Gakuen Heaven Makes Me Happy!

Bishies, bishies, bishies everywhere! The new anime series Gakuen Heaven, which is based on a BL game of the same name (I hope JAST USA brings this over soon!), just aired its first episode on April 1st in Japan. Then, thanks to the glorious network of yaoi fangirls out there, it was promptly fansubbed and put up on the internet in no time flat. I just downloaded it last night and had a small squee-fest when I sat down to watch it first thing this morning.

I don't know much about the series, but let me tell you what is promising about it. First, it's chalk full of HOT bishies that could appeal to every taste. We've got boys with glasses, short hair, long hair, some are slim and delicate, others are more athletic--I mean it's all pretty much there. A buffet of bishonen goodness! Not only that, but they go to an all boys high school called BL Academy! (Hee-hee! I laughed about that for about three full minutes!)

The first episode sets up some of the relationships between the various characters, but leaves a lot yet to be determined. Everything is given in a manner that wet's the appetitie but does not satisfy fully--basically, the narrative is already in medias res, so we have to wait to find out backstory on everyone. Frustrating, to be sure, but fun nonetheless.

Case in point--the story introduces a delicious little tension between two computer hackers at the school and they express their repressed desires for one another through their computers via a hack-off if you will. Now I'm looking forward to seeing what goes down between them in the next episode!

Then we have two seemingly identical twin brothers who are very...er, close. And then there's the main character and his older brother. It's not clear if they're biological brothers or not, but it seems the older one left home and hasn't seen the younger brother for years. Fast forward to the present, and said younger bro is a cute teen who mysteriously gets accepted at the elite BL Academy. It's hinted at that his older bro is the headmaster of the school and has arranged this transfer, but he remains shrouded in mystery--which I'm sure will unfold later! But the obviously incestuous undercurrent is interesting. This seems to be a pretty common trope in yaoi (if the recent publications here by DramaQueen manga are anything to go by) and has long been a key subgenre of slash fiction. I'll be intrigued to see what they do with it.

While I really loved the first episode, my only real complaint is that it spent so much time introducing all these hotties and baiting us with little narrative tidbits that I couldn't help but feel frustrated that I have to wait for the next episode to explain some of this stuff! Plus, this first episode ended on a pretty crazy cliffhanger (how they managed this is still amazing given that very little happened in the story!) that had me biting my nails. :) Needless to say, I've found a new series that makes me smile like a Cheshire cat.

Being able to download this episode was a nice early birthday present! My thanks go out to the dedicated folks out there who got this subbed and out to us in such a timely manner. Much love!