One commentator said that Seikimatsu Darling is the funniest BL anime ever, and I think he might be right. It's certainly a delight, and take it from me -- as someone who sits through comedies, dramas, what-have-you pretty much stone-faced -- you can't avoid at least cracking a smile -- and maybe even cracking up.
Ogata is in love with Takasugi, and finally goes to his friend Shikibu for advice -- Shikibu has a male lover, Tsutsumi, and so should be in a position to help Ogata out. The course of action is simple: Ogata invites Takasugi out on dates -- and Takasugi always accepts. Finally, on the way home one night, Ogata confesses. It turns out that Takasugi feels the same way toward him, but is afraid their feelings are too similar. Ogata's not quite sure what this means until Takasugi explains: who's gong to be the seme and who the uke? He then invites Ogata to spend a long weekend at an onsen (hot springs resort) owned by a friend: the gauntlet is down. Ogata talks Shikibu and Tsutsumi into "coincidentally" meeting them on the train, and off they go.
The comedy is a distinct and very funny satire on masculinity and the often ridiculous patterns of behavior it encourages: neither man is willing to give in and be the uke in this relationship, but they love each other so much that each just keeps trying to show off his good points and not admit to any weaknesses. And of course, the weaknesses eventually come out, but they don't seem to change anyone's feelings. Both protagonists are completely appealing, and Shikibu and Tsutsumi are perfect comic accompaniment.
The visual style is wonderful, although there are many chibi passages (I must be getting used to them -- they didn't bother me all that much). The character designs are wonderful -- all these big, hunky, adorable men running around, with lots of pecs and delts and biceps. Don't believe anyone who tells you that gorgeous guys can't be funny.
There's a short at the end of the episode, "End of the Century Rangers," with the five characters from the main story (Takagi is Ogata's coworker) as superheroes -- the "Darling 5" -- out to defeat a super-villain whose main weapon seems to be naruto, a kind of fish cake, used as a take-off on "Transformers." It's markedly more silly than the main story, and just as funny.
It's a short one -- one episode, at just under half an hour -- and doesn't seem to have been released in the U.S.
Staff:
Screenplay: Shino Taira
Storyboard: Kenichi Maejima
Music: Harukichi Yamamoto
Original Manga: Maki Naruto
Character Design: Kazunori Iwakura
Animation director: Kazunori Iwakura
Supervising Director: Kenichi Maejima
Sound director: Fusanobu Fujiyama
Producer: Ken Mochizuki
Animation: Akihide Saitō, Eiji Ishimoto, Hidetoshi Namura, Hisashi Ishii, Kiyotaka Nakahara, Koji Moriyama, Michiko Yamamoto, Shino Takada, Syuji Sakamoto, Takashi Hyoudo
Art Coordinator: Hiroko Ito
Assistant producer: Shigeharu Sekiguchi
Background Art: Atsuki Betsumiya, Ayari Yake, Junichi Kuroda, Miyoko Kohama, Shoichi Shimomura, Takumi Honma, Yoshinori Hishinuma, Yukari Yasuda
Background Supervision: Takashi Waki
Color Key: Hiroko Ito
Cooperation: Aki Arakawa, Akiko Kusunose, Katsumi Satoh, Seiji Biblos
Editing: Harutoshi Ogata, Satoshi Terauchi, Yukiko Itou
In-Between Animation: Akihiro Fukui, Masaki Sekine, Rie Kaneko, Ryoko Yoshimura, Satoshi Nishimura, Yukako Tsuzuki
In-Between Check: Fusae Sato
Ink & Paint Checker: Hitomi Morishima, Naoyuki Sawada, Takashi Tomihata
Photography: Masaki Nakamura, Mitsue Motomiya, Motomitsu Hishino, Shigenari Nishi, Tatsuya Masuzawa
Photography Supervision: Hideo Okazaki
Production Assistant: Tomoharu Komiyama
Production Coodinator: Shinobu Tsunaki
Production Desk: Tetsuo Mikami
Production Manager: Yoshiyuki Matsuzaki
Recording engineer: Akiyoshi Yoda
Sound Effects: Mitsuru Kageyama
Sound Manager: Kouichi Iizuka
Special Effects: Takashi Maekawa
Theme Song Arrangement: Yasunori Tsuchida
Theme Song Composition: Yasuhiro Mizushima
Theme Song Lyrics: Arisu Satô
Video Editing: Ayumi Tabira
Cast:
Kazuhiko Inoue as Yoichuroh Takasugi
Yasunori Matsumoto as Kohsaku Ogata
Hideyuki Hori as Yukari Shikibu
Juurouta Kosugi as Naoyuki Takagi
Tetsuya Iwanaga as Masayuki Tsutsumi
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