About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series You Just Can't Beat A Guy With A Double Face. 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 violence, sexual assault, and dubcon, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Kaname is your classic delinquent, and that’s precisely what he wants to be. Kaname was inspired by movies where men used their fists to protect others. That has set up his life on a trajectory of violence, but he sees it as a way to protect himself and those he holds dear with his fists, just like those he admired in those films. Unfortunately, he has yet to find someone worth protecting, and he’s constantly fighting with the school’s A+ student, Katagiri. It’s another day of arguing with the “perfect” student in class, leaving Kaname frustrated on his way home.
Unfortunately, Kaname runs into some other delinquents looking for a fight. With three against one, things aren’t looking good for Kaname until a stranger with glasses comes in to beat them off. Soma is this stranger’s name, and if anyone is worthy of Kaname’s protection, it’s Soma. But as Kaname tries to get closer to Soma, Soma does something that Kaname couldn’t have anticipated. Soma kisses Kaname. Kaname can’t begin to understand why. But what’s even weirder is that Katagiri has started avoiding him at school.
Just what is going on?
Review:
I love this artist. They have such a clean style. I wouldn’t say it’s unique, but it’s so clean that it’s hard to fault it. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to read anything from them again after reading Love Blooms for a Twisted Blossom because many of their licenses were dropped from platforms (including the spin-off, which hurts me so badly). I really didn’t even realize it was the same person until I started reading it. This is the newer title, but I actually think Love Blooms for a Twisted Blossom is cleaner than this one. It’s still very clean and pretty consistent, but it isn’t my favorite of the two. If you like your standard manga style, you can’t go wrong here.
If it bothers you that Superman can wear a pair of glasses and suddenly no one recognizes him, you will hate this. That is the core foundation for this story and relationship. I personally hate this. I find it super unrealistic and corny. Granted, having seen some YouTube experiments, it seems more realistic than I would’ve guessed, but I still dislike it all the same. The one plus this has is that it does play on the fact that traditionally, people refer to each other by their last name until they’re closer in Japan. Kaname knows Katagiri as Katagiri in class, but when the “stranger” introduces himself while “disguised,” he begins by calling himself Soma, creating separation between who Kaname knows in school and who this guy is. It’s still a silly situation, but I like that it leverages the culture to increase the separation, making it more believable.
However, what I do love is Kaname’s personality. It’s silly that he sees one movie with men fighting and then crafts his entire life and personality around it, but it’s endearing how sincere he is about it. He’s very much that bright, airheaded goofball, which I have to admit that I’m really fond of. Pair that against Katagiri’s more serious, studious, but somewhat airheaded self, and we have an interesting opposites-attract scenario, which I’m about. I like that Kaname ends up discovering Soma’s identity pretty early on after their meeting, so it’s not this constant mystery throughout the story. Still, it makes me feel like it wasn’t really all that necessary to have as a plot point, to begin with. I think this would’ve been just as successful if Kaname had just seen Katagiri fighting outside of school and ended up falling for him that way, already knowing who he was, but that’s just me.
Now, while I think the concept of Kaname fashioning himself after fighters and delinquents in movies is a silly but cute idea, the execution of the fighting is so cringy. I know these two are our protagonists, and they are meant to win or at least come out on top most, if not all, of the time in fights, but there’s something about the framing and the setups for the fights that make my skin crawl. I’m super prone to cringing, and these fights make me cringe time and time again. It sort of reminds me of Delinquent Omega Belongs to the Beast King, with the unnecessarily overly dramatic framing. It gives bad Shounen vibes for some reason. Don’t get me wrong, I love Shounen. Naruto is one of my favorite anime and manga, to begin with (and SasuNaru was my first major Yaoi ship, plus ItaSasu, which was my first controversial cest ship). Still, something about it in my BL just doesn’t sit right with me. I could do without it.
Results:
This was a pretty big disappointment for me. I liked this creator’s previous title, so my hopes were up really high for this one. Unfortunately, in the end, this had far too many elements that I disliked for me to enjoy it. As expected, the art is super solid, but the story just wasn’t it. I hate the Superman-style disguise and the dramatic Shounen fights, and though I love the characters themselves and the smut they create, that’s just not enough to make up for all the other stuff I didn’t like. I’m sure this is perfect for someone, but not for me. It’s a miss.
Have you read You Just Can't Beat A Guy With A Double Face? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!