Dou kyu sei – Classmates (2016)
同級生
Film details
Romance · Animation · Shouko Nakamura · 1h 0min
Synopsis
Rihito Sajo, an honor student with a perfect score on the entrance exam and Hikaru Kusakabe, in a band and popular among girls, would have never crossed paths. Until one day they started talking at the practice for their school’s upcoming chorus festival. After school, the two meet regularly, as Hikaru helps Rihito to improve his singing skills. While they listen to each other’s voice and harmonize, their hearts start to beat together.
Verdict
Normalizes adolescent homosexuality by presenting it as an equivalent and natural romance.
In-depth analysis
The work builds a homosexual romance between two teenagers with the classic narrative structure of youthful love: encounter, friendship, falling in love, shared growth. The underlying problem is not that the film features homosexual characters, but that it presents this relationship as a natural and positive equivalent to love between a man and a woman, without any critical distance. The story is designed for the viewer to accompany this bond with empathy and celebrate it as an act of courage and authenticity. The staging opts for tenderness and aesthetic lightness: shared soft drinks, changing seasons, the passage of time as a benevolent witness to this love. There are no villains or external obstacles that point to the moral conflict — the narrative eliminates all tension between nature and desire. For parents, the question is not whether the film possesses artistic quality or emotional sensitivity, but what anthropology it transmits to their children about love, identity, and human sexuality. Not recommended for minors.