We’re in the era of best BL series. “Heated Rivalry” has taken over social media timelines with its hot, sexy, yet romantic “hockey players as star-crossed lovers” agenda, and for good reason.
Despite the fact that BL dramas, or boys’ love dramas, are typically centred on homoerotic relationships between men, the genre is particularly popular with the opposite sex — proven by the amount of women you’ll see melting over Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. I am one of them.
“When I was a teenager in the 2000s, I grew accustomed to seeing a certain type of gay man on-screen,” a writer states on Harper’s Bazaar.
Especially with many shows today still conforming to more conservative portrayals of sexuality, “Heated Rivalry” stands out for “explicit, in-your-face sexiness.” It’s raw, it’s addictive, it’s all-consuming, and features that enemies-to-lovers trope that provides this sense of escapism, especially for female audiences like me.
But there’s a more profound takeaway too: it allows audiences to enjoy a romance that’s between two people who stand on equal footing.
If “Heated Rivalry” is your first (intense) dip into BL dramas, there are many other options — especially from Asia, and specifically Thailand — to get that same romantic escapism. And because we are Study International though, we are recommending the best BL series set in college. We’re touched by the heartfelt coming-of-age stories and love the campus scenes.
5 best BL series set in college and university
Until We Meet Again
For those of you who are suckers for stories about fate, the red string, reincarnation, the Thai BL “Until We Meet Again” is the perfect series to binge, though you may get some tears in your eyes.
The story weaves together past and present, surrounding two modern-day college students who discover they are the reincarnated souls of two lovers who’d committed suicide 30 years prior. Despite its more light-hearted college setting, the series covers heavy topics such as homophobia, coming out, suicide, and domestic violence.
The Eighth Sense
The South Korean BL drama, “The Eighth Sense,” starts with Jihyun, who moves to Seoul from a small town, and struggles to adjust to the big city life. He meets campus heartthrob, Jaewon, at a restaurant, who eventually convinces him to join the surfing club — and that’s where their relationship deepens.
If you’re looking for one of the best BL series that covers the ups and downs of youth, as well as topics like mental health, this series is for you.
Love Mechanics
What happens when one of the main leads of a BL drama has a girlfriend? Well, you can see that tumultuous relationships unfold in the Thai series “Love Mechanics.” It’s title stems from the fact that both characters are studying engineering in university, though one’s a senior and the other, a junior.
After a passionate, drunken night, Vee and Mark are forced to navigate guilt, jealousy, infidelity, and internal conflict. Throw in Vee’s long-term relationship with his girlfriend, and you’ll find this show a perfect representation of the messy friendships and romances you often find at university.
I Told Sunset About You
The childhood friends to rivals to lovers pipeline is hot in fictional romance books, whether published novels or fan-written, and apparently, in the best BL series today. Teh and Oh-aew start as childhood best friends who like to dress up and roleplay to pass time, but when Oh-aew begins to abhor Teh’s lifelong dream of acting after performing in a school play, tensions arise and an argument spurs their separation.
Years later, Teh and Oh-aew reunite during the university admission’s process, and viewers get to see a story of complex characters and rebuilding trust unfold.
We Best Love: No. 1 For You
“We Best Love: No. 1 For You” is a Taiwanese BL drama, and guess what: it’s an academic-rivals-to-lovers trope. Two former high school rivals reunite as university students, and that rivalry persists as they fight for the #1 spot on campus both in sport and academics — though their relationship deepens with love amidst the apparent “hate.”
It talks unrequited love, and meditates on ideas of pride, insecurity, and growth as you’re going through university, becoming the perfect balance of emotional and lighthearted.
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