Tasogare Out Focus

Review made as of episode 3.

- THEY ARE GAY -
I’ve heard great things about the source material, and now I see why! This is a refreshingly direct BL that doesn’t skirt around the fact that the main characters are, indeed, gay. No more implications, no more “only because it’s you”; they are just gay. It’s nice to see this representation put forth honestly and plainly.

- REALISTIC AND MATURE -
The story so far handles its topics maturely and candidly. For example, when one character finds out the other is gay, the gay character is immediately concerned with the stigma on homosexuality in Japan, and ... brings up how most people would be afraid of him harassing them because he is gay—a common negative stereotype. The fact that the show even mentions this stereotype and acknowledges the prejudices many people have is a big deal to me because it’s realistic. Japan is not exactly accepting of gay people, no matter how much BL they pump out. Tasogare directly addresses that in a natural way, through dialogue that would make sense for the situation.

- ADDRESSING TROPES IN BL & GENERAL ROMANCE -
Additionally, Tasogare addresses a common negative BL and yaoi trope head on: the prevalence of sexual assault or coercion in these stories. Often, SA is treated as a jumping off point for the relationship, excused and justified by “you didn’t hate it”, and romanticized. This isn’t exclusive to yaoi and BL (any anime watcher knows this trope is everywhere), but it is alarmingly common in these works, often in the first chapters. Dakaichi is a prime example of this idea that SA will blossom into true love, and that SA is even a “good thing” because it means the other person just loved them so much and “can’t hold back anymore”. Yuck.

Tasogare presents us with a stereotypical assault scene you’d find in many romance anime, not just BL. A sick delirious person getting confused and pouncing on someone. But the show and its characters don’t excuse it or use it as a starting point for the relationship. The offending party is pushed off and rejected, and they give a genuine apology once they’re cognizant again. They even follow up with ground rules to prevent it in the future. An apology and actions taken to fix the situation. No excuses. That’s far more than just about any romance anime ever does.

As I mentioned, the assault also isn’t the starting point for their relationship. Huge green flag. It is only after a year of building trust, following their ground rules, and building closeness that any feelings develop, and everything is consensual, with permission clearly asked for and clearly given. Again, this should be the norm, but the bar is on the floor when it comes to most romance anime.

- CALLING OUT CREEPS IN ANIME -
One other massive win for Tasogare is that it actually calls out pedophilic relationships, specifically the teacher student dynamic that is romanticized in so many anime. Even the classic romances, like Fruits Basket, have multiple teacher student or adult minor relationships, and it’s fully normalized and acceptable in those stories. Tasogare shows a much more realistic and grounded picture of what these relationships usually look like. It’s not cute. It’s usually adults preying on troubled children. And one of the main characters calls the adult a pedophile, to his face, which we NEVER see in any anime with these kinds of “relationships”. It was incredibly satisfying to watch a spade be called a spade, especially after decades of anime normalizing this behavior.

- THE ROMANCE & CHARACTERS -
Aside from that, the romance itself feels natural and organic. The characters have genuine reasons to like each other, rather than just being shoved together. There’s also no “will they, won’t they” type of nonsense going on. Instead, we get actual clear communication! I’m excited to see how the relationship dynamic develops and to learn more about the side characters, who actually seem interesting!

Each character has hobbies and interests outside of their romance, and I loved seeing how one character’s hobbies motivated his partner to try seeing the world differently. It’s such a real interaction and shows how they pay attention to each other while still being their own people. It’s early in the story, but I already feel like the characters have more development than many other romance anime.

- MUSIC -
The background soundtrack of the show itself isn’t anything special, but it’s serviceable and not distracting. I feel like the OP and ED (both fantastic btw) should be switched.

- ANIMATION -
This has some of the best animation quality we’ve seen a BL get in a long time. Fingers crossed that this level of quality keeps up, and we don’t see another Cherry Magic situation.

Overall, I greatly appreciate the mature treatment of this show’s characters and themes. That’s usually a good sign that the overall story will be handled thoughtfully and intentionally. Let’s hope future episodes are just as great!

Twilight Out of Focus - One place, three different stories, but...GAY.

If you didn't know already, Boys Love a.k.a BL shows have existed just as long as other most recognizable AniManga genres do, but in the age of the 2020s, cancel culture is so rampant for people to get nosy-ticklish to cancel shows that are regarded as outrageous and oh-so-out of control. Yet, that is unfortunately the case for mangaka Janome's Tasogare Out Focus a.k.a Twilight Out of Focus, being the subject of litigation of X/Twitter's unnecessary heated fire from homophobes, so much so that stupid old Sony-owned Crunchyroll pretty much nuked the comments section instead ... of hiring moderators to fish out the bot accounts that are spreading the misogyny of BL anime. That's a first that the show was unfortunately crowned for, and it's sad that people are just getting too sensitive about BL works, the irony that the genre has outlived these exact same homophobes being cringe just to see guys kissing as a form of sexual coercion. Like, come on.

With all of the misogyny out of the way, let's tackle the anime, which holds itself in a very unique position of not just adapting said manga, but more so like a collection of short stories, combined all into one work.

For a long time now, having watched BL shows, as a old-enough guy who can appreciate BL works like Winter 2022's Sasaki and Miyano series (the main couple and the side Hirano and Kagiura couple, which was made into a decent movie) and last season's Tadaima, Okaeri a.k.a Welcome Home, I was having expectations going into Tasogare Out Focus considering it's Studio Deen, and the review that I made for the latter series was still pretty much holding true that I could just copy-paste my exact thoughts, but whatever.

As I've eluded early in the review, Tasogare Out Focus is a collection of short stories that all take place in a boys-only school, and specifically in the film club, split into the respective 1st to 3rd years of the young adult men wanting to achieve something out of their ordinary lives, after hearing the film club's dedication to the new project of creating a BL film and marketing it to the masses. To be more explicit, the anime adaptation of the manga is as follows:

Main story:
Volume 1 - Twilight Out of Focus - covering the story of 2nd year roommates Mao Tsuchiya and Hisashi Otomo
Volume 3 - Twilight Out of Focus: Overlap - covering the story of the film club's leaders of 3rd year Jin Kikuchihara and 2nd year Giichi Ichikawa

Side story:
Volume 2 - Twilight Out of Focus: Afterimages in Slow Motion - covering the story of the newly joined 1st year Shion Yoshino and the ignorant playboy of 3rd year Rei Inaba
Volume 4 - Twilight Out of Focus: The Evening Monologues - the recap of all 3 couples in their various levels of relationship

The insights of the 3 central gay couples will undoubtedly unfold different aspects of the film club and its BL film creation moments, though everything else is what you should expect coming into a BL show like this, which doesn't shy away from aspects like sexual assault. The difference with Tasogare is that mangaka Janome handles each couple in a very realistic and mature way, that as much as you want to call it for BL being romanticized by authors who just want their fantasies displayed, he does the formula so different that it's unlike many of the stereotypical works where reality is always shied away from and not being used to its full potential, citing real-world views. Situations like being forced into love just because of circumstances or anything, people will tend to see it as sexual assault or coercion, but this show does in a way that, as much as the as the assumption of the red flags you're going to see throughout the series, it however starts off with green flags: from agreements to general rivalry, each couple's starting point is first laid out in an adept way that doesn't cross the line at first, even though one or the other will start to push buttons in a rather realistic, but unconformable, and non-conformative way to either push or pull said couples towards or apart from each other. It's relationship realism, and you can't objectify this based on human perception alone.

The distinctive gay couples get their own spotlight by doing things that would benefit one or the other: Mao getting his roommate Hisashi to join the film club and do something about his life; Ichikawa's rivalry with Jin being so strong enough to elude feelings over their competitive nature; and Shion discovering true love for the first time with the unperceptive Rei, who thinks that dating and romance are a joke. That's what compels good characterization, not just on the pure romantic side, but with a human-level of weight to be productive as normal human beings for a sense of purpose. And I appreciate that about a show like this trying to tackle both the comfortable and uncomfortable sides of the relationship, as depictive as real life can be.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: Studio Deen IS the studio to go for BL shows, and while Tasogare looks less refined than both Sasaki to Miyano and Tadaima, Okaeri, it still is presentable for what it is, especially the scenes where film cinematography is utilized and gives the show a whole lot of substance other than its BL features. But overall, it's good.

The music is honestly the weakest link of the anime. The OST is just there being enough, and while Ikusaburou Yamazaki's OP is that of your typical J-Pop decent but forgettable song, Amber's ED sounds surprisingly great and fantastic.

Despite the clear NC-17 to R-21 ratings worth of maturity to the show, I find that Tasogare Out Focus a.k.a Twilight Out Of Focus is a rather compelling show if you want some mature and undisguised BL, even if it reeks the hell of prior review-bombing that it sadly got. It's just not for me to experience gut-wrenching shows like this, especially since it makes you question how far AniManga authors like Janome push the boundary of what's considered to be too crass for the genre itself, especially for a niche genre that has gotten the love-hate treatment in recent years.

It's solid with intentionality that's handled gracefully, I'll give it as much that.

I have always read/watched the BL/Yaoi genre and this is finally an anime series that does NOT involve any weird power dynamics / SA / trauma bound relationships etc. I am so happy to say that this is just documentation of a pair of young GAY couple falling in love that is AGE APPROPRIATE for each other
phew.

Love the portrayal of the MCs - especially the way they fell for one another and their thoughts and concerns - very realistic for an actual highschooler

The story is nothing out of the ordinary but this is perfect for people who just wanna chill and enjoy some cute romance

Before starting Twilight Out of Focus, it’s important to know that there’s not really a “main” couple. The series is pretty evenly split between 3 separate couples, all with their own storylines. Because of this, this series is definitely not a slowburn, as each storyline is 3-4 episodes.

Taking all that into account, Twilight Out of Focus is a great series, full of green flags, healthy relationships, and interesting characters with their own distinct personalities. It’s cute, it’s fluffy, and also a little spicy - which in my opinion is realistic considering these are all high school boys.

If you want a cute, non-toxic, fast ... paced BL, I’d highly recommend this one.

With how much toxic relationships seen in BL series, its refreshing to see a show that portrays a healthy BL relationship (relative to popular manga/webtoons). It was a great watch from start to finish; the only gripe I had on it was the show not focusing enough on the main couple (which the hypnosis and cover art suggests). The show goes into three couples including the main one, and gets a little lost a long the way. It does recoup at the end.

The show doesn't focus on sex only. It mostly focuses on the daily lives of the characters being in the film club. ... We get to see their struggles and how they share a passion for filmmaking. It's a solid watch. The OST is good. The VAs did a great job.

I really appreciated this series and found it to be so unapologetically gay and cute and fun! It is so refreshing to see a BL or even a story with gay characters where there wasn't really a single implied moment of homophobia in the setting of the world. It just set a stage with great pieces and let it play out in a light-hearted and entertaining way that made me feel good every time I watched it.

First though: --- my big critique is with how the show starts very early on. There is one interaction that is very uncomfortable and immediately had me on my ... red flags drawn type of viewing. I was wondering if we were going Banana Fish-level trauma or sub-5.0 rating yaoi dumpster bin. Luckily it spins out of that interaction pretty fast. And while it does help build one of the lead characters story, looking back it really doesn't fit the tone of the show. Immediately thinking this was going to be one of those BL I force myself to sit thru until things go so left I finally drop it. ---

That said! +++ The great thing is that right after that bumpy start with a past acquaintance, they introduce a much more pleasant and engaging setting and new quirky characters with realistic interactions, but still told in a lighthearted after-dinner anime watch style. Relating to my own experiences, I found everything underneath to be so well-written and relatable to real life gay world existing, growing up and figuring yourself out, finding love and questioning yourself and questioning people around you and potential interests. Just human relationships in general, in pursuing and trust and doubt and discovery and revelation. It all is low-key written really well for how lite it comes across. +++

Without spoiling, the different character interactions offer such a nice change of pace episode to episode. It can be such a tone-shift going from one couple to the next, and I absolutely loooooove one of these characters and how they present him as. It's one of my laughably favorite presentations of a gay man in all of anime and I should add him to my favs right now actually.

As a BL fan, this just fit a certain spot in my heart I appreciated. It's all so unserious but with great care and detail still felt within it. This probably won't be in my top top for this year by any means, and you can find deeper stories out there for sure (Tian Guan Ci Fu from this year being one of them) but it really is one of the most enjoyable BL I have watched. (And I have watched... a looooot...) A nice casual evening watch. And after that little initial stumble in the beginning, I am so happy that I stuck with this.

It was so enjoyable and hopefully signals more great BL storytelling in anime like this in the future. I'm always refreshing that boys love tab on anime search hoping a new series gets announced that looks like an actual good story. This was one of those for sure.

Ratingbomb-haters have a nice day and stop missin out on life! ;)

Solid 9!

I love my BL and have been a fujoshi for 10+ years and have consumed almost every sort of BL there is available from novels, to anime to manga/manhua/manhwa, and I am very veerrryyy pleased to say this is one of the loveliest anime adaptions of BL to anime I've watched.
I loved the manga so much, and the anime portrayed this so beautifully. I have no complaint and love the relationship progression of ALL the characters as it just feels so healthy and sooo damn sweet. <3

For BL lovers, don't miss out on both the manga and the anime, it is absolutely a wonderful ... watch.

I adore the manga this anime is based on and the only reason I'm not rating this higher is because I'd rather recommend the manga. It's basically a shot by shot direct adaptation of the manga apart from one storyline. This style of adapting can by its nature never enhance the source material because it doesn't play to the strength of its medium. It's also hesitant to fully the sex scenes and rather sticks to a couple shots with dialogue, which is fair for any non-hentai anime, but it does kind of suck. The animation in general isn't the best, the movement is kind of ... stilted and especially the kiss scenes look kind of off. The dub voice acting, however, is incredible, which does help elevate the show.

TL;DR – if you’re a gay man who loves anime, or if you like any romance-oriented anime, watch this. It’s not quite as good as Given, but it’s also miles better than Gravitation. This anime breaks ground in ways rarely seen in yaio/BL, and usually avoids tropes. There's even a nice post-credits scene on the last episode. Just don't expect twilight to come into focus.

This is the third time I’ve written/updated my review. I know, I said I probably wouldn’t update it, but the final episodes compelled me to log in and give another hot take. This is a long review, because I had my ... expectations set really high by the backlash Crunchyroll faced when they announced this, and by the first 4 episodes. The episodes featuring Mao and Hisashi are by far the strongest episodes, and they feel realistic, as if a man in his mid or late 20s is recounting a story about his first love. The other episodes featuring the other two couples are much weaker and I feel they undermined the quality of the show. They're not *bad* but they just felt so unnecessary.

I’m approaching this anime with a few perspectives – I’m a gay American man who loves anime, I’m a sucker for at least giving any anime with an LGBT character a chance, this anime was supposed to be controversial, and I’m fully aware that being a gay or trans person in Japan is taboo AF.

There’s not many *good* anime out there centered on LGBT characters. Calm down, you know it’s true! I said what I said!
There’s Ghost in the Shell SAC (Major might be a lesbian? Maybe bi? It’s not really confirmed), Tokyo Godfathers (I love you, Hana!), Given, Yuri on Ice, and Stranger by the Shore are all that come to mind, and GitS is a real reach by me. I am happy to add Twilight Out of Focus to this list too.

By today’s standards, stuff like Gravitation and Junjo Romantica are just bad, and weird. When I was younger, long before we had stuff like Given and Yuri, these seemed great because there were literally no other options to see an entire anime with characters who had something so deeply in common with me. The menu has expanded a bit since then.

I’d love to see LGBT characters just occur organically and unforced within anime (where’s my gay Vash or Goku?) but Japan just isn’t there yet. The taboo around LGBT folks in Japan has lead to these characters only rarely being portrayed, and usually as a stereotype – either silly comic relief or flamboyant and creepy (Hisoka Morow from Hunter X Hunter anyone?).

Twilight Out of Focus is rumored to be the show which caused Sony to remove all commenting from Crunchyroll – people are *that* bigoted, so naturally I had to watch it to see what made Twilight Out of Focus more edgy than something like Mnemosyne. With that in mind, I’m honestly disappointed. The opening is meh, nothing offensive, graphic, edgy… Heartwarming in a lightly cringey way? Cute even. In fact, this isn’t anything we have not already seen in other shows such as Yuri on Ice, or Given, which is not a bad thing, but seeing similar plots repeatedly does grow tiresome. It’s 2024, Japan, give us the gay anime which our parched souls are crying out for!

Now, hold on. I must be fair! This show opens with a character being acknowledged as a closeted gay man. Yes, “gay” not “uwu he’s cute and I don’t know why I feel this way! Wait, where are you putting that, senpai?! uuwwuuu!!!” This alone feels very groundbreaking to me, and I actually skipped the video back to hear it a second time. “Wait, did he just say he is…?!” Yes, and that alone is actually laudable.

Also, there are s3x scenes! Not pervy pr0n stuff, it's tastefully done. Sure, we've seen gay s3x scenes eons ago (Cowboy Bebop had Faye burst in on one), but this is presented as romance, not go-to-horny-jail stuff. This again feels very groundbreaking.
Nothing is implied, hinted at, or just left to be explained in a manga we’ll never read. It’s right there in the open. I believe this is the first time I’ve seen an anime character saying, “I’m gay” vs. them carrying on with men, but never saying the obvious, or finding themselves bedding a woman back in “real life” when they step away from their male lover escapade (pretty sure I’m looking at you, Gravitation or Junjou Romantica!). It's a very nice change.

As another reviewer pointed out - this show is also refreshing because it portrays the traditional BL/anime SA/PDF File relationships for what they are - gross and wrong. Gravitation and Great Teacher Onizuka, this is *not* (and let's be real, GTA wouldn't be able to air today). While I was tempted to point to a manga by an artist named Mikiko Crash'n'Burn as a point of comparison to Twilight Out of Focus or Given, it also opens with some light SA which is a very unfortunate trope, especially in BL. Tops are not just grabbing up waiflike men off the street and laying the pipe, FFS.

The English voice acting is very well done (most of the time – some stuff is toned down from the Japanese sub). The tone is usually serious, but there are melodramatic moments in the writing and animation which feel jarring to me, akin to Vash in Trigun skittering across the sand and making snarky cat faces with no warning, or some of the more animated moments of Fullmetal Alchemist.
The characters… From the trailer, I knew that we would have multiple couples, which is kind of a trope with this genre. I’m not a huge fan of that, I’m happy with one couple vs. the entire cast suddenly tripping and landing on a chopstick, but it is what it is. Having several couples at once works fine in many shows, but here it felt like the writer was much more invested in Mao and Hisashi while the other two couples were an after thought to pad out the run time.

The pairing for Mao and Hisashi is very non-conventional for a yaoi, a serious tone is set and the two characters rapidly become multi-dimensional. They feel the closest to being “real” to me out of the six total POV characters, but the remaining characters don't manage to clear the bar set in the first act.

The second pairing is very on the nose for BL (uwu, this feels so nice, but he’s a guy!) and actually involves BL so I feel it’s honest satire. The third pairing is… Somewhere in between the first and second? When the anime arrives at couple #3, you will be greeted by a flamboyant openly gay teen who is absolutely on the prowl. Yaaas, queen, yaaas! He reminds me of those single guys whose only goal in life is to find someone to date. Nothing beyond that is planned, and it’s just not cute. There is character development with him and he does branch out a bit. The other half of this duo is also seemingly openly gay and vapid too, but vapid in the sense of not really caring all that much about affection or even relationships. He's presented with an older mysterious brother vibe in prior episodes, without any mention of having a history of openly dating male classmates, which made a grand reveal moment feel like a retcon when the relationship is revealed no one reacts poorly about it being two males. Definitely some plot armor and lazy writing going on there, IMHO.

The animation is well done, though it definitely has vibes from a previous era of anime radiating through. As stated before, the animation has a serious tone until it doesn’t for a few moments here and there.

The story itself is fine. It’s nothing too magical or out of left field, it’s essentially a high school romance drama with an ambiguous timeline as we shuffle through the 3 “how we met” arcs. The film festival is supposed to be the thread linking all of this together, but ultimately it’s a plot vehicle which seems to end up nowhere. We don't even get to see a supercut of the competing films. The Mao and Hisashi episodes are the best, hands down, and the screen time devoted to the other two couples really prevented the story from flourishing into something more than “how I met my first boyfriend” recollections, imo. Hell, the three couples don’t even cross paths outside of school and for all we the viewers know, they’re oblivious to each other’s existence, which just makes having multiple couples in the anime feel like a waste of time.

Final verdict – Opening the show with a new presentation for LGBT characters set the bar a little too high for episodes contained within other arcs, dragging down the overall quality of the show and depriving the story of anything truly meaningful, but ultimately the disparity between how later POV characters are presented doesn't undermine the *goodwill* earned in the first 4 episodes. The groundbreaking pushes my score up from a 7 to an 8. Yes, this is worth watching, just don’t expect twilight to come into focus.

I loved it, each chapter was so full of love and had so much charm to it!!

I loved how healthy and how real some of the relationships were portrayed!! Great anime no doubt!!

Usually I don't trust animes will be able to make me feel completely comfortable without having to ignore a thing or two due to them being out of my comfort zone, but this didn't happen at all with Tasogare Out Focus! I truly loved every chapter, 100% recommended!!

The characters and relationships were incredibly well thought and developed even though there are only 12 chapters. Once the anime is done, you'll be ... there with a smile on your face and your heart full!!