Shounen Ai which is a literal meaning in Japenese “Boys Love” is been around in the anime industry dating back in the late ’80s. Beginning its roots on Natsu e no Tobira for being the first movie and Patalliro! Both made by Toei animation. Only a handful of them exists mostly on OVAs and Movies but not much on TV series. Shounen Ai TV series for the most part doesn’t give much of an impact in both popularity and financial gain so the studios stopped making them. They are more like the shadows in the corner that only a selected few can notice their existent.

But one anime pretty much rise from the darkness and have reached the light of day and that was Junjou Romantica. Becoming a critical success in financial sales. With a devoted fanbase to back it up, it becomes a significant title in 2008.

###Smells Bait

A question start to mind, Is this anime good in tackling the intricate topic of Homosexuality? The short answer is NO! Don’t let the statistics data fooled you. To be frank Junjou Romantica is an abomination mutated from the typical shoujo clichés.

###6 Minutes After Watching the First Episode

For starters, I would like to say this anime has a rather sadistic approach when it comes to romantic relationships. The romance in this anime consists of an excessive amount of sexual assault, rape, harassment, and forcing the weak to love back the strong. Sounds familiar? This is literally a plot for a Hentai. I am still baffled to the fact that this show is PG-13, to begin with. It should be R-17+ or higher. I watch a bunch of anime that have lesser the amount of sexual content than this anime but are still R-17 or R-15. I am impressed this anime did a good job of camouflaging itself. This anime is straight up a Yayoi since it bluntly presents a lot of sexual red flags that are punishable by law.

There is three male love team in this show. Each having equally worst than the other. Let me summaries each love story and characters briefly.

###What's the Difference? They All Look the Same!

First Couple is Misaki and Usagi. They got the most episodes amongst all the couples and it a disgusting love story of a grown man that sexually harasses and rape his best friend younger brother. Even if the age gap between the two is 10 years apart. The only reason why this anime being safe from pedophilia territory is Misaki is conveniently 18 at the time. And why would Misaki even hesitate, Usagi is the perfect Husbudo. Usagi is rich, successful, and reliable. If Misaki becomes Usagi's bitch he will have a wonderful life. In return, Usagi will have his personal sex pillow.

What actually bad about their relationship is that Usagi is always going to have his way on Misaki. Usagi can force anything he wants while Misaki is a submissive pussy bitch. There is no equal decision or fair exchange between the two. This one-sided relationship where only one partner is absolute on everything is not a healthy relationship. Their love story is shit.

Second Couple is Hiroki and Nowaki. Your typical teacher and student love story but on the most unbelievable passion. Nowaki just magically falls in love with his teacher Hiroki. Hiroki on the other hand is historically homo. They get a chunk amount of episodes for their story and to be honest, is boring and tedious to watch because it always the same thing.

Would you believe me their relationship was built upon Nowaki's continuous attempts in invading Hiroki's personal privacy? Nowaki going for the extreme on stealing Hiroki's house keys to continuously invade the Hiroki's apartment. Until the guy has given in to his aggressive moves. There certainly less rape in this series. But Harassing someone's privacy is just not the way you attract a person to love you. The same issue with Misaki, even as a grown man, Hiroki is also a submissive bitch pussy. That is all for the younger guys D. Even he shoves in the corner acting he doesn't like it. But deep inside he craves for men's affection.

I have no idea why Nowaki aggressively falls in love with Hiroki even though they only just met. I assume the author wanted to have a teacher and student love story but forget how to write an introduction first. Nothing to talk about this couple aside there love story is forced.

Third and Final Couple is Miyagi and Shinobu. Having the smallest amount of time and episode for their story. Their story is more like fillers to complete an episode quota on clearly how short it is.

Now a grown man being forced to love his Ex-wife younger brother that is 17-years younger than him. So aside from pedophilia with got incest now? And conveniently he just got divorced recently so his Ex-wife younger brother has an absolute chance to get his man. It is totally ok because they are no longer legally siblings in law. So you got away with the homosexual incest there Junjou Romantica. I guess you're really desperate for that PG-13 tag.

Same issues with the first couple. There is a moderate amount of harassment and rape in this story but not as much as the first couple. Still, a bad relationship since the way characters fall in love in this show is utterly ridiculous. Doing the same tactic of the second couple. Purely the best way to make a man fall in love with you is always invading his home privacy and continuously bitch upon how much you love him until he has gone insane and rape you. Certainly a brilliant plan. This not how relationships are made.

To make a point. You cannot say a person is in a relationship just because they have sex. There should be a consideration in developing a relationship first. This anime is a lazy Yayoi crap. It's more about the boy's sexuality than the deep psychological bonds of a relationship.

As you can tell all these main characters romantic relationships are utter garbage and a joke. Truly a work of fiction.

Wouldn’t you even know, the humor quite ironically composed of a lot of gay jokes which are something you desperately need to ease down your aggressively erotic romantic drama. Nice work in attempting to break the 4th Wall. The drama is a serious joke. There is no absolute consequence in this show. Nobody and no one will ever intervene with our male couple's love stories. They are free to do whatever they want. They have nothing to lose. There is no conflict here whatsoever.

Even the supporting characters don’t even matter. What do they even do? Absolutely nothing. What matters in this show is the sexual pleasure of our main characters.

How about the Art style and Animation? Quite mediocre, almost all the character looks the same where the slight difference is the color of their eyes and hair. This anime doesn’t even know how to draw women its only women's character. The only trademark this anime has to offer to remember it by is the disturbingly large chins.

Music and Soundtrack. Forgettable and not worth remembering. Why would you want to remember this anime?

In Conclusion, Junjou Romantica is straight out bad romance anime. This anime has no chill or regards in building a meaningful relationship. It cheaply uses sexual plot devices to move its romance forward without any respect for its characters. The main characters are sex bitches than people. They never feel like characters, to begin with. The narrative lacks any redeeming themes and concepts. The moral messages are shit. And even if you change the gender relationship to exclusively female to male relationship. I assure you this the anime still a terrible romance anime that promotes invasion of sexual privacy and what a toxic relationship is all about.

This is a Yayoi Hentai pretending to be a rom-com anime. Don't be fooled.