Fujoshi, Ukkari Gei ni Kokuru
腐女子、うっかりゲイに告る。
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A closeted gay teen dates the fujoshi who confessed to him — kindness and cruelty in the closet.
Jun Ando is eighteen, in his last year of high school in Tokyo, and gay, which he hides from his mother, Yoko, who raised him alone, and from his oldest friend, Ryohei. He has a secret relationship with Makoto, a married man with a wife and child who lives as straight, and an online friend he knows only as Mister Fahrenheit, another gay fan of Queen. When Jun catches his classmate Sae Miura buying boys' love manga, she begs him to keep it quiet. She takes him to a fan event and an aquarium, falls for him and tells him so. Wanting the ordinary life everyone expects, Jun agrees to go out with her, and tells Makoto he wants to stop seeing him.
On a hot-spring trip with Sae he runs into Makoto, and a farewell message arrives from Fahrenheit: the older man he loved has died of AIDS, and he is going to end his life. He does. Shattered, Jun turns to Makoto, and Sae sees them kiss. She says cruel things and runs; talk spreads through the class, and a classmate, Ono, turns on Jun. After a fight with Ono, Jun tries to take his own life at school. He survives, badly hurt. In hospital his mother tells him she has heard he likes men, and at last he tells her what he has carried.
Sae is to receive an art prize at the closing ceremony. On stage she announces that she loves boys' love and starts to explain why; teachers try to stop her, and Ryohei and her friends hold them back. Ono seizes the microphone and taunts Jun, who comes up to stand beside her and thank her. Afterwards Jun and Sae visit Fahrenheit's home by the sea and learn from his memorial portrait that he was a fifteen-year-old middle-school boy: the older man who called himself his boyfriend was an adult, and what he did was abuse. On the beach Jun tells Sae he is going to Osaka, to test himself rather than run away, and Sae ends it first. He tells Ryohei he loves him but has never wanted to go out with him. Makoto says that if Jun and his wife were drowning, he would save his wife. Before he leaves, Jun sees Sae's painting: himself at the aquarium, reaching out to a penguin. In April, in a university classroom in Osaka, he stands to introduce himself. The series ends before he says who he is.
Starring
Daichi Kanekoas Jun Ando
An eighteen-year-old high-school student, gay and closeted, who loves Queen and hides a relationship with a married man.
Jun Ando’s story
Jun confides only in Makoto and in Mister Fahrenheit, a friend known only online. Wanting an ordinary life, he starts going out with Sae and tells Makoto he wants to stop. On a trip with Sae comes Fahrenheit's farewell: he is ending his life, and he does. Shattered, Jun turns to Makoto, and Sae sees them kiss. The class turns on him; after a fight with Ono he tries to take his own life at school. He survives, and in hospital tells his mother the truth. When Sae speaks for him before the whole school, he goes up to thank her. He learns that Fahrenheit was fifteen, lets Sae end things, hears Makoto say he would save his wife, and leaves for Osaka. In a university classroom he stands to introduce himself; his words are not shown.
Ryoko Fujinoas Sae Miura
Jun's classmate, a secret fan of boys' love fiction, who falls for Jun without knowing he is gay.
Sae Miura’s story
Sae has loved boys' love since primary school and hides it from everyone; when Jun catches her buying it, she begs him to keep quiet. She takes him to a fan event and the aquarium, falls for him and tells him so, and they start going out. On their trip away she sees him kiss Makoto, says cruel things and runs. After Jun tries to take his own life, she stands up at the closing ceremony and tells the whole school that she loves boys' love, and speaks of Jun, who has hidden behind a wall to protect everyone else. Jun comes up to thank her. On the beach, when he says he is going to Osaka, she ends it first, so that the dumping is hers. Her prize-winning painting shows him at the aquarium, reaching out to a penguin.
Shosuke Taniharaas Makoto Sasaki
Jun's partner, a married man with a family who hides that he is gay and calls himself a cowardly bat.
Yuki Ogoeas Ryohei Takaoka
Jun's childhood friend and classmate, who stands by him when his secret comes out.
Tamae Andoas Yoko Ando
Jun's single mother and close companion, whose hopes for him he is afraid to disappoint.
Kensho Onoas Mister Fahrenheit (voice)
Jun's online friend, another gay fan of Queen, whose face Jun never sees.
Why it matters
Fujoshi, Ukkari Gei ni Kokuru is a coming-of-age drama about the difference between being liked for something and being liked as someone. Sae loves gay romance on the page and has to face a real gay boy; Jun wants the ordinary life everyone assumes, and learns what it costs to fake it. The novel's author, Naoto Asahara, who is openly gay, said he hoped people who mock gay people would pick up the book and think about minorities. The drama puts outing, the fear of a parent's disappointment and the loneliness of gay teenagers at its centre, and it does not look away from suicide. It won a Galaxy Award prize and, at the Confidence Awards, prizes for its script and its two young leads. What stays open is the question Jun faces in the last scene, in front of a room of strangers: how much of himself to say.