'Takumi-kun Series: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa' portrays the sparkling love story of Takumi and Gii, in a real-time adaptation of 'Takumi-kun Series', the well-known manga series of light novels of the shōnen genre. ai, written by Shinobu Gotoh, and published by the Kadokawa Shōten publishing house.
Kenji Yokoi and Hiroko Kanasugi, the same duo from the previous film, are back together to, the first as director and the second as screenwriter, add to their filmography this romantic, school, youth and Japanese BL drama, released in 2023, which tells the original story of the first installment of the 'Takumi-kun Series' and the beginning of the romance between these two boys, and to do so it combines three titles from the Kanzen-ban 1 (omnibus edition) of the original novels: 'Akatsuki wo Matsumade' (Until I Wait for Dawn), 'Soshite Harukaze ni Sasayaite' (And Then, I Whisper in the Spring Breeze) and 'Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa' (The Morning of the Beginning of a Long, Long Story).
Without a doubt, it will surprise the public that, 17 years after the first film adaptation in 2007, the popular series is producing a film that travels back to its beginnings to recreate this famous romance with a new cast and story.
The film has taken the viewer by surprise, who never thought one of the classic Japanese live-action adaptations that were made at a time when today's popular BLs were hardly produced would ever be revisited. However, nostalgia, curiosity and intrigue have summoned his followers of yesteryear, while making those who have never seen the previous titles rear their heads: 'Takumi-kun Series: Soshite, Harukaze ni Sasayaite' (2007), 'Takumi -kun Series: Nijiiro no Garasu' (2009), Takumi-kun Series: Bibo no Detail (2010), 'Takumi-kun Series: Pure' (2010) and 'Takumi-kun Series: Ano, Hareta Aozora' (2011) .
With this, six live-action films have been made based on the series. Actors Tomo Yanagishita and Keisuke Katō played Takumi and Gii, respectively, in the first film. In subsequent adaptations of the franchise, both actors were replaced by Kyōsuke Hamao and Daisuke Watanabe in their respective roles of Takumi and Gii. Yukihiro Takiguchi, who played Akaike, was the only actor to appear in every film. Here Takahashi Rio is responsible for assuming the role.
Plot
Far away from the city and deep in the mountains, lies Shidō Academy, an all-male high school. In years past the school housed only the children of the country's elite families, but recently it has opened its doors to everyone in its historic classrooms. Takumi Hayama, a boy of humble origins, prepares to enter the prestigious institution.
The story begins precisely on the day of the entrance exercise. Giichi Saki, or just Gii, played by Kato Daigo in his acting debut, a popular boy who has returned from the United States, passes Takumi Hayama (Morishita Shion) in the hallway.
Fascinated by his striking presence, strong magnetism, and Gii's exotic, non-Japanese beauty, Takumi follows him with his eyes. Gii stops walking and they look at each other, with a mischievous smile on the latter's lips.
Now a high school student, Takumi is treated like a weirdo by his classmates due to his haphephobia, that is, phobia of human contact, the product of a psychological trauma from the past. It is for this same reason that he avoids socializing with others and everyone at school sees him as unemotional and unsociable. However, his aversion to touching and being touched by others begins to disappear thanks to Gii and his relationship with him.
Furthermore, Takumi is discriminated against for having a humble origin. The only person interested in forming a sincere friendship with Takumi is Toshihisa Katakura (Yusuke Noguchi), his dormmate.
Spring arrives and, at the beginning of the second year, the students are relocated and Takumi begins to occupy a dormitory with Gii, unaware that his own withdrawn and distant personality has caught the attention of his new partner. Gii is the only person who doesn't see Takumi as a stranger and the two become friends. The distance between them shortens while the bond strengthens. As Takumi learns more about Gii, he must also learn to overcome his past and the rivals who threaten to break up their budding relationship. The days of peace for Takumi will soon be altered.
Romance takes time to develop. Faithful to the original, the bond between the two young people is cemented from silence and distance. When the characters finally realize that they are meant to be, all the waiting is worth it. Having seen the previous films allows the viewer to understand that the relationship is simmering, and that at the least expected moment the love interests will finally come together.
The public must understand that their characters are completely opposite and have led a very different life because they come from two worlds facing each other: that of capital, on the one hand, and that of work, on the other. That is, that of luxury and waste, and that of poverty and deprivation.
The relationship is unintentionally helped by third-year student Kei Aso (Nagashima Ryunosuke) by asking Takumi to participate with him in the campus "shrine quest" event. Gii's jealousy does not take long to appear, realizing that other boys are also interested in Takumi.
On the other hand, Gii is more determined every day to get closer to the boy to protect him from harassment and accompany him in his loneliness. Paying attention to what Takumi's other students say drives him to relate insistently. The united glances and close encounters eventually lead to a closer bond.
Against everything desired, Izumi Takabayashi (Nakayama Satsuki) is the essential key for Gii to finally confess his love. Takabayashi is the first to realize that his beloved Gii not only does not pay him the required attention, but is also interested in Takumi. And while jealousy consumes him, he plans an attack against him, and summons the students who idolize him.
However, Gii realizes Takabayashi's plot and tries to save Takumi. While they are kidnapped, Gii takes the opportunity to confess his love. This truth disturbs Takumi, however, he realizes the true sensitivity of Gii's personality.
And so begins the long, long, brilliant story of Takumi and Gii. I doubt I will end the saga with this film. He himself left the door open to continue the romance.
Through the eyes of Takumi, the narrator, the viewer will be able to enjoy the birth of romance between two people who are a priori incompatible and who, however, enter into a loving relationship, marked by trauma and jealousy.
With a modern approach to differentiate itself from the previous films, Kato Daigo, the actor who plays Gii, has a strong presence on the screen and those scenes of walks around the school or simply being in his bedroom, near Takumi or talking to Other characters can make the audience delirious.
Morishita Shion shows the fragility and vulnerability of her character, and also how she comes to understand that Gii was the piece she needed for her life to turn around and begin to be happy.
There are no kissing scenes, but the interaction, physical and emotional, and the chemistry between the protagonists are manifested in so many other moments of intimacy, such as a friendly conversation.
I value in the film that it joins other dramatized films to address issues related to sexuality and gender identity. In conservative societies with strong patriarchal and heteronormative traditions, such as Japan, where discrimination against LGBT+ people persists and relationships between people of the same sex are not recognized, and where stigma and repression of sexual diversity prevail, conscious or unconsciously, the population has a deep-rooted prejudice that separating, even a little, from "normality" causes unhappiness.
Although some change is beginning to be seen, even young people instinctively discriminate when they pity homosexuals and think that they deserve support because they are not normal people. Perhaps, through works like this, people, especially new and future generations, will realize that homosexuals also enjoy "normal happiness" and a daily life that is not far from their own, thus allowing society changes.
By showing relationships between people of the same sex, without a doubt the image of the homosexual man in society changes. In this film, the character of Gii, an educated, high-society, athletic and attractive young man, who falls in love with a humble and broken boy, with a trauma that consumes him, and together they share a romance, which also has a transformative capacity, It can be the remedy to free young people from the image they harbor of masculinity.
I celebrate in boys' love their efforts to portray the diversity of human relationships with delicacy, dismantling the prevailing stereotypes regarding what is "normal." I applaud that efforts like this contribute to gradually changing society, bridging the gap between fiction and reality. Step by step, Japanese boys' love infiltrates the collective consciousness, and could usher in a new era in which homosexuals are not discriminated against.