From the stereotypical strong masculine-seme and weak feminine-uke trope, all the way to huge, unsettling age gaps in EVERY pairing and creepy romantic encounters, this anime has everything to give you the worst second-hand embarrassment of your life.
I am aware that many of the prominent tropes in this anime are meant to be hot. If you're into that, go figure. If you're not, this is your sign to find another anime.
Let's discuss two relationships in this anime that may potentially be triggering or uncomfortable to some.
Main pair: Misaki Takahashi and Akhiko Usami
Let's go over the power imbalances between the two.
-> Misaki is eighteen. Akhiko is twenty-eight.
-> Akhiko is Misaki's tutor.
-> Misaki lives in Akhiko's house.
-> Akhiko is strong enough to pin Misaki down. Which he does with no hesitation. (Say it with me now -- that's assault!)
There's a lot of problems with this dynamic.
Akhiko frequently physically restrains Misaki by holding him down, pushing him, etc. This is portrayed as a romantic device, because "Aww, poor baby Akhiko is needy!" However, considering that Misaki does not consent to this 99% of the time, it's just uncomfortable to watch.
Next, they just generally don't trust each other. Misaki's senior at his university, Sumi, begins to develop a bond with Misaki. When Akhiko sees this, becomes angered to the point of physically kicking a window, punching a table, etc, and angrily confronts Misaki in front of Sumi. Likewise, Misaki is seemingly jealous of how much time Akhiko spends talking to Takahiro, and responds as such to Akhiko.
These two things make their chemistry feel forced. Misaki and Akhiko have a sort of "forbidden" relationship, which is intended to be a selling point. However, sometimes the age gap makes Akhiko seem like a guardian to Misaki rather than an equal partner in some ways. It is also REALLY hard to see Akhiko as anything other than predatory for a while.
Though there are a few compelling moments between the two, the huge majority of their interactions just feel weird to watch.
Now that we've talked about the main couple, let's unpack the mess that is...
Side pair: Yoh Miyagi and Shinobu Takatsuki
Let's go over the power imbalances between the two.
-> Shinobu is eighteen. Miyagi is a whopping THIRTY-FIVE.
-> Miyagi is Shinobu's sister's ex-husband.
-> Shinobu is extremely forceful with Miyagi in insisting that they should be in a relationship. Miyagi is uninterested.
First, it is unsettling how this relationship proceeded. It feels extremely forced when considering that Miyagi, for a long time, shows no interest in Shinobu. Miyagi is thrust into the position of the responsible adult, juxtaposed with Shinobu's forceful professions of love. It seems obvious that Miyagi shouldn't just... get together with his ex-wife's teenage brother? Who is also half his age?
In the end, BL wins and they start a VERY awkward relationship.
The most uncomfortable part of their relationship may be that it feels so fragile. It is very heavily emphasised throughout the show that Shinobu is fearful that Miyagi is only with him out of sympathy and could leave him at any time. This, again, causes their chemistry to feel forced. They are extremely unequal in the sense that Shinobu desperately latches into Miyagi, while Miyagi is more distant. While the anime does try to solve this problem, it is hard to stop viewing the relationship as awkward and forced.
In the end, while the anime has... some(?) plus points, it was not a good watch. Sitting through three seasons of this felt like a drag. While it does get better to some extent, the relationship between the various pairings never truly feels authentic. Their relationships progress weirdly fast, which leaves you in a weird limbo of seeing the pairs fall for each other, hard, while still feeling icky about the whole thing.
