From the yaoi anime I've seen (JunJou Romantica) there seems to be a format with yaoi that goes on. There's the obvious seme and uke, the fact that the uke may not like the seme or the other way around, and there's a LOT of pinning down.
Love Stage fulfills these criteria, yes, but I feel that has a charm that surpasses JunJou Romantica at least. The humor definitely springs from the main character Izumi Sena, who gets wrapped up in his family's popular lifestyle, when instead he wants to be a mangaka. Plus, his Mom's name is Nagisa - and the seiyuu for Izumi voiced Nagisa in Free!. Rei is also here, with the same seiyuu too!
The roles for who the seme and the uke are in this show is Ryouma as the Seme and Izumi as Uke. This is obvious in their appearances; Ryouma is a young, fit acting superstar. Izumi is an incredibly femmy young adult who has the ability to look EXACTLY like a girl with makeup and proper clothes - as expected with any closed, shut in otakus, I suppose. Their relationship is off to a rocky start, but then there's the whole thing with another trope I notice in yaoi anime, the eventual realization of being a homosexual. Ryouma begins with Izumi thinking he was a girl, but after a mishap with Izumi's brother (who's also gay) he horribly finds out he was a dude all along!
Of course, as time ravels on, he continues to think of Izumi. This leads him to eventually have Izumi pinned down naked. Unlike with JunJou Romantica, the sex here is stylized and not as explicit. The manga, however, is extremely explicit, to which I HIGHLY recommend it on that basis! Either way, Izumi is creeped out by all this but eventually warms up to Ryouma once he does something FOR him! Wow! After buying Ryouma's bought him clothes and food on a date, it's only after he helps with Izumi's manga project is that he realizes he's not a bad guy after all. This struck me as weird on Izumi's character.
Eventually, both parties come to realize their love for one another after some weird trials. For me, this is one of the things I can't credit Love Stage for is the story. It's bothersome that Izumi has to realize his affection for Ryouma after Ryouma has done so much for him. It seems like to me he doesn't really love him at all. Another thing is how Ryouma even starts to love Ryouma in the first place. He latched onto a picture of a shota Izumi dressed as a little girl for 10 YEARS! Then in the manga, the story dives an irritatingly cheap plot line that'll be disclosed later.
After all that rambling, what can I say overall? Well, Love Stage has a plot line that, while not frustratingly dumb or anything, is a bit questionable but still pulls off it's cute moments. Izumi and Ryouma aren't shallow and underdeveloped, they're real entertaining but still have their times when you want to seriously ask, "Why?" on what they do. Side characters like Rei and Izumi's brother, another couple in the show, are also good. Not dished to the side or anything, they work into the plot without being an annoyance half the time.
I recommend this show, definitely should watch it if you're considering it.
