Twilight Out of Focus by Janome
Status: Completed (8 chapters | has a side story— Afterimage Slow Motion)
Rating: Lemon
Warnings: Domestic Violence, SA, Past Unhealthy Relationships, Past Teacher/Student Relationship
Summary: “Tsuchiya Mao is roommates with Otomo Hisashi who is secretly gay; that's why they made three rules:
I. Mao must never reveal Hisashi's secret.
II. Hisashi won't look at Mao as a romantic interest.
III. Neither of them can get in the way of the other's "personal needs".
They had no problems living together until the movie club – which Mao is part of – decided to film a BL movie for their school festival project, casting Hisashi for the lead role.” - Manga Updates
Review: I am reviewing this now that there is an anime adaptation under the same name. I really like this work for its sweetness and authentic emotions. Mao, our main character, is not only adorable but relatable. His realization of his feeling for Hisashi is sweet and not trite like many BL “character that is not gay is suddenly gay” tropes. Hisashi is a delinquent but is not shown being particular badly behaved. More so he is an out cast that seemly doesn’t care he is an outcast. Additionally, it is alluded he is poor and from the country side. All the warning I wrote for this fic revolve around Hisashi misguided relationship he holds at the start of the story.
The spicy scenes are spicy but have a cuteness to them. To be honest they were a little too spicy for the tone of the story in my opinion. They are present in the anime too, just not as explicit.
The art style lends itself beautifully to the story. Its curved lines and ethereal shading are very cinematic in a way. Over all I like it work a lot, but it doesn’t translate very well to the anime to me. This is mainly due to their slight change is art style and over reliance on a slow frame rate.
