Junjou Romantica

3 couples for a classic Yaoi series.


Junjou Romantica is a Boys Love manga by Shungiku Nakamura. It follows the interrelated stories of three different couples as they navigate the ups and downs of romantic relationships. The series has an anime adaptation, the first season of which ran for 12 episodes, and a second season running another 12 episodes. In March 2012 it was announced that an OVA was in production to be released alongside the manga's 16th volume.

The central pair are university student Takahashi Misaki and Usami "Usagi-san" Akihiko, an eccentric, award-winning author. The two get off to a rocky start: Misaki has been raised by his older brother Takahiro ever since the two lost their parents years ago. Takahiro is oblivious to his good friend Usagi's unrequited love for him, but Usagi's feelings are obvious to Misaki. Misaki dislikes Usagi at first, but comes to sympathize with him and the two grow closer. When Takahiro and his new wife move away, Misaki moves in with Usagi to remain close to his college of choice. Despite often being at odds with each other, they fall in love.

Temperamental Kamijou Hiroki is a childhood friend of Usami Akihiko (yes, that kind of friend). Hiroki is heartbroken over his own unrequited love when Kusama Nowaki unexpectedly enters his life. Nowaki is an orphan who started working straight out of junior high. Aiming for college, Nowaki asks Hiroki to be his tutor and won't take no for an answer. This being a BL series, the situation leads up to a love confession from Nowaki. Hiroki is initially reluctant, but Nowaki's kindness and persistence win him over. Their story picks up again six years later, a year after Nowaki suddenly left to study medicine abroad. When he returns just as suddenly, Hiroki is forced to think about what Nowaki means to him and the two must reevaluate their relationship.

Miyagi You is a college professor and a colleague of Hiroki's. First seen playfully teasing the easily ruffled Hiroki, it is later revealed that his cheerful demeanor actually covers up a deeper sadness caused by a tragedy in his past. Miyagi finds an unlikely suitor in Takatsuki Shinobu, a high school student and his ex-wife's younger brother. Miyagi continually rejects him, but Shinobu stubbornly refuses to give up his pursuit. Miyagi begins to realize that he needs to move on and that Shinobu's affection may not be so unwanted after all.

Has a Character Sheet!!


Available subtitled on DVD.

Tropes used in Junjou Romantica include:
  • Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: For all that Misaki brushes off, derides, and criticizes Usagi's professions of love (and ownership), he sure is quick on the draw when his senpai seizes the chance to make a move on Usagi.
    • Also, when Mizuki enters the picture Misaki snaps into defensive mode literally within the space of five minutes of meeting him. Never mind that Mizuki's in love with Kaoruko.
    • Hiroki may be embarrassed by the slightest display of affection from Nowaki, but the second he thinks Nowaki might be feeling hurt or, worse, drifting away from him, out come the dramatic confessions. And occasional leather bags.
    • Miyagi initially showed strong resistance to Shinobu's repeated declarations of love, but panicked and raced to the airport the minute he thought he'd lost Shinobu for good.
    • Asahina may be The Stoic, but he lost his shit when he saw Isaka accepting a marriage meeting.
  • Baka: One of Misaki's favorite words when describing Usagi, and, well, just about everyone in the Usami family. Justified somewhat in that they all do something stupid at least once.
  • Bedsheet Ladder: Misaki uses one in the second season after Haruhiko locks him in a room. It breaks.
  • Berserk Button: Patient, affectionate Nice Guy Nowaki can stay positive in the most dire of circumstances, but should anyone get too close to Hiroki, he can get possessive. And, in one case, physical.
  • Bi the Way: Since Miyagi's first love was a woman and he is currently very much in love with a man, he's probably this trope. It's probably interesting to note that sexual orientation is never polarized as specific in this series, and Misaki was seemingly interested in girls before he met Usami. But considering he never had a serious relationship in his life before that point, and he's only ever shown interest in Usagi, this is neither here nor there.
  • Big Fancy House: The Usami family's home.
  • Brick Joke: In the very first episode, when Misaki is guessing at Usagi's childhood, he guesses that he had a blonde long-haired dog named Alexander. No comment is made about this... until the second season, when Misaki gets to see Usagi's family home, notices the dog, and exclaims, "Alexander!"
  • Broken Bird: At least one of the partners in each couple are this, due to heartbreak (Hiroki), past trauma (Miyagi, Asahina), or both (Usagi).
  • Bug Buzz
  • Bunny Ears Lawyer:
    • Usagi is a talented, successful writer whose books have hit the best seller's list no matter what genre he writes in. He also sleeps in a room full of toys, has entire floors of his apartment devoted to, respectively, a 1/24th model of the Great Wall of China, a culture of marimo, and teddy bears. Oh, and Aikawa can speak for the validity of his deadlines.
    • Miyagi has a huge reputation among literary academics, but spends much of his time slacking off, reading horoscopes and annoying his colleague Hiroki.
    • More shown in Sekaiichi Hatsukoi and Mistake, but Isaka has some really odd habits and spends a lot of his time trying to find ways to get out of work. Everyone puts up with him though because he's a brilliant editor and Magnificent Bastard who you do not want to piss off.
  • Cannot Spit It Out: Misaki can't seem to get up the nerve to say "I love you" to Usagi, even when he, uh, really really tries.
    • However, Misaki does manage to say "I love you" in volume 8. Not that he ever says it again.
    • On a flipside, this is the main plot reason neither Takahiro, Hiroki's parents or Shinobu's family know they're having relationships with men.
  • Cast Full of Gay: Understandable, since it's a BL series with three main couples, but it still seems like Takahiro and Usagi's dad may be the only straight males in the entire series. But lately Mizuki and Kaoruko's relationship has gotten more attention. Aaand considering how Nakamura develops this particular universe (8 different stories across 2 different series), we'll probably get a spin-off with them as well.
  • Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Aikawa is the only recurring female character along with Kaoruko in the manga (it is a BL series, after all).
  • Censor Shadow: In the anime.
  • Cheerful Child: Misaki's nephew, and everyone featured in Junjou Minimum.
  • The Chew Toy: Takahashi Misaki tries to accommodate everyone, and it gets him burned every time...
  • Closed Door Rapport: When Nowaki confronts Hiroki about their breakup at Hiroki's workplace, Hiroki runs back to his office and locks Nowaki out causing a bit of a scene. He is not persuaded to open the door.
  • Coitus Uninterruptus: Even when Isaka and Aikawa barge into the bedroom to drag Akihiko to his commemoration party, Akihiko refuses to let Misaki get away. Isaka even says he'll give them ten minutes—and then continues to sit on the bedside.
  • Crazy Jealous Guy: Nowaki and Shinobu have their moments, but Usami Akihiko is made of this trope.
  • Defictionalization: The BL novels penned by Akihiko in-story have actually been released.
  • Destroy the Evidence: Anytime Usagi publishes a Junai Egoist BL Novel, Hiroki buys as many copies as he can to the point were his entire apartment is filled with them.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: Nowaki keeps persisting until Hiroki finally caves in.
  • Dysfunctional Family: The Usamis, both comically and tragically.
  • Fertile Feet: In the first opening theme song, flowers spring up under the feet of Misaki and Usagi as they walk.
  • Fiction 500: The Usagi family have ridiculously huge sums of money. Haruhiko built an aquarium basically for fun, and when planning to go to Fukuoka for a trip, two options for travel are apparently a private jet and a private helicopter. Let's not even mention the entire apartment floor Akihiko devoted to growing marimo, a 1/24th scale model of the Wall of China, and countless teddy bears. And this is in the most expensive part of Tokyo! To make it even clearer, 1 billion yen is cheap change!
  • Forgotten First Meeting: Nowaki recalls the day he found out the orphanage owners weren't his real parents and tried running away. He stops at a park when his tires go flat, only to have his future lover walk by, inquire, and then start dishing out life lessons about the obstacles kids must get through before tattling to the patrolman. Years later Nowaki remembers the encounter and mentions it to Hiroki, but neither realizes it was each other. Made funnier by Hiroki remarking that he probably grew up to be a horrible person.
  • Gratuitous English: When Shinobu's friend from Australia comes to visit, Shinobu delivers the infamous "YEH! I WAH RORRING ON ZA FROOR RAFFING!" line. It only gets worse when Miyagi joins in with "he'r be wiz me fo'a whire". Note that Shinobu is supposed to be quite skilled in English.
  • He Cleans Up Nicely: Ijuuin-sensei, who is first seen as a frightening mess in the manga and anime, is revealed to actually be quite the looker in a later manga chapter, to the amazement of Misaki and his friend.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Nearly all of the actors are well-known seiyuu, especially if you've watched other BL anime.
  • Hands-On Approach: Usagi starts to teach Misaki how to tie a tie after seeing him fail miserably. Usagi notices Misaki's shirt is buttoned up incorrectly. The situation escalated.
  • Holding Hands: Each of the main couples in the opening.
    • In episode nine, Akihiko holds Hiroki's hand as he walks him home, because they only have one pair of gloves between them.
    • It's also as close as Hiroki gets to expressing affection for Nowaki in public during their early dates.
    • Usagi and Misaki on their trip to Hokkaido. Misaki is embarassed, but Usagi notes that it's not like anyone they know is watching.
      • Which is weird considering Usagi is supposed to be famous.
  • Idiosyncratic Ship Naming: All named by the original author, no less. The ship names illustrate the running theme of their respective pairings.
  • If It's You It's Okay: Shinobu seems to be the only guy Miyagi's ever been interested in.
    • Misaki seems averse to the idea of going out with guys, and even states that he's not interested in them, but Usagi is a "special case."
  • I Have This Friend: Miyagi and Hiroki occasionally try to talk to each other about their relationship problems using this and "hypothetically speaking..."
  • Indirect Kiss: Misaki to Usagi. "How's that for erotic?!"
  • Insufferable Genius: Shinobu and Usagi are different variations.
  • Intertwined Fingers: Featured in Hiroki and Nowaki's first love scene.
  • In Vino Veritas: Hiroki, who has trouble expressing his feelings even to his lover, is a very talkative drunk and loves to go on about him and Nowaki. He invariably wakes up the next day having no memory of what he has said. Usagi takes advantage of this and gets him drunk whenever he needs more material for his Boys Love novels.
  • Lethal Chef: Both Usagi ("I tried boiling an egg in the microwave and it exploded") and Shinobu ("Oil, meat, veggies! Oil, meat, veggies!"), probably because of growing up in rich families.
  • Lonely Rich Kid: As seen in a flashback, Usami Akihiko used to be one of these until Hiro befriended him.
  • Love At First Sight: Nowaki fell in love with Hiroki at first sight.
  • Love Dodecahedron: Usagi, Haruhiko, and Ijuuin have passionate (?) feelings for Misaki, who is obviously in love with Usagi, while Kaoruko has a slight crush on him, and Mizuki, in turn, is in love with Kaoruko.
  • Magic Floppy Disk: What Usagi saves his writing on.
  • Manly Tears: Shinobu has the propensity to cry when Miyagi says something that proves that, contrary to what he thinks, their relationship is not at a dead end. After the grave scene in particular, Miyagi comments on Shinobu's "manly way of crying."
  • May–December Romance: If Usagi and Misaki don't qualify for this with their ten year age gap, Miyagi (in his thirties) and Shinobu (eighteen) surely do. This is often lampshaded by Miyagi, who is frequently disturbed by their age difference and the main reason why he backed away so quickly from Shinobu's advances at first. Shinobu, of course, doesn't even think it's an issue.
    • This is strangely contrasted with Nowaki and Hiroki where one of their big issues in their relationship is the four year age gap, mainly due to achievements which are tied to age: Hiroki is steadily advancing in his career while Nowaki is still a medical student.
  • The Messiah: Misaki is constantly friendly to everyone, and will do anything to help them out (even if it's to his own detriment) to the point where by the time he has finished university he has spent all his time trying to help and take care of other people and has no plans for himself. This does not always work out well for him, either. In fact, the only person where this differs is with Usagi, where he typically plays the Deadpan Snarker and will shut him down whenever he can... that said, the moment he thinks there is something wrong he will immediately worry and do whatever he can to fix it.
    • Case in point, Mizuki is constantly being horrible to Misaki and insulting him, and the only thing Misaki ever does is get annoyed at him, and even then he feels bad about that!
  • No Export for You: Because Tokyopop's Boy's Love label, BLU, is closing down along with Tokyopop, the 13th volume of the manga series will not be released in English.
  • No Social Skills: Usagi was raised in a family that was, er, a little abnormal. It may account for some weird habits he's picked up.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Miyagi, being the type of person to playfully glomp Hiroki just to annoy him, gets into a few misunderstandings when Shinobu walks in on them once or twice, even though Miyagi's just joking around - well, except maybe that scene in the Egoist arc. No one knows what that's about.
    • Arguably subverted when Hiroki comes home to discover Nowaki asleep and half-naked with another man on the floor. Nowaki says several times that nothing was going on and it wasn't what it looked like—but Hiroki never really thought it was, because he knows Nowaki doesn't lie to him. He does think something is going on, but he doesn't suspect Nowaki of cheating on him.
  • Official Couple: The series focuses on three different official couples, with a fourth couple, Isaka and Asahina, featured as a manga extra.
  • One Head Taller: All three couples.
  • Perpetual Frowner: Shinobu. Even in the opening theme.
  • Please Don't Leave Me: Hiroki to Nowaki. A non-verbal approach.
  • The Power of Love
  • Promotion to Parent: Takahiro to his little brother Misaki in backstory. Misaki feels that his brother is overprotective at times, though Takahiro is probably justified in his worries because of Misaki's Extreme Doormat tendency.
  • Puppy Love: Occurs in-universe with Junjo Minimum chapters, namely the central backstory of young Hiroki and young Akihiko, and one serendipitous encounter between young Hiroki and his future partner, Nowaki.
  • Race For Your Love: Miyagi rushes to the airport when he hears that Shinobu is going back to Australia.
  • Rape and Switch: It seems that Usagi is homo due to being raped, although this is only implied.
  • Rape Is Love: After Usagi molests Misaki for the first time, Misaki somehow gets over it very quickly. Unusually, this is actually addressed later, with Usagi feeling guilty and wondering if Misaki really loves him.
  • Rape as Backstory: Implied with Usagi. When Misaki is accidentally guessing his life story correctly, part of what he guesses is that he was taken advantage of by an older boy (in the anime, "He did naughty things to you." In the manga, "He violated you."). Add to that the fact that "an older boy" in England told 10-year-old Usagi that a kiss was a "cheering-up charm"...
  • Rushed Inverted Reading: Hiro-san once does this to hide his embarassment in front of Nowaki. He doesn't notice, and neither did most of the watchers until the subs told them.
  • Second Love: Usagi was in love with Misaki's brother first, Hiroki was in love with Usagi before he met Nowaki, and Miyagi was in love with his teacher before she died.
  • Secret Test of Character: Haruhiko makes a move on Misaki at Usagi's publisher's office but it was set up by Isaka to test if Misaki can stand up for himself.
  • "Shut Up" Kiss: Usagi uses this to stop Misaki from crying.
  • Sick Episode: In a short Egoist chapter, Nowaki is ill and Hiroki runs down the list of nursing cliches while worriedly taking care of him. Of course, in the end it's revealed that Nowaki wasn't sick at all, just tired, and Hiroki was getting ahead of himself. And in the end Hiroki gets sick.
  • Single Man Seeks Good Man: A common theme amongst all relationships.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: Hiroki walks in on Shinobu and Miyagi in an embrace. Panicked, Miyagi yells, "I am not doing anything scandalous!"
  • This and That: Usagi, on his and Misaki's nighttime activities: "I make your this-and-that dirty and wet, then I thrust my this-and-that into you..."
  • Throw the Book At Them: Hiroki.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: As a flashback shows, Hiroki was in love with Akihiko for a long time. It didn't work out.
  • Unsound Effect

Misaki: INDIRECT KISS!

  • Theme Naming: The Usami family: Akihiko, Haruhiko, and their father Fuyuhiko ("aki," "haru," and "fuyu" being the Japanese words for "autumn," "spring," and "winter" respectively).
  • Shout-Out: Anyone notice the Kuroshitsuji references? Butler names Tanaka and Sebastian! Unless of course Kuroshitsuji references this series.
    • Well, actually, this troper reckons that due to Usami Akihiko being a walking stereotype of a rich boy with a troubled past, Misaki automatically assumes that the butler must be stereotypically named Sebastian. He was wrong, instead it is Tanaka, possibly one of the most ordinary Japanese surnames ever (like Smith for westerners). Even the Usami family pet names are stereotypical: Alexander for the long-haired dog, and Tama for the cat.
  • Tsundere: Hiroki is a more volatile Type A, while Misaki is a nice-guy-slash-pushover Type B with berserk buttons that Usagi likes toying with a little too much. Kaoruko is also this toward Misaki.
  • Whole-Episode Flashback
  • Write Who You Know: An in-story example, where one of the characters uses the names of people he knows for his stories. Misaki is quite annoyed when he finds he's been written into Usagi's BL novels...
    • And then there's Nakamura herself. In an adjacent series (set in the same universe) Sekaiichi Hatsukoi the main characters work in a publishing company editing shojo manga. Most of their lives are spent trying to get mangaka's to finish their work on time and hand it in! There are a lot of apologetic little notes in the corner along the lines of "this is what a good mangaka should do but, er..." It gets to the point where there is heavy leaning on the Fourth Wall.
  • Yaoi Fangirl: Aikawa, Usagi's editor. Her input greatly influences the content of the BL novels Usagi pens on the side.
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