Launched in April 2019, Blue Lynx is a production studio with a heavy focus on Boy’s Love anime (BL). However, since their founding, very little has been released with the exception of the visual series Moonlight is Your Whisper. All that is about to change in 2020, when three films currently under production hit theaters.
Announced is the released date of the first of three films, The Clouds Gather, slated to be screened nationwide in Japan on February 15th, 2020. The film will be an adaptation of Kou Yoneda’s manga, Twittering Birds Never Fly. The main premiere will be held at the Shinjuku Baltic 9 cinema.
While under Blue Lynx’s production staff, the film is being animated by Studio GRIZZLY, the first anime studio to focus exclusively on BL anime. This will be their first animated movie and second project overall after the 3-part OVA adaptation of Yarichin Bitch Club.
With this announcement, character concept art and the first key visual of the film were also revealed.
The Clouds Gather follows the story of Yashiro (full name unknown), a high ranking yakuza officer and also head of a financing corporation front. Yashiro has a dark sexual history involving child abuse. As an adult, he is openly hypersexual and masochistic. He goes so far as to declare himself the “lustful cat*” and “public toilet” of the executive staff and believes that he is incapable of having any sort of normal romance in his adult life.
*Note: It isn’t so commonly used today, but “cat” (lit. “neko”) can be used as a slang term to refer to one’s preferred sexual position. In this case, being a bottom. Likewise, “dog” (lit. “inu”) can be used to refer to being a top.
Enter Chikara Domeki, a newly hired bodyguard for Yashiro, who took up a job with the yakuza thinking it was just a normal financing company. He also just so happens to be an ex-police officer! However, despite early chances to get out, he stays for two reasons. Domeki has his own shameful past, having been arrested and discharged from the police force for assaulting his own father. Now, he’s ready to accept just about any job so long as it pays well. Second reason? Domeki comes to find Yashiro so beautiful that he rethinks the yakuza, entirely. The bigger catch? Domeki is completely impotent, making him useless to Yashiro’s desires.
And so the organized crime misadventures of the office toilet and his stoic bodyguard begin!
Yashiro will be played by Tarusuke Shingaki, the talent behind Mirio Toogata (My Hero Academia) and Kariya Matou (Fate/Zero).
Domeki will be played by Wataru Hatano, who has played Motojiro Kajii (Bungou Stray Dogs), and Josuke Hikashikata (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure video games).
The original manga, Twittering Birds Never Fly, is currently ongoing with nearly 40 chapters published across six volumes.
Due to the intense themes and graphic nature of the source material, The Clouds Gather website discourages anyone under 18 reserving early access tickets. After The Clouds Gather, Blue Lynx will more forward in their release schedule with the film continuation of Given in the spring. Later in the year, a film adaptation of L’étranger de la Plage will follow. Further details of both films are currently unknown.
