#my beautiful man season 2

[piningintrovert]

It's a miracle; I was able to get Kiyoi all to myself. You're being gross again.

Hagiwara Riku as HIRA & Yagi Yusei as KIYOI 美しい彼2 (2023), dir. Sakai Mai

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

It's a miracle. You're being gross again.

[respectthepetty]

MY IDOL AND HIS STALKER ARE BACK!!!!

So of course, I had to dissect the first episode of My Beautiful Man's second season:

Hira's natural place is always lower than Kiyoi, so he can worship him appropriately.

But whenever Kiyoi is vulnerable and honest about his emotions, he is shown as lower.

Barriers pop up frequently between them, but Kiyoi is always the one to cross them with acts of aggression (kicks or slaps) because Hira would never cross a line with his god.

And even in the callback, we see Hira has gotten a bit higher, while Kiyoi has gotten slightly lower. They are also physically closer. They are trying to find their balance.

And as usual, Hira continues to give Kiyoi all of his color love, and Kiyoi gladly engulfs himself in it.

They're gross.

[krystaljungs]

kiyoi in his blue hoodie 🫠

[nicetrytyty]

Crying baby👑🤍

[how-to-be-a-tree]

My beautiful man/Utsukushii kare S02.E04

[i-got-the-feels]

Favorite Cinematography Shots from Utsukushii Kare Season 2

[waitmyturtles]

I feel like I haven’t given Utsukushii Kare/My Beautiful Man season 2 the kind of love and attention that it either deserves, or that I expected to give to it, simply because my brain is all in Thailand with Moonlight Chicken at the moment.

But that being said, I could NOT have asked for a better finale to this short and sweet season that will precede the release of My Beautiful Man: Eternal in April (which -- if my calculations are correct from last year’s theater-to-DVD release of Cherry Magic -- we’ll be able to see in November 2023). With that, thoughts on Utsukushii Kare/My Beautiful Man season 2, episode 4: 

You know how I’d frame Kiyoi’s perspective and demands on Hira? ACCOUNTABILITY. Kiyoi is holding Hira fucking ACCOUNTABLE, and I’m here for every single second of it.

I think Kiyoi was doing something incredibly mature throughout this episode. You know how Kiyoi says things like “gross” or “disgusting” if Hira says something that we, as the audience, think is sweet?

I think Kiyoi’s judgement on this is that he has a deeper read on Hira. Hira self-deprecates to SUCH A FAULT that it affects his personal life AND his professional life. (My god, he even tried to exit the conversation with Noguchi, the photographer!).

Hira RUNS AWAY. He’s a runner. I LOVE what Noguchi says about Hira’s work during their meeting: Noguchi says that Hira’s work is full of “great selfishness and a sense of stupidity.” Noguchi, you could not have nailed this better, and I think Kiyoi also gets at that with the “gross” and “disgusting” comments.

I wrote in my review of the first season of UK that Hira is just as much of a narcissist as Kiyoi. And I think, by way of Hira’s narcissism and addiction to self-deprecation and self-psychological-flagellation, that all of those qualities -- those behavioral CHECKBOXES that Hira THINKS he needs to mark -- render him unable to see exactly what’s happening in front of his eyes. He can’t see that Kiyoi is ready to meet at the same level, to have a leveled and equal relationship. Instead, Hira is kind of ADDICTED to the RELIEF of the self-deprecation. AND...

... my read on this is that I think that that self-deprecation, that pulling away from equal communication and perspective, could allow Hira to BE OKAY with NOT being in a relationship with Kiyoi IF it failed. He even says as much at the start of the episode. I think what he says at the very beginning of the episode is: what else could I have possibly expected, but for the relationship to fail?

To me: isn’t that a cop-out?

Whereas Kiyoi is like: no way, motherfucker. You’re not getting out of this so easily. And I’m going to hold you ACCOUNTABLE.

Kiyoi is looking for equality and equity in the relationship. He wants TO BE ABLE TO LOVE HIRA like the way Hira sucks up all the air in the relationship to be so slavishly devoted to Kiyoi. Kiyoi, when he comes out to Anna-san, says that he and Hira bicker a lot. But he’s happy to SO EASILY come out and talk about his boyfriend, and talk about living with his boyfriend.

Kiyoi wants to be out, and happy, with a boyfriend who loves him. Is that too much to ask?

Hira was making it too much to ask, with all of the deprecating hype he was adding to the relationship. And Kiyoi is like, I’m just not going to take it anymore, AND I’m going to communicate to you in a way that you can understand, AND I’m going to push you to be successful in your career, BECAUSE I know that will help with your self-esteem. You’re great, Hira -- you just need to prove it to yourself... and I’m going to be the boyfriend that helps you see that.

WHAT. AN. AWESOME. SEASON. I could NOT have asked for a better, sweeter growth story than this! And then there’s the movie, omg, where is it going to go? Hira becoming an ADULT! Kiyoi becoming more successful! I love these two. Hagiwara Riku and Yagi Yusei have reeeeediculous chemistry, and I really, really recommend following them and the UtsuKare accounts on IG, because their cute videos are too much (and @lollipopsub is subbing a lot of BTS videos, too!). 

I love this series -- that’s it, I love this series, it’s a perfect series, and we’re so lucky that we get more in the future!

[emotionallychargedtowel]

I’m still working on a longer Utsukushii Kare post from a psychology angle, which should be done soonish. In the meantime, I did a rewatch to help with that post, and ended up with some stray thoughts about a few things from S2E1.

This seems like something that could be impacted by a translation so I don’t want to make too much of it. But at the party, Kiyoi is asked twice if Hira is his friend, and (in the Viki subtitles at least), he responds by saying, “Well...” but he’s always cut off by people talking over him. Is it possible he’s actually thinking about telling people Hira is his boyfriend, or trying to?

When Hira talks to Kiyoi about watching the “special report” he was in with Anna, he says “she’s so pretty,” and as a result “it feels a bit complicated.” He seems to be talking about Anna here. Has Hira ever referred to anyone besides Kiyoi as being attractive before? I can’t think of a time that’s happened. Kiyoi seems unhappy about this development as he makes a semi-subtle mad face in response. I can think of a few things Hira might mean by “complicated” here, all of which relate to liking Anna or rooting for her even though it could (in his mind) detract from his total worship of Kiyoi.

There was something about the way Kiyoi kicked Hira (when he was trying to distract him from his “so cool I could fall in love with you again” comment) that seemed odd to me the first time I watched the episode. This time, I figured out what it was--he does a little hop just before the kick. Then I remembered Yagi Yusei was a soccer/football player before he got into singing/acting and it made sense. It was a soccer kick!

Things from this episode that no one (that I’ve seen) has made gifs of yet, but that should really be gif’ed:

The awestruck look on Kiyoi’s face when he pulls back the curtain and sees Hira in the last outfit he tries on (the one with the brown coat that he ends up wearing to the party). It’s a bit subtle--he’s trying to hide it, of course--but he does a full head-to-toe checking-Hira-out eye thing along with it.

The half confused, half distasteful “Eh?” expression on Hira’s face after he’s told to “think outside the box” about sleeveless shirts.

The aforementioned Hira saying Anna is pretty, Kiyoi looking annoyed thing.

I guess I should try to learn to make gifs at some point? In the meantime I definitely don’t mean to sound less than appreciative of those who do. Seriously, thanks, gif people.

[piningintrovert]

Please forgive me for this sin of touching god, pretending that it's courage. No, it's fine if I’m not forgiven. In exchange, I was able to get Kiyoi all to myself.

Hagiwara Riku as HIRA & Yagi Yusei as KIYOI 美しい彼2 (2023), dir. Sakai Mai

[respectthepetty]

Me praying for my sanity in February knowing I'm FINALLY getting Moonlight Chicken, two endings of 609 Bedtime Story, the final acts of My School President, Never Let Me Go, and HIStory 5: Love in the Future, the high heat of Bed Friend, the chaos of Chains of Heart, my idol and his stalker in My Beautiful Man 2, and the unhinged murder plot of Hit Bite Love.

Blessed.

[sadtrash-masculine]

things about my beatiful man season 2 episode 1 that I've noticed and absolutely adore:

- Kiyoi dressed up in Hira's blue (honorable mention to Hira dressed up in Kiyoi's red)

- colors!!! (red, blue and yellow!!)

- Kiyoi's sweater paws

- Hira not explaining what he photographed to the members of the photograpy club, but explaining it without hesistation or fear of judgement to Kiyoi

- the intro: 1. the duck, 2. them looking back at eacjother at the same time in front of the bench, and of course 3. Hira kissing Kiyoi's hand and them melting into eachother as the lyrics go 'this happiness is eternal'

- Kiyoi defending Hira's appearance and promptly deciding he needs to go show off his man immediately

- 'you're handsome enough for me to fall in love again'

- Kiyoi not even thinking twice about canceling on the afterparty because Hira was uncomfortable and Hira completely overthinking it lmao

- Hira not noticing he was being flirted with and Kiyoi the whole time in the foreground looking so pissed and confused that people are flirting with his man

- Kiyoi being like 'yes i think ur hot, but you're not allowed to be popular bc you cant leave me' while Hira is absolutely not thinking about leaving him. ever.

- Kiyoi asking to be fed by Hira twice (and Hira feeding him icecream!!)

- Kiyoi being all possesive and then getting embarassed about it in the morning

- KIYOI LAYING IN HIRA'S LAP

- Hira still obsessed with photographing Kiyoi and Kiyoi exclusively (and how extremely attractive Kiyoi thinks this is)

- Hira wat watching the little documentary thing entirely encases in (his) blue light while (Kiyoi's) red light from the tv shines in his face

- Kiyoi totally modeling a little bit for Hira

- Hira calling Kiyoi cute (relatable) and being his dramatic self about it

theres more but um i have only watched the episode 4 times (technically 3 bc i wasnt really watching while writing this)

[lollipopsub]

Updates on Utsukushii Kare: Eternal + S2 (as per Jan 26, 2023)

hi lovelies 💓

a lot is happening for this fandom at the moment, so I got a request to gather as much as possible of the info we've received so far!!

Here is a pretty long post summarizing what we know thus far!

The movie is called Utsukushii Kare: Eternal. The tagphrase on the poster is "Time and time again, I will search for you. Time and time again, I will love you. That is my eternity."

The movie will premiere April 7 in Japanese theaters.

The movie and the drama is NOT THE SAME THING.

I've seen a lot of people who seem to think the movie will just be like a special cut or something, but no, we're getting lots and lots of new story!!

The stories will connect, and the movie will serve as a continuation of season 2.

Here's the first trailer for the movie:

That's all we know about the movie so far.

Onto the drama!

Season 2 will start airing February 7

.... on a handful of different Japanese channels. At the time of writing, nothing has been confirmed about international distribution.

The first trailer for the show will be released next week, Tuesday the 31st of January!

The synopsis for Season 2:

"The days pass in bliss... Hira is in his 4th year of university and Kiyoi is active as a newly debuted actor. They live together in Hira's house as boyfriends. However, Hira's religious worship is unchanged, and the way he crawls and bows as low as possible without hesitation is causing neverending worries for the beautiful, arrogant King, Kiyoi. In addition, Hira has discovered a new hobby of following Kiyoi around while in disguise so as to not be found out. He did his best to not disturb Kiyoi, just watching, alone and quietly – but then an event lets him befriend a fellow fanboy.

As graduation grows closer, Hira's friends are busy hunting for jobs, and Hira starts worrying about his lack of job experience...

What road will Kiyoi and Hira choose as they move towards adulthood?"

The above, taken from the official website, is nearly the same synopsis as the second book, Nikurashii Kare, so it's likely that the season will be based on this book.

Cast so far:

So we have Koyama again, and otherwise there's a lot of new casts. A few have also confirmed that they'll be in the movie too: Hira's sister Naho, his nephew Tomoya, and it sounded on the actress as if Anna will also be in the movie. The rest are only officially confirmed to be in the show, but to be fair, absolutely nothing has been revealed about the movie yet other than title and the fact that the stories will connect.

The OP & ED songs will be done by the same artists as season 1, just switched around - so the opening song for S2 will be "Bitter" by Roce (ロス), who sang the ending song "Follow" from S1. Bitter will be from Hira's POV.

The ending song as well as the theme song for the movie will be by Mosawo (もさを。), called Kinmokusei ("Sweet Osmanthus", it's the name of this flower). Kinmokusei will be from Kiyoi's POV.

I think that's it for the time being, but I will try to update you whenever other more relevant news come out, and ofc I'll do my utmost to subtitle the upcoming trailer as soon as possible!!!

if you read this far, ilu <3

[tobeornottotc]

The date is my favourite part of the episode (well everything is tbh) but the way Kiyoi is secretly smiling in his head about how good his man looks, and Hira just doesn’t see it because of years of internalised self hate and self depreciation because of how the world treated him.

Hira feels seen and safe by Kiyoi from the start it’s what he clinged to along with his beauty it was the catalyst in him the drive to make him want to stay alive and actually enjoy it, he finally found hope in the depths of his despair and yet we see he still is blind to himself.

Because that hate and pain don’t go away when it comes to how low he he feels. That love that should be poured on himself he gives it all to Kiyoi and that love then is poured onto him by Kiyoi in return who also wanted someone to love him whole heartedly. 

People have no idea what they do to me, how perfect they fit for each other in this world that feels unsafe and unstable to them, they are each other’s safe zones, comfort, places to feel seen, allowed to be free, and allowed to cling onto something stable that grounds them, uplifts them and gives them joy to do life everyday. For 2 Years that’s all they saw in each other, and I’m so happy to have them back. 

[nicetrytyty]

My Beautiful Man ~eternal~ Climax Trailer

[how-to-be-a-tree]

ME:

"This is too embarrassing. It's like I've been seen through"