03 Jul 24 12:00H
On July's edition of Mineral House, we are in Japan with best-friends, a shy 17 year-old high school student, Urara Sayama and a 75 year-old woman and calligraphy teacher, Yuki Ichinoi from a manga series by Kaori Tsurutani, BL Metamorphosis (メタモルフォーゼの縁側/ Metamorufōze no Engawa). They are sharing their love of reading BL manga by a fictional writer Yu Komeda's I Just Want to See You (君のことだけ見ていたい / Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai).
BL (boy's love/bōizu rabu)) is a subgenre of manga that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between male characters. Initially, BL manga was created by and for women, providing a space for them to explore their own desires and fantasies. Today, BL manga has gained a significant following both in Japan and internationally, with a wide range of stories and art styles to cater to different tastes and preferences.
Began as a manga series in monthly manga magazine, Comic Newtype, from 2017-2020, BL Metamorphosis had been adapted to live action movie with the same name, premiered in Hulu Japan on June 17, 2022. The film is directed by Shunsuke Kariyama and the script is written by Yoshikazu Okada. The film won the Best Picture at the 32nd Japanese Movie Critics Awards in 2023, while Nobuko Miyamoto, who acted as Yuki Ichinoi won the Diamond Award/Nagaharu Yodogawa Award. Mana Ashida (Pacific Rim) acted as Urara Sayama.
Urara was working at a bookshop where Yuki bought her first BL manga, “I Just Want to See You”, in mid-summer heat. She bought it because the illustration on the cover is so pretty. She had been a fan of shoujo manga since she was young and the last time she bought manga was when she got married to her late husband. After the first purchase, she was back to get another volume and Urara saw Yuki’s interest towards BL manga as something that she could relate to. Urara feels like she finally met someone that she could talk to about her hobby, even though she didn't expect that someone was a senior citizen. They frequently met-up at Yuki's house and cafés.
Links:
Tracklist:
Zoë - Duke Hugh
Nico Niquo - Paper Peony
Claude Debussy, Alexei Lubimov - La fille aux cheveux de lin
FKJ - Cashew (Just Piano Version)
Musette - 9 November
Iceblink - Healer
Lynn Avery & Cole Pulice - Plantwood (Day)
Joseph Shabason & Ben Gunning - Ample Habitat
Lynn Avery - Plantwood (Day)
Matthew Halsall - Bright Sparkling Light
Koki Nakano - External Cephalic Version
Joseph Shabason - Toh Koh
Kirk Barley - Water Wheel
Tim Koh & Sun An - Sandalwood In The Summer
Seu Jorge - Life on Mars
Eduardo Mateo - El chi-li-ban-dan
AfroCubism - La Culebra
Tjiros - これさえあれば (Koresaeareba)
(Incl. recorded audio samples from movie "BL Metamorphosis (メタモルフォーゼの縁側) ", 2022, dir. Shunsuke Kariyama)
