FallLover

Season 1 and 2-1 of the audio drama is up for streaming in Korean! English subtitles, along with Korean, Chinese, and Japanese, are being slowly added to each episode of 2-1!

ENNEAD won top-selling overall boys love title for Renta's 2025 rankings!

Seoul Comics, the official publisher for ENNEAD, who licenses it out to everyone, including Tappytoon, has made an announcement about sharing screengrabs/caps on twitter due to twitter's gen-AI policies of feeding all material posted onto twitter into twitter's gen-AI programs. Seoul Comics asks that people not share screengrabs of their works on twitter at all, and solely share Seoul Comics' own previews, which have been modified to protect them from gen-AI stuff.

Seoul Comics is selling sets of the ENNEAD Tarot!

ENNEAD Volumes 1-6 are available to order in English! Seven Seas has also seemingly previewed that they're prepared to print season 2.

This is mostly an anime original episode (there isn't one focused on Valentine's Day in the manga), with bits of the Hana arc at last! It seems like they split it up so the break-up and Hirose and Nakamura conversation will happen in Episode 13, which gives more time for that to be extended (maybe) and maybe more like... a confession O.o Them getting together? We'll have to see :3 I'm pretty sure it'll happen in some form. It'll be interesting to see who confesses to whom if there is a confession.

A lot of folks are upset we didn't see Nakamura's haircut in full this episode and like... I get it. But we didn't see it in full in the manga, either lol And I like his hair how it normally is. And the new haircut made him upset. I'd rather he be happy with how he looks. He's got enough other problems, as shown by the episode.

I simultaneously wish Okuto wasn't such a shit to Kana while also appreciating that the anime keeps this part of the manga authentic: I don't know that they necessarily hate each other, but they have their friction, and Okuto is an ass to Kana at least once (he eats her cookies from Yamaoka-kun in Chapter 6). And siblings not getting along makes way more sense to me than ones who do, so. Okuto, make your own dang chocolates if you're so hungry (Touya cooks in Cardcaptor Sakura, you can manage). Or at least ask. At least he thinks of giving her the chocolates he doesn't give to Hirose.

While I was looking up info for my Episode 12 fanfic, I saw that while, traditionally, girls and women in Japan are meant to give boys and men chocolate on Valentine's Day, while boys and men return the favor on White Day (March 14), a lot of people are breaking that tradition for a variety of reasons, partially as a battle against sexism and gender roles, and also because of the rising cost of chocolate due to climate change and other trade factors. So in some cases, people don't do it at all, and in others, boys give chocolate on Valentine's Day, too.

Kawamura and her friends are so cute :3 Glad they support each other :3

Takeuchi, I think Hamaoka hasn't thought about you for more than five minutes after you asked her out, and good for her.

The food Mukai x Takeuchi continues to get is amusing:

Mukai is so, "Well don't worry, I'll be here when you're upset for being ignored" and then just so shocked at the level to which Takeuchi will go for his affection (and maybe mistaking it as Takeuchi giving him a rose <.<). Which isn't that surprising, considering how odd Takeuchi is. Disappointment for Mukai it is :( (Side couples are quite common in BL, especially multi-volume BL, so this is not surprising if it's even mildly intentional, and I doubt it's not mildly intentional).

You got this, Nakamura!! Ganbareeee!!! Give your crush his choco!

I'm still wondering if Hirose asked Otogiri about something related to Nakamura, and that's what Hirose is thanking him for here (which is why I put it in my fanfic). It might be nothing: they have a close relationship in both the manga and the anime. And in the manga, they get haircuts together (in the anime, Otogiri goes alone). So we'll have to see in Episode 13, I guess.

I get that it might be a line of sight thing (Otogiri was more clearly facing Nakamura than Hirose when Nakamura stood up, so his asking the first student he saw rather than the one he was closest to/later had to walk past makes sense), but the way Otogiri pad-beelines past Hirose to Nakamura to deliver the notebooks aldjlaj The animation is really cute but ladjalj Hirose is right there and also does a lot of student government stuff, why not ask him lol Does Otogiri know Hana was maybe gonna confess <.< Hmm...

Poor Nakamura, foiled by your inability to just go for it earlier alkdjlaj

On the one hand, I definitely think it's possible Hirose was waiting around for something Nakamura-related. Maybe to leave him friend choco, too, or to talk to him about Feelings (maybe... feelings for Nakamura <.<). On the other hand, I have to wonder if it was a student government thing, and/or this was when Hana gave him choco and asked him out. His reaction to Nakamura, specifically asking about the chocolates Nakamura might have gotten, and his nervousness, kind of align with a general discomfort around a chocolate-related confession, and given a lot of these manga/anime chocolate moments are about characters giving sweets to a crush, it'd make sense this was when Hana confessed. Or when he gave her his answer or something.

"Did you, uh, get chocolate from anyone?" Does feel very pointed. But again works as a sort of conversation starter if something happened to Hirose related to receiving chocolate (e.g., a confession). I love the idea that it's because Hirose is worried Nakamura has a secret partner or an admirer, and Hirose is maybe being a little jealous or something, or ensuring he can more easily secure Nakamura's affections... but I don't know. We'll have to see in Episode 13 :3

I love the idea of him confessing, "I was actually thinking I might be into you back then but too nervous" because, while tragic for Nakamura, it would parallel Nakamura's own nerves with the whole situation. They're both inexperienced awkward teenagers and loners (in their own way: Hirose repeatedly professes interest in being on his own in both the manga and anime, at least at times).

There's a moment around 8:43 in the episode during the close-up on Nakamura's right eye where Nakamura's pupil does a sort of little shiny somersault to better show his emotions, and it's really delicate and cute, and I love that little detail. The gentle piano here is lovely, too.

Nakamura so panicky because he thinks Hirose might be confessing to him :3 Poor bean. Hirose does like you, honey. He's just maybe not all the way to saying so now, unfortunately, and/or maybe hasn't figured himself out.

While Hirose wasn't really looking at Nakamura at this point to notice this, I'm hoping he didn't take Nakamura's body language here as rejection, and that's why Hirose stopped saying whatever he was saying (which might have been a confession). I think he just didn't feel like talking about whatever else because he lost his nerve, but still. The way we can't see Hirose's expression and immediately cut to how Nakamura would have looked from his view feels pointed.

This shot of Takeuchi was so funny. His wiggling in the OP always makes me smile XD I love how they animate him. Considering I generally dislike him, I like that they at least make him entertaining to watch.

So in the manga, the scene of Nakamura gazing sadly up in the sky as he thinks of supporting Hirose because he is happy if Hirose is happy in chapter 16 is delivering on a scene from chapter 14, when Nakamura, Hirose, and Kawamura are trapped in the gym closet, and Nakamura thinks about how he would act if/when Hirose ends up with someone else (particularly a woman). Then, in chapter 16, he gets to that dreaded moment during the Hana arc, and does his best to live up to his beliefs.

The closet thoughts were removed in the anime. My assumption was, given the anime's tendencies, perhaps it was considered too repetitive, and the anime was just going to more heavily emphasize the conclusion, here, where we sort of cover similar territory. Alternatively, Episode 3 is early in the anime narrative (whereas it's two chapters prior in Volume 2), and they figured Nakamura wasn't developed enough by that point to have those thoughts. I think it's still dumb to remove the first scene, because it's a good, mature moment, and it would have been nice animated, and it's not repetitive and it makes sense for him to think that, based on what we've seen. But who knows, maybe the anime crew is going to have Nakamura hang out with Hana or something for him to get to his, "I'll support them" moment later in the story, beyond her picking up his octopus pen. The scene in Episode 12 still works, but it's less strong than it would have been without that supporting scene. I also think if we'd seen it, folks might be less weird about the Hana arc, but then again, they'd probably be about as weird if not worse, so who am I kidding...

Of course, Nakamura is, as he imagined, deeply upset about this, even while trying to have a good front for his regular life (outside home, anyway). And ach, the anime made his pain so much heavier, poor guy. Like he's obviously devastated in the manga, but his seiyu and the animation just went so far. This kind of stuff hurts so badly, even if you try to make yourself feel better. Also, in the manga, Kawamura is more shocked and horrified than clearly a bit concerned and worried. I think both work in their own way (teenage heartbreak can be a bit up and down in a way that's funny), but I like the anime's version, too.

Sometimes, heartbreak happens. People you crush on don't always end up going out with you or even liking you. As folks have commented before the anime and during the series, it's a very real experience for queer folks to crush on someone who turns out to not be queer themselves and/or would never be into a person like the person crushing due to their own sexuality. It sucks. It's sad. Poor Nakamura.

The bicycle sequence is new, and ah, poor bean... It's interesting because Episode 6 removed a suicide joke about Nakamura being so depressed Hirose dropped him for Otogiri, but the anime now adds this scene, which isn't a joke, but does feel sort of like a reference to suicide? Like will Nakamura attempt? No, I don't think so, but the framing is very... interesting? I think it's mainly just meant to be tropey. There are lots of similar scenes in other boys love (and Romance in general):

Character so caught up in the moment they run out the door is not that unusual, and doesn't always lead to something bad (all of these lead to near-immediate love confessions/getting together as a couple). There was an interview with a member of the Ganbare anime crew a while back where they said something like the last two episodes would be like a film, so it makes more sense they're making it a little more dramatic. Which should perhaps be encouraging for folks panicking, given how these sequences usually go. I read this as hopeful, honestly, despite how miserable Nakamura undertandably is (he's a character in the story and not all that genre savvy, at least not when he's upset).

A lot of people were drawing various conclusions about the fact there were only 12 announced ED songs, like something special would be happening in Episode 13, and maybe the latter is still true, but I think it's funny it's actually Episode 12 that just doesn't have an ED song at all. It's a very sad, poignant moment. Most of the EDs, we've watched Nakamura just be himself, and sometimes even have fun (though there's at least one other one he's not in at all). But here, he's absent, and the world moves on without him. Though I appreciate Kana acknowledging she knows he's maybe got stuff going on in his life.

For folks who are sad/upset, there's still an entire episode to go, and given how little we have left of the Hana arc (and that in the manga she breaks up with Hirose and he admits he might be into dating guys), and given the anime's bent on Nakamura and Hirose's relationship (with it being obvious Hirose likes Nakamura to some degree already), we still seem primed for some kind of confession and maybe these two being in a relationship. I don't know of any modern BL anime where the leads don't end up together by the end, and most every m/m story and BL I've read has a happy ending for the leads, especially the ones set in school. Obviously anything is possible, but we'll have to see. Looking forward to Episode 13!

Other Thoughts:

Episodes 1-2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12 (you are here)

My Nakamura Okuto/Hirose Aiki getting together fanfics

The new editions of the manga are available in English

The anime website

The anime twitter