Baki The Grappler is a manga (and anime, pictured) about dudes beating the crap out of each other in an underground material arts tournament. In 2019, sociologist Junko Kaneda wrote a book about viewing it through a Boys’ Love lens. It’s now being adapted into a live-action TV series in Japan.
Boys’ Love (BL) manga depict homoerotic relationships, and the genre is best known as “yaoi” outside Japan. Baki isn’t BL per se, but with shipping, dreams become real. Thank goodness for that!
The name of the original book, which translates as Diary of a Girl Who Spent 30 Hours a Day for 300 Days Thinking, ‘Baki The Grappler Is BL, Isn’t It?’ is also the live-action show’s title.
As Comic Natalie (via ANN) reports, the show stars actor Honoka Matsumoto (above) as a stationary company employee who secretly loves BL. While not working, she finds a fascinating level of subtext to Baki the Grappler.
That’s right, this is a whole TV show about shipping in Baki based on a book about the same concept. Incredible.
Diary of a Girl Who Spent 30 Hours a Day for 300 Days Thinking, ‘Baki The Grappler Is BL, Isn’t It?’ will begin airing on WOWOW in Japan starting this August.
Leave a Reply