Reviews

You've probably heard that this show romanticises domestic abuse and lesbian sexual harassment; the nicest commentators have called the abused Hotaru's advances to Yuma a 'cycle of abuse'. This depressingly fails to appreciate the unjust social stigmata, and pressure to seek a heterosexual woman's happiness, that pushes gay teens into denial, dishonest relationships and self-hatred. The massive abuse of society pushed the vulnerable Hotaru into her abusive relationships, and her poor expressions of love towards Yuma. Her dubiously-consensual advances, though wrong, inseparably result from her trauma and her love; moreover they lack the threat of violence, fundamental selfishness and hatred of women in themselves that are inseparable from abuse of women by men. Yuma's inability to either consent to Hotaru's advances or outright refuse them, when she's really 'cheating' herself by going out with nice-but-dim-Jim in the first place, are a legitimate result of her supressed gayness. Not the disgusting 'women-want-to-be-raped' tropes at play in straight NTR.
I like a happy lesbian rom-com as much as the next person, and Netsuzou doesn't go as deeply into its themes as it should, but it is a genuine account of the pressures and emotional torments that gay teens are put through by a flawed society. The number of people who condemned this show, while failing to condemn series like Shield Hero and Goblin Slayer for the monstrous abuse of women by men that they do irredeemably romanticise is very depressing.

Regarding domestic abuse, the idea that Hotaru is 'letting' Fujiwara hit her is not a legitimisation, but an expression of the self-hatred that really does fuel abuse cases. It is sadly not unrealistic that a toerag like Fujiwara has friends and girls queuing up to be abused by him; girls already abused by societal expectations, even if they're straight. However, it really should have been noted that fear of the abuser plays a much larger role in domestic violence situations. However genuinely, admirably forthright Yuma was in standing up to Fujiwara, someone as sociopathic as he's shown to be would have the power to mess hers and Hotaru's lives up a great deal more than he does. One of this show's biggest flaws is that it isn't as dark as it could be.

Also, a lot of 'kissing interrupted' soap-opera silliness, average animation, and tasteless, poorly-drawn fanservice. Still, this was a seasonal anime, and one with a more genuine, sympathetic romance than many better plotted and more popular shows.