milo

Sooo...the acting was fine, and the girl friend character was funny and somewhat relatable at times, but that is where my praises end.

This show is built around an abusive power dynamic between Segasaki—a conventionally attractive and well-liked weatherman—and Yoh, an unsuccessful, down on his luck ero-manga artist.

We learn early on that they met in college and that Segasaki told Yoh he could live with him on the condition that he would have to "do everything he says", and in return he could live there for free and work on his manga. It is made clear from the very first episode that they have a dynamic reminiscent of an abusive breadwinner husband and an old-timey trad wife, with Yoh being essentially a personal slave to Segasaki—cooking and cleaning for him everyday and following his every command no matter what.

The inciting conflict of the story is based around this dynamic, and especially the sexual aspect of their relationship. Over the course of the show, we see Segasaki getting more and more posessive and paranoid about where Yoh is when he goes out and what he's doing, etc. It gets to a point where he is constantly forcing him to cancel plans that relate to his personal friendships and career, even going so far as to put a tracking device in his bag and follow him in a later episode.

There are moments throughout the middle of the show that make you think Segasaki might be starting to change his ways, but that is all completely thrown out at the end of ep 7 / beginning of ep 8 when he suddenly ties Yoh's hands together and tells him to never go out or talk to anyone else ever again. When I say this part really shocked me, I mean it. It was disturbing to watch, and Yoh's character looked extremely uncomfortable, despite this shows efforts to make you believe that he secretly likes being obsessed over.

There are moments where this show attempts to be sweet (like in the backstory of how they met for example), but it just feels sour when you remember the situation they are in. Towards the end, I really felt like Yoh was developing stockholm syndrome, which sounds extreme, but I really do think is an accurate description for him.

I saw a lot of the negative reviews on this show saying that they could "look past the toxic relationship", and that they cared more about the fact that the story didn't really go anywhere, and that essentially this shows' worst crime was being boring. Now, while it's true this show kind of ends the same way it begins and no one really develops as a character, I certainly think that this shows' romanticized portrayal of abuse is its biggest issue. Shows like this perpetuate the normalization of abusive dynamics in gay media, and also the fetishization of gay relationships as a tool for straight women to project their fantasies onto.

This probably all sounds dramatic, but I think this show is an important example of what NOT to do when it comes to writing BL. This does not feel like a BL made for men who like other men. There was no romance, and the sex scenes did not feel sexy. It was just gross and uncomfortable overall (which sucks because obviously abusive relationships can be written well and this kind of subject matter can be interesting when it is treated properly).

Definitely one of the worst "BLs" I've watched (if you can even call it that). There are moments with the girl friend and her husband that make the show a little more bearable at times, but other than that, ehhhhh, not good.

I'll give it a 1.5, on par with Utsukushii Kare (my previously most-hated BL ever).