This Boys Love Anime Is the Best One to Watch For This Month

Pride Month is celebrated for the entire month of June and what better way to commemorate all things queer than by diving into the most recent Boys Love anime titled Sasaki and Miyano, a series that depicts the queer experience from a new and refreshing angle. Following the lives of high school students Sasaki (Yusuke Shirai) and Miyano (Soma Saito) and their friends, the anime casts a light on the tricky path that adolescents tread towards identifying new feelings. But as much as the series focuses on the growing closeness between Sasaki and Miyano, the anime also emphasizes the importance of discovering yourself at your own pace. Yes, there are many traditional Boys Love tropes threaded throughout this series, including the slow-burning nature of Sasaki and Miyano’s relationship, who each fall into those classic Shojo stereotypes where one is more confident and outspoken, and the other is flustered and shy. The difference with this series, however, is the focus on the importance of friendship and trust, rather than just the discovery of sexual identities.

Interestingly, at the beginning of the series, we discover that the character of Miyano has not given a second thought to this sexual orientation, but he is a self-proclaimed fudanshi: a person who loves Boys Love manga and anime. But rather than liking the sometimes sexualized components of these Boys Love stories, Miyano takes a liking to the individual characters and their personal developments. This interest mirrors his own arc in the series. As Miyano grows closer to Sasaki, he considers his sexuality, but he struggles to label himself and instead realizes that rather than being drawn to the male sex, he is solely drawn to Sasaki. This trope occurs frequently in queer stories, not just in queer anime, where attraction and love are directed toward a person, rather than a gender. And it speaks for the spirit of Pride Month, where labels, identity, feelings, and love are fluid and often inexplicable.

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‘Sasaki and Miyano’ Breaks Down Masculine Stereotypes

The characters in Sasaki and Miyano attend an all-boys school, but what this series does well is it breaks down those masculine stereotypes that are often bred in the all-male education system. Judgment and indifference are traded for understanding, patience, and acceptance. The character of Sasaki is the older, more confident of the central couple in the series, and he is also a little bit of a delinquent, but rather than judging Miyano for being a fudanshi, he accepts him for who he is and admits that he is attracted to Miyano’s passionate ‘fanboy’ side. Sasaki was mostly unaware of his sexual identity too, but he also finds himself drawn to Miyano. He is the one to first admit his feelings, but what fans adore the most about this series is the patience, understanding, and compassion that Sasaki gives to Miyano. Sasaki is content to give Miyano all the time he needs to determine his feelings. The two do not rush their relationship.

Furthermore, the slow-burning tension between Sasaki and Miyano is balanced with the subplots regarding the relationships of their friends, who each deal with their own set of challenges and eccentricities with their respective romantic partners. This enriches the series because as much as Sasaki and Miyano is categorized as a Boys Love anime, it is also a Slice of Life anime that comments on the intricacies of friendship and makes a point of taking time to understand and connect with others. So in tune with Pride Month which celebrates the boundless nature of love, and embraces the complexities of the queer experience, Sasaki and Miyano is the anime that does just that.