【Japanese LGBT Manga and『Maurice』】English version【Beautiful stories from far away From Japan】
2023-08-19 ｜ TOSHI
❙ I didn’t understand female homosexuality
Dear followers and readers, how are you? I’m TOSHI, a Japanese woman
What surprises me about today’s young people’s culture is that they get plastic surgery done and post about their expereince on social media and occasionally dye their hair gold, pink, red, etc., and see if it suits them, and more and more people are coming out as homosexuals, especially lesbians and bisexuals.
I’ve been told I’m relatively open-minded, which I aspire to be. But what I didn’t understand in my heart at the time was how different sexual orientations found attraction in a way that was beyond my understanding.
However, depending on the person, I think it’s incredible and I have learned that it cannot get in the way of their happiness.
❙Maurice who liked BL and me at the time
Actually, since I was a girl, I secretly read what is now called BL (Boys Love; homosexuals manga or work mainly only for girls and women readers) manga.
I went to watch “Maurice”, a movie about gay love that was popular at the time, featuring handsome young British men and bought the original book by E.M. Foster.
The foreign film “Morris 4K” official website
https://cinemakadokawa.jp/maurice/
However, as I will explain later, I couldn’t fully appreciate the film Maurice at the time, other than the visual beauty. Only recently did I understand.
❙ “A Better Tomorrow”
I loved John Woo’s Hong Kong noir action masterpiece “A Better Tomorrow (英雄本色)” back then, and I still like it now.
“Otokotachi no banka (Japanese title of A Better Tomorrow) 4K remaster version” notice『男たちの挽歌 ４Ｋリマスター版』予告
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgWBdd24RIE
When I could talk to a younger girl who seemed to understand this story,
“The friendship between the two main characters, played by Ti Lung and Chow Yun-Fat, in “A Better Tomorrow” is so beautiful and so deep it’s suspicious!”
I spoke passionately, and when I saw a comment that shared the same understanding as me in internet,
“As expected. Ufufu.”
It is also a human being who is grinning even at this age. However, honestly, I have never understood the love between women.
The reason is that, for me, the ultimate beauty is the kind of masculine beauty symbolized through things like martial arts.
I have an excessive admiration for it, and I don’t know how to feel sexual attraction to women’s figures, even my own.
❙ THE GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASN’T A GUY AT ALL
However, this work suddenly made me understand, even if only a little, the attraction some people have for women, even if I don’t personally share that attraction.
It is written by Sumiko Arai / 新井すみこ (KADOKAWA),『THE GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASN’T A GUY AT ALL１/気になってる人が男じゃなかった 1 』, and has been made into a book, and she has many followers amassing over 850,000 Twitter followers (from the book obi described later).
THE GUY SHE WAS INTERESTED IN WASN’T A GUY AT ALL
Reading the comments on Twitter, there are quite a few foreign readers.
Sumiko Arai Twitter
@agu_knzm
The drawings are very amazing.
“Even women can fall in love with each other.”
That’s what was depicted so realistically that even a person like me was persuaded.
The book’s inside cover carefully describes what makes the two main characters so attractive.
What I admire is always masculine beauty.
just,
“Don’t fall in love with that person, fall in love with this person instead”
People who can say something like this might have never truly experienced the feeling of falling in love.
❙ Impressions of seeing “Maurice” now
And recently, I watched the movie “Maurice” again.
It is set in England when homosexuality was criminalized. It portrays homosexual men who are attracted to each other but live contrasting lives.
Author E.M. Forster wrote this work in 1913, but it was published after his death in 1971.
(Reference “Morris” wikipedia)
Even if a person cares about someone or loves someone, the relationship is legally prohibited,
“If you keep going like this, you might end up ruining yourself.”
It is natural for human beings to be at least influenced and confused when they are made aware of such a fear.
Again, this work was published after the author’s death.
The actual conflicts and emotional movements of the characters, who lived in different eras, give rise to the irreplaceable value of this work and its deep emotions.
Perhaps I didn’t understand this work when I was a girl because I didn’t know true love and believed that with love, anything would be easy to overcome.
Still, I cried when I realized that love is sacred and rare, and humans shouldn’t tear it apart, no matter someone’s sexual identity or gender orientation.
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※TOSHI, I had been a writer who mainly focuses on food for around 5 years. I am looking for media that will publish my essays about Japan, gourmet Mystery novel (※) and #日本人が中華街でつぶやくJapanese tweets in Chinatown (serialized on X (Twitter) and this site), etc. Feel free to contact me via ClubRosy’s X (Twitter) DM. https://twitter.com/ClubRosy
The articles I wrote
TABIZINE
http://tabizine.jp/author/toshi/
OTONAMIE
https://otonamie.jp/?cat=4852
Novels
(※)The casebook of Tokyo gourmet writer
[The case of Beautiful Girl Cooking Expert]
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/16817330650906127298
amazon TOSHI’s book（竹井夙 Toshi TAKEI’s book） [美しい人々 Beautiful people] etc.
https://www.amazon.co.jp/%E6%9C%AC-%E7%AB%B9%E4%BA%95-%E5%A4%99/s?rh=n%3A465392%2Cp_27%3A%E7%AB%B9%E4%BA%95+%E5%A4%99
The casebook of gourmet writer
[Mystery around Chinese tea]
https://kakuyomu.jp/works/1177354054894423195
Helpful feedback is always welcome!
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Club Rosy Twitter
https://twitter.com/ClubRosy
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“Obon” season/Return of ancestors【Beautiful stories from far away From Japan】