BLISS RATING: ★
“Winter is like fake love that warms us with its beauty and freezes us with its reality.” – Mehmet Murat IIdan
This is one of those BLs where you will have quite a difference of opinions. Frankly, I am a bit surprised that anyone found this series even remotely entertaining, to any extent an affectionate BL story, or even well-acted. It actually sickened me to watch this series as a gay person to see so much toxicity detailed under the guise of love. And apparently audiences fell under its spell because it is presented so prudently.
I do not want to spend too much time on the toxicity of this series especially for those of you that have seen this and still see it as some sort of a ‘love story’. Even if I numerically listed the breadth of examples, you will still not see its harmfulness. And that saddens me. For those of you who have not seen this series, then look out for them with an open mind; they are glaring and obvious and disgusting and you cannot sugar-coat their effects. Hopefully, you will see them.
This is a story about Yoh (Mashiko Atsuki) who is a quiet, withdrawn young man and is a good illustrator. He wants to be a manga artist, someday. He does not have many friends in college and is a pretty introverted individual but focused on what he wants. That is his only real passion. After watching Misuki (Higuchi Kouhei), who is a stunningly handsome man and the center of much attention, Yoh becomes enamored with him.
Misuki is also focused on himself and is a complete narcissist. He begins to realize that Yoh is drawn to him. Misuki initiates a rather elaborate venture to draw Yoh into living with him. Misuki has become a successful meteorologist on television and has an almost cult-like following. He devises a ‘contract’ in which Yoh can live with him for free and he will take care of his needs; but he must ‘do whatever he asks of him’. Yoh, being insecure and with no other options, agrees. However, he never really processes the meaning of Misuki’s words to him and in essence becomes his slave, for lack of a better term.
While Yoh has a part-time job, he soon loses that and is now even more dependent upon Misuki for everything. Misuki is rather dismissive of Yoh’s desire to be a successful manga developer. So, Misuki becomes more possessive of Yoh’s time and quite literally forbids him from seeing others, including friends. At one point, in order for Yoh to see his friend Manju (Matsumura Sayuri) he has to ‘lie’ to Misuki.
Therefore, Misuki places a tracking device on Yoh to see where he is really going. When he finds out he has gone to see Manju and is interacting with her husband and smiling, he gets jealous and physically pulls Yoh out of the house and tells him he cannot see them again. He has never seen Yoh smile like that before and Misuki is beside himself with jealousy. And he, therefore, ties Yoh up and tells him, he cannot leave the house anymore.
Of course, all these incidents are sprinkled with passionate erotic sex whose pleasures are debatable. Certainly, Misuki enjoys it since his control over Yoh is complete. But there are times that Yoh merely seems to accept his fate. Sometimes hating him; but mostly loving him. With confusion and anger in between and seemingly powerless to change. He has no free will to change. He seems and feels like a slave. He is a slave.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? I shall be brutally honest here. No one did. The acting here is unchallenging and unchanging. It is drab and sardonic. Their characters never modified. They are the same monotone, sickening creatures present throughout. They are dreadful characters incontrovertibly and remain so. If you are expecting some character development even a little, you will get none in this series. They wear the same boring expressions and mouth the same apathetic responses. They never ever change.
While the overuse of voiceovers to explain how the characters are feeling in Japanese series is rather standard, in this one it is excessive which unfortunately takes away from having the actors act. Communication, either verbal or nonverbal, is non-existent in these characters and frankly in these actors. They just stand there looking expressionless. If they are so much in ‘love’ with each other, they are the two worst individuals in ‘reading’ (i.e., knowing, understanding, appreciating, etc.) each other I have ever witnessed. The only thing that is atypical is when Higuchi Kouhei as Misuki’s puts on the charm when it comes to meeting other people. His whole personality changes and it shows. He can be so sociopathic that it is second nature to him and that was beautifully animated. The consequence of this was, no one would ever believe Yoh if he told anyone how possessive and controlling Misuki is. Yoh realized that it is pointless to convey to others his dilemma. Who would believe him?
Both these characters sulk around their living quarters broken but so unwilling to talk to each other with any kind of sincerity. One is completely narcissistic while the other is a broken shell with no personality left to call his own.
Frankly, I was bored with the acting here. In defense of the actors, however, it is not entirely their fault. The direction of this series made them seem and feel so wooden and flat. The director tried to make a toxic story romantic and cute, but it comes out shockingly unloving and maleficent underneath an ardent veneer.
What has disheartened me the most about this series is the inability for others not to see the blatant emotional and psychological abuse that is so prevalent in this series. It is rampant. This is NOT love in any way shape or form and quit calling it that. As a gay man, it is so disconcerting and disheartening to think anyone would find these patterns of abusive and bullying are thought of as displays of loving behavior, by any society, are demented.
Having worked for years in the mental health field, I am further distressed when I see asinine comments made by individuals saying that Yoh could leave and therefore he ‘accepts’ his fate and ‘loved’ him. You know nothing about abuse and the ugliness of dependency, and how toxicity and the destruction of psychological and emotional abuse destroys the will of individuals. Add to that now is the physical abuse. Tying someone up against their will, physically forcing someone to go with you is physical abuse, and that is not part of a sexual game.
I am not saying that toxicity could not be a theme for a BL. It can be and legitimately so, but it should not be presented as something as an acceptable form of gay love. It should be called out for what it is. This is abuse. What would the outcry be if Yoh was female and Misuki had done this? Would there be tolerance? Acceptance? Be thought of as loving one another? Would anyone seriously make a statement like, she could have left, or she liked it, make sense? I doubt it. But because he is gay, somehow it is acceptable?
This is morally reprehensible behavior and tacit acceptance of this must be called out. No one (male, female, gay straight, trans, queer, or questioning), should be used or abused in a manner portrayed in this series. It is flat out wrong. Yoh is a product of psychological, emotional, and physical abuse and Misuki is a perpetrator. Both need help. This is NOT a kinky sex arrangement. It is a sick one.
This is by far the worst BL I have seen this year. It is awful all the way around. For me, one of the most disgusting BLs ever produced.
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