Inside Asia’s obsession with Boys’ Love TV shows: queer series like Thailand’s 2Gether and South Korea’s Semantic Error have millions of fans, social media groups, YouTube channels and LGBT podcasts

In Thailand’s 2Gether: The Series, Tine is a self-described “chic” university student who has a reputation for dating a string of girls, but always breaking up with them. In an attempt to squelch the affections of an unwanted admirer, Tine convinces the popular football-playing Sarawat to fake a date with him. Eventually, their fake dates turn into real ones, and the two boys have to confront how real their pretending has become.

The show is one of many in a genre known as Boy’s Love, usually abbreviated as BL. These shows focus on a romantic relationship between two boys who seem to exist in a world that’s unapologetically queer, free of the everyday obstacles that many members of the LGBTQ+ community face.

In many Asian countries, BL shows are among the most popular on TV. According to streaming service Line TV, 2Gether surpassed 100 million views on the platform by April 2020, becoming one of its most popular shows that year. Thailand has become one of the biggest producers of these shows – Bangkok Post reports that over 30 BL shows were produced in the country last year alone.

A usual BL series will consist of 30-minute-long episodes that follow the story of two boys in a high school or university setting, much like 2Gether, or South Korea’s Semantic Error. BLs from China or Taiwan have expanded the genre further into fantasy and drama with shows like The Untamed, or workplace dramas like History 3: Trapped.

The BL genre is essentially a modern-day adaptation of the manga genre yaoi, which originated in Japan and initially focused on stories of relationships between two men. The genre emerged in the 1970s and has since grown to mainstream popularity. While yaoi originally existed as manga, modern day BL genres have expanded to many types of media, including anime, web comics, TV shows, films and video games.

These shows have brought together millions of fans from around the world, regardless of age, race or gender identity. On Twitter, hashtags trend weekly as new episodes of shows are released, and subreddits (forum boards on popular online community website Reddit) are overflowing with comments about fan-favourite moments. Some even have entire YouTube channels dedicated to BLs.

One of these fans is 29-year-old Jordan S. from California. “I initially found out about BL through manga,” he said, though now he mainly watches Thai BL shows.