Anime Digest
A well-liked TV announcer named Kunieda Kei is renowned for his professionalism and calm demeanor. On the inside, though, he is the complete opposite: arrogant, irritable, and as rough as can be. Kei maintains his private and professional personas until the unexpected occurs. A stop-motion artist Tsuzuki Ushio from work spots him at the grocery store acting like himself. Kei now needs to learn how to handle a relationship he wasn’t prepared for. But is it truly as terrifying as the idea that someone may fall in love with him on both sides?
The Feel-Good Part
Ushio and Kei have a lot of chemistry since they get along well and have very similar personalities. Some voice actors find it uncomfortable to play characters in an anime, whether it’s a series or a movie, but both Atsushi Abe (Kei) and Yoshihisa Kawahara (Ushio) did a fantastic job,
The Disappointing Factor
A movie’s soundtrack is a crucial component since it helps in the creation of the ambience and also the setting. The Yes ka No ka Hanbun ka soundtrack is not very noteworthy. It has cliched tunes that get monotonous after a while. The movie doesn’t flow perfectly at times.
Yes ka No ka Hanbun ka spends most of its running time focusing on how Ushio interacts with both of Kei’s sides—the attractive one and the unpleasant one—but their love relationship develops later and sort of out of nowhere.
In-Depth Analysis
Kei Kunieda grins and acts charmingly in front of the camera. Unknown to many around him, Kei is a terrible person below all that charm. Kei tries to hide his genuine nature from others, despite how difficult that is for him. But Ushio Tsuzuki, the subject of Kei’s following two-week interview, happens to cross his path.
When they arrive at Ushio’s home, he offers Kei to assist him with the project he’s working on, but Kei—in nasty mode—rejects the offer only to return the next day while appearing timid. When Kei begins to experience conflicted emotions toward Ushio and the boundaries between his personality at work and outside of it start to blur, everything goes south. There isn’t a reason for Kei to return after helping out, but a part of him wants to find one so that he may keep going to see Ushio. Kei decides it will be the last time they see each other as Ushio unexpectedly moves in and kisses him.
To take off the mask that Kei has been wearing throughout the movie, Ushio helps Kei realize his actual personality while under a lot of strain.
Star Performance
Yoshihisa Kawahara (Ushio) and Atsushi Abe (Kei) did a fantastic job, especially in the movie’s climactic sequence. They weren’t particularly experienced in recording for BL anime, but they could match their voices and facial expressions to the characters, making everything feel authentic and genuine.
Overall Opinion
We wholeheartedly suggest Yes ka No ka Hanbun ka to those of you who already appreciate the original material or enjoy BL stories with a deep yet flawed storyline, even if it is far from a masterpiece.
