I've burned through basically all yaoi anime about 10-15 years ago, and since only one or two come out every year, it's obviously nowhere near my consumption rate. So, during quarantine this year, I finally decided to do what I'd been putting off for years: watch the few ones I've been avoiding, which are mostly those labeled as just "BL", meaning there may not have an actual proof of relationship between the characters and it was just going to be queer baiting.
I knew they weren't going to be worth it and...oh boy. This was exactly what I dreaded. Luka and Yuki clearly loved each other, but they didn't even SAY it during Yuki's present lifetime, much less kiss (after No. 6, which also carries the tag BL, I was expecting at least something...), resulting in excrutiating pain for Luka without any regards from Yuki. But that's just an underlying problem of what seems to be the theme with this anime: nothing is ever explained.
Things I'd still like an answer to:
- Why the hell did Reiga turn like that? Yes, he's a half-breed, but, even if he went through some bullying, he still had friends, people he could trust, people who defended him. Basically, proof that humanity could be good. But what did he do? Kill even those people he trusted and liked.
- Why did Takashiro become immortal (I know, the Duras inside of him, but HOWWWW) and who gave him that scar? It's never even attempted to be explained. Also, about that Duras...Who is he? What's his class? WTF happened there?
- Why all the strangely named demon classes, characters, spells, etc.? Where do they come from? What's the philosophy behind the books Takashiro and Reiga follow? Why does Luka and many of the other General Classes and Opasts have multiple names (such as Luka / Zess)?
- Where do everyone's powers come from? Why are Reiga and Takashiro opposites? How did it all start?
- Why do most of the clan members have pink hair? If they are reincarnations and not blood related, why be physically similar? And why is it only some of them (but so many that it can't be just a coincidence), and some don't?
- What exactly happened to Kuroto's previus partner? Cadenza killed him, but Kuroto was only a child, so how did he see it? Were they in love even though Kuroto was a kid? Because that's what he hinted at, and we weren't even given a flashback of that!
- Do Tsukumo and Touko see each other as siblings or romantically? There are so many mixed signals.
- How did Yuki and Luka fall in love? Luka betrayed his family for her / him, but... how did his relationship with Yuki even start? Where and how did they first meet? When did they make the contract? What does it entitle? Did Yuki cancel it, or did he just want to? Why? Does it affect him? Does it hurt him? Does it affect Luka?
- Who is Yuki's father?
- Why did everyone else keep their memories but not Yuki, and what happened to them, especially to Yuki, in past lives? Why did he reincarnate as a man this time, even though he was still in love with Luka? Why do they create more darkness the more in love they are? And if that's the case, why was the final battle in this particular lifetime, when they didn't even get romantically involved?
- Why didn't Takashiro just come out and tell Yuki everything and, furthermore, why did he keep saying he was lying to Yuki even though that great lie was never revealed?
There are probably hundreds of other questionss I have, but these are the most pressing ones.
There's some other stuff beside the questions. Takashiro and Fuyutoki seemed to have a relationship, but it was never made clear, and the same for Shusei and Hotsuma, but this one escalated to the point where Shusei wanted to DIE and this was never addressed again! He said he thought Hotsuma didn't need him anymore because he loved Yuki now, but didn't all of them love Yuki? It wasn't supposed to be in a romantic way.
Yuki himself asks these questions many times, yet he's never given an answer, and sometimes he just says it in that plainly stupid "eh?" way, repeating what another character had just said, but nothing comes if it. He's also the most annoying charatcer in the whole anime, and that's a major problem since he's the main character. He keeps complaining everyone is in danger, but he puts them in danger by endangering himself - then they have to protect him and get hurt. He also never learns to use his powers or even attempts to do it, making it all the more dangerous.
As for the characters, they are barely even introduced and we are not only expected to care about them, but we're also expected to believe they turned into friends so quickly, even though we didn't seem them going through any hardships together (remember: show, don't tell. Even if they knew each other for centuries, we, as watchers, didn't get to see that). Yuki sacrifices himself for them without batting an eye, same way he joins the Giou clan, without any previous attachment - and in his case, he doesn't even remember it, so why would he go that far for seemingly strangers? He's kind, I get it, but I don't find it believable that he would't have any questions. Also, characters that are supposedly hard to win over like Hotsuma and Kuroto are won over quickly, despite claiming to hate Yuki at first - and why, may I ask? Basically, the bonds that are created don't convince the watcher - actually, even among the Giou clan members and extended members, it's not believable. Luka also doesn't seem to care at all about the rest of the family at one point (he's not even allowed to enter the main household, because he claims someone does't want him to, yet it's never revealed who that may be and no one seems to have a problem with him), but all of a sudden they become allies. If they've known each other for so many lifetimes, why doesn't he care about them and, furthermore, wouldn't he care about his lover's FRIENDS just because he cares about him? Also, why did they call him Zess and THEN Luka (only when Yuki knew, why?!?!?!) and why didn't they know each other before??
The stroyline is all over the place, with bad dialogues, events that don't advance the story and may even backtrack it. Yuki doesn't learn much, as I've addressed before, be it in terms of his previous lives, his relationships, powers or what's going on in general. We, as viewers, share in his cluelessness and never get any explanation, even until the end of the anime. But, adding the lack of bonds between the characters, they fight useless battles that don't seem to get worse - they fight powerful enemies since the beginning, and when they actually do fight the most powerful ones later on, nothing really bad happens. Yuki only ever tries to heal someone maybe once or twice, it's not like it's something that happens in every battle and no reason for him to pass out every five minutes. Anime in general loves to have the main charatcer have some kind of pre-existing health condition, and that's what should've been done here, as it's not very realistic that Yuki keeps fainting all the time even when he didn't do more than stand there. Tsukumo almost dies the very first time they see a Duras, and then no one ever almost dies again, even fighting General Class, which also go away without killing anyone all of a sudden on mutlitple occasions. What's even the point of Yuki or the storyline advancing like that? They also claim Takashiro is the most powerful of them all and that he'll fight the final battle, but...when the final battle arrives, he barely fights for a second. He goes through all that pain and suffering and it doesn't really result in anything, or is even helfpul or relevant to the storyline. There's a lot of back and forth of stupid, useless fights, Yuki fainting, actual discussions of the main plot points being interupted by some stupid thing... and the dialogues are DBZ-level. "I'm going to show you! This time, it's different!", and they actually spend more time showing off to the villains than explaining what's going on to Yuki.
The anime also doesn't exactly have an ending, as the battle never comes to a conclusion, but there's no way in hell I'm reading the manga after all this.
Well...I definitely wouldn't reommend this (in fact, my fellow yaoi-loving friend told me to tell him if it was any good and I'm going to tell him not to bother) or ever watch it again. Was it the worst anime I've ever watched? Not by a long-shot. But it still made absolutely no sense.