Warning: the following contains spoilers for Sasaki and Miyano, Episode 8, “I Realized," now streaming on Crunchyroll.
Just when fans were starting to complain about the slow development of Sasaki and Miyano, and whether or not it is really BL or just Boy’s Life, the series hits with a major romantic development that has everyone cheering them on. Moreover, even everyone in the show's universe of Sasaki and Miyano seems to be getting impatient and are all trying to push for their romance as hard as they can.
Sasaki has been upfront about his feelings, but Miyano’s reluctance was almost getting old at this point. To be fair, he does have a lot of issues to work through, such as his consciousness about his feminine appearance, his embarrassment towards being a fudanshi, and his own sexuality. He seems to have gotten over a lot of these problems though after Sasaki accepted all these and more. When Miyano agreed to enter the school’s cross-dressing beauty contest in episode 8, it marked a big step towards finally opening up and embracing his own insecurities.
There is still the final step of him actually realizing that how he feels about Sasaki is more than just admiration, but love. On this front though, his friends seem to be a step ahead of him. Kuresawa already thought that Miyano and Sasaki were a couple, and refrained from taking Miyano’s photo, over concern for Sasaki’s feelings. The fact that Kuresawa thought this already showed how much Miyano and Sasaki have gotten closer, and how obvious Miyano’s feelings are to onlookers.
But the best assist comes from Hanzawa, the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee. When Miyano asked what Hanzawa thought about love, all his answers directly hit how Miyano felt about Sasaki, such as wanting to do anything for them and not being able to stop thinking about them. The anime quite cleverly cuts to all the other relationships in the series here, such as Kuresawa and Ogasawara contacting their girlfriends, and of course, Hirano and his love interest Kagiura. The show demonstrated here that these feelings are universal, and there is nothing special or strange about same-sex relationships.
As someone who reads BL all the time, Miyano should not be a stranger to all these feelings, but he is blinded by his own insistence on keeping this friendship, and on his own sexuality. But Sasaki’s confession, along with Hanzawa and many other’s inadvertent comments, have finally woken him up to the possibility of a romance. It really is about time, because Sasaki was getting quite anxious.
As Miyano was trying on his costume for the beauty contest, Sasaki walked by and saw his outfit. Sasaki had been kept in the dark about Miyano entering this contest, probably because Miyano subconsciously didn't really want him to see it. But once he did see it, he wasn't really happy about the situation and could hardly contain his jealousy. This was because he knew Miyano was doing this for someone else. On the other hand, Miyano only felt embarrassed when Sasaki looked at him, making it very obvious that Sasaki is already occupying a special place in his heart.
The anime did a great job in Sasaki and Miyano Episode 8, as Miyano is finally realizing that his feelings for Sasaki are more than platonic, with a much-needed push from his friends. It also portrayed Sasaki’s internal conflict over wanting to keep his promise of waiting for Miyano’s response and his rising emotions. But all the warring thoughts just end up cumulating to the simple fact that Sasaki loves Miyano, so he embraced him. Miyano was also getting very close to returning his feelings when he returned Sasaki’s hug at the end of the episode.
