The arrival of ‘boys love’ as an emerging phenomenon in the Philippines last year, proved to be a potent opportunity for male-and-male romantic team-ups to thrive across different platforms of television.
Boys’ love series, a form of scripted entertainment, has found niche markets overseas long before it exploded in the local setting. And once it did, the Philippine entertainment scene seemingly took a complete 3600 turn.
On the heels of this cultural phenomenon, love teams emerged. Now portmanteaus are no longer made up of two male and female celebrities, whom social media-dominating fans pay aggressive attention to. The onset of BrightWin (from Thai actors, Bright and Win) craze in the Philippines ultimately led to the development of our very own (local) BL tandems, whose skyrocketing popularity has been largely fueled by the inordinate success of a number of local boys’ love series. Following the path paved by their Thai predecessors, local titles earned extravagant fame, and became convenient venues for new stars and partnerships to emerge.
As massively popular titles; Gameboys, Hello Stranger, BenXJim, and Gaya Sa Pelikula enthralled audiences and more independent production houses hop on the bandwagon of relentlessly producing new boys’ love content. With new titles, come new partnerships. BL love teams rise, but among those that surfaced, we take note of the ones that distinctly possess the capacity to rival traditional love teams like KathNiel and LizQuen. Can these new and experimental pairs get into the Big Leagues? RAWR Pulse wants to know what you think.
Elijah Canlas and Kokoy de Santos
Gameboys’ massive success is largely attributed to the endearing characters its lead cast members, de Santos and Canlas played. The success of the web series paved the way for follow-up individual projects for the two, but the sequel for Gameboys is arguably the two’s most anticipated project in 2021.
Almost eclipsing the onset of the Pinoy BL ‘fandemic’, Gameboys exploded like wildfire across many social media platforms, especially on Youtube, where episodes are made available by TheIdeaFirst Company to global audiences. On Twitter, each episode debut topped trending topic lists, and discussions about the show in many online forums became a testament to the show’s unstoppable popularity. Both Canlas and de Santos have been around the industry prior to the BL team-up, but the popularity they found during and after Gameboys has undoubtedly thrust them to mainstream attention. Their introduction, however, isn’t solely made possible by the aesthetic beauty they created as a pair, but also by their incredible take on their characters, proving their unquestionable caliber as fine actors—which is, in all frankness, very unusual for the BL genre.
While the two briefly made detours in their career, doing separate projects with different partners, Canlas and de Santos are back to each other’s arms this year, to again send their millions of fans into electrifying kilig frenzy, as Gameboys return for its brand new season.
JC Alcantara and Tony Labrusca
This onscreen couple is among ABS-CBN’s answer to the exploding boys’ love market. Hello Stranger premiered in 2020, and unsurprisingly made its mark on the local BL scene emerging as one of the most successful web series of the year. A movie which serves as a sequel is set to keep smitten fans’ attention on them in 2021.
Alcantara, who is among the budding talents of the ABS-CBN talent management arm, Rise Artists, had a number of television drama stints on ABS-CBN. His training with Rise and his exposure to mainstream entertainment has inevitably allowed him to develop as a fine actor, which he ultimately proved with his maiden web series, Hello Stranger.
His partner, Tony Labrusca, on the other hand, had more daring roles and have immersed himself into a number of bigger projects in movies and on television. Through his partnership with Alcantara, Labrusca is able to expand his developing repertoire as an actor.
There is a certain charm in JC’s and Tony’s tandem that really hits in the heart. Hello Stranger seemingly planned to use it for its campaign intended to lure hopeless romantics into witnessing the of story Miko and Xavier, the characters they portray on the series which was endearing. Alcantara’s innocent appeal perfectly matches Labrusca’s masculine elegance, creating a lovely BL couple that fans will most likely swoon for, over and over again. The Hello Stranger movie comes out in February.
Ian Pangilinan and Paolo Pangilinan
Ian Pangilinan and Paolo Pangilinan are both lauded for their portrayal of their exceptionally-written characters on the massive Boys’ love hit, Gaya Sa Pelikula. It must be Severo’s intent to place a pair of two completely different characters at the core of his story, and to the two Pangilinans’ credit, the Karl and Vlad they brought to life are as tangible as any two characters from the extreme ends of the character spectrum can be. A sophomore season is expected to come on the heels of the pilot season’s phenomenal success.
Now both talents of the same management agency, Ian’s and Paolo’s further projects are only expected to continue their tandem, and there are enough indications that it will go even farther, given proper attention and care. Both are relatively new to the business, although Ian has been acting through theater since his college years.
Gaya Sa Pelikula’s distinctive take of its delicate subjects has made fans enamored for both Vlad and Carl, whose journey into their respective forms of freedom provided some sort of answers to those who mostly saw themselves in the pair. The series’ truths became magical enough to keep its faithful audiences witnessing Vlad’s and Carl’s love story, and where it will go in the future.
Which among these lovely BL pairs do you think will make it big in 2021? Get your vote counted now by casting them HERE.
