High school student Misaki Takahashi returns home to see his older brother being fondled by an unknown man. Bewildered by such a sight, Misaki finds out that the stranger is actually Akihiko Usami, a popular novelist and his brother's best friend. With the two of them slowly becoming acquainted, Akihiko ends up as Misaki's private tutor. However, after stumbling upon the author's latest boys-love novel, Misaki becomes uncertain whether or not to trust Akihiko regarding his friendship with the student's brother.
Elsewhere, Hiroki Kamijou, a university teacher of classical literature and Akihiko's friend, is grieving a failed romance. While on the edge of a mental breakdown, he meets student Nowaki Kusama, who wants his help for an upcoming exam. Despite denying Nowaki's request numerous times, Hiroki eventually lends him a hand. As the two get closer, more revelations about the student are made.
Furthermore, when wealthy teenager Shinobu Takatsuki finds out that his older sister has divorced Hiroki's coworker You Miyagi, he immediately wants to date the same man—as he saved Shinobu from a robbery three years prior. Even so, You does not feel the same way and attempts to scare him off. However, the educator soon realizes that Shinobu will do anything for their destined romance.
Junjou Romantica collects three love stories, narrating every couple's romance.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
iamjoe
Oh, an anime that certainly puts the fab back in fabulous and the gay back in yaoi. Junjou Romantica is a yaoi anime, as anyone with eyes would know. What it is, is a well loved yaoi anime and a pretty crappy normal anime. The storyline is plain old unbelievable. You expect me to believe that there are so many gay guys who are all inter-related, yet most don't know the rest are gay unless they had boinked them in the past or something?? Where are the women in this anime? Fine, I can chalk up with the no women thing since gay men can't seeoestrogen anyway unless it's from themselves, but the one woman in the entire anime is a yaoi fangirl. I mean come on. Wtf.
Each story is basically a mirror of the other one. Check this out.
Teacher --> younger man --> butt secks.
That's all that freaking happens for the entirety of the anime. An older, teacher-like dude meets a muuuch younger dude and they hook up and have lots of unwilling sex with one another.
First couple: a tutor who tries to seduce his best friend's little brother. Second couple: a teacher who is seduced, is trying to seduce a younger man. Third couple: another teacher whose ex-brother-in-law is trying to seduce him. God, come on! What's with this? What are they trying to say--that gay men with any position of authority in a younger boy's life will try to lead the boy astray?? Nothing happens in the story other than a whole lot of angst, sappy romance, and sexing all over the place, with a lot of "Nooo! Don't touch--oh wait, go ahead, but nooo!" going on.
Art was trash, sound was worse trash. Those theme songs sucked balls.
Characters were dead awful. Most of the time they're whining or they're moping or taking advantage of someone. I mean, come on! The writer guy did nothing but go, "I love you. Let's do it." for the whole anime. The boy he liked kept going, "Oh, I don't want this...wait, I think I do." and that's pretty much how it went for the whole anime with EVERY couple.
Don't watch this is you are a normal person. For fabulous folks like myself, AVOID.
OtakuTrey
For anyone that is unsure about giving this series a chance, then you should read this to see if its right for you or not. (look for *) IF! you switched half the guys for girls people would say this is one of the best romance anime's to date. That is how good this story, and anime are! Okay here is a little background on me, I am a Straight male with no interest in men or for even watching a BL series, However there might be a few people out there who's Girlfriends really want to watch this so..... they FORCE you to watch this (whichis what happened to me.) Before i watched this i knew what it was and i had a feeling i knew where it was going to go. well at first try i almost couldnt stand what was going on, i thought to myself OMG RAPE! and turned it off. then about two weeks later i then tried (got forced) to watch it again. To my surprise i enjoyed this, and very much so.
Story 9
Its very simple but very powering with alot of colorful words. its about three homosexual couples how they live there daily lives, some knew they were gay and accept it, it also shows the people that dont really know if they are gay, or even what being gay really means. It shows there struggle through acceptance, denial, and their love for one another.
* If you dont mind yaoi then this is a most watch, this was my first one. IF you like great romance stories with fun characters and sexually funny moments this is for you. IF the thought of two guys disturbs you in any way then i would try the first episode and see what you think
Art 7
The art, well its art. this has just the right amount for what its trying to accomplish. I cant give this a higher score because there is no need for the Art to be off the charts its a Rom/Com. they charcter designs were nice some of the guys looked the same so that didnt help any, i did however enjoy the silly faces misaki made when he freaked out, when the humor comes so does the silly drawings which were nice and a refreshing change from a typical romance style art.
* IF you must have Brotherhood type Art or a style classic like Mononoke or and art that has an old school vibe like bebop this isnt for you, this is a typical and averagely average Art style.
Sound 8
I cant say it was really typical but it wasnt overly aggressive. The OP and ED were decent nothing great, once again pretty average, the music throughout was the same, however when it needed music the most it got it. Every sappy love speech or new revelation they encountered the music fit wonderfully.
* Not a mozart score by any means, also not some Glee infested over hype. I dont really think theres much to say, but just to be safe if your looking for an awesome blow me over feel from the music and how it makes the whole mood better it does this decently. so if you a sound type of guy/girl not for you.
Characters 9/9.5
They were fantastic, i swear misaki is a tsundere... i dont know if thats how it works but whatever. you could clearly tell after a few episodes who wore the pants and who wore the mini skirt in the relationships. The characters were cute, funny, and dramatic what kept me from saying 10 was the over dramatic parts. most of the time the characters pulled of the role great and really shined but every half dozen episodes it was just to overplayed. The last couple to be declared really surprised me as well it also added in some nice background drama that i thought was pretty interesting and cant wait to see who they work out and how the other characters work out there relationships.
* Well this is a BL series so for obvious reasons if you cant get past that you wont like this, if you can do what i did and just treat the "weaker man" as the women you will be happy with this series. I think if you watch this it will be hard to say anything negative about these wonderful characteres.
Enjoyment 9
at first i really did not like this, it started of awkwardly with a little mis communication along with other things. Then after that moment passed i really started to get into this and found myself really wanting the relationships to develop. just really great.
overal 8.5/9
If this review helped and made you want to give this a shot then chances are you will love this it is a pleasant surprise and kind of a shocker for me that i actually enjoyed this as much as i did.
Thank you i hope this was helpful.
ihateeveryone
You want to know what really helps shape a relationship for me? An abundance of rape, sexual assault, and non-consensual acts being performed to your partner. God, what a literal pure romance that is. Thankfully, Junjou Romantica was sure to base one of its relationship entirely off of non-con and definitely wasn't afraid to add in some of that to the other relationships as well! Definitely the type of romance any gay man would dream of. There are three different "love" stories in this anime, and all three manage to be equally as terrible as the other. For one thing, let's talk about the fact thatliteral sexual assault by a man 10 years older than you leading into love is not only extremely disturbing, but also completely out there. There is no moral groundpoint for the character Misaki, who is constantly abused in many ways by his newfound partner, Usami. This romance is so pure, that Usami literally shoves Misaki into a car against his will because Misaki dared to have a conversation with another man. What a healthy relationship, such a charming guy. Not to mention he doesn't let Misaki speak on the phone with said guy, and makes sure to later sexually assault the poor guy.
Seriously, what in any way is romantic or logical about this? There isn't anything healthy or consensual about the actions that Usami places on Misaki. And not only that, but it's all played as a joke. As if this kind of stuff is a humorous, cute thing that Misaki secretly wants. The romance in here is a total joke, and if you expect me, or any person with a functioning brain to take a relationship completely built off of sexual harassment seriously, then there's a good chance your morals need reevaluating.
The reason this is such a issue is both because said relationship is the main focus of the show, and because this is apparently a romance. Having your romance start and develop with borderline rape is a terrible choice, because from there on out it's extremely hard to feel anything except disgust at the events occurring. It's an unnecessary element to the relationships. Age difference aside, I wouldn't have had nearly as much of an issue with this show had it not been for all the times that Misaki was screaming "No! Let go! Stop it!" when being advanced on. It makes for a very fucked up relationship.
The other two relationships, while they didn't revolve around borderline rape, still had their major problems in it. One relationship lasted for about 3 - 4 episodes and included a timeline of about 6 years. It also included the man getting up and leaving his partner without any explanation or contact because he thought it'd make him want to come back. Again, great romance there. The last romance only lasts for about 2 episodes, and therefore had less of a chance to be completely idiotic. Though it should be noted the two characters have about 17 year age difference, which is always a plus here. It still featured the token sexual harassment that this show is known for though.
Not only that, but the stories are really choppy and broken up. The first 2 episodes focus on Romantica, episode 3 on Egoist, back to Romantica for a bit, some more of Egoist, etc. Basically it's all very choppily split up, unnecessarily so. The rapey elements obviously ruin it too, and frankly the time it takes for the characters to "fall in love", their reasons for doing so, and how they act towards their loved ones (Preventing them from being with friends, going into their house after you've known them for less than 24 hours) is so incredibly far-fetched that the romance just feels terribly pushed.
In terms of characters, you can tell how they'll be from the designs. Triangle face guys are the seme, and baby-faced boys are the uke. The seme is almost always the one performing the near-rape actions while the uke is the one begging for no more and eventually falling for these creeps. There's not too much to say about them, except for the fact that Usami is an extremely creepy harasser and that the seme in the Terrorist arc actually has some interesting traits to him regarding his past. Other than that, these characters are just here to fill the traditional seme/uke roles and either begin or resist the sexual assault.
The art reeks of terrible same face syndrome, to the point where you can identify the seme and uke just by looking at their faces. The seme's are all drawn with these very awkward looking rectangle chins and huge broad shoulders, likely to insist their dominance on the usually much younger looking uke character. All the ukes are drawn with childlike features to insist their submissiveness. The animation is very cheap-looking too, often relying on chibi faces in order to save budget. It's honestly an unimpressive looking anime.
The sound isn't all that bad frankly, just not at all fitting for this type of anime. There's usually some acoustic piece playing in the background as one of the characters is being assaulted, which is very ill fitting and and makes it feel like the show is romanticizing borderline-rape even more. It's not necessarily a memorable soundtrack, but it's decent at best, just not fitting for the gross nature of this show.
Being asked if I enjoyed this anime is the equivalent to being asked if I enjoy bashing my head against a wall for about 4 hours and would likely have the same answer to them. If you're going to portray a romance, hell, especially a homosexual romance where there's already stereotypes that all homosexuals are pedophiles and stuff, then you don't do it this way. You don't have the starting point of the relationship for a major couple be near-rape. You don't give unequal focus to the relationships and have one take place over a course of 6 years in four episodes. Oh, and you especially don't include homophobic remarks from your own gay characters in an anime. Seriously, how idiotic do you have to get to even think of doing that?
Anime that focuses on something other than straight romance can be really refreshing, but when it's done this way? You'll be left wondering if half the show you just watched was a so-called "pure romance" or a stockholm-syndrome documentary.
Klabautermann
Dear yaoi fandom, there is such an impressive quantity of yaoi out there that are actually really good. Been there, seen it. So why in the world do you love Junjou Romantica so much? Starting out as a hardcore fan of the series, I gave myself a few years of growing up before I realized this anime deserves to be proverbially spat on with passion. Shamed and enlightened, I saw the Truth and it set me Free. Dramatic as it sounds, fellow reader, the Truth IS: this anime (especially manga) is an utter fuckup. Probably the biggest problem with today's yaoi that is present here; the 'uke'side of the couple has little to no back spine and, despite the fact they dedicated an episode trying to convince us he WASN'T forced into the 'loving relationship' he is in right now by the 'seme', it is very painfully obvious he was. In other words, characterization is lacking, as it were.
Class writing with many "uwwa" moments. I know you love those.
Another fun thing about this thing is that there are three couples involved and none of them are done right and all of them are an insult to gay relationships, as well as relationships in general.
It only came to my attention recently that all three of storylines have "submission&domination" formula, which would be OK, I guess, considering how common that is; if all three of them weren't exactly the same. MentorxStudent kind of thing, as hot as it can be, had been done terribly wrong in all three instances.
Now I'd like to talk about characters - or should I say a character? Indeed, they are all relatively identical examples of one and the same fantasy the author apparently has about anime men. Not only their design, it is their "personalities" that are particularly painful to watch.
The characters are so shallow and badly developed, their love is completely unjustified by anything they do.
Annoying voice acting.
All in all, fangirls. Pay attention please, I have a few suggestions for you.
Here is a couple of manga you can read instead of watching/reading this dreadful thing, because apparently the best yaoi manga are never made into an anime:
Aitsu no Daihonmei, Yume Musubi Koi Musubi and it's slightly hotter spin-off Himegoto Asobi, Doushitemo Furetakunai and its spin off After 9 Hours.
Enjoy the reads, you don't need to thank me, spread the word, gimme some good ones in return and god bless our gay hearts.
Pastabeanchuu
So bad it's good! If you are looking for a terribly written shounen ai anime with the most cliché characters and a ridiculous story, Junjou Romantica is the anime you need to watch! (it has dub-con, be warned) This is a must-see if you are a fan of the genre and want a good laugh. If you really want to watch something good (and I assure you, good yaoi does actually exists), I suggest you run far away from this. The characters and situations are as stereotypical as they can get in a romance anime. So stereotypical and cliché in fact, that it actuallybecomes funny.
Story: 3
Extremely poor. It doesn't really have a plot and the setting is perfectly common (it is not set in a high school so it could have done worse, really). The side stories are the ones that should get your attention the most, since the main one doesn't have anything to tell. Don't worry, you probably won't be able to remember anything about it in a few month, except that the main relationship is based on non-consensual acts (it means rape).
Art: 2
With its dorito faced seme and soft cheeked uke, JR's character design is the most typical one you can find in the shounen ai/yaoi genre. You wouldn't differenciate the characters if it weren't for their hair color. It's also full of yaoi anatomy examples, as expected from the author.
Sound: 5
Actually it's pretty average and the opening song is absolutely what you would expect from a shounen ai anime. Perfectly cheesy and cheerful.
Characters: 3
The characters are flat and only consistent in their love interests. To be fair the side couples and characters aren't so bad, you could almost find an average romance story if you were to overlook the two (very annoying) main characters.
Enjoyment: 8
As I said, it is an absolute must-see for BL fans along with Sekaiichi Hatsukoi. Something to enjoy with your BL fan friends.
Overall: 2
Let's face it, this anime and its spin offs are terrible but can be very enjoyable. I am torn between wishing nothing like that will spawn from Yaoi Hell ever again, and waiting for another gem like this one to land in our lives and cheer us up.
Ezekiel_01
Shounen Ai which is a literal meaning in Japenese “Boys Love” is been around in the anime industry dating back in the late ’80s. Beginning its roots on Natsu e no Tobira for being the first movie and Patalliro! Both made by Toei animation. Only a handful of them exists mostly on OVAs and Movies but not much on TV series. Shounen Ai TV series for the most part doesn’t give much of an impact in both popularity and financial gain so the studios stopped making them. They are more like the shadows in the corner that only a selected few can notice their existent.But one anime pretty much rise from the darkness and have reached the light of day and that was Junjou Romantica. Becoming a critical success in financial sales. With a devoted fanbase to back it up, it becomes a significant title in 2008.
A question start to mind, Is this anime good in tackling the intricate topic of Homosexuality? The short answer is NO! Don’t let the statistics data fooled you. To be frank Junjou Romantica is an abomination mutated from the typical shoujo clichés we used to tolerate.
For starters, I would like to say this anime has a rather sadistic approach when it comes to romantic relationships. The romance in this anime consists of an excessive amount of sexual assault, rape, harassment, and forcing the weak to love back the strong. Sounds familiar? This is literally a plot for a Hentai. I am still baffled to the fact that this show is PG-13, to begin with. It should be R-17+ or higher. I watch a bunch of anime that lesser the amount of sexual content than this anime but are still R-17 or R-15. I impress this anime did a good job of camouflaging itself. This anime is straight up a Yayoi since it bluntly presents a lot of sexual red flags that are punishable by law.
Wouldn’t you even know, the humor quite ironically composed of a lot of gay jokes which are something you desperately need to ease down your aggressively erotic romantic drama. Nice work in attempting to break the 4th Wall. The drama is a serious joke. There is no absolute consequence in this show. Nobody and no one will ever intervene with our male couple's love stories. They are free to do whatever they want. They have nothing to lose. There is no conflict here whatsoever.
Moving to the characters, there is three male love team in this show. Each having equally worst than the other. Let me summaries each love story and characters briefly.
First are Misaki and Usagi, a love story of a grown man that sexually harasses and rape his best friend younger brother. Even if the age gap between the two is 10 years apart. The only reason why this anime being safe from pedophilia territory is Misaki is conveniently 18 at the time. And why would Misaki even hesitate, Usagi is the perfect Husbudo. Usagi is rich, successful, and reliable. If Misaki becomes Usagi's bitch he will have a wonderful life. In return, Usagi will have his personal sex pillow.
Second is Hiroki and Nowaki the unbelievable couple. I have no idea why Nowaki aggressively falls in love with Hiroki even though they only just met. I assume the author wanted to have a teacher and student love story but forget how to write an introduction first. Nothing to talk about this couple aside there love story is forced.
And lastly Miyagi and Shinobu, now a grown man being forced to love his Ex-wife younger brother that is 17-years younger than him. So aside from pedophilia with got incest now? And conveniently he just got divorced recently so his Ex-wife younger brother has an absolute chance to get his man. It is totally ok because they are no longer legally siblings in law. So you got away with the homosexual incest there Junjou Romantica. I guess you're really desperate for that PG-13 tag.
As you can tell all these main characters romantic relationships are utter garbage and a joke. Truly a work of fiction.
Even the supporting characters don’t even matter. What do they even do? Absolutely nothing. What matters in this show is the sexual pleasure of our main characters.
How about the Art style and Animation? Quite mediocre, almost all the character looks the same where the slight difference is the color of their eyes and hair. This anime doesn’t even know how to draw women its only women's character. The only trademark this anime has to offer to remember it by is the disturbingly large chins.
Music and Soundtrack. Forgettable and not worth remembering. Why would you want to remember this anime?
In Conclusion, Junjou Romantica is straight out bad romance anime. This anime has no chill or regards in building a meaningful relationship. It cheaply uses sexual plot devices to move it romance forward without any respect for its characters. The main characters are sex bitches than people. They never feel like characters, to begin with. The narrative lacks any redeeming themes and concepts. The moral messages are shit. And even if you change the gender relationship to exclusively female to male relationship. I assure you this the anime still a terrible romance anime that promotes invasion of sexual privacy and what a toxic relationship is all about.
This is a Yayoi Hentai pretending to be a rom-com anime. Don't be fooled.
vanilla__
An easy 2/10. From the stereotypical strong masculine-seme and weak feminine-uke trope, all the way to huge, unsettling age gaps in EVERY pairing and creepy romantic encounters, this anime has everything to give you the worst second-hand embarrassment of your life. I am aware that many of the prominent tropes in this anime are meant to be hot. If you're into that, go figure. If you're not, this is your sign to find another anime. Let's discuss two relationships in this anime that may potentially be triggering or uncomfortable to some. Main pair: Misaki Takahashi and Akhiko UsamiLet's go over the power imbalances between the two.
-> Misaki is eighteen. Akhiko is twenty-eight.
-> Akhiko is Misaki's tutor.
-> Misaki lives in Akhiko's house.
-> Akhiko is strong enough to pin Misaki down. Which he does with no hesitation. (Say it with me now -- that's assault!)
There's a lot of problems with this dynamic.
Akhiko frequently physically restrains Misaki by holding him down, pushing him, etc. This is portrayed as a romantic device, because "Aww, poor baby Akhiko is needy!" However, considering that Misaki does not consent to this 99% of the time, it's just uncomfortable to watch.
Next, they just generally don't trust each other. Misaki's senior at his university, Sumi, begins to develop a bond with Misaki. When Akhiko sees this, becomes angered to the point of physically kicking a window, punching a table, etc, and angrily confronts Misaki in front of Sumi. Likewise, Misaki is seemingly jealous of how much time Akhiko spends talking to Takahiro, and responds as such to Akhiko.
These two things make their chemistry feel forced. Misaki and Akhiko have a sort of "forbidden" relationship, which is intended to be a selling point. However, sometimes the age gap makes Akhiko seem like a guardian to Misaki rather than an equal partner in some ways. It is also REALLY hard to see Akhiko as anything other than predatory for a while.
Though there are a few compelling moments between the two, the huge majority of their interactions just feel weird to watch.
Now that we've talked about the main couple, let's unpack the mess that is...
Side pair: Yoh Miyagi and Shinobu Takatsuki
Let's go over the power imbalances between the two.
-> Shinobu is eighteen. Miyagi is a whopping THIRTY-FIVE.
-> Miyagi is Shinobu's sister's ex-husband.
-> Shinobu is extremely forceful with Miyagi in insisting that they should be in a relationship. Miyagi is uninterested.
First, it is unsettling how this relationship proceeded. It feels extremely forced when considering that Miyagi, for a long time, shows no interest in Shinobu. Miyagi is thrust into the position of the responsible adult, juxtaposed with Shinobu's forceful professions of love. It seems obvious that Miyagi shouldn't just... get together with his ex-wife's teenage brother? Who is also half his age?
In the end, BL wins and they start a VERY awkward relationship.
The most uncomfortable part of their relationship may be that it feels so fragile. It is very heavily emphasised throughout the show that Shinobu is fearful that Miyagi is only with him out of sympathy and could leave him at any time. This, again, causes their chemistry to feel forced. They are extremely unequal in the sense that Shinobu desperately latches into Miyagi, while Miyagi is more distant. While the anime does try to solve this problem, it is hard to stop viewing the relationship as awkward and forced.
In the end, while the anime has... some(?) plus points, it was not a good watch. Sitting through three seasons of this felt like a drag. While it does get better to some extent, the relationship between the various pairings never truly feels authentic. Their relationships progress weirdly fast, which leaves you in a weird limbo of seeing the pairs fall for each other, hard, while still feeling icky about the whole thing.
pleochroic
This is a totally guilty pleasure for any Western fan with the slightest concept of "consensual sex", because it is a prime example of what sort of stuff passes for successful relationships in BL land. I have to constantly remind myself that as a gay man I am not the target audience here, but that this functions as self-insert fantasy for Japanese women, and actually fulfills a useful role in having them play with gender and sexuality. The characters are not gay men, and they are not meant to be. This isn't a part of the "rape culture" (which is indeed areal thing and a serious thing), but rather it's an example of nonconsensual fantasy. We don't get to see that in the West in mainstream entertainment, except badly done in porn, but it exists here too in niche genre markets because it fills a need for some people.
When ranked against good non-BL anime, this is really terrible. But among other BL anime, this is a fun romp because it never takes itself too seriously. There are sex scenes here, but nothing at all graphic, and it's mostly the voices that make a scene sexy. Seriously, the drama CDs are hotter.
Story (5/10): There isn't really one; it's more a slice of life thing, though each relationship depicted makes some slight progress during its arc. There are 3 couples, A =Usami Akihiko x Takahashi Misaki (famous literary author who also moonlights as a BL mangaka and his pupil / boarder who so happens to be the younger brother of Usami's unrequited love), B = Kusama Nowaki x Kamijou Hiroki (medical student and college professor who was previously in love with Usami), C = Miyagi You x Takatsuki Shinobu (college professor in the same department as Kamijou, and high schooler who is Miyagi'sex-wife's brother). With all three couples there is an age difference, which is most pronounced for the third couple. While there are only 4 years separating Nowaki and Hiroki, interestingly enough the difference presents the largest problem to the relationship. This is also the odd one out when it comes to the seme/uke setup -- Nowaki, the younger one, is the seme. No, wait, C is also unusual in that the uke does all the pursuing and the seme is resistant. Couple A starts out with the two characters being kind of randomly thrown together, couple B meet when Kamijou is mourning his lost love, and Kusama comes across him in the park and it's love at first sight for him; couple C is basically Takatsuki interpreting a random encounter during which Miyagi helped him as "fate". There is a slight supernatural potential here, but nothing ever comes of it.
Art (3/10): Atrocious. I cannot stand Nakamura Shungiku's art; it's ugly -- heads are often too small for bodies, as are hands, facial shapes are unappealing, mouths look like the characters are in a bad mood, eyes are often dull, and worst of all, she has only two character types, seme and uke and they all look alike within type. The backgrounds are decent, but I bet Nakamura doesn't do them herself. I do like her chibi and SDs. The animation is stiff and wooden, the usual victim, I imagine, of low budgets for BL anime.
Sound (7/10): I didn't care for most of the BGM, and the OP and ED are generic JPop. The voice talent on the other hand is mostly superb -- Sakurai Takahiro voices Misaki; he is still a favourite seiyuu of mine. It's a perfect portrayal, but he also has some range to play with, since Misaki is easily the most expressive character. Inoue Kazuhiko also does a great job with Miyagi; I could listen to that man read the phone book and probably get aroused.
Character (5/10): The primary character, the one in whose head we spent the most time, is Misaki. And I constantly vacillated between being utterly frustrated with him and kind of rooting for him. Because he has to be the most naive and idiotically dense character I've encountered in a long time, and he is also the typical tsundere uke who completely denies his feelings and is unwilling to ever say the L word; he fights every bit of affection with tooth and nail, while secretly liking it but also being horribly ashamed of it -- Japan is fucked up, seriously. But while he always instinctively acts like a cactus, he also thinks about everything, and though he often settles temporarily on a naive answer, eventually he works his way around to what is actually going on. He is also hampered by his back story, which has made him into a person who never wants to be a bother to anyone, and he likes to please people -- but his tsundere nature works against that in many ways which he doesn't even recognize.
Usami is a cantankerous, crotchety egotist, and I never warmed up to him, even when he goes all lovey-dovey later. He pushes Misaki into intimacy (we'd call it sexual assault here), but it's hard to deny that if he didn't, Misaki would never ever do anything on his own. I don't like that sort of setup and I'd never get involved with somebody like that, but yeah, it's not my culture.
The other two couples don't have the same unpleasant dynamic going on because while Kamijou is also a tsundere, at least he is basically willing, just also embarrassed. The problem with Nowaki is that I completely lost any liking for him when he disappears for a whole year. It was also Kamijou's fault for not paying attention, but the justification for Nowaki pulling that stunt was garbage. Couple C interested me primarily because I was watching for signs of Shinobou being Miyagi's first love's reincarnation.
Enjoyment (7/10): The humour is what makes the show. It's a strange mix, but with relatively little sexual innuendo humour; most of it comes from Misaki struggling with everything in his life in amusing and often unexpected ways. I'd really like to hang out with Nakamura Shungiku some time. ;)
Janks1415
A bloody brillant show. It was incredibly cute, with so many adorable moments I could've choked on the fluff. It was also very humorous, with some really random, hilarious moments, leaving me laughing out loud. All the characters personalities were incredible, and I loved all of them. It's rare for me to find a show where there's maybe only one person hate, so this show was really good in that sense. Each character is so different and unique, so everytime a new character was introduced it was refreshing. The plot itself wasn't one of the best, although it always managed to make me either cracka smile, or feel like crying. I recomend it any yaoi fans out there.
luzverdecradily
Since you already have the summary above I'll just jump into my review :) Story: While I was watching this, I began to wonder how long had it been since I'd gotten so enchanted by a particular story in an anime. So much that watching it put me on the edge of my seat and had me deeply concerned over the fate of the characters. Well Junjou Romantica did all that and more, it left me breathless, and my heart over flowing with joy. The story is absolutely class A work, it doesn't focus on just the sexual relationship the characters have, it actually gives us abeautiful window of how love works in a gay relationship. The uncertainties, the worries, and shows us that their not so different from the relationships of heterosexuals. It goes day to day and gives us a brief yet powerful glimpse at what it means to love, not just because of gender or age, but because we are ultimately draw to that person and how we just cannot help ourselves. It's heartwarming and exciting, a breath of fresh air.
Art:
I have to admit, the only reason I noticed this (out of a literal sea of Yaoi animes) was the beautiful art. I admire how the artist keeps the obvious male qualities and doesn't over feminize the "uke" of the relationship but you're constantly aware that their both male, and it leaves little question about it. I must admit, the scenery was beautiful in this particular anime as well. I have to also so that their expression were so full of emotion that you nearly felt like you knew exactly what they were feeling even if they said nothing at all. You could feel the love and affection, and somehow words weren't needed to see it very clearly. Beautiful job on the art!
Sound:
I didn't wanna look like too much of a fangirl so I decided to down grade the sound to a 9. I won't lie, the background music was gentle, not overpowering like in some animes, it was perfect for setting the mood. The opening and ending were rather fun too, and it seemed to fit the anime so well it was hard to argue they did a good job choosing the opening and ending for this anime. I think I gave it a nine soully based on the fact that I didn't wanna give it a perfect 10, i'm such a douch but it was still a beautiful soundtrack and I'm definitely considering purchasing the OST's!
Character(s):
I have to say first and foremost all of the characters were beautifully done, not just artistically but also personally. You see the personal growth in all the characters and how each hardship just brings them closer together, and even makes them more open and honest with the person that they truly love. You get a feeling for each character and somewhere along the line you start screaming "SAY IT!" like a fool. They draw you in, and before you know it you really start to feel like you know them in some strange way, like they were truly real. The characters really were amazing in this anime, I have to say I'd give them all a perfect 10.
Enjoyment:
I haven't enjoyed an anime this much since Ouran High School Host Club, and I haven't watched that anime in over 2 1/2 years. Sure I've watched some good anime but to truely enjoy an anime this much is rare for me. I'm glad I found it, the writer did an amazing job, though some things were lacking but they were scarcely noticeable. I just can't explain how much I enjoyed this anime without writing a novel about it. Lol!
Overall:
10/10 what can I say? The only flaw I had through the anime was the fact that there wasn't alot of "lovey-dovey" stuff going on, but I suppose that's how it is in sometimes when both partners are working. It can be abit frustrating but if you like yaoi and a good love story, watch this. It definitely is a crowd pleaser, and even if you're not so keen on it, I doubt you'll end up hating it at the very least.
Quuule
TW: molestation Junjou Romantica is the most popular yaoi anime, several years ago, and fujoshi liked by the older generation. In addition to its popularity as famous yaoi, it also has the fame of the most problematic, although it includes some bad aspects it is not the evilest. Story 5/10 (4/10 junjou romantic, junjou egoist 6/10, junjou terrorist 4.5/10, junjou minimum 6/10) The first story is a typical love-hate story. A love-hate that lasts from three anime seasons. Misaki and Usagi are typical yaoi archetypes, titled "young tsundere", and "aggressive sexy seme". The story is very meh because it begins with sexual harassment where Misaki is molested. Andthen he will hate and run away from Usagi for 3 seasons because we all like typical shoujo behavior. Usagi sometimes puts too much pressure on Misaki, which is why their romance is definitely questionable.
The second story is the most adequate of all. Nowaki and Hiroki are fine although there are some disagreements in their relationship that they will struggle with. They are much more adequate and not heteronormative than the first couple. Nowaki is quite a caring and good man, and Hiroki is also a tsundere uke who, instead of openly telling about his feelings, will act like a cactus.
The third story is quite vague and incomprehensible in the first season as it only has 2 episodes and will have a development in the second season. And yes, molestation again. Here we have the biggest age gap, and uke is not tsundere, but more yandere. At least something new.
Junjou minimum story. Just nice childhood stories from Hiroki and Usagi. We have the opportunity to look at something healthy and nice. Yes, Usagi was once a nice boy, not a selfish jealous wayward seme. And Hiroki has always been himself. Narcissistic and confident.
Characters 5/10
Characters have motivations, stories, are well written because their character is understandable. I have only pretensions to the main couple for the most part. Usagi's selfishness is killing me. Usagi is sometimes abusive as hell, and other characters can be infantile. Minus points for him and the childishness of some of the behaviors of others.
Comedy 7/10
How comedy works great. The humor made it a show for me. Lots of humor and funny scenes.
Romance 4/10
For the molestation and selfish behavior of Usagi and some characters, I cannot recommend this to everyone. And even more so nowadays. Yaoi has always suffered from sexual abuse from the very beginning, and Romantica does not save the situation. And it even supports it and makes it worse. If you are looking for something healthy, the show is not for you. Romantica was released in 2002, so it contains the typical yaoi bad tropes. For example, Sekaiichi Hatsukoi also had one molestation scene in episode 3, although it is much less ''rapey''.
For which this show should not be praised.
The good part:
Humor/comedy
Soundtrack
second couple
Bad sides:
Molestation
Some abusive behavior
Character design, because ALL THE SEMES LOOK THE SAME.
Generally:
I do not recommend this show to anyone. If you don't like the typical old yaoi, you won't like it. Or if you don't like bad yaoi tropes. Same as me. If you don't like infantile characters that act like kids then the show is not for you either. Characters are sexualized as in most BLs. Rather, it cannot be called some kind of good representation or something realistic.
BrynjaBloodmire
Let's start this off with overall Junjou Romantica was a very good anime. The story was intresting enough to keep you watching, with a few slower parts. Though it did leave me with a feeling of just watching a chick flick. It was diffinitaly full of drama. Some of the characters were deep, others not so much. The animimation of them were done well, and the voices matched the characters. But there were times when the words didn't match the mouths moving. And the timing was off by a noticeable amount. I'd suggest this anime if your in the mood for drama an romance. Junjou Romantica isfilled with that, but it also has some comedy and fluff. Even if some of the plot seems like it has been done in quite a lot of movies, this is still a good watch.
Ellenore_shade
Well this is my first review and I hope someone finds it helpful. The Story: Junjou Romantica was an incredible yaoi themed anime. It created a story of not just high school romance but adults after school. However the storyline from there is at the best basic. Out of the three storylines written into the overall story only the main story develops. The two basic characters Misaki and Akihiko are two lovers who conquer all expectations of both of them and continue to be together. The end of the plot. Yes there are hardships for the two but the ideas are unrealistic and could cause confusionto people who are straight looking into a gay themed romance. Basically it does not show the hard ships that are often confronted in the everyday life. The other two stories are about the same way. Only with different aged people. I enjoyed the anime but I fel it was more because of funny plots intermingled and the stereotypical ideals.
The Art:
In this catagory I have to say I thought the animation was great. The artwork was different and switched often throughout the anime from chibi mode to the real perspective. I however prefer artwork that is the typical big dramatic eyes than that of a more realistic piece.
The Sound:
The voice over actors did a wonderful job to me when portraying the characters. The only exception is the introduction of english into the japanese show. It pains me to hear the really bad english that the actors use. Other than that it was wonderful. The themesong "Himi Kana" by pigstar is great and I fell in love with it the first time I heard it.
The Characters:
The characters have unique attributes to each of their personalities. Though the idea of them knowing each other without really knowing each other was kind of odd. I think that they could have had a better way of combining the stories but that is my own opinion. I loved each of the characters strange personalities and could be why I enjoyed the anime as much as I did.
Enjoyment:
Even with the awkward storyline of the neverending parade of triumphs over expectations I have to say I really enjoyed it. The characters plus the audio and visual perspectives captivated me. I felt like I needed to see the next one just to see the characters interactions. The hilarious comments and expressions kept me coming back for more.
With that I have to say overall the experience was very good and I may even watch the anime again.
melodyvonshewk
This anime sucked balls. There is, for some reason, an abundance of female characters throughout the story. Everything is repetitive. I now wonder after watching this series, how I managed to cope with this. Every fucking gay man has a triangular face, the love interests i.e Misaki or whatever, looks like a five year old idiot who kept whining and complaining. Like, dude. If someone is assaulting or raping you, you need to kick them in the balls, punch their face and go home to tell your brother to break his friendship with him and report against him for sexual assault. But, instead, he stayed with thedouche bag and eventually fell in love with him. After two major headaches and ten episodes later, they're still not an item. Like what the f dude?
THIS ANIME MADE NO SENSE, WHATSOEVER.
KuraKaze
Story 9/10 Junjou Romantica is one of my favourite BL stories of all times. It is not a "yaoi" story that is filled with pointless sex scenes. In fact, there is no explicit sex shown in the anime at all. Any sex is mostly short and glossed over, and used to add to the mood of the story. The story deals with 3 couples that are semi- interconnected (while living their own lives). These 3 couples have very similar romances and faces similar problems, but each one deals with them differently. The focus of the story is mostly dealing with the character's personal feelings and thoughts,and how they deal with the problems they face in their romance. It's filled with inner thoughts, so there's quite a lot of monologue.
I find that this story deals relatively well with the implications of what do you do when you just happened to fall in love with someone of the same gender. It's not about gay men per se, but about men who just happened to fall in love with another guy and then having to live with the consequences. Especially in the case of Misaki and Miyag-sensei, they had problems accepting the affections and romantic advances from another guy. Through the story, they had to think it out for themselves and eventually accept their own feelings for another guy. In this sense, it is quite a serious story. However, the day to day events of the story are quite comical.
Another issue the story dealt with is the age gap. In the 3 couples, the age gaps are 4 years, 10 years, and 17 years. Each one shares different problems, whether it is social pressure, or wanting to be worthy of the one you love, not wanting to lose them to the age difference etc. There's also other social problems involved such as teacher-student or in one case, the younger brother of his ex-wife. The point I wanted to make is that the story focuses on how the characters think about their situation, and how to deal with their feelings and the problems, instead of just about men having sex.
Art 8/10
The art style is slightly different from the manga, but still quite similar. I think that there is a good balance between masculine and feminine features in the characters. Except in the case of Misaki and Shinobu, where they are somewhat feminine looking (because they are supposed to be younger), all the other men are very masculine without being too masculine. What this achieves is that it avoids the BL cliche that the uke basically looks like a pretty girl. While I don't mind art features metro pretty boys, it is refreshing to watch BL about men who look like men. Very clean and clear animation.
Sound 10/10
I personally fell that the background music tracts did a great job to fit the mood and events of the story. There was several times that I thought "hey, that music's really good".
Character 9/10
As mentioned earlier regarding the story, Junjou romantica focuses on the character's inner turmoil and thoughts, which means we really get to see the inner workings of the character's minds. While the story is a bit cliche (their thoughts are mostly predictable), but that is the point of romances. Cliche romances are loved by many (including me ^^).
Enjoyment and Overall 10/10
What's best about the anime is the blend of everything together, the serious issues that the character deals with but with very good comedy moments. Together, it makes the show very enjoyable to watch.
Now to address the problems with the anime: it was too loud. There was just too much yelling. In each of the 3 relationships, there is one "quiet" one and one "loud" one. The loud one gets flustered easily and yells WAY too much, and sometimes it really gave me a headache. While reading the manga, you don't have this problem, but I really disliked parts of the anime because of that. The uke also cry a lot in addition to yelling, which can get annoying.
Also, while each story is different from the others, they all share some similarities in the character stereotyping - strong, quiet seme with loud flustered uke. Junjou Romantica does follow very cliche BL character types (though its not just BL, many romance genres all follow this kind of cliche with a strong and a weaker character in a relationship).
Another "failing" is that while it deals with some serious issues, it never really deals with the issue. Since it focuses on the characters themselves and their thoughts, it doesn't tell us anything about the external world that they live in. You're following the first person POV of the main character basically, which means there is very limited knowledge of the world outside his inner thoughts I put "failings" in quotes because this is not really a problem, because overall its a comedy, not some deep soul-searching social commentary. It may be interesting to know more about the rest of the world that the story is set in, but it doesn't make the story bad in any sense. In a way you can interpret it as that the characters live in their own little romance world without care for the rest of the world (which is somewhat true, they worry about it but it's a fleeting worry. One of those Love can conquer all type of story). However, I do feel that the romance may be doomed to fail in the future because of the social problems they face. As a romance comedy, it doesn't take serious problems as seriously as it should. For example, there is very little chance that people would accept a relationship between a professor and a high school student if they wanted to take the relationship public.
If you are a fan of cliche romances (whether gay or straight), then you will enjoy this. If you don't, then this may not be the best. Definitely, you will have to have an open mind towards BL to really watch the show. I don't think this is a story only for the fangirls (it's focused on romance between two guys, not just some gay porn without plot), I do believe someone who is neutral towards BL may also enjoy it purely for the entertainment value of the story. If you dislike male on male relationships, then you shouldn't be watching BL at all. If you're interested in finding a good romance story staring males, then this is for you.
ktulu007
This year for our Valentine's week romance review, we're looking at Junjou Romantica. This one is based off of the best known work of Nakamura Shungiku. The manga has been going since late 2003. The anime, at least the first series of it, aired in 2008. And that was brought to us by Studio Deen. Yes, the same studio that brought us Gravitation, Twilight Q, & Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. I have a feeling one of those is going to bear far more similarities to this than the others. But maybe I'm just making assumptions based on the genre overlap. Is this oneas good as Gravitation was? Let's take a look at the first series and see.
Story:
We start out with Misaki, our protagonist, trying to get into a good university. There's just one problem. His test scores are pretty bad. In order to better prepare for the entrance exams he enlists the aid of his older brother's friend who also happens to be a famous author. This is Usami, also called Usagi-san. But things quickly take a strange turn when Usami immediately molests Misaki. We then go through a harrowing narrative as Misaki struggles to cope with the violation and whether or not to involve law enforcement. Or, maybe that's just the start of a romance. It's one of those, and not the one that makes more sense.
Therein lies the fundamental flaw with Junjou Romantica. The main romance is completely fucked up. Usami straight up sexually assaults Misaki a lot. With dialogue from Misaki to the effect of “Stop. Let go. Get off of me.” and yet we're supposed to buy into the idea that this is a good romantic relationship and not a serial rapist who's chosen a younger victim who happens to be in his power. But it's actually totally the latter and they never acknowledge the severe problems with it. Give a series like Love Stage some credit, at least when it uncomfortably started with an attempted sexual assault they put some effort into showing redemption and repentance on the part of the guilty party. There's also a secondary romance between a university professor and a high school boy who wants to go to the university he teaches at. I foresee no ethical problems with that whatsoever. Frankly, both of these romances are super unhealthy & really uncomfortable to watch. Which also adversely affects the attempts at comedy. Because you aren't getting legitimately funny scenes in a series with an uncomfortable, rapey atmosphere.
The one area where I'll give the series some credit is that the relationship betwixt Hiroki & Nowaki generally does work. They demonstrate respect for one another's boundaries, which should go without saying but, in this series, is unique. They also have some compelling relationship issues that do speak to the kinds of real problems that healthy couples face. Like a lack of communication or jealousy.
Characters:
The characters could almost be pretty typical. Usami is the talented rich boy who has a childish side into adulthood, with a side of being a rapist. Misaki is the youngster with a lot of potential who's uncertain about himself but will do anything for the one they love. Or, in this case, the one he's got Stockholm syndrome for. Ultimately, that makes them worse than generic. Because this series is grotty.
Like with the romance in general, the only characters who somewhat redeem the series are Hiroki & Nowaki. Since the problems they deal with are pretty legitimate and they handle their situations in a somewhat realistic fashion.
Art:
In terms of artwork, there are some nice backgrounds. The character designs look decent enough. The comedic art shift that you get when the series thinks it's pulled away from the uncomfortable romance aspects enough to go for a joke look pretty bad and they're kind of over done in terms of how frequently it happens.
Sound:
They did get some very talented actors for this. Including our old friend, Sakurai Takahiro. There's also Itou Kentarou, Canna Nobutoshi & Kishio Daisuke to name a few. That being said, these aren't their best performances. A lot of it boils down to them having reactions that are really downplayed because “this is a romance. So, your “no, stop” needs to be a soft protest.” It's almost like that element singularly damages virtually every facet of the series. That's also why Itou & Canna give, by a good margin, the best performances in the series. Since their characters are allowed to react to their situation in a way that isn't totally stilted. The music is by MOKA, the same music unit that brought us Elfen Lied's average music. This is slightly better than that. It's okay.
Ho-yay:
Well, we have three main couples, all of which are gay. Our main couple is really rapey and repulsive. One of our secondary couples is exceedingly unethical excrement. That leaves the Hiroki/ Nowaki couple. Which, to be honest, isn't worth sitting through the rest of this for. They have some cute moments and if they were in a series by themselves I'd probably be pretty fond of it. Overall, though, this is not a series with a healthy concept of what a romantic relationship between men looks like. You'd be better off with Gravitation or Gakuen Heaven. Even something with a gay couple on the side like Gundam Wing or Voyages of the Cerberus (I know, shameless self plug) would be better if decently handled.
Final Thoughts:
It's probably pretty plain to see that I did not care for this series. Part of the problem is that it paints sexual assault as an ordinary part of romance. Part of the problem is that it portrays itself as a “pure” romance series while having that kind of shite as a staple. Ultimately, it's pretty bad and I really don't recommend it unless you have a fetish for gay rape. Which I won't judge you for but I may slowly back away from you and only ever be around you in bright, crowded areas. The one redeeming factor is the Hiroki/ Nowaki romance, which is, unfortunately, not the focus. So, the final rating is going to stand at a 3/10. Next week I'll look at A-Ko the Versus.
Hachiko75
So this is my fourth yaoi, but first one where it is an actual story with more than two episodes. I would have rated it a ten, but I did not care for the third couple in the terrorist arc. It, to me, was no different than a little girl having a crush on her teacher. This boy, I'm sure he had feelings for him for a long time, but to just up and chase him the way he did. Ugh! He just came off as confused and desperate to me. I didn't like that couple. But the other two I love! I like that Misakiand Usagi got as many episode as they did because that couple was my number one favorite. It had more elements and more of a plot than than Hiroki and Nowaki.
I do kind of wish Misaki's brother was used more in the story, but I'm pretty sure in one episode they said he was dense so I guess he was used as much as a dense person could be used, or maybe he just didn't want to force his brother to come with him back home.
MxOffline
This is one of the best anime I've ever seen in the BL/yaoicategory. It made me burst of with laughing from the hilarious moments, almost crying from the sad moments and smiling from the sweetness. The story is not good, but that doesn't matter to me since I enjoyed this series so much anyway. I think the voices could be better, some of the voices just don't fit the characters. I had to be used to the opening to like it but I don't really like the ending, so that could be better to me (although this part depends on ones taste). Otherwise this is a masterpriece tome, and the art is amazing! It's very well done like the manga it's based on.
The characters are great! Some of them are ordinary characters but developed in a way that makes them unique.
I really recommend this to BL/yaoifans! Have a good time watching!
cocolita22
Hands-down, my favorite romance anime. My favorite yaoi. One of my favorite anime of all time. I don't know many people who haven't heard of this show, and they either love it or hate it. But I think all yaoi lovers can agree this is a staple anime and a must-watch. I miss these characters so much just by writing this. This is genuinely such an entertaining and exciting show, and I had so much fun watching it. I think you will enjoy it, too. There is seriously not a single dull moment. I can only imagine how much fun the VA had with this;they were seriously so hilarious and every character had comedic moments. The music was sooo good, and the story itself had a genuine plot. Can you believe it? A yaoi with a plot?
I hope I've convinced you to try this!!
