I hate this webcomic because I tried kissing one of the homie and instead of a relationship I got a restraining order and a tracker on my leg.

This really does feel like what a corporation would make for Pride Month

Wait till he finds out that not only does the creator do rule 34 of their own webtoon, but THAT'S where you find the characters actually names. Like their real names.

And for why it's popular? Because it's ship fuel. Shippers do not give a shit about genuine characters, just archetype dynamics. This author gave these relationship fetishists the perfect story with empty husks to play with. They couldn't ask for anything better.

the random bystander at 8:01 is truly the best character. he shows up, gets hit with a basketball, gets angry, punches the jock, and never shows up again.

The comic as a whole reminds me of my "uwu kawaii" kind of cringe phase.

"Boyfriends is the webtoon equivalent of fast food" More like candy, everything looks so unbelievably sweet I'd get 15 cavities by looking at it.

Besides the boring characters and nonexistent story the part about this comic I really hate is that “goth” isn’t even goth hes just an e-boy

I think there is a connection between its popularity and the backlash. An unpopular bad thing induces no rage because nobody is giving it attention. But when a lot of people are lavishing time, attention and fan adoration on something bad, it makes people angry because they're giving those things to something undeserving. For instance: If Twilight had just been a mid-level teen vampire romance that was mildly popular with tweens but never hit the bestseller lists, I don't think people would have devoted as much time and energy to hating it.

fun fact: they do actually have names,it's just that the creator decided to not use them for the comic for them to be blank slates to project yourselves into which might explain their lack of depth. here they are btw goth - felix nerd - adrian prep - vincent jock - kevin also they're all asian of different nationalities too: goth - chinese nerd - japanese prep - singaporean jock - vietnamese

I think the reason why this had such a strong backlash was because for a wile webtoons pushed a lot of adds involving this “comic” especially on KZfaq and a few of them you couldn’t skip so the constant exposure just annoyed everyone. As the saying goes “if you poke the tiger enough it’s going to bite you”.

i would love a piss take kinda comic where the characters are legally named after stereotypical high school tropes, like Goth, except they dont share any traits with their trope. cause irl naming a kid Goth hss no bearing on them becoming a goth.

I strongly agree with you not to get butthurt over some pastel slice of life fluff. Everyone forgot about it now.

As someone who lives and breathes (and even draws) dark fantasy and noir type art, this pastel style burns my eyes.

"I'm a morosexual..." He's into godly wolf beings from Ancient Japan?

Still pisses me off that Merryweather and Osiimi had to self censor to get their stuff reuploaded, but this shit gets a pass.

Fun fact: The author live in a country where they can’t be gay, so here we are.

what do a prep, a goth, a nerd, and a jock have in common. nothing...except fanfic writers love pairing them together and pretending the relationship can work when they have wildly different personalities and hobbies.

finnaly, an actually sane person reviewing boyfriends its skocking how many tweens read this comic and hate it so much they start callling it shit like anti-semedic and racist just so they have an excuse to obbsesivly hate it lmao

I feel like this is a comic for people who just want to read straight fluff not too heavy on plot or development, just simple romance scenarios revolving around the cast i don't even think that's necessarily a bad thing

Honestly this comic is peak Webtoons. Boring one note stock characters, nonexistent plot, and barely concealed sexual fetishes/fantasies really are par for the course and to be expected at this point. But that’s kinda also what most of the people who regularly browse webtoons go there for anyway (either to make fun of or legitimate enjoy reading) so it makes sense the comic is popular/Infamous.

Boyfriends is like an annoying nerd you just kinda want to beat up a bit to make him shut up.

As a person who did cringey yaoi roleplays as a teen, I feel so exposed lolol. In all seriousness, your analysis made me realize that it wasn’t the slice of life genre that I didn’t enjoy, it was that as you said, people use it as an excuse to not try. When I think about it, a lot of my favorite parts of shounen anime are the slice of life bits in between the arcs, and my favorite tv show is also a slice of life. It’s just that most slice of life media just think that throwing enough *quirky* characters at you can overshadow their garbage plots. It can’t.

THANK YOU FOR TALKING ABOUT THE SLICE OF LIFE GENRE AS BEING DIFFICULT. I'm a fanfic author and, as of the past several years, my main go-to has been slice of life. I'm lucky in that characters are my _strength_ in writing, so the stories often kind of write themselves. I don't really plan things out other than having a _very_ basic idea of the scene ("Characters X, Y, Z have breakfast"). I have to let my characters fill it in from there since I can't really control them. SOL as a genre can be incredibly rewarding to write when done correctly. I currently have a 173,000 word story that covers about a month in universe, though most of that time is dedicated only to roughly a week and a half. There are some timeskips in there. In Chapter 5 of Part 1 of the duology, my FMC (Female Main Character) just had a man try to break into her apartment. As such, she's completely freaked out and has been raised in a society to believe that men are nothing but beasts that will take advantage of women. She was so terrified she literally could not move. However, my MMC (Male Main Character) had to get her over to the couch. After some coaxing from her best friend, she allowed MMC to pick her up and take her over to the couch. Fast forward over 40 chapters later and into Part 2 of the duology. She actually has trust in MMC to some degree. It is _incredibly_ fragile and she doesn't trust him entirely. But MMC had just calmed her down from a near panic attack. He offered her a hug. He didn't do anything other than open his arms to her. It was entirely on her if she took it or not. And she _chose_ to move closer to him for comfort. SOL can be an incredibly rewarding genre to write when done correctly. When I write it, you see literally _almost every step_ of the relationship as it develops. Writing out those steps in the tiny, incremental way I do is incredibly fun and so rewarding to see. What I described above took me literally 2.5 _in real life years_ to achieve. SOL takes a _lot_ of time to do. Obviously, if you're writing a 12-episode anime, you have more leeway with timeskips and stuff since you only have so much screentime. But in a setting like webcomics or fanfics, if you want it to be a slowburn, you _have_ to understand what you're doing with the characters. But SOL is _NOT_ easy. You absolutely _MUST_ understand your characters to an _EXTREME_ degree. You have to understand their general trajectory and potential routes they can take. It is _not_ easy to understand characters to the _extreme_ depth needed to write SOL fics and/or webcomics especially if it falls into a slowburn style like how I write. It takes a _very_ long time of working with the characters to understand them so well.

It’s weird how Goth also feels like a gamer

I have to agree with you, Slice of Life content lives or dies by their characters and their relationship dynamics. If they exist solely for fetishy crap, your SoL will become a pile of crap. This wasn't the main problem of Boyfriends, but holy shit it definitely adds to it.

so, the comic is definitely the author's wish fullfilment, they're a gay trans man, indonesia isn't the most queer friendly place in the world, and that is where they live. So it being an escapist fantasy for the author makes total sense, and if that's what they want to write or draw, there isn't much we can do to stop him, nor much reason to. The characters, as bland as they are, at the very least aren't in a toxic or predatory relationship, they are all consenting young adults in college, and for the little dynamic they actually have, there isn't anything even remotely resembling abuse. all those facts alone puts it far above almost EVERYTHING on the romance section of webtoon. It's bizarre that this is getting so much hate, despite The Fate still existing. But what really rubs me the wrong way is that people aren't treating it as what it is. Some people are taking this junk-food Lowest Denominator, fluff filler escapist fantasy as an actual story, with actual characters, and criticizing it, harshly might I add, as such. On top of that, some people have actually tried to cancel the creator over it, with shit that is quite easily disproven. Like, this dude made an nsfw BTS comic, which would be horrible, if it weren't for the fact that when it was made... Ray was actually YOUNGER than the members of BTS, and with youth comes stupidity. Some people are also saying that because Ray is Trans that he's not "A real gay man" and as such isn't qualified to write a gay comic which is just... blatant transphobia, they're not even hiding it at this point. Like, yeah, it's escapist fluff... where is the problem though? like... why are your feathers getting so ruffled over it? don't like it? don't read it. Don't want to see the ads for it, get an adblocker. There is much MUCH worse representation out there, stuff that makes this look oscar-worthy by comparison. So why are people getting mad over THIS, instead of the rest of the bullshit. Again, it's only sin, if you can even call it that, is being obnoxious. I can't speak on the cringe though, because if I were to say "Cringe Bad" I would be one hell of a hypocrite. I have not only consumed, but gladly enjoyed stories that are actively made to be cringe-inducing (neon white, anyone?) so I have no right to talk here.

it legit didn't even click with me when i saw the "thanks for reading!" panel that the little character was the author's persona - i just immediately assumed that they were using the nerd character as the mascot for the comic or somethin

one of the storys I only like in the whole site is Down to earth. it realy goes kinda deep into what makes a relationship work. also what makes a toxic one.

I remember seeing a tweet from Refan explaining that the Boyfriends was just so he could express himself. It's more of thing for him to vent of sorts and less for his readers. It wasn't meant to have a major story with drama, it's just a thing that Refran wanted to let out because of where he lives

You aren't wrong about Nerd being a self insert lol. The creator of the comic is gay. This is basically their cringey harem fantasy in comic form.

Blacklightjack won't be remembered for coining the term "inclusivity bias" as much as he should for coining "bipolar boner disorder" holy shit I'm crying

as someone who liked reading boyfriends, being compared as "fast food" and "instant gratification" pretty much checks it I liked the webcomic for that exact same reason of making me feel happy in that moment if I try to go back to read it I'll probably like it because of nostalgia, but yeah, you're totally correct on this one it's good to see a comment that actually brings stuff up instead of just "he talks cringe" and "ugh why is it all pastel"

I read the whole thing with my roommates one night and honestly? I'm pretty neutral about it. It has it's good moments but it's also plagued with cringe dialouge and weird...it's just weird. I'm a bi trans dude and I wasn't offended or whatever about it. It's alright, idk lol.

I responded to a FB post advertising this saying exactly that this is what 14 yr old girls think gay relationships are like and one person responded by telling me that I'm lying and overexaggerating. Lol. Which I thought was odd because that's what this comic feels like. That and I've been in various discord RP communities where I thought had some decent writers in it ... until you see them write and then their true ages come out as you talk further with these people and you learn they're not old enough to be writing the shit they're writing but I'm not their parents. That doesn't mean it wasn't weird that a bunch of 14 yr olds wanted to bone my characters with no attempt to build any story or plot and would get offended when I tell them no. That experience was both hilarious and sad and I left those communities. But yes, this comic definitely reflects what young teenagers think romance is. No substance. Only fetish.

I think one of the worst things about this comic is that it's a great example of gay baiting, ironically enough coming from a gay (and trans?) author. The whole porous of the story is to bait readers to read about a gay romance, while not actually writing any of that romance in. Outside of ship moments, I hadn't seen a moment of genuine romance bonding, where two or more of the so called boyfriends actually acknowledge their relationship and act on it by giving small but significant gifts to each other, being intimate together (not necessarily in a sexual way), or heck, just having a long fun date night that would make them grow closer. Baiting kisses and implying sexual tension (or full on sexual acts) are NOT what builds a good romance story, and they are more of a hook for actions and activities the romantic couple would be engaged with when they do eventually come together and decide they want to "take the next step" whatever it would mean for them. A good kiss scene might be a fine trigger for the relationship to grow and develop, and can be a significant turning point for the couple itself, by on it own the kiss ISN'T a replacement for the buildup of the emotional and physical romance itself, and the relationship CANNOT be build around sexual interactions alone. More so if those interactions are just implied but never actually shown, or even worse, being heavily baited with the implication that the characters (and author) would go for it, but never actually do. It's really infuriating to see a story that is basically all baiting but no actual romance (at least on page), and that story is pushed out to the masses as the next big thing in romance novels since Gone with the Wind, or Interview with a Vampire for the gay relation enthusiasts. Before anyone would say anything I'm not implying that gay baiting on it's own is a bad thing (tho it's still is, but that's not the point), but that basing your supposedly "super progressive" and "LGBT representative" story all around it is kinda disgusting honestly, as it promises a mountain of romantic goodies to the readers while delivering none of it. I would go as far as calling it a scam of your expectations, but that would be a disservice to scam stories that are at least honest they don't contain any actual romance in them.

This feels like something I would've made in seventh grade when i knew nothing about writing and storytelling and only did shit because I felt like it💀

The art style is so good, sad that it was wasted on this.

4:02 As an anime fan, I would NEVER be interested in a photo-editing software if it was advertised like THAT.

Even though I'm a woman, I accept my identity as one of your boys now. Your content has really grown on me.

It’s not even that bad, it just reminds me of all my middle school fanfics that I buried beneath my house

Each episodes feels like its from tumblr prompt generator. When the creator needs to make an episode he sits down in front of the wheel and “okay which dry ship scenario should I draw next!?”

They do have names but they're not mentioned in the story, you'd either figure it out by googling it or finding out in the comment section. Goth is Felix Nerd is Adrian Prep is Vincent Jock is Kevin They're all self inserts from the author however Goth is actually the most self insert from the rest of the characters (the author himself said this). I personally am a huge fan of boyfriends but yeah, the writing is pretty bad. I do think it's gotten better compared to the earlier chapters tho

Yea I Agree....I Don't Like Boyfriends Because Of The Creator's Actions And The Comic Itself..

Lemme put this simply cuz I don't want to ramble, you can just tell this author simply was dicking around and wanted an instant gratification story and *DID NOT* Expect to be one of the best Webtoons on the platform. Like compare this to something like Bat Family webtoon. You can feel there was a story and a plan for Bat Family most likely and they cared about story.

Some of my favorite Webtoons: Punderworld, Suitor Armor, The Little Trashmaid, AJ and Magnus, Pixie and Brutus, Blood Stain, The Queen and the Woodborn. I unfortunately grew out of following Let's Play, the very first one I started following, not because I thought it went bad, but because I slowly realized that it was no longer for me in terms of interest. Like, by the time mid-S2 early S3 was a thing, we've completed forgotten all about the original focus and conflict (a nerdy girl who's a gamer and wants to become a game developer who conflicts with a prominent Let's Player on their KZfaq equivalent and slowly warming up to him as a person as well as opening up to other people about stuff), to focus completely on office relationship drama, complete with an (IMO) uncomfortable power dynamic. I'm not saying the story is badly written, or the characters aren't written well, or the emotional moments don't hit me hard... but it's also not exactly what I was originally following this story for either. The gaming aspect has been relegated to a subplot, when it was originally the main plot, and said main plot is now pretty much entirely romance. It's not bad, just... not my thing either. I also tried getting into Lore Olympus, not because I heard it was good, but because it was bad (even joined a Discord server that readily mocked and critiqued it). I got bored and disinterested around the mid 90s-100s.

Your assessment at the end is brutally true. These webtoons are popular to fill young teen's gay/lesbian romance fantasy. Nothing more, nothing less.

3:50 Even though I kinda like the art style, I think your description is the most accurate thing I have ever heard. 😂

I feel like boyfriends is not for the gays or poliamorous is for the little girls who think that is how gay people or poliamorous relationship works

Ima be honest, the fact that you're both so level-headed while fricking borderline pissed off is actually SUPER entertaining man. Loved this vid 👍

the thing is, i read boyfriends before it blew up (the first few chapters anyway) and i liked it decently. i didn't get super into it, but i read it from time to time when i got bored in class. i'm an enjoyer of pastel colors, i (even still) like the art style, and the names were easy to remember. now that i know a bit more (about boyfriends and art in general), i kinda want to go back and reread it in full just to see how i feel about it now. btw, this is coming from a polyamorous biromantic trans man. i'm not a cishet who's into the fetishization of queer people and relationships.

honestly, the massive wave of hate seems to come from people not understanding they can just...not like something. it's not enough to think its cringe or bad, they have to make it out as problematic.

Boyfriends is like a comic for actually expecting nothing, its like junk food you consume daily, which makes it boring/superficial If some like it, fine but so you know it's not as good as they think it is Edit: Oh and I wanted to know why people are realizing Lore Olympic is bad, I tried reading it once but didnt caught my attetion, I wanted to stay updated of what happened lol

I use to like this webtoon for only 2 reasons, 1: the art style was actually somethingi liked, i didn't love it and i still don't but it's much more mundane then other webtoons i had seen so i liked it being rather pastel and chill, 2: shipping. I went into "teen life" per say before reading this and etc, i was just a simple person looking for stereotypical shipping and i had found it, on a actually easy to find almost stereotypical shipping website, it was just me going "OMG THEIR GAY YAAAS-" and going "oh he's a bottom" I'm still cringing everytime i think about genuinly adoring this webtoon, it's just overall.... yeahh- and after reading some of the comments, kinda glad i dropped it just a month after starting to read it, but i also didn't like the reasons it was being hated for, and I'm glad i finally found someone to talk about that

I actually didn't hate it as much. It's not a masterpiece with some level of depth or profoundness, but a product made with maximum minimalism, which exists in every aspect of it. The plot, the structure, the characters, the art - all of them are simple and minimalistic to the point they don't contain anything at all.

Webtoon has some really good stuff but you gotta find it. For every “Lore Olympus” or “Everything is Fine” you got stuff like this.

I get the hate but honestly when you just want something to read and not think at all this is an ok read. The creator is from Indonesia where lgbtq people arent supported nor protected. The Boys love genre here is over romanticized as toxic relationship is never talked that much. Typically relationships like these are relatively closed and basically a taboo topic so its a bit understanding if the creator’s only experience is the internet and over simplified relationships

The characters actually do have canon names, but the author never uses them for any of them in the comic. It’s so minute of a detail that I can’t be bothered to search it up again to cite them exactly.

I agree with everything you’re saying, but one small note. 6:20 that is Nerd. The author said that Goth is their self insert instead.

I actually like the artstyle, I see nothing wrong with that

How did the webtoon get popular in the first place?

It's not that bad guys, if you actually read the comics for yourself with and open worldview, you would see that it's not fetishizing gay people, and it's just a bunch of fluff. It's basically oc fanfiction and in literally any context this would be fine. People got mad at it because it got advertised and they didn't like how cringe it is, but this *just fanfiction*. According to google "It is sometimes described as the opposite of angst. Fluff may lack plot; however, unlike a PWP the focus is not sex, but displays of affection between two or more characters, whether their relationship is romantic or not." This is all the webtoon is, it's meant to make you like the characters and feel good when something good happens to them whether it's deserved or not. It's not meant to represent reality and it's just not your cup of tea. I'm not a big fan of boyfriends either, but I've actually taken time to read it and made my own decisions instead of just listening to people on the Internet talk about it. Read it for yourself, it's not that bad, just a little cringe, you'll probably feel a little happier afterward even if you don't like it.

The art style reminds me of happy tree friends. And i’d laugh like hell if it builds up an ending just like that.

The art style just screams "Manga art done by an American"

I recall seeing ads for this comic on KZfaq, and those alone could tell me how bad it is. I recall reading one comic on there about a teenage soldier, and I recall it being stupidly edgy even during the slice of life stuff (although my memory is fuzzy). I recall the action being good though.

I know you say that his online persona resembles Nerd, but IRL, the artist admitted that there is a self-insert in the comic. He's the Goth (and he actually does look like Goth).

Something that bothers me is that, despite being set at a university and all the characters being grown men, every single character acts like a child. The only one who even remotely acts their age is Jock, but aside from that, Goth and Prep act like they're teenagers and Nerd acts like a young boy. I know that one's age does not necessarily determine their actual maturity, but still, it's kind of jarring to hear phrases like "Owo? Choco?" or "Yaaaaaaaay, a boy's number!" coming out of the mouths of people who are old enough to vote. It just seems like the author _wanted_ to set their story at a high school, and only decided to change it to college so their characters could live on their own and have sexually suggestive moments.

So what are the odds some narcisstic author that can't take a single negative word against them will try to copyright strike this one?

Pretty sure the self-insert of the author is goth, he is trans and a main character (prep and goth appear more often in the beginning than the other 2) afterall. Nerd is more of a mascot due to him being the most liked among the fans somehow, I think the mascot next to the links changes hair colors along with him, like he gets the purple to blue to yellow hair at some point and so does the mascot. I may be be wrong on the last one but fairy certain that's a mascot, not a self-insert anyway. 16:23 also that wasn't just randomly thrown in, that's episode 1 shit lmao

I’ll admit, the slanders are funny, but I just think we should just let this slide under the rug and forget about it like that one puzzle piece or nerf bullet that you lost when you were 8 Edit : Just like I forgot about this comment holy hell

Wow, for a furry, you sure do make good content, you actually made something thoughtful and insightful!

It kind of it disappointing that webcomics like Boyfriends are so popular or talked about. I get why it is popular since it hits a niche and a certain demographic. But when there are better written romance webcomics {there are the rare few on Webtoon. My favorites are Miss Abbott and the doctors for it’s healthy relationship and the chemistry between the leads. Always Human I remember exploring the relationship between a two girls and their characters well. I haven’t read it in years though. } A good slice of life webtoon I liked was Yumi’s cell which was like Aggretsuko but with human characters and written better. Slice of life can be really good but with a cringy comic that can make it so no one can really relate to it. The characters in Boyfriends are stereotypes without substance and are merely tools to show off cheap ship moments. The writing in the comic definitely feels like it was written without any planning. It feels exactly like the creator had an idea for a cute ship idea but didn’t want to write a natural way for things like that to proceed. Nothing connects naturally. The “characters” of boyfriend aren’t even characters but tools and that is what makes it feel so lifeless and painful to read for some people. The fact that they don’t feel like people makes the comedy and comic not work in my opinion. A good slice of life needs to be planned out and Boyfriends isn’t clearly by it’s writing. This webcomic clearly isn’t for me. I don’t like art style either. Since it reminds me of a pastel character creation app. But the reason I couldn’t continue to read it was it’s writing. I heard there are even girls in the comic who are the cast genderbent in a polyamorous relationship. The creator was being canceled over something I heard as well which may be another reason why Boyfriends is so talked about.

i long for the day my gay homies recieve a poper badass gay dude character, all of this "cutsey uwu" bullshit is starting to get annoying

if I was to give my two cents I would say it's bad yet not bad at the same time. I feel like the lgbtq community always finds something new to complain about to only find out later down the line it wasn't even that bad to begin with. sure the characters are cliched to hell but in all honesty I believe that was the point the writer/artist was trying to make. it fits the cheesey romance genre that young naive teens could get into. done poorly but it did it's job. as for the non lgbtq peeps hating calling it woke propaganda I suggest moving on with your lives because it doesn't affect you. sure the ads are annoying but you can move on. Good video brother. keep up the good work

Honestly my only gripe with this series is the extremes they go to with all the Facebook/iFunny memes Edit: I mean the memes they reference in the comic. Not the memes people make of it.

Now I want to see the Dark Souls of web comics.

Just listened to the whole thing and THANK YOU!!! I said this on your post before, "Why did people start attacking this now when it was known for so long and started in like 2020?" Because it's popular, because the creator is young and(now) successful, and because it's on webtoon.

The worst part is that the inventory on the character bio or whatever is an exe. WHO WOULD STORE AN INVENTORY AS AN EXECUTABLE FILE WHAT THE HELL

Honestly this whole comic always felt like satire to me, I was actually pretty surprised when I found out how much backlash it got since there’s so much other “lazy trash” that is worse than this in the sense that the relationships are more toxic or gross or contrived (yes Ik it’s hard to believe but I’ve read some f**ked up stuff before). Idk I guess I just never imagined people would bother devoting so much of their life to hate reading a trash slice of life story-

Went to Meijer found a lore ulympus book dreading the day I find a boyfriends book

For a sec I thought this video was dating advice not a comic book review 💀

Every time I'm suffered to see a single line of dialogue from this webtoon, I find another piece of my soul gouging itself out with its own teeth and shitting it out onto Satan's breakfast burrito

Your music choice spooked me. The horn made me think there was an emergency vehicle behind me.

I think my easily entertained brain was so obsessed with the colors and art style that I didn't realize there was actually a form of story, I read the first bit but got bored quickly

The fact that the same author has another webcomic called Girlfriends that’s basically about the Boyfriends group siblings and it’s ACTUALLY GOOD compared to this, i mean its still p bad but compared to Boyfriends it looks like they actually decided to make the relationship more realistic

What I don’t get about the reveal to Goth BF sequence is that the Goth follows with “so you like poly shit?” Last time I checked, if a “polyamorous” relationship is happening on one person’s side without the other three’s knowledge, that’s called cheating. The Goth guys accepting of it because because that’s the quickest way to get everyone on board in the creator’s mind. Because yeah, polyamory is about everyone agreeing to a group relationship; it

I'm not usually into that type of content, but you really make the criticism entertaining 😅

I’ve been waiting for this

Hey Blacklightjack, would you mind making a list of "not forced" lgbtq+ representation that you like? I feel like that would be pretty cool.

I just realized the glasses dude be looking like Ignatz from Fire Emblem Three Houses and the emo dude be looking like Sid from Toy Story if he was redesigned in 2022

Real question: why does Emo gay look like a shadman character?

I find this so funny because I read this comic when I was 9, and I'm a girl, and even I hated this shit, I had no idea what was going on. I was waiting for it to actually have a story, and then it didn't, so I stopped reading, but then again, I'm a weird teen, same for preteen me because even when I was young, I was never gullible. I like things that had essence and an actual story you can never sit me down in front of something that actually had zero story or anything good about it you could ever do that because I get bored and believe me I didn't have the short attention span to get distracted by anything I was watching and not be able to declare if it was good or not and leave it alone so if it's terrible for someone older than me didn't wanna watch I didn't wanna watch it either so yeah I was a weird kid still am 'cause I still operate like this :).

I feel like this comic is more effective than gay conversion therapy ever would be

I like this kind of story. Just simple fun without too much thought put into them. I can't handle it when story talk about serious issues and bad stuff that happens in real life. Things are bad already everywhere I look why would I want to read about them when I can just see cute situations and cuddle. This kind of simple stuff suit me, I don' t need perfect I need comfort and if this is comfort for some people why not 🤷‍♀️

I thought I'd bring this up to give further context on the existence of this comic. Boyfriends creator Refrainbow is a gay trans man from Indonesia, a country (from what I've heard) that isn't the greatest when it comes to social issues like LGBTQ+ and antisemitism. He is not a western member of the community like many of us here with first world LGBTQ+ problems. So, to put things into perspective, this comic is, more likely than not, escapism for gay people like him and others who live in not-so-optimal social environments, hence the vanilla, sickly sweet shipping in these issues. (Doesn't stop the preteen girls of course 😁) Don't get me wrong though, I'm not defending the comic itself. I find it garbage as a bisexual man myself. I was cringing so hard at the dialog in this video that I expressed a face of sheer horror. 😱 So, in conclusion, that's why the comic is like this. I only brought this up, so more people can understand it though it doesn't mean that you have to like it now because I most certainly still don't 😂

There is definitely a problem of webcomics becoming a little repetitive as they become more popular. You have to weed through a ton of basically the same stories to find gems, and even then those few can boil down to similar story beats. Apps like Tapas, Webcomics, Tappytoon, etc, are so filled with main character is from our world but unexpectedly enters a story world, or a game world, or get reincarnated. Some do switch it up a little and have a person from that world reincarnate into their own world but they become someone important, but even then that's not too unique at this point. This isn't completely a critique as I do enjoy the good ones that fall into this category. It's just that the sites are so saturated with them. It's like how the isekai saturation of anime can give us stories like Overlord and Saga of Tanya the Evil but also produce garbage like The Master of Ragnarok.

Your comments about the misunderstanding of the slice of life genre were spot on

iirc both the goth and the nerd are self insert characters

I’m sure I speak for some when I say that this comic is corny. Although the art is alright imo, it’s overshadowed by the writing, reminiscent of a tumblr shipper’s fantasy. I’m not angry, just aggressively disinterested.

“What other word do you use to describe this?” The random Genshin Ad: “My mission-“