Tenchijin Forum

So, the NHK has this ongoing series of dramas called “taiga drama,” which are year-long historical dramas they broadcast each year. The current taiga drama is called Tenchijin, based on the real-life samurai Naoe Kanetsugu, who was famous for serving two generations of the Uesugi family that ruled the Echigo province during the 16th century-- although he got his start “serving” as a young sexual partner for Uesugi Kenshin.

Tokyograph reports that the series is being made into a manga, which happened in '05 to the drama Yoshitsune, but there are two new aspects here. First, the new manga will be made in a “boys-love”/yaoi flavor, and second, it'll be launched as a mobile manga rather than starting in print.

I'm personally kind of excited, because the mangaka who will be creating the adaptation is Kairi Shimotsuki, best known for the 2007 Sengoku Basara Ranse Ranbu manga (pictured) and for various yaoi. I don't always like her writing, but her art is gorgeous.

That said, I do have some reservations-- boys love isn't exactly known for its realistic depictions of gay men (it is, generally speaking, women's fantasy, after all), I doubt that Kanetsugi's life was anything as melodramatic as a yaoi-style manga would turn out to be. On the other hand, let's face it: BL sells.

Sony Digital Entertainment is publishing the manga, but I don't know what that will mean for the plausibility of getting it here in the US at this time.

So! Yaoi fans, will you check out this historical series? History buffs, would you be willing to try a BL-ified take on a real historical figure? Imagine it as being like a manga based on Alexander the Great and his lifelong relationship with Hephaestion. Would you read it?

Shimotsuki's art is a little overblown sometimes, in my opinion, but her coloring is fantastic.