Reviews in Brief: Shungiku Nakamura's Junjo Romantica (anime), Season One

The anime of Junjo Romantica, the very popular series by Shungiku Nakamura, is one of the delights of the medium. It sticks fairly closely to the original manga and, once you've accustomed yourself to the differences in character renderings (and there are differences, but not deal-breakers by any means), it's a delightful few evenings -- although I'll admit I have reservations about some of the characterizations. This is going to be a longish "Review in Brief" because there are three story arcs in this one and twelve episodes. (And note we're doing Japanese usage in names.)

The first, the "main" story, is "Junjo Romantica," about the bizarre and tempestuous affair between Usami Akihiko, 28 years old, famous award-winning novelist (and also the pseudonymous author of a very popular series of BL novels), and over-the-top eccentric, and Takahashi Misaki, 18, a freshman in economics at a prestigious university (although Misaki is no intellectual heavyweight). Usagi is best friends with Takahiro, Misaki's older brother -- and also happens to be in love with him. When Takahiro brings his new fiancee home to introduce her -- and also announces that he is being transferred to Osaka -- Usagi is quietly devastated. Only Misaki picks up on it, and drags Usagi outside on a pretext. He himself is in tears out of sympathy for Usagi, and it's then that Usagi falls in love with him. Most of the rest of the first season for "Romantica" is built around Misaki's denial of one simple fact: he's in love with Usagi, too.

It's not quite denial that fuels the second story, "Junjo Egoist," which begins several years before the Usagi/Misaki arc. Kamijo Hiroki is a literature student who, when his story opens, is reeling under the failure of his overtures to Usami Akihiko (the very same Usagi), his childhood friend with whom he's been in love. He encounters Kusama Nowaki, an orphan who only completed middle school but who wants to go to college to become a social worker. He's also a real go-getter. And he decides that Hiroki is the perfect tutor for him, over Hiroki's vociferous objections -- Nowaki is nothing if not persistent. (Do I need to say that Nowaki has an ulterior motive?) Their affair is as tempestuous as that between Usagi and Misaki, mostly because Hiroki can't bring himself to say "I love you" to Nowaki, although he soon realizes he can't live without him. It doesn't help that Nowaki is a little too reticent about what he's up to at any given moment -- the two don't seem to communicate very well at all.

It's not until episode 8 that we start the third story, "Junjo Terrorist," portraying the romance between Miyagi, a literature professor and Hiroki's office-mate, and Shinobu, his ex-wife's younger brother. Miyagi is taken aback when he runs into Shinobu, who has returned from school abroad and who takes the opportunity to confess that he's in love with the older man.
It's the "older" that bothers Miyagi, perhaps even more than the fact that they are both men. And then his former father-in-law, who also happens to be the dean of Miyagi's college, asks if Shinobu can stay with Miyagi while he is traveling; Shinobu's sister will be home, but she's bringing in her boyfriend. It takes Miyagi a while, but he finally realizes that the boy has wormed his way into his heart.

As I noted, the character renderings do differ from the manga, but I got used to them fairly quickly, and they do have their own appeal. The visuals are generally excellent. The acting is superb: voices are uniformly appropriate, and Usagi in particular is a gem. My major problem with this one is that the uke -- especially Misaki and Hiroki -- are idiots. You want to grab them and shake them for being such twits, although I find myself, on watching it through a second time, having a lot more sympathy for them. It just takes a while to develop. The seme, on the other hand, more than make up for it. Miyagi, I think, shows the fullest development and goes from being a not-very-sympathetic to someone you're rooting for. I love Nowaki just because he's so strange. Usagi, though, is really the prize -- he's a complex and subtly drawn character, spiky and difficult but also vulnerable and utlimately tremendously appealing. There are beautiful, affecting scenes between each couple, but Usagi's are somehow a little bit more so.

There's a second season, which I'm going to go back and watch again. The series is terrific -- I don't even mind the chibi passages (well, not too much).



Junjo Romantica is licensed in America by Kadokawa Pictures USA.

Director: Chiaki Kon
Series Composition: Rika Nakase
Script:
Michiko Yokote (ep 10, 11)
Rika Nakase (ep 1-3, 5, 7, 12)
Yoshiko Nakamura (ep 4, 6, 8-9)
Music: MOKA*
Original creator: Shungiku Nakamura
Character Design: Yoko Kikuchi
Art director: Junko Shimizu
Sound director: Hozumi Gôda
Art Setting: Takeshi Takahashi
Theme Song Performance:
pigstar (OP)
SCRIPT (ED)

Cast:

Daisuke Kishio as Shinobu Takatsuki
Hikaru Hanada as Akihiko Usami
Kazuhiko Inoue as You Miyagi
Kentarou Itou as Hiroki Kamijou
Nobutoshi Canna as Nowaki Kusama
Takahiro Sakurai as Misaki Takahashi
Kishô Taniyama as Takahiro Takahashi
Noriko Namiki as Eri Aikawa
Ryotaro Okiayu as Kaoru Asahina
Toshiyuki Morikawa as Ryuuichiro Isaka
Ai Hayasaka as delivery clerk (ep 12), girl (ep 7), Shinobu's mother (ep 10), shop clerk (ep 8)
Daisuke Matsuoka as old man (ep 3)
Daisuke Sasaki as Dean (ep 10, 11), old man (ep 3),
Eiji Takemoto as professor (ep 6)
Eri Kitamura as Hiroki Kamijou (young)
Eriko Matsushima as Miyagi's mother (ep 10)
Gen Nakano as old man (ep 3)
Hiroka Nishizawa as Cleaning shop clerk (ep 5)
Hiromi Sugino as Sensei's father (ep 11)
Isshin Chiba as Keiichi Sumi
Kei Shindou as teacher (ep 9)
Kenta Miyake as Tanaka (ep 9)
Kumiko Hashimoto as Kajiwara Manami
Mami Shitara as female student (ep 2)
Mayumi Asano as Risako Takatsuki (ep 11)
Miki Suga as female student (ep 2, 5), Kamijou's mother (ep 9)
Reiko Sasakawa as Sensei's mother (ep 11)
Rina Satou as Akihiko Usami (young)
Shintaro Nakano as man (ep 5)
Shinya Fukumatsu as old man (ep 3)
Shizuka Minamori as shop clerk (ep 8)
Sora KUWAKADO as female student (ep 2)
Yuki Masuda as Sensei (ep 10, 11)
Yuuko Nishihara as clerk in charge (ep 6)