Review: Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu

Short series are often a breath of fresh air of sorts for content that would not work in longer format and Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu is testament to that. With a unique (sort of) premise and good art it sets itself apart from the crowd but does this mean it works and is worth your time?

The setup here is simple, Ryou is a fudanshi, someone who loves reading BL but isn’t actually gay or bisexual. He spends his time reading / watching BL, fantasizing about shipping situations between his non-BL liking friends and just generally hanging about with his friends.

This sounds interesting on paper and initially it is. It’s funny seeing the reaction of people around him to this. Some accept it, others bewildered by it. Along the way he befriends a girl Rumi who also like BL and they begin to bond. Seeing him muster up the courage to go to a store and buy a BL book or buy a new doujinshi at a Comic market is amusing and very relatable even if you don’t read BL as we have all been embarrassed by buying things not strictly aimed at us or where people may judge us.

I do have a problem with Ryou though and it is a big one: he constantly talks about BL even in the vicinity of his friends. It’s basically all he talks about. He has a passion and that is fine and I have no issues with perverted main characters but the way he relates even minor things to BL, shipping or the like becomes irritating fast. We all have passions but we do not bleat on about them at every given moment, even as students we knew when to draw the line. Ryou does not and despite being harmless he comes across as a pain because the writing makes him play up to this at every chance.

His friends are nice enough though, they do actually talk about different things and are very accepting of Ryous hobby, more so than most would be at that age from my experience at least. Daigo being his closest friend, whilst showing some moments of unease, is fine with Ryou, an actual gay friend Akira adds a bit of spice to proceedings and Rumi adds an actual fujoshis view point which is welcome and she at least does not harp on about BL all the time.

My biggest complaint with this series aside from Ryou himself is the repetition. Sure most comedies have repetition but here it begins to grate on you. The same jokes played over and over do become tiresome and quickly at that which for a short series is a very bad sign. There may be the odd variant on this but it all comes full circle and by episode 6 or 7 I just stopped smiling and continued trudging through.

When they do add something new such as his new friend Rumi it works well and adds much needed freshness. Be it her taking him to Comic market for the first time and them experiencing the perils of that, going to the bookstore together or discussing who they ship in a series it is nice. This was needed more but sadly did not come to pass enough.

The animation is basic, nothing stands out but it is by no means bad and the art is good with the typical BL style used for the designs. The ED for the series, SEKAI wa Boy Meets Boy, is a particular highlight sang by Ryous seiyuu Wataru Hatano and my god is it catchy. I practically sang along each episode.

Maybe if you’re really into BL then you may find more enjoyment here than I did, I read a fair bit of BL and Yaoi but I still found it dying with overuse of the same tired jokes and a real lack of anything fresh. I would say avoid this but with a total run time of around 36 minutes I wouldn’t blame you for being interested. When a comedy can no longer make you muster a smile never mind a laugh then it has failed its purpose as it the case here for me unfortunately.

Studio: EMT²

Aired: Summer 2016

Episodes: 12

Available: Streaming

2/10