditional path. Despite falling deeply in love with Nishi, Ito struggles throughout his relationship and his life trying to fit this "non traditional" relationship into his reliable, "normal life." Shirasu Jin does a wonderful job conveying a man living at odds with heart. His struggle becomes the viewers struggle. Even when he makes errors in judgment, we empathize.

Nishi is all heart and imagination compared to his lover. Although Raiku plays Nishi with wide-eyed innocence and social awkwardness, the character never lives in a fantasy land. His ability to eschew society's expectations makes him one of the bravest and most fulfilled characters in the show/movie. Nishi and Ito have excellent chemistry and balance each other, making them one of my favorite TV couples to root for.

The writers don't give the couple an easy path to their happily ever after, but the brevity of the series guarantees that the viewers won't have to sob into their tissues for very long.

My only complaint is that the haircuts for the actors never changed during the course of their years together, which made it difficult to mark the passage of time.

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