Review of Sasaki and Miyano

This anime is basically the BL version of Horimiya. Shumei Sasaki is a cool upperclassman with an aesthetically pleasing color palette. He’s so innocent, he has no idea what BL—and by extension, yaoi, fujoshi/fudanshi, moe, etc.—is until he’s introduced to it by an enthusiastic kohai… Yoshikazu Miyano is an adorable boy with a doll’s face, and he is passionate about BL manga. After almost getting into a fight to defend his friend, he befriends the boy who stops the fight in his place—none other than Sasaki, because every fluffy romance needs a heartwarming meet cute. Miyano begins lending Sasaki his BL manga, leading to a lot ofwholesome and comedic moments.

One of my fave moments in this anime was Miyano’s assessment of Sasaki. As a passionate fudanshi, Miyano likes to daydream BL scenarios for the other boys in his school. But he doesn’t do it to Sasaki, and after a classmate asks him why Sasaki is the exception, Miyano realizes that Sasaki doesn’t fall into the typical seme/uke tropes. In fact, the anime itself isn’t a stereotypical BL depicting a toxic relationship with unhealthy power dynamics. It's what makes Sasaki and Miyano refreshing and fun to watch.