It’s exciting and captivating watching rivals inside the same industry with contrasting personalities suddenly being thrown together. It’s an electrifying dynamic that’s fun to watch either fall apart or somehow work.

Adapted from the manga Ameiro Paradox by Natsume Isaku, the Japanese BL Candy Color Paradox starring Kimura Keito (Onoe Satoshi) and Yamanaka Jyutaro (Kaburagi Motoharu) makes it work. And it does it inside an industry famous for blurring the lines between right and wrong, between ethical and morally questionable.

Inside a high-stakes news world where headlines are ruled by the sensational, Onoe Satoshi is an honest reporter who wants to save lives and change the world with his pen, going above and beyond in his field of work. He wants to reveal truths with his writing but finds himself going head-to-head with a charming, popular co-worker who captures scandalous stories on camera.

Jaded by the industry he works in, photographer Kaburagi Motoharu uses whatever resources at his disposal–money, informants, etc.–to uncover celebrity scandals. He develops quite a reputation, becoming increasingly popular at the magazine where he works.

Thrown together for a story, Onoe and Kaburagi are immediately at odds, their different styles pitting them against each other.

Or so it seems.

While Kaburagi comes across as rather emotionless and unethical, he has a subtle but evident interest in Onoe and his work, Kaburagi’s admiration and respect for his kind-hearted, naive co-worker endearing. He’s drawn to Onoe because he’s looking for light inside a raw industry that often reveals much more darkness.

Having worked inside a newsroom, I found the division between using talent to ethically write truths and writing headlines for clout to be blurred realistically in Candy Color Paradox. It gives the series the edge it needs to be more than just a romantic comedy. Although Onoe and Kaburagi are rivals, they have no discernible bitterness. Instead, the tension that develops is fed by Onoe’s apparent fascination with the man he wants to dislike for stealing headlines and Kaburagi’s subtle respect for Onoe’s desire to champion truth through his writing.

There’s an evident thread of attraction between the two men that slowly but continuously builds as they chase after a story that feels as sad as it does sensational.

Moral Dilemmas are the most challenging part of being a reporter. It’s interesting seeing a relationship being born from that. Finding trust, respect, and love in a fast-paced web of blurred choices is heart-rending. It’s like finding the calm inside a storm.

Kaburagi and Onoe’s attraction to each other feels like that kind of calm.

When the series begins, it seems like Onoe is the most conflicted of the two, but it’s Kaburagi. He entered the industry hoping to find some truth in the world, but it only continued to jade him more until Onoe.

While Kaburagi’s cold behavior in the last two episodes feels drawn out, it makes sense for the story being told. It’s harder to see beneath the surface of who Kaburagi is, but it’s evident that his trauma is deep. He’s so desperate for hope that the thought of not finding it is more the reason behind his behavior than Onoe himself. It’s nice seeing an office romance where the boss is also a mentor, and we’re given that in Candy Color Paradox when Kaburagi and Onoe’s boss points out why Onoe truly is the light Kaburagi seeks.

Onoe and Kaburagi made me laugh. They made me hurt. They made me love.

For a love story born amidst an industry known more for tearing apart love than it is encouraging it, check out Candy Color Paradox on Gagaoolala.

Rating- 4 out of 5