Hitorijime My Hero

This has been and will remain one of the best romance animes on the market, Especially where BL is concerned. It's got two romances, the better one is centric luckily. The characters are dynamic, the writing is good, and the story isn't over complicated. It's a gem in the Slice Of Life genre.

For a 12 part series, They did such a good job of fleshing out the characters and making you feel things for them. It's got plenty of twist and turns, It doesn't go too fast or too slow, It's just right.

This is one of those good animes that you can't really say anything too bad about. It's comedic, romantic, and it does a good job of getting you to care for these characters and how their "forbidden" romance works out, and I think that's awesome!

The story is well-plotted, the charachters are interesting and well developed. As for the romance, I did like it, but I wish there weren't so many episodes on a more depressing side, with all the troubles going on. That is my own personal taste though, so don't let it bother you. The ending was great and really heartwarmng. I can only recommend.

Hitorijime My Hero is an amazing just wanting a place to belong and finding that person and place story. Masahiro is a kind hearted and gentle teen who is neglected as a child, shown little to no parental love or support and has never known love. Kousuke is a man who rehabilitates youth by letting his fist fly and relay every word his mouth is too busy smoking to speak. Both feel like they're not enough and that they're just living to live until a love confession brings them together. Although, their road to happiness is bumpy and filled with some difficult situations and conversations, Masahiro and Kousuke are determined to have their happily ever after. Beautifully written and drawn, this story hooks you from episode 1 and fills you with tears, laughs and overall heartfelt goodness. I have watched season 1 more times than I can count and loved it so much I even started purchasing the manga which is just as great.

I genuinely don't understand how this is considered a beloved LGBTQIA+ love story... There are two relationships in this series. One is between two childhood friends. This story could play out innocently enough, but Hasekura pursues Ohshiba so aggressively that it veers into sexual coercion. He literally says "sleep with me or cut ties". He also forces kisses onto him and requires Ohshiba to let him touch him sexually for 5 minutes in order to maintain their friendship. Despite that abuse, they become a couple.

The other pairing is between Ohshiba's adult brother (who teaches math at their high school) and his best friend, Setagawa. Setagawa has no family or support system outside of the Ohshiba family. He says several times this is the only place he truly felt he belonged. So the fact that this adult man is pressuring this teenage boy into a relationship really puts Setagawa in a vulnerable position.

There's also the fact that several people (other kids and even adults) find out about this student/teacher pairing and, not only does no one seem to think it's inappropriate, no one does anything to help this child escape his abusive situation.

I'm not a big fan of romance, but this is extremely well done. The story and characters are cute and well-written. The animation is fairly good. I like the artwork in this series. It has its own style and looks nice. The voice acting is very good as well. There isn't a whole lot of conflict other than the love story, but it doesn't really need any. I'd definitely recommend watching this series if you are a fan of romance, because this series does it very well.

edit - I will say that upon thinking about it, these leads do play into some heteronormative stereotypes and there are a lot of somewhat unhealthy aspects of the relationship. I only watched about 5 episodes of this show, and while I would still recommend this, its not perfect or anything.

Also, I'm gay.