Customer Reviews

Boys Be..., Vol. 1 - Spring

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Boys Be contains the stories you hope you have as a teen, you know stories of your first love. The story revolves around six students that aren't looking for relationships but somehow one falls into their hands, some of them stop before they start and some survive through the first volume. In some anime the girls will be the ones with boy trouble. In other stories where the guys have girl trouble you can usually chalk it up to them being perverts that don't know how to talk to girls cause their to busy trying to feel them up. In Boys Be you get a little bit of everything, a pervert, an athlete, and a regular guy and all of them are friends. In the end they end up with an unexpected gift of love. It is a little funny watching these guys talking to each other about girls seeing as they know absolutely nothing.

After seeing Boys Be I see where Diamond Daydreams gets its style and storyline from but Boys Be doesn't get boring after the first couple of episodes. Though the problem will be the same in every episode Boys Be just gets more interesting, which was a problem in Diamond Daydreams. In the end they end up with an unexpected gift of love. To be honest I didn't think a series with a story that focuses on six characters over a 13-episode span would work but here it does. In Diamond Daydreams it takes 2 episodes to introduce you to one character and 13 to sum up everything else. But in Boys Be every character is taken care of in one episode and nothing even seems rushed. Plus the character doesn't just fall back for the rest of the series, each character progresses and has someting to do with future episodes. The animation could be a little better, it looks a little foggy and aged though it was made in 2000 but the story makes up for it. Boys Be is a must see anime especially to get some laughs.

There's a lot of shojo anime and manga out there that deal with romance from the girl's point of view but Boys Be takes the unique move of showing romance from the GUY'S point of view. And no, that doesn't mean it's all about getting a girl into bed, so leave those thoughts at the door. No, the guys in this first volume are just as romantic and given to flights of fancy towards the object of their emotions as any shojo heroine. The first three episodes concern a group of three guys who are buddies, with each of them having an episode where they are the star. Kyoichi THINKS he likes his childhood friend Chiharu, or does he, or maybe it's just because she's "sprouting" out as a woman in different directions? Will he be able to work out his feelings and will he be able to admit them? Next up is Makoto who keeps all his female classmate's stats and info on a palm pilot for ready access and thinks about how to bag girls all the time, but really he's just as much a sucker for a cute girl as any of them. When he gets in a moped accident because of his wandering eye and is laid up in the hospital, he begins to fall for his nurse! Lastly is the athletic but contemplative Yoshihiko who, while retreiving an errant ball from baseball practice catches a falling girl in his arms who promptly places a lip-locked kiss on his mouth! Who is this girl?

Boys Be Volume 1 had a beautiful charm to it that just put a smile on your face. These guys and gals aren't looking for much. They're just looking for love or more likely the experience of being near someone who makes you feel excited about life. While some of these episodes don't exactly have happy endings, they have WISE endings, meaning that even if things don't work out, these kids are young enough that they can move on. Their experiences with love are just learning curves for when they get to be adults. This is a great show.

If you want the same kind of stories from a woman's point of view you should check out the excellent Diamond Daydreams which is a bit of a sleeper masterpiece. I would also recommend His and Her Circumstances.

This title is definitely not your typical anime. The use of live models in the credits and ad pause tends to clash with its otherwise serious and thoughtful storyline, as if to say "yeah we know what you want, but getting it aint easy". The three male protagonists are all likable in thier own way, and each one experiences love in ways that almost everyone can relate to. In spite of the temptation inherant in telling about love from such a perspective, there are few of the cheap jokes one might expect, and no more than passing hints at sexual interests.
What this story is ultimately is a charming, thoughtful little tale, that's almost too subtle in its telling. I enjoyed this DVD a great deal and look forward to seeing more.

First of all this is for the entire series. Boys Be is just a great series. It's about life. From a Boy's POV. With some amazing storytelling. You really come to like to the characthers. And feel for them when life is hard and smile for them when they're happy. I laughed and smiled at each story. With an awesome dub cast. This is just a Beautiful anime!