DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA DramaDakaretai Otoko 1-i ni Odosarete Imasu.
MOVIE ComedyDakaretai Otoko 1-i ni Odosarete Imasu.: Spain-hen

REVIEWS

• 

  antheap

  10/100
  At least the opening is a good piece.

  Note: my scores refer to my personal enjoyment, which in this case was abysmal. In the review, however, I tried to explain if and why this anime is not worth your time.

  I went into this anime expecting to like it but, since the first episode, I understood that it wasn't my thing. I wanted to see it through the end but I decided to drop it after 6 episodes because I just couldn't stand it anymore.

  I'm a pretty frequent BL consumer, and someone who is absolutely not put off by "problematic content". I'm not squicked by rape or violence, and I am able to appreciate stories about those themes, even when they're not overtly condemned. This anime, however, is in a whole different league and I personally found it absolutely revolting. The whole double standard with rape being portrayed as just another thing that happens when a certain character does it but made appear as bad when it's another character doing it was the last drop in a bucket that had been brimming from the get-go.

  But one thing at a time: why do I think this anime is so bad?

  I don't think I can explain everything I think in a single review since there are so many things I don't like in every single episode, but I'll try to synthesize my main points.

  Plot? I don't know her.

  What is this anime about? Hell if I know.

  These two guys are actors and the main character, Takato Saijo, was #1 sexiest man on a magazine for five years until this rival, Junta Azumaya, came along and stole his #1 place, which is a huge deal for Takato for some fucking reason and that should have something to do with the plot to the point that it's what the title of the anime comes from, but it's actually just an excuse to give these two some vague sort of rivalry before they meet. They meet because they have to shoot a movie together. Junta likes Takato. They fuck. They keep fucking. Except you never see a sex scene.

  That's it, that's the plot. And it could totally be ok, not all animes must have a complicated plot, if it wasn't for all the other problems the show has. One could say that a good part of said problems, especially the fact that nothing seems to be happening, is due to the fact that they took a hard BL with a plot completely centered on sex, and took the explicit sex out of the formula, then proceeded to turn it into a 12 episode anime. I agree that this is definitely part of the problem, because once you take the sex scenes out of it you're left with a generic, predictable, and frankly rather uninspired, BL plot.

  So what I was faced with when I watched was four episodes of the two main characters acting or talking, Junta sexually harassing a blatantly unwilling Takato, a fade to black, then repeat. And the mindless way the sexual assault is handled, the way it's presented as a joke, especially in a certain episode, was, to me, absolutely disgusting. But I'll get there. The remaining two episodes I watched introduced a "love rival", as expected, and managed to get even more disgusting in their portrayal of sexual harassment, rape, and a blatantly abusive relationship.

  In short, the plot of this anime was not just forgettable: I hope I'll forget it.

  Two-dimensional is a compliment

  All the characters in this anime are victims of a tragic illness: terrible writing.

  • Takato Saijo, a veteran actor with 20 years of experience in the industry, is a man extremely focused on his career, also because he seems to have nothing but his career, at least before meeting his abuser Azumaya. He pretends to be extremely kind and friendly but actually he's grumpy and shy. That must be why he has literally no meaningful relationship with anyone before Junta forcibly makes his way into his bed life, as far as the anime tells us. In the first episode he ends up getting drunk with Azumaya, his "rival". Why, you may ask? How? We don't know. There's no explanation (just vague excuses) as to why someone like him would get seriously drunk in front of this guy he dislikes and barely knows, especially when he's repeatedly shown to be keen on hiding his vulnerable side. He is that BL character who always gets raped for some reason, and that's the only side of his supposed characterization he lives up to; the only times he has a vaguely realistic reaction to it, it's soon gone in favor of yet another harassment followed by a fade to black.

  • Junta Azumaya, on the other hand, is absolutely cryptic to me. He's a mystery. He is a young actor with 3 years of experience in the industry, and he really admires Takato (which somehow translates into wanting to fuck him). Everyone likes him and thinks he's an angel because he smiles and acts childishly, and despite everyone liking him, he, too, isn't shown to have anyone else meaningful to him, or just anyone who seems to know him well, let alone who knows his self behind his "angelic" mask. His only 'friend' seems to be a kouhai, but their relationship is purely utilitarian and superficial. In conclusion, Junta's only most relevant character trait is undoubtedly his blind and uncontrollable desire to have sex with Takato. Everything he does in the whole anime is molesting him, abusing him, raping him, manipulating him.
    What makes him so cryptic is the way he's presented as absolutely innocent while doing all of these things. I've had a very hard time reconciling the gentle, sweet, caring lover the anime seems to be portraying him as with his actual actions, which perfectly fit the definition of "abusive as*hole".

  • Chihiro Ayagi, a new actor gaining recognition recently, who is shown right off the bat to owe his newfound fame to favors he does in the bedroom to the right women. He's the "love rival" which obviously means he's another guy who tries to rape Takato. I appreciated that at least his portrayal is consistent with his actions and it makes me laugh a bit how in the end, despite being a complete as*hole, he was much more of a decent person with Takato than Junta will ever be. Paradoxically, he's better "inserted" in the world around him, as he has more people with which he interacts, if compared to the two main characters who seem to be wandering this world in complete solitude except for each other.

  In short, the characters have two-dimensional, cliched personalities that in no way defy their expected roles and whose portrayal is often not coherent with their acts.

  Rape is love. Or is it?

  I know the portrayal of rape is a known issue of a lot of BL fiction. In my experience, I've read my share of BL mangas with different degrees of unsatisfying portrayals of the subject, but this one is the worse yet. It might be connected to the fact that actual 18+ scenes are completely absent, leading to much more focus on the lacking psychology of the characters and no possibilities to appreciate the fact that at least the sex scenes are hot. It might also be a fault with the manga, I haven't read it so I wouldn't know, but I think that with those sex scenes, I could have appreciated Dakaretai a bit more.

  I do not expect an excessively realistic portrayal of issues such as rape, sexual harassment on the workplace and so on from a BL but, from every piece of fiction I expect a minimum of familiarity with basic human psychology, which in my opinion is dramatically lacking in Dakaretai. All these issues are not just left unexplored, ignored, or excused; they're not only shown as romantic, which is something I tend to expect from a BL; in some instances, Takato openly and repeatedly says "no", he's shown as unwilling, and he even cries because of Junta's inappropriate touching, and these scenes are seen as funny, presented as a sort of gag. The comedic tone the anime takes on and the scenes it chooses to do so, especially in some episodes, made me very uncomfortable; I found the choice almost alienating.

  What made any kind of enjoyment and hope I had left finally leave my body and disappear in the nothingness where it should have been from the first ten minutes of the first episode, however, was when the same actions that were shown as nothing serious or even a gag when Junta was the one doing them to Takato, suddenly become a big deal when it's the rival, Ayagi, who does them. Yes, rape is just another way to get the attention and eventually the heart of a person you like, but that's only if you're Junta; if you're Ayagi, attempted rape even excuses Junta blackmailing you as "revenge". It might sound strange, but the lack of consistency was what definitely did it for me and made me decide to drop this trainwreck of an anime.

  In short, the way rape, harassment, and similar issues are handled is not only inconsistent with human psychology, but inconsistent with itself.

  Obviously, I do not recommend this anime, despite wasting way more time than it deserved watching 6 episodes of it and then writing this endless review, that I hope will at least spare someone that shares my tastes from the experience of watching it. However, I do recommend listening to the opening, it's a good piece.

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• 

  ow9n

  75/100
  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

  (This review contains some spoilers)

  Before I start this review, I'd like to mention the fact that I had absolutely no positive expectations of this anime. As an avid fudanshi, when I first heard about a new BL anime, I was thrilled. Then, I decided to check out some comments about the manga online. What I read had a bad omen: words like "rape" being thrown around, which, unfortunately, is nothing new for BL. That being said, I'd like to divide this review into three sections: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (I know the original movie title doesn't use the Oxford comma, but just bear with me, okay?).

  The Good:
  I believe there is actually a lot to like about this anime. For one, the art is phenomenal. The characters look great (and really hot), much better than what little I read of the manga. Not just their faces, but the bodies of the main characters are also phenomenal. This is purely fanservice - but it's something I appreciate in BL, where both the uke and seme have more muscular figure. The more erotic moments of the show were a welcome sight, along with the many passionate kisses they shared.

  Exhibit A: Speaking of kisses, their relationship actually develops far quicker than every other BL anime I've seen, which is a very welcome change of pace, in my opinion. Many of these anime (Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, Junjou Romantica, Love Stage!!, etc) spend a lot of time beating around the bush with stuff like "do I really like him?", but in this, by episode 6, we already have a confession. There were signs of it in episode 2, even, when Junta starts ignoring Takato (the reason behind it is pretty stupid, but I'll talk about that in a minute), and Takato is practically begging Junta to keep touching him, saying things like "it can only be you", etc. This is where they do some play with honey...or something...but honestly, it was pretty hot. Their relationship is very sexual, which is definitely a double edge sword: it's good for fanservice, but in terms of character development, not so much. Aside from their relationship, the anime is actually pretty funny, I feel. Takato has this very high opinion of himself, as shown here: which I think is very funny. He puts himself over others in this asshole-ish kind of way, while at the same time respecting others' talent (such as Junta). Junta is also a very funny character - his obsession with Takato usually fuels this. Junta's sort of "yandere" nature contributes to this as well: his obsession leads to him literally scaring Takato's other suitors off. _Junta's expressions like this make the anime much more light hearted._The funniest example of this is with Ayagi, the guy who wants to "make Takato his woman." Junta gives Ayagi a toy that repeats some very incriminating words Ayagi spoke, leading to Ayagi backing off from Takato and some nice humor. However, this show is not all good. ___The Bad:___ There is a lot to dislike about this anime. The first episode, which I will talk more about in "The Ugly," is just objectively bad writing. Junta gets into a relationship with blackmail, which, right off the bat, is messed up and not okay. But even then, I'm willing to let that go, because remember, I have low expectations for stuff like this. One example of blackmail done "right" (it's never "right", but in a more acceptable way) is the Sekaiichi Hatsukoi movie: Yokozawa is blackmailed by one of his higher-ups with photos (much like in this anime), but the difference in that movie was that his boss (Kirishima) just wanted to go out to eat dinner with him, go on dates, etc. However, in this, Junta feels the need to have sex right off the bat and, just for added shock value, sexually assault him to achieve this. This is where the anime fundamentally falls flat: it's all about the sex. Sure, it's hot, but can we get more character development? This anime was based off a manga that is a majority just them having sex. Adapting that into an anime will be difficult, mainly because you can't show porn on television. Thus, they have to water it down and resort to blueballing the audience constantly. The best example of this is the episode where Junta takes Takato to a film set to see him dressed up in a high school uniform. He's there to have sex with him, and that is literally it. You see some very passionate (and great) kisses, as shown in the first pic of this review, but you just get a few panning shots of Takato taking it in the behind, but with no actual action showing, and it's kind of...unfulfilling. Because the manga is mostly smut, however, that means that the drama is very lacking and predictable. Remember the conflict in episode 2 I talked about? The reason Junta was annoying Takato was because of a COLD. He had a cold, and didn't wanna pass it to him. I know we're just starting the anime here, but come on. First, we have the trademark "romance anime love triangle," but in this case, it only lasts for two episodes, which is good I guess because that can get annoying. But the resolution was very formulaic - guy sets his sights, attempts something heinous, but nothing actually happens or Junta saves him. Even the paparazzi "arc" (it was like, 3 episodes) is predictable, obviously it won't resolve to anything, but they make it seem like such a huge deal. It would be much better if that arc ended with some more dramatic consequences, rather than everything just going back to how it was before. I'd like it more if they had a situation more like Gravitation: Yuki Eiri actually tells the media he's in a relationship with another man, rather than trying to hide it. The character writing is also kind of lazy, all of the "love rivals" (if you can even call them that, they don't show up for very long) have very basic backstories and are only there because they wanna get down with Takato. And once they are "defeated" by Junta, they essentially become irrelevant. Junta is also written as kind of a "jack of all trades" that can do anything when Takato is involved. I would have liked to see some kind of weakness from Junta, and being horny all the time doesn't count. Junta's horniness is funny, but it gets kinda old. Junta's image as this very suave guy is never broken, and I would have liked it if it were, and maybe he could rely on Takato sometimes. Takato was always the "damsel in distress" of this anime, which is kind of lame, because he has pretty strong resolve himself. He is the most well written character in the show, however. One thing I will give the anime credit for is the flashback episodes where Takato remembers how he met Junta in the past. My question is - why didn't they put that at the beginning?! When Junta first meets Takato, it seems like they hardly know each other, and their relationship seems very forced from the beginning. Takato's reflection on their meeting actually gives some context to Junta's feelings, as well as Takato's. The worst part about this anime, however, is the atrocity that is the first episode. This anime misses something very important when it comes to relationships: consent. ___The Ugly:___ _Everyone's reaction upon seeing the first episode._ The reason many people dropped this anime was because of what happened at the beginning. Junta sexually assaults Takato (no beating around the bush here - that is what happened), chases him into a room, and forces a kiss on him. After this, Takato HIDES (yes you heard me, he hides in a room) slightly traumatized by what just happened to him. The real question is: why. Why was it written like this? I guess we're lucky it was only a kiss: in the manga, Junta actually rapes Takato. No ambiguity there either (like there is sometimes in yaoi) - Takato literally yells out "you're raping a man?" while yelling and crying. This is not just a problem with Dakaretai, rather, BL as a whole. Lack of consent gives rise to these ridiculous stories about some guy being raped, then falling in love. This is very fucked up, no two bones about it. Luckily, recent BL has shifted away from this, but it still lingers (as you can see in this anime, this manga is fairly recent). My opinion on this is clear: it's horrible. I know Junta's whole character is he's insanely horny, but rape right at the start is NOT the way to introduce that. It doesn't even make sense either - at the end of the first episode, Junta holds Takato's hand very romantically and says "please let me have sex with you," which is actually asking for consent. This is how it should have been in the first place! It should be noted that Takato wasn't exactly in a position to refuse, because of the blackmail, but momentarily disregarding that, it would have been much better if the anime started like that. Although Takato gives consent later in the anime, it would have left a much better taste in my mouth if it started out like that. ___Conclusion:___ If you want a (for the most part) fun, hot, and mindlessly entertaining BL anime, this is the way to go. One thing I've learned throughout my time watching anime is that my standards for anime are not particularly high, and especially not for BL. That means I'll take what I can get, and this is what I was given.
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• 

  conceptjunkie124

  92/100
  The premise sounds really concerning. Fortunately, it's wrong.

  The plot summary for this show had me expecting a deeply problematic premise I probably wouldn't be able to sit around for. If you've seen almost any Boys' Love anime before, you know how creepily dubcon things can get (sometimes verging on or becoming full out noncon). It's...not comfortable...even when they eventually get around to confirming that yes, the Uke really does want the Seme. But actual Boys' Love anime is extremely rare, so I tend to give this genre more of a chance than I would otherwise.

  And to my deepest surprise, that chance has finally (finally) paid off.

  See, the plot summary is highly misleading. In the first episode, a deal for sexual favors so that compromising footage will remain hidden is brought up and, yes, the over-eager Junto pounces on the idea in order to get Takato into bed. But all of that ends there. No sex is had in that context, and it's not the overarching plot of the series, not even close. What emerges instead is a risky, fascinating, and surprisingly deep dive into dismantling the "Outward resistance to physical affection as a result from inward gay panic" trope.

  They do this by subverting several other tropes and expectations, chief among them the Tsundere/Deredere roles. By flipping expectation on its head, we now have the sexually aggressive dominant as the sweet, adoring, sanguine, Seme Deredere, and the entirely submissive, please-god-top-the-hell-out-of-me Uke as the Tsundere. This makes for a compelling character and relationship dynamic that you really can't find anywhere else. (If you can, then I haven't seen it, and feel free to tell me.)

  What makes the setup really shine, though, is the problem they give Takato, the Tsundere Uke: the core of his being does not want to be a Uke/Submissive. In his mind, he's supposed to be the suave, untouchable Seme/Dominant and dammit, that's exactly what he is. So when he's confronted by the truth, and it's as polar opposite to his expectations as it can possibly get, this triggers a long and significant internal struggle, and THAT is what makes up the series.

  However, all of that isn't readily apparent at first. For an episode or three, it kinda looks like business as usual. The Seme doesn't really take no for an answer and the Uke protests and protests but doesn't really fight back so he must want it, yeah? But trust me, stick with it and you'll see them flip the script in real time. They turn what is unfortunately typical into a real damn love story with enough character exploration and legitimate romance to please anyone.

  I realize this makes the show sound like a big, super serious drama. It is very much not. It's a shiny romantic comedy with just as many tropes they're faithful to as there are tropes they subvert. The overall structure is textbook. The twists and turns and Big Last Problem are all there. It's everything I've talked about before now that mixes into the old formula and really makes it something new, with more depth than a show like this has any right to have.

  Another thing I appreciate is the presence of sex and sexual contact throughout this relationship. Not because I'm a pervert, but because anime has the distinct habit of either being all love and romance and feelings or all sex (which descends into perversion and consent issues). This series finally integrates the two so that we can get a fuller, richer depiction of this love story. And given the emotional ground they needed to cover with Takato, skimping on the sexual aspects would have harmed the story as a whole.

  In terms of flaws and drawbacks: While they do contrast Junto's overeager thoughtlessness with a couple of actual intent-to-harm scenarios, the chief character who winds up almost crossing the line is given a 180 degree redemption arc in the blink of an eye. I'm not entirely sure why they chose to do that, since they could have just left him as an antagonist and pushed him into the background to save time. There's also a bit of intrigue that's dropped with a tertiary character late in the game that is never explained. It could have been a tease for season two, but I have no idea where they could take the show from here? In general, the supporting characters aren't as developed as I would have liked. But as far as storytelling crimes go, that's far outweighed by all the good that's here.

  Dakaretai promised to be another shallow delivery of dubious intent, and wound up delivering on almost every single thing I've been dying to see from Boys' Love/Yaoi since I first found anime in my teens. I always appreciate a love story that starts out in genuinely risky, messy narrative territory, where you're left wondering how on Earth they could possibly spin a genuine romance with the characters involved. The Captive Prince trilogy was the first time I'd ever seen it done damn near flawlessly, and now Dakaretai makes the second.

  ***If you are particularly sensitive to consent issues or they're a hot button issue for you, I recommend watching episode seven first. It will give you a lot of foundation as to why Junta behaves the way he does in earlier episodes and in general.

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