2 Moons Ambassador
AKA 2 Moons 3 AKA 2m3
Thailand 2022 Motive Village
7/10
Tropes: E2L, obsession, popular/nerd, university set, pining seme, sunshine/sunshine, openly gay seme, bisexual uke
(I usually don’t review 7/10s because there are so many of them, but in this case I binge watched and took notes, so hey, here’s what a 7/10 looks like)
Random thoughts:
Basically we open with a recap of 2 moons 2 (NOT 2 Moons original), some are scene for scene re-shots, which acts as an introduction to the new actors in the same roles.
Pairs are:
PhaYo - uke has glasses
ForthBeam - no distinguishing features
MingKit - uke has braces
But these are all side couples, and we have a different new main couple of loser moon + ultimate hot guy too-lazy-to-moon, TatchLom.
Gay af Tatch has a huge crush but only knows how to neg. Honestly, this is so common in BL it should be a seme character archetype.
This BL pulp acts like a show that came out 5 years ago (considering the source material I'm not at all surprised). It’s full of ALL the flaws & tropes:
faen fatale
stilted dialogue & bad sound
blushing maiden trope
awkward acting & stiff (in the wrong way) physical chemistry
nonexistent yet also convoluted plot
punching down humor
gayest bridge in Thailand
They even have the thing where the boys’ makeup on jaw line isn’t blended properly.
On the bright side, when the main couple starts liking each other, they communicate properly, talking about why they behave the way that they do, and why they flirt that way. It’s actually a really sweet relationship. They gave me Nitiman vibes only with better resolution. No bad thing, frankly, I have a soft spot for Nitiman. They also both have nice wingman, and friends trying to be supportive and giving them good advice.
There’s a noted correction for dub con, permission around sex, and one of them is openly gay, and his not liking women turns out to be a defense and a plot point in a good way.
There is a lot of unnecessary manufactured drama and angst. For the sides this was basically the definition of their plots and they intersected not at all with the mains, so you can safely skip them. The plot is dumb.
That said, a small part of me enjoyed some of the drama around the twins and Tatch’s broken friendships prior to university, and I wish that was more of the whole plot and we got less of manufactured misunderstanding couple angst. That said it descended into some TharnType Mame level kidnapping nonsense at the end.
Favorite scene?
The table of gay boys going gaga over the new hot one in their midst was pretty darn amusing, very germane to the queer experience, quite frankly.
Oddness?
Main couple moves right on from first kiss to first sex scene. Although I do like how realistic that part felt to a first college relationship, especially when one half has been jonesing for so long.
Quick Pitch
A Thai pulp that felt like it came out 5 yrs ago with many of the flaws inherent to that time and studio system, including manufactured angst and convoluted plot, but an ultimately sweet main couple that (as a pairing) feels a bit more modern and is satisfying to watch together.
This will probably go down in history as one of the few BLs where I genuinely didn’t care about any of the side couples.
(source)
Shout out to ThailBLFan92 for the fun subs with extra notes, always appreciated.
