Ai no kusabi

The 2012's version didn't and couldn't surpass it, even with all the good animation and character design. I have never been a fujoshi, I avoid BL and GL anime almost like my life depends it. But Ai no Kusabi was different. The dystopian setup, unique hierarchy system and my god the ending- the ending lives in my head rent free.

This could've been an amazing sci-fi anime, if it wasn't a BL. Because, you know, BL is always romance focused. I felt bad for Riki. And I fell in love wit Iason Mink. I have a thing for men with long and light colored hair. And this captive, captor romance is my guilty pleasure.

Part 1:

Love Wedge 1 feels pretty ahead of its time. I feel like it's more than just a gay anime though (which is admittedly the main part that feels revolutionary by the standards of the early 1990s), as there's a really interesting futuristic world established here. It doesn't build that world seamlessly, but you get the general gist of what it's all about, even if I wonder whether the divide between light haired and dark haired people would be rendered obsolete by hair dye (maybe it dyed out in the future hah hah).

Still, the idea of dividing a society this way, having everyone be men, and the way the different groups treat each other... it's all quite interesting. Might well be a shame that this story only lasts two instalments because I kind of dig what it's going for and what it managed to establish.

Part 2:

Love Wedge 2 is probably heavier on the romance/melodrama side of things than the science fiction stuff which I found more interest in, in the first part. It all raced towards an ending and made me feel like this overall could've been a bit longer than it was, with just two episodes in the miniseries overall, even if both parts technically make the entire thing feature-length.

I guess there are still affecting parts of Love Wedge 2. It's still fairly well-presented, and the ending is good, but it flounders a bit on the way there, and somehow doesn't feel as grand or emotionally rich as it could be. Part of it leaves me a bit cold, but it still works decently enough. I'd say the first part's better, but anyone after the oddly specific flavor of anime this provides may as well watch both halves.