As someone who enjoys digging through old OVAs Ive seen a lot of garbage and littered among that garbage have been some truly excruciating OVA adaptations of BL manga. FAKE at first glance may appear to be similarly formulaic and mediocre. I however absolutely believe that this OVA is worth your time. The blurb on here really tells you all you need about the plot without getting into spoilers so Ill spare you a summary and get straight into what I think are this adaptations greatest strengths. For starters this OVA is visually wellexecuted. I wont call it stunning but the animation here actually stands on its own and scratches that late90s itch I keep finding in my brain. Movementheavy sequences character expressions are pushed without feeling choppy or offmodel. Each scene is colored with a wonderful consideration for tone as well something I find is routinely lacking in current anime releases. Even if you arent compelled by the plot the art on display here really is lovely. Speaking of the plot for those who have not read FAKE this adapts a story arc from volume 2 of the manga. As someone who owns physical copies of both the OVA and manga the OVA definitely pads this story to make it suitable for a 60minute runtime. While I will say there is one slightly awkward instance of this at the very end this is mostly done well. Some scenes are just ideas from the arc being expanded upon while others are taken from different sections of the manga. These mangareference scenes add some muchneeded context for viewers who havent read FAKE while also serving as fun bonuses for those who have read it. I personally watched the OVA first and was hooked into reading the whole manga afterwards. Without spoiling anything I think the relationship between Dee and Ryo is wonderful in this. Its a perfect little preview of how they develop throughout the manga. And yes this series does technically fall into the now muchhated trope of having one character in a couple be too aggressive in their advances with Dee in particular getting a little too frisky. But I put that lightly not to be dismissive but because the scene itself is so short and more importantly not traumatic in the slightest that I genuinely dont have it in me to find it offensive. That and the actual development between these two is more than good enough to compensate. Their personalities bounce off of each other in a way that genuinely sells you on the idea that theyre friends. They trust and rely upon each other constantly and there are some very sweet tender moments between them in this. At the same time the slowish burn is believable for as much as you understand why Dee is so in love you completely get why Ryo is conflicted about taking that next step in their relationship. Its good and refreshingly sweet in the face of the comparative slapstick so many other BL series try to pass off as romance. I dont regret buying the manga just to see how it all ends. A few notes before I wrap things up The opening track for this is a BANGER genuine top 10 anime openings for me + the intro animation is super stylish This was dubbed into English 2007 and the dub is pretty good Dees VA in particular does a fantastic job and lends a ton of energy to the character I somehow managed to catch 2 different prints of volume 7 from this series? The content is the same across both but only one has an explicit content warning plastered across the front cover In short FAKE is an endearing OVA that honestly holds up pretty well. Visually great tells a nice little story and really sells you on the manga its based on making for an experience leagues better than some of its contemporaries. You should give it a shot.