This is your typical indie coming-of-age tale about a teenager, though it’s clearly working with a very tiny budget. Set within a migrant family living in Southern California’s Coachella Valley, the movie digs into how fragile old-school traditions and expectations can be. We follow a teenage son as he goes through the process of coming out and struggles to find acceptance while dealing with homophobia, domestic abuse, and a messy love triangle that involves his own sister. Goyo is seventeen and just about to graduate from high school. Since he’s been a bit more feminine since he was a little kid, he’s always had to deal with emotional and physical transition from his dad, Ramon, who is obsessed with him being "a man." The only real love he gets is from a lady next door who actually respects him for who he is. The family lives in a Mexican community where everyone works on a grape farm, but things get shaken up when a new guy named Lucio arrives. Lucio basically seduces Goyo ...
Mio is a high school, recently orphaned student, who spends every night sitting on a bench by the beach. Shun Hashimoto sees him every night while working at his grandma's cafe and decides to approach him. After initial awkwardness they are able to make a very small conversation. However, Mio's reaction towards Shun reaching out to him reminds him of the estrangement from his parents after they discovered his sexual orientation. Soon after, Mio moves to mainland to study but comes back after three years as a tenant in Shun's grandma's house. Mio, honestly confesses his love for Shun, but Shun is not very sure. Although after sometime he eventually gives in. Some time passes, and out of nowhere, Shun's ex-fiance appears on the island to persuade Shun to visit his father whose health is not doing too well. Given his past experience Shun is wary of going back, but Mio urges him to return to reconcile with his family. Finally Shun realizes that Mio is truly and deeply in love with him, although both have their share of doubts. In the end, Shun asks Mio to join him in the trip to visit his family.
My big problem with this anime was that it would go suddenly into flashbacks (and there were plenty of those), and you really have to pay attention on the fact that it has suddenly gone into flashback plus whose story they are showing and all that. Besides that, it was just really a cute little story. The story does move at a fast pace and there area lot of characters, which keep coming and out. There are 2 girls who keep appearing and we are never told who they are. Its like they are Shun's side kicks. The anime was nice, I guess. Some situations were interesting, for example the whole thing about them wanting to have sex and talking about it. I also loved how they support each other in the relationship. But besides these cute little moments, overall this has nothing new to offer. Its pretty run-of-the mill standard stuff that we have seen multiple times, this time just in anime format. (5/10)
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