BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“You are still my person even if I am not yours. I’ll keep you as my favorite incomplete wish.” – eternallove9986
This is an astonishing BL series that checks all the boxes. It is a cute story. The acting is well-established and very solid. The support cast literally carry this series. It is very well written for the most part. It is funny and, in some cases, down-right hysterical. So why did I not simply think this was the best series since sliced bread was invented? It is hard to explain, really. While I liked this series a lot, I just did not love it.
The story evolves around a rather odd high school student who is more outside the box than in and at first appears to be a misfit. He always seems to be one step behind yet intensively reflective of who he is. He is sorely self-reflective and a rather astute quick-witted individual. Education is hard for him not because it is difficult; he just seems to be a million miles away and unfocused. But when he sets his mind to doing something, he becomes quite focused with periods of awkwardness, fumbling behavior, but signs of great astuteness and insights. His name is Aoki (Michieda Shunsuke).
How he develops a love interest for Ida (Meguro Ren) is incredibly serendipitous, amusing, entertaining, and rather creative. Ida is a hard person to read and understand. He seems distant yet he is not. He seems unaware yet deliberate in his actions. He is confused as to how he feels about Aoki and bumbles and fumbles his way through a relationship that in reality is not. He simply does not know how to relate and ‘feel’.
And here within lies the problem. They worked so hard to establish a relationship, but never once did I believe that they were in one. I wanted them to be in one. Sure, there are moments were there are connections, but they were all on an intellectual level and hardly ever emotional. Even if they could, neither understood their emotions. I simply did not believe it. The other drawback for me was that I NEVER believed their characters as high school students. I just could not wrap my brain around that they were. They did not look like or act like high school students and therefore for me, that diminished the whole relationship.
There is also a secondary relationship here between Aoki’s best friend, Akkun (Suzuki Jin) and once the (imagined) love interest of Aoki, Hashimoto Mio (Fukumoto Riko). She is honestly the glue that keeps this series together. The relationship between her and Aoki is a thing of beauty to watch and behold as it grows into an intense friendship. It is magical and both help each other to gain the strength they need to overcome their timidities. They have such chemistry together and a connection rarely seen in BLs. Rather than painting her as a rival or an antagonist, they made her into a real, genuine friend who truly understood Aoki and he understood her. Kudos for making this an incredibly healthy relationship of equal stature.
Her relationship, however, with Akkun is a rather complicated one. He seems either disinterested in her or merely sees her as a friend. Their relationship takes a while to develop but is no less entertaining or enjoyable. While their connection never seems to flourish until the end, they seem to have a deeper bond of understanding each other than what Aoki and Ida did. This is a series where both the gay and straight relationships paralleled each other and were of equal importance and commitment. Again, kudos for making their stories so equalizing.
Both relationships are more complex than it appears. Parts of it are quite funny yet others are profoundly moving and a genuine roller-coaster of emotions can be seen and felt. Michieda’s comedic timing is perfect, and his bumbling facial expressions are a work of art. (He reminded me of Lucille Ball in his manners and comedic timing. That is a real compliment)!
But after a while, it does tend to get overdone and used more like a gimmick to avoid getting into real issues. His transition from being a buffoon to being serious with so much conviction to both is perfect. That is not easy to do to make it seamless and natural. He does that very well. He can create in the audience, laughing one minute and then deep reflection the next. He does it with complete mastery.
Meguro, on the other hand, plays his character with unbroken consistency. Seemingly detached and a bit unemotional, yet internally he is so much more contemplative than his outward appearance would show. This is confusing both for Aoki and the audience. But when he tells Aoki he loves him, it seems believable. Yet ironically not, as it has no feeling.
Which leads to why I have such mixed reactions about this series. There is really no ‘love’ between them. They mouth the words and go through some motions (like hold hands) but they never acknowledge to each other any more than what is right in front of them nor act more directly on what they are supposed to be feeling. I understand that feeling. Neither wants to admit that they are gay’ and are so worried about how others may respond, especially Aoki. Aoki always feels and perceives the burden of responsibility for everything that goes wrong as his fault. When Ida deduces analytically that he ‘loves’ Aoki, he is not as frightened by what others think of him because he has logically and intellectually concluded it is the right path. But Aoki remains always hesitant, and slow to accept. He in essence has internalized the homophobic perceptions that society has either tacitly or overly pressured us to believe. Aoki’s emotional growth is slow and longingly; Ida’s emotional growth is well thought-out but not internalized.
The irony here is ALL the individuals around Aoki and Ida have accepted them EXCEPT they have not accepted themselves. They all can see what is going on and the two are not convincing in trying to hide a budding relationship. Kudos again for helping show that young people can and will be acquiescing to the realities of love in all its many forms.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? Honestly, this is one of the best acted BL series I have seen in a long time. And the ensemble cast is also exemplary. They all deserve this distinction. But there is one who I thought stood out the most and frankly stole my heart with his intense sincerity. He has only a few scenes, but he so did a magnificent job of making them all most believable. And you could sense that he was someone special. Ida’s best friend, Toyoda Shun, played brilliantly by Mochizuki Ayumu. Since he has been Ida’s best friend since childhood, he knows him well and he unmasked the relationship between him and Aoki. And he also knows how Ida’s personality and manner of approach to people can be misunderstood because of his inability to fully commit to another person. His analysis of Ida is brilliant, and yet supportive of his friend. Mochizuki Ayumu’s performance left me spellbound. The intensity, his authoritative nature without being preachy, and his obvious love for his friend is luminous. His soliloquy about what his actions are doing to Aoki and how hurtful they are perceived is touching. Soft-spoken but so genuine and given to heal not to hurt. Sometimes an individual takes a small role and makes it shine overwhelmingly and Mochizuki did this with this role. It is sheer resplendence and one of the best acting in this whole series. There is an intensity about him that draws you into his character, maybe through the radiance in his eyes. I would watch him in anything. An awesome job for such a throw-away role.
This series is brilliant and well-acted and certainly scripted to show case the best for all these actors/actresses. It tackled issues with openness and a refreshing way as there was no active attempt to thwart or hinder the natural development of any relationship. While the one instructor did try to cast doubts on the relationship, it was quickly dispelled by the nature of showing Ida and Aoki together in normal settings and as real people. The subtle discrimination shown by the teacher was quickly thwarted and his interpretation of their relationship was shown to be flawed, exactly as he was.
But the series left me empty. I felt little for the gay characters. I felt more deeply for the straight characters as theirs seemed to be more emotionally connected. If the intent was to show that Aoki and Ida were or are going to be a couple, then it faltered as I did not see any connection to one another other than an intellectual one. If its intent was to show a solid bromance, then it was a bit more successful. I saw them becoming close friends almost intimate friends in a non-sexual way.
This series screams for more seasons, and I do hope there are more. It just did not grab me as intensely as I hoped it would. This is still a worthy and beautiful series. I think I was more disappointed in myself rather than the series. I wanted so much to feel this series more; I just could not.
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