So I don’t usually write anime reviews here, but, after watching season 1 of Junjou Romantica I have some strong feelings about the series as a whole, none of them good. I should clarify that I rather enjoy problematic BL/yaoi, hell, I absolutely adore Yamane Ayano’s Finder Series, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. But, the infinitely lighter BL classic Junjou Romantica just rubs me the wrong way. So why am I “okay” with Finder, but not okay with Junjou? Well, part of it has to do with when I started both series.
I started Finder rather early on in my BL/yaoi journey, at a time when I was still figuring what I liked and didn’t like from the genre. The steamy smut, was definitely appealing, but upon subsequent readings (especially those first few volumes) I find myself actively cringing at how… problematic the whole thing is.
On the other hand, I started Junjou long after I’d been in the BL fandom, so I just don’t have any nostalgia for the series the same way I do with Finder. To make matters worse, I have read and watched some truly amazing BL/yaoi over the years, and it has spoiled me a bit for some of the older much more flawed “classics” the genre has to offer. So, when I finally sat down to watch Junjou Romantica, a series people have been recommending to me for years, lets just say I had high hopes.
Spoiler Alert: I was not amused, in fact I was horrified to discover that this was the series that sparked many a BL journey! This is the BL anime that people fondly celebrate and praise… Junjou Romantica is problematic as hell! But, does that really make it a bad anime? Or is it a seriously flawed, but ultimately salvageable anime?
Eh, that’s still up for debate. So, in a rather unprecedented turn of events I’m actually going to attempt to write a proper anime review here on Nice Job Breaking It, Hero (I already write reviews over at MANGA.TOKYO, so don’t get used to it)… Also, y’all can thank Kat over at GrimmGirl.com for this, this is purely for her… Let’s get this review on the road, shall we?
A Brief Synopsis of Junjou Romantica
So, before I get into my gripes about the first season of Junjou Romantica, I should first give a bit of background about the series… *ahem*
Junjou Romantica (roughly translates to Pure Romance) is based on an ongoing BL (boys’ love) manga series of the same name by Shungiku Nakamura that is currently sitting pretty with 21 volumes since it’s 2003 release. It is by far Nakamura’s longest and most popular series, spawning a number of other media, including: Drama CDs, an anime with three seasons, OVAs and specials, a light novel series, and a spin-off manga, Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi. But, for the purposes of this review, I’m going to focus solely on the first season of the 2008 anime, and not so much the source material or any of the supplemental media.
The first season of the anime aired during the Spring 2008 comprises of 12 episodes, all animated by Studio Deen… yeah… let that sink in… Like the manga, the anime follows the romantic exploits of three (later four) couples, with the bulk of the story focusing on the relationship between popular novelist, Misaki Takahashi and Akihiko Usami.
Misaki Takahashi is a regular high school student who is preparing for his university entrance exams. In order to reduce the stress of studying, or so he hopes, he accepts the help of his older brother’s best friend, and famous author, Akihiko Usami. However, Masaki is about to find out that Usami’s books are of a very naughty genre, and that there may be something naughty waking up inside Masaki as well.
Junjou Romantica also follows the story of two other couples loosely connected to Masaki and Usami’s “Romantica.”
Egoist shows the very passionate, but often complicated, relationship between university professor Hiroki Kamijou (whose life has reached an all time low) and pediatrician Nowaki Kusama, who falls for Hiroki at first sight and would do anything to make him happy.
The third story, “Terrorist,” shows just how obsessive love can become when rich eighteen-year-old Shinobu Takatsuki finally discovers something that he cannot have so easily—the literature professor You Miyagi.
There is passion abound as these three couples try to achieve their goals in life while also falling into temptation and anguish with their partners.
–MAL
Ain’t Nothin’ Pure About This: The Couples of Junjou Romantica
I saw this anime rather recently, so I don’t have any of the nostalgia most folks have for the series and to be honest, I am still trying to wrap my mind around what I just watched, because THAT was not what I was expecting from a series as beloved as Junjou Romantica. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely some good aspects of the first season, but as a whole… it hurt my soul.
Now, in this series, romance is a term I use lightly, because some of the “relationships” depicted in the show are downright horrifying. Out of the three couples introduced this season, only one of them depicts a healthy loving relationship, the other two *inhales* are literally one “no” away from being Law and Order: SVU episodes.
Junjou Romantica: Usami and Misaki
First up are the main couple, Usami and Misaki… Where do I begin?! Usami aka Usagi-san is famous novelist and BFFLs with Misaki’s brother Takahiro, with whom he also harbors a one-sided crush for. One day after school, Misaki, catches the two of them in a compromising position and he is rightfully wary of Usami, but when the novelist becomes his new tutor the two become close, developing a romantic relationship. Again I use the term lightly, because there is nothing romantic about their “relationship”, Usagi wastes no time getting into Misaki’s pants despite being in love with his OLDER BROTHER, but when the love of your life isn’t interested, his younger brother is the next best thing…amiright? No, just no!
What follows is a twisted liaison between an older much more experienced man and a naive, impressionable student. Early on there’s this whole, does Usami really love Misaki or is he just a replacement for his brother plot point, but that becomes increasingly obvious that the latter is not the case, before the credits roll on the second episode.
There are a number of things wrong with this couple, chief among them is the fact that over the course of two, maybe three episodes, Usami successfully grooms Misaki to be his lover, despite him strongly objecting to his sexual advances. But does that stop Usami? No, because in Junjou Romantica no means yes and sex = love! Usami is a controlling bastard, who does the following:
- Molests Misaki, culminating in sex that may or may not have been 100% consensual, as Misaki was still trying to work out his feelings for Usami at the time.
- He keeps Misaki from interacting with a friend from school, because he sees him as a potential rival; forcibly restraining Misaki when he refuses to leave with him
- When Misaki doesn’t immediately bend to his will, he uses his brother as a form of blackmail to get the kid to comply
But, because Usami loves Misaki, all of this is written off as Usami just being a possessive lover, rather than a manipulative bastard. He gets better, but as a whole, their relationship is downright unhealthy. Even when they try to make it seem wholesome, about halfway through it’s too late because we just spent the first several episodes watching Usami participate in a lot of unwanted touching. To make matters worse, after his brother gets married and moves away, Usami becomes Misaki’s guardian, benefactor, and landlord in the blink of an eye. He is completely reliant on the older man, to the point that he can’t really object to his advances… It’s like Christian Grey in 50 Shades of Grey. Usami has money, power, and control on his side, and Misaki gets swept up in the “allure” of it all…
Love Egoist: Nowaki and Hiroki
The second pair, the Love Egoist couple, Hiroki (Hiro) and Nowaki were infinitely better, unlike the main pair their relationship was built on mutual consent from the very beginning. Nowaki is a college student that falls head over heels in love with Hiro an assistant professor in the Literary, who up until recently harbored a one-sided crush on Usami (seeing a pattern yet?). Now, what sets this pair apart from the first one is that Nowaki (the seme) doesn’t just start groping Hiro because he loves him and “can’t hold back”, he woos Hiro like a normal human being and waits until the other man accepts him before engaging in any frisky business. They serve as a nice foil to the main pair and their romance was downright precious and Nowaki is best boyfriend ever… just saying… Honestly this is the only redeeming quality of the first season…
Love Terrorist: Miyagi and Shinobu
The third pair, the Love Terrorist couple, features a love affair between a college professor, You Miyagi and a high school student, Shinobu Takatsuki, with a whopping 17 year age gap between them. First, I should clarify that, Nakamura-sensei’s specializes in age gap romances, so I wasn’t surprised to see it here, however, that doesn’t make the fact that Shinobu is the ex-brother in law of the You any less cringy. Thankfully, we’re only subjected to two episodes featuring the pair, but I shit you not, those two episodes manage to be the most horrifying of the twelve. Not only does Shinobu go out of his way to corner and molest You throughout, yes, you read that right, in a rather unusual turn of events, the uke molests the seme, despite being rejected at every turn. But, wait it gets better, after pushing the poor guy to his limits, You finally loses it and attempts to have his way with Shinobu, while he is crying and begging him to stop, to make matters worse, the music during that scene becomes noticeably more ominous and the camera angles much more sharp. This is not meant to be seen as a wholesome event…
Why Season One is So Damn Problematic
Junjou Romantica at the very least season one, is a product of it’s time, it perpetuates the sex=love narrative inherent in most early yaoi media, and for the most part it is either played for laughs or completely glossed over altogether. Misaki while, rather vocal, does little to distance himself from Usami, instead he becomes enamored with him from the very beginning. I’d liken it to Stockholm Syndrome, but he’s literally DTF before he really gets to know much about him, and that’s one of the biggest shortcomings of season one, we are just expected to accept the relationships between each of the couples with little or no context for them.
Misaki despite “hating him” at first, seemingly falls for Usami overnight with little to no justification for doing so, other than the fact that he is handsome and loaded. They try to make it seem sweet, because Misaki helps Usami move on from his one-sided love of Takahiro, but really he’s just transferring his affections from one brother to the other, without actually dealing with the loss. Regardless of how they sugarcoat it, Usami is using Misaki as an outlet for his pent up emotions, and that is not healthy. They also offer a bit of insight into Usami’s character with a one episode flashback that delves into his childhood and friendship with Hiroki. Now, even Misaki makes a passing mention of Usami having a less than stellar childhood, but ultimately it is just brushed under the rug. Perhaps, if they had taken the time to flesh out that bit of Usami’s story, I might have been more sympathetic towards him, but NOOOOOOOO, God forbid we do that…
I’ll skip over the second pair because like I mentioned earlier, they have the most stable relationship out of the three and I wish we could have spent more time with them… but alas.
The third pair… there are no words for how awful they are, it almost makes the teacher student relationship in Cardcaptor Sakura look tame by comparison… and that relationship comes with at max a lifetime jail sentence. And the age gap isn’t even the real issue, it’s the fucking consent! They literally have forced sex twice… *weakly* I just can’t… I’m sorry…
As a whole the characters are cliche and the individual stories like the romance is at best, tenuous. The comedic moments were alright and the “serious” moments were meh, I just wasn’t as invested in the characters as I thought I’d be… scratch that, the Love Egoist couple was both compelling and well fleshed out, so there’s the silverlining.
The Aesthetics: Pointy Chins and Yaoi Hands
Nakamura-sensei has a rather distinctive art style and Studio Deen did a fabulous job of capturing that aspect of the original work, however that isn’t exactly for the best. Nakamura’s works are known for their wide eyed ukes and angular jawed semes and aesthetically, it’s ugly. Yeah, I’m usually pretty forgiving of art if the story is good, but with season one, that is just not the case, so the art style was also a bit of a let down. Some characters fared better than others, but as a whole it was just meh. Oh and let’s not forget those large yaoi hands all the semes have, you know what I mean, those face swallowing hands mangaka like to give their semes. I always assumed that bigger hands correlated with more power or smaller dicks, but, who really knows…
There were also moments, mostly for comedic effect, when the style would shift from the usual angular style to a much softer, rounded art style… but, those were few and far between.
The music was pretty good, I quite liked the opening “Kimi = Hana” by pigstar it’s a song you can really bop to and the ending theme “Baby Romantica” by SCRIPT was also rather enjoyable. Most of the insert songs were just instrumental versions of the opening theme and those only cropped up during the super dramatic LUV LUV scenes, if there were any other background tracks, they were easily forgettable, because I literally just finished watching season one and I can’t for the life of me think of any other songs besides the ones I mentioned.
Overall, I was not impressed with season one of Junjou Romantica. I guess I expected this to be some grand BL classic like Kizuna or hell, Gravitation, but, what I got, just kind of broke my heart. The romance was non-existent, unless sex=love constitutes a stable relationship and the story was at best there in name only. The characters were cliche and embody many of the dated yaoi tropes I have come to despise in my old age (mind you I’m still in my 20s so that says a lot).
I hear the series gets better, especially in season 3, and since each season is only 12 episodes long, I’m going to continue watching if only to see more of Nowaki and Hiro (the only saving grace of season one). For what it’s worth, Junjou Romantica is not the worst yaoi anime I have ever seen, it just happens to be the most recent, which is a shame, because I feel like if I had watched Junjou earlier in my yaoi journey, I might have actually liked it… but, who knows…
Well, there it is a rare anime review! But enough of my yammering, I want to hear from you guys! Have you seen Junjou Romantica? What do you think of the series? Does it still hold up pretty well? Let me know down in the comments section and as always THANK YOU FOR READING!
found that a very interesting read especially because like you wrote it was coming from someone who does not have nostalgia for the series. I try really hard when I am writing my reviews especially the boys love classic ones to not let nostalgia cloud my judgement on them.
I must say, I am so glad I watched the anime before I read your review. I can see your point in some of what you mentioned. While it is true that the relationship between usami and misaki starts out in a bad way with misaki being molested, everything after that is a matter of interpretation. In another episode when usami says he forced himself on misaki, misaki corrects usami saying if he didn’t want it he would have pushed usami away. If you watch the show, you see how opinionated misaki is. He isn’t afraid to speak his mind when it matters most. If I had not seen the tv show prior to reading your review I wouldn’t want to watch it, as you make it sound like usami is a bad guy. As for you and shinobu, the story is a bit unusual, but to simply have an issue because of the fact they were once related by marriage shouldn’t affect anything. Love is love.
Great post Naja, I too stumbled upon Finder as my first BL (as you know) at while it’s problematic, it holds a certain nostalgia to it. I started Junjou awhile ago, but put it on hold after the first 4 episodes. I think the thinks you pointed out are the reasons why I put it on hold. One day I’ll get back to it.
As problematic as this one is, I kind of have a soft spot for it because it was kind of eye-opening in its own way and while I don’t see any of these relationships as particularly healthy, even Nowaki stole the other guy’s house key in order to come back and make breakfast, other than the first episode I didn’t have a lot of moments where I wanted to bail out of watching. That first episode though was kind of hard to watch.
Ah, this and Sekaiichi Hatsukoi are the first two BL titles that I got to know because of some of my friends who became fujoshi. I still get confused by the two. Sekaiichi Hatsukoi is the one about old high school buddies, then? I don’t think I got to finish either of them, tho.
Omg I just realized I actually read part of this manga! It was just so terrifying I think my mind blocked it out lol. It was actually my first BL manga but when I started reading BL I was like a Jr in college… so all of this no=yes business was down right scary lol. It was also right after my daughter was born so I was hopped up on new parent hormones. I kept thinking what if this happens to my kid?! Yep the second couple was the only saving grace but it still couldn’t keep me around for the rest of the series.
I think you pointed out it perfectly: it’s a product of its time. I think the other famous BL title are Gravitational and Loveless, maybe. Both aren’t really that accessible, and I know it can turn people away to BL stories. Junjo is like a softer version, in a time where BL still has a negative reputation. While it’s a tamer version of the manga or BL in general, this anime is influential and it turned a generation into massive BL fans 🙂
I’m not a fan btw. I also didn’t like the 3 couples, since they’re one dimensional. Of course, I’d still recommend it to people. xD
I was rather enamoured with the series when I first got into it… I was a young naive hopeless romantic… but as I grew older and read a lot of others’ opinions. I realize this wasn’t the ideal, fantasy, romantic relationship I would be in. …but I still do enjoy reading/watching the series. Anyways, I’m not quite liking the beginnings… but in like most BL mangas, things get better. I wasn’t fond of Finder or Super Lovers at first, but reading/watching more into the series made me kinda into them. Maybe you should read more of the manga or watch seasons 2, 3, the OVAs. Or maybe try its spin-off, Sekaiichi Hatsukoi. Hehe, hope this comment wasn’t confusing.
Also. What did you mean by “pattern”? (Egoist part)
It’s odd, but I have a soft spot for thsi one priamriyl because of Nowaki and Hiroki. I love them as a couple, and thought that they seemed really natural together. The other pairings I thought were indeed problematic. As you said, it’s a sahme we didn’t get mroe time with Nowaki and Hiroki.
Finally someone said it. I’ve felt like this since I watched the series a few years ago. I can’t imagine why anyone thinks it’s a good BL story.
Are you gonna check out Sekaiichi Hatsukoi at least? The other Junjou Romantica seasons?
I’ve heard good things about Sekaiichi, so I’m definitely eager to see whether it holds up to the hype…
Now, seasons 2 and 3… I dunno, I’m not going to go out of my way to watch them, but they are on my watch list… perhaps further down than they originally were…
Thanks for stopping by!
Oh that’s good to hear! Looking forward to your reviews!~
Did you watch Sekaiichi Hatsukoi?
Usami was Misaki’s tutor for a while when Takahiro (Misaki’s older brother) introduced his future wife to Usami. Misaki was crying uncontrollably knowing how much this hurt Usami and that is when Usami states that he fell for him. Misaki struggled with being with a guy and therefore could not show Usami his true feelings, that is one of the reasons that Usami became so controlling.
This is the best review I have ever seen.
I’m not going to lie, I used to love these kinda things when i was a pubescent teen. but as I grew older and began reading/watching them again, I realised how some yaoi manga and anime like these, romanticized non consensual sex and possessiveness.
I threw out my Junjou manga and began my journey looking into yaoi media that I feel comfortable with and the weird part, this manga was one I read a long time ago. Thank goodness I found the “better” side of Yaoi that actually involved character development, a decent story and, yup, you guessed it, CONSENSUAL ACTS. ♡
I might give it another go and watch the other seasons; but I don’t trust a lot of peoples recommendations. I truly do not believe Junjou Romantica deserves to be high on any list of recommend Yaoi. But this is just my opinion. And ughh… yaoi hands…..
I just wanted to point out one thing really quick. I really don’t want to be THAT person, but I really did like Junjou Romantica… I mean, honestly, I skipped all the egoist and terrorist episodes… but I loved the Romantica couple. In season 3 (I think, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it) Misaki tells Usagi that he loves him for the first time. They’re on a Ferris wheel and Usagi is crying because he thinks he forced himself onto Misaki, but Misaki reassures him and tells him everything he did was consintual. (Except the original bedroom scene, they pretty much just cross over that one.) I hope this might have made the series a little more bareable to you knowing that Misaki consinted to (nearly) everything. (Also, I love the finder series too;)
Sorry I misspelled consensual >~<
Seeing as most Junjou Romantica fans are teens this article feels extremely patronising and rubs me very very wrong. Let kids be kids and enjoy their not so good romance stories, they will eventually outgrown them like we all did. No need to viciously shit on their entertainment.
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment, I definitely appreciate you stopping by!
I’m sorry that you feel that way, but, this review, like all the other reviews on my site are my opinions and as such reflect my PERSONAL views on whatever topic I am covering. I’m going to be frank with you, I did not like the first season of Junjou Romantica, it just wasn’t for me and I said as much in my review. However, I did not bash fans of the series so for you to say that I am “viciously shitting” on the series because I didn’t like the series means that you completely missed the point of my review. If someone LIKES Junjou then more power to them, but, I DID NOT LIKE IT. End of story.
The fact that this content has such a young audience is precisely why reviews like these matter. Normalising and even romanticising all these frankly disturbing tropes has to stop. And how is expecting basic respect for a person’s consent patronising? No one’s asking for a stellar storyline or smart dialogue, we know this anime is too dumb for that.
The manga is more in depth than the anime and the anime leaves out a lot that the manga doesn’t. So read the manga before you judge the whole junjou romantica series. And if you still feel that way then fine that’s your opinion but writing a review for something you only have half of the info about is bias. And FYI i’m not no pre- pubescent teen either nor was i when i read/ still reading the series and watched all of the anime’s.
First off, I want to thank you for taking the time to leave a comment! While I appreciate your feedback, I would like to let you know that I am not obligated to “read the manga” before passing judgement on the series. As it says in the title and throughout the post this is a review of Junjou Romantica THE ANIME more specifically, SEASON ONE OF THE ANIME. As such the opinions expressed in this review are for SEASON ONE OF THE ANIME and nothing else. Reviews by their very definition are biased as they reflect the views not of the reader but the person writing them. It’s perfectly fine that you don’t agree with my assessment of Junjou Romantica, in fact, I think it’s great that the series has such a dedicated fanbase. However, what you’re not going to do is tell me that my opinion is invalid because it does not align perfectly with your own.
Hi. I watched most of season 1 of Junjou Romantica, and I agree with most of what you said. The egoist couple is the only reason why I want to watch more of the show. If they had their own show, I would definitely only watch that because consent is the big issue of the show. Usagi molested Misaki when he first spends tine with him alone, and like you said, Shinobu molested his seme twice. At least Hiroki and Nowaki have clear consent, and their story line isn’t painful to watch.
When I first read/watched Junjou Romantica as a teen, I was horrified. Turning to the internet for sympathy produced nothing but a horde of fangirls who, apparently, couldn’t get enough of all the rape. I wish I could have come across a review like this then. Seriously, there’s so much wrong with this manga/anime I don’t know where to begin. And I’m not just talking about the noncon part. There is zero to little character depth, extremely one dimensional and predictable characters with no room for surprises. The art was such an eyesore and story was bland and just, tropey. I try not to judge too harshly because this is manga after all, but dude, can that please stop being an excuse to be tone deaf and unoriginal?? Gawd, I am never touching this dude’s work again. Ugh.
I’m an old-school fan of series, though I preferred Misaki with anyone else and it wasn’t until I watched youtube Film Theory “Fifty Shades of Grey Cult” video that I finally realized why. At first I kind of laughed at how much it reminded me of Akihiko, then I realized it was almost exactly like it (aside from step 1…). Then it probably explains why I always liked Ijuuin with Misaki more (thus why I say season 3’s immensely better), everything he does follows the methods of how to deprogram cult members. It’s hilarious so many people make rape jokes about him due to how touchy he is with Misaki and how often they’ve run into each other out of nowhere without seeing the resemblances to Usagi. Later in the manga it almost feels like he’s outright testing if Misaki’s with Usagi of his own free will by using those techniques, then literally starts acting like Usagi (junjou romantica 34) to make sure.
To Rephrase- “after using those techniques” and (romantica 34-38)
Well, i’m not an english speaker, i just want to leave my opinion, i just searched for a review to see if people think like me and not everybody think junjou romantica is the best of the best just because of nostalgia.
At first i read the manga, until vol 16, and i kinda like it but…it’s just irritating how the romantica couple seems not come to and end, idk, i mean, misaki is still confused about all that shit even after four years of being with usagi? the terrorist couple seems like the only sane and well wrote. the other one, that i don’t remember (miyagi and that kid) it’s just seem like a playground for the author because there is nothing interesting about it. to be honest, this manga needs to end, it’s enough…i understand that people climb to it because of nostalgia, but…it’s really bringing something new? even after a decade? there is already more quality material out here. i will stop reading it and just wait to it to end so i can end it too and see how things work out.
thank for your review, its awesome, take care.
literally hours after writing this i remember that the nowaki/hiro is the egoist couple, and the kid and miyagi is terrorism, lol, my bad.
No worries lol I mix them up all the time.
First, thank you for stopping by, I’m glad I’m not the only one out there NOT wearing nostalgia glasses.
Yeah, this series has been going on for awhile now and I’d really be okay with it ending. The Egoist couple is my favorite, but the rest can go kick rocks. ESPECIALLY the kid and the grown dude… that was upsetting on so many levels.
I’m glad to see this review. I actually was looking for reviews since I heard there was a anime made of Junjou Romantica. I had read & loved the series starting when I was about 15 but for the life of me couldn’t remember the story line of it. It was really popular for years. But to be honest most of the folks around who were reading it were teen girls who had a skewed view on age gaps and non consent made our hearts beat wildly.
Reading your review refreshed my memory of the manga and made me realize as a 30yr old woman with a son & sexual traumas of her own that mess wasn’t heart warming or heart throbbing in the least. I don’t know why the the age gaps back in the day never fazed me nor did I pay them much mind except thinking some garbage about dealing with someone older w experience who could take charge. Or the unexpected reverse.
To put it blunt half the things out there were basically toxic/terror “romance” which fed into the baser parts of folks.
These days I really do like the wholesomeness of consent, and legal aged couple content
You fortunately saved me from attempting a reread of this or starting off the anime only to discontinue it in disgust.
I agree so much with you. Being aware of every little thing in yaoi and BL is so exhausting because the amount of things that are wrong but are also normalized is so horrifying. At the same thing, I think that it does have some true to it. The way some people view homosexuality, consent, age gap and love, that all is in the series. We know that the way the anime presents these kinds of things are wrong, misinformed and old-fashioned, but people of that time didn’t. And there’s still people who view them as that. So I think that we being are aware of the things that went wrong with this anime is amazing, because it allow us to notice how much we’ve learned. Some people like you, will not be able to hold feelings for the series, and that’s ok too. But I think it’s ok too if even while we’re aware of all the things that went wrong, we’re still able to enjoy the nice things in the anime. Thank you for your review, I really liked it.
THANK YOU!! Junjou Romantica is dated and it has a lot of dated BL tropes that just wouldn’t fly today. It has some good moments, but I dunno, as someone that came late to the series, I just can’t get into it as much.
I just found the series and am on episode 4 and I’ve already gasped dozens of times. As a gay dude that’s had experiences with older men being predatory, certain things hit close to home. Like the controlling aspect. Having men twice my age play this role of “mentor/father/casual advice giver” whatever you want to call it the end result was somebody who tried to steer all of your time and energy towards themselves.
That first interaction where Usami literally jerks Misaki off against his will…if I had a dollar for every time an older guy thought that was a proper come-on smh. I think a lot of people don’t realize eventual consent doesn’t make the initial lack of consent okay. Hesitant or begrudging consent is not okay and it’s not acceptable oh and also it’s not consent at all.
So yeah, while I’ve barely progressed through the series at this point, what I’ve seen so far is gross and unacceptable. But I do think many gay men, especially those from poorer backgrounds, have been in a situation just like Misaki’s where you want to and you don’t want to and it feels great and horrible all at the same time. You want to be loved but you’re not ready for it because being gay has stumped your emotional growth since you’ve probably been closeted and didn’t date as a teenager and everything is new to you and you don’t know how to act. There’s really a lot of emotions, all simultaneous and contradictory, going on for somebody in Misaki’s position (no, not his sexual position) and so far the anime series hasn’t really explored that. At best they’ve made hints to it, little nods to the situation Misaki is in and the lack of power he has over his own life right now even though he’s an adult. So while Misaki may eventually say he consented (as far as from what I’ve read in the comments here) he didn’t consent with the proper maturity and knowledge that really is needed. If this were a story between two 18 year olds stumbling through love for the first time, these oversights would be a little more forgivable. But what I’ve seen so far is gross exploitation.
Hi it’s Crunchydroll again! I finished the series thanks to a combo of Crunchyroll and Hulu. I have to say the series, the anime at least, is kinda pointless. 36 episodes that cover 3/4 years and there’s almost zero growth for…anyone. Maybe that’s not a ~thing~ with BL idk, I’m new to this genre. But it was frustrating to watch, especially season 3, these grown ass men not being mature. I’ve read a little bit about the “tsundere” thing that Misaki is supposed to be but it’s a little nauseating that he’s still written that way after so many years or so easily. Maybe that’s common idk but it doesn’t make for a likable character as time goes on.
For a series about romance, I actually liked the show more when the couples weren’t involved with their romance/seduction. The story was funny and interesting when the characters would interact outside of bedroom/love stuff.
Idk, if this kinda genre is made by women for women, no wonder so many women have such a warped view of male homosexuality. I would love to be able to stop any young/teenage gay male from watching this series or at least sit beside them able to yell “Absolutely NOT!” every 3 minutes.
I still gave it a thumbs up on Hulu and overall I like it. It’s just sad that I went in looking forward to watching an anime about gay love and liked everything about it except the portrayal of gay “love”
Rewatching the horrid thing made me gag. And it doesnt get better even in Season 3. They just beating around the bush at this point. Either Misaki is an idiot or Usagi is a constant horndog. Whichever, its a problematic relationship begin to end despite the gag comedy they sprinkle around.