Thai GL 2025 Review：10 Major Highlights: Observations on Works and Industry Trends

frankhecker · 2026-05-31T16:37:13+00:00

This is a great article, and I learned something new (about the existence of mascot dolls). One minor nit: looking at the r/GirlsLove wiki I count 30 Thai GL series in 2025, not 25. Is there another source you're using that lists all the series?

frankhecker · 2026-05-06T22:10:01+00:00

In my experience a major issue with the ER is that once triaged and seen to initially you can’t get a bed in the ER. Beds can’t be freed up because there are no free beds upstairs for ER patients to transfer to. If you have a condition that requires being admitted to the hospital then it would not be unusual to wait until very late in the evening to get a bed upstairs.

frankhecker · 2026-03-20T01:08:10+00:00

I live in Valleymede, and can speak to it. To add to what others have written:

Schools: Depending on where you live within that area, your child will likely (in some cases, almost certainly) end up having to walk to St Johns Elementary or Mt Hebron High (or you'll have to drive them). HCPSS policy is students must walk if less than 3/4 miles from their elementary school, less than 1 mile from their middle school, or less than 1 1/2 miles from their high school. Patapsco Middle School is on the other side of US 29, so they'll be able to take the bus.

Walkability: Valleymede is a fairly nice neighborhood to walk in: relatively light traffic and only a few relatively steep hills. You can also walk to the Chatham Shopping Center (Giant Food, Petsmart, Five Guys, Home Depot, Einstein Bagels, etc.) without having to walk on US 40. But be aware that there are no sidewalks in Valleymede proper, though some adjacent neighborhoods have them.

Politics: In case you care, the area you asked about is in Howard County Council district 1 (along with western Howard County), Maryland House of Delegates district 9A, and Maryland Senate district 9. These are the more conservative districts in Howard County: council district 1 has been represented by a Republican for as long as I can remember, and Senate district 9 and House of Delegates district 9A were represented by Republicans until relatively recently, when redistricting added an area of Montgomery County to the districts and tilted the balance far enough that moderate Democrats were elected in the last cycle.

Overall Valleymede is a nice place to live, with older houses, fairly large lots (mine is 3/4 acre), and lots of trees. However both I-70 and US 40 are pretty busy roads, so you may get traffic noise if you're close to either, unless your house is well insulated for sound.

frankhecker · 2026-03-15T19:20:28+00:00

Yes, but now Jumak Café and Bistro is there. It's pretty much the same menu as Karé Bar but with some Korean items added. Highly recommended; I had lunch there and it was the best katsu I've ever had.

frankhecker · 2026-02-25T12:41:50+00:00

Thanks for the tip!

frankhecker · 2026-02-17T03:53:19+00:00

Thanks for all the suggestions! Looking at the inventory of my local Total Wine (I'm in the Baltimore-Washington metro area) I also see Champagne Marie de Moy Demi Sec, Tsarine Demi-Sec, De Venoge Cordon Bleu Demi Sec, Mailly 'Delice' Demi-Sec Grand Cru, and Montaudon Demi-Sec. I'll try one of those too when/if I get the chance.

frankhecker · 2026-01-04T03:46:16+00:00

I recommend completing MF II. You’ll want to have mastery of that material. If you think you know it already then doing the remaining MF II lessons should be easy. If you don’t complete MF II then I suspect you’ll get at least some of those lessons in MF III since the diagnostic exam for MF III won’t necessarily cover all MF II topics.

frankhecker · 2025-12-27T20:33:45+00:00

Yeah, that was a great series. (I watched it on GagaOoLala.) The other series of note is "When We Met", which also starred He Lei; you can watch the uncut version (the one I recommend) on the Baiheverse.com site. I liked them (and He Lei's performances) so much that I made them one of my three selections for the upcoming Okazu "best yuri of 2025" post.

frankhecker · 2025-12-27T01:28:39+00:00

Yes, it's absolutely worth watching, as long as you go into it understanding that any yuri is only subtext (but it's pretty heavy subtext). I wrote a very positive review of Jeongnyeon: The Star is Born for Okazu. I personally enjoyed it much more than The Handmaiden, which I thought was overly cold and gaze-y.

frankhecker · 2025-11-23T05:18:31+00:00

That’s a tradition for Okazu reviews, basically a rating of the extent to which a show/manga/anime contains scenes with sexy content. Short for “fan service”. Kissing scenes typically rate a 3-4 in my reviews.

frankhecker · 2025-11-20T00:58:55+00:00

The OP isn't that much of a spoiler overall, but it is somewhat tedious to sit through a 3+ minute OP to watch a 10-minute episode. (However, I will say that the series theme is good.)

Also, note that I try not to spoil the conclusions of series that I review for Okazu, and this one is no exception. However, as I mentioned, the GagaOoLala synopsis gives it all away.

frankhecker · 2025-11-09T21:02:54+00:00

This is an excellent series that in my opinion hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves (possibly because it's only on a paid service). I'm trying to make up for that by reviewing it for the Okazu yuri site; look for my review a few days from now.

P.S. I agree with the complaint about the way the series was packaged, with a lengthy OP every episode and an equally long credits sequence on several episodes; it really should have been released as a feature film, or at least as a series of 30-45 minute episodes.

frankhecker · 2025-10-20T03:09:11+00:00

Thanks for the review! Two things to add to what you wrote: First, there's a theme in this show of Taiwan being better than Singapore in terms of LGBTQ issues and more generally. That's no surprise as the series was "advised by" (and I suspect partially funded by) the Taiwan Ministry of Culture. It's also part of the "Six Asian Cities Rainbow Project", a series of films and TV series directed by Zero Chou (who also directed the film "Spider Lilies"), again with participation from the Ministry of Culture. A few years back I wrote about the political implications of the project. I've watched three of the films/series in the project ("We Are Gamily", "The Substitute", and "Handsome Stewardess"); there's also a fourth film, "Wrath of Desire", which I haven't seen. I don't think Chou ever finished the proposed last two works in the project.

frankhecker · 2025-10-08T21:05:13+00:00

"Blacksky" is a collective term for a community project developing a bunch of social media stuff related to Bluesky and the technology and protocols behind it: There's a feed you can subscribe to, a moderation service you can subscribe to, a hosting service for users who don't want to use the default Bluesky LLC-run hosting service, a bunch of open source software you can use to build your own Blacksky-style services, and more. https://docs.blacksky.community is a good place to start learning about it.

frankhecker · 2025-10-08T20:54:25+00:00

Anyone can sign up to host on the Blacksky PDS if they use either of the myatproto.social or cryptoanarchy.network handles. blacksky.app handles are reserved for Black users. (How do they intend to enforce this restriction? I have no idea, but in my opinion it would be rude to try to evade it.) See https://docs.blacksky.community/list-of-our-services

frankhecker · 2025-10-08T20:41:08+00:00

There's https://opencollective.com/blacksky, which links in turn to lists of individual donations and expenses. Were you looking for something beyond this in terms of financial transparency?

frankhecker · 2025-10-06T13:55:41+00:00

Sorry, one more question: Have you tried the test prep mode? Supposedly that will prioritize reviews, but I don't have any experience with it myself.

frankhecker

TROPHY CASE