Normally I like to keep reviews spoiler-free, but I can't review this show without talking about the ending.

The majority of this show is a fun, lighthearted BL that doesn't take itself too seriously. Not as good as the other installments of HIStory, but still pretty good as far as BL's are concerned. When I say "fun" I really mean it -- there was some dark subject matter but for the most part it was just silly and fun. The main character is an impulsive ball of chaos who you can't help but fall in love with, even if they start the show out with some dumb trope where he bullies the guy he's about to fall in love with.

The side couple in this one really isn't for me. It's a 17 year old and a whole grown adult. I'm not here for that -- especially when the 17 year old is so immature. He acted more like a toddler than a teenager.

But I really enjoyed this show for the first 8 episodes. It was fun, quick paced, with a little drama but never anything too serious or permanent. I also felt like they did a decent job of dealing with parental homophobia -- showing some harsh realities without making the story too much of a downer. (Because look -- we have enough downer movies and shows about gay men being rejected by their families. Ok?)

And then we get to Episode 9. Episode 9 is weird because the show feels like it should have ended, but it keeps rambling along. If you don't know ahead of time that there's a sad ending, it honestly feels like they've just shoved some fanservice in at the end or something. The plot has already ended. All of the conflict has been resolved. There's not possibly anywhere else they could take it -- is there?

Basically, they try to introduce new conflict at the end of Episode 9. Yu Xi Gu gets hit by a car (PRESUMABLY, because we NEVER ACTUALLY SEE THIS HAPPEN) then Episode 10 opens six years later on a depressed, lifeless Hao Ting clearly unrecovered from Yu Xi Gu's death. Or -- did he die? There's a character Hao Ting meets with who looks like Yu Xi Gu, but acts NOTHING alike and doesn't seem to remember having any history with Hao Ting. There's two theories here: either Yu Xi Gu is dead and Hao Ting met his lookalike, who he can't let go of despite being nothing like his dead lover, OR Yu Xi Gu is alive but lost his memory that day, and his aunt used that opportunity to fake his death rather than admitting to the world he was gay.

Let me be very clear here: either option is bad writing. This came out of nowhere, had no build up, and completely killed the mood of the rest of the show. I'm serious that if you haven't watched this yet, you should stop halfway through Episode 9. Don't bother with the rest. You don't need to -- the story is really over there, they just tried to stretch it out so they could make a sequel. Also -- throughout this show, Hao Ting insists that he's "straight, just in love with Yu Xi Gu." I assumed because this is HIStory that they were going to subvert that old trope and show that in the end, he's actually Bi or Pan or something. Or maybe he's gay but in denial. But no. After Yu Xi Gu dies (or loses his memory), Hao Ting ends up with a woman, with no further discussion about him actually not being straight. It's a sad day when HIStory reverts to one of the dumbest tropes in all of BL.

But why do they need a sequel? What made the other HIStory installments so good is that they're encapsulated little stories that don't drag on for any longer than the story needs. Why start doing sequels now, with the weakest installment in the series? Prior to this installment, I felt like HIStory was one of the few BL's that were actually trying to tell queer stories. Now it just feels like normal BL fodder. I like normal BLs, don't get me wrong, but HIStory really had some quality to it that it seems to have lost. Ah well. Life moves on.