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Episode Review: Love Stage!!

I'm not saying that you, or Tanteikingdomkey, have to personally like romances with non-con elements.

I don't read Western romance novels so I can't comment on the degree to which those stereotypes are true in that genre, but shoujo/josei/BL romances tend to be considerably more complex than any of those summaries. Female-oriented manga romances (and most male-oriented ones, for that matter) are about relationships and emotions, even if they are idealized, exaggerated or hyperdramatized. For some reason, relationship and emotional fantasies, particularly if they are women's fantasies, are treated as silly and contemptible, not like (men's) power fantasies, which are awesome and obviously superior.

And based on my (admittedly poorly informed) impression of "bodice rippers", Love Stage isn't one. The term seems to be restricted to works with a historical setting (explaining the bodice).

This episode was really good, up until the very end. "spoiler[Uke gets assaulted so seme can save him]" is one of the worst cliches in yaoi/BL in my opinion, and I heard the manga has some scenes like that so I hope it doesn't go all the way into that territory.

SailorTralfamadore wrote:

This episode was really good, up until the very end. "spoiler[Uke gets assaulted so seme can save him]" is one of the worst cliches in yaoi/BL in my opinion, and I heard the manga has some scenes like that so I hope it doesn't go all the way into that territory.

You're in for a big surprise if you think it's gonna follow that cliche to that degree. ;D

What kinda bothered me about that last scene, isn't so much that it's awfully clichéd but that the reason spoiler[those thugs seemed to consider Izumi fair game is that he "looks like a girl" (which i personally don't agree with but the show seems to insist that he does), somehow implying that it's perfectly fine to molest girls (or girly-looking guys)...]

Non Consequential relationships that have an alarming tendency for appearing in yoai/bl are in my opinion highly offensive to victims of sexual assault, because it shows a complete and uter lack of not only common sense but...When something like that happens it is insanely painful to the victims psyche, and writing off that abuse as romantic is beyond disturbing to me.

Merida wrote:

What kinda bothered me about that last scene, isn't so much that it's awfully clichéd but that the reason spoiler[those thugs seemed to consider Izumi fair game is that he "looks like a girl" (which i personally don't agree with but the show seems to insist that he does), somehow implying that it's perfectly fine to molest girls (or girly-looking guys)...]

Yea aside from the whole trend of Izumi getting sexually assaulted/molested every so often, the other problem for me with this show is that Izumi's character design sucks. He just doesn't look very much like a girl to me, despite the show constantly claiming he does. It adds an extra layer of "fakeness" to things.

I was absolutely delighted by the "sex-ed" scene because it struck me as a meta-commentary that, "Ok, boys and girls, anime and manga are not reliable models for real life relationships."

Gina Szanboti wrote:

I was absolutely delighted by the "sex-ed" scene because it struck me as a meta-commentary that, "Ok, boys and girls, anime and manga are not reliable models for real life relationships."

Oh yeah, those are gold.

"Do...do men get turned on when their nipples get touched?"

"Yup, sure do!"

"YAY, I'M NORMAL."

*

"Does buttsex hurt?"

"It just depends on the person."

"Well, it's Ryouma."

"He's never been with a man before. Yup. That's probably going to hurt."


I too enjoy the sex ed scenes in Love Stage. Spill those truth bombs, Rei.