vrijdag 18 juni 2021

(Average) Junjou Romantica

Note: Only watched season 1

Series in one sentence:

Boys who have been ploughed in the rear multiple times still question whether they're homosexual or not.

Series in more sentences:

Follow the growing romance of three couples, all intertwined with each other in some way. Don't know what else to add, that's the anime.


All "pitchers" are dark-voiced and long-faced sexual harassers with skyscraper legs, all "catchers" are aggressively loud and big-eyed; and many of the characters in this show looked so much like each other, it was hard to distinguish them. It was Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi all over again.

There was also this theme going on where every couple had an age gap and some form of hyperfocus was put on it. For example, two of the featured couples starred an adult man with a high school boy, while one pairing had an age difference of merely 4 years, yet the show still felt the need to make one of the guys go "I'M 4 YEARS OLDER THAN HIM, I'M AT A WHOLE DIFFERENT STAGE IN MY LIFE".
Like, alright, calm down. The 35-year-old considering the inappropriate advances of the 17-year-old wins the awkward award here, you're fine. I like how that particular story went absolutely nowhere, as well. Should've been left out.

The romance between the actually odd
couples felt off. Legally speaking, it's fine for an 18-year-old to date someone who's 10 years older, but all the teenage boys in this show act like unruly preteens, which makes the interactions with their way older love interest not feel to be on equal footing.
And then of course there's the repetitive
sexual coercing that always involves the bigger guy grabbing the other one's wrist and just doing what he wants while the other yells "no, stop, etc.".

Many of the side-plots didn't go anywhere, either. What happened to the main kid's one friend at high school, who was trying to get with him? And why is this one guy, who we last saw trying to kiss his male colleague professor, suddenly claimed to had been crazy in love with his female teacher and unable to settle for anyone else since then?

Junjou Romantica loves drama and to prolong it, as is made clear by how the main kid gets stuffed all the time, yet every new episode he argues not to be in love with his assaulter. And I'll have to say "assaulter" here, because that's the only accurate title you can give a man who is constantly told "no".
The story is a mess. There were some alright ideas, just nothing that excited me.

Focus on one romance, don't turn the younger characters into emotional children -or just increase their age- remove the sexual harassment scenes, and let the series itself be about
self-discovery and the journey towards the romance.
With all these characters forcing themselves onto everyone, I'm surprised there wasn't a storyline that involved calling the police. But after getting fondled against their will, things always turn back to normal for these boys, and that's an anime trope that needs to die.


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