Kaze to Ki no Uta
Encyclopedia
is a shōjo
manga
with yaoi
themes by Keiko Takemiya
. It was first published by Shougakukan from 1976 to 1984 in the magazine Shōjo Comic
. In 1979, it was awarded the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award
for shōnen
/shōjo
manga. The series is widely regarded as a shōnen-ai manga classic, being one of the first in the genre to combine romantic and sexual relationships. It took nine years for Takemiya's publishers to agree to publish it, as Takemiya refused to censor the sexual elements of the story.
and with darker themes such as racism
, homophobia
, pedophilia
, rape
, and drug abuse
, Kaze recounts the personal histories of and relationship between two students, Serge Battour and Gilbert Cocteau, at a boarding school in Provence
in the late 19th century.
Serge is the son of a French viscount and a Roma woman, attending the Lacombrade Academy near Arles
at the request of his late father. Upon arrival at the school, he finds himself roomed with Gilbert, who is reviled by the school's pupils and professors for skipping classes and engaging in relations with older male students. Serge's efforts to befriend his roommate - and Gilbert's efforts to drive off and seduce the young aristocrat, in response - soon form a complicated and disruptive connection between the two.
Despite his apparent cruelty and promiscuity
, however, Gilbert proves to be a tortured young man with a history of abandonment, objectification, and abuse. The primary antagonist
in the story - Gilbert's uncle, Auguste Beau - is a respected figure in French high society who manipulates and molests
his young nephew. Auguste's influence is so great that Gilbert believes that the two are in love and remains enthralled by Auguste, even after learning a disturbing secret about their relationship.
Serge perseveres in his attempts to bond with Gilbert despite threats of ostracism and violence, and eventually the two boys become friends and lovers. Faced with rejection by the faculty and students of Lacombrade, Gilbert and Serge flee to Paris
and live for a short while as paupers. Gilbert, however, remains unable to escape the trauma his past and finds himself dragged into a life of hard drugs and prostitution. Hallucinating under the influence of the former, he runs in front of a moving carriage and dies under its wheels, convinced that he has seen Auguste. Some of the pair's few friends, who have recently rediscovered the couple, find and console the traumatized
Serge.
Serge Battour
Auguste Beau
Jean-Pierre Bonnard
Pascal Biquet
Karl (Carl) Meiser
Aryon (Arion) Rosemarine (Rosmarineay, Rosmariné)
Jules de Ferrier
, received her inspiration for Kaze to Ki no Uta and designed the full plot in a single night. She then told her friend Norie Masuyama of the planned story and, following the publication of the manga, the two collaborated on a novel which provided a second half to the story, , , by Noris Haaze (a pen name of Masuyama).
in January 1976, Kaze has been called "the first commercially published boys' love story", though this claim has been challenged, as the first male-male kiss was in the 1970 In the Sunroom, also by Keiko Takemiya. Matt Thorn says that Kaze was "the first shōjo manga to portray romantic and sexual relationships between boys", and that Takemiya first thought of Kaze nine years before it was approved for publication. Takemiya attributes the gap between the idea and its publication to the sexual elements of the story.
Midori Matsui describes Kaze to Ki no Uta as "surreptitious pornography for girls", and likens Gilbert to a femme fatale
. Toku regards Kaze to Ki no Uta as groundbreaking in its depictions of "openly sexual relationships", spurring the development of the boys' love genre in shōjo manga, Matsui regards Kaze to Ki no Uta as being influential in creating the yaoi doujinshi subculture, as it is more sexually explicit than Moto Hagio
's works.
Shojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
with yaoi
Yaoi
In careful Japanese enunciation, all three vowels are pronounced separately, for a three-mora word, . The English equivalent is . also known as Boys' Love, is a Japanese popular term for female-oriented fictional media that focus on homoerotic or homoromantic male relationships, usually created by...
themes by Keiko Takemiya
Keiko Takemiya
is a Japanese manga artist. She is included in the Year 24 Group. She resides in Kamukura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Takemiya was one of the female authors who in the early 1970s pioneered a genre of girls' comics about love between young men; in December 1970 she published a short story, "In the...
. It was first published by Shougakukan from 1976 to 1984 in the magazine Shōjo Comic
Shojo Comic
is a shōjo manga magazine published twice monthly in Japan by Shogakukan since 1968. It was originally published weekly and it continued to be published weekly until the 1980s. Many influential shōjo manga ran in Shōjo Comic during the 70s. Moto Hagio's works and Keiko Takemiya's works in...
. In 1979, it was awarded the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award
Shogakukan Manga Award
The is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...
for shōnen
Shonen
The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...
/shōjo
Shojo
The term refers to manga marketed to a female audience roughly between the ages of 10-18. The name romanizes the Japanese 少女 , literally: "little female". Shōjo manga covers many subjects in a variety of narrative and graphic styles, from historical drama to science fiction — often with a strong...
manga. The series is widely regarded as a shōnen-ai manga classic, being one of the first in the genre to combine romantic and sexual relationships. It took nine years for Takemiya's publishers to agree to publish it, as Takemiya refused to censor the sexual elements of the story.
Summary
Dealing both with lighter subjects of adolescence and coming of ageBildungsroman
In literary criticism, bildungsroman or coming-of-age story is a literary genre which focuses on the psychological and moral growth of the protagonist from youth to adulthood , and in which character change is thus extremely important...
and with darker themes such as racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
, pedophilia
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
, rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
, and drug abuse
Drug abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts...
, Kaze recounts the personal histories of and relationship between two students, Serge Battour and Gilbert Cocteau, at a boarding school in Provence
Provence
Provence ; Provençal: Provença in classical norm or Prouvènço in Mistralian norm) is a region of south eastern France on the Mediterranean adjacent to Italy. It is part of the administrative région of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur...
in the late 19th century.
Serge is the son of a French viscount and a Roma woman, attending the Lacombrade Academy near Arles
Arles
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence....
at the request of his late father. Upon arrival at the school, he finds himself roomed with Gilbert, who is reviled by the school's pupils and professors for skipping classes and engaging in relations with older male students. Serge's efforts to befriend his roommate - and Gilbert's efforts to drive off and seduce the young aristocrat, in response - soon form a complicated and disruptive connection between the two.
Despite his apparent cruelty and promiscuity
Promiscuity
In humans, promiscuity refers to less discriminating casual sex with many sexual partners. The term carries a moral or religious judgement and is viewed in the context of the mainstream social ideal for sexual activity to take place within exclusive committed relationships...
, however, Gilbert proves to be a tortured young man with a history of abandonment, objectification, and abuse. The primary antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
in the story - Gilbert's uncle, Auguste Beau - is a respected figure in French high society who manipulates and molests
Sexual abuse
Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is the forcing of undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. When that force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or molester...
his young nephew. Auguste's influence is so great that Gilbert believes that the two are in love and remains enthralled by Auguste, even after learning a disturbing secret about their relationship.
Serge perseveres in his attempts to bond with Gilbert despite threats of ostracism and violence, and eventually the two boys become friends and lovers. Faced with rejection by the faculty and students of Lacombrade, Gilbert and Serge flee to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and live for a short while as paupers. Gilbert, however, remains unable to escape the trauma his past and finds himself dragged into a life of hard drugs and prostitution. Hallucinating under the influence of the former, he runs in front of a moving carriage and dies under its wheels, convinced that he has seen Auguste. Some of the pair's few friends, who have recently rediscovered the couple, find and console the traumatized
Psychological trauma
Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...
Serge.
Characters
Gilbert Cocteau- Protagonist, 14 years old. A son of adulteryAdulteryAdultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
between Auguste Beau and the wife of his step-brother, Anne Marie, Gilbert was initially rejected by both of his parents and raised without parental care or affection. Auguste is the first member of his family to take an interest in him, though he takes Gilbert in only to train him as his personal pet. Dealing with sexual, physical and emotional abuse at a young age leaves Gilbert an antisocial cynic unable to deal with love or social interaction except through sex. Initially antagonistic and even violent towards Serge, Gilbert rejects the other boy's early attempts to befriend him. However, Serge's persistent altruism slowly wins Gilbert over, and the two flee to Paris as lovers. Gilbert, though, has difficulty adjusting to the 'poor life' and doesn't want to work. While Serge is absent from their house a group of men gang rape Gilbert and drug him. Weak and poor, he returns to prostitution and is found by Serge too late.
Serge Battour
- Protagonist, friend of Gilbert, 14 years old. The orphaned son of the viscountViscountA viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
Battour and a beautiful Roma woman. Heir to an aristocratic house, Serge is a musical prodigyChild prodigyA child prodigy is someone who, at an early age, masters one or more skills far beyond his or her level of maturity. One criterion for classifying prodigies is: a prodigy is a child, typically younger than 18 years old, who is performing at the level of a highly trained adult in a very demanding...
with a noble and humanistic sense of morality. Despite his roommate's ill-treatment of him, he remains devoted to attempting to help and understand Gilbert. His attraction to the other boy, though, causes him confusion and distress, particularly when he finds that he can count neither on the Church nor his friends for advice and support. Initially manipulated by Gilbert's uncle Auguste, he later learns of the man's abusive relation with Gilbert and, after winning his roommate's heart, flees both Lacombrade and Auguste with Gilbert.
Auguste Beau
- Antagonist. A poet and Gilbert's real father, though posing as Gilbert's uncle. Auguste is an adopted son of the house of Cocteau. Raped by his elder step-brother in his own youth, he abuses Gilbert - first physically and emotionally and later sexually - at a young age. At first attempting to raise Gilbert to be an 'obedient pet,' he later works to transform him into a 'pure' and 'artistic' individual through neglect and manipulation of Gilbert's obsessive love for him. Upon learning of Serge's relationship with Gilbert, he works to separate the pair, refusing to allow his 'nephew' to bond with anyone who might potentially care for him. He shows true concern only in his last moments when he realizes that Gilbert has fallen in love with Serge. Voiced by: Kaneto ShiozawaKaneto ShiozawaKaneto Shiozawa , real name was a Japanese voice actor from Tokyo affiliated with Aoni Production. He had a distinctive cold, calm voice which usually typecast him in roles as villains or anti-heroes....
.
Jean-Pierre Bonnard
- Famous painter, pedophile. He kidnaps a young Gilbert from Auguste and rapes him. Despite this, the two later encounter one another again in Paris, and the manga implies that Gilbert 'forgives him' for his earlier assault. He makes another appearance in the manga's final volume when Gilbert and Serge visit him.
Pascal Biquet
- Friend of Serge. An eccentric, iconoclastic classmate of Serge and Gilbert and a close friend of the former. Dismissive of religion and classical education, he insists upon the importance of science and takes it upon himself to teach Serge about sexuality. While mildly attracted to Gilbert, he is also the most frankly heterosexual of Serge's confidants, helping to introduce the sheltered teen to women.
Karl (Carl) Meiser
- Serge's first friend at Lacombrade. A gentle, pious boy who struggles with his attraction to Gilbert.
Aryon (Arion) Rosemarine (Rosmarineay, Rosmariné)
- Student superintendentSuperintendent (education)In education in the United States, a superintendent is an individual who has executive oversight and administration rights, usually within an educational entity or organization....
general in the school. Rosemarine was raped by Auguste, when he was 15 years old. Truly close only to his classmate Jules de Ferrier, he appears to cooperate with Auguste's manipulative treatment of Gilbert despite the hatred and disgust he feels towards both of the pair. He does, though, form a friendship with Serge and, in his last scenes, aids Gilbert and Serge in their escape to Paris.
Jules de Ferrier
- Student supervisor and Rosemarine's childhood friend. Though he is a nobleman, his family's fortune was lost with the death of his father. However, due to his connections to Rosemarine and his intelligence, he is able to attend Lacombrade for free and goes on to graduate early. Both Rosemarine and Gilbert are unusually trusting of him, and he has been known to provide tea and comfort to them during stressful times.
The Vision
It is said that the author, Keiko TakemiyaKeiko Takemiya
is a Japanese manga artist. She is included in the Year 24 Group. She resides in Kamukura, Kanagawa Prefecture. Takemiya was one of the female authors who in the early 1970s pioneered a genre of girls' comics about love between young men; in December 1970 she published a short story, "In the...
, received her inspiration for Kaze to Ki no Uta and designed the full plot in a single night. She then told her friend Norie Masuyama of the planned story and, following the publication of the manga, the two collaborated on a novel which provided a second half to the story, , , by Noris Haaze (a pen name of Masuyama).
Media
The manga was adapted into a roughly hour long animeis one anime adaptation of this manga, made in VHS tape and LD, and five music albums (LP records). Two of the records are image albums, that is, LP records, named 1) /Kaze to Ki no Uta/, Part 1, and 2) Part 2, /Requiem for Gilbert/. Two more are 3) synthesizer version of 1) and 4) Music collection LP of the OVA /Kaze to Ki no Uta/. 5) The last is coupling album. Its Side 1 is the Side 1 of 1) and Side 2 is a selected music collection from the other image album of Takemiya, /Natsu e no Tobira (The Door to Summer) /.OVA
- 1. Kaze to Ki no Uta - SANCTUS - , OVA, 6 Nov., 1987 (VHS/Beta tape) / 21 Nov., 1987 (LD)
-
- Herald Enterprise Inc. and Shougakukan
- Total time: 60 minutes
- Staff
- Director : Yasuhiko Yoshikazu
- Producer : Utagawa Touju, Asami Isamu et al.
- Pictures by : Takemiya Keiko, Sugino Sachiko, Futagi Makiko and others.
- Music : Nakamura Nobuyuki
- Cast (Voice actors)
- Sasaki Yuuko (Japanese Wikipedia article) (Gilbert)
- Ohara Noriko (Serge)
- Sakakibara Yoshiko (Rosmarinay)
- Shiozawa Kaneto (Auguste)
- Takemura Hiroshi (Pascal)
Music albums
- 1) Kaze to Ki no Uta (The Poem of Wind and Trees). image album, 1 July 1980
-
- Nihon Columbia (Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.).
- Side 1
- 1. Main Theme
- 2. Theme of Gilbert
- 3. Theme of Serge
- 4. Dialogue
- 5. The Poem of the Wind and the Trees
- Side 2
- 1. Piano Cocerto, Kaze to Ki no Uta
- 2) The World of Takemiya Keiko - Aesthetics of Love. combined album, 25 Oct. 1981
-
- Nihon Columbia (Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.).
- Note: Side 1 is same as that of LP /Kaze to Kino Uta/, and Side 2 is music collection selected from the LP /Natsu e no Tobira (The Door to Summer) /, which is the album of music collection from the OVA /Natsu e no Tobira (夏への扉) /.
- Side 1 (from the Poem of Wind and Trees)
- 1. Main Theme
- 2. Theme of Gilbert
- 3. Theme of Serge
- 4. Dialogue
- 5. The Poem of the Wind and the Trees
- Side 2 (from the Door to Summer)
- 1. Theme of Marion
- 2. Theme of Ledania
- 3. Theme of Love
- 4. The Burning Summer
- 5. Main Theme
- 3) Kaze to Ki no Uta, Jiruberu no Rekuiemu (Requiem for Gilbert), image album, 21 July 1984,
-
- Nihon Columbia (Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.).
- Side 1
- 1. Ave Maria
- 2. In the Course of Waking from Dreams
- 3. A Bird is Made of Snow
- 4. Invitation to Travel
- Side 2
- 1. Now, Just into the Dreams
- 2. The Dream
- 3. Plaited Strings of Love
- 4. My Angel, I Pray...
- 5. Ave Maria
- 4) Kaze to Ki no Uta - the Digital Trip, synthesizer fantasy, 21 May 1985
-
- Nihon Columbia (Columbia Music Entertainment, Inc.).
- Note: Entries are same as /Requiem for Gilbert/. This is the synthesizer version.
- 5) Kaze to Ki no Uta - SANCTUS -, OVA soundtrack LP, 6 Nov., 1987
-
- Pony Canyon (Pony Canyon Inc.)
- Note: This is the music collection from the OVA /Kaze to Ki no Uta - SANCTUS - /. This album was published in the form of CD and cassette tape at the same time.
Reception
First serialised in Shōjo ComicShojo Comic
is a shōjo manga magazine published twice monthly in Japan by Shogakukan since 1968. It was originally published weekly and it continued to be published weekly until the 1980s. Many influential shōjo manga ran in Shōjo Comic during the 70s. Moto Hagio's works and Keiko Takemiya's works in...
in January 1976, Kaze has been called "the first commercially published boys' love story", though this claim has been challenged, as the first male-male kiss was in the 1970 In the Sunroom, also by Keiko Takemiya. Matt Thorn says that Kaze was "the first shōjo manga to portray romantic and sexual relationships between boys", and that Takemiya first thought of Kaze nine years before it was approved for publication. Takemiya attributes the gap between the idea and its publication to the sexual elements of the story.
Midori Matsui describes Kaze to Ki no Uta as "surreptitious pornography for girls", and likens Gilbert to a femme fatale
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...
. Toku regards Kaze to Ki no Uta as groundbreaking in its depictions of "openly sexual relationships", spurring the development of the boys' love genre in shōjo manga, Matsui regards Kaze to Ki no Uta as being influential in creating the yaoi doujinshi subculture, as it is more sexually explicit than Moto Hagio
Moto Hagio
is a manga artist born on May 12, 1949 in Ōmuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, though she currently lives in Saitama Prefecture. She is considered a "founding mother" of modern shōjo manga, especially shōnen-ai. She is also a member of the Year 24 Group...
's works.
External links
- Kaze to Ki no Uta Fansite - This fansite has a wealth of information on Kaze to Ki No Uta. The ISBNs of the manga volumes are even included. The site is no longer updated.
- Interview with Keiko Takemiya - An interview with author; Kaze to Ki no Uta is mentioned often in this interview.
- Review of the Kaze to Ki no Uta anime - A review of the anime
- Kaze to Ki no Uta Image Album - Image Album Page