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SadisticTendencies

  • Sweden
  • Joined Jan 16, 2011
  • 28 / M

Song of Wind and Trees

Jul 25, 2012

Let's just cut to the chase; the answer is yes, this anime does depict romantic relationships between people of the same sex. I'd choose to describe the more sensual scenes as highly palatable and sometimes even intensely beautiful, but if you're unable to handle a story of such nature, then read no further.

Basically, this anime uses a prestigious French school as its setting where our protagonist, the virtuous and talented Serge, meets his new room-mate and polar opposite in the manipulative Gilbert who uses his body to gain various favors from other men. Unlike some other anime of the same genre I know of, the story takes place in a world with enough regard for realism to avoid an ideal depiction of same-sex relationships and instead aims to depict some of the obvious cons; the most prominent one being the lack of consent the ones involved might face in their environments.  Make no mistake though, plenty of scenes are reserved for the sometimes unnerving worship of the male body and intense homoerotic events that I fear might ruin a lot of the appeal for viewers not looking for such things.

Furthermore, the characterization stands fairly well for an OVA of merely an hour with reasonable amounts of development and a good foundation for occasional melodrama. Unfortunately, the anime is based on a manga of 17 volumes and lacks the time to include proper explanations for some bizarre plot points revealed later on which causes some confusion. This is not the major issue though as the narrative as a whole eventually ends up in a pit of glorified masochism only to wrap things up in a beautiful, intense and somehow redeeming scene with enough sense to rely on sensuality rather than sexuality.

In the end this is a fairly decent watch, with fairly standardized technical merits. The soundtrack is the most impressive part of the OVA, but the animation remains somewhat mediocre despite certain moments of beauty and great character designs. It suffers from the same problems shared by a lot of shounen-ai (it would seem) such as glorifying certain themes like masochism which are made all the more disturbing by the youth of the characters but is undoubtedly very palatable in its depiction. Despite the mediocre score, I was somewhat impressed by this title and will consider giving more titles within the same genre a chance; romanticized adolescent melodrama has its perks as long as it doesn’t drag I guess.  

6/10 story
6/10 animation
7/10 sound
6/10 characters
6/10 overall

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AirCommodore Aug 1, 2012

If you liked this at all, I highly recommend Natsu e no Tobira, another movie by the same mangaka. imo, it's far better (and oftentimes hilariously overwrought, which makes it even more awesome). The first time I watched it, I ran to get my roommates and rewatched it immediately afterwards. I'm still looking for the song that played during the sex scene- BEST ANIME SONG EVER.

MordredMS Jul 26, 2012

Wow, I never expected you would review a shounen-ai! XD

I watched this one too, a couple of years ago, when a fansub group I was following at the time released it. I actually liked it. Sets up a lot of interesting stuff, and I even found the ending quite touching. It certainly has the defects you mentioned, though...it is quite underdeveloped given the small time it had.

Nice review, mate! ;)