Tight-rope

If you aren't usually a yaoi/BL fan, please stick around! This review is for you!

I haven't read the manga, and I'm not sure if I will. But this is better than 90% of boyxboy for a variety of reasons.

To start off, the storyline is nothing too fancy. It's about a yakuza heir who is in love with his childhood best friend and is very upfront about it. That's it. Is it boring? Somehow, not at all. As a person with a very short attention span (displayed through my aversion to long anime and inability to sit and watch most videos longer than five ... minutes) I actually didn't think about stopping watching this at any point. In one go, it was over and I wishing there was more.

Surprisingly, the art was really good. Usually, BL suffers from seme-uke syndrome, a condition in which all the art must be modified so that one can tell if the character is a bottom or a top in a gay relationship. The symptoms include boxy/pointy chins, beady/massive eyes, hulking shoulders/extremely lanky figures, and a case of what you make call 'seme' hands, among other things. Thankfully and miraculously, this anime is completely void of these stereotypes and it's very normal looking, actually. It's so nice to be able to watch it and not have to be reminded about sex positions continuously.

The opening and closings were not my cup of tea, but they did the job. The background music was barely noticeable, even at the climax. Was it even there? I will never know. The voice actors did great jobs though, which is also rare in yaoi/BL where all the characters constantly either sound like submissive women or bear men if you know what I mean. I much prefer this ambiguity.

I really like the characters in this show. There wasn't too much development (it was only two episodes, gotta give them some slack) and not all the motivations made sense all the time, but across the board, it was a pretty standard love story that made sense in the context we were given. Neither of the main two was weak or overly strong and both of them seem to have an even power balance in their relationship as well. I was pleased to note that I ACTUALLY kinda shipped them despite the fact that I usually don't in this kind of show.

Overall I really enjoyed this and it was a nice thing to kill a little time. Would I watch it again? Probably not, just because there's not a lot of over-the-top cute moments or plot moments, but I might read the manga to satisfy that craving.

I would recommend this if you: are looking for a yaoi/BL with a healthy relationship, dislike seme-uke differentiation and stereotypes, like yakuza tropes, have 40 minutes to spare on a cute love story

I would NOT recommend this if you: kinda enjoy the assaulty type scenes in most yaoi, like overly tsundere ukes or forceful jealous semes, like semes and ukes in general, are here for smexy times (kissing and implications are as far as this anime goes), like longer more developed anime

Have a great day everyone!

It's yaoi anime. That's something we don't get much of in this platform. So take this review with a grain of salt considering this genre is very much "We get what we're given" and we covet hugs and blushes far more than the usual romance shoujo anime.

But going in as a fan of the manga? It's lacking. It is not the manga, and there's only so much you can do with an OVA - because let's face is, Japan funding a full 12 episode BL anime is a RARE thing. It skipped a lot. It wasn't as fleshed out as the anime, and it did ... worse for it.

However, going in as a stand-alone anime with only 2 episodes to fit a story into?
It was excellent. It was satisfying. It's what you'd want from a yaoi anime to scratch that itch. It left me smiling, and the yakuza scenes made me laugh. I could tell the two leads were genuinely in love, and it wasn't a rushed "let's meet and have sex" plot. The characters acted consensually and they always stopped when the other told them to.

Which is a lot more than we get for this genre, honestly speaking.

It was good. Watch Hitorijime my Hero, Yuri on Ice and the other important yaoi anime before this one, but if you're scouring the depths of MyAnimeList and you come across this one? I promise it's not too shabby.

That was horrible ! I really love this manga and Natsume Isaku works and I was very happy that Tight Rope will be adapted into anime... but, my expectations were too high. It was more like picture drama than anime. I really not reccomend it for people who are not yaoi fans.