JANUYAOI 2025: KAZE TO KI NO UTA - OVA Reaction & Discussion!
Added 2025-01-24 18:00:07 +0000 UTC*WINDY HEADPHONE WARNINGS*
I thought this would be a simple OVA to wrap up JanuYaoi with this year...OH HO HO, was I ever wrong! I also thought I wouldn't be baited to want to read the manga after this...WRONG AGAIN, haha!
I'm just going to talk about the anime OVA for now, but the manga review WILL happen later this spring! Thank you all for watching all the JanuYaoi entries this year! I hope you enjoyed them!
LINK TO REACTION: https://share.vidyard.com/watch/scbyHY9CV3U925CmH4U8ut?
Thank you for watching with me and for all the support!
Comments
Thank you so much!! I really was blown away by this work and instantly wanted to read the manga afterwards, so that’s on the list now, haha!! I definitely hear you as someone in their mid-thirties as well! That is well done to talk about giving priority to actual presentation of queer relationships and their impact. And yes, we could be here all day with everything you can talk about and break down with queerness in yaoi, yuri, etc.! I wish there was more GL out there, but glad that there’s at least more progress happening in some respect on both sides! I definitely want to do more BL/GL in the future! Same on Fingers Crossed! I really was enamored by this OVA; there was great production around it! And that is so intriguing with the boarding school like a “spaceship” - that’s giving Rocky Horror vibes, haha! But I was happy with how this turned out! The soundtrack was soooo good! Thank you for the info on that one specific song; it was driving me crazy! CHOPIN! Of course I’m confusing Gilbert for Jesus. 😛 I really have enjoyed this JanuYaoi so thank you so much for the kind words! I really appreciate that consideration - it makes the work worth it, so thank you!! And yes, onto the next thing, ehhh??
Romaniablack
2025-01-29 19:19:16 +0000 UTCI definitely am happy to be looking at the manga after watching this OVA, for sure! So much angst, ennui, and death but that's fantastic about having older BL VHS tapes! Ahahahahah Slan, huh, you say! ;) And yes, Rose Marine has very strange eyes, indeed! That is wild with 1987 and graduating from high school - I am really excited that this OVA is just the tip of the ice berg from the manga! But yeah, Shojo is brutal! Women hold nothing back! XD Thank you for the comment! I'm so excited to get into the manga and report back to you all! :D
Romaniablack
2025-01-29 16:26:23 +0000 UTCI really am excited to check out the manga! And yes, older BL is just so hardcore and powerful (not to say newer BL is not, but there's a "grit" there for sure with older BL) - I love the idea of Kaze as a "prototype" though as well! I can SO see the Twittering Birds and Banan Fish influence as well! Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-01-29 16:16:19 +0000 UTCThank you!!! I was so happy to get to read both of these and watch them this month! Thank you for the comment!
Romaniablack
2025-01-29 16:03:40 +0000 UTCLoved the reaction & discussion! This was another foundational work that’s been on my long-list for a long while and I probably would not have touched without the help of this Januyaoi entry. 🥰 “I won’t be reading 17 volumes of manga!” > 1 hour later… 😂 That would be a big undertaking - if you do choose to review the manga, will definitely watch that. The more general stuff: I read/watched a lot of works which were ‘of a time’ in my teens and twenties, but somehow now into my late thirties – I find it difficult to gather the patience needed. I think at this point, personally, I give priority to the actual presentation of queer relationships in these works (and the impact they have had on everything following) over the allegorical level (and the exploration of specific roles in society in a setting that is somewhat outside those imposed boundaries). I know a lot (most) of these types of works were written very deliberately as the latter, but the tool they use (… and exploit) is the former. If I started in on my experiences with this type of content and the: complex interplay of narratives being a space to explore, representation, power and influence on perceptions of real-world queer relationships, exploitations of queerness for the purposes of heteronormative messaging, explicit content as a reaction to censorship but also homophobia, etc, etc… I would be here all damned day. 😂 I will just say that, thankfully, there is some really interesting progress still going on. Statistically more in BL rather than GL, which I find quite demoralising, but even some is better than none. And I do hope you are able to get to some of this content in the future – often this is slightly longer form and doesn’t quite fit the Januyaoi/Febyuri format. So my fingers are crossed for future polls! 🥰 Back to this specific entry: Visually this was really stunning! While there was some info in the quoted post, it seems that by now the production details for it are clearer and the directing credit is specifically with Yoshikazu Yasuhiko 🥰 – a legendary animator+mangaka, especially for a load of mecha/sci-fi/super-sentai/etc and one of the progenitors of the look of those genres in the 80s. The 'fantastical' scenes especially reminded me of this. And also the way the boarding school as a location may as well have been a spaceship – with the endless corridors and isolated/contained spaces. Seems like a lot of people involved in the production overall were especially prominent in these genres, which makes complete sense to me in terms of narratives and isn't just due to how popular they were at the time. Loved the use of specific composers for the soundtrack, as well. The piano piece you noted (the one in the scene with Gilbert which then transitions to Serge playing it) is Chopin’s Winter Wind (etude op.25 no.11), I adore this piece and will link one of my favourite performances of it (by Beatrice Rana, link with performance video only): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff4M7jCYloc ‘Gilbert, no! … Wait that was Jesus’ 😂 I had the same. This has been another truly excellent Januyaoi! 🥰 I have enjoyed all of the entries, so thank you so much for the efforts! Even if the content itself (for me personally) is 'just okay' in places, your discussions absolutely elevate it - I'm really appreciative of that. Onwards and upwards ❤️
Sunspots
2025-01-26 12:30:49 +0000 UTComg, this and the heart of thomas in the same month! as a huge fan of vintage shoujo this is such a treat!!
britegirl
2025-01-26 03:42:38 +0000 UTCThank you for the reaction to this classic BL. I´m glad you decided to read the manga also. There is just something about older BL´s that makes the stories stick in your head. Even if they might have elements that could be considered "problematic" by todays standards, I feel like there is often more of a sense of a story the author wanted to tell, that they actually have something to say. In a lot of modern BL it often feels like there is just a thin layer of "story" thats just an excuse to get to the smut. It really is fascinating to think of Kaze to ki no uta as the first "real" published BL with The Heart of Thomas as the "prototype", maybe? And the way you can see how it influenced later series and character types, like Banana Fish and Twittering Birds, that you mentioned.
Millao
2025-01-24 22:43:10 +0000 UTCAfter you read The Heart of Thomas, I watched this! I read this manga as well a while ago, and have mentioned it several times. I’m glad you will be reading the manga as well! Can’t wait! I am so glad you are covering vintage BL! Yes, there is lots of angst, ennui and death! So the mangaka who wrote this is Keiko Takemiya. I have several of her stories as well. One of my favorites is Towards Terra. https://youtu.be/GttgQ07-juE?si=3tcGrcHxzGGnnAH9 I used to have this on VHS! I have the manga currently. This story does take inspiration of sorts from the story Slan. I’ve mentioned this before because Slan shows up somewhere else….🤨 I always interpreted Rose Marine as a guy with very strange eyes…. Yeah, in 1987 I graduated from High School! 😭 yeah 17 Volumes is a lot! This OVA is definitely just the tip of the iceberg! And this is why I read a lot of manga! I can honestly say, Shojo is brutal! We women do not hold anything back!
Moominkomet
2025-01-24 22:24:21 +0000 UTC
