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Recent/Airing/Upcoming Chinese Bl

okay so i put this list together on a whim for some friends in discord and i figured i'd share it here too! i am not an authority on anything and v much showing my own bias with the descriptions (not to mention the majority of them i haven't watched myself), but maybe it'll be useful to some people links are to trailer (best i could find on youtube) and my drama list. putting a star next to the ones i recommend/am most interested in (but again, my taste is not everyone's taste)

Completed

★ Double Helix (12 eps) - a win for all the dark yaoi fans! featuring true attic wife, obsession, and fatal homophobia. my only complaint was a bit of a weaker ending (but not tragic don't worry)

The Gaze (10 eps) - sports doctor "contracts" himself out to tennis star to pay for his brother's medical bills. controlling love interest, a weird in-between cute and toxic that didn't hold my interest, bit of second couple syndrome. others seemed to like it though

Feel What You Feel (8 eps) - school romance, a bit slower paced, nostalgically queer, rivals to lovers?

Journey with You (8 eps) - historical, reincarnation, seemed to go over well with that crowd, happier ending than kill to love i think?

Airing

Lost to You (11/12 eps) - terminally ill wannabe-gangster x outcast student, think Sammy's Children's Day couple but younger. from what i can parse from comments, it looks like it has that v particularly low-logic cdrama feel with fan service and choppy editing, not sure yet if sad ending, but honestly i'm quite interested

★ A Winter Sun Wakes the Wind in Spring Hills' Dream (6/16 eps) - from the creators of Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island, which i've only heard excellent things about. beautiful cinematography, rural setting (celebrity meets a tea farmer), emotional. i'll prob try Litchi Island first but on my list to watch

Blazing Him (4/8 eps) - reclusive traumatized singer x very devoted music producer. soft, high comfort, i can't stand music in my bl but for those that do enjoy

★ Deep In (3/12 eps) - bl about filming a bl (with terrible on set practices), messyyy, non-stop making out, both have girlfriends, dubcon everywhere, fuck-before-feelings. the show-within-a-show is intriguing too

Unfold (3/8 eps) - another one of these recent forensic/crime bl. crime scene cleaner, organ trade, a big conspiracy, but the main couple seem relatively non-toxic? i could be wrong

Upcoming

★ Bittersweet Love (Jul 3rd) - toxic!! married into wealthy family, but ends up pursued by his brother-in-law? or something idk just watch the trailer, you'll get the vibes

Not Yours (Sept 26th) - don't know much about this yet (some sort of sugar baby love triangle thing?) but i'm interested bc of the actors - Shogun Paramee who plays Sky in Payback, Xuan Hao who played Chen Pinming in Desire, and Long Guohao who played Ke Luo in Double Helix. tiktok with more info on actors, author, and producer

Blue Lips (??) - sex shop owner x blue haired punk?? "a fiery, complicated romance between a guarded shop owner and a wild “little wolf-dog” musician." trailer leans a bit comedic, but they've def caught my interest

would love to have any personal opinions or recs people want to leave in the comments! i focused on anything airing since late May, but excluding shorter shows like Private Galaxy or The Summer You Kissed Me, also bc they can be hard to find in full on the typical platforms. and for upcoming shows, i only included those i have a fair amount of certainty in

special thanks to everyone who writes weekly bl reviews, keeps mdl up to date, posts news about upcoming bl, etc. too many to name but this would not have been possible to pull together otherwise

#cbl #chinese bl #bl recs #bl list #bl dramas #double helix #deep in the series #bittersweet love #not yours the series #blue lips the series

I have been thinking of what kind of bl couple dynamics I enjoy the most but then Topform spelled it out for me. I like a grumpy cat and an eager golden retriever. Other couples with similar dynamics that I have liked are Sang Woo and Jae Yang in Semantic Error and Zhou Shuyi and Gao Shide in We Best Love. In some cases I like a grumpy cat and a guard dog variant like Kiyoi and Hira in My Beautiful Man. Can you please recommend me some bls with similar couple dynamics?

10 Grumpy Cat + Golden Retriever BLs

References: Top Form, Semantic Error, We Best Love

Well, right off the bat currently airing Sweetheart Service (June 2025) is EXACTLY this dynamic. It's a Strongberry shortish weekly on YouTube and you should ABSOLUTELY be watching it.

And now... the list!

1 To My Star

Possibly one of the earliest I remember tumblr getting all excited to see this dynamic in action. There is a scene at the end where our neurotic puppy is waiting for his very grumpy cat to get home, and you can see his ears perk when the door opened. Living embodiment of this trope. (It's a neurotic actor with brand issues hides out with chef with very high walls.)

Speaking of living embodiment, Strongberry also did a reencarnated pets as humans thing where one is a literal dog and the other a literal cat. But the romance isn't between them, so it doesn't really count. But if you want to see it look for Choco Milk Shake.

2 HIStory 2: Crossing the Line

I wasn't sure whether to include this and then I finally decided that yes it really does count. Look at those puppy eyes. This is a sort of sports romance foundation but it's basically puppy floppy younger boy pursues hot nerdy older one Taiwan style.

3 Bad Buddy

This was GMMTV’s flagship BL and it started 2022 on a BANG (okay no actual banging but you know what I mean), starring heavy hitters Ohm & Nanon in a pitch perfect university Romeo & Romeo masterpiece that will give you domesticity meets pain whiplash throughout and jet lag at the end.

Some of the friendship and family dynamics are overworked, but it has great production values, killer acting, and some conscious effort to correct for half a decade of Thai BL’s anti-queer mistakes.

Once they get to being a couple they do have puppy/cat dynamic in spades, but it takes a while to get there.

4 Takara-kun and Amagi-kun

This on is high school BL and the pursuer of the relationship is the cat character (usual take on this dynamic) but it certainly satisfies. It is a favorite of mine but it is VERY JBL.

I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this show. Reserved cool kid must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning.

5 Love Tractor

Most of this country-set KBL had me feral for the beautiful broken city boy (cat) and his hot young farmer (puppy 100%). Hyung romance, open frankness meets jaded reserve, language play, water hose frolicking, only one bed, just all my favorite tropes. This show was basically a light-weight Restart After Come Back Home and I’m not even slightly mad about that.

6 Sugar Dog Life

I dithered a bit over this one, but it think it words. The puppy is more a grown up guard dog and the cat is more a scared wet stray kitten, but my goodness does this dynamic work.

This is a phenomenally charming and adorable little romance about a forlorn university kid and the police officer who adopts him. They are relentlessly kind to each other, in fact it’s an extremely kindly show over all (everyone in it is so nice to everyone else including us) so there’s very little tension.

But what it lacks in drive and complexity it makes up for in earnest acts of service and simple affection. These two are basically boyfriends from the get-go, it’s just one of them acts like it and doesn’t realize it and the other one realizes it and has to figure out how to make it a reality. It’s incredibly sweet and incredibly wholesome, nourishing but delicious. Everybody who can should watch this show. It will make you feel better about life.

7 We Are

This is one of those meandering ensemble pieces staring PondPhuwin that was divisive on tumblr but I happen to really enjoy. Not only does it satisfy this dynamic, it explicitly calls it out in the show. Also the side couples are mostly variations on puppy/cat.

It is long and was slow to find its stride (I didn’t get into it until ep 6) but I’m so glad I gave it a chance. Essentially this was a series of vignettes covering one year of uni for a queer friendship group finding love, new friends, and laughter. It’s not being harsh with us or it’s characters the way some offerings of this ilk have been (side eyes Friend Zone and Only Friends) nor did it tumble into Gen Y chaos. Will it blow your mind? No. But it left me smiling and made me belly laugh quite a bit so I'm going to recommend it.

8 Our Youth AKA Miseinen: Mijukuna Oretachi wa Bukiyo ni Shinkochu

On the entirely other end of the spectrum if you want something quite dark and harsh, this is you jam. Essentially a story about two lonely boys from opposite sides of the track who fall madly in love in high school, despite the fact that one is neglected (cat) and the other physically abused (puppy).

This has a rough premise (all the trigger warnings) BUT is an oddly lovely little show. Darker than is my personal preference but sublimely stylish, turns out sometimes that combo works for me (see The 8th Sense). The word that springs to mind is “refined.” I enjoyed the restful distancing feel of the beuatiful filming style, Japan's signature utter thirst, and some ostentatiously poetic dialogue. So edgy pretty.

9 Your Sky

This time Thailand made the cat the pursuer but my goodness can he pine for gold. This is on the grumpy/sunshine end of the puppy/cat spectrum but I think it qualifies.

This is a relatively simple yet endearingly old fashioned story of a fake relationship between a sunshine sweetie and an older reserved rich kid who slowly fall in love. It's soft gentle low stakes leans on everything I love best about Thai BL, no damage no trauma. It’s a warm fuzzy robe of a show that will not hurt you, featuring some of the greenest flags I have ever seen in the genre.

10 Addicted: Heroin

You thought I would let this one slide? Nope. It's a harsh version of puppy cat but you better believe that's what this is. Look, when Chinese BL was good it was very dirty good and when it was bad it was censored. This is the model for that statement: rich kid falls madly for the genius poor kid in his class, starts an aggressive pursuit, includes kidnapping for love, obsession, stepbrother trope, plus some cheating. I love this BL because of what it could have been. But be aware it is UNFINISHED. Just stop watching it after The Sex Scene. Okay?

Other good BLs that I considered but ended up rejecting for various reasons to do with whether puppy/cat was a driver of the narrative or exactly fit:

Our Dating Sim

Long Time No See (his assassin name is literally Wild Dog) speaking of assassins...

Word of Honor

Love is Science? the BL cut is worth tracking down, it is totally this dynamic our cat is a refined out cultured gay man and our puppy is a chaos bisexual. Even ardrobe is on point for these two. But it's a BL subplot in a het age gap romance. So it didn't make my top 10. Although in my heart it's up there.

Puppy Honey (see above)

PeteKao in the Kiss series (see above)

Gameboys

My Day

Restart After Come Back Home

HIStory 4: Close to You

Kieta Hatsukoi

The Tasty Florida

About Youth

DNA Says Love You

Plus and Minus

A Breeze of Love