Kaze to Ki no Uta is a Japanese manga series by Keiko Takemiya that follows the tragic romance between two fourteen-year-old students, Gilbert Cocteau and Serge Battour, at the fictional Lacombrade Academy, an all-boys boarding school in late 19th-century France. Gilbert has been physically, emotionally, and sexually abused since childhood by his uncle and biological father Auguste Beau, and the series traces the pair's relationship from hostility to love and ultimately to Gilbert's death from an opium-induced accident in Paris.
When was Kaze to Ki no Uta serialized and where?
Kaze to Ki no Uta was serialized from the 29th of February 1976 to June 1984. It ran first in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōjo Comic until the 5th of November 1980, then moved to Petit Flower, where it continued through the June 1984 issue.
Why did it take nearly seven years for Kaze to Ki no Uta to be published?
Takemiya conceived the story in 1970 and completed an initial fifty-page sketchbook draft in January 1971, but editors at Shogakukan repeatedly refused to publish it, citing its controversial subject material including male-male sex, sadomasochism, incest, and rape. She spent years building her editorial standing through commercial work, particularly the successful manga Pharaoh no Haka (1974-1976), before she had enough influence to secure publication.
What award did Kaze to Ki no Uta win?
Keiko Takemiya won the 25th Shogakukan Manga Award (for 1979) in both the shōjo and shōnen categories simultaneously: Kaze to Ki no Uta took the shōjo prize and her science fiction series Toward the Terra took the shōnen prize.
How did Kaze to Ki no Uta influence the shōnen-ai and yaoi manga genres?
Kaze to Ki no Uta is credited with widely popularizing the shōnen-ai genre by bringing explicit male-male romance into mainstream shōjo magazines, where such material had previously been confined to self-published doujinshi. Its commercial success prompted a boom in published shōnen-ai beginning in the late 1970s and contributed to the founding of the manga magazine June in 1978, the first major magazine to publish shōnen-ai and yaoi exclusively.
Was Kaze to Ki no Uta adapted into an anime?
An anime film adaptation titled Kaze to Ki no Uta Sanctus: Sei Naru Kana was released by Pony Canyon as an original video animation on the 6th of November 1987. The sixty-minute film was directed by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, produced by Shogakukan, Herald Enterprise, and Konami, and adapts the introductory chapters of the manga. Multiple sequels were planned but never produced.