header image

HOME

This is the blog of Ian Rosales Casocot. Filipino writer. Sometime academic. Former backpacker. Twink bait. Hamster lover.

Interested in What I Create?



Bibliography

Monday, November 29, 2010

entry arrow4:13 PM | About a Boy



If I were really serious about making this blog a virtual corkboard of all the fine -- and not so fine -- little things I've come across, then I've been unforgivably remiss in not including Shungiko Nakamura's Junjō Romanchica in my musings here. Looking back, maybe I was a bit of a coward. Perhaps I did not want to admit to liking an extremely melodramatic anime TV series, a yaoi at that. I mean, come on. I'm in my thirties, for God's sake. But I went through the two seasons of this TV series based on the popular manga by Nakamura. There was just something about the unfolding romance between Misaki Takahashi and Akihiko Usami that got to me. Maybe its very familiarity? (Ehem.) But by God, I bawled at every episode of this show, it was almost ridiculous. The story line, worthy of any teleserye, is convoluted and involves a host of other characters, each of them commanding their own full-length treatment -- but perhaps I can summarize the series in one sentence: it is the story of a boy who learns to accept that he loves who he loves, beyond all reservations. Writing that, the description strikes me as maudlin. But it's not. The series is funny and witty and exquisitely drawn, and when it reaches for the stars to make you cry, it doesn't feel like a cheat. Perhaps because its creators have crafted a tale with careful consideration to its characters, we actually empathize with all of them. Plus, the whole thing reminds me about how I miss Tokyo. And I'd give my right arm to be in Tokyo right now.

Labels: , , ,


[0] This is Where You Bite the Sandwich




GO TO OLDER POSTS GO TO NEWER POSTS