Summary:
It is not simply a boy loves girl story or even a boy loves boy story. It is a story that is positive about homosexual attraction and transgender identity and sensitive about gender dysphoria if we go beyond the surface.

Full Review:
It's easy for BL fans to be irritated by shows that lure fujoshis and fudanshis with false promises of BL only to disappoint them with what is ultimately just a "boy loves girl who is dressed as boy" story.

The good news: this show is different.

To be sure, there isn't a conventional gay couple in this series, and there is hardly a male/male kissing scene, let alone male/male sex scenes. If these are deal breakers, then the show isn't for you.

However, this isn't a show that toys with the idea of homosexual romance only to disappoint by normalizing heterosexual relationships.

In the story, Love is a girl who is granted a wish but unexpectedly transforms into a guy. She then enrolls in the same school for boys as her crush. If your prediction of the story is the same as mine, it will be: Love's crush then falls in love with her and becomes anxious about why he is turning "gay" but is eventually relieved to realize that he's straight after all because she becomes female again; then happily ever after.

No, that's not what happens. (Thankfully.)

In fact, Love's crush does not fall in love with her. Another male student does. And she falls in love with him too.

Now, you might be thinking: that may be a bit of a twist, but it substitutes the original crush with a different love interest, right?

Well, no. Tangmo, the male student who falls in love with Love (who has transformed into a guy) neither identifies himself as a gay person at first nor exhibits the run-of-the-mill "OMG! Am I becoming gay?" hysterics. Later in the story, he does not shy from *very* publicly admitting that he is in love with a guy and doesn't deny it when he is described as a gay person.

Unlike shows in which the main female character disguises herself as a boy, a twist of fate causes Love's transformation to be permanent unless she manages to get another wish. (The "male" Love is played by a male actor, and it's not a cross-dressing female actor playing the role, so it is not at all like a disguise which can easily be shed.) Which brings us to another dimension of the story: Love still identifies as female but she now has a male body. She does fall in love with Tangmo, but is worried that he would not be able to accept it if she ever gets another wish to transform back into a girl, which is what she wants.

Despite the overall lightheartedness of the story, it sensitively conveys the angst of those with gender dysphoria and how much difference acceptance from others makes. The "male" Love spends a lot of time hiding her gender identity and her agony is clear when she realizes that her transformation has become permanent. But after her male buddies discover her true self, they quite quickly accept her for who she is. She is worried about revealing to her mother that she has become a boy, but her mother is accepting of her child regardless of what the child has become. These situations remind us that it is agonizing enough to be trapped in a body that differs from the gender you identify with, but if people are accepting, you can cope much better.

At the end of the series, Love does not transform back into a girl because she uses the wish she has overcome all odds to get to save Tangmo's life. She confesses to Tangmo that she loves him too, but is worried that he would not love her any more if she becomes female. He assures her that he would love her even if she becomes female again. This is where BL fans may be dissatisfied because, well, Love may have a male body but she still wants to turn into a woman right. Yet, if this is how we think, aren't we being somewhat prejudiced?

There may be a lot of series with better BL storylines (Love Sick, SOTUS, Love by Chance, etc). But, ironically, many of them also portray effeminate and transgender characters negatively. There are not many that convey positive messages about queerness in the way that GMA does.