Smells Like Green Spirit (2024)

Not a typical BL, coming of age and discovering yourself

While many of us not understanding japanese have gripes with some of the subtitles, the second negative was the wig. It was a distraction in the whole series. It's not such projects are done overnight, so after casting they could have told him to grow his hair and use extensions.

The third negative is the ending for one of the characters, keeping in the closet, being at least gay and denying himself to be truly happy but getting married for the "family".

The ending for Mishima could be closer to the manga where you see him living with Fujimoto together as a happy couple.

Other than that, the team removed some of the harshest scenes from the manga and tuned it down for normal viewers in contrast to "Happy of the End" which was raw. Other than that, the story was very close to the manga, the acting and cinematography was really good.

Mishima grows after enduring mental and sexual abuse, also with help of his understanding mother. The change of Fujimoto from bully to lover was also nicely done.

Overall a depcition of the harsh reality in a rural area in the 1990ties which is still common nowadways where especially boys who do not conform to expectations of society are still bullied without reason and due to bad parenting. There should be licence to be a parent imho, because it's a lot harder than driving a car.

When you find a service which offers good subtitles, you should watch it, but don't expect a BL, because it's a gay series which is a trend I wholeheartedly approve of.

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