First I'll say that from a technical aspect, The Shipper is impressively well put together. Combined with good pacing, the show has a generally attractive and easy-to-watch style. Sometimes you watch a (GMMTV) show and are hit by a feeling of awkwardness or emptiness from a given composition, dialogue, or blocking. To its advantage, The Shipper is especially polished.

For approximately 11 episodes, I honestly thought The Shipper was somewhat of a mini-masterpiece. I had my gripes about it from time to time but as an overall show it's funny, crazy, and engaging. I've seen people say that the humor was over-the-top but because I watched it with a friend we had a ball. Sometimes for a show like this, over-the-top and absurd is a good thing. You can't have a show about fujoshis and not get crazy with the comedy. It keeps a good ironic air about the show's themes.

The Shipper somehow also managed to get so sad in episode 11 that I was crying like I watched someone die in real life. I love devastating media maybe because I'm a water sign or something but a successful tearjerker is the best in my opinion. Even though I could already tell Kim was dead by the time The Angel of Death said it, hearing the confirmation was a mega DAMN moment. The following scenes with Khett and Way are something you don't get often in comedy. Kim's death not being a fake-out also isn't something you get often with comedy. Unlike everyone else I actually really appreciated that they had the guts to kill him and keep him dead. Adding that kind of realism to an otherwise over-the-top and absurd show is especially impactful.

I see a lot of complaints about the romance aspect of the show. First of all, needing to neatly categorize things as BL or not and judging a show entirely on whether or not it fits your idea of BL is kind of insane. Like you're just blatantly a fujoshi if you're at that point. I have seen a more rationally-based critique of Kim and Way's story and its tragic end, a well-known and much-hated trope within LGBT media. While I honestly understand this critique, I feel like The Shipper was just unfortunate that Kim and Way were the only same-sex pairing and the tragedy had to hit them. The relationship between the two was (miraculously) well-navigated for a show like this one. We dodged the bullet of Way being in love with Pan unknowingly, we found out that Kim also loved Way before he died, and the relationship between the two had proper dimension and meaning. I don't agree with the sentiment that The Shipper is another case of "fake BL" or "technical het", nor did it feel like a case of "bury your gays".

For me, The Shipper would maintain a solid 10 stars with all this considered. But there are some glaring issues that cause major deductions. It's fairly early on in the show that we find out Kim is in a relationship with his teacher for access to exam answer keys. This is handled ABYSMALLY by the show writers. Pan, albeit a teenager who is yet to have fully developed a moral compass and sense of nuance, irkingly brands Kim a terrible person because he's been cheating in school. Maybe, in some universe, the worst thing in the eyes of one kid is seeing another kid cheat, but in my universe where I went to grade school for 12 years and lived as a teenager, I can't say my mindset ever aligned with Pan's. This is so reminiscent of the scene in The Gifted where Namtarn finds out Wave was being groomed by a teacher who stole his intellectual work, and her first reaction was "You got her fired?!?!?!?" like wow what a takeaway. It's not a cultural thing either. Grooming in media, specifically the student-teacher thing, is too often portrayed as a non-issue or a minor issue. For the way Pan handled that situation, I was already ready to deduct maybe 2 stars from the overall rating.

Then there's what I thought was the most glaring issue in the show, but I never see it get talked about seriously. They legitimately had Khett kiss his brother's body. I can't ever describe the reaction my friend and I had to watching that kiss happen in real time. We really didn't think they'd do it. At worst, we thought they'd switch the actors out so it was Prigkhing standing in for First. But they didn't switch. Absolutely insane. For that alone I honestly contemplate giving the show a 1 star rating.

Honestly the biggest insult to injury was seeing that fucking teacher show up again at the end. She got a happy ending by finding love with someone her age, which the narration describes as "not making the same mistakes". She should have been dragged off screen in handcuffs. I cannot believe she showed up to that boy's funeral. The only acceptable ending for her was in jail or dead. I can't wrap my head around the way The Shipper portrayed what is, completely and absolutely, a predator. And the show was doing well in all other aspects for 11 whole episodes. I was even able to look past (albeit barely) the Angel of Death's creepy love for teenage boys, since a young audience has young taste and that's reflected in the ageless inhuman angel character. But episode 12 had the craziest double whammy that honestly ruined the show for me.

I did love most of the show. I honestly thought it was excellent. There are just some things that I can't forgive morally. For that reason I can't even recommend the show either. It was the most disappointing case of ruining-a-perfectly-good-thing I've ever seen. That being said I don't regret watching, so all things considered I give The Shipper 5 stars.