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The Journey To Killing You (Japanese Series)

This dark gritty Japanese BL is something I was not expecting. The story focuses on a Yakuza bodyguard  assigned to kill his young boss. The premise sounds interesting but the execution was just weird. There were lot of problems with the show like violence, abuse, coercion and even forcing themselves sexually. Eventually it somewhere becomes. BL with some nonsense stuff. Thankfully the series was only 6 episodes of about 26-30 minutes each. Kataoka is a respected yakuza leader. His boss has grown old and frail, unable to manage the organization anymore. Leadership now falls to the boss's son, Keito. He assigns Odajima as Kataoka's new handler to keep him in check. Kataoka is impulsive and treats Odajima aslmost as a servant even forcing sex on him. But beneath the rough exterior, Kataoka occasionally reveals a gentler side. Odajima, on the other hand,  is stoic and distant, keeping his emotions under tight control. What Kataoka doesn't know is that Odajima has a hidden agen...

The Journey To Killing You (Japanese Series)

This dark gritty Japanese BL is something I was not expecting. The story focuses on a Yakuza bodyguard  assigned to kill his young boss. The premise sounds interesting but the execution was just weird. There were lot of problems with the show like violence, abuse, coercion and even forcing themselves sexually. Eventually it somewhere becomes. BL with some nonsense stuff. Thankfully the series was only 6 episodes of about 26-30 minutes each.

Kataoka is a respected yakuza leader. His boss has grown old and frail, unable to manage the organization anymore. Leadership now falls to the boss's son, Keito. He assigns Odajima as Kataoka's new handler to keep him in check. Kataoka is impulsive and treats Odajima aslmost as a servant even forcing sex on him. But beneath the rough exterior, Kataoka occasionally reveals a gentler side. Odajima, on the other hand,  is stoic and distant, keeping his emotions under tight control. What Kataoka doesn't know is that Odajima has a hidden agenda. His true mission, ordered by Keito, is to kill Kataoka and make it appear to be an accident. As you would expect, the more time these two spend with each other, Odajima’s resolve begins to crumble. Through flashbacks we are told how Kataoka was illegitimate son of previous leader and thats why Keito wants him out of his way. And in a little twist, Odajima has his own personal vendetta to fulfill because he thinks Kataoka was responsible for death of his closest friend.

Kataoka, who is flamboyant, confident, carefree, influential, and forced to go into hiding with the gloomy, asocial, exhauted, emotionally spent Odajima. The story is a vivid mix of the dark, violent, blood-laden world of crime, splashing against the sun, sand, sea . Minus the charm or something that holds you tight as a viewer. It didn't amen any sense where first the lead wants to kill his boss desperately but somehow we are to believe that these two will eventually fall in love. Just the whole premise itself did not land for me. On top of that, starting a series where the lead climbs on top of his partner, who has his eyes closed and appears unresponsive. Not cool at all. The whole yakuza world was also hastily created. I rolled my eyes at the senseless fights, physical abuse, sexual coercion, toxic relationships, guns galore, and over-the-top trauma. None of this shit appealed to me. The show starts to improve that by then I had totally lost any interest in what was going on. The whole character development of Keito was also not done right. Overall, this was just a waste of time and it a genre of yakuza/BL combination that just did not work for me. (2/10)

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