Polished Series with Compelling Characters

I enjoyed watching and rewatching Utsukushii Kare a lot. The story is interesting. Though the plot might seem typical and the characters might seem mere tropes when you read the blurb on this site, the series goes way beyond that. In fact, it seems to want to break those tropes down. Kiyoi and Hira (and even Koyama) are rounded characters. Through the switching perspectives and them maturing from high school to university age, you get to follow their development and dynamics properly. While watching this show, I constantly re-evaluated my opinions of the characters. If you don't like a character in the first few episodes, keep watching, because once you get the other perspective, you might suddenly shift sides!

The acting is decent overall. Very good for BL standards. Takano Akira (Koyama)'s genuine acting really shines, making a possibly annoying side-character into a real person with complex emotions. I doubted Yagi Yusei (Kiyoi)'s acting a bit at the start, but in the later episodes, Yagi Yusei (Kiyoi)'s acting gets really impressive. (I'm still shaky from that one scene in the last episode.) Hagiwara Riku (Hira)'s acting is consistently decent and his narration is very pleasant to listen to.

The outro song "Follow" by Roce is great. It really suits the series and specifically Hira's wild adoration. The soundtrack overall is lovely. I particularly like the piano piece that plays when they get along during high school times.

The camera work is nice. It's very polished overall. I was impressed by how the lighting was used to express the different moods of the characters.

Due to the switching perspectives, Utsukushii Kare naturally has high re-watch value. But even aside from that. I think I've watched most of the episodes more than seven times, just to catch all the little details, and I'm not bored yet.

I really hope they make a season two and three based on the novels.

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