Sasaki and Miyano’s adaptation continues to hum right along. And the pacing certainly meets that description – the first two episodes adapted pretty much an entire manga volume, which is not insane but certainly rapid. There have been a few subtle changes made, which could have kind of a butterfly effect going forward – we’ll see. As to the question of whether I continue to cover it the jury is still out on that for a number of reasons.
In approaching the anime I suppose I have to confront why I more or less dropped the manga – or at the very least, stalled indefinitely (as I said I think the mangaka’s Butai ni Sake! is kind of more interesting, at least for the 8 chapters before the translations stalled). It’s certainly true I don’t especially like one of the characters, and that he’s one of the two principals in the story. That’s not a deal-breaker though – there are plenty of manga I follow with characters I dislike. I think Occam’s Razor applies here – I just got kind of bored with it. I enjoyed it, but never felt that compelled to jump to the next chapter.
In that respect I don’t think the anime is helping much, because while their are a few classic Deen stylistic touches it’s a pretty brick-and-mortar adaptation. This kind of genre-bending premise should be really interesting, and it is to a point – but I think this is where Sasaki really weighs the series down for me. I think the story of Miyano wrestling with his identity – the self-described fudanshi who’s convinced he’s not interested in RL guys – has a ton of potential. And Sasaki is effective as a catalyst in forcing Miyano to take a harder look at who he is and what he wants. But ultimately for me the series would be more compelling if the one pushing Miyano in this direction were a more interesting and likeable character (like Hirano-senpai, for example).
Indeed, Hirano’s evolving attitude towards Sasaki’s pursuit of Miyano is one of the more interesting elements of Sasaki to Miyano. He observes, he considers (this instinctive protective posture is quite telling). Hirano is no fool – he knows exactly what’s playing out here, and he’s considering what his responsibilities in this situation are. As for Sasaki, at least he does have some sense of awareness that he’s making Miyano flustered and uncomfortable, and perhaps even has twinges of guilt about it. But the problem is, he’s good at convincing himself the reason Miyano gets flustered is what Sasaki hopes it is – and in his defense, he has every reason to think he might be right.
The really ingenious part of Sasaki to Miyano is the way it plays off the BL tropes in Miyano’s manga (and drama CDs of course) against what’s happening in his real life. In some sense I think the series is trying to have it both ways here regarding its own identity, and most of the time it threads that needle pretty well. But in the final analysis you have to choose a side in narrative fiction (if not necessarily in real life, where the heart is more complicated than that…).
leongsh
January 18, 2022 at 10:34 amAfter 2 episodes, this show feels like a generic shoujo romance series. The usual shoujo romance is either the girl pursuing the guy or the guy pursuing the girl. The only difference is that for this show the person being romantically pursued by one guy is another guy.
With regards to Sasaki’s stalkerish behaviour, he has noticed that he has been too touchy-feelly with Miyano that he is pulling back. That’s an improvement. He is definitely totally smitten with Miyano, trying to process these feelings and figuring out how he should be proceeding. When you have fallen hard for someone like how Sasaki has for Miyano, your object of affection can be so attention consuming such that it’s hard to control or ignore. I have not been in that position before but I have seen some friends who have in real life. A couple have confided in me on that aspect of their target of affection occupying their thoughts constantly to be a distraction to the rest of their life then.
Will probably watch 1-2 more episodes before making a decision whether to continue or not. I’m curious as to whether this show is just what I stated initially, i.e. a shoujo romance but with a BL angle, or could BL series be really something different than the usual shoujo romance, excepting for the guy-guy angle, that is.
Guardian Enzo
January 18, 2022 at 1:16 pmThat curiosity factor is, IMO, the one element that makes S & M more intriguing than the generic romcom you allude to in the first sentence. And the mangaka clearly knows that, because they milk it for all its worth.
Color2413
January 19, 2022 at 8:11 amI am a BL fan: my personal all-time favorite anime is No. 6, a choice I can justify to exactly no one. I really wanted to like S&M, but there is something about it that is so generic than it is a bit of a tough slog for me. I will keep watching for a while longer with the hope of being surprised, but I am currently not expecting very much. leongsh’s comparison of the show to garden-variety shoujo seems apt. I am not expecting something as startling as the waltz scene in No. 6’s Ep 5, but I would like to see something fresher than what S&M is currently putting on the screen.
Guardian Enzo
January 19, 2022 at 8:55 amNo. 6 is quite good, though the novels are obviously better than the anime, a very good read.
That’s the thing with S & M – it’s very cagey about whether it’s a BL series or a shoujo with a running BL gag. If it didn’t matter I don’t think the series would keep playing up the uncertainty for this long. I mean, ANN literally ran a retraction when they called it a BL series in their announcement of the anime.
Color2413
January 19, 2022 at 1:05 pmWe are lucky that No. 6 is a Bones production with lots of deluxe Bones touches. However, I agree that the novels are the best exposition of the No. 6 story, even though they (like the anime) end with a cliffhanger that launched 1000+ fanfics trying to resolve it.
Because of the No. 6 anime’s low episode count, it had to omit a substantial amount of the detail that the novels provide. We are lucky to have a very good fan translation (from 9th Avenue) that is still available online. In my opinion, the Japanese rights holders should have paid the translator a stipend for her work and published an official English version based on her translation. But the No. 6 anime ended 11 years ago, so I presume that by now, that ship has sailed.
I have always wondered by so few animes are based on real novels, not “light novels,” “Legend of the Galactic Heroes” being another shining example of the good things that can happen when the source material is more substantial.
Guardian Enzo
January 19, 2022 at 1:12 pmShin Sekai Yori is a great example. And again the novels were better than the anime – though both were great and a good deal better than No. 6 if I’m honest.
Color2413
January 31, 2022 at 5:53 pmWhile No. 6 occupies a special place in my heart, my objective rank for “greatest anime of all time” includes LoGH and Hunter x Hunter 2011 in the top-2 bracket, and I really can’t decide which one I would put first. (Of course H x H is not based on a noel, light or otherwise.) The second part of the Hunter x Hunter Chimera Ant arc shines like nothing else in anime, but I would have to say that LoGH is more consistently fine right up to its very satisfying ending, where the history of the galaxy not only turns a new page but starts a new volume. Meanwhile, H x H takes its sweet time getting towards the jaw-dropping episodes–I remember seeing the first few episodes and thinking “this is a kiddie show!”
As for Shin Sekai Yori, from an objective perspective I could see its quality and appeal but it somehow never really clicked for me.