Boys Be...

While the story focuses on teenage boys, some light has been shed on Female characters as well. Generally, it’s something that both sexes can relate to. For the first two times watched it, I wasn’t able to fully grasp its meaning. Now that I’m a little older, I understood myself a few years back.

For this third time around, I was able to learn new things. That is what makes this series great. It’s a slice of life anime that’s actually closer to reality than other slice of life series out there.

The characters were great too. They all were very different from each other, so I’d ... say that anyone who watches this can relate to at least one character. What hit me the most is Kyoichi’s character. I know he’s a guy, but when he talked about how lonely and isolated he felt I actually understood him. I guess loneliness isn’t exclusive to any gender.

As for the animation, I can safely say I’ve seen better. It’s not that bad, but I just wish that the character design was in the same level of the background design. Compared to the backgrounds and landscapes, the characters just seemed so bland. There was also the slight use of repetitive scenes that made me feel iffier (if there is such a word) about it.

As for the voice acting, I didn’t like Kyoichi’s voice that much. He (Kenichi Suzumura) sort of sounded like a 30 year old pretending to be a teenager. I know that’s a well known practice in anime voice acting, but Kenichi Suzumura definitely had better days. He handled Hikaru Hitachiin’s (Ouran High School Host Club) character really well.

I liked the music though. Aki Maeda is definitely a talented person. She did a good job singing the opening and ending themes of the series.All of the tracks were very impressive. I like the variety of BGM that held every scene very nicely. My favorite episode was episode 8 because of the catchy pop songs.

I guess that the series is worth watching, and re-watching as well – I did watch the series three times. While there’s room for improvement in the animation department, the story is what makes Boys Be a must-see.

A few reviewers mentioned how this anime is slightly more realistic with its depiction of relationships, and that is true for the most part. Many character fall in love and out of love, are rejected, and circumstances keep them apart.

The problem is that for one or two cases it seems like a romance was just cobbled together, and sometimes the reason for it working/ not working is so "anime" it takes away from the realism of the others. The episodic nature of the show also means that its swings from cliched over the top anime romance to drama style romance, only sometimes finding a ... happy medium.

The characters aren't something we haven't seen before, but their interactions are feel a bit more natural than most anime. But like I said, some are grounded in reality, while others feel like they should've been in a different show altogether, the problem being the stories intertwine and these clashing depictions of people and their interactions meet.

Finally, there was a clear point in time where the art suffered from budget or time constraint, one episode being painfully obvious. The show picks back up to a point where its art is comparable to become, but by this time the use of stock footage from previous episodes came more into play.

No males in any culture act like these. Sitting around talking about their love lives, constantly in the company of girls otherwise. This story had to be written by a woman or a gay man. In the middle of the story I thought the main character was going to realize he was gay. that would have explained a lot. I usually like the slice of life animes because they are incredibly insightful. This one is an exception. It did not have the truth and warmth that I enjoy so much.