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.
