Has it already been a year?
Apr. 7th, 2024 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alterkrmnI don't remember exactly when I decided to watch one of the shows Netflix recommended to me. I just remember it caught my attention because it was about an autistic lawyer and I'm always curious about fictional depictions of autistic people, specially adults.
So, last year (maybe in April, maybe later) I started watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo.
I liked it, despite finding some parts very stereotypical. But that was the first kdrama (and asian drama in general) I've ever watched so the rest of the elements kept me interested. And after finishing, Netflix started showing me other kdramas and I was curious.
The next show I watched was The King's Affection because I wanted to see Park Eun Bin in a different role and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I even cried (a lot) a couple of times.
After that, I watched Love in the Moonlight. I also liked it.
But with both shows, the whole cross dressing thing made me look if there was fanfiction that played with gender in a different way... and I didn't find any... I found very good fic about Love in the Moonlight, tho. But I felt unatisfied and started looking for shows with queer characters (specifically gay men, as I myself am gay) and look, I feel silly admitting it but I didn't know that it is actually a whole thing. I grew up watching and reading latinamerican queer fiction and it was not happy or lighthearted, or just with romcom vibes despite having some drama... I was used to tragic and heavy and very good, yes, but sometimes that's not what you want and watching generic straight romcoms gets boring at some point if you're not straight... I knew about yaoi but I was never a big manga reader to begin with so I was oblivious.
Anyway, since the first asian dramas I watched were korean, I looked up korean shows. I learned about Viki, Gaga Oolala and IQIYI and I found To My Star, Semantic Error, The New Employee... and then, boom! I discovered there were so many BL shows out there... I needed to watch them.
That's how in less than a year I've watched 28 dramas (340 episodes... yes I made a Mydramalist account) from different countries (Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Thai until now).
The last BL I watched was Moonlight Chicken,which I loved SO MUCH. But I'm also watching not-BL asian dramas, like Nirvana in Fire, and I'm loving it A LOT too.
Thanks to this journey I also learned about danmei and I'm currently reading (after having read Mo Dao Zu Shi and Qi Ye) Devil Venerable Also Wants to know.
So, last year (maybe in April, maybe later) I started watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo.
I liked it, despite finding some parts very stereotypical. But that was the first kdrama (and asian drama in general) I've ever watched so the rest of the elements kept me interested. And after finishing, Netflix started showing me other kdramas and I was curious.
The next show I watched was The King's Affection because I wanted to see Park Eun Bin in a different role and I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I even cried (a lot) a couple of times.
After that, I watched Love in the Moonlight. I also liked it.
But with both shows, the whole cross dressing thing made me look if there was fanfiction that played with gender in a different way... and I didn't find any... I found very good fic about Love in the Moonlight, tho. But I felt unatisfied and started looking for shows with queer characters (specifically gay men, as I myself am gay) and look, I feel silly admitting it but I didn't know that it is actually a whole thing. I grew up watching and reading latinamerican queer fiction and it was not happy or lighthearted, or just with romcom vibes despite having some drama... I was used to tragic and heavy and very good, yes, but sometimes that's not what you want and watching generic straight romcoms gets boring at some point if you're not straight... I knew about yaoi but I was never a big manga reader to begin with so I was oblivious.
Anyway, since the first asian dramas I watched were korean, I looked up korean shows. I learned about Viki, Gaga Oolala and IQIYI and I found To My Star, Semantic Error, The New Employee... and then, boom! I discovered there were so many BL shows out there... I needed to watch them.
That's how in less than a year I've watched 28 dramas (340 episodes... yes I made a Mydramalist account) from different countries (Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Thai until now).
The last BL I watched was Moonlight Chicken,which I loved SO MUCH. But I'm also watching not-BL asian dramas, like Nirvana in Fire, and I'm loving it A LOT too.
Thanks to this journey I also learned about danmei and I'm currently reading (after having read Mo Dao Zu Shi and Qi Ye) Devil Venerable Also Wants to know.
I look back and I can't believe I haven't watched western shows almost in a year... Maybe I've watched a couple of movies but not much more.
Who would have thought?
I just... I can't believe I'm just learning about all this and it makes me feel a bit ashamed.