BL couples where there is no established seme/uke dynamic.
Hsia YuHao & Qiu ZiXuan in HIStory 2: Crossing the Line - Taiwan
Du & Phuc in Hay Rival, I LOVE YOU (somewhat less so in Monster in Law) - Vietnam
Win & Tops in Ingredients - Thai
Keen & Tum in A Chance at Love - Thai
Ace & Sky in My Day - Pinoy
Ram & King in My Engineer - Thai
Tee & Mork in My Tee - Thai
Mitsuomi Kozuka & Yamato Kumai in Restart After Come Back Home - Japan
Ai & Ni in Tonhon Chonlatee - Thai
In Soo and Min Sung in Wish You - Korea
TangYi & ShaoFei in History 3: Trapped - Taiwan
Paper & Fah in Second Chance - Thai
Seryou & Yuzuru in Seven Days - Japan
YuZhen & ShiLei in Be Loved In House: I Do - Taiwan (My original blog post on seme/uke was spawned because of these two)
JiWoo & SeoJoon in To My Star - although (you could argue that this is an example of an aggressive uke)
Pat & Pran in Bad Buddy - Thai (there’s discussion to be had tho, Pat acts the seme a lot)
So most BL is based on yaoi, and almost all yaoi was written with a seme/uke pairing. One character is the active pursuer (often conflated with masculine/top/Dom) while the other is the passive pursued (often conflated with feminine/bottom/sub). Before you say anything, yaoi conflates those three bracketed terms, not me. But then so does a lot of BL.
Here’s a analysis on seme/uke in BL.
In other words, these are heterosexually dysmorphic pairings where one dude takes on the “feminine” role and is usually also depicted as physically smaller, reluctant to agree to a relationship, scared of sex, blushing maiden, etc... The other dude takes on the “masculine” role and is usually also depicted as taller, richer, sexually demanding, as well as more muscled, aggressive, and successful (socially, intellectually, or otherwise).
I’m not gonna diatribe about how totally het and weirdly fetishizing this is, because ya’ll know that. (In order to get over it I just plug my ears, go la la la, and pretend these are all D/s relationships.)
However, it does make me super delighted when I see a more honest portrayal of verse in BL.
So the above named couples are ones where the story never established who would be the dominant. Or where there is consciously no clear uke/seme roll assigned.
Full discussion on this matter here.
More on heterosexual dysmorphia, seme/uke assumptions and the damage it does to EVERYONE’S sex lives. Yes, even yours (if you have one).
MORE!
narrative where the character who is most intersted in pursuing a relationship (seme) is the main character
This character may act submissively or be dominant and aggressive about their pursuit in the old yaoi seme style, but is the clear POV either way.
Utsukushii Kare - Japan (fight me: Hira is a submissive with a humiliation kink but he is the seme)
Wish You - Korea (another one where the main character feels like a submissive to me, but acts as the seme of the narrative)
Love By Chance - Thai
Given - Japan
SOTUS - Thai
Restart After Come Back Home - Japan
Because of You - Taiwan
Life: Love on the Line - Japan
Craving You - Taiwan
Silhouette of Your Voice - Japan
Stupid Boys Stupid Love - Vietnam
HIStory 3: the BL that shall not be named - Taiwan
Maybe also qualify: Golden Blood, Tasty Florida, Kieta Hatsukoi.
narratives that do both: no seme/uke + there is a clear POV character who wants the relationship
This is probubly what you really wanted with the original question?
HIStory 2: Crossing the Line - Taiwan
Secodn Chance (Paper & Fah) - Thai
History 3: Trapped - Taiwan
Where Your Eyes Linger and Nobleman Ryu's Wedding are both generally open to debate.
(This is my shocked face that Taiwan and Japan show up the most.)
(source)
