Yes, No, or Maybe

**WARNING** This review deals with BL. If you’re not into BL, please exit through the door on the left. You will probably not find the subject matter to your liking.

So, I was browsing Crunchyroll in anticipation of summer 2021 releases. I came across cover art that yelled, “BL! BL! BL! Watch me!”

That is how I ran across Yes, No, or Maybe?

**POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW. PROCEED WITH CAUTION**

I’m not sure how to categorize this anime. It is only one episode that is an hour long, so I’ll call it a short movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed this short movie despite its strict adherence to BL tropes. We don’t get much deviation from a BL manga flow. We have two protagonists that are not very alike that are drawn to each other. One is holding back a secret. Secret is revealed. Bam. They’re in bed together. If you love formulas, you’ll enjoy this short movie.

We follow our protagonist, Kunieda who is a public personality through his job as a newscaster. He is good looking, well spoken, and kind. Unfortunately, that is pretty much a façade. He understands to be successful, there is a certain attitude he has to display. While being understanding and visibly kind to others, the conversations in his head are the complete opposite calling people incompetent and stupid. He looks down on others, but he keeps it tightly hidden. When he gets home, he strips himself of his on-air persona and dons track suits and face masks. He understands that even on his personal time, he has an image to uphold and it is beginning to wear him thin.

Kunieda has to interview our second protagonist, Tsuzuki, who is a filmmaker specializing in stop-motion animation. Tsuzuki, who is annoyed at the thought of an interview with another newscaster that treats his subordinates like trash, is rude to Kunieda. After meeting him and seeing that he is kind to his staff, he feels bad and wants a chance to apologize.

Later in the evening, Kunieda, dressed in his disguise, gets in the way of Tsuzuki who is on a bike. In order to avoid Kunieda, Tsuzuki crashes and injures his wrist. Tsuzuki tells Kunieda (who is in his disguise) to take responsibility and help him at work. Despite being argumentative, Kenieda complies and takes his task seriously to the surprise of Tsuzuki. Kunieda had introduced himself as Owari and thus has hidden his true identity. Owari continues to show up day after day helping Tsuzuki, even after his responsibilities are done.

Intertwined in this story is Tsuzuki and Kunieda as himself. So, we enter in this weird love triangle where Tsuzuki has a crush on both Kunieda and his alternate personality, Owari. At some point, Tsuzuki figures out that they’re both, indeed, the same person, but he chooses not to divulge this development to Kunieda/Owari.

Kunieda is highly confused about who he is. He feels Owari blending into his on-air personality. He doesn’t know how he feels about Tsuzuki. On one hand, he’s mad that he can’t figure out who he really is. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to divulge that he really is both people.

In Kuneida’s moment of need, Tsuzuki reminds him of something he previously told him about the comfort of routines. He rushes to find his book where he finds Tsuzuki drew on each page a figure of Tsuzuki turning into Owari. Armed with the knowledge that Tsuzuki knows who he is, he is able to complete his job competently.

And, like any other BL manga you have ever read, this development means they automatically jump into bed with each other.

It felt a bit rushed, but I don’t know if this is because they knew that this was a one-shot short movie with no hopes of a continuation so they had to rush the story to get the end. It was absolutely sudden that they automatically jump into bed together, but really thinking back to the BL manga I have read in the past, that is pretty par for the course.

Anyhow, it was a cute story with very little lewdness until the very end which I appreciated. I enjoy a good BL anime/manga, but I prefer it to linger on the story and less on the lewdness.