This is the second vertical AI BL drama I've sat through, and honestly I went in knowing better. I had it on while I was doing cardio at the gym, and what struck me was just how much the plot echoed the last one I watched. Same step brother romance angle, same mystery girlfriend showing up near the end, same extra guy pining after one of the leads. Genuinely the only thing going for it was the runtime, the whole thing wrapped up in forty five minutes flat. The setup kicks off with Finn moving schools because his mom just married into money. He finds out his new step brother Aiden goes to the same place, and he's warned to keep his distance from him. Their first run in at school is rocky, just like you'd expect, but there's this odd pull between them neither can shake off. Finn keeps telling himself not to read into it because Aiden's straight and openly homophobic. Things shift when some kids start bullying Finn and the student council president, Ryan, steps in to ...
The plot is simple. Hibiki works as a bartender and is a secretly obsessed fundashi (boys who enjoy romantic or sexual relationship between two men), who likes to draw BL, watch anime etc. But at work he pretends to be your regular run-of-the mill guy. While working, he loves to day dream about real life people in front of him in various BL scenarios. When the first two customers arrive, he has funny day dreams about them. Hibiki’s overactive imagination often misconstrues their innocuous interactions as romantic connections. He gets overexcited about his fantasies, often lost in his own world. This continues when his older boss' male friend comes to meet him. When a young bartender joins at work, he even dreams of shipping them with two separate customers, till he feels maybe those two are better with each other.
The humor in this funny outlandish comedy comes mostly from the lead man's hysterical reactions to his own imaginations. He has this relentless enthusiasm and almost every scene is silly and energetic. The jokes may not be the best but the lead's reactions and excitement cover up for everything. He captures the suaveness of a bartender and combines it with the giddiness of a fudanshi. The actor is just too good. The other actors playing his colleague are decent in their. part but the focus is so much on Hibiki and rightly so, that you barely have even time to notice anyone else. Don't expect too much of actual romance happening here, since all the scenarios actually happen in Hibiki's imagination. Despite no plot development, character growth, or meaningful progress; the show still worked as a collective of gag humour, mainly because of the amazing acting by the lead. An interesting thing was also that all his BL scenarios were normally based on the drinks that he would make and the story behind that would also add to the humor.
Those who love silly comedies may respond well to the offbeat humour in Fudanshi Bartender. It parodies BL tropes cheekily with outrageous scenarios, wacky characters, and over-the-top fantasies. I quiet enjoyed it for what it is and if you wanna have a good laugh and watch something silly, I would definitely recommend this. (6.5/10)
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PS : do you think the owner can actually see something with his hair???
And I agree. I am glad it was only 2 episodes. Any longer would have diluted the silliness and fun of the show.