I'm having a hard time getting a shortform for this anime. The tag feels too long... Anyway, here we are, catching up to the latest episode that's out.
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| Truly the office of shoujo manga associates. |
This pair of episodes dealt with the introduction of a third point in this triangle, Yokozawa (a pretty difficult name for me to remember, for some reason). Based on how one would look at it, there was no real development. On the other hand, there was lots of seme-ing of the uke by the seme, which counts as development when dealing with yaoi. It's all semantics~
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| The adjective you're looking for is "impossible", not "exhausting". |
First of all, I'll admit it right off the bat: there weren't a lot of screenshot-worthy moments in these two episodes. In the end, BL depends on context a lot; I can't remember a lot of jazzy one-liners. So I'm going to "cheat" a little and use some screenshots from the last batch that I didn't get to use. Please to forgive~ And on that note, I don't think that reading 100 shoujo manga (assuming you're counting every volume as one) in one night is possible. I'm extremely suspicious of such outrageous statements.
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| Takano and Yokozawa sure look a lot alike, with colouring differences... |
Yokozawa is the "sales something", where "something" represents what got cut off by him interrupting the conversation. From the get-go, it's pretty clear that he's also a seme. Now, I thought about it for a while, and I wondered what two seme together would entail. I mean, once upon a time (and even now for some, but we'll ignore that), people thought that only men and women could be together. Then it became that men and men (and women and women) could be together, and the terms "seme" and "uke" were introduced to explain the two partners in the relationship. The idea that two seme could be together shouldn't be far-fetched, right? I just wonder what it would be like. Strangely, I think I'm genuinely interested in seeing that explored.
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| He's not hiding the fact that he's into Takano. What a seme. |
Nonetheless, I think he's around purely to serve as a catalyst for Ritsu and Takano. It's what Nakamura (the author of Junjou Romantica and this) seems to like (and I do like less clutter, as well). I don't think we're in for a triangle; at most, it'll just be Yokozawa getting in the way of "alone time" but more or less meaning nothing. (If I'm wrong, I wonder how much I would begun to dislike this anime...) Also, upon thinking more about it, Nowaki and Hiroki from Junjou Romantica were kind of two seme together in a relationship. I honestly have no idea which one would be uke; they seemed to trade scenes. (Maybe that's how it would work out...)
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| Yeah, "Tarminal" 2. |
Typos in English words used in Japanese anime ("Engrish") always make me laugh. On another note though, I'm becoming ever-disillusioned with Crunchyroll's subbing. I still don't know if they sub themselves or if the TV stations do it (kind of leaning towards the latter, based on some conversations), but what really bothers me is the rampant "localization". I've never been an advocate of removing the honorifics in the subs. In this batch, it took away the impact of Yokozawa called Takano "Masamune". They tried to mask it with the fact that Ritsu always called him by his last name, whereas Yokozawa calls him by his first name. The true impact was still lost; Yokozawa calls him by his first name without an honorific. That degree of intimacy doesn't even exist in most Japanese
romantic couplings; calling someone by their first name is not a good enough comparison.
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| At least he notices it. It's futile, though; he's the uke. |
Further into ep04, Yokozawa's discontent with Ritsu shows based on Takano's decision to "side" with the latter. In fact, that entire encounter in the bathroom reminded me of typical shoujo scenes, where the girl gets called out by a group of girls who invariably corner her somehow, push her shoulder, and tell her to not "get full of yourself just because he talks to you," or something of that vein. In fact, it took away from Yokozawa's seme-nature; it seemed petty instead of dominant. How weak.
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| Sarcastic wit is always appreciated by me. |
Ep04 continued into the incredibly suspect scene of Ritsu falling asleep on the train...with his head on Takano's shoulder. That's suspect because this is a guy who wants to sleep with you (never mind that he already has); would you really become so vulnerable in front of him? This reminds me of some select stupid shoujo girls... Of course, Takano has already proved that he can completely overpower his uke (see end of ep03 and beginning of ep04; it's not a "recap" when the entire scene is replayed); maybe it doesn't matter, so Ritsu may as well get some sleep.
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| At least the girls in this anime look like girls. Not the usual case with BL... |
Ep04 ended in the usual way: Takano happily continuing on the path of getting Ritsu once again, and Ritsu ardently denying that there are any feelings (despite constant mentions to burning touches). After having the main couple get together so quickly in Junjou Romantica, it's nice to see the build-up in a similar anime; it's like a "do-over". I'm not a fan of triangles or people sticking their noses in where it doesn't belong, so I'm not that happy with Yokozawa's role. Hopefully that resolves itself to the harmless interfering that I expect soon; I don't really feel like watching one seme destructively interfere with another seme's uke. (At least he's not dominating Ritsu for the sake of getting to Takano, as Mirage of Blaze portrayed. That's been done.)
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| All the glimpses of the manuscripts we see have the girls crying. It's definitely shoujo... |
In a note that's unrelated to the episode at hand: I told myself I wouldn't incorporate raunchy screenshots unless absolutely avoidable with this anime, because the topic of BL is so contested and I really don't want to open that can of worms. It's like how, on Mangafox, people talk in the discussion board of an incest manga how they hated reading it because it was incest, and incest is wrong, and God have mercy on our souls, and other inane words strung together in disturbing sentences. I want to avoid graphically disturbing the people who have some kind of phobia/hatred of BL (and are reading a BL post for some reason). If you want to see that, the anime is right there, after all. Maybe fanart... *evil laugh*
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| He really did ask for what happened next. Naked in bed. That is all. |
So, all in all, I got sidetracked at points to make some mini-rants, but otherwise the typical BL continues. In all honesty, if you're a fangirl, there's no need to even try to review this; you'd watch it anyway, wouldn't you?
~Aaro
