Junjo Romantica

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.

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.

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.

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.