Ryokunohara Labyrinth
Reviewer: Wiggle [website] [email]Overall Rating: B
Media Reviewed: VCD fansub
Creator: Hoshino Kana
U.S. Licensed: No
Released by: AIC
Run time: 40 minutes
BL Content: Very soft (emotions, touching)
Genre: Fantasy/Drama
Other media: Unknown
Ryokunohara Labyrinth contains none of the gut-wrenching angst that Boys' Love often centers on, nor does it depict even so much as a kiss between the main characters. Instead, tender imagery and meaningful flashbacks focus the 40-minute OAV on the closeness and devotion of the two boys.
Kanata and Hiroki are popular high-school students in their last year, getting ready to apply for University and make their childhood dreams come true. Through flashbacks, we see that the pair have been friends since they were disgustingly adorable chibis. Dark-haired Hiroki is the more outgoing of the two, protecting the more shy and emotional blond-haired Kanata since they were very young. Something deeper than friendship is hinted in the way the two look at each other and embrace, but the love they have for each other is clearly not romantic yet.
Enter Fhalei (subtitler's translation and spelling), a disembodied female spirit from a "dark world," who is intent on capturing Hiroki's light for her own. Through dreams and manipulating Hiroki's life, she works to drive him and Kanata apart. She even succeeds in having Hiroki hit by a car, though not in killing him. For awhile, Hiroki's spirit is thrown out of his body, but his body continues to live and act like him, so Kanata doesn't notice the change. Hiroki's attatchment to Kanata is so strong that he refuses to go with Fhalei, and works to convince Kanata that part of him is no longer in his body.
The best parts of Ryokunohara Labyrinth are definitely the flashbacks and short sequences of Kanata and Hiroki growing up. These scenes explain why the boys are so close in their current predicament, but they also are some of the cutest boys' love scenes in existance. Tiny Kanata reading a picture book to tiny Hiroki is adorable enough to capture anyone's heart. A very nice sequence of the boys maturing all at once, naked, together, is both poignant and excellent fanservice.
At the end, Ryokunohara Labyrinth leaves more questions unanswered than it does resolved, starting with the title. Ryokunohara seems to be the name of the school; it's printed on the back of Hiroki's jacket. What the labyrinth is, we aren't told. Also, where is this world in which Fhalei exists? Who is she? How did she get there, and why can't she leave? What is up with the strange, surreal "flying school" section in the middle of the action, that looks more like an ending/opening sequence than anything that fits with the story? None of these questions have answers.
The final problem with Ryokunohara is that it's very difficult to locate. However you manage to get a copy, it's an absolutely darling break from the angst and smut-filled world of yaoi.