Sasaki to Miyano is a pretty good manga on the whole (I’ve read a good chunk of it, though not for a while). But it’s probably more interesting in terms of the discussion over what it is or isn’t, and what the (first) title character is or isn’t. It may sound like a subtle distinction, but whether you classify S & M (I’m not sure that title is coincidental) as BL sort of matters. Tropes count in all genres, but they seem especially hard-wired in BL (as Miyano would be the first to tell you).
That other question is about Sasaki, the sempai (or “semepai” if you like) in the main pairing. There are differing opinions about his essential nature, and I come down firmly on one side. This is a hard question to discuss without spoiling what comes later in the manga – as is the first question for that matter. But even the first episode gives a taste of what I’m on about. When this adaptation was announced ANN referred to Sasaki and Miyano as a “BL manga” – then issued a retraction (which in itself tells you it matters). Is this a BL series, or a romcom with BL as part of the joke?
In brief, we have a story about a bunch of students at an all-boys high school. First-year Miyano Yoshikazu is a slight, pretty (to the point where he’s insecure about it) kid who’s a big fan of BL manga. He openly refers to himself as a fudanshi but as you’d expect, he desperately tries to hide this from his classmates. Sasaki Shuumei is a physically imposing second-year who towers over Miyano. After a chance meeting where Sasaki steps in to break up a fight (seeing Miyano is ill-suited) the two become acquaintances, mainly over manga when Sasaki asks Miyano for recs. Miyano is obviously desperate to share his passion with someone, and takes a leap.
There’s a third important figure introduced here, and that’s Sasaki’s classmate Hirano Taiga (who for me is the most interesting cast member). He serves with Miyano on the student council and the fact that he – who knows Sasaki as well as anyone – is concerned and protective once he realizes Sasaki has taken an interest in Miyano tells you a lot. Sasaki is, frankly, pretty creepy. He’s immediately and repeatedly touchy-feely with Miyano even after Miyano expressly asks him to stop. He takes an interest in Miyano’s hobby, but even more in Miyano himself – who he immediately sees as a target for his affections.
This is a little complicated, and I suppose open to interpretation. Miyano considers himself straight (he was in love with a girl in middle school), and Sasaki’s advances clearly freak him out. Yet they undeniably intrigue him too, which given his love of BL manga is hardly surprising. I realize that Sasaki is representative of a trope here, one that’s pretty indispensable to most BL fiction. But for me that doesn’t change the fact that his behavior towards Miyano is borderline predatory – he has everything but the unmarked van. I guess the question is whether that bothers the viewer or not.
Of such questions might one’s ultimate appreciation of Sasaki to Miyano be decided, I suppose. In itself the adaptation is, like the manga, very competent and reasonably engaging. It’s DEEN of course (how could it not be), and boasts a very solid and experienced director in Ishihara Shinji. I find the cast apart from Sasaki to be likeable enough, and Miyano is a pretty interesting boy given the situation his taste in fiction puts him in. This is a well-written, solid piece of school life manga – but I do think it ultimately stands or falls on where you come down on those two big questions (and how the answers mesh with your expectations).
zara
January 11, 2022 at 1:05 amI wasn’t aware people saw Sasaki as creepy…? He’s certainly overbearing and touchy-feely, but I don’t recall any behavior that marks him as creepy (the shoulder grab maybe, but that happens once and never again). While he teases Miyano a lot, he never crosses any boundaries, and if he does, he apologizes for making Miyano uncomfortable (this is seen more and more later in the series). While Miyano is uncomfortable with so much skinship, we also see Sasaki toning it down in response.
Over all, he just behaves like an extroverted teenage boy trying to be closer with his crush. Maybe he comes off as creepy because he’s a tall male? If anyone is creepy, it’s gotta be Miyano when he’s on fudanshi mode, harassing Hirano for deets on his roommate lol.
I feel like Sasaki is a very well written character, one of the most compelling in the series, so it’s strange to see such an interpretation. I love all the characters in Sasaki to Miyano, and I’m very happy that it’s finally becoming more popular, so I would hate to see characters unfairly judged.
(also, a slight correction: Miyano and Hirano are part of the disciplinary committee, not the student council)
Guardian Enzo
January 11, 2022 at 6:46 amHey, I’m in the minority (though not alone) in this view, believe me. I personally think there’s a somewhat jaded view of Sasaki because of genre expectations, and that in another sort of series he’d been widely perceived as predatory. But again, just my unpopular take.
animealex
January 11, 2022 at 3:50 amI didn’t perceive Sasaki as borderline predatory, at least so far. I know the typical archetypes of stories like that and perhaps because of his inner monologues he comes of more as confused but determined to see where his feelings for another boy will lead him. “Shrug” Perhaps I’m jaded after reading my fair share of BL and I don’t know, if Sasaki will get more possessive towards Myano in the future, but so far it isn’t a deal breaker for me. Plus Myano has a chaperone in Hyano, so he’ll be fine, I think.
As for the rest, well I’m interested to see where this goes. Especially if Myano perceives himself as straight.
Spider Jerusalem
January 12, 2022 at 12:55 pmhttps://twitter.com/shipperinjapan/status/1480910432311336963
Hey man just wanted to let you know someone took a screenshot of your article to show your followers so you might be in for some harassment in the near future. Anime ship antis like this can be really vicious and might go as far as to start posting your personal information once they find someone who’s posted something “problematic.” It might be safest to lock your twitter account for a while or post a public apology
Guardian Enzo
January 12, 2022 at 1:08 pmThanks for the heads up. It is what it is.
elianthos
January 12, 2022 at 7:48 pmI don’t think ‘anime ship antis’ means what you think you mean in this context *sweatdrop* like, at all… and also if Shipper had wished to instigate a witch hunt she would have put the source and/or tagged Enzo. (I sorta guessed it was you when I spotted it in my feed – I follow Shipper for fandom tl and news since the YOI era – because semepai vibed too much like LiA’s brand of puns btw ahah).
And again for context sake, twitter is dumpsterfire and m/m ships are a warfield for morality takes good and bad [re: antis. Spider Jerusalem, m/m and BL fan &creators are the ones under fire I highly doubt they’ll bother this corner. Frankly speaking in my own experience the worst harassment I had to deal with online came from purity-morality zealots aka the real meaning of ship antis ] so I’m not surprised there’s some controversy even on a mild series like this one regardless of where one stands.
And I do suspect a combination of familiarity with the genre and overall compatibility with BL at large or even being part of a queer audience might be at play here. In general both BL fans and queer fans tend to read it in much more benign-to-relatable fashion from what I’ve seen around… as for myself I tried reading the manga but it didn’t really leave much of an impression either way and I’m still on watching hiatus so I’ll pass on this one.
Elia Notari
January 12, 2022 at 8:46 pmNo, never ever apologize! It may be a controversial take, but whether or not you said or did something bad, never ever ask forgiveness on Twitter!
These terminally online deranged people don’t want your forgiveness, they want you dead/canceled either way, so the main reaction to this should always be a giant, enormous IDGAF.
They’ll disappear eventually after a few days or weeks at worst
Rasu
January 12, 2022 at 10:02 pmWTF?! They criticized it but ended up doing the same (more like worse) in a very extreme (and disturbing) way as to call someone homophobic or consevative just for that. What’s wrong with those children? They’re way too aggressive just because. So scary. People like that are the type that gives bad reputation to the community that like BL and yaoi stuff. They act like cretines. I hope they don’t mess too much.
Elia Notari
January 12, 2022 at 10:19 pmAgain, welcome to the literal cesspool known as Twitter, I just troll there
Guardian Enzo
January 12, 2022 at 10:29 pmHonestly, I’m just expressing an opinion about a series I sort of modestly like. I have no interesting in making any grand statements or getting in the middle of some kind of pitched battle over any of it. It’s just a character I don’t much care for and nothing more than that.
Honey
January 12, 2022 at 5:20 pmIt’s reading stuff like this that reminds me everyone doesn’t actually automatically think the same way as me and there’s such a thing as perspective lol.
Personally, it never even crossed my mind to see Sasaki as creepy, although you may have a point in the genre expectations having a role to play in that. More than that, though, it’s because Sasaki is written so that he’s more his own person than a simple trope, even when the resemblance is there. So whenever he steps over the line with Miyano in his eagerness to get close to him, I just see it as an impulsive 17-18 year old boy not knowing how to rein himself in, rather than as another seme that’d too willing to step over boundaries to get what he wants. And Sasaki does try to control himself if Miyano says something is making him uncomfortable, or if he catches himself wanting to take it too far. If he’d been a grown-ass man I’d give more side eye, but in a teen his behavior seems natural (not that all teens act like him, but if one did you wouldn’t find it reprehensible the same way you would with an adult). Plus, it’s been established pretty well that Sasaki is a ‘do first, think later’ sort of person in everything he does (just think of him going to break the fight up himself instead of calling for help, even though he can’t actually fight), so it makes sense in his own context that he’d be that way in relationships too.
And I like that this trait of his isn’t either villainized or trivialized within the story. It’s just a part of him that his friends know and love/tolerate and are willing to call him out on if needed.
This got long. I guess I like Sasaki more than I thought.
Guardian Enzo
January 12, 2022 at 5:39 pmLike I said, I totally get that I’m in the minority on this. He just strikes me that way. I don’t think his age really excuses him (mitigates at best) and there are points I could raise in defending my take but they’d be manga spoilers so I won’t. I honestly do believe he gets a pass to a certain extent due to genre convention for characters like him. But I’m not trying to convince anybody, just relating my open perspective.
MCAL
January 13, 2022 at 8:54 am“He serves with Miyano on the student council and the fact that he – who knows Sasaki as well as anyone – is concerned and protective once he realizes Sasaki has taken an interest in Miyano tells you a lot.”
I mean Hirano was the one who told Sasaki where Miyano’s Classroom was in the first place and told Miyano outright that Sasaki wasn’t “a bad guy, just an idiot.” If Hirano was actually concerned Sasaki was going to do something unsavory, he did a pretty bad job of showing it.
Guardian Enzo
January 13, 2022 at 2:55 pmHe also said he felt guilty because he told Sasaki where Miyano’s classroom was, and that he’d blame himself if anything bad happened as a result.
MCAL
January 15, 2022 at 1:59 pmFirst off, sorry for the late reply as I’ve been kinda busy.
Anyway, Hirano says he’d “feel bad if he’s (Sasaki) bothering you (Miyano).” Not that Sasaki would do anything bad to him. Hence why he also tells Sasaki he shouldn’t keep visiting Miyano’s class unless he has a reason (And not that he shouldn’t see/be with Miyano period). Also Hirano told Sasaki where Miyano’s class was after the incident where Sasaki forcefully holds Miyano’s shoulders in front of him, so if the touchy-feelyness was sending red flags in Hirano’s mind, he wasn’t showing them. There’s also the matter of the things Future Hirano does/thinks in regards to their relationships, but of course spoilers. Although we should get one next episode…
Also, out of curiosity, how far did you read into the manga? Just so I know how far into the material you’re coming from.
Guardian Enzo
January 15, 2022 at 4:45 pmI’m probably about 30 chapters in.
uh
January 18, 2022 at 9:21 amYour view is a pretty hot take, not gonna lie. I see it as the rawest element of childish pining. Sasaki clearly hasn’t had this experience before and neither has Miyano, neither of them know what to do and are just doing things that they feel in the moment. Saying it’s predatory is a bit much like he’s concocting these plans to put him in a corner where can’t object. It kinda feels like something someone on Tiktok would say LOL
Guardian Enzo
January 18, 2022 at 9:47 amI’m just giving my honest reaction, which is based on the manga more than the anime (though the content hasn’t been changed much). I think Sasaki is a lot more self-aware than some apologists argue (indeed, I think his actions in Episode 2 are proof that he knows exactly how his uninvited physical contact is being received). I guess it could be looked at two ways – you could give him credit for being conflicted over forcing himself on someone who’s clearly not ready for it, because it at least shows he knows it’s wrong. Or you could ask “if he knows enough to be conflicted over what he’s doing, why doesn’t he stop?”
Again, just how it plays to me. I know it’s not a majority opinion and I’m not trying to convince anybody, just being honest.
Red_Like_Roses
February 18, 2022 at 11:02 amHe doesn’t necessarily push his affections though? Yes he flirts with Miyano, but that’s because he’s attracted to him and is making his intentions clear. That’s how most people attract potential partners: find someone cute, flirt, and then see how it goes. If they tell you to get lost because they’re not interested then you leave. However Miyano hasn’t done that and genuinely enjoys Sasaki’s company even if the physical attention makes him uncomfortable (which is likely a result of internalized homophobia). Hirano telling him to be careful doesn’t mean Sasaki is sketchy, I have friends that I love but I know their personalities aren’t for everyone. That doesn’t make them predatory or even bad, some people just do not mesh.
Idk calling a teenage boy a predator because he’s more physically affectionate sounds exaggerated. Like when people accuse characters of being abusive or gaslighting but all they did was argue with the main character a few times. I suspect this is just because Sasaki is taller, stronger, and more visually masculine, ergo anything he does is inherently threatening. Granted I haven’t read the manga, and the anime isn’t close to being finished, but so far I haven’t seen him do anything bad?
To bring in another story into this, Sasaki is similar to young WWX from Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed, but I don’t recall anyone calling him a predator.
Guardian Enzo
February 18, 2022 at 4:50 pm