Sasaki and Miyano

This is one little dude started watching without me, so I started...and then passed him up. I've finished it now. Sasaki and Miyano is a BL anime and, quite simply, charming and very conciously does NOT contain any of the horrible almost-ever-present bad tropes that you see in a lot of BL shows/manga.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and may even buy the manga too, as I'm sure there's stuff they didn't wind up animating. But, let me start over.

So, Miyano (the short, dark haired one), is a not-very closeted fudanshi. That said, the only time he's ever crushed on anyone (back in middle school), it was a girl. Sasaki has also never been attracted to a guy before -- until he meets Miyano. Strangely enough, Sasaki realises much more quickly how attracted he is to Miyano as they start spending more time together (and he borrows BL manga from him, something he has never read before). And, to his credit, he's not too weirded out by it--it's more of a oh, wow, I need to chill, I don't want to freak him out.  He winds up confessing pretty early on (episode 5, though it's pretty clear even to himself by episode 2 that he's smitten). 

BUT. Even though he bungles the confession a little, he's also very open about how he's willing to wait for a response. And wait he does. It takes Miyano, like, over half a year before he finally gets ahold of his feelings and confesses in return. Maybe more. Basically, the majority of the show is Miyano trying to figure out what he feels and Sasaki trying very hard (and doing well) not to be pushy and just be a good friend, if that's all Miyano wants. 

Seriously, find yourself a guy like Sasaki. He's a good dude. Even the times he's berating himself for slipping up, he doesn't really. He always stops himself and is so conscious of not pushing.

It was interesting that they flipped that, because you'd think that Miyano with his BL fixation would be the one to lead the way rather than the guy who's never even thought about it. 

The friends / side characters are also great with their own little stories and ways of helping out (or deflecting). There's even a one hour long "graduation" special where you get a bit more about Hirano and some of the others, see Sasaki and Miyano coming out a bit to their friends and family without any major hiccups. 

All in all, a really great feel good series and by far the least problematic BL thing I've ever seen. I hope that's a trend that will catch on. Some of the older shows (totally looking at you World's Greatest Love Story which should actually be re-named If Your Partner Does ANY of This, Run) is just really, really full of horrible stuff.