Sanrio Boys Anime Review

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This anime is definitely something new, different and special. Japanese culture isn’t too keen about boys / men liking “feminine” or “girly” things but the fact that this anime exists right now may be a turning point for the Japanese just as it is for us Americans. I love this anime, it’s so beautiful in the way of being positive that men / boys can still be “strong and manly” even if they like Pom Pom Purin, Hello Kitty, My Melody, Cinnamoroll, and Little Twin Stars; the Sanrio characters. Sanrio is a Japanese company that designs cute, pop culture characters. They use these characters to promote their company and on all sorts of products such as pillows to stationery, school supplies.

Sanrio characters are heavily directed to young girls because of how “girly” and “pink” they are but this anime breaks that stereotype. Our main character, Kouta; a 17 year old teenager in his second year is ashamed of his passion, Pom Pom Purin. Spoiler Alert! When he was a young child, he’d use to carry his stuffed animal Pom Pom Purin and was bullied by the other boys for it. It left him ashamed and guilty of a pure innocent passion of the Sanrio character. As the story continues, you learn multiple of life lessons that is relevant and true today. Kouta found other boys who also have the same interest but were unafraid and bold in revealing them. Yuu and Shunsuke proudly show that they’re huge fans of My Melody and Hello Kitty, by wearing keychains on their school bags.

Yuu is a fashionable, casanova that all the ladies love to talk to and Shunsuke (also a ladies man) is a quiet, reserved, soccer player. Yuu finds out that Kouta loves Pom Pom Purin and asks him to join him and Shunsuke in friendship, sharing their passions together. Yuu gives Kouta the strength and courage to be himself and to proudly display his love for Purin. I’m going to further discuss deeply in a few episodes that are truly inspiring and people could take some life’s lessons from. Episode 3: My Sister Blue, is about Yuu’s conflict with his sister who finds him disgusting because he likes My Melody. She finds him embarrassing, shameful and downright gross because of this interest. It’s Kouta’s first time witnessing such behavior from a family member and things start to get out of hand when Yuu becomes fed up with being called disgusting. The siblings do come to a peaceful understanding and Yuu’s younger sister stops calling him disgusting but more importantly Yuu shares himself in communicating with what’s going on rather than pushing it away and pretending it’s nothing.

This is still pretty relevant in which people whom hide pieces of themselves because they’re not accepted by their family members or they know they won’t be so easily accepted by society for simply being themselves. Yuu’s sister misunderstood her brother as a pervert because the only reason why men would be interested in “young, girly things” is to simply jerk off to it. This is also a similar situation to our Bronnies; a group of men who are obsessed with the My Little Pony characters. There was a documentary about these men talking about their passions and how purely innocent it is. That they were really only interested in the story plots and the characters themselves.

Episode 4: Hello Friends, is about Shunsuke opening himself up to his friends and teammates and being more of a team player. Shunsuke would place all his faith in his Hello Kitty lucky charm instead of relying on his team mates or his best friends. Kouta teaches Shunsuke to trust people more and lean on them when he needs to. Episode 5: Broken Rose-Colored, is about a young first year teenager, Ryo, who is outraged and disgusted by Yuu’s, Shunsuke’s and Kouta’s interest. He’s disgusted because deep down he has a huge love for Little Twin Stars but finds it a weakness and unmanly to reveal such a thing. Ryo is mostly outraged with himself and hates how feminine he looks, he finds himself dysphoric and disgusted with himself. Though, he gets lots of compliments on his appearance, he’s often mistaken for a girl and hates it because he wants to be manly and be seen as a man.

Later in Episode 6: Above the Distant Clouds, Ryo finds out that the person he admires and looks up to (the President) also has the same interest in a Sanrio character. He learns that even someone as manly and well disciplined as the President could have such an interest doesn’t demean them. The President isn’t ashamed of his passion at all and has a season pass to the Puroland that he visits every weekend to relieve stress. Ryo, finds this admirable and learns to look at himself with pride and confidence rather than disgust and to find joy in all the things he’s interested in even if they’re “girly”. Also in this episode the President learns the same lesson as Shunsuke to lean and call on for help when it’s needed but to also not worry about perfection. Seiichiro is expected and pressured heavily by his father to be absolutely perfect but later learns that it’s okay to make mistakes, to take breaks and to lean on people here and there. Seiichiro and Ryo all join in - in friendship with Kouta, Yuu and Shunsuke, making their group the Sanrio Boys.

The most relevant episode for myself was Episodes 11: In The Dark, this is where Kouta becomes so obsessed and stubborn in trying to find a way to make himself “sparkle”. He hears all these great things about his friends and sees them do great things that he begins to pile on all this envy. He feels alone and like the fifth wheel that doesn’t belong in the group anymore. Everyone I think feels like Kouta at some point, where we see people’s Instagram pictures, YouTube videos and so on that we see how they shine but we never stop to admire our own little shine. We’re so focus on everyone else and that we isolate ourselves with frustration, envy, anger, and anguish that we lash out onto others and ourselves for us not being enough. This is exactly what happens with Kouta, he starts to feel frustrated and wants to handle things on his own because he wants to outshine his friends. In the end though, he learns that outshining everyone isn’t really what he wants to do, he wants to shine alongside his friends.

Yes, I know. All of these are very sappy and cute but they ring with truth. Sanrio Boys is a very beautiful, special anime and sometimes all the sap that they were hunkering out stop being interesting to me but overall this is a very worthy anime to watch. I love how in a way it was representing these fellas in a positive light and trying to put things into perspective from their point of view. There was a part of the anime where it seemed like the audience was looking at these characters from a fellow female classmate and it ended up leading to no where and stopped halfway through the season. I’m not all that big into sappy, life, love and friendship stuff but I was interested in what the Sanrio Boys were all about. Number one thing that I absolutely love about this anime is that it didn’t reveal their sexuality. This is super important because usually in the western hemisphere, every time a man or woman has an interest that opposes their identity in some way is because they’re “gay” or something. I love that sexuality literally had nothing to do with these boys and that regardless of what their identity is or sexual preference is is unrelated to their interest in these Sanrio characters. You get to just see these characters and their stories come to life as just a regular normal teenager and that’s that.

This is definitely something I had never seen before, especially since most anime dudes are about being super tough in multiple of different ways. So if you’re looking for something different definitely check this anime out. I wouldn’t suggest that it deserves a second season, I like the way this ended and I feel that this season can stand alone.

Overall rating: 3.5/5 or 7/10

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