Given, Tasogare Out Focus Recommendations
Given and Twilight Out of Focus are both modern BL which break some of the more disturbing tropes of yesteryear involving a high school boy and an older man becoming, erm, involved. They also cast aside the trope of one half of the couple tripping and falling into some seductress waifu for added drama. These shows keep the relationships age appropriate and occasionally the relationships even feel genuine and well written, as if the writers were interested in character building and not rushing a relationship onto the screen for the sake of reminding the audience that the BL anime that they are watching is in
fact a BL anime.
Given is the better of the two anime, but Twilight Out of Focus breaks some additional tropes with one character who plainly states that they are gay and another character loudly proclaims that he is on the prowl for a boyfriend and is stereotypically flamboyant enough to leave nothing to the imagination. Twilight Out of Focus also has Whoo-Hoo scenes. 😈 Twilight Out of Focus is the stronger of these two anime with the first 4 episodes doing the bulk of that lifting, despite Given being the better anime overall.
Neither show is perfect, they still fall into familiar tropes – all the guys are eventually dating each other for seemingly no reason, some stuff happens which makes no sense, there’s drama for drama’s sake, the writing wavers at times… but these anime are a fresh break from the likes of Junjou Romantica and Love Stage!! which demonstrates the growing comfort the anime and manga industries with same-sex couples being the focus of a story rather than being a punchline or a bad trope. We’re still a long way from having an LGBT Cowboy Bebop or Nana, but when that does eventually happen, look back on these two anime as trailblazers for that moment.
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