BL FOR THE WIN!!!

Yeah, I can’t believe I just said that! Two days later and I am still thinking about it! To think that at the end of it all Boys’ Love would take the cake!

Now of course as far as official winners go, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Saeman won, right? Everyone in that studio (and someone in front of the screen) was ready to have his babies the instant their eyes fell on his awesome excellency! Too bad for them (and a certain someone) Renacchi won that bowl!

But we already found out the first half that this time it wasn’t just about cosplay! It’s all about the love story and how many heart strings would fall prey to it. And dear Readers, this second round was all out deadly! Directors Kitarie, Suzuran and Maokyun brought their A-game so it’s no surprise everyone won in their own way! Suzuran won the casting (Sometime the actor makes the movie because Mein Gott, that Saeman). Kitarie won best cinematography (damn curtain scene). Meanwhile Maokyun pulled a complete KyoAni on everyone when she totally baited them and left them standing wondering WTF they had just seen and where their fish is!

Tuesday night has been the best night all year, no arguments! Not only did KyoAni deliver the best ending ever to the best anime of the year (come on, this is going down in history) but we got to have this lovely Danso Love Story battle! No need to mention the hardships faced in trying to fall asleep Tuesday night!

Now then, onto the episode…

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 

HAGU

 
 
Sorry, I just love Renacchi’s reaction here
 


 
 
 

dat smile!
 
 
Those little…

 

Table-don

Too cute Renacchi >.<
 
 
Mari-kun is too happy for someone that just got NTRD

 
What Saeman does to us all!

First up was Director Yamauchi Suzuran! As soon as I saw Sae standing up there on the stage I was ready! Sae was of course the Danshi and Renacchi was his girl! Mari-kun made an appearance as the annoying guy in class that is friends with all the girls. Mentioned girls include Team 8’s Sato Nanami and.

For a change there was none of drama we got from the first half! It was actually quite fun watching this one. Mari-kun was just so real that you couldn’t help but smile at the scene. Though students like him are sometimes annoying, sometimes they are needed to lighten the mood.

Anyway t was after school and the whole group of friends decided to go to Karaoke. As they begin t leave, Saeman stops Renacchi. They are the only ones in class as the other three walked a bit ahead of them.

Renacchi asks what up but Saeman does not answer right away. Then he says that he can’t resist it anymore. Then out of the blue he takes a hold a unsuspecting Renacchi and pulls her against him in an embrace!

How I wish I could do that to my friends and not get my foot stomped on and called a pervert!

Anyway Saeman confesses of his long-felt love for Renacchi. He says that he was holding back because he couldn’t think about what Renacchi would do if he had told her. He can’t hold back anymore! The love is too strong to ignore and so he confesses, finally.

He asks Renacchi to go steady with him as his girlfriend but Renacchi hesitates. Saeman takes this the wrong way f course. He thinks that Renacchi doesn’t love him like that but the joke was on him because it turns out that Renacchi too had been having feelings for Saeman but was afraid to tell him too.

Saeman was so happy I am only disappointed that he did not lift Renacchi and spin her around like some 70s romance!

The two smile stupidly at one another and it would have been awesome just the same if they had ended there but there was not enough drama so why not add some more? For at the moment the other three friends show up looking like giddy Hazukis feeling happy about their successful setup.

Saeman tells Renacchi, after she found out that she had been coned, that he had talked to the others and they had set everything up. Renacchi is not happy to find out that she had been deceived and that there was no karaoke after all.

She pouts in that cute way that only Renacchi can which prompts Saeman to lean in and do his thing! Too bad Renacchi is just like every one of us, that is to say, she has zero resistance to the Saeman charm!

He asks her if she is mad at him and if she is serious about taking back her words (about loving Saeman back). But like I said, Saeman resistance level = 0. The two embrace and queue the romantic music. Za endo!

It is almost impossible finding flaws with this arc, hell, the whole second half. I am just gonna pull at straws when I say that I think Suzuran could have done without that last part where Renacchi went all tsun-dere. I don’t think it added any value, especially when she wasn’t really mad. It was one of those scenes that would be cut had she had an editor. But then again, that pouty Renacchi was to die for and the hagu…

I also think that Saeman was kind of under-used but that might just be me having had the bar way up high to begin with. I mean this is Saeman, if you chose him then you had better deliver! His part this time would have been done by any other Danso and they could have pulled it off but Saeman being Saeman, ended up taking all the girls’ hearts anyway. It was a win by default! I just wish he was kind of utilised more. I don’t know I just felt a bit if waste of talent.

 

 
 

The way Maachun looks at Ikkun >.<

 
 

Those hands man…

 

 
 

Darn it Mion >.<

 
Maachun felt it! It’s the hands man, I tell ya!
 
 
 

Mioooooooooooooooooooooooooon!!!!
 
 


 
 

Holding Ikumin tenderly


Those looks >><
 
 

Cute ^^

The second story had me all giddy and the hype so high it all but buried Saeman’s anticipation into the ground. Why you ask? Well, it is only the fact that Maachun is the main girl in this! It’s no big that the guy was my first top Team 8 girl, Nakano Ikumi. Nah, it is nothing at all that the Director is the one that I was looking forward to the most – Kitarie.

Sarcasm

It was all of the above! I was so hyped by this story when I saw those three (yes, just the three of them) standing up there on stage that when everything went down, my brain and eyes picked them off frame by frame like I had suddenly developed my own super vision. Ah but there were other characters in the story even if you never get to see them or even know who they were until afterwards when they out themselves. Oh yeah, Miion was the shadow girl that kept interrupting out famed couple when Ikkun tried to confess.

Yeah, Ikumin played the Danso, a first for Team 8 I have seen in my life. He is younger and thus in lower grade than his crush Maachun, which makes this one of the forbidden and never likely couplings in romance where a younger guy manages to get himself an older girlfriend!

Maachun is the manager of the soccer club that Ikkun is a member of! The has to be older guys, cooler guys in that club that are ready to kneel before Maachun because unless sports anime lie to us, we see this all the time. So to think that Maachun would accept a younger boy like Ikkun that was ranked at 30% at the kakkoi ranking for that club, well, Ikkun was one lucky boy.

So anyway the story goes the once again during houkago time, clubs are busy and Maachun comes to the classroom to pick up something. Out of nowhere a pair of hands covers her eyes in that ‘Guess Who’ kind of game. She can’t tell who it is meaning that Ikkun wasn’t one of the closest people to her and thus this confession ending the way it did was an out right miracle!

Maachun not being able to beat the game, she takes the hands away from her eyes and turns around to find Ikkun standing there behind her in his club uniform. Her reaction is what I was expecting. She reacted the way a club manager would towards one of the members, especially one that was her kouhai.

Maachun wonders what Ikkun was doing there. He should be down on the grounds already. Ikkun turns around and when you think that he is going to leave, he does the thing! He slides the door shut instead and if it had a lock, I am pretty sure he would have turned the knob. This was one of those heart-thumping doh moments Kitarie-sama gave to us. Ikkun says that there is something more important. Maachun wonders out loud what that is.

Ikkun moves in closer and starts to confess but when he is about to say the words, he gets cock-blocked, by who we now know is Miion. The person was only passing by but just in case, Ikkun takes Maachun’s hand and pulls her a row or two over then they get low under the table top line and out of clear view of anyone who might decide to drop by. Maachun was surprised when Ikkun took her wrist. I guess it was love at first touch! And you know me and my hands! Long live hand-sex!

Ikkun continues on from where he had left off. He says that though Senpai (Maachun of course) might think of him as a child, he truly loves- And again that Miion interrupts the two just as things were getting good. This time she had brought backup too ( I bet Mizuki was one of them).

Maachun too seems to have had enough of the interruptions because this time she is the one that takes Ikkun’s hand and leads him away. Where to? Why, you didn’t see Nogizaka’s Guru Guru Curtain? No? I am disappoint!

While everyone is busy freaking out at the simple act of the two going behind the cover of the curtains, Ikkun continues with his confession. He clearly tells Maachun-senpai that he loves her. Maachun is too kind so she accepts his feelings and then she does the thing!

She hunches to reach Ikkun’s height to and kisses him.

Yeah, they totally kissed! I know some might think it didn’t happen. There seems to have arisen this disease that make people reject everything unless it was in their faces! Just because a girl says she loves a guy even if that girl was out eating another girls’ face off they would still deny the gay!. Yeah, I am totally referencing Hibike!

Thank God our girls aren’t the same judging by the way the whole studio combusted! I gotta admit, that Kitarie out-did herself here! She planted the seed in your heart by just showing the two’s feet and it was up to you to make that seed grow into something awesome when you realise tat they are kissing or let it die when you have no imagination.

Something I noticed though was that Maachun-senpai never actually says that she loves Ikkun back. I would speculate on this a bit more but I doubt Kitarie meant anything by it. Either way she wins because out of all he stories, her’s is the only one that went past 2^st base. Byt 2^nd I mean confession. My rankings are kind of different from what the world considers their bases as;

• 1^st – Realisation of feelings
• 2^nd – Confession
• 3^rd – Dating/kissing
• 4^th – Homusekkusu!

Ikkun and Maachun kissed! All the others stopped at confessions while the other couple I have yet to talk about didn’t even get to 2^nd base. God, the more I think about this the more I can’t tell who should win this!

Now for the gripes on this story. I already said it but this story’s outcome is only possible in fantasy. There is no way that Ikkun would have been able to get his feelings accepted by a senior student who is a girl! T just doesn’t happen! I felt like he got it way easy which makes it kind of cheesy. I feel like if he had been rejected it would have been equally as awesome. It could have been the first rejection but then maybe change something in the way Senpai looks at Ikkun and thus telling us that maybe there is a possibility of the two getting together in the future.

Yes, I know I sound crazy saying that a confession that ends in a kiss, the first and only one, would have as equally awesome as a rejection but when I think of how the GOOD END was executed, it does not seem as great! It lacked substance. This is kind of the reason why actual yuri anime are disappointing a lot of the time because there is something lacking in them but then you get something like Hibike and the world loses their minds. It’s all in execution.

Ikkun and Maachun’s love story was too clean and very delusional! I was expecting a bit of hesitancy from Maachun-senpai at her kouhai confessing his love for her. They did not seem that close for her to not have doubts about those feelings. Have they known each other long enough for this to not be just a simple crush? Come now Senpai, you looked like the intelligent type. At least show a bi of hesitancy.

Oh well, like I said, I am only nit-picking on this second half because they were just so good! Ikumin was kind of weird as a Danshi. I guess it is because this is my first time seeing a Team 8 member Danso but I don’t think I am alone when I thought they would be great when they got to do one! Seriously,, you guys need to watch their performances! Everyone I see I think they would make a great boy, they are just so cool, especially Yoko-chan! Darn it, now I am imaging that round face in black spiky hair looking down on me with a mean look in her eyes! Oh well…

Maachun on the other hand was of course marvellous as the Senpai! She even got a line that showed off her skills! I will never forget the time that got me to love her more than Sayanee! You all probably know of it by now but back when NMB just invaded the 48 family, they visited SKE’s live where they collaborated on Majijyo Teppen Blues! Maachun’s line delivery decimated everyone else, yes, that includes Sayanee! In that moment my favour scale tipped from Sayanee to Maachun! Watching this little gem I was reminded of that time and the fact that she is still one of my Kamis!

 
 

 
 
 

 




 
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
 

 

Do it!
 
 

DO IIIIIIIIIIIIT!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the world has come to an end! I am loving the idea of yaoi more than yuri! But then again, if I am calling this yaoi then so far all we have had has been het and no yuri in sight.

Oh God, I think I am gonna be sick!

To think that I have in heaven all this time over het, some please kill me! Quickly, I better talk about the Boys’ Love episode to cleanse my body some what. Yes, yaoi is infinitely better than het as far as I am concerned! And just in case one is wondering, yuri is million times better than yaoi!

So, why yaoi? Well, it turns out that my speculation last episode from the previews was spot on! The very last and courtesy of AKBINGO virgin, NMB48’s Mita Mao closes off this competition for the future academy winner! And do not ask me what happened but Shinobu-kun is one of the guys! That two-timing son of a…Not only is he using poor Miion as a scape goat (to ward off speculations for his gayness) but he is deceiving her by putting on a fake personality while with Miion!

His real self is an awkward, silly, brosome guy who is completely in love with his childhood and best friend Fuukun! That’s right, NMB’s Yagura Fuuko plays the other Danshi that is the exact opposite of his friend Shinobu-kun. He is the serious, cool and wise one of the two. He is that friend that will be the one to safe them from all those shitty situations Shinobu-kun’s cluelessness is sure to get them in!

But here is the thing – this Shinobu-kun is my kind of guy! I love guys like him. Sure he is silly but he has a good heart and you just can’t help but love him. Just ask Fuukun! Or I will just tell you all about it right now.

With the shortest cast so far, even beating Kitarie, Mao-kyun brings us another class-based romantic encounter. Actually, all of the stories so far have taken place in class! I wonder if it was part of the requirements! Any way, Shinobu-kun and Fuukun are in class and it seems Fuukan, the brainy one is helping Shinobu-kun study.

Shinobu-kun’s and Fuukun’s personalities were spot on! Maokyun pulled that one straight out of manga and you just tell! It was like watching a real drama for crying out loud! At some point I realised I had my hands clasped in anticipation because despite being the shortest of all the stories so far, it was so damn good!

Shinobu-kun is very grateful to have Fuukun as a friend that could help him. Too bad all that effort was wasted on him because his whole mind was on anything but studying! Shinobu-kun had Fuukun on the brain and in that short a time you could feel that this has been going on for a while now! How long had he been having these feelings for his friend?

At first it seems like this is going to end badly just like usual. Fuukun seems turned off when Shinobu-kun makes a kiss face at him and jokingly telling Fuukun that he loves him! He says he isn’t happy hearing that from a fellow Dude and the way Shinobu-kun’s face fall makes my heart ache so much! I guess this was the moment where I clasped my hands!

But here is the thing, even though Fuukun showed resistance that time, she wasn’t overly turned off which by the way I gotta thank Maokyun for not making Fuukun say the word! You know, those words I hate most from the Japanese dictionary! I already mentioned it I believe! Fuukun did not say those words and since I was expecting them, when they did not come my heart sang!

Fuukun then begins to tease Shinobu-kun on his confession. It seems like he says that to Fuukun a lot and since Fuukun, for some reason, never saw Shinobu-kun saying those words to anyone else, be it a girl or another guy, he teased Shinobu-kun that maybe he actually had feelings for Fuukun.

I loved this. It cemented their long standing friendship when they showed Fuukun poking fun at Shinobu-kun. It just so happens that Fuukun was right on the money with that one because Shinobu-kun reacts quite strongly when he is called out to actually be in love with Fuukun. He knocked things all over in his panicked state and when he knelt down to pick them up, FEELs intensified!

While Shinobu-kun has his attention to far away emo land as he resigns to the fact that his love will never come true and that he will never been seen by Fuukun as nothing more than a good friend, the bomb drops when Fuukun makes a move to comfort Shinobu-kun by patting him on the head with eyes that show so much love that anyone could see it. I bet their classmates are all just waiting for the two to get married already! Shinobu-kun did not see it because he too was already blinded by his own feelings for Fuukun.

I gotta say I was not expecting that. That Maokyun, I swear!

But just as Fuukun’s hand was abut to make contact with Shinobu-kun’s head, she pulls back when Shinobu-kun voices his painful conclusion that they were friends, best friends but nothing more.

My heart

I can see how some might be confused by this. But remember than no one of the two actually knows the other’s true feelings. Shinobu-kun probably tried a number of times, some by accident, to convey his feelings to Fuukun but he was always dismissed. Sure anyone would think there was no chance given his situation. Meanwhile Fuukun taking into consideration how Shinobu-kun is personality-wise, even if he only said those things only to him, he couldn’t have been sure that he was not just being his nice and easy going self. Also given how when Fuukun finally called him out on his feelings, that he might be in love with Fuukun, Shinobu-kun strongly denied the insinuation.

Now sure anyone in their right mind would see that reaction for the way it actually is but then you remember that Fuukun was in the same boat as Shinobu-kun, by which I mean that he too had hidden feelings for Shinobu-kun and that made him just as equally blind. So it was very logical that he did not see the signs and explains why he took that declaration of friendship quite hard at the end.

And that’s how it ended. We, the audience find out that the two of them actually love each other. They do but both of them are hiding because they are afraid as they think that the other would never see them the way they see the other. This was such a bitter sweet story, the shortest of the six but packed the hardest punch hands down.

Perfection.

I am just gonna come out and say it – I too would watch this as a complete series, or an extended cut if it ever makes it on HULU! Come on Maokyun, make it happen! Ask YNN to give you a hand! I am pretty sure Shinobu-kun can afford to make a few trips to NaMBa! I am just so ready to see where the future takes Fuukun and Shinobu-kun! The events we see take place in high school, right? There is still college, or the holidays before college. Maybe one of them is moving out of town and they are to be separated for the very first time since childhood. It is the perfect time for one of them to finally crack and drop the bomb. And really, given what we know, there are low chances that it would it a BAD END.

Or how about going a bit back in time and showing us where it all began? We can see how each one began to realise that they loved the other as more than just friends. God, so much potential! Darn you Maokyun, you totally destroyed my brain! My hands are itching to write that fic but I must resist! Writing a yaoi fic is something on a completely different level.

As for the flaws, honestly, I dare anyone to find some! Well, there are some but they are but for some reason changing them would shift the whole picture and that might not end up on a positive note. First of them is that I feel like Fuukun’s hand hovered over Shinobu-kun’s head way longer than necessary. If Maokyun had just zoomed in on Fuukun’s palm as it reached forward but then hesitated just as Shinobu-kun started to speak or to close it into a fist and pull back in sad defeat once he hears the ‘friend’ word. It would have been even more perfect. But I found it kind of dragging especially when Shinobu-kun was speaking for extended period of time and it came off so blatant.

Other than that simple issue, I totally was all over this! Forget Paruru and Geicchi! The feels were stronger in this one! The audience knows it too! And I was so ready for this Boys’ Love arc to win the cake but it was fault of my own for momentarily forgetting Saeman! Damn that Saeman, he is like Sashiko in SSK! The only worthy rival was Sayaka, when she did Danso seriously, and with her gone the most we can expect is to be surprised, like how Dr. Watanabe once. Funny how it was Mayuyu who also took down Sashiko in SSK.

But who are we kidding, as soon as I saw Sae and heard Danso, the jimmies were already stretched and ready to accept the Saeman! So it is not surprising that Suzuran won this but I thought the point this time was less about the best boy and more about the love. Then again, since we did not get a HAPPY END and since shoujo stories rarely end badly, I guess it is expected that they would fall for the SAFE END! And given the fact that Saeman was about, well. This makes me thing though. What if it had been Saeman and Shinobu-kun in that Boys’ Love?

Darn it! I just went and put a gun to my head with that thought! Talk about suicidal tendencies! But do I care? Hell no! I would totally weekly watch a Boys’ Love drama with those three as the main cast and love rivals! If that happens we all know who would win the Uke bowl. Unless there is a twist and Saeman plays the Uke-…

I’m so done with this! At this rate I will end up writing yaoi fics! Best stop thinking about it. As you can see, I loved that last one the best! That Maokyun hit all the right spots! I don’t know, maybe it is because this is familiar territory? We of the yuri community are kind of married to FEELs when it comes to our ships so this was relatable.

Now to wait years for another Danso episode! Come on Nogizaka, you are slacking! Fifth season of NOGIBINGO starts in two weeks! How about opening it with a bang, eh? Now that Ikoma-kun is back as Centre, let’s get things moving, shall we? Minami is looking cuter and there is the new fav couple on the block in Nojou and Kazumin. Get to it!

So, who else was surprised to find out that Yuihan was the centre of this Heavy Rotation? It sure didn’t look that way.

 
Ah, cute as always Sayaya!

Miion is growing on me, thanks to a certain someone that shan’t be named, eh Willmark?

My baby Maachun

 
 
 
Double Yokoyama Yui, cause why not?

 
Can’t wait for the tickling episode. And they brought in innocent young ones for it too ^_____________^

Ja