We Best Love: Forever the First (2021)

We need more of this

This is a BL, it is a yaoi. Yet it doesn’t feel like it. And that is a good thing

Most BL’s are over saturated with healthy and unrealistic relationships. But man, between the two male leads is the most compelling and heartwarming relationship I’ve seen from a BL.

The characters react like people really do, and regardless of gender the couple is a favorite of mine.

Without the over sexual themes or the relationship stemming from lust, it’s realistic and compassionate. The reactions between the two is way more entertaining to watch other than two guys making out. The story has depth and my only complaint is that it wasn’t long enough. There is a second season, so I hope it fills some questions I have

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Sam is the Master of Pining

Foundational Romance Tropes? Enemies to lovers + long term pining + sunshine/tsundere

There’s some pretty epic pining in BL, and while Sarawat certainly wins for Thailand and Kurosawa for Japan, Gao Shi De pines for Olympic gold in We Best Love. The way he looks at fierce kitten Zhou Shu Yi broke my heart.

Is there a better pairing than soft af seme and tough af uke? Not in my book (probably because my book started with 90s yaoi.)

The story line is compressed and watered down because this is Korean BL so each season is too short. But the acting and production values are top notch, and in the end the performances are so good they entirely sweep away a flawed plot and thin narrative arc. It’s rare for me to like a show DESPITE the story, We Best Love stands with To My Star as one of the few. It's GREAT.

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Even better than expected!

Wow! Loved this! New favorite for sure.
I only have good things to say. For an enemies to lovers it's not much of a slow burn which is nice. Sam and Yu's chemistry is incredible.
I thought the pacing was really good. There's not too much insistance on stuff that we maybe don't care too much to see like Shu Yi's initial crush.
I love getting to see Shu Yi go from angry and hurt to a soft marshmallow, he's so sweet. As for Shi De, that boy is instantly so loveable. Shi De's mom is also such a nice character.
The soundtrack is really nice as well, I mean it's all just really good. Watch it, seriously.

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I just finished it and I'm thinking of rewatching it again

Out of all BL series I have watched, this one for sure is on the top of the list. It was better than I was expecting because I never thought a six-episode series would have touched the deepest places of my heart. The story was not even that complex, but the thing that made this series special is the delivery of characters by Sam Lin as Gao Shi De and YU as Zhou Shu Yi.
The very first thing I find when watching romance is the chemistry between main leads and this one delivers it very well. Their expressions and the bickering between characters were on point. And the kissing scenes were amazing. (It's pretty rare in BL since most of you can find were very lackluster but this one was just *chef's kiss*. )
So when watching, their relationship seems very real because the overall production was great and I was sooooo moved. I need more of them!

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Great Boy love <3

I genuinely enjoyed this series all the way through. The only reason I didn't rate it higher is because I do feel as though it may be lacking in story just a little bit. I would've loved for there to be more to the plot than what there was. I like what plot is there though, I like the idea of them pretty much being rivals their whole lives. I just wish we could've gone more in depth with it. I still really liked it a lot and stayed very entertained throughout the series. The way the relationship between the two main characters blossoms is something that I can really appreciate because not all gay relationships start off with both partners liking men. I think it's possible to not completely understand your own sexuality, especially when you grow up believing and being told one thing is right. However, I'm very happy that they both can realize their feelings for each other. I would talk about the second season on here but I think I'll write a separate review on that because although I still enjoyed season 2, I don't think I liked it quite as much as this one.. which I'm pretty sure is how most people feel lol.

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Decent Watch

My favorite part about this drama was the chemistry between the two main characters. I could genuinely feel the love and heartbreak that both characters experienced with others and each other. The music was also fantastic with the main song sung by Yu and the sweet instrumentals. However, the story was pretty weak. Everything is really rushed since there's only 6 episodes, so we don't get enough time to fully explore their relationship as well as the rest of the cast. I think the drama would've benefited greatly from this, especially with what they were trying to set up for season 2. I ended up binging this though, so I would say it's a decent watch.

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A masterpiece

This is a masterpiece for sure. It' my favorite BL drama of 2021 and for good reason. This drama will give you all the feels. The romance is on point and so is the entire drama. If you haven't started this yet then you need to!

STORY
The story is pretty simple. It is an enemies turned lovers story, which is always a good one. It's not something overly complicated. They kept it simple which is nice because 6 episodes is not that long. The main flaw is that it's a very short drama so some things are rushed. If it was maybe 2 episodes longer I think it would have been perfect.

ACTING/CAST
The casting is very well done. Sam is a great actor who has been in multiple series so from him I kind of knew what to expect (although it was better than expected). Yu is completely new to acting and he did an amazing job. The best part of the acting was definitely the chemistry that the two leads have. I don't know how they made it happen but it feels so real.

MUSIC
The music is well done. Yu is the singer of one of the main tracks as well as Alex Chou and it just sounds good.

REWATCH VALUE
I have already rewatched it like a few times so is there more that needs to be said.

OVERALL
Just an amazing drama. If you haven't started watching this then do it quick it's definitely worth your time.

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It's a nice series!

(Warning: Spoilers!)

I find it really cute how Gao Shi De likes Zhou Shu Yi but that Zhou Shu Yi hates him because Gao Shi De is always on the first place with everything.

Later when Gao Shi De has a video of Zhou Shu Yi of him saying bad things about his friends he blackmailed him to be his 'follower', on this moment I thought that it was gonna be a toxic relationship but it wasn't.

The series was funny and cute. I thought that the end was good but then Gao Shi De is going to America for 2 months because the mom is gonna remarry but instead of 2 months it became 2 years... The series was very good and I loved it but the end was kinda unexpected. I hope that season 2 is gonna and well.

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Best school love BL I've seen so far

I normally don't give 10/10 for everything when it comes to a show or movie but with this one, I just had to. There is really not much to say aside from a very well-known and used trope done well. The story was simple, and straight to the point with little bits of funny, sweet, and painful moments. The music tracklist fit well and the acting did not make me cringe at all. All the actors sold their roles perfectly and made it really enjoyable for me to want to rewatch it again and again.

What I do wish for is more backstory on Shi De's cousin (which I know we see a little bit more of in season 2) but it still left a few gaps here and there. I wanted to know more about his backstory, more about his relationship with Shi De. They did do the character justice in portraying his inability to feel.

I love the way the series began, a little school rivalry turned into an amazing love story for the two boys. There wasn't too much dragging on from Shu Yi's side while he came to terms with his feelings for Shi De. I understand, coming to terms with your feelings and understanding them doesn't happen overnight but I've also seen stories where it's dragged on long enough to create more misunderstandings or have other people swoop in and steal the other. For a school love, it was well balanced in my opinion.

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One fell first and the other fell harder

This has been on my PTW for a while, and I am so happy I finally got around to watching it. The plot is nothing special (unrequited love rivals to lovers), but I really loved the execution. The pacing of the story was very nice as well, it didn’t seem rushed, and it didn’t drag on. The twists were nicely placed, allowing the story to progress at a consistent pace.

Gao Shi De & Zhou Shu Yi: their dynamics are interesting. They both appear to be talented and intelligent, sporty, but also quite competitive. They come from different backgrounds, but that didn’t really play a big role in their story. I liked their dynamics, because even if Zhou Shu Yi tried to pull pranks on Gao Shi De, none of them would cause serious damage. And Gao Shi De just went with it, knowing full well who was behind them. He fell first, but Zhou Shu Yi was the one that fell harder. They say you realize what you have once you lose it, and we would see that. Their relationship developed at a nice pace. I like the fact that the two have know each other for a long time. The two actors have great chemistry and I think they are both great at portraying emotions.

I liked their friends a lot too. They might have not had that much screen time, but they really showed themselves to be supportive and understanding. They had good advice to give too. Peu Shou Yi was an interesting character. I really want to learn more about his story, there seems to be an intriguing past. And Gao Shi De’s mom is so sweet! I really liked her too.

The locations were beautiful, as was the OST. While some of the scenes take place in dark places, the screen didn’t get too dark and I was still able to see everything that was going on, which is an aspect that is often overlooked.

I do think the series was a bit short though, but it wasn’t too bothersome.

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Not enough going on for my taste

Story-wise, this series has good potential to be interesting: rivals-to-lovers tropes tend to be very exciting since they usually start with mutual respect (even when it's reluctant!) and it leaves room for character development and introspection.
In this case, the writers decided to neglect that potential entirely. I was hoping that the series would get better despite that, but instead it felt like the story never developed a distinct flavor. Most events happened without me having much of a reaction, simply because they felt like they were meant to fill up space and nothing else.
The actors were decent, I'd say, but the characters weren't explored and their relationships were barely portrayed. Shu Yi is supposed to be a very close childhood friend of Zheng Wen and Yu Xin, but judging on their scenes together I'd barely consider them acquaintances; there are a couple moments of them teasing each other that are probably meant to show that they're close, but these elements are way too inconsistent to amount to something.
Unfortunately, the relationship between Shu Yi and Shi De is also damaged by this. I don't want to give further details and risk spoiling anything, so I'll just say that the chemistry was nowhere to be found.
The finale was also extremely unsatisfying. It didn't feel like an ending at all, and what's worse is that, since I've seen the teaser to the second season, it made me lose all the interest I had in this series.

I might be biased because of the high rating, but to be honest I expected much better. I'm glad to see that this series reached its ideal audience, I guess, but to me it felt flavorless, which is quite bad when compared to the multiple amazing Taiwanese BLs out there.

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