Opus Colors Episode 2 Review: BL Subtext Everywhere
Most important question right now: Am I able to tell who is who now? Almost; I’ll figure them all out, eventually. This episode is about observing the relationship the main pairs have with each other and with other characters. It brings about interesting dynamics for future episodes. It’s also establishing what sort of characters the main bunch have. It’s also interesting to see the formally introduced new characters.
I think that this rather character-focused episode does help establish the conflict the Graders and Artists have with each other and how it’s usually hostile as shown with Kirinoe and Mikuriya, but it can also be civil and friendly like with Shido and Kohei. Not all Graders hate Artists and vice versa. It makes me wonder what sort of art these guys will make in future episodes. I’m curious.
As a character driven episode, this one mainly focuses on the relationships the Artists and Graders have with each other. I know this is not a BL, but it’s very much targeted towards the fujoshi demographic; we all know the girls tuning into this show are the ones looking for homoerotic bromance subtext with each characters. As a fujoshi, I can sense the potential pairings via my BL goggles. Kazuya and Kyo (I called him Takise in the previous review, but Kyo’s easier to remember, so I’m gonna call him Kyo going forth) are, well, the main pair, the vanilla main ship with the high school youth and yada yada, the push-pull, will-they-will-they-not ship. Jun and Michitaka are the side pair that would probably get their own side story or a few chapters in a BL manga to themselves. Kirinoe and Mikuriya are definitely f***ing and if they’re not, they probably will. Kosei and Shido are that ship you can see either romantically or platonically, but you’d always be that ship. Yura is the violently protective boyfriend to the not yet formally introduced Iori. Sakaki is that Do-S seme looking for new prey. It was going to be Kazuya, but it seems that there’s going to be something going on with him and Ikaruga, the bookworm. The college students are the mastermind and probably have more tricks up their sleeves to make their ships canon (I think some of the readers for this review will get annoyed that I’m looking through the characters for BL subtext. I’m not sorry, though).
Fujoshi goggles aside, there’s also some character focus on our main boys Kazuya and Kyo. Kyo’s distant personality stemmed from him being the supposed blame on why Kazuya lost his parents. Oh yeah, we’re getting some sweet, sweet angst in the future. I just hope it’s written well. Kazuya, in particular, gets a bit more focus as his parents’ legacy are mentioned. Perception Art was his parents’ creation so they have a reputation. Kazuya is the living successor to that legacy, so he knows he’s a nepotism baby, but it’s ashamed of it. Wow.
Anyways, I can’t wait to see what sort of art these boys will create in later episodes. Since all boys are different, there has got to be different art styles, right? I came for the art, okay!
