GL Pills #1

I'm just going to start something to share bits of news and info surrounding GL in Japan. It's not going to be regular, as it will be based on the amount of content that's released, so I'll be posting whenever I think there's enough to write about. Anyway, let's begin this first GL Pills post by going through what came up in the past few days, starting with interesting upcoming releases, shall we? 


Even though no GL drama has been announced for the October cour, which is a pity, there is something interesting coming up. The most relevant GL news in my personal opinion is the inclusion of a lesbian couple in the upcoming drama Chiisai Koro wa Kami sama ga Ite (ChiiKami). The cast that will accompany the two leads has been announced earlier this week, and it includes Anna Ishii and Karin Ono playing former classmates turned lovers, with completely different personalties (one bright and open, the other shy and reserved) who share the love for camping and dream of setting up a food truck together!
The drama starts on October 9, and will air every Thursday at 10PM. It's prime time, ladies! 

LINKS: X Account, Official Website, Instagram Account.

If you're anything like me and enjoy watching female-centered series, you might know Anna Ishii from dramas like Cheer Dan (Let's go Jets!), Girl Gun Lady and Yuru Camp. I also know her from Kotodamasou, in which she starred alongside one Yurika Nakamura (that I'm suuuuure you all know; our Fuyu), one Ayaka Miyoshi (that I'm sure many of you know, from Alice in Borderland), my adored Nanase Nishino, and...honestly for some reason that drama has an amazing cast. I also vaguely remember it having some lesbian content. Go check it out!
Also, she already worked with Karin Ono in something I have watched: Girls Step (there's also Fuuka Koshiba, whom I like a lot; please appear in a GL, thanks)! I also know Karin from Jinro Game Beast Side (best one of the series in my personal and right opinion; and featuring very familiar faces for anyone who likes Japanese actresses), and among other things I've seen, she was in 21st Century Girl (one of the stories is directed by our Yuuka Eda), and Sunny, which is a lovely movie with a great cast. 


Right at the end of August, we had the announcement of the drama adaptation of Futari Escape, a manga that was serialized on Yuri Hime, about an unemployed senior whose only merit is being cute, and a junior who is a mangaka tormented by deadlines, living together.

As you might know if you're familiar with the magazine (let's say I'm not exactly new to it eheh), what's published there can cover quite a broad spectrum of content, that goes from the faintest subtext to the explicit lesbian stories. When I say explicit, mind you, I don't mean sexually explicit (though some stories are), I mean explicit in the sense - to make it as simple as possible - that nobody (and this includes clueless heterosexual people) would have to guess or interpret what they're seeing to understand it's about romantic love between girls/women. No yuri goggles needed. From what I've read (both of the manga itself, and of the comments of people who have been reading it until the end), Futari Escape is subtext. Possibly not the faintest there is, but still subtext. Some readers consider it obvious that the two ladies are together romantically, but it is never made explicit. Not in the manga and not, so far, in any information about the drama. What we know about their relationship is just that they're a senior and a junior living together. Nowhere it's stated or even implied that they're romantically involved with each other (and that is not something that happens with couples in drama series...).
Nevertheless, this is still the sort of series that current GL fans who are also Yuri fans, maybe especially long time Yuri fans, might very easily enjoy. I mean...I will probably like it very much! Cute young women interacting cutely and funnily with each other? I could watch that all day every day! 
Futari Escape will start on October 4th, and will air every Saturday at 12.55 AM.
Below, the leads introduction videos on set!

LINKS: Drama X Account, Manga X Account, Instagram Account, Official Website

 


Shuuten no Ano Ko (Girl at the End of The Line) is set at a Girls High School, starting with the entrance ceremony. On her way home, the protagonist (Kiyoko) and her friend are approached by a girl wearing blue clothes, Akari, who immediately catches Kiyoko's attention.
Akari stands out at school, which also draws in some envy.
Kiyoko starts to spend a lot of time with Akari, and thinks their relationship has become quite intimate. Then she finds Akari's diary...
Now, ain't that an interesting premise? It is to me, for sure.
The movie is out in theaters from January 23 2026.
Oh, the main character is played by Ami Toma, who not only looks adorable, but mostly played a schoolgirl in love with Mana Ashida's character in the 2023 series Saikou no Kyoushi.

LINKS: X Account, Official Website.

The preview for Episode 7 and 8 of Love Sea has been released and it includes a couple of very interesting moments for our HimeFumi (Mizuho Habu and Asuka Kawazu). Check it out:

Aside from the assumption I mention in the post (that the first scene seems like it could be acting practice because of the way Himeka speaks), I also assume that the first scene will happen in Episode 7 and the second one in Episode 8. The scriptwriter and director of the series, Atsuki Tomori, reposted a recap of one of her radio episode with Habu that I did and nicely expressed how, while writing HimeFumi, she never considered them a secondary pair, so much so that she has added content compared to the Thai version and encourages us to look forward to what's coming. Which is absolutely lovely and I appreciate the sentiment, though please, if you're interested in watching, consider that HimeFumi still is absolutely secondary to the main BL couple, so...be prepared! 

LINKS: X Account, Instagram Account, Official Website, Watch on Gagaoolala. 

In other news, on the 7th, MioIchi (Mio Kudo and Ichika Osaki, Megumi and Kotoha in CallMeNo in case you're guilty of the crime of not knowing, for which you shall be punished) went out together for the fifth time, looking absolutely AMAZING in their casual clothes, and they blessed us with pictures and even a TikTok video! We got even enlightened with the privilege of finding out that, ever since the CallMeNo event on the 6th of July, Mio keeps a polaroid of them in the back of her smartphone. If that's not the cutest thing ever, I...
Like, seriously, think about it!!

After Mio shared the first photo, Osaki reposted in her Stories teasing that she took some with her camera too, but was still deciding whether to post them or not...She ultimately did post, two days later (the ones you see in the post up here)! Thank you, Osaki! Bless you!!!

When posting the TikTok video, Mio commented "Isn't Ichika winking just too cute?" and Osaki reposted that saying "I feel like I end up winking all the time when I'm with Miochi...".

Now, was that just them normally going out together, or did it have something to do with the CallMeNo related news that's coming out before the end of the year, as teased by Eda? We have no way of knowing yet! Meanwhile, you can keep watching CallMeNo on GagaOoLala and buy the Blu-ray!


AyaHiro 2 Episode 6's "I can't hold it any longer" kiss took n°1 in Model Press Best Kiss Ranking for Summer drama series! It's the second lesbian kiss ever to take the first place, after Call Me by No Name (that got even a second kiss ranked) for the Winter drama series! Both staff and cast were very excited about this:

Also because I was truly happy for AyaHiro's victory, I was a veeeeery good woman (praise me!) and didn't reply to Kanna's surprised expression "a kiss between two women getting #1..." being like "GURL! CallMeNo did it first 😤", but I will admit - I AM admitting it - that's exactly how I got inside!

 

In other news, author (Sal Jiang), producer (Kamiura) and director (Eda) of AyaHiro 2 went to visit the AyaHiro pop-up store and collab cafè, and it was lovely!

Even the scriptwriter (of both AyaHiro 1 and 2), Shimo, went to the cafè, with her husband. You know who her husband is? It's the hotel man, a key person both in season 1 and season 2 of the show (which you can keep watching on Gaga)

And just yesterday (Sept 12),  Eda and Kamiura went out on a date! I love that they're so close and I hope they're going to collaborate on a new (GL!!) project soon! We need them!

Now, I had absolutely zero reason to mention anything about this drama here...not until the 11th, when other cast members were announced. Well, turned out that Katoshi is in my beloved Mio's new drama (Warui no wa Anata Desu; WaruAna)! Which is...exciting, also because the thought of them on set together and the idea of possibly getting BTS stuff with them (plus knowing Mio was there with her MioIchi picture in the back of her phone lol), will make it easier to go through this series that is veeeeery much not something I would enjoy watching and might be challenging at times. I'm not gonna recommend any of you to watch, of course (I only will as a Mio fan, after all), but I might share things that regard her and Katoshi together!

Anyway! Anyway! Anyway! Thanks to Katoshi fans commenting and replying to her private messaging service (and then thanks to Kamiura posting herself), we got to know that:
- Katoshi and Mio became friends.
- Katoshi already knew her because of CallMeNo. According to one of the tweets I saw, she went like "Oh, it's the girl from CallMeNo!". Katoshi watching CallMeNo, my friends!!! Honestly, it also makes sense due to the Eda/Kamiura duo, and also some AyaHiro 2 scenes being sort of reminiscent of CallMeNo scenes, but anyway it's great news, that's what it is!
- Kamiura went to visit Mio and Katoshi on set (she also knew the make up artist and stylist because they were the same from AyaHiro!). About this, Katoshi said that they (she and Mio) are Kamiura Children, calling back to the name of the AyaHiro fandom (AyaHiro Children), which is super cute. In her post, Kamiura said that when she went on set, apart from the weird feeling of them starring together in the same drama, seeing Mio and Katoshi she thought "Oh, those are some very casual costumes", thinking they were wearing character clothes, but turned out they were in their regular clothes lol Poor Kamiura, didn't even get to see them in character!!
Mio quoted Kamiura's post to express how happy it made her that she went to visit.
Honestly? I love this so much! This is not a common occurrence at all! It's genuinely precious and adorable! I really love these women!

And this is all, for the first GL Pills post! I hope there will be enough new info and stuff to make a new post relatively soon! Don't let me know your thoughts! I would hate it! I would absolutely hate receiving any comments! Ugh, feedback! Awful! Who wants that!?!? I lesbian-salute you all, my ladies (if you happen to be a man reading, know that you're very welcome, but I will still call everyone reading a lady, just because)! Until the next pills!

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