Boys Be...

Boys Be… is a romantic comedy from 2000 that is more from the boys point of view than normally found in the genre. The 13 episode series is based on the manga of the same name.

    The story revolves around a small group of high school students over the course of a year or so. We follow the students as they grow and explore the world of dating, through the good times and the bad. The central relationship is that between Kyoichi Kanzaki and Chiharu Nitta. As childhood friends they end up going out. Due to being inexperienced high school students lacking the ability to properly communicate, their relationship goes through trials and errors. When Chiharu finds another man over summer vacation things take a turn for the worse between the two long time friends.

    Kyoichi’s friends, Makoto Kurumizawa and Yoshihiko Kenjo, have similar relationship luck. Makoto is the typical girl obsessed pervert, keeping statistics on all of the girls in school. When he ends up in the hospital with a broken leg he falls in love with a mild mannered nurse. Yoshihiko is the stalwart jock, who shows little to no interest in anything past baseball. A number of women he runs into through out the series change his mind but they all lead to disappointment and lack of fulfillment. In addition to these main male leads are a number of female cast members, some of whom have relationships with auxiliary characters and some of whom revolve between the three male leads through out the series.

    The story can be described as a harem anime, what with some of the male leads revolving through love interests so frequently. Yet to call it a harem title wouldn’t be wholly accurate. It is not like all of the female characters are all chasing the same person at the same time, trying to get his attention above all else. Many of the relationships begin when others have ended, characters taking advantage of the open opportunities to experience something they have yearned for quietly on the sidelines. That’s not to say that the series isn’t filled with its moments. It is one of the better romances I have watched, but nothing overly special. We see the same scenarios played over in other such titles and the same personality hang ups. Then again these things are universal with adolescent love anyways. Don’t expect anything new with this series, just more of the usual fair. As with most series this length and depth its best used as a quick fix between the really great romances. Although, this one is pretty good on its own, I was moved a few times and wouldn’t be adverse to watching it again or reading the manga.

UPDATE: This series was licensed in North America by The Right Stuf International, is available on DVD and apparently even legitimately on YouTube.