Hello, first of all, I don't mean to judge anyone based on what I have to say, I have attention decifit dissorder so some of this may not make any sense to some people since I'm not that great at expressing myself, I apologize about this beforehand. Second of all, I started reading the manga for Super Lovers YEARS before the anime was even thought of, I haven't read it for quite some years now, and I've been super excited to watch the anime, but I haven't done it yet, because there are so many people hating on this anime, so I'd thought I'd share my experience with it's story and my opinion on the elements within it, and I'd like others opinions on it as well. I'm not super good at discussing but I'd like to try it out. So..let's get started.
One thing I've noticed about several people are that..They are not even interested in the shounen ai/yaoi genre..I know that some people watch shounen ai/yaoi material for the laughs or some other reason like that, but watching something just so that you can have something to critisize, is ridicilous, especially if you know what the anime is going to be about ahead of time. Critisizing is not always a bad thing, if it's done in a mature, proper way, but literally hating on something someone else enjoy is not giving critique it's simply being a douche. As a fellow fudanshi who has been interested in shounen ai and yaoi for almost 10 years, I know very well that there are several types within this genre and what most of them indicate and we all probably know that alot of the plot/events in this genre are far from realistic. With that said, if you saw the promotional video before watching the anime, if you watched the anime before you read the manga, I see where alot of people are coming from calling this shota/incest/pedophilia, everyone sees a yaoi or shounen ai and instantly think it's a Boku No Pico rip off! First of all Boku No Pico is not just a yaoi it's a hentai, there's a difference between yaoi/shounen ai hentai compared to the usual yaoi and shounen ai, as much as there is between yaoi and shounen ai! Since these two are actually to different but similar genres. Now as I've said I've been a fanboy of this genre for 10 years, if you can't handle the genre, don't be in it, seriously. If you can't handle seeing such themes, you probably never should have watched anime or read manga to begin with, as these themes exist in more then just yaoi and shounen ai, even if they happen to be a bit more present in this genre, which isn't entirely true, since it exist in alot of other animes, but there people beautify it and call it love and find nicer excuses, in a way I'm glad the yaoi/shounen ai is so blunt about what they put out. I know there aren't alot of shounen ai/yaoi animes out there, but I find things like Super Lovers and Junjou Romantica/sekaiichihatsukoi to be gold compared to the yaois/shounen ai's we've gotten before them. That's my personal opinion either way. Now to the whole brother falls for brother aspect of the story, this is by no means an unusual type of shounen ai/yaoi I'd say it's a very common aspect on the genre, especially in manga. Most of the time, just like in Super Lovers the brothers are actually not blood related. I've read over 100's of manga with these kind of themes during my years of collecting, and not all of them were good..you don't even want to know some I can assure, but that goes for every other genre and type I've read/watched to. But one of the reasons I love Super Lovers, even with it's flaws, is because I think, at least in the manga, this theme suited the story, because it made the main characters closer in so many more aspects, then the who whole, so much more common aspect of: 'I just met you but I'm just gladly going to jump you without your consent'. Also one thing alot of people don't consider before they actually get in to this anime is the age progress of the whole story. Ren and Haru are young(er) when they first meet, the story, in the manga, goes on for like over 10 years, 10 years! So it's not like Haru is some pedophile that just jumps his adoptive brother as soon as he lays his eyes upon him, which alot of people seemed to be expecting. Besides this Ren is the first one to fall in love, which isn't weird as he starts developing a crush on Haru around the age of..12, if I remember correctly. Most children do develop crushes, wether that'd be on a relative, someone they respect or a friend, I mean how many young people haven't stated that they would marry their big brother when they grew up? I sure did. It's not weird for children to be curious about sexuality or what it's like to fall in love like their parents did with one another, I'd say it'd be weird if a child never does get curious about this kind of thing. I'm not talking about a sexual aspect, but in the eyes and heart of a childs emotions. Also in the manga, the 'sexual parts' don't become present until Ren is actually legit the age to have actual sex, so I don't see why people freak out about this since he's of age by then..and some kind of sexual themes, wether undertoned or not, exist in nearly every manga/anime as of today. Now people may say I'm jumping my gun here since I haven't actually watched the anime, but I can say at least this much out of when I did read the manga and got to know it's story. Also I've seen alot of people say the side characters 'don't care' about the main characters relationship, but in the manga at least everyone had some kind of reaction, Ren's classmate for example reacted quite strongly, his other brothers also wasn't to keen on it to begin with, neither was the female character who's name I can't remember, in the anime they might be more dull, but I don't think everyone was just like 'oh okay, so you two F*ck' <-- uh, no. So you can't really say they had 'no reaction' what so ever. Because they did, at least in the manga. Before watching this, I'm not expecting the anime to be as good as the manga, most mangas are better then their animes, wether that'd be a bl story or not. Also as a bl fantasy writer I must say that not everything in the yaoi/shounen ai genre are bad, you just have to find the type you like and the kind of stories you enjoy, even if alot of it isn't good in your opinion, but it's like that with every type of genre in any kind of fandom, you simply need to find your cup of tea. Last but not least I'd like to talk about how people define this as 'bad' because more mainstream yaoi mangas like Honto Yajuu doesn't get an anime, let me say..it all depends on the author, don't get me wrong now, since Yamamoto Kotetsuko are one of my favorite mangakas alongside Junko and the like and what wouldn't I give for an anime based on one of their works, but all authors out there doesn't want an anime, simply because the mangas already tell the story well enough and the authors probably think so aswell. And I mean..we went from things like Boku No Pico to Super Lovers, so I think most people would have to agree that slowly but surely this genre in the anime aspect is at least getting before then before. That's mainly all I had to say, please be sure to give me your opinions, okay? I'd love to know what other people think about this! ♥ |
