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The new anime series Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! (2024, streaming on Crunchyroll) offers insights into the curious and increasingly popular genre of BL or Boys’ Love. These stories depict wistful and sometimes comic romances between attractive young men — but they’re written by women for predominantly female audiences.
Gender-bending entertainment has been part of Japanese popular culture for centuries. In Kabuki, male actors known as onnagata specialize in female roles. During the Edo era, the reigning courtesans and geishas would study their performances to learn how a woman of refinement should comport herself. The hugely popular Takarazuka Revue, which mounts elaborate musical spectacles with young women playing all the parts, was an influence on Osamu Tezuka’s work. The women who portray the heroes have huge followings among teenage girls.
BL originated in Japan in the late ’70s in doujinshi (fan comics), but soon spread to manga, anime and live action. Today, manga and graphic novels with BL themes are being written and sold all over the world, and studios in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand are producing BL series and features. Heartstopper, a British series based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novel, and the feature film Red, White & Royal Blue (available on Netflix and Prime Video, respectively) are among the most recent Western entries in the genre.
Strange Powers
Yuu Toyota scored a big hit in 2018 with her Cherry Magic! manga (published in English by Square Enix Manga), which has already been made into a popular live-action TV series (2020) and a feature (2022). At the center of Cherry Magic! is an urban legend that anyone who’s still a virgin on their 30th birthday acquires the magical power to hear the thoughts of whomever they touch. To his considerable chagrin, salaryman and self-described loser Kiyoshi Adachi discovers it’s true.
Although he’s kindhearted, hardworking and helpful, Adachi has never been on a date. The only person who sends him chocolate on Valentine’s Day is his mother. One morning in the elevator, Adachi gets shoved up against Yuichi Kurosawa — and is gobsmacked to discover that the handsome ace of his company’s sales department has a crush on him. Kurosawa is the embodiment of kakkoii (cool, stylish, suave). He wins awards every year; bosses and women adore him; and his desk is buried in chocolate on February 14.
Adachi and Kurosawa exemplify the mismatched pairs at the heart of many BL manga and their adaptations. In I Cannot Reach You (Netflix), handsome A-student Yamato Ohara receives confessions of love from the prettiest girls in his high school and offers from modeling agencies, but he adores his untidy classmate Kakeru Ashiya who must take makeup exams and sees himself as someone “with nothing to offer.” Melodramatic nerd Aoki and handsome, sensible Ida pursue a maladroit courtship in My Love Mix-Up! (Viki). But despite complications, crises and contretemps, the heroes always end up together.
‘The anime series is a literal adaptation of the manga. Every flirtation and mishap between Adachi and Kurosawa are there, and the artists faithfully reproduce Toyota’s drawing style.’
It’s interesting to compare the new animated series of Cherry Magic! produced by Satelight with the earlier live-action version. The anime series is a literal adaptation of the manga. Every flirtation and mishap between Adachi and Kurosawa are there, and the artists faithfully reproduce Toyota’s drawing style. Ironically, the program’s careful adherence to the original manga is its greatest weakness.
Like many serials, from One Piece to Pinocchio, Cherry Magic! sometimes rambles — and so does the animated program. The writers of the live-action series trimmed and shaped Toyota’s narrative, strengthening the drama and the comedy.
The animated series begins shortly after Adachi’s 30th birthday, so the weird magical power is already part of his world. Kurosawa’s crush is news to him, but he’s already coping with his telepathic talent. The live-action series opens the day before Adachi’s 30th birthday. The next day, he wakes up in his tiny apartment (“Goodbye, 20s. Hello, 30s.”) and on his way to work discovers his new ability — so the audience sees the character’s reactions.
Serviceable Voice Work
The animators also had to deal with the limits of Toyota’s drawings. Her Adachi and Kurosawa are standard-issue manga types. Adachi’s hair hangs over one eye; Kurosawa is taller with bland, regular features. The extremely limited animation doesn’t allow the artists to use much in the way of expressions, gestures or body language to bring their characters to life. All the acting falls on voice artists Chiaki Kobayashi (Adachi) and Ryota Suzuki (Kurosawa), whose performances are adequate, but not extraordinary.
There’s no tradition comparable to BL in America or Europe. An increasing number of gay-themed graphic novels in the U.S. are being created by LGBTQ+ artists. But the growing popularity of Cherry Magic!, I Cannot Reach You, My Love Mix-Up! and other BL manga, and the animated and live-action series based on them, shows there’s an enthusiastic audience for these stories in the West.
Satelight’s Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.
