While I have a great affinity for Seasons One and Two of this series, this set left me just a tad feeling deprived. It felt ‘empty’ and a bit stale. While certainly entertaining and funny overall, it lost a bit of its magic; at least for me. However, its ending did redeem itself.

This is the continuing story of Mob (Inukai Atsuhiro) who fancies himself continuing to live in an imaginary BL world. Everywhere around him is BL and there are forces working to try and seduce him to fall in love with another guy. Previously, there was some overture that he and Kikuchi (Ito Asahi) was developing a relationship. However, here, we see them parting ways, as Kikuchi is off to do foreign study. Thus, Mob must now face the ‘flags’ (pitfalls) that will lead him into spiraling into a relationship with a guy if he is not careful.

His focus, as always, is to avoid falling for any of its trappings of seductions. Mob manages to avoid most of them with wit, humor, and quick-thinking. However, there is one flag, while he thinks he has avoided, comes back to haunt him. A high school friend of his brother, Hatano (Ryo Sekoguchi) “confesses’ his love for him. While Mob plans and tries various schemes to divert Hatano’s feelings away from him, all attempts have been unsuccessful. Until one day, Hatano calls him aside and says to him that he knows that he has made him feel uncomfortable and to begin a relationship with him would be impossible given Hatano is underage. Therefore, he will ‘wait’ for him for 3 years and pursue him with full vigor and strength. Hatano then runs off without Mob being able to fully cut off the relationship on his terms. This then, unfortunately, begins to fester in Mob’s mind and to some degree he dwells on this pending relationship, perhaps a bit too much.

By happenstance, or maybe misfortune, Mob is asked to be in a movie as an ‘extra’. As luck would have it, Hatano is the main star. Fate further determined that Mob would play a greater role in this movie with Hatano and to a degree, the two of them get closer. As much as Hatano wanted to stay away, he simply cannot. He again confesses his deep love for Mob. Literally, at the same moment, who shows up from a school break is Kikuchi, who also confesses his desire to be with Mob. Now Mob is faced with the worst possible ‘flag’. A love triangle.

Because this series does not feel as fresh as the first two, I am at a loss as to who fills in and takes over. However, I give a slight nod, and it is slight, to Ryo Sekoguchi as Hatano. He is in this series at least able to show a range in acting skills. (Admittedly, so does Inukai Atsuhiro especially in the last episode). His range of skills was impressive. Acting like a high schooler when clearly he is not, was a fait accompli. He also was able to straddle being subtle in demonstrating his affection towards Mob that made it look serious but also cute at the same time. There were a sincerity and a genuineness to what he seemed to be feeling. He came across as being naïve yet earnest in his commitment to Mob.

There is no question that overall, this series is entertaining and still humorous. I did not find it as funny or as creative as the first two seasons, however. ALL the characters seemed stuck to me; that is, none show any progression or movement or growth. I know that this is a guy living in a fantasy world of BL, and it has a sense and feel of an animated comic strip coming to life; but there is nothing new here. In addition, the actors are getting to the point that they simply cannot play high school or college students anymore. I do not care how much make-up you powder yourself with, there just comes a point that someone in their late 20’s or early 30’s cannot play high schoolers anymore. It becomes a physical impossibility as well as an emotional and psychological barrier. You just have too much life experience to play sweet innocence with any honest conviction. In addition, the whole idea of a love relationship between an underage high schooler and a college student, feels and looks icky. I am not sure why that particular theme was chosen to pursue. I would, for example, have recommended just the opposite. Perhaps the confession should have come from an ‘older’ guy falling for Mob. That seems more likely a scenario and easier to accept, and frankly perhaps not that uncommon.

The whole story for me was just sort of boring. I could anticipate the next move of Mob because of the artificiality of the setup of pitfalls. And that kind of approach was getting kind of old and overused so it was not fresh as it used to be.

Again, the acting just seemed and felt ‘off’ to me. They seemed bored – like they have done this before, which of course they have. And it seemed to have shown. That almost seems like a kiss of death for a series when the actors seem to know what is going to be expected and automatically just do it. It takes away any spontaneity for the series.

This is an “ok” series but for me just a bit of a disappointment. The freshness of the originals seems to be missing.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Streaming on- Gagaoolala