Dakaichi of the long title ep2 – Matt and Irina stare at pretty men

And we are back! It’s my birthday soon! Of course it is, awesome girls have October birthdays. You know who you are! And as an early birthday treat, matt and I are back to oogle anime men! We should do this every year! I can handle once a year…

(PS – I’m “normal” (for once) and Matt is BOLD! (yeah he is!)

Speaking of oogling anime men, I noticed this last week as well, considering the premise and marketing of this series, there really isn’t that much manservice in this show. A brief glimpse in the shower but that was it. Where’s all my objectifying at? It was definitely a lot tamer than the premier, I guess they wanted the first episode to stand-out a bit more. But I’m sure they’ll make up for it–I assume, like all anime, this will inevitably have a beach episode? Also I heard on the grapevine that this show’s going to have an uncensored version at some point so there’s something to look forward to–not me though, I’ll be fine with things as they are. That would be weird.

The episode still starts off on very dubious notions of consent. I know it’s leading to happily ever after or whatever but this bugs me as much in homosexual relationships as heterosexual ones… I believe the line was “you gave consent after it was done” which, yeah, I mean take from that what you will…

Then again, I’m not a big fan of romance animes and I know it’s a common trope. I’m guessing the vast majority are cool with it. How about you Matt? Any feelings on the subject? This is my first Yaoi so I wasn’t familiar with the trope in action, and I haven’t seen it in any other romance shows I’ve watched either (then again the only romance I watch are harems so that’s a whole different matter entirely). As to my ~feelings~ on the subject, its bad in real life but this isn’t real life–every relationship is different and ultimately this for entertainment purposes so it it didn’t make me feel any one way or another. That’s not to say if someone takes issue with this they are wrong, especially if someone watching this has experienced issues with consent being ignored in the past. I imagine having that thrown in someone’s face and glossed over as being a part of their courtship might rub some the wrong way.

Now that I’ve watched the intro twice, I stand by my first impression. I really like it. Neither the visuals or the music are particularly impressive by themselves but the work very well together and fit perfectly with the show in general. It’s a good intro. Fight me! Hey, I’m not gonna fight you, it’s fine and you’re right it does fit the show–I think the ED is kinda adorable though. Thoughts on that? To me the ED is less striking. So far it’s a little odd because their relationship is one guy not having it at all then the ED is these super peaceful and blissful relationship scenes.

I actually quite like Dark haired man as a character. I think his pettiness is just delicious. I’m hoping he doesn’t lose that. He’s a good character–sometimes bitterness doesn’t work but here it does, it fits with his character and the whole situation he’s found himself in, its very amusing at times.

Because I like Dark haired man, this episode rather worked for me. I like when they are separated and we get a tighter narrative on his POV. What did you think? Yeah, I think it shows the quality of the writing that even when this show wasn’t firing on all yaoi cylinders it could still hold my interest.

This said, I hope we get to know blondie better eventually. So far I just don’t click with that guy and I have a very full tag on my blog for “Blonde Bishies”. I think I mentioned it in a screencap caption in the last review so you may have missed it but blonde guy is voiced by the same guy who voices the protagonist Kogarashi in Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs and he’s kinda my new anime man-crush now so I’m probably a bit biased towards liking him based solely on that I can ~hear~ the Kogarashi in him (no pun intended). But yeah I expect some manner of tortured back-story to rear its head (no pun intended) some time soon. I remember that! I haven’t seen Yuuna.

This episode sort of highlighted one of the elements I dislike about romance series. In order for them to be interesting they often have to be really contrived and usually in a dramatic way. Honestly, any normal person would have just said, oh I have a cold, I’m going to cocoon until it passes so I don’t get anyone sick. It makes no sense to me that anyone, let alone an adult, would act the way blondie did. The episode itself resolved rather cutely so it didn’t bother me too much but it’s one of those narrative foundations that just prevents me from really losing myself in a story. My boring nit picky brain just keeps thinking, but why the heck did he do that? See I didn’t think that’s what was happening at all. I thought he was intentionally ‘playing hard to get’ so that dark haired boy would succumb to missing blonde boy and get him to make the first move for a change. I don’t think blonde boy had a cold at all and this was all part of blonde boy’s calculated scheme to get dark haired boy more dependent on him. Maybe I’m wrong but I think blonde boy is the ~angel~ everyone thinks he is. OK, well that makes it even less likely that an adult would act this way. But I guess te emotionally manipulative angle is possible. (Matt has a grim view of relationships…)

All and all, for me Dakaichi is a romantic BL anime by the numbers. This isn’t a bad thing mind you, it’s just exactly what I would imagine if someone mentioned the genre. I still think there’s hope for some unique romantic conflict given the set up. I look forward to seeing where this is going. I hope it’s somewhere… I’m still enjoying this show, and more than I thought I would–that said I think the high-life setting and their jobs in showbiz makes this more interesting than had it been more run-of-the-mill ‘average joe’ Yaoi–if a thing like that even exists. I don’t know, I told you this was my first time didn’t I? *soft moan*