YMMV / Boyfriends.

• Adorkable: There's several examples in the main cast alone.
  • Prep's obliviousness to flirtations and easily embarrassed nature makes him Endearingly Dorky whenever he interacts with his boyfriends.
  • Nerd is as the name suggests, very geeky in his obsessions with anime, pop groups, and awkward but usually successful attempts at flirting. All these traits and more make him loved both in and out of universe.
  • Goth is normally the one teasing the other boys for their dorkiness and puts on a façade of aloofness. This doesn't stop him from getting occasionally flustered by Nerd and he's been shown to get very into gaming.
• Awesome Ego: Prep GF is extremely confident and determined to beat Prep BF in popularity. Given that she's very successful in both her streaming career and her love life, she has good reason to think she can.
• Creepy Cute: Seems to be the intended effect with Goth Girlfriend's design and her moments with Jock, but most readers just find her plain cute.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Goth Girlfriend, or Luna, is very well liked among readers for her design, Nice Girl personality, and giving good advice to the Boyfriends during times of doubt.
  • The Prep Girlfriend Stephanie also gets a lot of love thanks in part to her looks and her hilarious frenemy relationship with Prep Boyfriend. Being fairly positive transgender representation that avoids harmful stereotypes certainly helps.
  • The art students from episode 106 were instantly adored by readers for their cool designs and relatability factor for anyone who has taken a life drawing class.
• Glurge: Part of the comic's negative reputation comes from the fact that it's mostly 100+ chapters of four men being Sickeningly Sweethearts and going on dates. This isn't an inherently bad thing in moderation, and there are a few semi-dramatic turns of events, but reading so much of it nonstop with zero breaks makes the work feel like a Romantic Plot Tumor that mutated into its own story.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: This seems to be at least part of what sparked the comic's infamy. It was received positively at best and with indifference at worst when it was first posted on Webtoon. After it became a proper featured series and got animated promos, people left and right accused it of sexualizing gay men and being "unrealistic" in its portrayal of relationships.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Hot choccy"/"choccy milk"^ExplanationEarly on, Prep used this terminology when talking about hot chocolate and chocolate milk respectively. While this has largely stopped being used in the comic, fans and haters alike seem to view it as a defining feature of the series
  • "Violent car crash"^ExplanationA bizarrely common and specific way that the comic's detractors like to attack the series is by hoping all the titular protagonists die in a car accident, often specifically a violent one and often under the pretense of claiming it's "to add conflict to the series". This sentiment is commonly shared among said detractors and sometimes mocked by fans.
• Moe: The artstyle and tone of the comic makes most characters qualify as this but a few stand out;
  • Nerd is this to the point of invoking it to sweet talk his boyfriends. He has Youthful Freckles, is the shortest of the group, and often has a Playful Cat Smile expression.
  • Jock has his moments thanks to being a Gentle Giant who just wants his boyfriends to be happy and healthy. Goth BF compares him to a puppy to which Goth GF agrees.
  • Goth GF appeals to a lot of readers in the gap moe sense due to her sweet demeanor and interest in skulls and the occult that contrasts with it.
• Never Live It Down: Prep said things like "hot choccy" and "choccy milk" a grand total of once or twice each, and it wasn't even focused on, but if you asked the comic's detractors (and even some of its fans), they'd have you believe it was his defining character trait and one of the reasons the comic is "bad".
• No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: The backlash directed at the comic has inevitably led to more people becoming aware of it. This also led to it gaining defenders, who argue that the backlash is overblown or disproportionate.
• Offending the Creator's Own: The webcomic has received a fair amount of backlash from people within the LGBT+ community who say it plays into stereotypes about gay men. Refrainbow identifies as both gay and non-binary. Mind you, the people making these complaints are American and are talking about American stereotypes while Refrainbow is Indonesian and Asian gay stereotypes are completely different from western ones.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: The comic is mostly known for accusations of fetishizing queer men, in addition to allegations of racism made against author Refrainbow in light of various comments they made on their Twitter account when they were thirteen.
• Questionable Casting: Arguably one of the reasons for the animated shorts' infamy is due to Accel Byzantine's casting as the voice of Prep, with a lot of people finding his voice too shrill and annoying for the character;
• Tear Jerker:
  • The entire "Jock runs away" arc in Season 2, starting from Episode 186:
    • First, Jock's feelings of inadequacy in comparison to his sister bubble up to the surface and an Innocently Insensitive comment from Goth about how Jock is "effortlessly good at everything" and "magically fixes all their problems" only makes things worse, prompting him to get upset and run off. Goth has a My God, What Have I Done? reaction and he and Prep are legitimately worried that Jock might try to break up with them, though Nerd (who manages to keep his cool) calms them both down.
    • Jock's heart-to-heart with his sister is both this and a Heartwarming Moment, where we get to see why he felt so envious of her and how the two of them both worked hard after the death of their father.
    • Finally, we have Goth and Jock reuniting and Goth confessing that part of the reason for his comments was because of his own jealousy and insecurity, noting how Jock, being a strong, caring, handsome Nice Guy who has no need to prove his masculinity to others, is everything Goth feels he isn't. Jock gives him a You Are Better Than You Think You Are speech, assuring him that he is handsome and kind as well, that he contributes so much to the relationship and that he shouldn't feel the need to prove his masculinity to anyone. Refrainbow confirmed in the comments that a large portion of Goth's part in this sequence was inspired by his own real life struggles as a transgender man.
• The Scrappy: Nerd BF's teacher drew an enraged reaction from readers for being harsh towards him over his tardiness and falling behind on assignments going as far as to suggest he drop out. Even those who don't think he was wrong to reprimand him for such things don't appreciate the way he talked to him. While he clearly wasn't designed to be well-liked, the sheer vitriol was likely unintentional and him praising Nerd several chapters later did little to salvage him for most readers.
• Sweetness Aversion: As a slice-of-life romance comic with minimal conflict and a pastel color scheme, Boyfriends is primarily designed to be cute and fluffy. However, this sweetness has caused many to view it as boring or cringeworthy.

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