The Nabari no Ou BL Rant

Now with better editing and less sleep-deprivation.

Recently, Nabari no Ou (from here on in, NnO) has been making BL rumblings, something that has come as a joy to some, and a horror to others. I myself am fairly pleased with it, to be honest. But I want to take a look at why I’m pleased, exactly, beyond the obvious that I’m one of those freaky BL-loving fangirls.

To an extent, I welcome BL in the shows I’m watching. But if the show isn’t specifically BL, I will admit annoyance when the BL isn’t very realistic. If BL suddenly popped up in Kanon between Yuuichi and Kitagawa, I would’ve been annoyed – it wouldn’t make any sense at all, and would’ve had no prior build-up (this is assuming it just suddenly happened, just got dropped into the show, not if the writers took a totally bizarre left after Makoto and wrote it in). I also will get irritated with myself if I start unintentionally slashing characters who make no sense together. Or if there’s already a canon straight pairing involving one of the two that I like. Case in point: Terra e… – Soldier Blue and Physis were fantastic together, but then my mind tried to throw Soldier Blue with Jomy. DO NOT WANT.

Anyway, to get off my tangent and back to NnO and BL, I enjoy the BL that is building up in NnO because it is very realistic. We don’t have any of that wonky Junjou Romantica buttsekhs in the first twelve seconds crap going on (which would really horrify me if it ever showed up in NnO, honestly, since the obligatory buttsekhs scenes in Junjou were seriously over-the-top, not to mention that the players involved in NnO are way underage, so that’d be gross).

Anime, as a rule, tends to not be realistic. This I know. However, even if setting is unrealistic, even if the circumstances are unrealistic, anime can still nail human emotions correctly. Even a harem anime can do this (see Kanon 2006). So I am not calling for an eradication of fourteen-year old mecha pilots or warring library factions – I just like it when the people at least behave reasonably as can be expected for that situation.

So while most BL follows a general formula, NnO is eschewing such. Which isn’t too much of a shock, in a way, as NnO is not a BL show, just a show that happens to contain some elements of BL.

Here is the BL formula:

• guy A becomes enamored of guy B… and then realizes, HOLY CRAP, that’s a guy! he has a p3n0r! and, oh crap, HE WANTS ON THAT P3N0R!!!
• so guy A freaks out for a little while about that little conundrum of his
• meanwhile, guy B is all suave and sexy
• this leads to guy A getting seduced by guy B
• then, some angst afterward as guy A wonders what it all means – does he really like the buttsekhs? does guy B really want him? or did he just jump him for shits and giggles, and isn’t really into the buttsekhs?
• cue some more angst triggered by misunderstandings usually involving a guy C who makes jealousy appear in the heart of guy A
• but it all gets cleared up in time for some last-minute buttsekhs
• rinse and repeat

I like BL. I really do. But I like it better when it deviates from this formula (probably why I liked Junjou Terrorist the best out of the Junjou trifecta). And I like it when it’s more believable.

To get back once again to NnO, I like the developing relationship dynamic between Miharu and Yoite because it is very believable. Miharu doesn’t suddenly want in Yoite’s pants between bursts of angst over that fact. He slowly falls into his affection for Yoite, and belatedly recognizes it as such. And when he admits it to himself, that Yoite means something to him, he does so ambiguously to himself, because even admitting that much is difficult for a young person to do, regardless of the gender of the one they like. Honestly, that’s hard for even an adult to do. It is frightening to admit that another person is very important, because it exposes vulnerabilities within oneself.

Miharu also decides to himself that he will not tell Yoite, since he doesn’t want to make it harder for him. Miharu is a fairly mature young man in some ways (although, thankfully, the show never forgets that he’s fourteen, as evidenced by his covering his ears as he walks away from Kumohira at the end of episode fifteen), and in his maturity he seeks to prevent things from becoming even more difficult for Yoite. At the same time, though, he is admittedly protecting himself from being hurt, as not admitting the way he feels to Yoite also means he cannot be rejected by Yoite. Hello, realism.

On Yoite’s part, he does break down and finally admit that he doesn’t want to die to Miharu. Which indicates that Miharu is someone he does trust, since this is clearly something he hasn’t admitted to anyone else, but it hasn’t been indicated to us that Yoite feels similarly about Miharu as Miharu does to him. But slow-boil human relations are more realistic than fast-paced ones, so this, too, rings true. And if Yoite never returns the affections, that would be fairly realistic, even if it would be horribly galling.

In short, the relationship between Yoite and Miharu is a sweet one, slowly evolving as time passes, and completely endearing me to it.

Anyway, Gau and Raikou also appeared in the above picture, but I’ll be spending a LOT less time on them. To me, it is very clear that Gau has a crush on Raikou, with a fair dose of hero worship mixed in. Folks, no straight guy pictures his friend with sparkles and a rose held between his teeth (here I will admit to adhering to the Kinsey Scale, so I think that a straight guy can fall in love with another guy… but that a gay guy can also fall in love with a girl). Sorry Gau, but you have teh gay for Raikou. Hero worship bleeding into romantic feelings happens all the time in real life, so this comes off as legit, too. Raikou obviously cares a lot about Gau, since he thinks about him a lot, and also because he bursts into tears when he realizes, as Gau is unconscious and on a ventilator, how much Gau cares about him. They slash themselves, the viewer need do no work.

But in this it also seems realistic, since we get no buttsekhs moments or crazy-ass BL-angst moments. It happens as people’s relationships really do – naturally. It doesn’t happen all at once, it is a slow realization over time, a blur between the different ways in which a person matters to another. And it’s really nice to watch, just to see a sort of innocent affection coming to bloom.

Holy shit, I’m a sap, aren’t I?