Life is poetry. Sometimes, it’s hard to understand. Other times, it’s difficult to relate to. And yet, there are also moments when it clicks, when the beauty of a brief moment impresses itself on the soul.

This moment is what the Japanese BL Tokyo in April focuses on while also making viewers acutely aware that the apparent truth holding the main leads back isn’t easy to confront.

Adapted from the manga series 4gatsu no Tokyo wa by Haru starring Sakurai Yuki (Takizawa Kazuma) and Takamatsu Aloha (Ishihara Ren), Tokyo in April tells the story of two young men who are drawn to each other in middle school but are abruptly separated. Years later, they reunite when Kazuma is hired at Ren’s company.

Diving into a story that needs to balance past feelings with present emotions and future growth is always challenging. But Japan’s ability to tell nonlinear stories in a subtly poetic way plays in its favor.

Tokyo in April weaves the past and present with a thread of evident yearning and transience. It’s both romantic and lonely, much like the fireworks in the first episode. The fleeting beauty of fireworks is nostalgically lonely—beauty in a blink.

And that’s precisely what Tokyo in April delivers: a collection of beautiful moments woven into a shared past of awakening love and sexuality before transitioning into a future between two men afraid of tainting that with rejection.

In the first two episodes, there’s a palpable distance, a wall built between Kazuma and Ren that translates into an awkward tension on screen, which plays up how held back and trapped they feel by their past, uncertainty, frustration, and need. I like that the show emphasizes this distance because it makes watching them begin to traverse it more intriguing. Distance is a shield used to protect ourselves. I’m impressed by how well I can ‘feel’ the space separating Kazuma and Ren and how shut out Kazuma feels because of it.

I’m invested in how that gap will be closed.

It’s easy to be drawn into dramas where the attraction between the characters is built off a longing desire. It’s more difficult to be drawn into a series that wants to push their leads away from each other before bridging the gap between them.

I feel pushed away, which makes me want to pull harder, to swim ferociously against the current the show has created, even if it means risking drowning.

And I don’t mind the risk.

For a show that plays tug of war with its characters’ feelings while also tugging at its viewer’s heartstrings, check out Tokyo in April now on Gagaoolala.

Rating- 4 out of 5