We’re exploring all kinds of family structures today, aren’t we?

My reaction to this episode. ^

The thing is, I generally enjoy No. 6 when Shion and Nezumi aren’t together. But when they are, it’s a complete disaster. It’s like they copy-pasted their personalities out of the frickin’ yaoi fangirl manual. They’re both handsome bishounen. Nezumi is the seme and the one who wears the pants. Shion is weak and emotional and all that.

My problem isn’t that they’re gay: two of my favorite shows are Hourou Musuko and Simoun, which explore issues of gender. No. 6 has more ridiculous and rigid conceptions of gender than the perceived 1950’s suburban America (just different genders). For crying out loud, they even had a scene where Shion is a stay at home wife, cooking and waiting for his husband to come home from work. Nezumi gets home, takes off his coat, and goes to bed, taking out his anger on his wife.

It gets even worse when combined with the corny acting. Nezumi’s favorite activity is grabbing Shion’s collar and pushing him against the wall. Shion is so naive he doesn’t realize the woman kissing him is a whore. Then Nezumi steals an indirect kiss from Shion using the same prositute. Later, Shion gasps upon hearing that Nezumi would have women lining up for him if he became a prostitute, and then attempts to murder the person who said it (jealousy?). He then starts crying because the guy “said all those mean things” and Nezumi isn’t angry. I just wanted to strangle Shion at this point. I honestly think that Rin from Usagi Drop has a higher level of maturity.

Let’s look at some other brilliant quotes from Shion. “I want to know more about you!” “I find myself drawn to you.” And describing Nezumi: “His voice carries away their souls / Like the wind carries away a flower’s petals.” Gah!!! Could this get any cornier? (don’t answer that: I’m sure it could)

This show can be good when it focuses on the sci-fi aspects and doesn’t have Shion and Nezumi together. The only scenes I enjoyed this episode were the ones with the dog renter. I did laugh at Shion naming the rats as well.

The preview for next week indicates that our semen-seeking friend will return, so perhaps we can dare to hope that the episode will resemble the first episode more than it resembles a yaoi doujinshi.