BJ Alex

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BJ Alex is the first manhwa written by Mingwa, and arguably one of the most popular BL manhwa of all time. Does it live up to the hype? Definitely.

BJ Alex is about Dong Gyun, a gay man who is a huge fan of a cam boy that goes by the name of "BJ Alex" (clever title reference ik), Dong Gyun shortly finds out that BJ Alex is actually Ahn Jiwon, the student council president of the college that Dong Gyun goes to, and then their relationship goes on from there.

BJ Alex is the manhwa that popularized BLs and yaoi, and for good reason. The character ... development for both of the main cast is excellent, and the story flows very smoothly with it. It doesn't feel rushed at all, and instead takes it time to tell it's story and characters in a way that's truly refreshing.

I will say that the story definitely felt cliche at first, and does feel boring to people who have already read other BLs, as well as that except for Chanwoo and MD, the other side characters aren't really touched upon in the slightest. But this manhwa definitely had more pros than cons imo.

If you would like to get into yaoi or just BL manhwa in general, BJ Alex is definitely an excellent start.

I'm not entirely sure why people bloated this manhwa up so much. Maybe that's because of TikTok making "BJ Alex" a meme of some kind a while ago, so even non-manhwa readers started reading and hyping it up as a joke (but I think it's not a joke anymore, seeing people fighting in the comments everywhere protecting main characters by cyberbullying anyone with even a slight hint of dislike towards "BJ Alex").
I think the rating, 8,20/10 as of the moment, is not fair for this manhwa. And this is why:

1) Story 5/10
The story is not that bad, it is just sheerly mediocre. Some people might ... say it is awful because of all the rape episodes, but I don't think that is the main problem. In my life, I've seen many traumatizing-able things, so I don't find rape or emotional abuse to necessarily worsen the plot and make the book immediately repugnant, since it may be needed to build up some characters' background and relay how they turned up screwed or mentally unstable. The problem with "BJ Alex" is that such scenes were not needed, which makes the author seem to be romanticizing such things. That affects the enjoyment more than the story itself, and the plot, as I've stated before, is your average love story's plot. 5/10 it is.

2) Art 8/10
Well, as an artist, I must admit that the artwork is pretty clean. I also really liked seeing the monochrome coloring style first time in a while reading manhwas. The author's art style is pretty easily distinguishable, which is a good thing. I don't think the artwork is exceptional though, hence, I've put 8/10 for that.

3) Characters 5/10
What "BJ Alex" has to offer its readers is:
-an emotionally unavailable toxic camboy with commitment and abandonment issues (main character)
-a naive, sentimental, and sweet cinnamon roll, totally not a simp (main character)
-a BDSM camboy daddy (side character)
-a submissive and breedable BDSM enthusiast with too much libido and energy (side character)
It seems that the 1st rule of most romance manhwas is to make side characters and their storylines more engaging than the actual main characters. Yeah, the main characters are well-written but are way too average and predictably simple, and the side characters are so good that it sucks in here to not be able to see more of them, therefore, it's pretty much obvious that the author didn't use up all the potential of these two. Such a loss. Overall the mark is 5/10 because most of the time the readers see the classical quarrels of classically written main characters, which is usual for romance manhwas.

4) Enjoyment 2/10
A mediocre story on par with mediocre characters would make the manhwa pretty boring as it is, but what a piece of luck - this manhwa also romanticizes rape, toxic relationships, and abuse and gains so much recognition out of that. Every work must have its charms, but I don't enjoy how things escalated in this one. Yup... I fancy the side characters' storyline though. 2/10 for me.

The overall score is 5/10. If you want to read something good, there are way better manhwas than this one, but, I guess, you may want to spare some time on "BJ Alex" for the sake of side characters.

Mild spoilers: This is yet another case of a good BL story that has been tainted by an abundance of unnecessary non-consensual sexual encounters. Basically, the ML is a huge fan of BJ Alex who is a famous cam boy and content streamer. They begin to have a sexual relationship on very unequal footing and BJ Alex takes to punishing him with rape whenever he’s feeling (needlessly) insecure about their relationship.
And yes, of course the relationship evolves into a loving one. That’s the entire point, right? The protagonist tames the bad boy. But why does BJ Alex have to be a rapist? Surely in ... this day and age there are LESS people who want to read about someone getting raped that the latter? Furthermore, the author of this Manhwa went on to write Jinx which I had to drop in the first few chapters because it has EVEN MORE rape than BJ Alex. Like why? Also, for what? The last 30% of the chapters are so damn cute. It really sucks that the author chose to make BJ Alex so completely un-redeemable in my eyes.
Anywho, I’m mad about it. The ML’s best friend, Chanwoo seemed to be the only one trying to hold BJ Alex accountable for being scum even though Chanwoo didn’t actually even know the worst of it. Thusly, Chanwoo is MVP.