Captivated by You is not BL. It is, rather, a series of high school stories about friendship. The stories are linked by Hayashi, a true maverick who goes his own way. He isn't a rebel--he wears his school uniform with unselfconscious gravity. He is truly outside the box, not a symbolic representation of someone outside the box.
As he goes throughout his day, he forms a web of friendships of which he is partly conscious yet partly not. He amuses and energizes a directionless friend by dressing like a bear. He supports and inspires an artist precisely because Hayashi sees the world in unexpected ways. He forms a close relationship with Matsuya, who goes on to draw others into her fold through the book she loves. He helps a fellow peer stand up to a bully through a single act (and possibly a few more carefully placed actions).
His alter-ego, Nikaido (to the right in the image above), goes his own way through camouflage. Once a school idol, Nikaido has adopted a withdrawn, melancholy persona to keep himself safe. He is befriended by Medaka, who practices his friendship by protecting Nikaido's choice: Hey, if Nikaido wants to be glum, let him be glum! That acceptance, which eventually extends to include a friend of a friend of Hayashi's, gives Nikaido a chance to find a balance. He and Hayashi eventually connect through the web that Hayashi has flung out into the universe.
The series is very funny. Hayashi delivers a number of hilarious lines--"I might encounter a bear"--in a deadpan manner that is, nevertheless, not affected or belabored. Likewise, the victim of the bully, when he stands up for himself, yells at the bully for having such a terrible diet--and he means it!
My favorite line is when Hayashi is arguing with the art student who made Hayashi his model. Matsuya interprets the encounter as semi-romantic or bromantic: high school boys communing with each other from the heart!
She speaks her mind, then runs off while the two boys watch.
"She likes novels," Hayashi explains to the other male student.
Absolutely! Novel-reading is the passage to seeing the universe as a bright world of connections and magic.
