After a couple of years off, the creators finally dropped a third season of this show, oddly titled with 2024 in it for some reason I genuinely can't figure out. The story basically picks up right where things left off, following our lead Mobu as he keeps trying to survive inside this whole BL universe, just another character desperately trying not to fall for another guy. Season two left us with his relationship with Kikuchi, and this season kicks off right as Kikuchi heads off to university, which means Mobu's single again and honestly couldn't be happier about it. With six episodes, each running about 23 minutes, this is a quick, easy watch. Now that Mobu's back to being single, he's got to stay alert for every signal or trope that could end up pulling him into another relationship with a guy if he's not careful. So across these episodes, we watch him run into two of these signals per episode through the people around him and how they end up falling for each ...
Eric, a budding musician, is preparing for an important audition and his teacher is not really happy with his progress. The day gets worse when traveling in bus, a ruffian Lyokha simply takes Erik’s headphones and phone, leaving his keychain behind. Even though Eric's teacher advised him proper rest, he decides to spend a night with his boyfriend(?) and his other gay friends all night drinking. Lyokha uses Erik’s stolen cell phone to get hold of Eric and ask him to return his keychain. This brings the two together again and initiates an uneasy dance of sorts in which both characters start to realize they might be attracted to the other or at least want to spend more time in each other’s company, probably exactly because they seem to be polar opposites.
It’s clear from the get-go that their their attraction is as much based on their contrasting backgrounds and class differences as on their shared loneliness. Eric is gay for sure which we know at the every beginning, but Lyokha's feelings come more as a surprise, since he probably hasn't seen any affection by anyone in the past. The two lead actors are also the co-directors of this film , but the shaky camerawork and low budget with shots mostly in dark wintry nights over the course of two days is something that I just couldn't connect with. As actors they are both charismatic and do a good job but how I wish that was enough to hold my attention. I tried my best to connect with story, the characters or anything, but either I wasn't in the right frame of mind, or I am definitely missing something. This independent film has received some glaring reviews online and I wonder what is it that I can't see in it that everyone else is. Maybe someone here can help me. (3/10)
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