Junjou Romantica

A romance between a super-famous novelist and a hardworking college student, this fresh-style BL manga by Shungiku Nakamura (known for works such as "Higashiyama Dou Tenchi Ii Monogatari") has recently been adapted into two anime seasons. The story follows the pure love affair between Takahashi Misaki, an energetic college student, and Usami Akihiko, also known as Sensei Uki, a young and handsome writer who won the Naomori Award but sometimes writes risqué BL novels. After meeting Misaki, the novelist wrote numerous BL novels based on their own story. Although Misaki frequently protested, his objections seem to have been in vain. The troubles currently facing Misaki remain Usami Haruhiko (the novelist's older brother) and the strawberry foods he delivers daily. Incidentally, his lover (?!) Sensei Uki also jumps in without losing out, so Misaki spends every day living as if he might be crushed to death by strawberries... The original work is a same-named BL manga serialized by Shungiku Nakamura in Kadokawa Shoten's magazine CIEL supplement Tres Tres. To date, the manga has sold 2.5 million copies, making it a highly popular BL comic. Although the title is "Junjou Romantica" (Pure Love Romance), the previously released drama CDs contain varying degrees of explicit sexual content, so the term "pure" likely needs to be taken with a grain of salt. It was unclear whether the anime adaptation would tone things down (though many fans probably didn't want it to = =). As it turned out, while the manga isn't "pure" and the dramas aren't "pure," the anime can be described as absolutely pure. Its release brought hope to fujoshi (BL fans) but also some disappointment. Junjou Romantica was arguably the most anticipated BL anime among the new spring season releases. For a BL anime, beyond the story and handsome characters, the voice actors are the biggest draw. The previous drama CD cast featured famous names, and the newly announced anime cast is equally prestigious; as everyone hoped, the main voice actors remained exactly the same as the original team. Additionally, the opening and ending theme songs were finalized, performed by pigstar and SCRIPT respectively. Following the excellent ratings of the first season, the second season premiered in October 2008 as another highly anticipated new series. The OP and ED for the second season were also decided to be performed by the same two singers from the first season, meaning everything remains consistent with Season 1.