En of Love: Tossara – Series Review

Gun is a medical student in university. A popular figure on campus, he is the subject of much online gossiping. He has a crush on Bar, an engineering student who went to the same high school. Gun knows Bar's schedule and often follows him to the swimming pool, admiring him from afar. However, he never tries to initiate contact with him.

One day, Bar loses a personal memento at the swimming pool. He posts an online message, hoping to retrieve the lost item. Gun is the one who picked up his belonging. He's excited to finally have an opportunity to talk to his secret crush. When they first meet, Gun immediately gives his love confession. He will only return the missing item if Bar agrees to be his boyfriend.

Gun's bold and sudden love confession takes Bar by surprise. His engineering friends start teasing them playfully. The situation makes Bar uncomfortable and he shrugs off the love confession. However, the rejection doesn't deter Gun, who continues to pursue his crush aggressively. He constantly shows up everywhere, determined to make Bar notice him.

As they spend time together, Bar and Gun start warming up around each other. Gun's persistence pays off and Bar finds himself feeling more comfortable in his presence. However, another complication is Mark, one of Bar's younger acquaintances. Mark also has an obvious crush on Bar, making Gun jealous as he competes against his love rival.

Are you ready for some brutal honesty? En of Love: Tossara is an alarmingly bad BL series that fails to meet standards. The story is pathetic, the romance is dreadful, and the chemistry is nonexistent. Also, the characters are vapid, the interactions are cringeworthy, and the courtship scenes are painful to watch. In addition, the writing is incoherent, the acting is unimpressive, and the entire drama is an amateurish mess.

I could criticize more, but the gist is that En of Love: Tossara has many noticeable flaws. Unsurprisingly, this drama is bombarded with scathing online reviews, which are even harsher than my feedback. To be honest, Tossara probably deserves a lower score than what I gave it. However, I also feel a mix of pity and mercy after seeing all the negativity. Do I think it's the worst that BL has to offer? Not really. The quality might be dismal, but I don't believe En of Love: Tossara is at the bottom of the barrel.

With that said, there's so much I don't enjoy about this En of Love installment. How the romance begins is terribly off-putting. The main character Gun needs to tone down his aggressive and relentless flirting style. He makes a creepy first impression by stalking his love interest and taking photographs of him asleep. Gun also gives embarrassingly over-the-top proclamations of love, even though he just introduced himself to this stranger. Bar explicitly tells his weird harasser to eff off, but Gun has thick skin and hangs around like a bacterial virus. You can't get rid of him!

What makes the scenes worse is Bar's friends. Bar is clearly uncomfortable with the advances, but his friends egg on the situation like it's a joke to them. They laugh off his concerns and mock him for getting hit on by a guy. There's a mean-spirited vibe to their repetitive exchanges, even though they're intended to be the comic relief. Also, the bloated supporting cast makes all these irrelevant characters interchangeable. The only people you need to remember are Bar, Gun, and maybe Mark. Everyone else serves no importance to the plot.

This drama shows little originality and constantly rehashes overused tropes in BL. We must endure annoying subplots that romanticizes jealousy and possessiveness. There's also an underdeveloped love triangle, presenting shallow conflicts that do nothing to advance the plot. The storylines become more tolerable in the later episodes, maybe because the bar is already set so low. In Episode 3, Gun delivers an awkward monologue that offers surprising insights into his character. It's faint praise, but En of Love: Tossara reveals a bit of promise for the first time.

Tossara commences the En of Love trilogy, chronologically followed by Love Mechanics and This Is Love Story. While the writing is just as awful in those series, at least they're salvaged by charismatic actors. Sadly, Tossara's leads are devoid of charm and enthusiasm, unable to resuscitate the dry, lifeless plot. The blame doesn't only fall on their bland performances, because almost everything about this drama is woefully underwhelming. En of Love: Tossara might not be the worst BL in history, but its quality falls significantly below acceptable.