I was waiting until the show ended to write this, but Our Youth - Miseinen is one of the best japanese BLs that I've watched recently, and that includes Our Dining Table from the last year, which was another slice of life BL which I really enjoyed.
It reminds me of a coming of age BL series I'd watched years back, probably the first BL that I'd watched, which also featured the sea in a prominent way: His (2019), which is about a local boy meeting a surfer kid and developing an attraction which changes the way he looks at life, but which at the same time doesn't really go anywhere. There is a movie with the same title, His (2020), where we meet them as adults, and one them is a single dad who is still living in the same place and the sparks flying almost instantly when they see each other again. For me, both these shows recreate the magic of the everyday with a focus on mood, sensuality and memories, and the intimacy that comes from a soulmate trope done right.
Our Youth, on the other hand, reminds me of moody indie films with its incredible cinematography, use of visual storytelling, long takes, and a mature pacing which never feels rushed, but most of all, the incredible sensuality of the scenes which is something I've started to miss in most QL productions now.
It's interesting because that's exactly how I write sensuality in my fics, as something which decompresses time and takes you out of your head and into a world you only share with the other person. There's an intimacy, an idea of a secret, and most importantly, sensuality as a way of mapping the lover and their bodies which I was not expecting from this high school doomed romance narrative which is usually very much NOT my jam.
Take for instance the scene where Minase feeds Hirukawa from a bottle after he's all banged up by his dad, and how it hints subtly at the imagery of water as an aberrant, almost sexual force that started with Hirukawa twisting up the water tap on their very first meeting and getting drenched in the spray, only to toss his hair back and lock eyes with Minase, who has no idea how to react.
Minase watches, intrigued and fascinated and possibly a little turned on, and it comes back time and time again when he starts rebelling against his strictly regulated life and starts to embrace his own sensuality.
As the series progresses, we see Minase willingly getting drenched, walking into the water and allowing it to change him.
From safe, regulated water bodies: the aquarium in his room, the river under the bridge, and the occasional downpour which he shields himself from with an umbrella, it gets more and more unwieldy over time -- leading him straight to the sea, both literally and metaphorically. There's a profusion of ponds, seas, rivers and also a dried up swimming pool in one of the scenes which comes at a time when Hirukawa is getting expelled, so that is also an amazing example of visual storytelling: the water that sustains their relationship has been emptied out.
Later down the line, as Minase's internal monologue gets messier and messier, he starts giving in to his urge to break free of the restraints placed on him by his mother, his upbringing, his friends and the expectations of his teachers regarding how he should live his life. Many a times when he tries to intervene for Hirukawa, his teacher tells him that it is something which doesn't concern him, and we get the minute details of the physical reactions Minase has to Hirukawa, as if to visually tell us, that no, that is definitely NOT the case.
The series ends quite predictably, after losing much of its steam, but I didn't hate it because of two reasons. One, the time skip actually created a different dynamic between them, allowing Minase to be the active pursuer for once, and Hirukawa being the one pursued. Two, it allowed for their chemistry to really take off and pull out all stops once they reunited again. That would never have worked with the younger versions of them in high school, because Minase was too repressed for that, and Hirukawa too afraid to upset the status quo between them.
By the end, they are living together, but Minase still has to break out of his social anxiety regarding how to come out to his friends, and it feels mature and in character for him. Because despite coming a long way, Minase is still concerned about other people's reactions to him, which can only change with time, or become a bigger problem down the road.
But it doesn't erase the fact that the intimacy that we are shown at the end feels hard won and illicit at the same time, making it the centerpiece of the show.
I do hope jdramas continue the trend of writing intimacy in these tangible yet ephemeral ways, which can be mapped but not given a form to, and which lingers in our memories like a feeling that can be savoured, instead of something that can be forgotten when the show is over.
We need to talk about how the special episode for our youth left the show more open ended. So we not gonna talk about Minase’ separation anxiety, trauma and Japanese society’s view of lgbtq and same sex marriage. That specially episode made it for us to have at least 3 more episodes. I’m not ok with minase not being ok!!
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