Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai: The Clouds Gather

Yashiro, the ruthlessly efficient leader of the yakuza group Shinsekai, is also a brazen sexual deviant and masochist. Having been hurt by the only person he had ever fallen in love with, he now engages in strictly physical relationships.

One day, Yashiro's superior assigns Chikara Doumeki, a recently released prisoner, to the role of Yashiro's new bodyguard. The stoic and observant Doumeki is also clumsy and impotent, much to Yashiro's dismay. Although Yashiro has a personal policy to not get involved with his subordinates, he finds himself strangely drawn to Doumeki, who keeps denying his advances. Despite his refusals, Doumeki finds Yashiro beautiful and wishes to stay by his side, yet he knows that he will never be able to satisfy his boss. As the two grow closer, their complicated pasts slowly begin to reveal themselves. Will their histories get in the way of their emergent feelings?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Yashiro Main

Shingaki, Tarusuke Japanese

Doumeki, Chikara Main

Hatano, Wataru Japanese

Kuga, Eishin Supporting

Ono, Yuuki Japanese

Kageyama, Kanji Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Nanahara, Yuusuke Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Misumi, Takahito Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru Japanese

Ryuuzaki, Atsushi Supporting

Miyake, Kenta Japanese

Shizuma, Amou Supporting

Satou, Takuya Japanese

Sugimoto, Hayato Supporting

Miyake, Takahiro Japanese

School Nurse Supporting

Ootsuka, Manabu Producer

Noda, Fuko Producer

Makita, Kaori Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Koizumi, Kisuke Sound Director

Reviews

Sep 11, 2020

DesiSkorm

Recommended

I feel like it's my duty to write a review on this anime, since I'm a huge fan of the manga.

Ever since I heard we were getting an anime adaptation, I was both hyped and very afraid, because it can always go both ways and I didn't want to see something I hold so dear be destroyed. Thankfully, that wasn't the case and I ended up enjoying the anime quite a lot. A lot of details, of course, will remain in the manga alone, since they will need to make at least a 12 episode anime to cover everything, but they actually managed to find ... a great balance between the plot and the erotic scenes. The main characters didn't lose that special spark they had and their relationship was portrayed very well in the anime.
I just have to praise the voice actors. Those were not only top notch, but they sound exactly like I imagined they would while reading the manga.


Story (8) - Well paced and balanced. Time flew by while I was watching.

Art (8) - Much better than I thought it would be and it matches the manga art style. The kind of censorship they chose was funny, I ain't gonna lie.

Sound (6) - I'm not much of a fan of the soundtrack here, but it didn't really bother me. The only thing that stood out was the ending song, which I really liked.

Characters (10) - On spot with the manga.

Enjoyment (10) - More than I bargained for.

Overall (8) - Can't wait for the next movie!!

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Sep 14, 2020

frozenpancake

Mixed Feelings

Look, I don't want to be that asshole who says "the manga was better" but in this case, use that previous statement as a fair warning if you're even remotely interested in watching Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai: the Clouds Gather. Because man, the awful production value alone is enough for me to tell you to just skip this movie and read the manga.


Animation 2/10

Going right into this review, let's start off with the weakest aspect to Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai: its sloppy animation. Now usually, I'm not picky of art in anime-- yet for this movie, I simply could not turn a blind eye to ... how abhorrently unready it looked! One of the main issues was how unrefined the characters looked when put against ultra-detailed and high contrasting backgrounds. You see, the animators decided on a very simplistic style to draw the characters in (flat designs, blocky shading, sharp outlines, and dull color palettes) which would've been fine EXCEPT for the fact that they practically pasted these characters onto garishly colorful and precisely intricate-looking backgrounds that didn't mix well together at all! So instead of having beautiful backgrounds that blend seamlessly into the scene, they only acted as a jarring distraction to the viewer. Simply put: the characters and backgrounds just don't look like they belong in the same anime.

To further illustrate my point, I have to comment on the laughably bad lack of movement in this anime! Because my god, the body movements (even down to basic walking sequences) felt so stiff and awkward-- as if this was made by a bunch of amateurs from ten years ago! More so, what's up with the emotionless, and, there I say, deadpan fish faces? Such a shame because the manga had so much content to offer: subtle looks that convey a lot of what a character is feeling, but we lost all of that to monotonous facial expressions. Because in short, these characters just move, look, and feel like robots! To me, this was the worst offender of them all because what's the point of even making this into an animation if these were the results? The whole point of the animation medium is to bring life to the characters, to give them movement and dimension, so it defeats the whole purpose when they reduce their characters to mere mechanical automatons!


Soundtrack 5.5/10

If I were to judge the soundtrack entirely on its own, I would've given it a pretty high rating. I absolutely adored the ending song "Moratorium" by Omoinotake and the ost background music alone are some really strong and memorable tracks. Therefore, the problem I had with the soundtrack isn't its quality, but rather, its placement throughout the movie.

Basically, the overall mood of the soundtrack is kind of peppy and jazzy which doesn't fit with Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai's more or less somber atmosphere, so certain scenes had way less of an impact due to how conflicting and out-of-place the music felt. In the end, the soundtrack served to nullify my enjoyment of the movie, instead of enhancing it.


Plot and Characters (6/10)

Alright, so I presume this adaptation is the first installment in a series of upcoming movies because this movie only covers the first 8 chapters of the manga. It stays fairly close to its source material so not a lot of complaints here, except that nothing really takes place in these 8 chapters!

At most, you get introduced to the main characters, Yashiro and Doumeki: who they are, what they're like, and what their backstories are. And while I think the script executed in writing the characters well enough, the movie still felt too meandering and directionless because nothing else happens!

This problem could've been fixed if only the writers would've uncovered more of the chapters from the manga because as of now, this entire movie could've easily been condensed in 30 minutes or so. Ultimately, I just didn't see the point of making an entire movie that dragged on for 1 hour and 25 minutes long from only 8 chapters with not a lot of, well, anything.


Final Thoughts 5/10

This movie just didn't seem finished. If they had just pushed the release date to do polish some things (cough, the animation, cough) then I think Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai: the Clouds Gather could've had the potential to become a really great movie! Although, that was definitely not the case since it fell rather flat in its execution (to put it lightly). I just hope the upcoming movie(s) will learn from these mistakes.

Overall, if you're a fan of the manga then check it out to your own demise, but if you're a completely new viewer interested in the story, then I would strongly advise you to just go and read the manga.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 19, 2021

MichalYo

Not Recommended

I read the manga a long time ago when I was still a teenager that loved yaoi and shounen-ai manga. Since I was still in the closet I didn't know better, almost every story seemed at least decent. When I saw this title getting adapted I was really excited and it made me feel kinda nostalgic.
But after watching this movie I can admit that everything I loved about this manga/anime was because I was just a stupid teen.

Story:
It's basically a porn. There are some cool moments, where characters have interesting interactions, however almost every scene ends with a blowjob, so I don't really know ... how to take it seriously. Of course there will be always some people who will defend it by saying that it's part of Yashiro's character and his mental problems. If that's the case, the anime did a really bad job on showing that.

Characters:
I'm not gonna lie, Netflix's gay characters are more interesting, which says a lot about this anime. Let's start with the 2 main characters. Yashiro is probably the most interesting one, which says a lot about this anime, since he's just a generic main characters with problems. The main difference is that he's just horny 24/7 with an excuse that he was raped in the past. There are some scenes that make you feel bad for him or perhaps understand him, but again, right after he just wants to give a blow job to another main character - Doumeki. He's a pretty shallow character, his past is tragic (what a surprise), however I haven't felt bad for him a single time, which in my opinion is the studio's fault. The other characters don't really bring much to the show other than having horny conversations with Yashiro.

Art&Sound&Animation:
It was decent, pretty good for shounen-ai/yaoi anime, since they normally don't get a lot of budget, so it was refreshing seeing this kind of anime with a decent and sometimes pretty good animation&art.

Enjoyment:
It was not the worst anime I've ever watched so I just gave it a 4. My expectations for "gay anime" are pretty low so a score lower than that wasn't necessary. There were some scenes that I enjoyed, but by the end of the movie I was really bored and I almost quit watching. I think if they adapted more chapters, then it would be a better anime, but they just went with the first few chapters, that are not really that good and deep.

Overall:
I'm sure that many enjoyed this anime, because it's a decent yaoi adaptation, however I don't think many gay people should be happy with it. It basically shows horny gays, having sex with everyone and everything. Some people may defend them, because of their mental problems, however it's not enough for me. Gay people still fight for their rights and "gay stuff" is still a taboo topic over there, so a manga like that, which was written by a female that probably imagines how gay people interact with each other (in the most horny way ever) doesn't really help.

If I was younger I would've probably enjoyed this anime a lot more, but since I'm in my 20's and I got to know the world a bit better I can say it's pretty stereotypical anime.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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