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nieves-de-sugui · 10 months

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The Story of Live Action BL in Japan

This is an extra post to accompany the history of BL post I did earlier.

Japan has had live action BL long before Thailand entered the picture. It was however mostly melancolic stories or manga adaptations, until their own particular boom happened. I make a difference between what I would call LGBTQ+ representation and BL Live Action, because even though they have existed parallely they are fundamentally different in their conception. Here is an interview with the curator of an exhibition that was held in Japan about the history of Japanese Queer Cinema.

The evolution of Japanese BL Live Action has been very slow, and mostly influenced by manga. It is still not a big market, but it has improved a lot in the most recent years. This is my attempt to put it into phases:

The indie like movies and bad manga adaptations

Let’s start with Boys Love (a movie), shall we?

It is the year 2006 and up to this point there has been a small boom of gay stories in the 1990′s (the first Tokyo International Lesbian & Gay Film & Video Festival was held in 1992 me thinks this might have sprung the yaoi debates). In the 2000's, we're at the start of a new little boom on BL type movies being made. Many of which would be directly released in DVD, with a constant melancholic and tragic approach to love stories between young men.

Homosexual love is only attarctive to the mainstream if it’s painful. Like typical japanese imposible loves that are explored because of the passion and innevitable tragedy (it’s a japanese trope of almost any kind of romance movie, up to these days). its the intensity of feelings and the poetry of it all. In Boys Love we see those elements that are now very common in BL manga. Straight men falling in love with beautiful young boys and loving them until their tragic end. The movie was released in theatres and was successful enough to get a sequel. Here is a very good review of the movie, to know more about it.

A number of similar movies (with happier endings) follow through. Then enters the Takumi kun series. Based off one of the most popular yaoi novel (and potentially the first live action novel/manga adaptation of BL), it has all the June tropes: Traumatized feminine Takumi, raped by his older brother when he was young, has developped an abberation to human touch which prevents him from making friends. He goes to a boarding school for rich kids where he shares a dorm room with Gii, the most popular kid on the premises, who has fallen in love with him. And it is through that love that Takumi gets over his illness and heals from his past. It was such a success in the BLsphere that it got 4 more movies. I believe it is the bane of @absolutebl existence.

After the first Takumi-kun movie, the production of BL type movies, or adaptations of manga gets a boost. We go from no more than 3 movies a year to 8 in 2008, ie:

Kindan no Koi Ai no Kotodama Taiikukan Baby

And so it continues. When a manga is popular enough it either gets a Live Action, a drama CD (voice actors record the manga dialogues) or/and a series of OVAs (Original Video Animation). Because that’s how they do marketing in Japan. I believe most, if not all, of these movies go straight to DVD. It’s a treat for the fans.

The beginning of the shift

As the manga source starts to evolve, so does the live actions. Japanese society starts being more aware of the LGBT (as the term is used for business startegy purposes). As it’s all about what is going to sell, slowly, a slight neutral realism starts to be felt. Melancoly starts to be replaced with happier moods.

The first adaptation I genienly enjoyed at the time was Seven Days, 2015. A 2 part movie, adapted from the manga, with a very simple story (still no characters properly defined as gay, but maybe they could count as bi?)

While more LGBTQ+ movies get made, the BL Live Action movies remain in the same vein. Adpating what is popular and sticking to the tropes of the time. For example, in 2017 we get simultaneously:

BL - Hidamari ga Kikoeru. A loud and energetic college student becomes friends with a hearing impared classmate, as he helps him take notes for class.

LGBT - Close Knit. An 11 year old girl gets tossed aside by her mother and goes to live with her uncle, who is dating a transgender woman.

The Middle Aged Man Phenomenon

Have you wondered why office settings are so popular in japanese BL? Well, it is mostly Ossan’s Love fault in my opinion.

Besides office romances being a staple of japanese tv dramas, in 2016 two major mainstream actors (Tanaka Kei and Yoshida Kotaro) participate in a small short film about a salaryman who discovers his boss is in love with him. A simple comedy filled with misunderstandings and funny shenanigans. As the response to it was very positive, they decided to turn it into a full flegged series. And so, Ossan’s Love comes out on prime television (TV Asahi) for all to see. It is the first time we see a story like this being shown in a mainstream channel, for all and anyone to see.

A year later after the success of Ossan’s Love we get the wonderful Kinou Nani Tabeta/What Di you Eat Yesterday? (2019), which would not have been possible without Ossan’s Love. There was confidence that there was a market for such a story. Followed by the OL movie: Ossan’s Love: Love or Dead. Which was later followed by a horrible horrible second season that nobody wanted. On this year too, Mood Indigo comes out. A sequel to The Novelist/Pornographer, which would secure it’s popularity. It later got a second season.

We are now in a second boom of interest in queer stories. And the number of movies and tv shows grow. Some of the most known:

Novel adaptation - Fujoshi Ukkari gay ni kokoru LGBT Movies - His Dramas - Life: Senjou no Bokura

Queer voices have been increasingly loud and, in 2015, two municipalities put in place a partnership to acknowledge same sex relationships (not recognized outside of those municipalities unfortunately).

And so, start mixing the homophobia free idealized stories, with more diverse queer content, with the harsh realities of LGBTQ+ people, and the cinematic interest of the filmmakers/directors.

The rise of the salaryman and the thai breakthrought

Thanks to the appeal of middle aged men, Japan now knows there’s a market to be had in producing BLs, so the adaptations sprout like mushrooms. The ground is ready to bear fruit, and so enters thailand with the big success of 2gether at the beginning of 2020.

Japan got to have the movie screened in their theatres. Thailand has broken the Japanese market barrier, as soon as the borders open after the pandemic, fanmeetings are held there one after the other.

And then, we get Cherry Magic in late 2020, which continues to cement that the current japanese BL boom is still going strong.

The Aftermath

The production of BL shows and movies reaches its peak and we get 26 (shows and movies) in 2022. Movies, specials and second seasons are being made.

From Utsukushii Kare 2021 to Strange 2023. Old and new manga gets an adapation and more queer representation grows in media overall.

The story of LGBT representation in shows in Japan

As an extra, I want to put here a few examples of how queer characters, and stories have entered the mainstream of japanese tv dramas. Many mainstream actors have also taken upon portraying such characters.

Pretty Proofreader (2016) - featured a gay side character, not relevant to the plot. My Brother’s Husband (2018) mini series - adaptation of Gengoroh Tagame’s manga about a man overcoming his homophobia through getting to know his bother’s husband Life As A Girl (2018) mini series - the life of a lesbian trans woman Ie Uru Onna S2 (2019) - one episode features different types of LGBT people who want to buy a house and the difficulties they face. Also had some type of side gay stoyline (a little queerbaity)? Ore no Sukato, doko Itta? (2019) - a gay man who dresses as a woman becomes a teacher at a highschool and helps with his is student’s problems.

Special mention to Residential Complex (2018).

A drama that featured 4 families living in the same residential unit, each with their own fundamental problems. The father in the traditional japanese family was unemployed, the man engaged to a younger second wife who wanted no children ends up having to take care of his son from his previous marriage, the young newlyweds that are eager to have kids can’t concieve and the single architect is actually living with his boyfriend. It was a show that had worked with an LGBT organization to make a faithful protrayal of LGBT realities.

Final Thoughts

Here is a list of all Japanese BL and Queer media, Japanese BL list. I recommend to check it out to see the variety of adaptations being made today. It is intersting to see the differences in plot in the shows that are adapting current manga (Our Dining Table) and those adapting older manga (Candy Color Paradox). There is also a lot of queer movies and shows worth checking out. Here are my recommendations:

Kamisama no Ekohiiki (series)

Both Me and Him are the Grooms (movie)

I think it is great that Japan is intergrating queer stories and voices to their BLs, as well as adapting more content to the screen. It is a very exciting moment to be living through, but it still feels like it might go away just as fast as it came. Japan is a very conservative country, that embraces change so very slowly. Queer vocies are making noise, but they have yet to manage to make their government listen. Japan is very setback in this sense.

I do no think Japan will be able to have a BL market similar to Thailand for its live action adaptations any time soon. They stick to what they know, which sometimes can be very good and others, bad.

I do hope for BL to keep on doing what it does best for society: subtly normalizing queer lives so that conservative people start welcoming the idea that they're just regular people (who deserve rights, come on Japan).

Hopefully we’re headed there.

#history of bl #bl history #history of japanese bl live action #this was the quicker one to make #the yaoi debates require more research #but it will be the next post in this series #I hope you had a fun read #I hope I did a good job #I don't know as much on this subject but I did want to make a post to give some context to why japanese bl is as it is

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nitrokiraru · 8 months

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shikis route finisheddd!

like the rin post this might be long. but yall. LMDAFNSJDIGKA i very much understand why he is controversial now. but to be honest i remember playing madarame's route from slow damage and seeing people be like "this is just shiki 2.0!" and i love madatowa so. i was kinda here for the campy 2000s toxic yaoi and clearly this was one of the blueprints. ok so lemme rly break down this bc i love rambling

this was so real... i think more yaoi should include piercings as a way of like. marking or claiming or whatever its called like i was fully like oh my Gootness. gave his ass a belly piercing...also did i mention i love shikis design like he truly served cunt. im very much into alternative fashion and subcultures n all that so i really do like his design

abt his endings... i thought the ending where akira becomes a whore for some reason was kinda funny LMAO like shiki was just like ugh. lemme go home to my hoe wife "who was it this time" LIKE?%6$#&7#2&# i think i liked hoe akira. the military ending was aiight i didnt rly have strong feelings abt it

ok lemme get into what i didnt like. i did NOT like the "good" ending LIKE THAT WAS NOT GOOD???? WHY IS HE IN A WHEELCHAIR i think i mightve missed something like i was here for the running away type ending until it was revealed shiki just became. that like idk you couldve just had them be delinquents together or sumn </3 but overall. i can def see why people wouldnt like this route but to be honest. i like mess. i had fun i thought it was entertaining shiki is hot those r my thoughts. that is all

now to doooo nanos route! then ill be done omg i feel like i flew through this vn so quickly

#shiki tnc #togainu no chi

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postpunkpontypandyphantomthief · 6 years

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Negative memories

“ As someone with Aspergers (now known as ASD) who has other issues with mental health, it’s hell. (note: I am not diagnosed with any other mental condition other than Aspergers but I have experienced the following) (Depressive thoughts, Anxiety (the emotion not the mental illness), panic attacks, strange mood swings, talking to myself, delusions, overthinking, various flashbacks of past negative events, feeling dazed and getting choking type feelings sometimes)

(I haven’t seen a therapist before outside of unhelpful school counselors) .

if I’m having a panic attack I can’t tell the difference between if it’s a panic, anxiety or a “Meltdown”/”wobble”.

It’s just ever since I found out in my secondary school years about my ASD I’ve never looked at myself the same way again.

when I was little I tried to interact with neurotypical children and I tried to follow the crowd with each popular trend mainly early 2000s celebrity trends.

I did see the school counselor a few times for “bullying” incidents but they weren’t helpful and I was a brat who couldn’t take criticism ’so while some of the bullying was real some of what young me would’ve called bullying wasn’t bullying at all.

as Year 11/12 approached I became more pessimistic, quiet and cynical than the chipper annoyance I used to be I used to “entertain” for people I’d sing Disney songs in the playground and eventually anime songs when I got in my weeaboo phase. however when your audience is a bunch of years 8′s/year 9′s etc. they get demanding I felt like a real-life school celebrity or kids show presenter I liked entertaining them but soon they’d follow me almost EVERYWHERE.

like I’d be at the crowded canteen waiting to get food and there some boy would be with his mate asking for a song or “to be my friend” (which was fake because they would say be my friend as a joke) I would decline the offer and then months upon months would follow of me being chased around the playground by kids younger than me yet one of my first career goals was to be like the celebrities I saw on tv.

I had nobody to go to the school itself was already riddled with bullying incidents, two tragedies, homophobia, and other issues.

because of this and the recently learned diagnosis of Aspergers that I’ve had since I was a toddler I was unhealthy, I had asthma sometimes, certain classes and classmates, I dreaded going to,I’d skip lunch on a regular basis to avoid crowds, food and times where those kids would sit at the table I’d plan to sit at just to annoy me.

Anime and the Internet was my escapism but then I became an annoying weeaboo who was also a bit classist after messing on online quiz’s and finding the term “chav” I’d use to insult anyone online or offline whom I hated. (eventually stopped that though thankfully)

The Internet was my haven but it was also a prison. I’d talk to anyone regardless of if they were a fascist troll meme poster or not and that resulted in toxic friend circles, I got into polyamory dating anime roleplayers on Google+ that also ended badly with me at times not being able to tell the difference between reality and fiction, I didn’t have access to “real life” boyfriends so my “online reverse harem” was my only source of romance.

I also was still discovering my sexuality and religion choices at that time. I still remember having rumors spread about me almost every day, religion was something that often changed for me despite being Christian I was an atheist for a short while before I discovered Satanism/Luciferianism which in my opinion was cool but when I told one of my friends at the time about it the popular girls had overheard and soon for months I could not go to class or the playground without people saying “Kelsey do you believe in satan/do you worship the devil, do you like Lucifer” another similar recurring incident involved the two anime terms “Hentai” and “Yaoi” I only knew the name of the first term I didn’t watch any of it but yaoi, on the other hand, I read a lot of but these are secondary school students who barely know what anime is and when they hear it in an IT room this gets embarrassing “did you hear Kelsey likes Japanese gay porn” Ugh.

and when stupid me decided to tell some people about how I was “pansexual” (the identity I had called myself then) they fetishized it they asked stupid questions out of nowhere like “do you think we’re hot, sexy,etc.” or “do you think (insert male classmate) is hot” and it was horrible

my friendship circle at the time often changed sometimes I’d have a couple of friends other times I was completely alone and sometimes a few of those ex-friends would have drama which I, unfortunately, got involved in.

and because of all of this, I’d often lash out or make small problems or disagreements I had with my parents worse than they really were and I’d, unfortunately, post those vents on my old Google+ which I regret.

I had dark thoughts not just thoughts about death but the thoughts JD from Heathers would have due to life and due to a mix of loneliness and feeling manipulated by a very toxic ex-friend of mine who almost destroyed me emotionally (basically, almost columbine type thoughts but I never acted on them).

Eventually, I moved on,I did a Performing Arts course and I thought that would be a sign of life getting better. half of it was good the other not so much.

I was still struggling to recover from what the former ex-friend had done to me, sure there were more positive memories there than there was in secondary school but I had a habit of being a bit of a “Debby Downer” I’d bring up the past too much, sometimes I’d assume too many things were about me even if they weren’t and because of me being someone who would blindly follow I got manipulated again I had become toxic, politically I was an annoying centrist

it didn’t help that one of my hobbies “dancing” was made to be a less fun activity by a discouraging dance instructor who would put me down..a lot.

luckily at the start of this year, I started realizing what was wrong, the person who manipulated me stopped appearing in class so that gave me more time to think about how I act towards others and how I shouldn’t blindly follow, I constructed some vents into poetry and tried to work on “recovery”.

Mentally things were improving a bit, I eventually managed to work on a production of West Side Story which will remain in my positive memories for years,I got more active on social media that wasn’t Google+ like Tumblr and Twitter which allowed me to get to know some new mutuals I had met, I still sometimes visit Google+ but only for the memes, aesthetics, and mutuals who I can only contact there.

Now I’m doing a new course (Creative Media) with some new people and reuniting with some old faces from before. and my health is quite better compared to then but I still get those times where I’m depressive when I get panic attacks when I get delusions or get negative flashbacks etc.

I wasted years of my life because of that...because of Aspergers because of how I used to act like, because of how I blindly followed people, who were clearly bad influences, because of the bullying because of my bad choices everything.

I wasted so much energy but now..I’m 17 I’ll be an adult next year and Asperger's wise I’m miles more independent than before, politically anarchist and I want to let every one of you know.

it’s ok

mental health is still a widely misunderstood topic most people deal with

you are not alone

we are here for you

#mental health #aspergers #aspergers syndrome #asd #vent #personal #mental health awareness #childhood #secondary school years #flashbacks

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tumblunni · 6 years

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Man, god, im just suddenly thinking about "ak/ur/oku" and like.. How the fuck did that even become such a huge thing in early 2000s fandom? Dear god so much early gay shipping in fandom was super unhealthy "sinful" bullshit made by straight people for fetishy purposes rather than genuine representation. But a/kurok/u was such a weird one because it was like.. Just globally accepted and never aknowledged to be problematic?? Man i still remember how lil 13 year old me didnt know there was anything wrong with it, like seriously when stuff like this becomes popularized it ends up sending bad messages to actual queer youth. Learning about your sexuality via the internet cos there's no sex ed irl for you, abd you end up stumbling into toxic fandoms before you have the critical thinking skills necessary to know that this stuff is bad and shouldnt be imitated. Like seriously one of the things i worry about EVERY NIGHT AT 2AM THAT KEEPS ME FROM SLEEPING is that stupid lil 15 year old me made a post on deviantart going like "are pedophiles really all bad? I mean it sounds like an illness. I mean maybe theyre just scared and they want help." Like im terrified constantly that someone will find that old thing and judge me as if i still believe that apologist crap, or as if it was actually an opinion i formed from a fully developed mind, rather than from a kid who (as far as i knew) had never met a pedophile, thinking about pedophiles in the abstract, while being influenced by fuckin pedophile-dominated fandoms and having NO IDEA. and of cooooourse i wanted to believe that i was mature for my age, i thought that was a compliment.. Uuuuugh...

Sorry, going a little offtopic there.

But anyway isnt it kinda weird how akur/oku was just.. Not even regarded as pedophilia? And when i was a kid it wasnt just me not understanding the gross parts of the fandom, i legit never thought axel was that much older than roxas. And it was one of the more popular gay ships cos at that point as far as we knew it was the only person axel had any sort of backstory with, and he cared so much about this guy that he was willing to sacrifice his life to help sora even when he knew roxas would never come back. At the time without further context it seemed like a reasonable assumption to make? And it wasnt until Days that i realized axel was intended to be an adult rather than a teenager, and even worse A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO MADE THAT SHIPPING ART KNEW THAT. Uuugh it was so gross in retrospect to go back and see all the clues i missed that these people were fetishizing roxas's inexperience and veey much writing him as underage. AAAAAAA!

Anyway im glad that shit is now recognized as shit and now we have canon evidence of this dude being old as balls. And honestly i love the relationship of him as a big brother/dad to roxas and xion a lot more, even though as a kid i was desperate for any kind of queer representation in kh. Like.. I never really actually liked the ship that much or felt any chemistry? I just latched onto a few bad writing flubs that could potentially be interpreted as Gay Evidence because i was SO damn desperate! Like i felt like i had to support all these gross abusive ships in fandom cos if i wasnt then i was being 'homophobic', i mean they were THE ONLY AVAILABLE OPTIONS, right? :( Its only now ive grown up i can see how wrong that was, and how people just used it as an excuse to make gross shit and get away with it. Like how in Black Butler all these 'yaoi fangirls' kept erasing the rarest of rare things, a canon trans woman, because 'its sexier if its gay'. Ughhhh. And seriously that discourse still exists for poor Grell, and there's still a lot of these shitty bigoted people pretending to be allies, but like seriously this was EVERYWHERE in 2005! And lgbt rights and even lgbt communities at all were way smaller and less available to the poor teenagers who really needed that positive influence while they were figuring out who they are. So man the abusive side of yaoi fandom was WAY more powerful, and wya more.mainstream, with barely any criticism. And the whole content of this fandom was creepy fuckin adults making pedo porn, and kids who just discovered they were queer and tried to headcanon their favourote characters as being like them. Fucking predator heaven! So yeh that ruined KH for me and definately made me scared of returning to Black Butler for almost a decade. And then i found out that the manga itself has none of that pedo shit and that one of the fandom's biggest abusive gay man archetypes was actually a trans woman this entire time, and just gahhhhh....

Also like seriously this is a tad offtopic but can we kill the anime trope of either everyone looking young or everyone looking old? Or creepy things where just one character looks the wrong age in order to fetishize pedophilia? I dont think kingdom hearts was one of those intentional ones, like i mean there's super bad shit where its like 'this 5 year old looking person is really 9000 years old/actually 18 and just hasnt had their growth spurt yet' (somehow its even more insulting when theres not even a magical excuse) Or the other way around and we have a character thats canonically underage but drawn looking sexually mature with big ol knockers so its somehow okay. The existence of those horrible things is why i end up feeling uncomfortable even seeing ambiguous ages as just a trope in completely innocent anime, yknow? Like in pokemon and digimon all the 10 year old protagonists are exactly the same height as all the adults, and all the female love interests for ash have to be early bloomers in terms of chest and hips, while notably Iris is the only one who actually looks her age and also the first non love interest. Its another reason why i prefer the new art style for the latest season, they make everyone look like kids and Lillie continues to look like a kid even though she's the main girl and has all the cute scenes with Ash. The girls even got very normal looking kiddy swimsuits in the beach episode! Why is that so uncommon, to find the bare minimum thing of underage kids not being sexualized at the beach??

Soooooo yeah, thats at least part of why kid me thought axel and roxas were within a similar age range. Like i thought roxas was maybe 16 and axel was 18?? Somehow?? I dont even know, kingdom hearts isnt even SUPER bad with the 'kids look like older teens,all adults look like age 20 at the most' anime syndrome. Its probably more because id been raised on games and anime that followed that trope, before i played kh. And as a kid you just dont really know the exact differences between 'old', like i mean i knew teenagers were tall and boys get a growth spurt, so somehow it made sense to me that axel could be the same age as roxas?? And man even if i knew he wasnt, i was barely educated at all about pedophilia and i didnt know the nuances of it. I just knew 'its bad for adults to marry kids' like man i was really behind the curve in general learning due to my undiagnosed autism and abusive parenting so like HERE'S 12 YEAR OLD ME NOT EVEN THINKING ABOUT THE SEX ASPECT. And i didnt know that adults in relationships with teenagers was bad too, or like 16/17 year old teens dating kids... I was so fuckin dumb... I really cant believe that not only did i believe stupid adults saying 'pedophilia isnt bad if you're non offending, its okay to make cartoon child porn as long as you dont physically abuse real kids' but also i somehow just DID NOT EVER REALIZE that axel was an adult and roxas wasnt even a goddamn older teen...

So yeh im making a lot of excuses for why my stupid younger self was blindly parroting bullshit, but im not trying to excuse how goddamn wrong and bad it was. I still wake up ashamed in the middle of the night for crapoy decisions i made as a dumb kid, and in terrified that some shreds of it might still exist out there on the internet and maybe someone else could read it?! Gahhhh! Seriously could i have accidentally helped spread that bullshit brainwashing to other kids? And seriously when people say this shit is harmless they just need to look at this, look at how being into problematic yaoi is such a common 'phase' for ACTUAL CHILDREN. Like its not fuckin NATURAL for kids to fall into this stuff, they do it because they dont know any better but the people making the goddamn founding blocks of the fandom are fuckin grown women fetishizing gay men or grown men fetishing lesbians. There's people who do know better who actually conciously decide that a/kurok/u is a good ship while knowing all the goddamn details of what it actually is and exactly what theyre supporting by shipping it. Ughhhhh!

So yeh fuckin Please Stay Safe In Fandom, Kids

And pedophiles have absolutely none of my sympathy, please ignore that goddamn shit i wrote as a little kid being fuckin groomed by a fandom without even knowing it.

This also applies a lot to the rest of LGBT+ aside from just gay shipping, like seriously it took me til age 18 to find any positive representation of trans people or even a proper explanation of what being trans is, yet before i was even 8 years old i'd seen a million 'lol gross man in a dress who gets sexual gratification from wearing women's underwear' jokes in kids shows. And when i was 12 i'd already been exposed to the fuckin hell of m/pre/g thanks to its prevelance of untagged n/sf/w shit in the kh fandom. And by age 15 i'd been exposed to pedophile apologists arguing whether child porn was okay if they only got off to that and didnt personally abuse that kid with their own hands. All of that shit but actually learning about homosexuality and gender in sex ed would have been 'too much' for someone my age...

God what a fuckin mess. Fuck im really really fuckin worried that any of my ignorant comments at those ages could have been read by other ignorant kids and contributed to that disgusting fandom atmosphere. Fuck i think about this so damn often im so damn ashamed of how ignorant i used to be yet i know the adult fuckfaces making pedo shit never reel one lick of shame any damn day of their life. I used to excuse their shit as an actual kid cos i just ASSUMED they would be ashamed and want to seek help! Gahhhh..

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lehvu-moved · 6 years

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A CRUEL GOD REIGNS IN HEAVEN by Moto Hagio

REVIEW + WHY YOU SHOULD READ IT

hey! so, i’m not usually one to do reviews- if i do, it’s usual hours and hours of rants with my friends,- but i finished reading this manga a few days ago and trust me when i say, there’s no getting over it anytime soon.

given that it’s such a wonderful story with an even more beautiful art, if possible, i wanted to share this as a way to introduce more people to it, and perhaps have a few more people join this little fandom.

i tried keeping the spoilers to myself, but i can’t guarantee a completely transparent review! i hope this is helpful, and that will somehow draw your interest towards this very, very underrated manga.

A CRUEL GOD REIGNS IN HEAVEN, also known as AFTER US, SAVAGE GOD or with the original name ZANKOKU NA KAMI GA SHIHAI SURU ( 残酷な神が支配する ), is a story written and illustrated by the wonderful Moto Hagio, and published on the weekly magazine Petite Flower from 1993 to 2000.

many try to pinpoint a genre that’s fitting for this type of story- some say romance, others say drama, others say it’s a yaoi. but my honest opinion is that if you jump into reading this story looking for a yaoi, or a typical shojo-romance, or even a drama the way we know it as- you’ll be disappointed. so very.

but if you ever felt evil. if you ever felt like you were a bad, bad person. if you ever dissociated to the point you talk about ‘yesterday’ and a week has passed. if everyone around you suddenly becomes a stranger, and you want to disappear; if you were ever told you’re destroying yourself, if you ever had those nights where your thoughts were so intrusive and cruel you couldn’t sleep- if any of these are real for you, A CRUEL GOD REIGNS is about you, too.

to get started, ACGR is a story about abuse -sexual and phsychological-, and about mental illnesses and disorders that come from it, but not only.

it’s a story about that one friend that talked so much about suicide making it seem like a joke, but attempted and no one saw it coming.

it’s about that one friend that had a lover no one else liked, that acts like they got over it, but is still losing sleep over ‘what ifs’.

it’s about denying the world you love, the one you’re safe in can have flaws, ignoring the cracks, turning a blind eye- but you know it’ll catch up with you. there’s no way out, and you know it. yet all you do is wait.

A CRUEL GOD REIGNS follows boston native jeremy butler, aged fifteen at the very beginning of the story, and the distorted reality that is built around him when his mother, sandra, remarries to the wealthy english businessman greg. left behind a quiet, but happy life in his hometown, jeremy moves to london with his new family, and meets his two stepbrothers: julian, nicknamed ian throughout the manga, and matt, the youngest. after all the promises his new life seemed built on get broken one by one, jeremy is alone in his fight against the devil, and is willing to do anything to get rid of the monster that sneaks in his bedroom every night. his journey towards recovery and going back to being the person he used to be- the person he used to know, is the main focus of this story.

the plot is a dark, heavy kind of story- it wraps around touchy topics that most people don’t want to talk about, it’s a risky journey. many points are purposefully left unanswered, the characters don’t do what you want them to, what you’re screaming them to, they don’t always do the right thing.

because that’s life. that’s how life is. some things, you can never get to the bottom of them, no matter how much you try. humans are constantly changing, mutating, we are ruled by our moods, beit at our highs or lows, moved by solely our hearts and concerned about the sanity of our minds.

you won’t agree with them sometimes. you’ll be so furious at them you’ll throw your phone in a pillow and stay mad for days at that one panel. but sometimes you’ll feel so heavy in your chest reading, because you would’ve said the same thing. you would’ve thought the same thing, even if it’s not right.

and you’ll see yourself in someone for sure, because that’s just how talented Hagio is. she created a delicate universe filled with people you’ll love, god if you’ll love them! and you’ll feel part of their little groups, you’ll be with them as you walk the snowy streets of london, as they wait for the school bell to ring, as they try to fall asleep at night but can’t. you’ll cry their same tears because they face thoughts and feelings so universal, to don’t feel a part of them is almost unthinkable.

even with a story so emotional and human, what really stays with you about A CRUEL GOD REIGNS are the characters. a cast to well put together, made of people you know so little about, but at the same time feel like you’ve known forever.

jeremy and his big eyes, the thousand tears he’s cried, the way he tries to keep others from suffering despite being in so much pain himself. ian, a complex mind, always second guessing himself, always lost in his ugly coats with his long hands in front of his mouth. sandra, who’s much more than a motherly figure- a character you might not understand, a character that hauntingly lives under your skin- greg, sickeningly cruel, whose colors are so dark the human eye can’t see.

and valentine, valentine and eric, unable to grasp their own identities. marjorie’s doll face, the one that never cries, but a heart that bleeds more than her eyes can show. cass and how life was cruel to him, but he’s getting back on his feet. nadia, the older sister, the one no one understands, the one who’s numbing herself out because she’s so tired of loving the most. and vivi, matt, natasha, william, savage, pansy - everyone. they’ll live on much longer than their story, and live again in people you’ll meet, love, hate.

you should read A CRUEL GOD REIGNS if you want closure. if everyone’s words about ‘you’ll get better’ seem to slip away from you, if you’re out of touch and feel like a lost cause. please, read it.

i finished it in a week, but give yourself time. i tend to devour things i’m interested in surprisingly fast, and this was no exception. when i read the last page, i felt like i could really breathe since the moment i started it. it’s over, but it’s not. it goes on in your everyday, you’ll see it everywhere.

valentine in your herbal tea, ian in every extravagant foreigner you’ll come across, jeremy in the sad eyes you cross on the metro, marjorie in the glue tears vintage dolls cry in shop windows. A CRUEL GOD REIGNS is a wonderful, cruel, powerful story that you’ll think back about and feel a mixture of nostalgia, malincholia and relief for.

everything about this story is darkly unique, from the stunning artworks to the poetic narrative. and trust me, it’s hard finding works as complex and fleshed out as Hagio’s mangas- this one in particular. you can read it here, translated by fans in english since the original japanese was never officially released in other languages.

i hope this review helped! thanks for reading! feel free to message me if you have any questions!

#star talks #a cruel god reigns #zankoku na kami ga shihai suru #wOW! AN ACTUAL REVIEW #manga recommendation #review #hey uhh... read it pls #there r like!! triggers listed as major plot points so stay safe y'all!! ilu

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