Doukyuusei

Hikaru Kusakabe is a normal, carefree boy in a rock band who is always focused on the present. During the summer, his entire class is forced to participate in an upcoming chorus festival. By coincidence, he discovers his classmate Rihito Sajou—known for being an honor student with excellent grades—practicing his singing alone. Sajou just cannot seem to get their class' song right, and Kusakabe, delighted at seeing a new side of his straight-laced classmate, offers to help him prepare for the event.

Although their lives and personalities are total opposites, they begin to grow closer as time progresses. But with the pressure of an unknown future, what will become of them and their growing relationship?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kusakabe, Hikaru Main

Kamiya, Hiroshi Japanese

Sajou, Rihito Main

Nojima, Kenji Japanese

Hara, Manabu Supporting

Ishikawa, Hideo Japanese

Tani Supporting

Kousaka, Atsushi Japanese

Fukushima, Yuuichi Producer

Kurosaki, Shizuka Producer

Shimizu, Akira Producer

Nakamura, Shouko Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

May 28, 2016

leonsdead

Recommended

Doukyuusei is a very simple romance story that will leave a big smile on your face.

Based on the very popular manga of the same name, this movie follows Hikaru Kusakabe and Rihito Sajou, two high school students of the same age, through their journey of self-discovery and their first love.

Story (8/10): Even tho this movie is good, the story isn't very deep or emotional. In real life first loves can be a very complicated thing, but not for these characters. The story flows as it should be, there's isn't a "dramatic twist" or a "love rival" or a "love triangle", this movie didn't need that ... at all, it's just them falling in love and enjoying each-other. Nothing more, nothing less.

Art (9/10): Doukyuusei has a very unique kind of artstyle. I personally think it works PERFECTLY with the movie and the characters but you'll have to see it for yourself.

Characters (9/10): the characters are what makes this movie WORK. How they interact with eachother is the cutest thing you'll ever see. You can feel the love they have for eachother, and that's an big accomplishment for the mangaka, the studio and specially the director.

Overall: If you're looking for a hardcore yaoi movie then you'll be disappointed because this movie is very romantic and REAL. You can easily feel the characters and understand their actions because they're very relatable.

Anyway, WATCH IT.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 1, 2022

literaturenerd

Mixed Feelings

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!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 30, 2017

NotCalc

Not Recommended

Well, you can definitely say that Doukyuusei is aesthetically pleasing. The colours used for backgrounds are generally muted, but the characters are vivid. Expressions are adorably drawn and very clear through a distinct art style.

Music and sound are gentle and well picked to bring out emotions , so that in combination with the art means that moments lacking in plot-driven interest often make up for it through pure atmospheric value.

Really, it's good that the aesthetics can carry the movie, because the characters can be frustrating and the plot is feeble at best.

As this was the highest ranked shounen-ai, I entered thinking this would ... be a genuine romance with a fairly realistic story - barring cute coincidences. Instead, I got something pretty typical - boy meets boy, they run into issues that could be solved through minimal amounts of communication, and ultimately put issues aside because their love is too powerful to fight, or whatever... It felt pretty weak, and 'important' moments in the relationship just didn't carry any weight.

This was mostly because neither character really bothers to work for their relationship. They both enter it thinking the hard part's over, and freeze at the hint of any kind of challenge. Any time they're in conflict, they let it fester until they can have a big, dramatic moment which loses the heartwarming factor in favour of a frustration because they could have just talked to eachother, damn it.

(Spoiler: Seriously, who follows up "I guess we don't know anything about each other." with "We shouldn't meet for a while"????)

Overall, Doukyuusei is sweet and pretty, but painfully shallow. It's nice if all you're looking for is some blushy faces and cute kisses, but it pretty much fails as a depiction of a relationship.

(Also, a warning: there's a random taboo interaction between a teacher and a student stuck in there for nothing more than an extra dramatic event. Why.)

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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