About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Hitorijime Boyfriend. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to obsession, blood, violence, sexual assault, sexual coercion, dubcon, perceived cheating, gossiping, slut-shaming, manipulation, assault, choking, sexism, mentions of trauma, and underage drinking, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Kensuke Oshiba has a problem. His high school life has been relatively peaceful despite being haunted by a painful event in his past when his best friend left him behind to attend a different middle school. He’s thankfully made friends since then, but that sad memory comes back to the forefront of his mind when that friend, Asaya Hasekura, suddenly transfers to his high school. He’s no longer that little boy Kensuke played with in elementary school. He’s now a handsome young man, taller than Kensuke, and he’s the talk of the school. Kensuke intends to just ignore Hasekura, but then they end up in the same class. Could things get any worse?
Thankfully, Hasekura seems ready to bury the hatchet, which Kensuke is all too happy to do. With their friendship rekindled, Kensuke’s life is back on track. But little does Kensuke know that Hasekura has no intentions of staying just friends.
Review:
I was really looking forward to reading this one since it inspired the spin-off Hitorijime My Hero, but the art was a bit lackluster. It’s very inconsistent and looks uber-disproportionate in some panels. That’s not to say it’s all bad, of course. It has a dreamy Shoujo quality to it, which I like. Plus, as a comedy, it’s very expressive, which leads to some of the cutest reactions on Kensuke’s side of things. Most of the laughs are from his reactions rather than the jokes themselves, which I’m all for. The characters’ designs are pretty uninteresting, though I can see why Setagawa was chosen as one of the lead characters for the spin-off. He is immensely more interesting design-wise than everyone else and really just has me more excited to start said spin-off.
Similar to how the art isn’t quite as clean as I would like, the flow of the dialogue in this is pretty rough. It feels jittery and awkward, which is unfortunate. I’m not sure if this is just how the natural flow was in the original language, but having been translated, it just doesn’t feel natural to me. The result is panels that feel disjointed and awkward. The flow of the narrative and the comedy would probably be more successful if the dialogue were reworked a bit, but here we are. The story is still humorous, but all of that is thanks to the adorable Kensuke and his reactions, not the story itself, which is unfortunate.
As for the development of the romance, I don’t feel like there’s much of a romance at all. By the end, they still feel like friends to me, which might be partly due to the rough editing of the dialogue, but I can’t be sure. I’m all about insta-lust leading to love, and there is a sex scene at the end where the two accept each other as a couple, but then the content that follows just feels more friendly than romantic. It’s unfortunate. I almost feel like if it had ended right after the sex scene, it would’ve been more successful. I love extra stories so much, but these don’t add to the romance for me and highlight the friendship more than anything. They’re cute, don’t get me wrong, but I was just craving more romance. This is probably very much a “me” problem, but I wanted to share those feelings all the same.
Finally, it wouldn’t be a degenerate post of mine if I didn’t discuss the sex in this. There is sex, which explains the 18+ rating on this. However, it is softcore. We don’t see any insertion, no lightsabers, nothing, which, honestly, was kind of refreshing in a way. Unfortunately, these scenes suffer from the same jittery, jumpy narrative beats that the dialogue and romance do. Every sexual encounter is limited to one or two panels, which, for a softcore Yaoi, might be plenty for some but not for a degenerate like me. To me, it feels like each interaction lasts a second, which is immensely unsatisfying. Again, I feel like this is a “me” problem, but it just felt that way to me. It’s also worth noting that most of the encounters are coerced or just plain assault, which doesn’t bother me but is worth mentioning for those who’d prefer to avoid that kind of content.
Results:
This was fine. It isn’t as lighthearted as the art might suggest, as much of the relationship is predicated on sexual assault. I don’t personally mind that, but I do think it’s worth mentioning. I really like the Shoujo energy this gives off, and I think this had favorite potential if the flow of the narrative were better, but it just didn’t feel cohesive to me. Ironically, that makes me pretty excited about the spin-off, as it is so much longer, which means there is more opportunity for smoother and more in-depth story-telling. I would probably say this is a miss unless you just really want to read the original story that spawned Hitorijime My Hero.
Have you read Hitorijime Boyfriend? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!