Gay drama 'Ossan's Love' makes waves in conservative Japan

A Japanese TV comedy-drama featuring gay relationships has been unexpectedly well-received in a country still known for conservative social attitudes.

Ossan’s Love is the rare mainstream television drama that was daring enough to venture into the world of yaoi, or the “boys’ love” genre. The title translates to “uncle’s love”, which is pretty much what the story is about. In the show, Soichi Haruta (Kei Tanaka) finds himself caught between the affection from his middle-aged boss Musashi Kurosawa (Kotaro Yoshida) whom he has worked with for 10 years, and the love from his colleague Ryota Maki (Kento Hayashi), who lives with him and manages the household chores.

The yaoi genre, more common in manga comics and anime, features romantic or sexual relationships between male characters and is generally targeted at the female audience. Although Japan is relatively more accepting of homosexuals among Asian countries, there is still a social stigma against gay people and people who indulge in yaoi.

The dose of yaoi sprinkled with humour, especially from the ossan character Musashi Kurosawa, has garnered the series a solid fan base.

Supporters of the Maki-Haruta relationship have even dubbed the pair MakiHaru, by combining the kanji characters from their names.

There was a movie version of Ossan’s Love released in 2016, but it’s the drama that’s been making waves. Since it aired its first episode in late April, the show has been increasingly popular. According to reports, Ossan’s Love is one of the top trending words on Twitter in Japan. It even topped Twitter’s trending words ranking worldwide consecutively for two weeks during its final two episodes!

Owing to its popularity, the drama is even releasing an official book in the later half of July.

In addition, Ossan’s Love recently launched an official sticker set on the messaging app Line — upon which non-Japanese fans from places such as Hong Kong and Korea began requesting for an international sticker set too.

Needless to say, fans are more than willing to pay for it; it even became the most-bought sticker set upon its release.

Now that the short-lived drama has successfully ended its seventh and final episode last Saturday, viewers might empathise with this sad fan-drawn Kurosawa longing for his Harutan (his nickname for Haruta):

More lifestyle stories:

Singapore eatery offers ‘Trump-Kim Chi Nasi Lemak’ to honour summit

Hairstyles that would better suit Trump and Kim ahead of their summit

10 halal ice cream establishments in Singapore

10 things to do before Hari Raya Puasa