Ai no Kusabi (2012)

To start, I have not watched many anime of this type in a long while. It has been awhile since I have indulged myself and enjoyed a "yaoi" such as this, mainly because the ones I have seen have been poor. Going into this I had no clue what to expect other than the characters looking hot. The OVA is very short with only 4 episodes, however it manages to deliver an enjoyable experience. I found myself giggling and very much enjoying many of the sensual scenes. The character design is great and super sexy. The animation looked really good and the scenes were pretty ... cute. I like the bro/muscular style of the characters. The overall story was interesting with an interesting setting. I love the duality of the characters, and I feel it really highlights a reality of "gay" men. I can relate to the cast in that aspect where as I am very much a bro, but I am also very feminine at the same time, so that was cool to see in the cast. This stands out to me as a great "yaoi" style anime, not like others I have seen. I would recommend anyone watch Ai no Kusabi for its simplicity and cuteness with masculine flair.

The newer 2012 Ai no Kusabi is very split down the middle in terms of quality.
And I think there are two main reasons for this:

#1 - The discontinuance of the anime after 4 episodes. (Unfortunately, even though the remake was intended to have 12 episodes in total, the new Ai no Kusabi was canceled in the middle of production and we were only left with the 4 we have now, due to the company's inability to financially cover the costs. ((Pretty hilarious that episode 4 was talking about supply/demand in the story and then afterwards this show gets the cut, though.)) The 4 episodes we ... received were well made, but it does not change the fact that the story was unexpectedly cut short, and therefore left people hanging.)

#2 - The older anime adaptation from the 90's draws too much attention to the quality gap between itself and this version.

Although I have not read the original Ai no Kusabi novel (yet), I have watched the original 90's adaptation several times throughout probably a 10 year span. The reason I've been drawn to go back and do so is because the original animation has a very dark and romantic (almost gothic) feel to it, which I firmly believe was more easily obtainable in older animation styles in the 90's and early 2000's. Because the story is so dark itself and a lot of the subject matter is so controversial, pairing it with the animation style from the 90s just brings out so much more visual feeling. ((The 2012 version doesn't do a bad job with the animation or characters designs. In fact, I prefer a lot of the minor character design changes in the newer version. However, by "cleaning up" the animation so much through a style change, it destroys a lot of the original grit and overall darkness, which many of us fans love about the 90s version.))

In addition to this, another main reason I prefer the 90s version so much is because the sexual tension and chemistry between Iason and Riki is somehow both stronger and softer in the earlier version. In the 2012 version, Iason comes off as a very controlling and manipulative person ((borderline yandere)). Part of this may be because they wanted him to seem harsh and then intended to soften him a bit in later episodes (which, were in turn, never produced). Yet, Iason was never - even INITIALLY portrayed - as a heartless person in the 90's version. It's very true that Iason was always a dom in this version, but he very clearly represented someone who was first intrigued, and then almost immediately infatuated at first sight, with someone who lived a different lifestyle from him. He always teased Riki and continued to be a dom, but he did it in a very loving manner, and eventually his feelings became true in all aspects. The sexual tension is still present in the 2012 version, but it feels more like comparing a soft core porn tape to an erotica.

If you are interest in Ai no Kusabi, I highly recommend watching the 90s version and then moving on to the 2012 version if you still want a little bit more material to go with it. The 90s version left out a lot of small details that were covered by the 2012 version (originally from the novel), but it is still my preferred version of the two for several reasons and they both cover the same main points of the original story, which the 90's has an ending.

In short: I can't recommend this anime by itself, because I think it would be a disaster to ONLY watch this version and not the 90's version, but this version did an okay job with the 4 episodes that were put out.

I had assumed that I was watching the original 1992 version instead. However, that was no the case when I realised the series I was watching had 4 episodes. Upon reading the reviews of the 1992 version of Ai No Kusabi, I was quite intrigued with the prospects of a raw and very dark romance with strong themes. However what I received with the 2012 version was just confusion. I had no idea what was happening at all times of the show. I have ADHD and found it really hard to focus as the scenes and the moods kept changing so rapidly. AT most, I ... could only comprehend the erotica scenes as they didnt involve any plot details LMAO WTF. Generally, I don't recommend the 2012 adaptation if you have a very short attention span and if you are not the type of person to hyper-fixate on details and over0-analyse plot devices. I did not enjoy this.