TEN COUNT | テンカウント [MANGA]
PUBLISHED: 2013-2018
VOLUME 1-3
Rihito Takarai’s popular 6-volume manga Ten Count is soon ascending to the exclusive ranks of Boys’ Love anime adaptations, and no surprise. Licensed in English by SuBLime, the series has garnered quite a reputation for its love story postmarked with mental illness. Ten Count is so mainstream I found my copies on the shelf at my local public library. (Thanks for the yaoi, tax-payers.)
2018 has staggered to a close, and pushed newborn 2019 straight out into the traffic in its rush. We live in a confusing time. Amidst political discord threatening upheaval of democratic values around the globe and impending environmental doom, it’s hard to say what the new year will bring. But remember, there is good in this world, and that good is a thing called yaoi.
Papa Datte, Shitai (パパだって、したい) is our first contender, rolling in for the 2019 winter season and debuting its first episode this week.
Episode 18: Islands in the Stream | 海流のなかの島々
This episode has everything you’ve grown to love about Banana Fish – Ash/Eiji romantic insinuation, gunfights, literal and figurative explosions. But you might hate it anyway.
Episode 17: The Killers | 殺し室
Ah, New York. So full of culture. Opportunity. Romance. And people who want to kill Ash Lynx. Check a tourist guidebook, honestly. It’s really mostly those things.
Episode 16: Lo, the Poor Peacock | 哀しみの孔雀
After a brief foray into science fiction, Banana Fish is back to what it’s best at: setting Ash loose in dungeons so he can kick ass, smash the patriarchy, and make everyone else look utterly incompetent in the process.
Episode 15: Garden of Eden | エデンの園
Rolling into Episode 15, Banana Fish has really developed since episode one. Literally. As usual, Ash once again has the cards stacked against him, but what’s a little impending doom when you have an IQ for days, an ass that won’t quit, and most of all, a fucking vendetta.
DAKAICHI – I’m being harassed by the sexiest man of the year | (抱男1位に脅されています (Dakaretai Otoko 1-i ni Odosarete Imasu)
Episode 2: Is He Sick of Me Already? | あいつ、もう俺に飽きやがったのか？
It’s an unfortunate truth that not every 18+ erotic yaoi manga gets adapted into a BL anime. Sometimes, it’s for a reason. Sometimes, that reason is seeing this stuff acted and animated gets really weird, really quick.
So with that, it’s time for Dakaichi Episode 2.
Continue reading Review: DAKAICHI – I’m being harassed by the sexiest man of the year (Episode 2)
Episode 4: Derick Returns! | 帰って来た、デリック！
If episode 3 sagged a little under the weight of its lackadaisical plot and character development, episode 4 shrugs that burden right off its shoulders, pops the pin of a grenade and jumps gloriously into action.
Part of this could be is that Doug and Kirill are stagnant until we a) learn more about Doug and b) Kirill is able to either advance the plot or personally level up, and the story doesn’t seem to be willing to budge on either point yet. So the best course of action is to swap MCs, ramp up the personalities of its side characters, throw in a few minors twists, and dial the comedy to an eleven.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for Derick Deana del Rio!
Continue reading REVIEW: Double Decker! Doug & Kirill (Episode 4)
Episode 14: Tender is the Night | 夜がやさし
If you’re catching onto the bumpy Banana Fish narrative formula of bloody carnage/brief respite/bloody carnage, then you should know after last week’s bloodbath it’s time for a break. But “breaks” in the jam-packed Banana Fish are really a matter of perspective. We wouldn’t want you thinking for even a second that Ash Lynx is going to catch a break.
Double Decker! Doug and Kirill | ダグ＆キリル (Episode 1-3)
Release: 2018
When I started this blog, one of the anime I wanted to rewatch and critically assign gay points to was Tiger and Bunny. Before I could get around to it, Double Decker came crashing majestically into view. By the same studio and rumored to be set in the same universe, Double Decker is a spiritual successor, if not literal sequel, to the colorful, cartoonish crime-and-cape comedy and a hot tip says this time, it’s gay. Um, gayer.
So crank up the jazz and grab your donuts because we are going full frontal buddy-cop. Move over, vigilante superheroes, because we bought these gainfully employed protagonists with our own damn tax money. Meet Kirill, the aspiring hero whom no one, not even the narrator, takes seriously, and Doug, the standoffish hyper-intelligent veteran detective who misses the killshot in the first three minutes of the show. Add a sparkling posse of lady detectives, at least some of whom are possibly lesbians and-
Wait, are we shooting for both BL and GL here? Aw man, this really is a double-decker!
Continue reading REVIEW: Double Decker! Doug & Kirill (Episode 1-3)
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