Clover's Corner Recap: The Boyfriend, Episode 2
Clover's Corner Recap: The Boyfriend, Episode 2
Seeking affordable chicken
Note from Julia: Hi readers! As I discus
sed at the beginning of my last How to Open a Lesbian Bar post, I am making some changes to how I structure my paid tier. Basically, all future posts other than How to Open a Lesbian Bar posts will be free for all readers - see the preview to that post to read more about my reasoning! I also un-paywalled Clover’s first recap of The Boyfriend, so go ahead and check that out if you haven’t already :)
Hello Boyfriends! It’s time for episode 2 of The Boyfriend, and this time we can dive right in. I know everyone’s wondering how the man-behemoth Usak will fare with the nancy-boys, whether Dai and Shun will really get together, and whether or not the boys will start to sell coffee, so let’s begin!
Usak enters the house in the morning after the club night, while the rest of the boys are lounging around. Everyone’s like “aaaah, he’s here!”, very sleepily. They suggest lunch to get to know their new Boyfriend, and people want to know if he can even eat the same meals as them. Usak tells them that he likes to make a chicken smoothie every day, so I guess the answer is “no”. What is a chicken smoothie?! It’s three boiled chicken breasts blended with some herbs and water and then downed in a shaker bottle in 5 seconds flat. It looks fucking insane and disgusting. The panelists are shocked beyond belief, as are Julia and I. Our roommate Lola says it’s funny how taken aback the panelists are, because American panelists would probably be more used to something like that due to workout and athlete culture in America. Julia and I disagree and say a chicken smoothie is a chicken smoothie anywhere in the world, and that Americans would NOT be used to such a thing. We are fighting over this. Please sound off in the comments if you think a chicken smoothie is normal and appropriate for your country and region.
After lunch, the boys see their Brewtiful U coffee truck for the first time. It’s a little mint green van with “Brewtiful U” written, somehow, in three separate fonts on the side. It has an AI name and an AI look. Usak writes the name and advertisement on the little A-frame sign they have with a grease marker. He’s artistic! It looks so good!
Host iPad informs the boys they will be living on a monthly budget of 200,000 yen from now on, kicking off our confusion about the economy of this show. According to our calculations, 200,000 yen is like 1300 USD. That seems insanely low for seven men, even living rent-free. It’s like $200 a month for each of them. No one seems worried or perplexed by it though.
Then Host iPad lets them know that they will be starting work at the truck. How it works is two boyfriends work in the truck on a given day, and every day one gets to choose who he’ll work with. What a great element! Ryota, the quiet model, is the first to choose. Will he pick a friend he’ll get along with, or a crush? The panelists whoop and holler in anticipation, and the opening credits start.
Side note:the credits are really fun. The song we heard in Episode 1 is back, and these really fun linework animations of boys’ silhouettes doing things like holding hands and brewing coffee sail across the screen, as little animated versions of the boyfriends themselves walk and climb over the giant abstractions. At the finale, two silhouettes begin to lock lips, and Lola and I screamed. This show is a slow burn.
Ryota chooses Gensei to work with. Everyone is very quiet about this, no strong reaction. Gensei didn’t even have his eyes open, he was too nervous. When he sees he was chosen he’s so happy! It’s really cute, he’s so humble and sweet. I really like Ryota too, he seems like a genuine freak but also kindhearted, and like he’s just searching for real love. The two of them get in the van and drive away to…somewhere. It’s not really clear, but it’s by the water, on a cliff or bluff, and there’s some sort of buildings nearby. Maybe they’re hoping to get that “taking pictures by the cliff overlooking the sea” coffee crowd.
Working at the coffee truck seems very relaxed. I get the feeling that if this were an American show there would be a million violin stings and rapid shots of the boys burning themselves with coffee and steamed milk and swearing, and some kind of tuba motif showing how silly and bad at this they’re being. But Gensei and Ryota just have a pretty good, chill time. Gensei is being sweet and friendly to customers, and Ryota is also trying his best to be personable in his own way. He has to hunch the entire time because he is too tall for the van. At one point they are both just staring from the window at a family drinking coffee at a table like 15 feet away, chittering about how they’re drinking the coffee. They’re so proud of themselves!
Back at Green House, Shun is in bed with a migraine(?) and Dai takes it on himself to nurse him, bringing tea and medicine to his bedside. It’s an obvious flirting mechanism – Dai is a very strong pursuer, arguably to a fault. Shun, for his part, employs a style of flirting I have also been known to utilize, which is appearing so naturally pathetic and hungry that someone else is forced to find you precious and want to take care of you. It works, just ask my wife!
Ryota and Gensei return full of pride! They sold 4 lattes and made 1700 yen! That’s 11 dollars! Great job boys! Everyone claps and says “Great job!” What?! 1700 yen?? When their budget for the MONTH is 200k, and that’s barely anything? How is it even POSSIBLE to make so little money? How long do they even work? How does one latte go for 3 dollars? Maybe things are much cheaper in Japan, so that their tight budget isn’t as tight as it seems to us? But then they still only made 11 bucks, so something’s definitely amiss here? Why are they happy about this??
The panelists are laughing their asses off. “What were they doing all day?” they ask. Okay, so it’s insane to them too. Why would the show set it up this way?? I’m fuckin dying. They had literally four customers, max.
Gensei, in a confessional, announces he has big news. At the end of the day, he and Ryota were told to write notes to each other in their little ledger book. After finishing his note, Ryota laughed and said “The handwriting may give away who wrote the letters,” referring to the letters all the boys wrote each other at the beginning of last episode. Gensei puts on his detective hat and concludes Ryota is saying he wrote the letter Gensei received! “Is he interested in me? That’s what it means, right? I see, so he is interested in me,” Gensei says to himself. He’s so pleased about it! Gensei is always looking up with the brightest, most gleaming eyes.
Then we cut to Ryota, who says “I wrote the letter to Dai, yeah.” Ryota, what the fuck! Why would you say that to Gensei then! How did you think he would take it?
The panelists are also confused about this miscommunication. They compare a still frame of the letter to Gensei with Ryota’s note: The handwriting is nothing alike, lol. The whole thing feels very Shakespearean. “Love needs a bit of misunderstanding to make progress,” says Tokui sagely, his chin resting on his fist. The panelists are always spinning bad situations as opportunities for good ones, which I find charming. I am not like that.
Today is Dai’s turn to pick a partner, and of course he picks Shun, his little doll boy who he wants to fuck. They have WAY more customers than Gensei and Ryota had, and seem to be slammed all day. Nonetheless, Dai manages to get some body language in there – he’s clearly rock hard the whole work day (figuratively speaking), and at one point when passing behind Shun, in an instant where normally one might put their hand lightly on the shoulder of a coworker to indicate “behind”, Dai rests his palm fully on Shun’s ass. There is a slo-mo shot of Dai looking up stupidly at Shun’s profile as he says in voiceover that he was constantly staring at Shun’s lips. It’s getting kind of weird at this point because it’s unclear to what degree Shun is playing along or is just passive.
Back at home, the boys are using the sauna, and Kazuto and Ryota are both sorta staring slack jawed at Usak, who’s smiling back. Usak, emboldened by the steam of the sauna, stripped of all pretension within the wooden walls, asks the boys if they are their true selves while on the show. They’re like, “Yeah, I guess so,” and Usak says, “I’m not sure what my true self is.” Woah, Usak! What’s going on man? He says he’s never exposed his inner self to others. Shit!
Usak is tortured. I can’t help but recall my earlier thoughts about gay culture within Ni-chōme, where Usak, of all the guys, is probably the most enmeshed, seeing as how he works in nightlife. The world Usak inhabits might be really different than that of the other boys. He’s on the meat market, and it’s possible he’s never really felt like it was valued to develop more interiority, or like he had the time or support to do that. Usak!! I hope this gets explored more. I hope Gensei teaches him how to feel like himself.
Today Dai and Shun made 9000 yen! That’s 60 bucks. We learn some key Shun lore when Dai asks him directly how many partners he’s dated (it’s three). Shun says his last boyfriend was from New York and really loved him, but Shun didn’t get enough out of the relationship. He seems shattered saying this, even though to me it sounds like a normal break-up situation. Dai’s like “I can’t read him” and he’s right to say that because Shun is being impassive, but this only draws Dai in more. A panelist opines that Dai “only sees himself” in Shun’s story, which is poetic and true.
It’s another night in the living room, and another little game where someone has to confess their crush. Tonight it’s Jenga. Ryota loses but won’t confess, even though it was his idea to play. But in an interview he says he’s crushing on Shun. Why is everyone crushing on Shun? He’s a brooding prince who’s never been outside the castle. Meanwhile Gensei, in an incredible outfit, tells the camera he can tell that Ryota has feelings for him, and is waiting to hear from him. It’s sad!
This is all summed up in a Lynchian scene where Ryota and Shun shoot water guns at each other in the pool and giggle while wearing full rash guard swimsuits, as Gensei quietly but openly takes photos of Ryota on his phone from the balcony. Ryota either doesn’t notice somehow or just chooses not to respond. It’s unsettling and nothing more is said of it.
There is more tension in the house! Specifically chicken tension. Usak needs three packages of chicken, which cost 800 yen a piece. But the food budget is 2000. Wait, is that the budget for the whole house, or for each boyfriend? It was kind of hard to follow. That’s only like 15 dollars. Is it a weekly food budget per boyfriend of 2000 yen? The money situation is so confusing I kind of just have to sit it out, but the basic point is that Usak is going over budget and cutting into the other boyfriends’ money by insisting on his chicken shake, and specifically on getting fancier chicken than he needs to.
Surely there is a way to get protein other than a chicken shake. Surely soy is abundant in Japan. Surely there is regular protein shake powder. People work out there. Anyway Usak has on his tiny little wire-frame glasses and is struggling to comprehend how he can buy his chicken now, while Dai is politely telling him “you can’t”. He’s basically called a house meeting to discuss this in front of everybody, so that they can reach a consensus on what to do about Usak’s chicken habits. “The youngest is warning the oldest!” the panelists joke, and it’s true! Usak, you’re looking foolish right now! Nonetheless, he pleads to be given a little leeway on his chicken, and somehow the boys agree to effectively subsidize his chicken a small amount from their own budgets/the income of the coffee truck(?), and you can see Dai’s face shadow over as he reluctantly acquiesces to the will of the people.
Now it’s Taeheon’s day to work, and he somehow also picks Shun. Shun will have his fall from grace, I’m sure. We haven’t seen much of Taeheon’s desires or interests – he seems a little bland, which is a shame because he’s hot.
Taeheon seems a little flustered working the truck, but they make do. Meanwhile, Gensei gives Dai a fire haircut and they chat. They could honestly be a cute couple themselves, if they both weren’t blinded by false idols. Gensei tells Dai, “the moment you chose Shun [to work with] he couldn’t stop smiling,” and Dai is so happy to hear.
The boys make 3250 yen selling 7 drinks over ____ hours. Taeheon is like “I picked you because you have an unfounded confidence” which is a really funny backhanded compliment. It also seems untrue because Shun is shambling around like a cursed mannequin every day.
Usak and Ryota hunt for budget chicken. Usak gives up 5 minutes in and texts Dai to bargain, seeing if he can spend more than his share, but less than what he was originally spending, on chicken. Dai is like, “WTF with this guy, no!” He literally already got everyone to agree to a compromise where he gets to spend a little more on food than everyone else, and now he wants to push it more. It is uncute. But, Usak digs deep and triumphs in finding cheaper chicken, which presumably was right next to the more expensive chicken because chicken is all in the same spot. He takes it home and immediately gets to work blending it into a smoothie, which he sucks down before entering a hardcore five second workout montage. The panelists are shocked into giggles and react with, “What is this scene?”
A new night, a new game where you confess your crush. This time it’s one where you put a playing card on your head and try to figure out who has the lowest one, or something? Shun loses, and there’s a dramatic cut to him telling the camera yesterday, “No one was even my type.” Remember when? He whispers to Ryota, who he trusts, that he has a crush on Dai. But Ryota crushes on Shun! OMG. Ryota takes it gracefully, but you can see the pain in his eyes. A la vez, congrats to Dai whose work is apparently paying off re: Shun’s affections. It’s getting tricky in the Green Room, which was once meant to represent the sacred space inside the tunnel of a cresting wave (when surfing)!
Gensei’s turn to work, our king. And he picks Dai! He says he can’t pick Ryota because it would be too obvious that it means they like each other and it’s too early for that, but he can pick Dai because everyone knows they’re besties. Aw, I didn’t know they were besties! So cute!
Cut to Shun, lying on a sofa like a little baby boy, gushing to Ryota about how much he likes Dai. Ryota is being a good friend and listening, even chiming in about Dai’s good qualities. Oof.
After work, Dai talks to Gensei about how he and Shun are getting along, pointing out a time last night when Shun rested his head on Dai’s leg for a good while! That’s pretty damning. Meanwhile, Shun is telling Ryota that he wants Dai to commit to him mind, body, and soul and also that he can’t comprehend that Dai would really like him, which are the words of a boy who is legitimately tortured and emotionally damaged. Shun what happened to you.
The next scene is truly shocking, and telling of Shun’s emotional baggage. Shun and Dai are lounging on the couches. Shun is looking at pictures on Dai’s phone when he accidentally stumbles upon some nude that might have been taken for dating apps. Shun gets triggered all the way to the Shadow Realm and goes completely despondent. He tells the camera later that the pictures were “really extreme”, so make of that what you will. Is Dai showing hole? Throating a dildo? Is it just one of those unimaginative shots of him holding his own dick from the perspective of his chin? Dai tries to talk to Shun about what happened, and you think maybe he’s going to try and ground the situation in some reality and explain his side, but instead he says “I feel like maybe I destroyed everything we had built up to this moment.” NOT TRUE dude, it’s a picture!
Shun explains that “in past relationships, there were player-types”, and that they fucked him up. Dai’s photos prove to Shun that he might be a “player-type”, too, which Shun can’t handle. “It made me remember things,” he says. “The surfer I broke up with…was horrible,” which is referencing perhaps a grim and abusive relationship but is an objectively funny sentence. Also, second surfing reference in this show? More surfing than I thought.
It sounds like Shun was made to be reliant on this surfer in a way where he felt trapped and without autonomy. Dai doesn’t really say anything to defend himself or distance himself from this trauma that Shun is unfairly folding him into, which, why doesn’t he? Shun is clearly activated and projecting a lot onto Dai, and Dai just kind of takes it and is like, “I hope I can prove to you that you can be safe with me.” It just seems like he’s setting himself up to reach some imaginary line with Shun after which he will be forgiven for crimes he didn’t commit. It’s not a good start to a real relationship.
The panelists, again wise, point out that Shun’s response does at least mean he has strong feelings for Dai, or else he wouldn’t care so much to begin with. And where there are strong feelings perhaps there is the will to work through big problems.
But anyway it’s Kazuto’s day to work! He chooses Ryota. That could be a cute couple! Kazuto is so boy-next-doorish, and I want him to get more screen time. He asks about Ryota’s life on the ride over, and it’s revealed that they are both from small rural towns, just like pretty much everyone on the show. Kazuto says he tried to make Usak’s chicken smoothie at his restaurant and got sick and grossed out all the employees. He’s 27 and manages a restaurant. I’m 28 and am writing this recap. Pretty impressive, Kazuto. I just wanna pinch his little cheeks. He's such a sweet boy. At the end of the day, Ryota gives the absolute worst thumbs up I’ve ever seen and attempts a wink that looks more like a grimace. They made 11,600 yen (76 USD).
After work, they talk dating history. Kazuto had a long relationship that was his only serious one; before that, he dated, but wasn’t fully out to himself, so those relationships weren’t entirely true or realized. They have an earnest discussion about realizing you’re gay and coming to understand that it’s even possible. It’s very sweet.
Kazuto reveals to the camera that his parents, rice farmers, had a hard time accepting his sexuality. He was expected to take over the rice farm, but upended the family by coming out. He says he felt guilt and shame, but now he wants to open his restaurant and use the rice and crops from his family’s and hometown’s farms to heal those wounds. It’s beautiful, humble, and poetic. I was tearing up. I hope Kazuto’s parents have grown.
At home, the boys discuss the perfect first date. Shun is moping on the floor with his head on the coffee table, morose. He confides in his new bestie, Ryota, that he is so upset with Dai he couldn’t even be in the same room as him. Shun is being such a brat right now. He’s not really friends with Ryota, he just realized the joy of having a confidant who he feels is loyal to him. He’s still mulling over the situation by himself, out by the pool, later in the night. Get a grip Shun!
But it’s a new day, and now it’s Shun’s turn to pick a work partner!!! But they make us wait til episode 3 to find out! Those fuckers!!
Some asides:
This isn’t plot related but there is a brief scene where Dai is doing some hip thrusts to stretch or exercise and Shun is pressing down on his thighs to create resistance. Dai has his eyes closed in focus. It’s incredibly erotic.
Usak mentions he needs to eat his chicken to continue with his work, and sometimes Gensei or Kazuto have been gone for work, but it doesn’t seem like everyone necessarily goes to work? What’s the work situation?
The scene last week with Dai hanging with his girlies also suggests that the boys can leave the house at will to see other friends, but we didn’t see that this episode. I wonder what everyone else’s circle of friends and support looks like, or who might not have any. Hopefully we get to see more.
I wish Gensei could cut my hair and chat with me, but unfortunately even if we could make that happen, my hair (Jewish) would make him cry and I don’t know Japanese.