boys love

This week Sasaki to Miyano addresses Miyano’s issues from middle school where he grew tired of people noting his more feminine face. Admittedly, this comes about after his class votes for him to their representative in a cross-dressing competition and could have been handled quite tackily. Instead, in true Sasaki to Miyano fashion, Miyano’s friends rally around him and Miyano slowly realises he doesn’t really object as much as he used to.

Of course, he has other problems still to mull over given he still hasn’t quite worked out how he really feels about Sasaki and whether or not he’s ready to step into his own BL experience. Admittedly, this week did feel like it was starting to stretch this plot thread about as far as they could without it snapping the patience of everyone watching. Episode 6 managed to ride feels and carry through but episode 7 is definitely pushing the limits.

Sasaki to Miyano needs to reach a turning point soon.

Fortunately, salvation came from the will I / won’t I drama as Miyano runs into the girl from middle-school that he had a crush on, and who crushed his tiny ego when she asked him to wear girls’ clothes. Turns out, like most anime romances, this whole trauma was actually a misunderstanding caused by appalling communication skills. She actually wanted to paint him as a model for her art class which is naturally why she just blurted out ‘wear girl’s cloths for a bit’.

Also convenient that her art class just happened to be buying supplies in the same shopping street that Miyano was walking down with Sasaki and that Sasaki just happened to go get a drink at that precise moment. Coincidence is kind of the cornerstone of most romances in the end but the trick is making them not feel too awkwardly shoved in. This one felt a little bit forced.

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Though at least middle-school crush and budding art student seemed like a nice person. Sasaki to Miyano is actually genuinely full of nice people. They do have misunderstandings and occasionally nag or make snarky comments to one another, but none of them are mean or malicious for the sake of it. They are all just normal people going about their day with their own concerns and interests and while someone else’s misfortune might amuse them they don’t go out of their way to cause it.

It’s just kind of pleasant to spend time with characters who aren’t petty for the sake of creating artificial drama.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there aren’t individual agendas in Sasaki to Miyano. When Miyano’s friend invites Sasaki to the hospital to meet his girl-friend or to introduce her when she’s released the obvious goal is revealed in his thoughts as he walks away, his girl-friend would love to see BL in real life.

Likewise, Miyano’s middle-school friend has a really interesting reaction after Sasaki hauls Miyano away from their conversation in a fit of jealousy.

I will admit, visually this scene was great. Again, the animation not so much as Sasaki to Miyano skipped over a lot of it. But the way they softened the focus in time with a beating heart and the use of light and colour was just gorgeous.

And again, Sasaki realises he shouldn’t have reacted that way but at the same time it leads to such a cute exchange between the two characters.

I’m really hoping we see more of Miyano’s middle school friend and I’m also hoping they move forward from the confession in the next episode of Sasaki to Miyano.

Images from: Sasaki to Miyano. Dir. S Ishihira. Studio Deen. 2022

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Karandi James

Sasaki to Miyano is one of those anime where weekly episode reviews aren’t really going to do it justice. Any given episode is a great watch but it isn’t so much about what happens as much as it is about the feels each episode is throwing off. And episode 6 of Sasaki to Miyano, as Miyano ponders (really hard) about his response to Sasaki’s confession, really leans into it being about the feels rather than actual events.

The end result is I could sum up the whole episode by saying the boys go to school, sit exams, and go home from school rinse and repeat and that really doesn’t tell you anything about just how sweet and adorable this episode was.

Sasaki to Miyano either makes you go ‘aw’ or there’s very little to enjoy.

I can’t imagine how watching Sasaki to Miyano is for someone who isn’t totally swept away in waiting to see how the boy’s relationship develops. So little happens outside of their own introspection. Sure Sasaki is studying for exams and has been told he has to score high or else and Miyano has his own exams and his friends babble about their relationships, but all of that is merely the background dressing this week for Miyano to think through how he actually sees Sasaki and whether he can actually consider a relationship with a guy.

And while in some stories this will he / won’t he holding pattern that Miyano has fallen into could get a little tedious, here it just plays out as adorable. Or maybe that’s just me.

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Sasaki for his part is as charming as ever. While earlier episodes indicated he might be a little too possessive and eager, here he is most definitely giving Miyano the space he needs to really come to his own answer. That doesn’t mean he isn’t turning on the full charm offensive at various points, but he isn’t pressuring Miyano to rush to a conclusion or continually rubbing the question in his face.

That said, Sasaki to Miyano can’t stay in a holding patter forever so either Miyano is going to make a move, Sasaki is going to get tired of waiting, or a third party is going to intervene (and given I was behind so the next episode is already out, I guess I can just go find out which way this will go).

It is odd though that this story has drawn me in the way it has. I’m not the biggest fan of slice of life stories where very little happens, yet for some reason, provided I’m buying into the romance story, I am happy enough for romances to take their time and meander to their conclusions. Sasaki to Miyano isn’t an exciting viewing experience and yet it is one I look forward to each episode.

The one area it continues to excel in is the use of visuals. That isn’t to say it is an animation masterpiece because it isn’t. In the grand tradition of BL anime this one seems to be on a budget. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t tried to capture the feeling of each scene even if movement is pretty limited.

As we saw in Given, even a staircase can become a familiar and beloved setting if used appropriately and Sasaki to Miyano uses its soft focus and floating triangles and sparkles to amazing emotional effect episode after episode.

Okay, I’m done babbling about this boy’s love story. I’m enjoying it but I want to know what happens next and I know there’s an episode waiting for me to go watch. If you haven’t tried Sasaki to Miyano this season it is very consistent in its delivery and quality and is actually quite the sweet romance so far.

Images from: Sasaki to Miyano. Dir. S Ishihira. Studio Deen. 2022

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Karandi James

Sasaki to Miyano has finally reached the actual confession stage. Just as Miyano had managed to convince himself that he’d perhaps misheard Sasaki on the train all those months ago, Sasaki comes out with a blunt ‘I like you’. Of course the pair are then interrupted so Sasaki says he’ll wait, Miyano comes back a moment later and puts Sasaki on the spot asking him what it is about him that Sasaki likes to which he hastily answers ‘your face’ and then instantly regrets it.

While this could have been the catalyst for a fall out between the pair, instead it just leaves both of them a bit confused and anxious as this episode lets them really mull over their feelings.

Sasaki to Miyano always keeps things sweet.

The confession sequence ended up not being a brilliant out-pouring of emotions due to both of the boy’s getting flustered and distracted, but the lead up to the confession was kind of a perfect swelling of emotions. Sasaki to Miyano has moved us to a sports day and after Miyano’s race the two are sitting in the cool and just catting away (or shooting the breeze as the subtitles have indicated Sasaki said though that seemed like a really unnatural expression at the time).

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What is interesting during this part of the episode is that Sasaki’s internal thoughts perfectly capture what he likes about Miyano. He realises how fun it is talking with him and how much he’s going to miss these moments when he graduates. It is from that emotion that his unplanned confession more or less forces its way out. If only Miyano were some kind of mind-reader then he would have known exactly the depth of the feelings behind those simple words.

However the moment does pass and Miyano is left with Sasaki’s terrible answer about liking his face. And in the grand history of romance, particularly BL, he naturally doesn’t talk to Sasaki about it. Instead he broods about it on his own turning over the same information again and again and going around in circles. Though, the one question Miyano doesn’t ask himself clearly is whether or not he likes Sasaki.

Sasaki to Miyano though borrows another page out of classic romance stories when Miyano starts feeling a little sick and so is wearing a mask. This kind of echoes the story the two were discussing when Sasaki confessed as one of the characters kissed the other through a mask and then they both ended up sick (truly romantic).

Pretty sure it was Emma Stone’s character in Easy A who explicitly pointed out the trope of reading a text in class that was going to be reflective of whatever teen angst someone was going through.

While the two obviously weren’t studying BL in their classroom it is kind of the same concept, particularly when Sasaki later on has a small moment of hesitation about whether he should kiss the sleeping Miyano and whether it was okay because he was wearing a mask (fortunately some common sense kicked in and Sasaki realised kissing a sleeping person without their permission was not okay).

Though just when you think the drama has played out in this episode of Sasaki to Miyano, Hirano gives Sasaki his phone so that Sasaki can call Miyano and clear up the misunderstanding, but Sasaki wimps out. Yes he calls Miyano but promptly drops a very short explanation about not just liking his face and then hangs up on him. For those who were anticipating the confession we should have heard at the start of the episode, instead we’re left with something even more abrupt.

Though, perhaps it was enough if Miyano’s blush is anything to go by.

Sasaki to Miyano continues to be a pretty adorable romance. The main characters have great chemistry and once they finally learn to communicate they will be absolutely sweet. Though, given this is only episode 5 I guess there are some more issues to come.

Images from: Sasaki to Miyano. Dir. S Ishihira. Studio Deen. 2022

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Karandi James

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

Sasaki to Miyano brings us more blushes and sparkles as we progress another month in the story of these two adorable characters. With time passing we have white day where Miyano gives Sasaki a return gift after the Valentine chocolates from episode 2, and the closing ceremony for the school year but all of that is really background noise on a character driven episode that couldn’t have been more adorable if it tried.

This week it is Miyano’s turn to realise he’s not just thinking of Sasaki in the way he thinks about other friends. He blushes remembering how an off-hand comment may have been misinterpreted, gets worried about how Sasaki will be seen by others, and has the realisation that unlike so many other boys around him, he doesn’t really consider Sasaki in BL situations.

Diagnosis – Definitely infatuation, may develop into love.

Sasaki to Miyano makes it clear both boys are struggling a little with their own feelings.

Rather than recount every blush, smile, sparkle and eye widening moment in this episode there are a couple of things I’d like to focus in on. The first is the use of background music in this episode of Sasaki to Miyano.

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Now possibly this has been the same in the last two episodes and I just didn’t notice it, but this week I’m going to say the soundtrack was outright distracting to each situation. There was scarcely a sideways glance that didn’t get its own swell of music and honestly a lot of it felt like it came out of a 1940’s movie and really didn’t feel like it fit the soft, pastel look of this anime.

While a good and powerful soundtrack can cause an average story to swell into something larger than life that leaves a lasting impression, here I was nearly tempted to turn the volume down so I could just focus on the visuals and character expressions while reading the subs because the music was bumping me right out of the episode. It just felt like it was working so hard to make me feel emotional in the moment and it didn’t always quite gel with the emotions I was actually feeling.

However, where the music kind of felt like it wasn’t working so well this week in Sasaki to Miyano, visually, this episode sang. Admittedly, it is definitely relying on softer colours, lots of lit backgrounds, and a lot of close ups on character faces and expressions, but it definitely works and it crafts the mood and tone of this story very well.

There were also some stand-out moments in the dialogue. Okay, a lot of it is your usual tropey lines you get a lot of in romances but Sasaki declaring that BL is what made a story possible when challenged about whether or not the story could have just had a male/female couple was pretty solid. As was Miyano’s realisation that Sasaki was actually always pretty cool (or at least looked that way to him).

My favourite moment from Sasaki to Miyano came when Sasaki received Miyano’s gift and dashed back to his classroom. He crouched in the doorway and wondered if his heart had stopped to which Hirano pointed out would be bad because he’d be dead. It was such a well delivered retort and it just made me smile. Okay, Sasaki’s whispered confession on the train was pretty cool as well but given Miyano was either asleep or pretending it doesn’t quite count.

Anyway, with the exception of the music this week, I really enjoyed this episode of Sasaki to Miyano. I’m really enjoying watching these two boys grow closer together. And okay, they are both adorkable but I’m having a lot of fun watching them realise their feelings and hopefully we’ll see them grow a bit closer as the series progresses.

Images from: Sasaki to Miyano. Dir. S Ishihira. Studio Deen. 2022

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Karandi James

Sasaki to Miyano returns with episode 2 and continues to go out of its way to add sparkles and flowers to pretty much every aspect of day to day life. Actually, if you take away the dramatic pauses and visual accents essentially you have an episode where two guys occasionally meet and have kind of awkward conversations before they go about their daily grind. Which is why you really can’t separate how a story is told from your enjoyment of the story.

Because little is really happening in this episode outside of Miyano getting flustered by Sasaki’s questions about BL and fudanshi, there’s a visit to a bookstore, sharing pocky at lunch, and Sasaki dropping by Miyano’s classroom. And yet each of the encounters in this episode of Sasaki to Miyano adds a bit more to each of the main characters as we see Miyano is willing to eat the pocky even though he doesn’t like sweet things because Sasaki gave it to him and Sasaki is starting to feel very possessive of Miyano.

Sasaki to Miyano isn’t in a rush and as a result the interactions between characters feel a little more organic.

If there is any red flag so far in Sasaki to Miyano it would come from Sasaki who regularly intrudes upon Miyano’s personal space and in this episode we see him taking actions such as hiding Miyano’s face after he overhears two other boys mention that his blushing face makes him look like a girl. We also see him realising his own feelings of not wanting to let Miyano go and so resolving not to touch him. However the post credit scene takes it even further where we see Sasaki getting jealous of literally everybody in Miayno’s previous class that participated in a Valentine’s event.

I’m kind of hoping Sasaki dials it down a bit because otherwise we’ll tip from sweet and straight into the usual kind of BL tropes.

However let’s focus on the positive because mostly this episode was really just calm and enjoyable.

I did like that Sasaki to Miyano hasn’t already forgotten how these two boys met (a common problem in romance where after the initial meeting and interest the story moves on without really acknowledging how it all began). Instead episode 2 directly references the fight where Sasaki saved Miyano’s class mate and it is acknowledged as a reason why said classmate isn’t concerned about this older student hovering around Miyano.

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Also, the ongoing exchange and discussion of BL manga continues to hold the plot together as Miyano continues to provide volumes for Sasaki and even goes shopping for more. Sasaki even asks Miyano how he got into BL manga in the first place.

Also, there are some really cute moments throughout the episode if you take your focus away from the central duo. At one point the two are having a conversation in the school hall and out the window you see the cat leaping up trying to catch a dragonfly in the background. Nobody in Sasaki to Miyano draws your attention to this moment it is just kind of there as the two boys have their conversation.

Equally, there’s a heavy focus on the seasons changing to show the passage of time with autumn leaves falling and covering the ground dominating a lot of tis episode. This is both pretty lovely to look at and also kind of sets up the final sequence where the boys walk past a Valentine’s display.

Overall though, Sasaki to Miyano kind of suffers from the safe issues most school romances end up suffering from and that is these characters don’t actually say the important things. Which if it had only been a couple of days would make sense but as we’ve seen a fair passage of time in these two episodes it would make more sense if they’d actually had some kind of conversation about how they feel at this point.

Instead we’ll have to deal with characters blushing and getting frustrated until something pushes one or the other into blurting something out.

Images from: Sasaki to Miyano. Dir. S Ishihira. Studio Deen. 2022

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Karandi James