Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu – 01

「腐男子高校生の日常」 (Fudanshi Koukousei no Nichijou)
“The Daily Life of a Fudanshi High School Student”

Fudashi Koukou Seikatsu is a funny sort of show. When I read the manga after this anime was announced, I thought how it felt like a very gay version of Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun. If you decide to check out the manga, you may think the same, but sadly this first episode didn’t quite capture that. There isn’t much content to work off of, so it’s no surprise that it’s only a 3 minute short – and there have been plenty of very good shorts this year – but part of me is disappointed that we don’t get full-length episodes every week to get to know these characters better and share more laughs with them. I have the feeling that many people who watched this episode will be turned off and won’t stick around. Without giving much away, all I can say is there is a larger cast of colourful characters yet to be introduced, and they’re all pretty damn funny if you ask me.

Sakaguchi Ryou (Hatano Wataru) is an… interesting lead – a boy who claims to be straight but loves everything about BL (though still feels embarrassed when purchasing a new volume). This episode mainly introduced him and his best friend, Nakamura Toshiaki (Nojima Kenji), a straight man in every sense. Although their contrasts make them amusing to watch together, there are more laughs to come from characters even more out there than Sakaguchi. If you were left cold by this premiere, then all I can say is that you shouldn’t drop it just yet. This is only a short, after all, so you’re not wasting much of your time if it turns out you don’t enjoy it, but much like Nozaki-kun, the side characters can prove themselves to be the most amusing.

Of course, this is all assuming you’re not turned off by the idea of BL being the focal point of the series. But I think everyone should know that this is not a yaoi series – if anything it plays around with those tropes and archetypes and turns it into a niche comedy. It may not attract the biggest audience, and this first episode didn’t capture what makes the manga so entertaining, but with time and patience this could turn into a keeper.

ED Sequence

ED: 「SEKAIはボーイミーツボーイ♂」 (SEKAI wa Boy Meets Boy♂) by Hatano Wataru