First Impression – Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi

Oh yes, it’s yaoi time~

anaaga: Yaoi. Some will scream, some will rejoice. Right now, we don’t really care about those who scream. Metanorn fangirls decided to unite and show their love for yaoi in SIH’S First Impression! Yay for Yaoi!

Hoshi: YES. JUST YES. Hoshi’s fangirl life has just been made 40% better with the release of Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi. While I did get some of my fill from reading the manga, I am not completely full without this anime adaption, which has turned out to be quite awesome indeed. BRING ON THE BOYS LOVE.

Overcooled: Yaoi. One of my major weaknesses. I do my best to keep my inner fujoshi hidden from the world, but it inevitably slips out when any two males are so much as standing too close to one another. I may not be able to contain myself for this review!

Kyokai: You know what? Research has actually shown that Metanorn readers comprise of 72% females and from the Met’Amour feedback, the yaoi route is quite “wanted” by the fangirls who visit us on regular basis. Of course, what you want is usually what you get in Metanorn so this is for all the fangirls, who have been waiting. ^^

anaaga: In case you’ve never read or watched any yaoi, they will always have flashbacks. That’s the first thing you will see when you watch this. The flashback is probably used to show how innocent our uke main character, Onodera Ritsu, was. WAS. Just look at him, blushing when he confessed his love to some senpai he had a long term crush on. Just what happened? >.<

Before and After. Reminds me of this picture Namika has

Anyhow, back to the story. Ritsu applied for a job at Marukawa Publishing Company, and he requested to be put into the Literature Section. Instead of being put in the Literature Section however, Ritsu was tossed into the Shoujo Manga Section Emerald. What a gap. Apparently he applied at the wrong time too, since Emerald right now is in the cycle phase when an evil aura emits from the office. Boohoo for you Ritsu.

Welcome to Marukawa’s EMERALD!

Meet our seme boss, Takano. He’s smexy, but he’s also a jerk. By the way, it’s allowed in yaoi to be a hot jerk. Since Ritsu has no clue about shoujo manga, Takano decides to show Ritsu how to work in his department. He didn’t tell Ritsu that the job also involves live-example though, such as kissing.

Sexiness knows no bounds *fangirl squeal*

I WANT A JOB LIKE THIS TOO

Mentally tired from being kissed by Takano work, Ritsu decides to take the afternoon break while reflecting about himself. Another flashback here. Ritsu’s ex co-workers thought that Ritsu succeeded at his job because he’s the son of the Onodera Publishing Company’s President. To prove those backstabbers that they’re wrong, he decided to quit and applied for another job. And look where he’s stuck at…

Since he’s such a hard worker too, Ritsu decides to stay back to read all shoujo manga released by the company. Unbeknownst to him, Takano sees him reading the manga. Ritsu, so lucky. I would love to have my parents catch me doing my homework too, not just at the laptop watching anime and reading yaoi… >.<

Of course he’s going to stay late. His job is to read manga!

The next day is the last day of the cycle, where the stink people actually bathed themselves; also when their office officially looks its color pink. His co-workers can finally help him too instead of collapsing from their chairs. Although Takano tries to explain to him the wonder of shoujo, Ritu still can’t understand romance. Here we find out that Ritsu is an emo, since he had his heart broken by a guy. Ever since then, he always sees the negative aspect of life. Ritsu is also a nerd, since he read all of the library’s books when he was in high school. I wonder why Takano looks surprised? *hint hint*

Props to Ritsu for not running out screaming because of the Pink there

Nerdiness to the extreme. Even Takano was surprised

MOAR YAOI!

Ritsu’s many faces deserve a post on its own

My favorite

Kya, Usami-sama!

Obligatory sex scene

End Thoughts:

Hime: Ohmygod, am I actually going to praise DEEN? Well, credit where credit is due. I liked this. And not just in the typical “kawaiii! Fluffy manlove!” way. I didn’t expect much from Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi, and not just because it was being handled by DEEN. Sometimes it feels good to be wrong. Where to start? Well, for one I loved that there was a very bare minimum of “forces themselves on the other person to make them fall in love and get to the sex quickly”. Any glimpses of the sexy stuff was in flashbacks, which eradicates that awkward rapeyness that made Junjou so implausible.

I also like these characters, sure they look like Shinobu and Nowaki but all her characters look pretty much the same so I’m not too bothered. The story, while no masterpiece, was consistent and held my interest. Why I’m so excited for this now is because, cross my fingers, it looks like they are approaching the whole boy meets boy romance with just a shred of patience and realism. It might actually evolve, instead of just happening. Maybe because this show has a lot less smut than Junjou, which could be a major deal breaker for some people.

It’ll take a lot to win me properly over without the smut at any rate, but where Junjou failed I think this succeeds. And there wasn’t a whole lot wrong with Junjou besides the bad art and shoehorned in relationships. I would keep an eye on this if you’re a hardcore BL fan whose seen it all, it might… just might, do something different.

Overcooled: Oh, the magic of yaoi. If this were shoujo I would be bashing the daylights out of this show. Replace one of the girls with a guy and I eat it up like a starved stray dog. There is almost nothing here for anyone except fangirls and the rare yaoi fanboy. The story is average mcaverage, although better than most yaoi anime tend to strive for (rape + comfort being the usual theme). I’m not sure how smooth the romantic development will be considering the “first” kiss set-up was such an overused cliche. Based on the OVA, I won’t be surprised if they build a little tension and then have the two collapse in a pile of tangled limbs within 3 episodes. Because hey, it’s yaoi. And you know what? That’s what we all secretly want.

I was impressed at Ritsu’s personality this time around. No whiny uke male lead, just a cynical guy with a decent IQ. Quite the improvement over his past personality! The only gripe I have with him is that he thinks too much. There has to be another way to let us know what he feels other than lines and lines of introspective monologues, often repeating the same thing several times. How many times did he say he didn’t want to be useless or that he didn’t want to work there? WE GET IT. Along with mr. stoic cookiecutter seme, it seems like a decent, standard pairing. I know this is going to be my guilty pleasure for a while now, it’s surprisingly addictive…>___<

Hoshi: it’s hard to say my opinion on this after zipping through the manga. I’m trying my best not to voice too many of them since this is only the first episode. Considering manga to anime adapion, I think they’re doing a great job on it so far. I liked the fact they sepearated Ritsu’s high school love life into a 0 episode, before the actual first episode. The animation is also just so incredibly awesome; I had no doubts in that department from the start. Seeing their kiss scenes animated just makes me squeal ten times as more as I would with the manga. I am very happy fangirl indeed.

It’s also hard for me to find words to put into caps lock other than ADORABLE and SO FREAKING CUTE. I’m like play-doh when it comes to this series. That innocene from Ritsu’s first love is just…BWAAAHHHHH. It hits me right in the heart, man; I’m extremely cheesy like that. I actually think Sekai Ichi doesn’t even necessarily HAVE to have so many sex scenes to make it interesing (not like they’d animate half of them in detail anyway. -sob- I WANT MY CAR SEX SCENE DAMNIT…). I’m not sure whether it’s my new found attraction for anime about the manga business that’s influencing this, but I think it’s a decent enough story. The kissing scenes and any future sex scenes are just the huge, chocolate-coated cherry on top.

I am, OF COURSE, going to be watching this series after falling in love with both the manga, and these current episodes out. I just hope they don’t turn it so much into Junjou Romantica, despite the fact it already has a lot of those similarities tied into it. With that, this content fangirl is out~.

anaaga: As a yaoi fan, I was so happy that this came out. I’ve been waiting for two years just to have a yaoi anime, and god answered my prayers. Nothing can express the joy I had when I watched this show. The animation by DEEN seems to be improving too ever since I saw their last anime, which is two years ago. Shiki does not count as a normal anime. But who cares about DEEN? All I care right now is SIH.

Although I’m happy, I’m a little bit disappointed too. I know other yaoi that should be animated instead of Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi. It has the potential to be a great yaoi, but I don’t think it has enough right now to be animated.  I’ll be honest here; SIH isn’t one of my favorite stuff. I find the story to be utterly ridiculous and unrealistic. The characters are impractical and stupid too. They look as if they have problems with interacting with others. Especially Ritsu; I can’t stand that dude. I have this feeling that they animated it because it’s made by Nakamura Shungiku. I mean, there are lots of great yaoi they can animate, but they decided to pick this one, which is just an average yaoi.

But oh well, it is a good yaoi for collection. It’s hilarious and sweet. Ritsu’s expressions are always the best, and I am willing to watch SIH because of his expressions. I am going to watch and to love this show, because I just effin love drama and yaoi. Who cares about logic and the reality? As long as it’s dramatic yaoi, it’s all goooood. There’s this one tiny problem that I want to complain to Studio DEEN though. Just like Hoshi, I WANT MY SMUT!

Kyokai: Hohohooo, what do we have here? An actual yaoi series after I don’t know how long? Studio DEEN, at least I give you props for the guts to do this just a season after that notorious bill. The bill that everyone made fun of and a lot of intellectuals fell from sky criticizing it; I was one of those who didn’t panic and were of the opinion to let it go and enjoy what you have.

Everything makes more sense if you have watched the episode 00, the first released OVA, which anaaga will be covering after this, but this is no Steins;Gate, which will leave loopholes and you will have to overwork your brain to solve the puzzle. It’s a simple boy likes boy story with some past misunderstanding trauma thrown in. It’s the part and parcel of any yaoi, for that matter ANY drama/shoujo series. I think the reason I got hooked to Junjou was because of the humour; the faces that Misaki made and how he was so utterly clueless was just too damned funny. Same can be said about Ritsu, who thinks of himself as bigger than thou yet he still has to learn a lot of things. Takano aka Saga senpai is one awesome editor and if I had been in the publishing business, I would be SO like him. But that’s beside the point, I enjoyed the first episode as a light romance; not the best plot ever but hey, something is better than nothing, right?

Personally, I don’t care much about smut and like anaaga, I will be watching for Ritsu’s faces and the overall humour. The OP/ED were actually catchy compared to popular belief and the animation is really good too. Should DEEN be given some medal for handling this well? Let’s see some more episodes to gauge that but for any rabid or normal follower of yaoi, this is a must! You hear?

Preview:

Seems like there’s going to be drama in the second episode. Hmmm so who’s going to end the love if the starter can’t even end it?

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.