First Look: Junjou Romantica

Director: Chiaki Kon

Mangaka: Shungiku Nakamura

Rating: M - there's pretty much a sex scene in every episode, even though it's very brief and inexplicit.

Watched: 1-6, Japanese version

For many long-time yaoi fans, Junjou Romantica needs no introduction. Originally a manga by artist Shungiku Nakamura, Junjou is broken up into three different storylines which feature three main pairings. First, we have the titular Romantica, which revolves around college student Misaki and his novelist tutor and lover, Usami. Second, there's Egoist, which revolves around Hiroki, an aspiring professor and the younger student he falls in love with, Nowaki. Third is Terrorist, which revolves around Hiroki's boss, Miyagi, and his relationship with high school student Shinobu. The manga series, now on its ninth volume, began a television run as an anime adaptation earlier back in April, and is currently on its seventh episode.

I'll get this out of the way right now. If you aren't interested in yaoi (boys' love series) then there is absolutely nothing for you here. This is quite different from Yami No Matsuei and Kyou Kara Maou, which had considerable plot beyond its elements to attract other viewers. Junjou is a triple-decker love story, and those relationships are the entirety of the plot. Not that this is a problem, of course. The question then is whether or not Junjou handles those love stories well, and in a way that brings something new to the genre.

The answer is, quite simply, yes and no.

I'm afraid I can't speak for Terrorist at the moment (as it has yet to actually begin its run in the anime series), but Romantica and Egoist both have had considerable attention thus far. Romantica is about as stereotypical as stereotypical can get-Usami is your run-of-the-mill, possessive, temperamental seme, and Misaki, adorable as he is, is your average uke who wants it but doesn't want to admit that he wants it, and angsts about it the entire story. It's cute, but it's not really substantial, and doesn't really bring us anything particularly new or exciting.

In fact, while Romantica is clearly the main focus of the series, it's actually Egoist that shines the brightest. While not unbound to the typical conventions of the yaoi genre and the romance genre as a whole, it's unique in its believability, particularly in the "bottom" character-and our main point-of-view character-Hiroki. Hiroki is incredibly flawed by nature, and the series doesn't try to make any excuses for him. He perpetually makes downright stupid decisions, pushing people away at the exact wrong moments, jumping to conclusions all too easily, and taking people for granted. It's something that many of the viewers can perhaps sympathize with, and that's part of what makes it so hard to hate him. Most of the drama in his life is inarguably caused by him, but we also understand his reasons, and know that, despite his occasional selfishness, he really does want to do what's best, both for himself and for his eventual relationship with Nowaki. The problems that the two of them face, especially their issues with communication, are very true to any relationship, and this is part of what makes their story so enthralling to watch, and their growing passion for each other so inspiring. And God, it is so very, very refreshing to see sex scenes where the uke actually wants it and doesn't feel the need to lie about it, none of this wriggling around and "Nooo, don't touch me there!"

Yet I digress.

Aside from the storyline, the series has its ups and downs. The music varies, with beautiful tracks such as the J-Rock OP ("Kimi = Hana") and one particular tear-inducing background song that plays during the love scene in episode six, to thoroughly lackluster tracks such as, well, pretty much everything else. The character design too has highs and lows. It really shines during the more serious moments, with expressions and positions that reflect the characters vulnerabilities and strengths to an almost painful degree, and on the flip side the bizarre faces the characters make during some of the more comedic moments are well-timed and all-in-all pretty funny. There are some parts, though few and far between, where things just look downright weird. Usami's face at times seems a bit too long, and other times Hiroki's head seems entirely too small for his body. All in all though, these flaws don't really detract from the main storyline, and during the times when it really counts, they're almost completely insignificant.

But then the real question remains: would I recommend this series to anyone? Honestly, it depends on what you're interested in. If you like teacher/student relationships, you're pretty much set, as all the pairings have some element of that dynamic at their core. Age gaps are also a big part of the series-Nowaki and Hiroki's is probably the smallest at four years, Usami and Misaki's is a bit wider, and then we have Miyagi and Shinobu who apparently have a whopping seventeen years between them. This does lend an interesting dynamic to all three of the relationships, though it may unnerve some viewers who find a wide age gap between partners disturbing. But if these don't bother you and you're already a fan of the yaoi genre, without a doubt, this is the anime you've been waiting for. It's everything that Gravitation could have been and better, with enough of a balance between plot and fanservice to keep it interesting. It may be too early to judge the series as a whole, and as someone who has only seen the anime so far I can't make much of a comparison to the manga. But it's definitely worth giving a shot, and should be required viewing for any yaoi enthusiast.