Series Information
ANN Encyclopedia | AniDB | AnimeNfo
OP: “Kimi = Hana (君＝花)” by pigstar
ED: “Baby Romantica (ベイビーロマンチカ)” by SCRIPT
Production: Studio DEEN

[ Episode 1: Truth is stranger than fiction ]

For those who aren’t into this don’t worry, I didn’t take that many pictures this time around!

I am going to make this short and sweet. Junjou Romantica is of course a Yaoi show, so either you like or you don’t. I don’t and yet I wanted to prove my journalistic integrity by checking something I wouldn’t normally watch, not to mention pgsel’s impression for it intrigued me a little.

Misaki is a young student who wants to apply to a prestigious university. Unfortunately his grades stink so he asks his brother’s friend, Akihiko Usami, to tutor him. Although the two don’t get off very well, they befriend rather fast and even learn a few things on each other. Usami loves Misaki’s brother but he doesn’t want him to know because he has a girlfriend. Later in the episode the two decided to marry which breaks Misaki’s feelings as he wanted his newly mentor to be happy. The two cry together in the snow and episode ends.

If you expect a negative review like 5D’s you’ll be sorely mistaken. I’ll be honest, Junjou Romantica is actually fun to watch if you take the shounen-ai elements out (which is rather challenging). The gags are funny, the different expressions of the characters are cartoony and amusing and the character development although rushed is adequate. In my humble opinion the OP of the show is my favorite so far. Kimi = Hana is an energetic and upbeat song that is very good even if the animation it accompanies is a little daunting.

To sum it up quickly, if you like Yaoi this is going to be the best show you can possibly watch, but I am not going to bother blogging it as the theme isn’t my cup of tea. I’d at least admit for those who look for something genuinely funny, this isn’t a bad choice.

7/10