Cherry Magic came to the BL stage in a year where BL series have diversified a lot. In 2020 we saw many different BLs from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, etc. Unfortunately, quantity is different from quality. Every year we still get too many repetitive and boring engineering series coming from Thailand, specially from that channel number 25 that we all know.

When I heard about CM, I was excited since it seemed to be a refreshing plot set in Japan, very different from the series we are used to. I watched the first episode and I felt ok. It was promising. But then my expectations didn't match the reality. The fact is that CM is a very classical and traditional BL series. It looks like refreshing to some people because we are used to Thai BLs for a long time, so anything that is not set in a warm university campus in Southeast Asia looks like a genius thing. But if you are already used to Japanese Yaoi animes or mangas, you probably have already seen several stories like CM. Everything is excessive fluffy and unrealistic. Some situations that work very well in animation cannot be transported to the series without causing cringe and embarrassing feelings for a more mature and demanding audience. One example is when Kurosawa's boss is angry at him for some unknown reason. Instead of explaining the motives for his angriness, the man keeps grumbling "Hum" for several minutes. Adachi needs to use his reading mind powers to discover that their boss only wanted a different cake flavor. Well, who is the person who would keep mumbling "Hum" - just like a cow - for 10 minutes instead of asking directly for a new cake? It is a funny scene for animations, but quite odd when we see it in live-action.

Just like a traditional Japanese Yaoi, the couple tend to be excessively stereotyped. We have in this BL the clear gender roles division between a seme and an uke. Gender roles, different from what many people think, are not simply sexual position (top x bottom). It is more like stereotyped men and women's roles in a relationship. These stereotypes tend to be annoying even in straight couple stories, but they become even worse when they force it into gay relationships. Kurosawa has excessive good masculine attributes: hard worker, charming, protective, strong, independent and confident. He looks like a prince riding a white horse. Adachi, in turn, is imaginative, sweet, gentle, jumbled, insecure and more likely to need help.

This old-fashioned duality is generally criticized by many BL fans, but I have the feeling most of them like this uke/seme dynamics and fetishize about it. There is a general understanding in the West that BL series are Fujoshi things, but the reality is that many gays watch it and became an integral part of the audience. And many gays love the same things in a BL that a Straight girl likes.

I personally don't appreciate this kind of stereotypes since they make me feel embarrassed all the time. There is a scene in particular that I really couldn't bear. In episode 5, Adachi and his female friend are attacked by some gangsters on the streets. Adachi (as a good uke; and his friend, as a good woman) doesn't react and accept being humiliated by the assaulting men. So, the "man of the relationship" (Kurosawa) needs to come to protect both the the innocent uke and the woman. The scene is already cringe because the fight between Kurosawa and the gangsters is quite fake, and on top of that, they gave us a scene that reinforces the ideia that gays who play the supposedly feminine part of a relationship are weak people who cannot save their own asses, but need a "man" to do that for them. Most BL fans might think that this kind of scene is cute, but I cannot help but thinking: "WTF!".

CM is a type of series for an audience who likes fetish. Fetish is not only about sex. We can have fetishes related to cute and fluffy situations and this series is all about that. For the ones like me who love a more realistic approach where the LGBTQ community is positively addressed, this shows is a huge disappointment.