Yaoi manga specifically focuses on romantic relationships between male characters. It is not, however, explicitly aimed at a gay male audience. Most readers—and writers—of yaoi are actually female. It can be difficult to understand for someone with no previous knowledge whatsoever of the genre. Ellen Page did a pretty good job of explaining it and its somewhat confusing appeal for women in her first episode of “Gaycation,” though. Asumiko Nakamura’s Doukyuusei is fairly representative of the genre, and Shoko Nakajima’s movie roughly adapts Nakamura’s three volumes about the relationship between Hikaru Kusakabe (voiced by Hiroshi Kamiya) and Rihito Sajo (Kenji Nojima). But at only 60 minutes, the movie tends to play more like three short television episodes cut together than a movie proper.
Divided into seasons over the course of Kusakabe and Sajo’s senior year in high school, the movie begins with a choir rehearsal. Kusakabe notices that honor roll student Sajo isn’t singing and later finds him nervously practicing alone. A singer and guitarist in a rock band, Kusakabe offers to help Sajo learn to read music. The two are as mismatched as could be, but they begin spending the bulk of their free time together studying music and walking home from school.
It’s worth noting that yaoi frequently never involves much more than light romances between its beautiful young characters. Kusakabe and Sajo hold hands, talk about their affection for one another and kiss only a handful of times. This isn’t even softcore porn. And isn’t that a relief. To the movie’s credit, the relationship between these characters develops naturally. Kusakabe is certainly the instigator, but, without even touching that much on social stigmas surrounding homosexuality, Sajo’s hesitation is perfectly understandable for an inexperienced teenager. That’s not to say that homosexuality isn’t directly discussed. Their chorus teacher is clearly stated as being into “that stuff.” Kusakabe goes to him for advice and even believes that Sajo may be more interested in his teacher than his classmate.
For a relationship that barely goes beyond tentative kisses and hand-holding, Kusakabe and Sajo deal with their share of jealousies and frustrations over the future of their relationship after high school. Kusakabe is repeatedly reminded by teachers that this new boy he’s spending his time with is not part of the same scene. And Sajo, for his part, is studying feverishly for college entrance exams, knowing full well that Kusakabe has zero plans post-graduation. Reasons for them not to be together pile up as the two drift apart out of a kind of preemptive self-preservation.
Despite its short runtime, Doukyuusei doesn’t feel rushed or its characters’ frustrations forced. The luxury of more time, however, would have helped in at least developing Sajo’s character more fully, beyond a passive, uptight overachiever. And there were moments where attempts at humor—being so rare in this melodramatic narrative—were downright inconsistent with the overall tone. As handled by Nakajima and art director Chieko Nakamura, this story takes on that “summer of love” feeling (or in this case, year of love). Imbued in the watercolor style and wispy figures is plenty of latent nostalgia, the resulting atmosphere serving to deepen the characters’ emotions. Although a rather standard story in yaoi, Doukyuusei is a stylistic primer for anime fans looking to explore the genre.
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