Choose Your Own BL Adventure

The World’s First and Only Interactive BL Series

Have you ever had that feeling of frustration when your favorite character in a series just doesn’t get it? Those times when you think that they should have spoken a word, acted in a certain way, or even see another character in a different light? Well, I have. But wait, we can only cry out in exasperation as we see the series that we follow go in directions that are sometimes not totally to our liking. We know that the script rules the characters written the scriptwriters and told how to act by the directors who mostly leave us with cliffhangers that push us to count down the days until the next episode. We are totally under their control, whims, or fancies. Are we really constricted to just that – being mere viewers?

—Edited by TheFNGee

Now, think about the innumerable possibilities in the script of a Boys Love series. Hell, any series where the audience has the option to interact and help shape the story as it unfolds live across their screens. That’s exactly the concept being introduced by Firestarter Productions and the Filipino Live Streaming Platform, Kumu. The Pinoy mobile application is an app where you can meet friends within the Kumunity, get paid to become a live streamer and win cash prizes by playing live games. The Kumunity (community, get it?) is powered by artists, educators, and everyday Filipinos, sharing their stories around the world through their own Livestream channels. Seeing the diverse potential of the platform, the thinktank behind Firestarter Productions thought of the idea of engaging realtime audience, fans, and followers to a Boys Love series. These stories will feature some of the freshest faces in the Philippine entertainment industry, coincidentally, doing their first BL project and a milestone as the first in the World to make the whole experience interactive.

Meet Thirdy, played by Pinoy Big Brother Otso alumnus, Sky Quizon. With a striking resemblance to 2gether’s Win Metawin, a lot of Filipino fans have been tagging Sky on social media about the possibility of his being in a BL series. The host, actor, has been mum about this project until the first teaser poster was released early this month. Thirdy, as Sky described him during the MediaCon event, is a young man in the search for love as he faces the challenges of the Pandemic with his other three friends. A hopeless romantic, let us see what Thirdy has to offer.

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Next in the roster of hotties is Showtime’s Bidaman alum, Kristof Garcia. The hunk, superman lookalike, portrays Varsity Basketball player Bench, who is the girl magnet of this foursome. The most talkative among the four during the media conference event, Kristof is no stranger to online dating as he talked about a failed, past relationship to someone he met online five years ago.

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Another discovery from one of the Philippines’ biggest media network’s string of reality talent shows is Allen Cecilio from Pinoy Boy Band Superstar, a boyband forming competition that was pattered from Simon Cowell’s La Banda. While Allen failed to nail one of the top 5 spots to make him one of the members of BoyBandPH, he is definitely cut-out for the role of Dean in KUMUsta Bro. Dean is described as a nerdy and preppy guy whose character is not as clean-cut as you might think. Hmmm, looking at his character shoot, doesn’t he kind of remind you of Type from the TharnType Series?

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Completing the four gorgeous young men that make up this eclectic group of friends who are all looking to find their love interests is RJ Agustin, actor, singer, and producer who, from the media con, seems to be the elder statesman of the group. He was previously seen in the movies, Kabisera, 1^st ko si 3^rd, and the multi-awarded historical film, General Luna. He plays Cerwin in KUMUsta Bro, a young entrepreneur who knows and gets what he wants.

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KUMUsta Bro is groundbreaking. The element of interaction from KUMU app users that will help in shaping these characters’ journeys is a welcome and ingenious approach to viewing media, especially in this time of the Pandemic. While there is a backbone to the story and a framework script, users of the app get to interact and view the happenings in realtime. The episode will then be uploaded to their Official YouTube channel.

To say I am excited about the interaction between these lookers is an understatement. Knowing that I can help manage the course of their choices though games, polls, surveys, and other forms of interaction make me ecstatic.

Directed by Real Florida, KUMUsta Bro will start the BL Week as they launch their first episode on July 20th, 2020, on the KUMU app via Live Streaming at 9:30 PM and will encore at the Firestarter Official YouTube Page.

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