#utsukushii kare S2E1

[lollipopsub]

lollipopsub: Utsukushii Kare (S2E1) [ENG SUB]

Y'all I finally did it.

The first episode of Utsukushii Kare Season 2 with English subtitles by me.

Link:

I have also reuploaded all of season 1 onto here, so if anyone is up for marathons, go ahead!

Feel free to reblog, share & use my subs as you like (except retranslating/take without credit) as I’m just hoping to help spread my love for the show to more people!

I hope you enjoy!!

disclaimer: i’m not a native speaker in neither English or Japanese, but I do hold JLPT1 and a degree in translating. My subs are not perfect and may contain minor mistakes.

[scarefox]

god he’s such a simp (affectionate)

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Utsukushii Kare master post

With Utsukushii Kare: Eternal becoming available on streaming in Japan and rumors of international streaming distribution on the horizon, I thought this might be a good time to do a roundup post of all of my meta writing on the series so far. There's quite a bit of it. Between the complexity of the psychological themes in this series and my capacity for hyperfocus, I ended up with a lot to say.

In case it doesn't go without saying, this post is subject to change as I continue to post on this topic.

The psychological paradoxes of Utsukushii Kare

This is a series of posts (the current plan is to write three installments) about what it says on the tin: paradoxical psychological dynamics in Utsukushii Kare. These are things about the characters that may seem contradictory at first but can be accounted for by digging deeper into some psychological concepts. These posts are focused on the series (both seasons) but will draw from the movie and from the novel and related stories when they illustrate points about the series.

Part 1: Covert grandiosity and finding status through idealization - A pretty deep dive into 1) the subtle ways Hira shows that while his self-image can be highly negative in some ways, in other respects he feels superior to others and 2) how by elevating Kiyoi’s status and humbling himself in comparison, Hira attains a different kind of status.

An addendum of sorts to part 1: Hira's parents and his self-defeating tendencies - Some guesswork about how Hira's parents could have contributed to his self-defeating personality, with some further discussion of specific self-defeating strategies he uses in his relationship with Kiyoi and elsewhere.

Utsukushii Kare through the lens of pursuer-distancer dynamics and related psychological concepts:

The pursuer-distancer dyad & how it applies to the world of BL - a primer on this psychological concept and how it applies to BL generally, with a brief reference to how this concept applies to Utsukare (also touches on Semantic Error and talks in detail about an example from To My Star 2). This one isn't super focused on Utsukushii Kare but is pretty de rigeur for understanding my UK posts on this topic.

Paradoxical roles; or, I think I finally figured out the pursuer-distancer dynamic in Utsukushii Kare - This post comes after some of the posts listed below but I recommend reading it first as this is really where (I think) I cracked the code on this aspect of the story.

Pursuer-distancer roles & attachment style in Utsukushii Kare, Part 1: Hira - In-depth discussion of Hira's role in the pursuer-distancer dyad, his attachment style, and his personality

Pursuer-distancer roles and attachment style in Utsukushii Kare Part 2: Kiyoi - In-depth discussion of Kiyoi's role in the pursuer-distancer dyad, his attachment style, and his personality

Re-evaluating pursuing & distancing in Utsukushii Kare season 1 - super detailed post working out my thoughts about pursuing and distancing in season 1

On the way Sakai Mai (the series' director) uses seme left, uke right framing and its significance in BL and other Japanese media:

Using an example from the s2e1 with the girl who hits on Hira at a party (via a reblog of a gifset from @nanons)

On the way Sakai flips Hira's and Kiyoi's position in the frame in two versions of the same scene and what it tells us about its significance

How the persistent/cute trope plays out in Utsukushii Kare season 2, plus related overanalyses of the big season 2 finale kiss:

The persistent and the cute (how "persistent" and "cute" are code words with specific meanings in BL/yaoi/other drama and manga genres/Japanese culture more broadly)

Analyzing the season 2 finale kiss in light of seme left/uke right framing and the persistent/cute trope (in a reblog of a gif post by @nanons)

Reblogging @bl-bracket to lobby for the season 2 finale kiss, with more overanalysis

Fragrance nerd discussion:

This bittersweet fragrance - on the significance of osmanthus/tea olive in Utsukushii Kare season 2, with additional information on the possible significance of the fragrance of osmanthus and perfumes that are either osmanthus soliflores or feature prominent osmanthus notes

Posts on specific season 2 episodes:

initial thoughts about S2e1

Additional (informal) thoughts on s2e1

S2e1 rundown

Hira's incongruous/misaligned affect at the end of s2e1

S2e2 rundown

on S2e2, including pursuer-distancer dynamics and seme left, uke right

Utsukushii Kare S2E4: “face me straight on” (mostly discussing relationship dynamics pointed out in topic-specific metas)

on Utsukushii Kare: Eternal:

Kiyoi and Anna: on Kiyoi’s friendship with Anna and its significance for his personal growth

[waitmyturtles]

OOOOOOHHHH! Quick thoughts on Utsukushii Kare S2E2 (by the way, @bengiyo, I LOST IT at “2 Beautiful 2 Man”):

1) Spiciness! Little jelly sizzles with the Anna fan and Koyama! Me likey. I want to see where this goes.

2) Whatever happens with Anna-san, I will like it. I need her outfit. The whole deal -- the black-and-red kimono, WITH the hat, WITH the earrings. Go awn, girl. I like how she's a thinking foil to Kiyoi's inner thoughts. She's nurturing. I like it. I hope that line doesn't turn.

3) Speaking of Kiyoi's inner thoughts, I ADORED that he narrated this episode. We only got his very deep thoughts at the end of UK S1, so just being able to be by his side as he works through his jealousy and confused tumble of feelings for Hira -- it's wonderfully done.

4) I mentioned this in my review of UK S2E1: the comedy. WOW. WOW! I think the comedy is SUCH a GREAT foil against the seriousness of the high school set-up of season 1. (If you are familiar with cooking Japanese food, the cooking sequence with Kiyoi had me HOWLINGGGG. Washing the pork! Not washing the spinach! The sake! Placing the pork colander on the counter! I've watched so many Japanese cooking shows where everything is done so METICULOUSLY -- this clearly was set up to be utterly comedic. Omg.)

(Also, if you pay attention to cooking details in doramas, you'll note that they use a classic Ginpo nabe pot for their hot pots/nabes at home. I've always loved this touch, because it's the number one nabe pot you see in shows, and it always gives this feeling of coziness. Couple that with the age of Hira's house, and what it says to me is that they're working on being family together -- which is what Kiyoi is indicating by meditating on "forever.")

5) But leading from that cooking sequence, and throughout the episode, we got just a lovely deep-dive into Kiyoi's insecurity, which I think was the point of the episode, and it was beautifully done. What is filling my heart about this season is the growth. Hira's an older college student now, and Kiyoi's gearing up to really get his career started. He's got a tough dilemma with choosing doramas vs. stage work.

His insecurity was heavily hinted at in season 1 -- and what I'm loving so far about this new season is that this personal growth is being given time and space. Kiyoi is JUST as awkward as Hira. He's just as strange -- of course, differently, but they are both two awkward bumbleholes figuring out their love together and individually.

Why does Japan do this to me? In many instances, so wordlessly, does Japan seamlessly bring comedy in to tell a lovely emotional story of two young adults adulting. It totally cuts my heart deep. I LOVE loving this show -- it gives me such a good feeling.

[scarefox]

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[emotionallychargedtowel]

Utsukushii Kare S2E3: Kiyoi the pursuer and Hira the distancer

Episode 3 of Utsukushii Kare season 2 really brought all of the biggest issues in the story to the forefront, including the pursuer/distancer themes I’ve been talking about in my posts about this season (first on Hira, then Kiyoi, and then on how these themes are developed in episode 2) and my overall post on this dynamic in BLs. Basically, almost the entirety of episode 3 is focused on the themes of the pursuer/distancer dyad, ambivalence about intimacy, and ways in which self-image interacts with these relationship aspects.

The central thing we see in episode 3 is a really stark example of why seeking a relationship with someone while avoiding authentic intimacy is both harmful and doomed. There’s a sort of superficial version of pursuing that could look like what Hira is doing in season 2, but he not only doesn’t seek real closeness with Kiyoi, he avoids it in a multitude of ways. The things he does do, like taking care of Kiyoi by doing things like cooking for him, are more consistent with the role he’s assigned himself as the “servant” to Kiyoi’s “king” figure--a set of roles that is practically guaranteed to sidestep any possibility of real closeness.

Pursuer and distancer roles are always complex. They always involve a kind of covert self-sabotage of their apparent goals. By which I mean that pursuers are always covertly distancing and distancers are always covertly pursuing/facilitating pursuit. In addition to that, Hira and Kiyoi have always been particularly ambivalent. Hira’s pursuit always had a great deal of distancing in it and Kiyoi’s version of distancing frequently had elements of facilitating closeness.

Their pattern from season 1 didn’t change much in the first episode of season 2. Then episode 2 showed some movement in a healthier direction, particularly on Kiyoi’s side (while also continuing to show that the lack of progress posed a danger to their relationship). Well, in episode 3, I think it’s safe to say that the pursuer/distancer roles have been entirely flipped and pretenses to the contrary have mostly been dropped.

In season 1, Hira was often creating situations in which he and Kiyoi would be in contact. This built in a degree of apparent pursuit--basically, the pursuer as “stalker.” But once they were a couple, there was no need for this type of pursuit and Hira was only seeking intimacy in those relatively superficial ways (though, notably, he was always standing at the ready for certain forms of intimacy if Kiyoi initiated--including, but not limited to, sexual intimacy). But early on, things weren’t so imbalanced because Kiyoi was still avoiding intimacy a great deal too. As I wrote about before, although season 2 episode 1 is presented as years into their relationship along with the rest of season 2, it’s based on a vignette that is set closer to when they first got together, and it shows. It makes more sense as a kind of intermediate stage.

At that point, Hira was able to get away with his stilted way of relating to Kiyoi because 1) Kiyoi really needed the excessive amount of adoration H offered (as well as “that look”) in order to feel safe given the insecurities he got from his family of origin, and 2) Kiyoi was so ambivalent about intimacy that it was somewhat convenient for a while that Hira could make him feel wanted while not actually getting that close.

But then Kiyoi got more comfortable. He started to let his guard down. Perhaps, at the same time, he’s also maturing somewhat. He cared when Koyama pointed out that he wasn’t doing his share of work in his home life with Hira and acted on it instead of just getting defensive. He showed more of his feelings for Hira without continually taking back his affectionate comments the way he did in S2E1. He encouraged Hira and was patient with him. He not only allowed intimacy to happen, he started to seek it out. He showed more flexibility, more softness, more humor, more warmth. This trend continued in episode 3, particularly when Hira didn’t make it through the first cut in the photography contest. The Kiyoi of the past could never have been so calm, validating, or encouraging.

Meanwhile, Hira’s façade of pursuing (which was always thinner than most) has fallen apart completely by the end of episode 3. Aside from caring for Kiyoi in a “servant” capacity, little to no pursuit remains. It’s like he lulled K into a false sense of security and sneakily did exactly what K feared most at the end of season 1. It’s no exaggeration to say this is a betrayal--a bait-and-switch. And it simply isn’t intimacy. It’s proximity, it’s feeling indispensable to the other person (or trying to), it resembles nothing so much as being a live-in fan, but it isn’t intimacy, nor is it a partnership. 

It was truly gut-wrenching to hear Hira say to Kiyoi, “I don’t want to understand you.” It’s like he’s admitting it more clearly than ever: he is not actually seeking intimacy with Kiyoi. Kiyoi’s response–”So in the end, you don't intend to move toward me, huh?"--is equally revealing (and so heartrending, and so evocatively acted by Yagi Yusei). Kiyoi has been worrying about this, and waiting and hoping for Hira to “move toward” him, for a long time. When he asks Hira why he’s stopping him from leaving and when he apologizes for loving him back since he “prefer[s] a one-sided love,” he seems like he’s reached a point of despair and is approaching resignation.

It’s hard to tell for certain if any of this is getting through to Hira in a real way, but he does seem truly shaken. Hira doesn’t have an answer ready when Kiyoi asks him why he doesn’t want him to leave. His eyes keep darting around rather wildly in this scene near the door, as if he’s thinking and accessing memories in a hurried attempt to figure something out. But he doesn’t. After Kiyoi has left, Hira decompensates, sobbing in bed in a pile of photos of Kiyoi and wishing for God to kill him.

The essence of pursuer/distancer roles can be summed up by saying, “be careful what you wish for.” Hira wished for a relationship with Kiyoi in which he could stay near him forever but he didn’t have to put himself on the line or face his fears of intimacy. Now Kiyoi is running away, potentially giving up on his pursuit of intimacy with Hira. In a way, this is what Hira has been angling for all along. But when he gets his wish, it’s excruciating, terrifying. An actual one-sided love with Kiyoi is not as romantic as it seemed.

One interesting question the episode raises is prefigured by Kiyoi’s words about Anna’s character in the film he watches, who doesn’t “realize [her] sins” because of a “purity born from ignorance.” Hira seems to show a glimmer of uncharacteristic self-awareness when he says at the end of the episode, lying in his pile of photos, “I can't recognize my own sin out of ignorance.” But can this impression be trusted? I find it debateable. Does Hira know better than to commit these “sins?” In many ways, he does. His climactic conversation with Kiyoi at the end of season 1 not only should have taught him to know better, but the way he talked to Kiyoi at the time implied he understood. (My guess is this was sincere, but he backslid, big time.) He’s had other opportunities throughout season 2 to understand this better. But at the same time, was he really capable of understanding these things even when told directly? Hira’s view of relationships and his place in them is extremely distorted. He has problems with reality-testing in this area and engages in magical thinking. It’s hard to say how much better he could have done at this. Of course, whether he was truly capable of course-correcting before this point or not, it wouldn’t mean that Kiyoi was obligated to stick around and get hurt. But it could matter to Kiyoi when it comes to whether to keep trying.

There’s something I’m wondering about due to a combination of the episode 4 preview at the end of episode 3 and clips from the season 2 trailer. I think it’s pertinent to these relationship themes.

There’s a moment in the episode 4 preview when Hira is approaching Kiyoi as if he’s going to kiss him. He’s very tentative and seems to be willing himself to do this despite some difficulty. When I saw this clip, I was immediately reminded of a clip from the season 2 trailer in which Kiyoi is sitting with his face near Hira’s and he says in a soft voice--and sorry, I’m going from memory here regarding the wording since I can’t find the subtitled version I saw that included this dialogue--”for a while, I’m not going to kiss you.” When I first saw the “for a while” clip I interpreted it as Kiyoi not wanting to kiss Hira or be kissed by him, but now I think it’s a question of whether he’ll initiate a kiss. My hunch is that Kiyoi is drawing a temporary boundary here that if Hira wants to be physically intimate he’ll have to make a first move. The line is delivered in a calm, fairly warm tone. I don’t think this is an example of what Lerner would call “reactive distance,” a sort of petulant response by a pursuer who feels neglected or hurt. It seems like a reasonable boundary intended to reset the pursuer-distancer dynamic to something more balanced. I hope this is correct and that it works!

There are a couple of other seemingly hopeful things in the episode 4 preview. First, a Hira voiceover says, “the pain of unrequited love tasted sweet.” Depending on how you interpret this (not to mention the translation), this (particularly the use of past tense) could mean that Hira understands he needs to move on from seeking out “one-sided love” and is trying to do so. Second, there’s a moment when Kiyoi says in voiceover, “If you keep sulking like a kid, you'll never get close to him.” This sounds like self-talk. If it is, and if it means what it sounds like, this basically amounts to Kiyoi not only giving Hira another chance, but having enough self-awareness to realize that reactive distance (which is totally what “sulking” would mean in this context) will not serve him well here. 

I hope these seemingly favorable things pan out. Dear gods of BL, please protect my blorbos in their hour of need.

Some other notable things in this episode:

Koyama suggests Hira send in one of his photos of Kiyoi for the contest, but Hira says, "He's a celebrity,” and Koyama says, "Oh yeah, it'd be bad if people found out,” to which Hira nods. This is one of the first explicit acknowledgements of homophobia in the story. I wonder if this will continue. It seems natural that given Kiyoi’s career, there would be risks involved in others learning about their relationship.

Koyama almost sounds like an advocate for Hira and Kiyoi’s relationship when he says, about the quality that comes through in Hira’s photos of Kiyoi, “There's love. A world with only the two of you.” He clearly still has his issues with Kiyoi (as seen in the “freeloading” conversation), but he’s showing more insight and more respect for their relationship than I might have expected. Good job, Koyama.

In Anna’s movie that Kiyoi watches, her character is interacting with someone (it’s hard to gauge their gender but they vaguely read as a man to me) wearing a white shirt and a red scarf, with shoulder-length hair and bangs. This is a lot like the haircut and outfit of Anna’s troubling fan. Could he be intentionally emulating the look of a character who is close to Anna in this movie? 

When Kiyoi leaves Hira’s house after the “I don’t want to understand” argument, he goes to a public place where a bench sits under twinkly lights. I wondered about something, so I went back and confirmed it. It’s the same place where Kiyoi and Hira argued on the day Kiyoi failed to win the contest, when Hira protested that he wasn’t like “the others” and Kiyoi said he hated Hira after suspecting him of looking at him with pity.

It seems pretty meaningful that the ending theme from season 1 made a return at the end of this episode rather than the new ending theme created for season 2. It seems like an acknowledgement that Hira is trapped in the past, or even regressing further, and it meshes with the return to the angst and uncertainty of season 1. 

[emotionallychargedtowel]

I’m still working on a longer Utsukushii Kare post from a psychology angle, which should be done soonish. In the meantime, I did a rewatch to help with that post, and ended up with some stray thoughts about a few things from S2E1.

This seems like something that could be impacted by a translation so I don’t want to make too much of it. But at the party, Kiyoi is asked twice if Hira is his friend, and (in the Viki subtitles at least), he responds by saying, “Well...” but he’s always cut off by people talking over him. Is it possible he’s actually thinking about telling people Hira is his boyfriend, or trying to?

When Hira talks to Kiyoi about watching the “special report” he was in with Anna, he says “she’s so pretty,” and as a result “it feels a bit complicated.” He seems to be talking about Anna here. Has Hira ever referred to anyone besides Kiyoi as being attractive before? I can’t think of a time that’s happened. Kiyoi seems unhappy about this development as he makes a semi-subtle mad face in response. I can think of a few things Hira might mean by “complicated” here, all of which relate to liking Anna or rooting for her even though it could (in his mind) detract from his total worship of Kiyoi.

There was something about the way Kiyoi kicked Hira (when he was trying to distract him from his “so cool I could fall in love with you again” comment) that seemed odd to me the first time I watched the episode. This time, I figured out what it was--he does a little hop just before the kick. Then I remembered Yagi Yusei was a soccer/football player before he got into singing/acting and it made sense. It was a soccer kick!

Things from this episode that no one (that I’ve seen) has made gifs of yet, but that should really be gif’ed:

The awestruck look on Kiyoi’s face when he pulls back the curtain and sees Hira in the last outfit he tries on (the one with the brown coat that he ends up wearing to the party). It’s a bit subtle--he’s trying to hide it, of course--but he does a full head-to-toe checking-Hira-out eye thing along with it.

The half confused, half distasteful “Eh?” expression on Hira’s face after he’s told to “think outside the box” about sleeveless shirts.

The aforementioned Hira saying Anna is pretty, Kiyoi looking annoyed thing.

I guess I should try to learn to make gifs at some point? In the meantime I definitely don’t mean to sound less than appreciative of those who do. Seriously, thanks, gif people.

[emotionallychargedtowel]

Utsukushii Kare S2E1 thoughts

I’ve never watched a BL that was still on the air, unless it was almost finished when I started. I just hate waiting between episodes, especially in a genre where episodes are often super short. But I can’t wait four weeks to see Utsukushii Kare season two (anyway, I’d get so many spoilers on here, it would be useless). I’ve also never posted about a BL episode by episode, since I never watched one that way. But I’m going to try doing it this time.

There is such a marked difference between season 2 and season 1. Season 1 was so packed with voice-over narration, but didn’t have that much dialogue. There’s still quite a bit of voice-over stuff in season 2 but the dialogue has increased by leaps and bounds. Since I was fascinated by the ways in which Hira’s and Kiyoi’s weirdnesses interacted with one another in the first season, all of this direct interaction gave me so much more to work with in my conceptualization of the characters. Not to mention so much more being communicated nonverbally.

There’s a sense in which the viewer gets to have their cake and eat it too with season 2, and that is that in many respects we get to enjoy Hira and Kiyoi finally being together, but they’re also still struggling with a lot of the same issues they did in season 1, so that engine that drove the story is still in operation. So far, if this season was a fanfic, it would be labeled as both “angst” and “fluff.” And fluffy angst is really enjoyable! From another angle, this combination is the worst of both worlds. Every sweet moment between these characters is suspended from this tenuous thread of their relationship. Both of them fear losing that relationship so intensely, despite the other wanting so badly to hold on, but it’s that very insecurity that threatens it the most. And it’s always in the background, undercutting all of cute stuff that would feel like rank fan service otherwise (heaven forbid!).

There were a few particular highlights for me.

1) Kiyoi’s new habit of giving Hira a significant look while opening his mouth, which is Hira’s cue to feed him. The fact that this happened on two different occasions in just one short episode? What a weird combination of demanding and endearing.

2) The scene where Kiyoi walks in on Hira being hit on by a girl. I particularly enjoyed this as a kabedon appreciator. She backs him into a door with one arm out in a very kabedon-like way (she doesn’t whack it, though), and then when Kiyoi arrives he does a full kabedon on Hira out of jealousy (but without the usual confession and/or kiss). There’s also an interesting role reversal happening here. And it’s a great illustration of how naive and dense Hira really is.

3) The exchange about “doing it.” This, to me, is a really good illustration of the lovable weirdness of these characters. Well, lovable to some of us. I expect that some people might find it off-putting or icky. It’s definitely not entirely healthy. It seems like the way things go in this scene is typical for them. Basically, intimacy happens when Kiyoi decides it will, and it’s just assumed that of course Hira will be down for it. It isn’t even presented as a question, more as an announcement: “we’re going to do it today.” Which isn’t the best consent practice ever, but it seemingly works because apparently (in a way that’s very consistent for the character), Hira really is always interested in “doing it” with Kiyoi. The fact that this only happens when Kiyoi chooses is also very consistent with his guardedness. But a more surprising aspect is Kiyoi’s shyness. He’s tentative, even bashful here. Not that he was ever portrayed as particularly assertive sexually, far from it, but he’s so assertive, even domineering, in other areas of his life, particularly with Hira, that this almost demure quality is really striking. In the end it seems these two deeply weird people have come up with a system that basically works for them and, particularly after all of the pining in season 1, it’s kind of adorable seeing them navigate it.

4) The acknowledgement that Hira is actually pretty attractive. One jarring thing about season 1 is that it’s often treated as a foregone conclusion that Hira is repulsive (possibly because we spend so much time inside his head) but Hagiwara Riku is, of course, quite nice-looking (even with Hira’s unflattering hairdo). It also doesn’t add up that Kiyoi would be so attracted to Hira if he was really as unappealing as he thinks. So it was nice to have that acknowledged and played around with in an interesting way.

Second seasons of BLs are inherently risky. And it’s still rather early to assume this one will avoid the potential risks. But so far I think it shows a lot of potential to be as worthwhile as the first season. Honestly, I could imagine liking it even more. I guess we’ll see.