Tasogare Out Focus

Despite a rocky start to their relationship, second-year high school students Mao Tsuchiya and Hisashi Ootomo have managed to find a way to coexist in their dorm room for another year. The roommates swear to abide by three simple promises: Mao must refrain from outing Ootomo as gay and having a boyfriend; Ootomo, in turn, must not fall in love with Mao; and the two must respect each other's privacy when one of them "needs time to himself." While these are simple asks, the school's film club's new project suddenly puts them at risk.

The club's short film for the year is a boys' love story between a class president and a delinquent—a role for which Ootomo is considered the perfect fit. As the principal photographer in charge of composing every scene, Mao oversees all of the intimate moments between the leads, and though he wishes he could deny it, his growing attraction to his roommate is affecting the movie's production. But as things start to intensify—both in the film and in his personal life—Mao is soon forced to confront these complex emotions head-on.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Ichikawa, Giichi Main

Nakazawa, Masatomo Japanese

Ootomo, Hisashi Main

Uchida, Yuuma Japanese

Inaba, Rei Main

Eguchi, Takuya Japanese

Yoshino, Shion Main

Saitou, Souma Japanese

Kikuchihara, Jin Main

Furukawa, Makoto Japanese

Tsuchiya, Mao Main

Matsuoka, Yoshitsugu Japanese

Kujou, Kirito Supporting

Itou, Kent Japanese

Tsuchiya, Isao Supporting

Tadokoro, Hinata Japanese

Rudy Supporting

Takumi, Yasuaki Japanese

Tobe Supporting

Toki, Shunichi Japanese

Watanabe, Toshinori Director

Yano, Satoshi Sound Director

Narita, Yoshimi Script, Series Composition

Galileo Galilei Theme Song Arrangement

Reviews

Dec 11, 2024

Mari_OTPs

Recommended

I loved it, each chapter was so full of love and had so much charm to it!!

I loved how healthy and how real some of the relationships were portrayed!! Great anime no doubt!!

Usually I don't trust animes will be able to make me feel completely comfortable without having to ignore a thing or two due to them being out of my comfort zone, but this didn't happen at all with Tasogare Out Focus! I truly loved every chapter, 100% recommended!!

The characters and relationships were incredibly well thought and developed even though there are only 12 chapters. Once the anime is done, you'll be ... there with a smile on your face and your heart full!!

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Mar 2, 2025

Worm_Death

Mixed Feelings

It had potential...

The main thing I think ruined this anime for me was the structure and pacing. It could have been a lovely story about these three couples developing feelings and general friendships towards each other. I don't get the point of all the characters being in the film club if it's barely utilized. The three couples just stick to themselves and have minimal interactions with other characters, even though they're all in the same club. Sure, Ichikawa talks to Mao a couple of times (only when making movies and keeping relatively professional), and Rei and Jin are friends. But what matters is that ... the characters don't bounce off each other at all. It would have been the perfect opportunity to flesh out the characters more if we got to know them as club friends first before directly diving into the relationships alone.

My favorite aspect of the anime is the relationships; the first two I found really enjoyable. The third one was...a little weird. Shion is honestly just confusing. I get that it's easy to say you have wanted a boyfriend all your life, but the second you actually get one, it's a different story. But I feel like Shion being slightly nervous is just artificially made for there to be the slightest bit of tension when really the relationship has no issues. They don't get to see each other as often as they'd like, not really a big deal, kinda sucks, but I don't really care. And really, I just felt no chemistry between the two, and the sex scene felt really forced in order to just say they made the quota for each couple doing it.

That's a part of the issues I had with it. I get it, it's 12 episodes, they need to go at a moderate speed if they want to actually tell the full story. But they'll spend a maximum of two episodes of the characters coming to their feelings, near-instant reciprocation, and then sex. And then they move on to the next couple and completely forget about the others. Until the very end, sorta. It's just really frustrating; I don't feel anything towards these characters because instead of developing them all simultaneously, they just dump the previous characters for the next. They really do have a good progression system for it as well. Mao works with Ichikawa, therefore maybe flesh him about a bit more so when it does start to shift more towards Ichikawa, we get him on a deeper level, same with Rei. He's childhood friends with Gin, maybe have them interact a bit more to get more insight into Rei. But there's just none of that.

It's a very vapid story because the presentation completely failed the couples. Again, I like the couples. I think they're sweet, and I'm glad this story is unapologetically gay, but I just can't be invested enough to consider this a good anime when the execution falls super flat.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Jan 8, 2025

Valentine07

Not Recommended

(Spanish review below).

It was so... bad.

The story is VERY cliché and it develops from one moment to the next. The anime adapts the three individual volumes that make up this world, each one focusing on a couple, but most of the trailers focus on the first one, so I wasn't expecting the rest. I was wondering how they would develop the story of a single volume into twelve episodes. I expected them to do the same thing that the studio that animated 'Given' did, which was to add more scenes and develop the story a bit more. I would have preferred that.

The film club is ... interesting, but it's nothing more than an excuse to develop the stories.

The characters are clichés to the core. The only ones that are saved a bit are the first couple. The second one was pretty good, but the third one... horrible. It was uncomfortable to watch in many ways. It's been a while since I saw such unbearable characters.

I don't recommend watching it at all. There are many other BLs (if that's what you're looking for) that are much better.

...

Fue tan... malo.

La historia es MUY cliché y se desarrolla de un momento al otro. El anime adapta los tres tomos individuales que conforman este mundo, centrados cada uno en una pareja, pero la mayoría de los trailers se centran en la primera de ellas, por lo que yo no me esperaba al resto. Me preguntaba cómo harían para desarrollar la historia de un solo tomo en doce episodios. Me esperaba que hicieran lo mismo que hizo el estudio que animó ‘Given’, que agregaron más escenas y desarrollaron un poco más la historia. Lo hubiese preferido.

El club de cine es interesante, pero no es más que una excusa para desarrollar las historias.

Los personajes son clichés hasta la médula. Los únicos que se salvan un poco son la primera pareja. La segunda estuvo bastante bien, pero la tercera... horrible. Fue incómodo de ver en muchos aspectos. Hace tiempo que no veía personajes tan insoportables.

No recomiendo verlo para nada. Hay muchos otros BLs (si es lo que están buscando) mucho mejores.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Tasogare Out Focus Episode 6 Discussion IzanaSolos - Aug 8, 2024	24 replies	by neito_M »» Apr 4, 11:08 PM
	Poll: Tasogare Out Focus Episode 8 Discussion IzanaSolos - Aug 22, 2024	35 replies	by pez_pav »» Mar 10, 11:09 PM
	Poll: Tasogare Out Focus Episode 7 Discussion IzanaSolos - Aug 15, 2024	25 replies	by pez_pav »» Mar 10, 8:51 PM
	Poll: Tasogare Out Focus Episode 5 Discussion IzanaSolos - Aug 1, 2024	24 replies	by pez_pav »» Mar 10, 8:03 PM
	Poll: Tasogare Out Focus Episode 4 Discussion IzanaSolos - Jul 25, 2024	35 replies	by pez_pav »» Mar 10, 7:30 PM