Patalliro! · review
Let me preface this review with one thing that resounded in my mind the entirety of the period I was watching this whole show: this series is clearly not pro-LGBT in the slightest, this is 10000% rooted in the hetero-leaning, pro-male gender ideas typical of other japanese medias, being those animes or mangas (Yaoi is, de facto, mostly made for HETERO women, not with LGBT people in mind). So, don't let some of the quasi-sexual scenes that don't end in nothing explicit anyway fool you in that sense, there is no intentional pro-LGBT messagge of any kind here. That said, as an HETERO MAN myself,I can safely say this series is really fun, it could be described as a anime/yaoi equivalent of the movie Naked Lunch by David Cronenberg just with the madness factor doubled, lots and lots of cultural/pop references from both Japan and the Western emisphere as well as several references to other Shoujo works such as Versailles No Bara and Kaze To Ki No Uta, a really fun ride everybody from all spectrum of sexual inclination can enjoy with no problems whatsoever. I would also take a moment to say that I don't understand all the hate directed towards the main character, Patalliro, because I honestly don't find him that different from other characters (Maraich I'm looking at you) or that much annoying in comparison to, let's say, the version of the few first episodes of Saint Seiya of the titular character (voiced by the same awesome Toru Furuya you will find here behind the onion heads and several other secondary characters, impeccable as always) or the absolute emperor of braindead morons Hikaru Ichijo from Macross, probably the worst male protagonist to ever "grace" the anime kingdom. He's intended to be a capable protagonist with a comedic element and he accomplishes that showing sometimes an human, compassionate side that it's not lost to my eyes. With good OST and good Seiyuu performance, this series is very fun and enjoyable even if the miniplots of each episode sometimes are difficult to follow or not well written, but Naked Lunch had the same problem so I can close an eye on that. To those who are looking to get into this series or Mineo Maya's work in general I also suggest the recent live-action movie based on another one of his works named Tonde Saitama, it's pretty much in line with this series in all respects. I give this series the same exact score I gave to Naked Lunch and Tonde Saitama, a full 8. Thank you for reading and PAPAN GAPAN to you all!