Warning: the following contains spoilers for Sasaki and Miyano, Episode 11, “What Do I Do About These Feelings?” now streaming on Funimation.
One of the ways the Boy’s Love genre has always been seen in Japanese culture, and to some extent by western fans, is as a fantastical genre. Of course, it is still a sub-genre of romance, but most stories take place in a world where relationships between men are not really seen as an outlier or even that rare. They just happen naturally and no one even bats an eye, which is great but not necessarily realistic. Sasaki and Miyano is moving towards incorporating some realistic ideas about sexuality, and now with the character of Hanzawa, it touches on the issue of acceptance. But ultimately, the series is still a fantasy story where everything is resolved quite easily and painlessly.
Hanzawa has been quite instrumental in terms of trying to push Miyano forward with his feelings. In Episode 8, he explained to Miyano what love means, and in Episode 10, he once again tried to push Miyano towards a romance with his Tarot card reading. At the same time, Hanzawa has always been a hard-to-read character with a forever smile and mysterious but profound words. This caring attitude towards Miyano is speculated by some as having complex feelings or even becoming a potential rival for Sasaki.
But episode 11 revealed that Hanzawa is in fact straight, and his strange attitude towards Miyano and Sasaki is not because he has any romantic feelings towards either of them. He has been so supportive because his own brother had also come out as gay. Their mother just swiftly made sure that she can still have some grandkids from Hanzawa and immediately moved on as if she’s afraid to talk in-depth about it. In this day and age, coming out is becoming more normalized, but most parents still don’t really know how to properly deal with it. They are also worried about the potential social repercussions. This is why when she heard that Hanzawa was straight, there was audible relief in her voice.
This is probably why Hanzawa was initially confused and slightly annoyed by the whole thing. It’s a natural response since the family discussion was so trivial and quick, but Hanzawa needed time to process it, and he never got the opportunity to talk it over with anyone. So he started to act a bit hostile towards his own brother, which could be easily mistaken for bigotry. But after seeing Sasaki and Miyano together, Hanzawa realized that he was just worried about his brother, and wanted him to be happy. This is also how he feels about Sasaki and Miyano.
The fact is, every single person in Sasaki and Miyano is accepting of our main couple’s relationship, although they are inexplicably still not officially a couple. Even the seemingly obtuse Tashiro is completely fine with Miyano and Sasaki’s relationship, and just casually assumed that they are already dating. Now it seems that the only person concerned about the optics of dating another man is Miyano.
Universal acceptance is great to see, and it is definitely something that our society strives for eventually. This is unfortunately not yet the reality, especially not in a relatively conservative society like Japan, as subtly hinted at by Hanzawa's mother's reaction. Given the fluffy tone of the overall series, it is understandable that a direct confrontation of bigotry is difficult to tackle. But at the same time, there is a missed opportunity for a deeper dive into the more realistic aspects of coming out. At least the positive portrayal of acceptance gives a good template as to how to deal with this issue for people who might find themselves in a similar situation.
