Recommended: nope
Spoiler-Free?: Nope
Pros: the characters themselves are mostly good
Cons: relationships. It’s almost unbearable. Don’t get with your Teacher.
Swears in review: nope
♥
I hate it here.
Always remember to not get with your teacher and consent is important.
[Story]: the plot is mediocre, mostly based around the relationships between the characters, which is important towards the plot. For Shounen Ai, I’ve seen better. The only issue is that if the characters weren’t problematic it would’ve been better.
[Art]: It’s also pretty mediocre. It’s not super expressive as it should be for its comedy bits and also has an issue with fluidity and transitions, which is what you mostly get during this time period of a slice of life anime. I’m coming from the age of 2018 and above animation so my view on animation is a bit skewered. What this anime does has for it is how they paint the night sky. Honestly, whenever a character is walking behind the night sky it’s pretty nice. The character designs aren’t too bad either but when I started the first episode I had trouble trying to figure out who is who.
[Characters]: I’m entering spoiler territory here. First I want to mention, the relationships are awful. Absolutely disgusting and because I love analyzing characters this will be the most lengthy section.
To start things off, easily the worse relationship in the show, Kensuke Ohshiba and Asaya Hasekura. Basically, I hate it here. Asaya is incredibly possessive and toxic and carries so many red flags with him. Hell, when they first finally became friends again in the earlier episode he forced a kiss on Kensuke to get his feelings across, which no, don’t do that. I want to point out consent is key and at this point, Asaya didn’t have any indication that Kensuke replicated the same feelings towards him or that he even was gay. He legit sexually assaulted him and then he begins to manipulate Kensuke by saying “you either can make love with me or we are no longer friends.” (Something along those lines.) and then get again forces Kensuke to do other things that are left towards the imagination. Asaya is incredibly possessive and overbearing and doesn’t even accept that Kensuke has other friends until later in the series. Asaya sucks, he really does. He’s my most hated character throughout the anime just because his personality is completely awful too with nothing remotely redeeming about him. What’s sad is that Kensuke is easily manipulated which is sad and what is most likely the thing that pushed him towards pursuing a relationship with Asaya. Consent is important.
Masahiro Setagawa and Kousuke Ohshiba are to put it simply, disgusting. I honestly should’ve known what I put myself into when the premise was about a delinquent boy and his teacher but, here I am. To point out the main issue, Kousuke is twice Setagawa’s age and Setagawa is a minor. Kousuke also just happened to be his teacher, which just really seals the deal, Kousuke also has been shown to have feelings for Setagawa for a while now, which means he’s been praying on a minor since he was in middle school. I hate it here. I really do. I never understand why in anime it’s suddenly acceptable that a student a teacher gets together and no one bats an eye. ALTHOUGH, CAN WE GET A AMEN FOR MITSURU FUKUSHIGE FOR CALLING THEM GROSS? Then everyone frickin yelled at him for pointing out the obvious. I wish you the world baby boy, you are the only sensible character in this show.
Overall their relationship isn’t terrible, frankly, it’s healthier than Kensuke and Asaya by a long shot but it’s disgusting and Kousuke deserves to be locked behind bars. I’m also curious how Kousuke is still alive considering he legit smokes a pack of cigarettes per episode. Characters smoking is always a fun trait but Kousuke does it so much that I’m honestly concerned.
The characters aren’t truly bad in general, except for Asaya, I would pay for his coffin personally. Most of the character chemistry is fun to see play out and they have their comedic moments.
[Overall]: Here’s a list of Shounen Ai stories with actually well depicted and not fetishized gay characters:
Anime: Given, Doukyuusei, No. 6, Banana fish, yuri on ice
Manga: Blue flag, Ganbare! Nakamura-Kun!!, All about J, lonely to Organdy, Shimanami Tasogare, Koimonogatari, My son is probably gay, I hear the sunspot
