#maskedfooling

It's one of these super rare cases where, although queerness plays a central, very important role, it isn't a romance. I love it so much! I wish we had a lot more stories like that. Yoshiki's and "Hikaru's" identities are fundamental parts of the story, but the focus is on their personal journeys and relationships that aren't either strictly or at all romantic or sexual. Queer people are so much more than just their love life.

This story is horror on so many different levels. At first, you'd think it's the eldritch horrors, but as you keep watching, it turns out that arguably the greatest horror of them all is growing up as the only gay person in a small village. Thinking back to Kaoru (Yoshiki's little sister), the horrors extend to anyone who's a girl or/and leads an unexpected non-traditional life. In the end, the real horrors that they all share are loneliness, isolation, and feeling like you don't belong.

I saw some people say how, at one point, the story slows down, but honestly, I didn't feel it at all, and I have to disagree. I feel like the people who said that expected this story to be something else, something that it isn't, like a horror thriller or a romance, etc. That's why it feels slow and like there's little progress to them. That's not what this story is or is meant to be, though. If you take the story for what it actually is, that's exactly how it's meant to be told. The pace felt perfect to me. Granted, at this point in time, I have only watched the anime, I haven't read the manga (yet), therefore, I can't comment on the manga.

I love my weird little freak! <3 💙🩵🩷🤍

I love whatever the fuck is wrong with him! <3 💙🩵🩷🤍