There’s a whole pile of tropes that BL anime and manga pull out from time to time and some are better received than others. Sasaki to Miyano dives head first into the ‘but I like girls’ denial territory as Miyano spends a lot of this episode wrestling with his feelings after Sasaki’s whispered confession on the train (to a Miyano he assumed was asleep) and the school vacation.
What I kind of liked about how Sasaki to Miyano pulled this off was Miyano wasn’t using this excuse to deny his feelings. He was genuinely trying to reflect on his feelings and sort them out. Having previously had crushes on girls was just another confusing part as he also had to work through other issues such as whether he saw himself as a uke or seme. Incidentally, randomly opening a BL novel when in the midst of a sexual identity crisis probably isn’t the best course of action in terms of getting some heartfelt or useful advice.
Sasaki to Miyano keeps these characters adorable.
For the most part, the new school year has started largely uneventfully. Sure Miyano is wrestling with how to act when he sees Sasaki but when the two do cross paths on the train it is like no time has passed at all and the two more or less fall back into the same rhythm that they used to have. That said, they are both a little more aware of the other and there are copious ‘incidental’ moments that bring them together throughout the episode.
Part of me wonders if Sasaki is being considerate or just a bit of a coward. His confession was seemingly meant to go unheard and he hasn’t brought it up again, acting deliberately as though nothing has changed between them at all. It leaves Miyano with nowhere to go given he isn’t sure what to make of Sasaki’s words or even how he feels. Yet the two clearly are comfortable with their same old routine as they both smoothly slide into it.
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Though Sasaki to Miyano isn’t one to waste the seasonal changes. Walking to school through the falling flowers Sasaki has to pluck a petal from Miyano’s hair. And did anyone else think it was coincidental that he waited until the boys walking toward them were in full view?
We also get another romance trope thrown in though again not in the usual way. Miyano unintentionally treats Sasaki to a kabe-don moment when he is knocked from behind, loses his balance, and catches himself on the wall. Sasaki’s reaction, checking to see whether Miyano has hurt his hand, is pretty adorable.
But jealousy is still running strong as the main antagonist in Sasaki to Miyano with Miyano speaking with Sasaki’s friend, the one who’s girlfriend is also into BL, and offering him advice, when Sasaki overhear the two talking and intervenes to prevent a potential head pat.
Seriously, I like Sasaki but he has got to get his jealousy under control. He can’t try to leap out a window every time someone gets close to touching Miyano and he certainly can’t wrap Miyano in bubble wrap and lock him away from everything… Well he could but he really shouldn’t.
That said, it is hard not to admit that Sasaki looked pretty cool even if in real life you’d just have to ask him what he thought he was trying to accomplish.
Anyway, Sasaki to Miyano remains kind of adorable. While it is treading over some fairly common romance ground, BL or otherwise, so far it has managed to make the two leads seem pretty interesting and I am enjoying watching them kind of come to terms with how they are feeling.
Images from: Sasaki to Miyano. Dir. S Ishihira. Studio Deen. 2022
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Karandi James
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