hime speaks: Tight-rope

Type: 2-part anime OVA

Status: Finished Airing

Producers: PrimeTime

Genre: Romance, Yaoi

Synopsis:

Tightrope tells the tale of the reluctant heir of a yakuza family and his childhood friend, and follows their love relationship that started budding in their school days and keeps developing slowly but surely. - Simona's BL Research Lab

My Take:

To be honest, I initially thought that this anime was just a shounen-ai genre so I was quite taken aback when I saw some scenes which were more appropriate for yaoi.

The plot of the story is just simple and the plot summary is just that. There is no hidden/deeper story between the two characters at all so I think that that the story is somewhat shallow and a bit cliched. I found their background story normal than usual and, truthfully, I am kind of disappointed since I wanted to say in this review that "there's more to them than meets the eye."

What that means is that the relationship between the two protagonists are just typical of childhood friends. I was expecting a lot more tragic experience explaining why the two characters are so attached to one another, especially why they pursued a boy-love relationship rather than prefer a normal one. Alas, the story is very simple and straightforward.

Personally, I found the art not praiseworthy but it does fall into the "OKAY-GOOD" category. I don't really find the main characters, or any of the characters, bishie at all, but again that is just my personal sentiments. Also, there were some body positions (not the dirty ones, just normal ones like holding the arm to restrain another person) that seemed awkwardly drawn and there wasn't much movement in the anime, and if there were any, it was just very brief and not fluid.

I do like the personality of Ryunosuke Ohara, though. As the seme, I wouldn't really say that his personality is dominant over his partner since Naoki Satoya can easily diffuse his intentions with a smack on the head. It's actually pretty cute and I was slightly reminded of Nowaki from Junjou Romantica.

Seeing this on another angle, perhaps the simplicity of this story is the reason why some fans are charmed by this title. The music also isn't memorable but it's a bit catchy. Probably the reason why  I didn't hate this anime is that the love scenes are very mild. Kisses (and kiss sounds) are present as well as mild groping, but nothing explicit. I would really recommend this to any budding fujoshi/fudanshi and to BL fans alike who would like something light and pleasant to watch.