is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Keiko Takemiya. It was serialized in the manga magazine Shūkan Shōjo Comic from 1976 to 1980, and in the manga magazine Petit Flower from 1981 to 1984. One of the earliest works in the (male–male romance) genre, follows the tragic romance between Gilbert Cocteau and Serge Battour, two students at an all-boys boarding school in late 19th-century France.
The series was developed and published amid a significant transitional period for manga (manga for girls), as the medium shifted from an audience composed primarily of children to an audience of adolescents and young adults. This shift was characterized by the emergence of narratively more complex stories focused on politics, psychology, and sexuality, and came to be embodied by a new generation of manga artists collectively referred to as the Year 24 Group, of which Takemiya was a member. The mature subject material of and its focus on themes of sadomasochism, incest, and rape were controversial for manga of the 1970s; it took nearly seven years from Takemiya's initial conceptualization of the story for her editors at the publishing company Shogakukan to agree to publish it.
Upon its eventual release, achieved significant critical and commercial success, with Takemiya winning the 1979 Shogakukan Manga Award in both the and (manga for boys) categories for and Toward the Terra, respectively. It is regarded as a pioneering work of , and is credited by critics with widely popularizing the genre. An anime film adaptation of the series, , was released as an original video animation (home video) in 1987.
Synopsis
The series is set in late 19th-century France, primarily at the fictional Lacombrade Academy, an all-boys boarding school located on the outskirts of the city of Arles in Provence.
Serge Battour, the teenaged son of a French viscount and a Roma woman, is sent to Lacombrade at the request of his late father. He is roomed with Gilbert Cocteau, a misanthropic student who is ostracized by the school's pupils and professors for his truancy and sexual relations with older male students. Serge's efforts to befriend his roommate and Gilbert's simultaneous efforts both to drive away and to seduce Serge form a complicated and disruptive relationship between the pair.
Gilbert's apparent cruelty and promiscuity are the result of a lifetime of neglect and abuse, as perpetrated chiefly by his ostensible uncle Auguste Beau. Auguste is a respected figure in French high society who has physically, emotionally, and sexually abused Gilbert since he was a child. His manipulation of Gilbert is so significant that Gilbert believes that the two are in love, and he remains beguiled by Auguste even after he later learns that he is not his uncle, but his biological father.
Despite threats of ostracism and violence, Serge perseveres in his attempts to bond with Gilbert, and the two eventually become friends and lovers. Faced with rejection by the faculty and students of Lacombrade, Gilbert and Serge flee to Paris and live for a short while as paupers. Gilbert is unable to escape the trauma of his past, and descends into a life of drug use and prostitution. While hallucinating under the influence of opium, he runs in front of a moving carriage and dies under its wheels, convinced that he has seen Auguste. Some of the pair's friends, who have recently rediscovered the couple, find and console the traumatized Serge.
Characters
The transliteration of the characters' names is sourced from the Italian edition of the manga, which the author approved. Voice actors in are noted where applicable.
Primary characters
A fourteen-year-old student at Lacombrade from an aristocratic family in Marseille. He is the illegitimate child of his mother Anne Marie and her brother-in-law Auguste Beau, the latter of whom has abused Gilbert physically, emotionally, and sexually since he was a child. This abuse has left Gilbert as an antisocial cynic, unable to express love or affection except through sex. Gilbert is initially antagonistic and violent towards his new roommate Serge, and rejects his early attempts to befriend him. Serge's persistent altruism slowly wins Gilbert over, and the two flee to Paris as lovers. Gilbert has difficulty adjusting to their new lives of genteel poverty and begins using drugs and engaging in prostitution, and dies after being struck by a carriage while under the influence of opium.