Anime: Junjou Romantica

[thistlechaser]

If you don't like slash or same-sex relationships you should skip this post.

Usually it takes outstanding art and a great plot for me to fall in love with a series, but my new most favorite series ever has neither!

The art in Junjou Romantica bugs me. It has tons of way too pointy/long chinned men. Note to artists: if a chin can put an eye out, it's too pointy and too long. It also does way too much of... that thing that's like when the characters go chibi but not that exactly. When the drawing gets really simple and there are blue/black lines to show an emotion. I can take a little of that, but JR does it a tad too much for my tastes.

The plot is really simple. I never would have expected that I could so deeply love a series with such a simplistic plot.

Mighty good selling job I've done on this, no?

Well believe me, it's so amazingly good! I don't dare take it to work because I cannot watch it without eeeing, acking, and making other assorted fangirl noises outloud, let alone sit still! I wiggle in my chair, hug myself, lean in, lean out. The emotions draw me in that strongly!

Junjou Romantica follows three male/male couples. First off, I had no idea there was anime like this! Second, it's soooooo sweet and eek and angsty and eee and they love each other and eeek!

*cough*

So far most of the plots have been along the lines of 'Oh nos, I think I'm bothering him, I should go! I love him, but I'll go anyway forever! For him~!' and then the two realize the misunderstanding and have hot sex.

Wait, there I go not selling it well again. (And mind you, I'm only halfway through the first season, so it might get more complex. However, it's perfectly fine if it does not!)

This series is like all the best parts of slash fanfics boiled down. There's no graphic sex (yet?), but for me it's not the graphic sex that makes me go all eeee and grinning and gushing over something, it's the emotions and how the two connect and interact.

This series really is the sweetest, most wonderful, loving, eeeee hot sex OMG against the wall holding him down and eee they're fighting and now loving and eeeek yes kiss him ooooh my eeeee yay! thing I've ever watched. :D You can and should download it here.

Comments

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

First off, I had no idea there was anime like this! Second, it's soooooo sweet and eek and angsty and eee and they love each other and eeek!

Given you live on the west coast, I'm really surprised you weren't aware of anime like that. o_O There's tons of it, the shounen-ai/yaoi brand is designed toward female viewers, so I'm sure you can find a ton more if you look.

Thistle likes PWP gay porn, who woulda figured? ;3 *ducks*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Given you live on the west coast, I'm really surprised you weren't aware of anime like that. o_O

? What's where I live have to do with the anime I'd know? West coast being closer to Japan..?

There's tons of it, the shounen-ai/yaoi brand is designed toward female viewers, so I'm sure you can find a ton more if you look.

Yay!

Thistle likes PWP gay porn, who woulda figured? ;3 *ducks*

Ha ha. :P I was going to call it PWP, but it isn't really. It's got some plot, just not rich, complex plot. :D

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Even porn has some plot. ;3 And I mentioned coast because it seems the east and west coast have easier access to a wider selection of anime. Can hardly find any here in Michigan, and the places that do sell anime only carry the 'popular' kinds, not the ones rated for mature audiences. ;3

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Even porn has some plot. ;3

Excuse me, ma'am, I'm here to fix your sink.

*snickers* :D You have a point~

And oooh. I guess that's true? I've never tried to buy/rent anime, just download it.

However, this series has been licensed, so I might buy it just to have it and hold it and love it and drool over it and sleep with it support it!

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

What I love best is that it's simple but it's also deliciously complex in how it interprets relationships. We begin the episode with two people in dissonance and one of them has no idea why. And tries to figure it out. And the viewer doesn't know either--as much as the viewer's yelling, "Would you two just sit down and TALK?" at the screen, she still doesn't know what the heart of the conflict is. And then something happens, and there's a hint of what might be happening, and the viewer's all, "Ohhh!" and then they do talk, which leads to some of the sweetest meltiest dialogue that ever warmed a slashgirl's heart.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! You got it dead-on right! :D It doesn't need a complex plot (an intricate plot would be distracting, I think) because it's about how the characters interact.

Man, I can't wait to watch more. I'm trying to pace myself and only watch a couple eps a day.

[kriatyrr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I squee-ed all through the first season. Haven't touched the second season yet.

Though, at some points, I found myself thinking that "umm.. that's wrong. He's saying no. No matter how good you make him feel, it's rape if you have sex with someone who says he doesn't want to." and "that's not a healthy relationship..." but oh so hot. And the emotions. *squee*

My main complaint is that some of the characters look so similar to each other I have to rely on their voices to tell them apart. I have poor facial recognition. -_-

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

My main complaint is that some of the characters look so similar to each other I have to rely on their voices to tell them apart. I have poor facial recognition. -_-

That's not just you. Early in the first season, faces were changing. Even within an ep, the faces would change shape (mostly how long their jaws/chins were). It drove me bonkers.

Though, at some points, I found myself thinking that "umm.. that's wrong. He's saying no. No matter how good you make him feel, it's rape if you have sex with someone who says he doesn't want to." and "that's not a healthy relationship..." but oh so hot. And the emotions. *squee*

Yes... I was thinking about that just this morning. If this were RL, that'd be rape, but... it works for me because it's fake. (RL rape is NOT NOT NOT NOT NOT hot or sexy, but fanfic/fiction? Different story.)

Not to mention, they draw what's his name (the college student) as looking much younger. Boy that worked for me. (I love age-difference noncon.)

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

Is the whole pseudo-rape thing part of the Japanese culture though? I've known guys who dated JP exchange students back in college. Their sexual experiences were all described very similarly - the girls came on to them, started the sexual activities, but nearing the logical conclusion, the girls all started acting coy or even outright saying "no no no no." Fine upstanding southern gentlemen that they were, they stop. The girls then berated them (one even got slapped), and the guys were commanded to continue. Exact same story, 5 different girls.

Seems possible this could translate into homosexual relations, given the tendency of such relations to form masculine/feminine roles.

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

...you didn't know about yaoi/shounen-ai. You didn't know? Good lord, I'm surprised you weren't all over it (no pun intended) years and years ago.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*laughs* I had no clue! Which is wacky, since I knew there was wild and out-there things like tentacle rape stuff...

[kamalloy.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I always figured that you'd just found a lot of it to not be to your taste (which may still end up being true) rather than you being completely unaware of it. ;p

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Could be! When I get done with this series I'm going to look for more for sure! You may never see me again. We'll see if I like it all in general or if it was just this series that worked for me.

I suspect this series might be better than yaoi average, since it's been licensed for sale in the US. I'm kind of boggling about that, by the way; how well is OMG GAY stuff going to sell in the land of Pro-Prop 8?

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

Easy. Yaoi is /not/ designed for the gay community, even though that tends to be what people think. It's designed to appeal to straight women the same way yuri (lesbians) appeals to straight men.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Remember the show NYPD Blue? A cop show from a while back? There was a scene in it where one of the cops was getting out of the shower and TV dared to show a 2 second glimpse of his naked butt. (10 PM time slot, too.) Do you know how many protests there were? People around the country were collecting signatures and saying they'd never watch whichever network that was ever again. A guy from the deli near my home wouldn't sell me a sandwich because I wouldn't sign.

It doesn't matter who the show is going to be marketed to, if certain groups catch wind of it, it'll be "OMG! Gay! Evil! MUST BE BANNED!". Not to mention, since it's a "cartoon" obviously it's meant for kids. Corrupting children with teh gay! It's just like they always said would happen! Gay people really are trying to corrupt children!

Too many people in this country are not exactly accepting of M/M, no matter what form it comes in or who it's meant for.

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

I think you're seriously overreacting, especially given all this stuff is dominant in the /coastal/ areas, which are more 'tolerant' than the inner states.

Besides, NYPD Blue was on public cable. Yaoi is sold privately, not pushed into the public light. People yell and scream about het porno and hentai, too. Hell, there's a shounen-ai anime playing on Adult Swim right now and you don't hear people screaming about it. *shrugs* But whatever, I'm not getting in that debate with you.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

So, on a non-debating subject, how'd you happen to find this post? And what struck you to read it with that warning on it? ;)

[naikitty.livejournal.com]

I don't mind the yaoi genre and I'm amused you didn't know about it. ;3 I still check on you now and then.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I still check on you now and then.

Ah, okay. You had said you were going to friend me back after the election, but it's fine you didn't feel like you had to stick with that. We have little to nothing in common anymore and seem not to be able to talk without arguing, so there's little point.

[wanderingscribe.livejournal.com]

Hmm, sort of torn here. I love yaoi with solid characterization and dialogue, but since I'm more of a visual person, blah animation and pointy chins are a real deal-breaker. What else does this series have that might interest me into overlooking that?

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Believe me, I'm right there with you. I'm not a real fan of the whole anime art style in general, so it usually has to be darned good looking and really well drawn for me to get into it. That's why it surprised me how hard this hooked me.

What else does this series have that might interest me into overlooking that?

The characters connect in such amazing ways. Know how when you're reading a fanfic and the love between two characters seems so real it hurts? Like you feel a hook in your chest? And it draws you closer and makes it hard to breathe? This series takes that moment and makes it endless (eh, or at least 20-something minutes long!).

It's also amazing how hot it can be while not showing much (or maybe it's hot because it's not showing the nitty gritty?). I'm so happy I live alone, because I've said quiet embarrassing things out loud without realizing it. "Oh my god, yes, pin his hands!"

So I guess the real selling point for me is the emotions. Even if this were top-notch animation, I would not have believed that it could draw such emotions out of me. I feel odd saying the characters feel so real when they don't look real (blech pointy chins), but it's just... wow.

While the animation isn't the best thing ever, the overall way the show is done is really wonderful. Sometimes the action will just totally stop and the screen will go black. There will be a little bit of music and a single word/phrase on the screen and it just works.

The series uses both music and musical-ish sounds (a ding, a ping, and dare I say... a dong) really, really well.

I'd download the first few eps and check them out. It's really, really, really worth getting passed the animation to watch the story.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

eeeee hot sex OMG against the wall holding him down and eee they're fighting and now loving and eeeek yes kiss him ooooh my eeeee yay!

Ladies and gentlemen, The Sounds of Thistle Masturbating.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Silly Nil. :P

[pomr.livejournal.com]

Ewwwww! Man on man love! You are GOING TO HELL! HOW dare you embrace anything against the BIBLE! It is an offense against NATURE for a man to have sexual congress with a man! SIN! SIN! SIN!

*Someone Slaps POMR -hard-*

Eh? Wha--?

ZOMG! Slash anime that doesn't suck? Cool! I hope you enjoy it. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

*giggles* If I'm going to hell for this, then at least I'll be in darned good company!

:D

[pomr.livejournal.com]

^_^ And mine!

Oh..
..wait..

^___-

Just because I don't really have any interest in slashime doesn't mean that it is bad. I seriously do hope you keep on enjoying it. It gives me immense pleasure to read you being all perky-happy-bubbly. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thanks! <3

[doxxxicle.livejournal.com]

I don't really go for yaoi, or even yuri for that matter. I do like a good love story though, so I'll suggest one: His and Hers Circumstances, also known as Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou or "Kare Kano" for short. Originally a manga, made into an anime. Unfortunately the anime kinda meanders away into nothing at the end, but before then it's a fantastic love story. It also has fantastic opening and ending musical themes. We originally watched it through downloads but liked it so much that when it got licenses and became hard to download, we just went and bought the entire DVD series and started buying the manga.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kare_Kano

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Hmm, that name is really familiar, I wonder if I watched it already? Either way, I'll check it out. Thanks!

[rushlight75.livejournal.com]

Okay, I'm really really REALLY late in commenting on this post, but I just read it (because I just got caught up in watching the episodes and I didn't want to be spoiled before I saw them ^_^) and I have to jump in and say how very much I agree with you!!! I adore this series.... The characters are so wonderful, and their interactions are so angsty and sweet and squee-worthy and fun. I've watched the first two seasons so far and I'm desperately hoping there's going to be a third.

Have you watched the second season yet? I'm assuming you have by now, but I don't want to say anything to spoil you if you haven't....

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yay! I'm glad you like it, too! :D

I think I watched at least part of the second season, but then I fell into Battlestar Galactica and lost track of everything else. (I can have only one thing eating my brain at a time, I stop reading/watching everything else when that happens.) Once I'm caught up with BSG, this is going to be the first thing I go back to. :)

PS: If you don't watch Battlestar Galactica, do! OMG, easily the best thing ever on TV. :D