The Prolific Manga-ka Nakamura Shungiku and Her Yaoi Series

Two of the most popular yaoi titles were written by the same manga-ka, Nakamura Shungiku. While they are perhaps not the best yaoi titles depending on whom one asks, one of the titles has been around for a number of years and is now entering into a sixteenth volume.

These two titles are Junjou Romantica and a spin-off series, Sekaiichi Hatsukoi. Junjou Romantica has three couples under the names of Junjou Egoist and Junjou Terrorist. A fourth couple was later introduced when Junjou Romantica was turned into an anime and was sold with the DVD’s. That title is Junjou Mistake which was just recently in autumn 2011 released in a takubon.

Junjou Romantica’s couple consists of a 28 year old novelist, Akihiko Usami and his lodger who is much more than just a mere lodger, Misaki Takashi an 18 year old at the start of the series.

Junjou Egoist’s couple consists of a 28 year old assistant professor of Literature at Mitsuhashi University, Hiroki Kamijou. Hiroki Kamijou’s erstwise suitor, Nowaki Kusama is on the road to becoming a pediatrition and happens to be four years Hiroki’s junior. They are perhaps the most realistic of all of the couples in the series.

Junjou Terrorist’s couple consists of a 35 year old Literature Professor who works at Mitsuhashi University, You (pronouced yo-oh) Miyagi. The young man who was determined that it was destiny that they belonged together happens to be his boss’s son and his ex-wife’s little brother, Shinobu Takatsuki. Miyagi often refers to Shinobu as a Terrorist inside his head. Eventually Shinobu wins him over despite having clung so many years to the memory of the woman he loved and lost during his late high school years.

Junjou Mistake consists of Ryuuchirou Isaka the 31 year old son of the Marukawa Publishing House’s president and the son of his families help, Kaoru Asahina whose about a year older than himself.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi has just as many couples, unfortunately two of those couples can only be found in light novels. While manga may at times be translated and sold in the US and other countries, the light novels rarely get the same treatment.

The main couple of Sekaiichi Hatsukoi is that of Masamune Takano, formly Masamune Saga. He’s twenty-eight, but he knew Ritsu as Ritsu Oda ten years prior to the start of the series. Ritsu Onodera keeps telling himself this is not love, but his other actions and words say otherwise. Ritsu is twenty-five at the start of the series and has quite changed in the ten years since he’d last seen his first love. The pair is often referred to as the Hatsukoi Nostalgia pair.

The secondary couple is that of Shouta Kisa who looks like a high schooler, but is actually a short, thirty year old self-proclaimed gay man. Not many yaoi have characters which are openly gay or will even admit it to themselves. He falls in love with the faces he likes, but when Kou Yukina takes notice of him and his stalking tendancies at Marimo Books where he works and learns about Shouta’s work, he decides its fate. The pair is often referred to as the Hatsukoi Erotica pair.

The other two couples can be found in the light novels. The first of which is Yoshiyuki Hatori whom is twenty-eight or twenty-nine, a year older than his parenter, give or take a few months. He happens to be the editor to a well known shoujo manga-ka. The manga-ka happens to be a man with a feminine pen name. He and Chiaki Yoshino have been friends since they were children. Their story is the most controversial, because of a more than distasteful scene in the first light novel. Something which is never fully addressed. Nor is there any apology given and yet Chiaki and Hatori remain together. There is a third wheel trying to get Chiaki for himself, Yuu Yanase. There are many who would prefer Yuu and Chiaki together, but some have a feeling that Yuu might have done something just as bad to Chiaki if given the chance had Chiaki not punched him. It was the writers fault and the publishers for publishing something so unsavory and it could just have well been Yuu paired up with Chiaki and doing the same instead of Hatori. The anime version is much more preferable than the light novel of how Chiaki and Hatori came to be together. The pair is often referred to as the Hatsukoi Domestica pair.

Finally, the last couple so far only has a single light novel with at least one short story. The couple consists of manga editor Zen Kirishima who happens to have a daughter via his deceased wife, Hiyori Kirishima. His love interest, Takafumi Yokozawa had feelings for a long time over one of the other main characters of the Sekaiichi Hatsukoi manga. However when that didn’t work out Kirishima was already vying for his attention and his heart. They’re known as the Hatsukoi Trifecta couple.

Both titles have been turned into two season each, with each season consisting of twelve episodes each. Sekaiichi Hatsukoi has two more episodes total than Junjou Romantica which are referred to as OAV’s instead.

Unfortunately a lot of other good yaoi and shouen-ai get left to the wayside despite their popularity. Though there may be several other problems with getting them adapted into anime (one being that people don’t support the manga-ka and just read it for free, when the more something sells and becomes popular the more likely an anime adaptation will be made), one can always hear voices via Drama CD’s. That is if one understands Japanese.

These are not Nakamura Shungiku’s only works, but they are her most prolific. Perhaps if Hybrid Child were longer and not quite so heartrendingly sad, it too might be just as popular as the aforementioned manga series.