Doukyuusei

It's been a longstanding tradition for me to review terrible yaoi anime every June. However, I'm rapidly running out of hilariously bad ones. I can't really do anything to top Kimera: Gay Vampires from Outer Space. So, this year I'll break with tradition and review the highest rated LGBTQ anime on all of MAL! Why is it the highest rated? Honestly, I have no idea.

Doukyuusei is a direct adaptation of a yaoi manga written by a heterosexual woman. A lot of the hackneyed cliches you would expect show up here. There are clear cut "seme" and "Uke" roles. The Seme forcibly kisses the Uke ... against his protests on two occasions. The Seme has to bust in and rescue the Uke from being raped by another gay dude. At least there's no forced sex in this movie. I don't know what the top review is talking about.

Doukyuusei begins with 2 classmates at an all-boys school striking up a friendship that quickly evolves into romance. The seme rock singer has to teach the nerdy and studious uke how to sing for graduation. Then they both lean over to pick up a dropped water bottle and accidentally kiss. That's when seme discovers that he's gay and falls madly in love with uke. We get a little bit of light courtship before the homeroom teacher, who also happens to be gay, starts sexually harassing uke in the middle of college counseling and tries to sexually assault him. Thankfully, seme busts in and punches his teacher in the face, giving him a bloody nose and rescuing the purity of his beloved. This action will never be brought up again or have any legal ramifications in this story! Then we get a totally pointless 3rd act break up in which uke is worried that seme is still straight. Seme then feels frustrated about the slow rate of their physical relationship and goes to rapist teacher for sex advice. Yes, I'm serious. I don't know what the writer was thinking either. Then we get another possible break up when uke wants to move away to an exclusive school. However, seme helps him get to a practice exam on his motorcycle and the 2 end up together in the end. Pretty standard yaoi story.

One thing I will say in favor of this film is that the animation and direction is spectacular. This is easily one of the best looking things A-1 Pictures has ever made. The director, Shouko Nakamura, did this in 2016 and tragically as of 2022 hasn't gotten to direct anything else. Instead she got stuck in the thankless job of storyboarding Darling in the Franxx. It doesn't matter how visually gorgeous a scene featuring a giant spaceship waifu looks, people are still just going to laugh at it. I feel really bad for this lady. I hope she gets another chance soon!

Doukyuusei was the first gay male romance anime to receive a theatrical release in the United States. It played in a select number of theaters in California on a limited run in 2016. That was an interesting milestone, even if the writing and romance wasn't groundbreaking.

It's too bad that some reviews I read made this sound far more rapey than it actually was and likely scared off many viewers. In order to address this issue, I have created a new test to act as the absolute bare minimum standards for BL romance in anime/manga. In 2013, the controversial Bechdel test gained widespread fame on Tumblr. It seems like a decent idea, but it also discriminates against films with a small cast. For example, if I wanted to make a movie about a woman who is stranded on an island. Or you know if someone wanted to make a movie about 3 dudes wandering around a magical toxic waste dump for 3 hours. That would fail the test, but could still be a great movie! Now in 2022 I present...the Yaranaika Test! The bare minimum consent for BL content must consist of one dude saying "Shall we do it?" and receiving an affirmative nod from his partner. I am happy to say that Doukyuusei does still pass the Yaranaika Test despite those 2 forced kisses. On the other hand, Boku no Sexual Harassment fails the Yaranaika Test, and therefore can be considered problematic!

I was really excited about this anime. I heard great things about it, and having been monumentally disappointed with the BL genre in general, I thought that FINALLY a gem had been made.

Eh. Not really.

The thing is, when a story is entirely centered on romance, I want that romance to BLOW ME AWAY. If there's no bigger or more intricate plotline, I want the story to put everything it has into the relationship I'm being shown and really move me. I want poignant interactions, whether it's deep conversation or cute moments. I want to see them be charmed by each other, surprised by each other, ... and, sure, maybe a little lusty for each other. I want to see them fall in love.

Doukyuusei just kinda...skips all that. And then boom! They're together. And I sigh because once again it's a story of, "No, I'm not going to bother showing you why these two people are drawn to each other or why they're meant to be, you're just supposed to go with it because I said so." I mean, this is why I hate most canon het romances these days: A boy and girl share a glance within the first five minutes of a film/show and that's it, that's the entire relationship build-up. Doukyuusei may have slightly more than that to go on, but not much.

The "relationship build-up" all takes place off screen, and I simply can't fathom why a romance anime would do that. Instead of seeing any real connection between Kusakabe and Sajou, we get a montage of Kusakabe showing up late to band practice. Um. Okay. Not sure how I'm supposed to be invested in this couple, and therefore the entire anime, when I'm not seeing any kind of interaction between them in the first place, but sure, go ahead and have them kiss and pretend like that's all a relationship is. (And then--SPOILER except not really because it's not like there's much plot to spoil in a plotless romance--it's a year later and the characters themselves are like "why do we keep making out when we don't know anything about each other." Yeah, I don't know either, guys.)

But, okay, I do have some nice(ish) things to say. Despite the utter lack of showing a foundation for the relationship, Kusakabe and Sajou do have a certain quiet and gentle connection that I still found myself enjoying, though it pained me that the anime didn't do it justice at all and failed to put the depth and intensity that should have been there. They share a number of sweet scenes that were really quite beautiful. There's also a lot of cuteness and humor. If the movie was longer or if they'd made it an OVA or something, it would've been nice to build on those moments and see this relationship really turn into something--though admittedly, I'd prefer more time be spent on the build-up because I find the foundation of the relationship really important and interesting and it's a shame Kusakabe and Sajou didn't have that. It's like: imagine approaching an acquaintance right now and kissing them and reciting poetry to them and immediately thinking, "Wow, we're so in love, this is great." That's pretty much what this relationship seems like.

I do have to say that I really liked the artwork. Unique and whimsical and refreshing. The music was very nice too, perfectly complementing the moment and the scenery. The voice actors did a wonderful job (I'm always a sucker for Kamiya Hiroshi).

I honestly can't tell if I'm being too generous with my rating or not. I certainly didn't hate this anime and, despite my criticism, I wouldn't even say I disliked it. I did get some mushy fluffy feelings at some parts and I generally liked the relationship between Kusakabe and Sajou, but there was always that feeling like something was lacking. I feel like I just watched a teaser and now I'm waiting for the actual movie.

Alas, I continue to wait to see if the BL genre will ever really satisfy me. For now, non-canon m/m ships in other anime continue to have more substance than anything I've found in BL ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was really pumped when I heard there was a decent, cute BL anime movie coming out. I was a little disappointed. Not because it was bad, because by any means it's a decent flick, but because it was only merely okay.

I want to start off by saying I'm a (bi) girl, and I didn't check to see if this BL is aimed at girls or boys, but I think that all genders would be able to enjoy the movie.

The pacing seemed really off. It moved too slow and too fast at different moments, and I think it's because it's a movie instead of an ... OVA. Had it been an OVA, say, a 6-episode OVA or even a 3-episode OVA, a lot of the plot would have moved much smoother.

The story itself is pretty okay. It's about a kinda flashy guy in a rock band and a shy cute guy who fall in love after the rock guy decides to teach the shy guy how to sing his part for the school choir. It's really cute! They go through some ups and downs, which is where the pacing problems come in, because the story moves very fast and skips through some of the fluff straight to the drama. Story-wise, though, it's a typical and adorable story. The kisses are steamy and there's discussions of sex but nothing happens.

The characters are cute, but they seem a little one-bit to me. I have a hard time believing their motivations and personality points besides one or two things. In fact, I can't remember if they had any motivation and personality. Their design was okay.

The art is okay. I think they might have cut some corners, which is terrible considering this is a movie. The sound is okay.

All in all, it's an okay movie. I like it better than I like a lot of BL, but not by much. It's cute but it honestly doesn't feel like a lot of effort was put into this movie, which is a pretty big disappointment. I'd say give it a shot because you might see something in it that I don't, but don't be shocked if it isn't as great as you hoped it would be (if you hope it's great).

Art- 4/10. Probably (and controversially) the biggest con for me was the simple art style. Kusakabe's character design wasn't all too much to my appeal either, but of course, this all comes down to a matter of personal taste. Gradually, it started to bother me less and less as their personalities and emotions started to overpower their appearances.

Story- 6/10. Simplicity. It's something that could either make or break a film, but in Doukyuusei, it's what carries the story up. There's nothing special or outstanding to be found here, but this is a film that deals with feelings of first love, inner turmoil and a coming ... of age growth. If you're looking for soap opera worthy drama or angst, this isn't for you. If you're looking for deep, intricate relationships that delve into serious matters, this isn't for you. What it is is a short and sweet, heart-warming flick to pass a good time.

Character- 6.5/10. Considering this is only an hour long movie, you shouldn't expect much character development. While this is true, it still manages to leave you with a smile watching Sajou and Kusakabe stumble about their relationship. If cardboard characters don't faze you, this one's a decent fluff fest.

I do not enjoy this movie as much as other people do, just because I found the pacing to be too quick. If this were episodes, I would probably enjoy it more than I do.

The story is not something new as if I have never seen it before, and the plot was predictable. Everything does not excite me as much as I do when I first watched the first few minutes.

This is just a typical light BL story, and everyone probably knows the drill. Characters meet each other, characters feel insecure, side character intervening, characters cannot be together, characters will be fine.

I do ... appreciate that this movie tells us the struggles of being at school. Balancing love life, work and relationships at the same time are hard. And it was clearly shown in the movie.

Other than that, nothing more.

Is this movie worth the watch? Yes. But do I love it? No. Am I going to rewatch it in the future? Maybe. Do I recommend others to watch this? Absolutely.

"Sajou is a different genre from us." "But isn't that okay? Even if it's not the same, even if it looks different, isn't that interesting too? And it's not like the colour will change."

Doukyuusei is a light-hearted fun romp in the shounen ai genre. There's no serious drama, or over-arching plot - just two boys in love at school.

And it's fine. It wasn't revolutionary. It wasn't a story I'm going to tell to my grandchildren. But it was a nice waste of time for an hour.

The story revolves around Sajou, who is aware he's gay, and Kusakabe, who was straight and fell in ... love with Sajou the second he saw him singing.

The usual ensues - "I'm gay, so he's going to leave me for a girl. He's not really gay, it's just a time-waster for him and a bit of fun." angst, angst, and more angst as far as the eye can see from Sajou. He wasn't a remarkable character by any stretch.

The real reason I feel this anime is so worth the watch, and arguably what saves the entire thing is Kusakabe. In an environment surrounded by people who don't talk about that kind of thing - who are "normal" and know "how to act" - Kusakabe defies that. Oftentimes in the show, he'll throw away his pride and use his big boy words to convey his feelings, his anxiety, and his insecurities. I believe his transparency in his interactions with Sajou truly made this movie worth watching, and I feel it was a great creative move to place us in the mind of Kusakabe during the first season.

That being said, he's human. They all are. No character here is completely absolved from blame or hurting each other throughout the film. They all act like idiots. But at the same time - who hasn't hurt someone? You can't tell me you've never snapped back at someone during an argument because you were hurt, especially during your school days when you're full of hormones. These people are flawed - and this movie highlights just how ugly and fragile our emotions can be, especially when you're in love.

There was no non-consent, albeit there wasn't any sex for them to try and non-consent with, but the kisses were cute, and I enjoyed how Sajou began to open up about himself and trusted Kusakabe's feelings were real. So that was nice to see a BL anime treat the genre as such (even if they ~did~ add a weird "person almost kisses me and boyfriend saves him" scene. At the very least, thankfully Sajou looked like he was consenting to it.)

Kusakabe might not've been the same "genre" as Sajou, but their colours matched. They both loved each other and it was a fun little hour.

.To be honest there isnt alot of substance to this movie besides the relationship of these two.And it is so weird man. I dont buy these two as a couple at all. At the beginning they dont give me a vibe of two guys finding feeling for one another, they just give me the vibes of two dudes hanging with each other until suddenly they start smacking faces.

And most of the conflict of this film comes from their relationship,its so unrealistic.And i know its a yaoi and yaoi arent the most realistic things out there,but tbh this film was so damn boring that I didnt ... really expect anything raunchy things to happen. So the relationship was the only thing I watched the movie for and it was so stupid.

Its like the film is trying so hard to make them a couple despite them not having chemistry,they just talk about aimless shit, and kiss. Thats it.I also dont like how these two have some weird sense of entitlement to one another despite them not really growing as a couple.That trope is why i dont dig romance a lot. One dude gets mad at the other dude who is mad at him because he got the number of some girl. That shit was dumb as hell.Its just a lot of things about this couple that just bother me. Even the movie shows that these two arent meant to be because they dont open up to each other enough to be one. Then the film tries to do that,but its too little too late.



I think the only scene that I liked was the scene where bananahead and his father talked about how him being in love with a dude is better than him not being in love at all, but keep in mind, that scene lasted only seconds.Versus other scenes that last too long where nothing happens, it gave me bunny girl senpai vibes where the couple wouldnt bond necessarily, just tease eachother about how in love they are and it is so long, and substanceless,and boring, and ugh.

Also the humor in this film was just awful. Not only was it unfunny but it would just kill the tone constantly. Like that out of nowhere subplot about that teacher being predatory towards a student gets blown away for a heehaa funny moment that wasnt really that funny.


I dont know how i feel about the way the film looks, the characters look more goofy than not most of the time, they have that yuasa style to them and make kooky faces but since the designs arent stylized and they look like some ordinary artstyle out of some BL comic, its weird.I like the watercolor tho.


And the sound. tbh it doesn't even matter. I don't really like this film that much,i don't even wanna consider it trashy or anything, its just poorly written, and pretentious as all hell at times. Its not webtoon levels where its so bad its good, its not kyojinzoku levels where its too ahead of its time to be judged, its boring, the couple has no chemistry, i just don't care about any of this. The only thing i got out of this film are the dokyuusei ovas that I will watch ALL of for sure.

Overall-5/10

So firstly, anyone going in thinking you can compare it to modern-day anime will probably be disappointed, the art style is more unique and not something I've seen too often, but it grew on me and I feel like the story wouldn't have been the same if it were any different.

The plot and art style are very alike, in the way that both look very mediocre and a bit dull at first glance, but the more I watched the more it grew on me. Don't go looking for an immensely complicated or emotional storyline, cause it's very simple, but it is cute.

Due ... to some reasons, I was expecting to stop the anime at some point due to aggressive behaviour, which unfortunately can be found in BL for some reason. But that was not the case, there really is not a whole lot of fan service or anything strange going on, although you can never have enough consent - for which I wholeheartedly stand - to me, it ended up very wholesome and I enjoyed it - once again..not a masterpiece but not horrible.

Anyways, in the end, everyone has their own preferences and likes, if you do end up watching this as a BL fan, I hope you also enjoy it.

While the characters manage to avoid being completely stereotypical and Doukyuusei is a more 'wholesome' take on the genre, the relationship between our protagonists (Kusakabe and Sajou) didn’t feel like it developed naturally to me. I wouldn’t describe their relationship as being shoehorned into the story, and we do get some pretty typical ‘will they or won’t they’ drama, but I didn’t get the impression that I really knew any of the characters during the run time of this short film.

Now, I understand that this is a plot point as the characters are shown to have difficulties committing; the problem was that as soon as ... the relationship and the characters themselves started to show something resembling progression the film was already over. I think the opportunity was there for the filmmakers to develop the relationship in a more satisfying manner, but just 60 minutes wasn’t enough to do so. Considering this is a romance, if the actual relationship between the characters isn’t right then that’s too big of a problem to gloss over.

Besides the characters, I did like the other parts of Doukyuusei. The artwork is presented in an undetailed abstract manner, but had its own charm and personality. The sound design is naturalistic so there’s not much in the music department, but what was there helped add to the relaxed atmosphere. Those good parts aside, taken as a whole Doukyuusei is too underdeveloped as a love story for me to give it a recommendation.

First review of mine on this website so sorry if its a tad bad.

I picked up this movie from a youtube video and on first inspection i thought it would be a good exercise for me to branch into different genres of romance. this is a recount of what i thought of it .

[Story]: The story in my opinion was alright if a bit generic i feel. its the classic tale of boy meets boy and then they fall in love, gradually opening themselves up to one another romantically.... but that's it. This movie is the story as listed above and in my ... opinion nothing else, which is unfortunate as i feel like it could have been a lot more impactful or fleshed out. At best this film felt like an honest attempt at portraying a gay relationship, at worst it just felt like an excuse for the mc's to kiss ( bearing in mind this is my first yaoi and this could just be me not used to the genre)

[Art]: The art in this movie is amazing and if anything id give it a watch even just for the art. As the art for the movie it did a very good job of portraying what this movie is about and in my opinion was very well suited to the story it was telling, which is always great.

[Sound]: I didnt hear much music in this film to be honest, the foley was good enough and it was passable enough to the point where i didnt notice it being bad, which is a good sign. in my opinion the sound was all right.

[Character]:This film's characters are very well designed in my opinion, the subtle details they have in their design is great... which is why that its so unfortunate that apart from their stereotypical ( which theres nothing wrong with in my opninion) design work the characters are very bland and have no signifigant development apart from one of the characters being afraid of trains i think? ( which is never really given reason and just pops out of the blue). Although this problem may be about the short 1 hour runtime.

[Enjoyment]: I thought this film was only okay. It definitely has an audience and im not going to tell that audience that their taste is trash because they enjoy it, im simply new to the genre and i dont think its for me, so if you like this movie by all means rate it 10, don't let some reviewer on the internet stop you from enjoying the film.
Just so im clear im not homophobic. I dont care who your attracted to its not my business. But during the film i did feel a bit flustered and sometimes downright uncomfortable ( the scene with the teacher and sajou being the most uncomfortable to watch) I had one problem with film and thats that it sometimes felt like kissing the movie and that it was "yaoi bait". But honestly it's probably because of my newness to the genre that i felt all these ways.

{Overall}: In the end i dont want to flame anyone for watching this film and liking it. I think it has potential and if you see things that i dont and enjoy it for that, thats a great sign that the world still works and that people can have different opinions. This is my first review as i said and i tried to be as respectable as i possibly could but if you were offended in anyway feel free to walk away from the review with my appologies, that wasnt my intention.

In the end i dont think this film is for me, i want more development and i like stories that take it slower with the characters ( i sound slightly prudish here).

enjoy what you want kids. time on this world is short.

Mash

6/10

This is a very short story, with no blatant depth to it, but that's understandable considering it is barely an hour long. I wish the characters were more developed; I lack any attachment to them and couldn't bring myself to care about them. It's cute, yes, and has some adorable moments- but it relies a lot on popular clichés. What grossed me out is- beware, a spoiler- the storyline involving the teacher hitting on one of the students. The man faced no consequences- but why? That was creepy. I also didn't like how one of the main characters- the blond- couldn't take 'no' for an ... answer most of the time.

It is not a must-watch in any way, shape or form, but a pretty good bl story for when you're bored. The visuals are pretty and the animation is smooth, I loved the watercolour-ish vibe going on. The sound design was on point as well.

I watched the anime movie Doukyuusei. Here are my thoughts:

Doukyuusei is about a homosexual romance between two male characters.

I don't have much to say about this because it's just a short movie. The main concern I had going into this movie was that it was only ~1 hour long. Unfortunately, my concern was justified.

The romance feels forced, partially as a result of pacing problems, but even moreso due to a complete lack of foreshadowing. Also, I find it difficult to engage with a romance story that has so little character development. Probably one saving grace for the movie is that the source material is fairly ... short as well, so it's not like a much longer story was crudely crammed into a short adaptation, as is often the case with anime. The movie felt slightly rushed, but it could have been much worse in this regard, so maybe I shouldn't complain.

The plot is fairly stereotypical and touches on a lot of the usual themes of same-sex relationship stories. It felt kind of fanfic-tier at times. It was all pretty standard fare for this kind of story. Emotionally, I didn't really feel much while watching. A short runtime with simple characters and a stereotypical plot just can't engage me all that much, usually. This is one of the reasons why I tend to shy away from movies and prefer TV series.

It's nice to see a canonically gay male relationship in anime. Like, with actual kisses and frequent displays of affection, instead of the usual noncommittal subtext that's often implemented just to pander to a vocal minority in some franchise fanbase. The affectionate moments of the movie are pretty cute. Although they're simple, the two main characters do have decent chemistry when interacting with each other.

As the title of the movies implies, the setting is an all-boys high school. Although it was kind of hot in my imagination, in reality the setting doesn't add much to my enjoyment, and actually just contributes to the bland feeling of the movie.

Animation quality and cinematography are okay for a movie. Art style was kind of organic and watercolourish, but with a muted earthy colour palette; it wasn't anything special. Similarly, OST and voice acting were both unremarkable.


My overall rating: 5/10
It wasn't really unique in any way besides being an overtly homosexual anime. There are a lot of cute moments, but ultimately they feel kind of hollow because of the bland writing and underdeveloped characters.

I think this anime might have attracted a disproportionate number of people from outside the usual anime fanbase, and was subsequently overrated by people for whom the content of this movie would be more novel.

Doukyuusei is a complicated movie, on one hand, its a cute story of two young boys growing comfortable with their sexualities and falling in love. On the other, its a rape-supporting mess with little to no character growth.

You may think that its impossible to strike a balance between these two things but Doukyuusei would prove you wrong. Kusakabe, the more dominant member of the duo is completely inconsiderate of his partner; Sajou's feelings and will often kiss and/or touch him without permission, even if Sajou asks him to stop. This persist throughout a majority of the movie and Kusakabe receives very little punishment for ... this behavior.

The conflict at the end of the movie feels rushed, definitely could have benefitted from a longer runtime or better pacing.

I've been negative this whole review but Doukyuusei does have a number of positive traits, the art is honestly quite good. Some people will be put off by the style but I think its very distinctive and will age very well. The music is good and atmospheric, fitting the backdrops well. While I was critical about the lack of consent at points during the movie, I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the movie cute as hell. Our leads have great chemistry when they respect one another, its a treat to watch.

I believe Doukyuusei could have benefitted from being a 12 episode show rather than a one hour movie. I don't think the author or the team behind this project wanted to create a non-consensual filled movie, but I have to judge the product based off what it is, not what I hoped it would be. Here's hoping this project can be remade into a slice of life show, if it was, I'm certain it could be top of the line BL show.