Yay! I LOVE this series – 美しい彼 was the very first Japanese novel I fully completed reading so I have very fond memories of it! (It was definitely above my reading level at the time but my deep interest got me through!)
I also translated the first novel as an translation exercise, back before it got a huge boost with the show release! Never posted it online though, haha.
Life got in the way and even though I have all the other books in the series, I never got around to reading them, so I will be there with you lock-step if there’s ever a bookclub for this one! I would love to re-read the first novel especially now that my Japanese is better!
It’s been awhile since I listened to the drama CDs but if I remember correctly it didn’t have narration. It’s voice actors for the characters like an audio play that follows the plot of the book pretty faithfully. There’s some… noises during the juicy bits lol
The narration is mostly their internal dialogue. So do we not have that either? It’s pretty important imo, so that’s a bit of a letdown for me. Still debating whether I want to get them down the line. ^^
This series was the inspiration for starting the 👨❤️👨 BL Book Club | Next: 今日からマ王!, but sadly it just missed out on being read in this round. It came in second to a three-way tie, and it’ll probably be 6 months before there’s even another vote for what to read. I know I can’t wait that long to read it!
Since it seems like there might be some interest, perhaps we could just have an informal book/media club for the series?
Would you join an informal book club for the series?
Yeah, it wasn’t easy at all but I have no regrets because it really helped me to focus on what was exactly being said instead of just being like, ‘Eh, I understand the gist of it’, and just moving on. Grammar was always my weak point so it helped boost that up a lot.
Also, it was a lot more fun than I was expecting! Difficult, but waaay better than textbooks or graded readers lol
Awesome to hear that this series was the start of the bookclub! Despite not winning, I’d totally be down for an informal reading (since it seems most people interested already know the plot anyway lol)
Unfortunately not, as I’ve only watched the TV series. Perhaps @Biblio or @bungakushoujo could chime in, since you guys indicated you’ve read the LNs and watched the TV series/movie?
Season 1 maps pretty closely to book 1 with some differences, season 2 maps to book 2 partially, and the movie takes some inspirations for the plot line from books 2 and 3 but doesn’t follow it exactly. Book 4 just has some random side stories that occur throughout the other 3 books.
The dramas are really fun but just can’t compare to the books imo, since you get hundreds and hundred pages of characters development and rubber duckies! That being said though, my faves were season 1 of the drama and book 2.
Thank you so much! I was trying to figure this out for the longest without spoiling myself too badly but most fans of the show don’t know the plot of the books since they were never translated, so it was driving me a bit crazy lol
Completely agree with your reasons for book > drama!
I’ve heard similar things about book 2, so now I’m really looking forward to finally finishing the series! I’m going to keep following that duck down that gutter to the very end lol
You definitely should! It’s such a great series — you can tell the author loved the characters and wrote them with care since their characters are explored and developed so thoroughly! And they are pretty hilarious on top of that
I love Nagira Yuu’s storytelling in general – I’m so proud of her now that she’s a famous mainstream author with her non-BL stuff too. I have a bunch of her books in my shelf that I really need to find the time to read!
English BL LNs haven’t really broken through in the market afaik. The successful TV series and short length of the main novel series are probably the only reasons it got licensed at all.
That being said though, my faves were season 1 of the drama and book 2.
And they are pretty hilarious on top of that 
