Ranked #73

Junjou Romantica

So since no one has gotten a chance to review this anime I guess I will do the honors of being the first. I stumbled upon this anime while searching for random videos of youtube and I have to say I never expected it to be as good as it turned out to be. I just cannot stop watching this anime its completely and utterly addictive. Sorry this isnt going to be very dramatic and new york times like.

Story:
Definitely a yaoi girls(or guys) dream. The story is filled of 3 main plots all involving 3 different couples. There is the teddy bear obsessed writer dating the younger brother of his best friend. The loner intelligent associate professor dating the student, and the divorced husband dating the brother in law. All stories giving something that puts this anime together. This anime shows how pure love is and how it is unexpected. Not to mention yaoi galore. Be prepared to watch tons of sex scenes.

Art:
I think the art is pretty good. A little different from what I'm use to seeing and definitely different in a good way. I've seen better but it passes the test. It seems to capture the love scenes without making it too *cough* explicit.

Sound:
The opening is alright I suppose. And the music during the show isnt that memorable.

Character:
Character development in this anime is extremely face paced. But there is never a moment in which you dont know how a certain character is feeling, but it also leaves openings for surprises and turns.

Enjoyment:
As I said at the beginning this anime is absolutely addiciting. I can sit and watch it all day. The stories that are told are touching and show how love can exist in the most unexpected and different ways. It also has its comedic moments which dont fail to make me laugh, and it is extremely hard to make me laugh.

This anime no matter how much it reminds me of gravitation is definitely worth the watch. Just make sure there arent any children in the room ;) read more

You always remember your first love, and this is a theme that the romantic comedy Junjou Romantica endears for its duration.

Junjou Romantica actually follows three stories, each with very similar set-ups, similar outcomes, but with very different journeys to get there. The first is about a teenager who falls in love with his brother's best friend, the second follows an older, spurned, embittered young man who meets a guy who changes his life, and the third is a little more controversial story of a grown man who is being pursued by his ex-wife's much younger brother.

All of the stories are about men who admire, fall in love with and have sexual relations with other men. It's an anime about all of their first times with the loves of their lives. If you don't like that sort of story, then I have to tell you, you're watching the wrong anime already.

The weak points were that some of the stories weren't terribly unique, and most of the time, they were predictable or far too similar to one another. However, the winning point is the plot direction. HOW the story is told is well-done, sadly, the stories being told are little more than mediocre. Also, most of the anime was spent watching the characters get into rough sexual encounters with one another. If that was supposed to be erotic or emotional, it certainly lost steam after seeing it happen nearly every damn episode, sometimes more than once.

The art was a weak point for me in the anime. I was expecting some great character design and some decent animation, however, I received neither. Sometimes the characters had a very blocky jawline or they were disproportioned. The younger characters notably looked far better then the older ones. Yet this brings me to another problem with the art: half the characters looked the same. There were two characters in particular that I kept thinking was the same person until I realised that they were different. Despite this, there was some good use of bright, pastel colours, which gave the anime a more uplifting, vibrant look.

And here's my grouse: I couldn't bring myself to like the OP or ED theme songs, and I also thought that the background music (BGM) was significantly weak at points when it should have been particularly strong, like the emotional scenes.

Problems with the discrepancy with their looks aside, there were some decent characters in this anime. They were certainly more developed as the story progressed, which I was thankful for because I feared that they would remain stagnant or stick with the "seme/uke" characterisations throughout the entire series. There's a lot of digging deep with the character's thoughts and emotions, and they each have their little quirks and specialties. Somehow I felt, though, that their personalities were too predictable at times, too simple. Really, it is only through summing up the entire series and some excellent flashback material that we get some more detailed characterisations. The couple interactions are also interesting to watch.

Now, here's the tricky part--there were so many technical problems I had with this anime, yet I enjoyed it quite a bit. It's just something about Junjou Romantica that will warm you up towards it. Sort of like a used book that has story you will like: it has a shabby cover, some of the pages are missing, but you open it up and you get totally absorbed by what you read.

What I really admired about the anime is that it dealt with sexual situations as well as romantic issues. The sex scenes were actually very... pretty, if you will allow me to say. There isn't anything graphic, and I think the beauty of it was that you see two people who love one another bring each other pleasure in a physical way that isn't lewd or explicit.

I can certainly tell any fan of yaoi to go out and see this--it is definitely worth your time. For anyone who likes romance, Junjou Romantica is a decent anime geared more towards the more emotional aspects and the sexual side of relationships. read more

Suffocated by all the fan girls that consider yaoi a masterpiece of anime genre, I decided to give it a shot, and of course, the first anime suggested was Junjou Romantica. Pretty much sure that the anime itself will be way too gay even for me, I gave 1st episode a chance. Then I gave a chance to all 12 episodes.

~Story~ (7)
The story doesn't really proceed in any real way. The only progress is untangling of their pasts, emotions and present attitudes, so it's, in a way, a progress based on their own souls and hearts, if I may say so.
And though three different pairings in one 12-episode anime may sound too much, the truth is only first two pairing get enough attention. The last one got only two or three episodes. It bothered me only because I would just get into the first pairing and then, an episode would suddenly feature a pairing I barely know anything about.
Good rating, in the end, is based on well told and made 'forbidden' romance,and the way characters come to new conclusions in life.

~Art~ (6)
It honestly could've been better. I mean, nothing in particular was wrong with it, but also nothing in particular caught my eye. Except for how good looking the characters were, for which I'm thanking the manga creator.
The colors, again, disappointed me - too pale. If there was more contrast, I would probably raise the rating to 8, but lack of coloration really turns me down. The surrounding weren't so well drawn to be remembered. There are a few exceptions of scenes that are of greater matter, but in the end, it wasn't my cup of tea.

~Sound~ (10)
When I first listened to the opening, I laughed my brains out. Considering that was the yaoi anime, the song SOUNDED yaoi to me, and it still does a bit. However, for anyone who hasn't carefully listened to the BG music, shame on you. There is a beautiful song playing, which is actually opening but played on piano, which sounds at least 5 times better. The bunch of other piano music is played trough the series, and they all are played when needed and fit the scene perfectly. The ending wasn't as memorable as the opening.

~Character~ (7)
A book could be written about this section. All of the pairings have strongly marked seme and uke, which somewhat disappointed me - I expected a bit of variety since there are three pairing, which gives you space for many ideas or situations.
I loved it, though, how the characters would act in tense or stressful situations - it would be half filled with what would real-life reaction looked like, but a bit more anime-ish and dramatic.
Another drawback would be that some characters aren't worked on enough. Like Akihiko for example. All we know about him is basically he's madly in love, and although it was indicated that his past may be even darker than we think, nothing was told about it. Until the mangaka reveals it, the scene shouldn't be put in at all.

~Enjoyment~ (8)
I watched Junjou Romantica in one sitting, since the 1st episode really left me speechless - in a way, I didn't expect yaoi can actually be as good as any other romance, but, my apologies, yaoi fans, I was wrong. Now, when I hear yaoi, I think romance as any else, and not two guys doing who knows what, which I discovered to be a common prejudice about genre of that type.
And since I like the romance genre, Junjou in the end left me with thought I'm glad I watched it.


Not anything special about animation, and not any special progress, but wonderful music, funny characters, and a whole bunch of sweet, sweet romance made me rate this anime with the most solid grade here. It wasn't a masterpiece, but it wasn't bad at all.
Not that I watched many yaoi anime, but when I searched for some, nothing good looking came up.So for anyone who would like and just try watching oen (NOTE: yaoi is not the same as shounen-ai, it's for 'older' xD) Junjou Romantica may be a good start, since honestly, I don't think there are many good yaoi as this one. read more

In Junjou Romantica you get to follow 2 couples (and a potential third) with Usagi and Misaki being the one that gets the most exposure. Then there is Hiroki and Nowaki which is basically the same thing as the first couple, younger guy + older guy, but reversed positions between the sheets. If you ask me I think that just focusing on Usagi and Misaki would have been better cause the others just feelt tacked on for the sole purpose of having more bi-shounens ( or "pretty boys" if you like).

The music is nothing special, it doesn't help to add to the mood but it don't do the opposite either. However, there is some nice pieces in there but I found them to seldom be played at the right time. The opening-theme is pretty nice but this isn't 1999 so it feels kind of out of place. The VAs generally does a good job but some of them don't match their character, not a huge problem since it is always with characters that have little screen-time but still annoying.

Have you ever felt that eveyone looks very similar to you? No? Well, I guess the characters in Junjou Romantica have since they all look very alike. Except from the hair and eye color they could all be brothers from the same mother. It is quite rare that you see this kind of bland and unimaginative character design. It tries to make all the characters bi-shounens but man sometimes they failed miserably, in some scenes it looks like they have some kind of facial distortion since it sometimes doesn't fit the body at all. Otherwise the animations and characters look ok and sometimes even (intentionally) funny when they go into chibi-mode and extreme facial expression-mode.

If it is so bad then why is it so highly placed on the top-list? There are perfectly bad reasons for that. The first being the amount of sex (non graphical) there is, it is almost ridiculous and you always get the tiresome ”No, I don't wanna do it with you”-reaction from the smaller of the two gets old quickly. Sometimes the reactions are so strong that they almost looks like an attempted rape... You don't get any mentionable depth to most the characters, with the exception of Usagis childhood, but that is good in a way that you don't have to care. The only ones I really came to care about was Misaki and Usagi but the rest I could have been without.

The highlights of the show is the humor which sometimes makes fun of the show itself.

To sum the series up it is an unimaginative piece of boredom that tries to excuse that unimaginativeness with some random sex. It has some qualities but they never truly shine through. If you are a fan of boy on boy-relationships then this might be for you. Otherwise I suggest that you don't even poke this with a stick cause there will be a lot of fooling-around going on. You might have read my Legend of Duo review and thinks ”Hey, this guy clearly dislikes shounen-ai so why should I listen to him?”, well... it's not that I dislike it (I try to keep an open mind about all themes) I just haven't found a series that is very enjoyable.

Please, Studio Deen, you know better than this. You gave us Maria-sama ga Miteru on the shoujo-ai side so please give us Joseph-sama ga Miteru (or something like it) on the shounen-ai side instead and lose the redundant sex scenes in favor for some real heartfelt and meaningful brotherly love. Please.
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Oh, an anime that certainly puts the fab back in fabulous and the gay back in yaoi.

Junjou Romantica is a yaoi anime, as anyone with eyes would know. What it is, is a well loved yaoi anime and a pretty crappy normal anime. Yes fangirls, feel free to hate on me now, it's okay. Just one word of warning: you will never get any of these men. They're gay and fictional. Now go cry about it.

The storyline is plain old unbelievable. You expect me to believe that there are so many gay guys who are all inter-related, yet most don't know the rest are gay unless they had boinked them in the past or something?? Where are the women in this anime? Fine, I can chalk up with the no women thing since gay men can't see oestrogen anyway unless it's from themselves, but the one woman in the entire anime is a yaoi fangirl. I mean come on. Wtf.

Each story is basically a mirror of the other one. Check this out.

Teacher --> younger man --> butt secks.

That's all that freaking happens for the entirety of the anime. An older, teacher-like dude meets a muuuch younger dude and they hook up and have lots of unwilling sex with one another.

First couple: a tutor who tries to seduce his best friend's little brother. Second couple: a teacher who is seduced, is trying to seduce a younger man. Third couple: another teacher whose ex-brother-in-law is trying to seduce him. God, come on! What's with this? What are they trying to say--that gay men with any position of authority in a younger boy's life will try to lead the boy astray?? Nothing happens in the story other than a whole lot of angst, sappy romance, and sexing all over the place, with a lot of "Nooo! Don't touch--oh wait, go ahead, but nooo!" going on.

Art was trash, sound was worse trash. Those theme songs sucked balls, though if you're a yaoi fangirl, then you won't care too much.

Characters were dead awful. Most of the time they're whining or they're moping or taking advantage of someone. I mean, come on! The writer guy did nothing but go, "I love you. Let's do it." for the whole anime. The boy he liked kept going, "Oh, I don't want this...wait, I think I do." and that's pretty much how it went for the whole anime with EVERY couple.

Don't watch this is you are a normal person. For a yaoi fangirl, this anime is pure genius. For fabulous folks like myself, AVOID. read more

This shounen-ai series managed to deceive me in so many ways while I watched it. I have to admit I was impressed with how clever the creators were. Here I thought I was in for a show that would be romantic. Or pure-hearted(the literal translation of 'junjo'). Little did I know I was in for a big surprise because this show turned out to be a dark and heartless parody of love, er I mean relationships. Okay, sex lives.

Junjo Romantica is about three hideous male couples who are unsurprisingly(because of their ugliness) deprived of sex. This might at least be entertaining if they ever actually have willing sex with one another. Instead, the masculine guys who were sadly born without jaws(or love, apparently) are forced to molest and humiliate their feminine sex toys. The creepiest thing is that all three of the feminine guys love having their dignity taken away from them and would be desperate for more sex even after it's gotten to the point where they've been legally raped. So basically, they're all passive whores who don't have any self worth. Worse still, no one in this anime is aware of the existence of other gay people. After having sex with a male chain-smoking author who he's living with, one of the main characters seriously debates with himself as to whether or not he and the author are lovers. Many phrases pop up while he thinks his many very interesting thoughts like: 'But..he's a guy!' 'But we're both guys!' 'Are we...lovers?' 'But I'm a guy!'. But in the end, being a guy doesn't matter when it comes to sexually harassing or getting sexually harassed for these guys.

There are obvious annoying cliches present here. The masculine guys are chain-smokers, at least one of which is an author who writes boys' love novels. Try not to snicker because this story is very serious. This author is clearly in need of some form of therapy because he carries a huge teddy bear with him wherever he goes and he sleeps with it at night. Now, I wouldn't mention this if this show wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Junjo Romantica has lots of 'drama' in it. The characters get upset at one another and the music changes when this happens. While the music is often lighthearted to fit the 'happy' atmosphere of the show, it also switches to something more intense when one of the characters starts crying because he misses being abused by his 'lover'. The passive self-loathing whores all blush more than any girl in any anime I've seen. They act like grating, nagging housewives or psychotic stalkers who no reasonable person could like, much less love.

One more thing. This show's attempts at comedy are the biggest failures I've seen in a while. It's actually so unfunny it's not even unintentionally funny. It's sickening and weird because we're supposed to laugh off the fact that these are the most pathetic relationships ever. Anyway, the comedy consists of characters going into 'chibi' mode where they look like kids. There's no comic timing or point to this 90% of the time and it's overdone to the point that it leaves no impact on the viewer whatsoever. I think I laughed once while watching this show and that was near the beginning when it still had a glimmer of promise.

Oh yes, the promise. What bothers me most about a show like this is the fact that it wasn't hopeless from the start. There was immense potential. Misaki(one of the girly men) and Usami(the smoker author), for starters. Usami incorporates his experiences with Misaki into his boys' love novels. Such as the things they do in bed. This embarrasses and angers Misaki but nothing really interesting happens as a result of this plot. It's disappointing because I saw the potential for the comedy but it was completely destroyed by all the pathetic fan service and embarrassingly bad depictions of the relationships. Obviously, it shouldn't be taken seriously and I definitely don't take shounen-ai seriously when I watch it. But when a show literally portrays every couple as being obsessed with sex and then tries to trick viewers into thinking there's a heart behind this by adding a bunch of crap about their past love(sex) lives, it only ends up being insulting.

Anyway, if you're still interested in this show...

The art is mostly in pastel colors with cutesy character designs that are so cutesy they look like freakish aliens. I suppose that was the first sign that I was going to be watching a show that isn't about humans but set in an ideal world for people who don't care about one another but only about their freakish bodies.

The voice acting is poor. The actors lack comic timing as much as the jokes and humor lack any funniness whatsoever. I had a sudden urge to do something which I saw in Uzumaki at one point while I was, in agony, listening to the robotic voice of Usami.

The music is average pop with annoying vocals. Extremely catchy, unfortunately, but the intro does make my ears bleed.

Please, whatever you do, do not watch this show. I'd be lying if I said I didn't know why it was so highly rated on this site. It's because of the yaoi fanatics. They'd love anything as long as they get to see guys touch one another in naughty ways. Watch Gravitation or Loveless instead. Both have some cliches but they at the very least have charm and/or depth with good voice acting and decent art. read more

THIS IS THE ONLY PERFECT 10 I THINK I'LL EVER GIVE!

I really think that this is the best yaoi I have ever watched and will ever watch. There is pretty much no comparison to how amazing it is. I mean, sure, it only is really attractive to yaoi fans to watch it, but I think that other people could learn to love it… at least the story.

STORY – It’s totally amazing how they have two storied going at different points. There will be episodes about Usagi and Misaki, and then there will be an episode about Hiroki and Nowaki. The story line for Usagi and Misaki is sooooo humorous and yet adorable and dramatic. And then on the complete opposite spectrum, Hiroki and Nowaki ‘s story is so heart-renching and romantic. Both of the stories are very interesting and I personally can say that I can relate to them VERY well. Especially the story of Hiroki and Nowaki... it is almost exactly like a situation I have been in before. And it’s great how the story of Hiroki and Nowaki is tied into the relationship of Usagi and Misaki.

ART – Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful… the shading and colors are so amazing, and everything is so well drawn. This artist sure knows how to draw attractive men with great expressions and actions. Their faces and body language are always so perfect. Not only that, but there are also moments were the drawings are very cartoony and humorous and they make me laugh and go… “AWWW, that’s soooo cute!” I absolutely would date any of those guys. The drawings are to die for. EXCEPT, the characters all have the same hair cut! And it makes it sooo hard to tell people apart sometimes. It’s easy to get confused.

SOUND – Not all that much background music, but when there is, it is very well-placed. Also, there are moments where small things, like forks on plates, just set the mood for the sound excellently. The voices for all the characters fit them very well, except for maybe Hiroki. I don’t exactly like his voice being that deep. It does not match his character very well to me. The OP theme is to die for. But I did not so much enjoy the ED… but you can’t always have it your way, yeah?

CHARACTERS – 4 main characters instead of just the normal two or three. I must say I like that, mostly because it gives the watcher more of a view of different kinds of people and there is more to relate to that way. I’ll go through every character for you:

Usagi – very manly and blunt. He blatantly comes out and says what he is thinking, and that is what is so attractive about him. He doesn’t really care what everyone thinks and he is very understanding. He wants love and he finds that love in Misaki.

Misaki – just absolutely adorable! He is somewhat whiney at times, but he is young, and at times is very naïve. It’s strange that he is 10 years younger than Usagi, but they really have a love/hate relationship. He changes his mind so much. He will at one moment love Usagi and then act like he hates his guts… it’s kinda stupid if you ask me.

Hiroki – I don’t really like his character as much, but he is also mature. But, he changes his mind so much. He is very… what’s the word… harsh. And it seems like he doesn’t care about anyone but himself sometimes.

Nowaki – personally, he is my favorite character. He is so loving and because he is truly in love he knows that he never wants to give up on Hiroki. I look up to him because he reminds me a lot of myself.

ENJOYMENT – I’m laughing at every episode of Usagi and Misaki. I’m crying at every episode of Hiroki and Nowaki. I somewhat wish that they could have split this show into two separate shows so that I was not trying so hard to remember the love affairs of all 4 characters, but none-the-less I enjoyed every second I watched this. :)

Every Yaoi lover MUST watch this show. It was the most amazing anime… read more

I guess you already know this is an yaoi story with three couples. At first it seemed a really good anime, and with a little imagination it would had stayed that way. First of all, I don’t like how only one couple gets all the screentime, and that’s Misaki and Akihiko. The other two barely have 2 episodes each in the whole season. I know they are the main characters, but they’re not so interesting. The author stretched so much their story, it became awkward and without sense.

So I’d better say what I have to say for each couple:

Misaki x Akihiko: countless episodes full of nonsense, funny and cute at first, exasperating after a few episodes. No character development for them, it’s like they’re continuously stuck in a retarded phase. I got tired of Akihiko’s infinite attempts to rape Misaki, and Misaki’s special intelligent phrases which you can hear like twenty times per episode: "don’t touch me!!" "not here!!" "don't do that". Ok ok, it's normal to say so when someone suddenly wants to undress you, but after they had sex once-twice-a million times, and Misaki obviously enjoyed it, it became so boring and annoying.

Hiro x Nowaki: the only reason I still like this anime. Like many other people say, they’re the only cute and realistic couple. Hiro is a complex character, who is desperately needing some love and is suffering, but always trying to hide his soft side under an egoist mask, tearing apart his pride without knowing and then trying to act as cold as he can to show the others how strong he is. He loves Nowaki so much yet he tries so hard not to show him his feelings, he’s always harsh and cold, but inside he is so sad and sensitive.

Nowaki is the calm and kind one, who always tolerates Hiroki’s hysterical and selfish acting, and won’t get mad at him even when he’s offended on purpose. He always manages to save their relationship.

This couple is so cute and sad, you really can’t help but love them. They are the perfect combination of comedy, drama and cuteness. That’s why I don’t understand, why only two episodes for them? They had enough chapters in the manga, and yet the anime producers cut so many scenes. It’s really a shame.

Miyagi x Shinobu: stupid, stupid, and more stupid. Shinobu: little hysterical bastard, confessing his love thousand of times a day, and then getting even more hysterical when Miyagi finally falls in love with him. What the hell does he really want anyway? This couple is so uninspired and dull, it almost give you headaches.

The art is sometimes lame, but overall, it's above the average. The music it’s almost inexistent. The opening and ending aren’t impressing, and through the episodes you can baaaaarely hear sometimes some kind of sound, that’s supposed to be the soundtrack.

Conclusion: a story with a great potential, but underdeveloped. Sometimes hilarious and cute , sometimes annoying, awkward and stupid. But even with this much lacking, I’ve seen anime series with brilliant stories, beautiful art and music, and I hardly managed to finish them, which is not the case here. I enjoyed the first season until the end, and I wished for it to continue ( well, it continued, but I’ll keep those opinions for another review…), so I’ll give the enjoyment a big 10.
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The anime adaption of Junjo Romantica became a big hit and justifiably so, because they really put a lot of effort into the production. But in the end it all paid off and even turned out to be better and more popular than the original manga.
Let's elaborate all aspects of this anime starting with the visual impression.
Compared to many other series and OVAs it can show off with its great character design, which is very important if not primary in the world of boys love. The art style in general is very clean/definite and not too aggressive or extreme, meaning that they mainly used soft colors and the proportions are acceptable. And another thing that I noticed is, that they occasionally change their clothes which is a rare occurrence when it comes to anime (usually a character sticks to its unique outfit during a whole season or longer).
All featuring backgrounds and items are very detailed. And they always seem to make the atmosphere more intense, without distracting the viewer from the main happening.

As for the story, or rather stories... I like to look at them individually, even though they are connected in some ways. The mangaka gave different names for these three story-lines for a reason: Junjo Romantica, Egoist and Terrorist.
Junjo Romantica is pretty much cliche and well known as a shounen-ai plot. A student (Misaki) with bad grades getting tutored by a famous guy (Usami), with a bit struggling, hesitance and romance mixed in... there's nothing too exciting about that and everyone knows the eventual outcome. At least that's what many people would think of it. But it is the way it's all settled up. This couple moves a lot more dynamic and aggressive than one would anticipate and it is not as predictable as it seems on first glance (due to a few surprising plot twists, not the final outcome).
Then we have Junjo Egoist where we get to know a rather chaotic couple that suffers many ups and downs, some more unnerving than others. Basically it starts off with a rejected and broken Hiroki and Nowaki who wants nothing more than to give him all the love he never experienced. This story contains a lot more suspense and is rather emotional, which makes it a bit less foreseeable.
Junjo Terrorist holds our third and last couple (which is my personal favorite). Our two main characters appear to be very stubborn and relatively cold towards each other (apart from one or two attempts of convincement), or at least it felt that way, because even though Shinobu confesses his love to the much older literature professor, You Miyagi, it was nothing like the sparking emotions between the other two couples even though their first meeting is supposedly fateful.

Despite the few similar streaks or outward resemblances all six characters have very different personalities and background stories which you come to know better with each episode. But it's funny how all three ukes seem to pout and panic a lot as opposite to the semes who are mostly in a good mood or smirking.

Another thing I enjoyed was the voice acting. They chose the perfect actors for the individual roles and breathed life into the whole series.
Both opening and ending captured the essence of Junjo Romantica in an appealing way. The songs don't sound irritating nor sappy at all.

I wasn't completely satisfied with the animation though... it seemed somewhat stiff and some motions were not really fluent. The anime itself doesn't contain lots of action as it is and and many movements happened off screen.

But all in all it is a great series and I believe that not only shounen-ai fans can enjoy it. In fact it has the potential to turn you into a fan or make your hate towards boys love go away, because there are many situations where you can see yourself in place of the characters, which intensifies the sensations and feelings. read more

Well this is my first review and I hope someone finds it helpful.

The Story:
Junjou Romantica was an incredible yaoi themed anime. It created a story of not just high school romance but adults after school. However the storyline from there is at the best basic. Out of the three storylines written into the overall story only the main story develops. The two basic characters Misaki and Akihiko are two lovers who conquer all expectations of both of them and continue to be together. The end of the plot. Yes there are hardships for the two but the ideas are unrealistic and could cause confusion to people who are straight looking into a gay themed romance. Basically it does not show the hard ships that are often confronted in the everyday life. The other two stories are about the same way. Only with different aged people. I enjoyed the anime but I fel it was more because of funny plots intermingled and the stereotypical ideals.

The Art:
In this catagory I have to say I thought the animation was great. The artwork was different and switched often throughout the anime from chibi mode to the real perspective. I however prefer artwork that is the typical big dramatic eyes than that of a more realistic piece.

The Sound:
The voice over actors did a wonderful job to me when portraying the characters. The only exception is the introduction of english into the japanese show. It pains me to hear the really bad english that the actors use. Other than that it was wonderful. The themesong "Himi Kana" by pigstar is great and I fell in love with it the first time I heard it.

The Characters:
The characters have unique attributes to each of their personalities. Though the idea of them knowing each other without really knowing each other was kind of odd. I think that they could have had a better way of combining the stories but that is my own opinion. I loved each of the characters strange personalities and could be why I enjoyed the anime as much as I did.

Enjoyment:
Even with the awkward storyline of the neverending parade of triumphs over expectations I have to say I really enjoyed it. The characters plus the audio and visual perspectives captivated me. I felt like I needed to see the next one just to see the characters interactions. The hilarious comments and expressions kept me coming back for more.

With that I have to say overall the experience was very good and I may even watch the anime again. read more