WARNING: The following contains discussion of sexual abuse and spoilers for Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather, now available for streaming from Sentai Filmworks.
Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather is one of the first animated films produced by the new anime studio Blue Lynx, a studio dedicated to producing Boys Love. The Clouds Gather is the first in a three-part film series based on Kou Yoneda’s long-running BL manga title Twittering Birds Never Fly or Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai.
The Boys Love anime genre has evolved to tackle tough topics in series such as Given. What makes Twittering Birds Never Fly a fan-favorite within the BL community, besides well-written characters and emotional stories, is that it deals with serious issues like molestation and sexual delinquencies with considerable nuances and depth that the subjects deserve.
The story of Twittering Birds Never Fly centers on the relationship between yakuza boss Yashiro and his new bodyguard Chikara Doumeki. Yashiro is a self-proclaimed sex addict and masochist, while Doumeki is a sexually impotent ex-police officer. It is a story about sexual desire and frustration; the two main characters are drawn to one another precisely because of the sense of unfulfillable desire. More importantly, it is about past trauma and finding a way to live with it.
Yashiro is arguably one of the best-written characters in BL. He was abused and molested as a child, and he deliberately chose to stop allowing his past to keep hurting him, so he made himself enjoy the abuse and the sex that used to cause him deep harm. It is a testament to Yashiro’s incredibly resilient character. But his real emotional trauma comes from his unrequited love for his high school friend Kageyama Kanji, who, in a twist of fate, is currently in a same-sex relationship with a delinquent named Kuga Eishin.
Yashiro is now a ruthless yakuza leader, who is openly queer and unapologetically uses his sexuality to his own advantage. Yashiro irks many yakuza members because they are simultaneously attracted to him and disgusted by his homosexuality and promiscuity. Yashiro uses sex as a weapon to manipulate those who look down on him and expose their hypocrisy. As Oscar Wilde famously said, “Everything is about sex, except sex, sex is about power.” This quote accurately describes Yashiro's relationship with sex, he holds the power over anyone who fawns over him. Yet for the ones he truly loves, he never wants to get too close, for the fear of losing control. This is why he was drawn to Doumeki -- he believes he can never really have him.
Comparatively, Doumeki is a much simpler character. He became impotent after he witnessed his stepsister being raped by his father, and went to jail after beating said father up. He became infatuated with Yashiro the first time he saw him, so he joined the yakuza. Doumeki’s straightforward personality makes him a good match for the enigmatic Yashiro. Doumeki does not hide his feelings like Yashiro, so he is able to push Yashiro towards a more emotionally vulnerable place than he normally wants to be.
While the film isn't visually stunning, it perfectly captures the melancholic atmosphere of the manga. The background art and the clever use of light and shadow carry a film noir aesthetic that is well-suited for the yakuza theme. The film’s slow pace, complex themes, and the lack of a resolution are more reminiscent of live-action Japanese drama films rather than anime. At this point in the story, it cannot even be considered a romance yet. The sex scenes are plenty but are not incredibly explicit, so the imagery never gets too NSFW. The abuse scenes are treated with great care and subtly presented, they are nonetheless haunting and heartbreaking to witness.
The music and sound-mixing in particular deserve a lot of praise. The excellent voice cast, lead by Tarusuke Shingaki as Yashiro and Wataru Hatano as Doumeki, reprises their roles from the drama CDs, but with some delicate improvements over their CD performances. Since both main characters tend not to display a lot of emotions outward, the nuances in the voice work do all the heavy lifting in terms of portraying the characters’ emotional development.
The film ends on a cliffhanger, so people who are unfamiliar with the source manga will be frustrated, and it has received some fair criticisms regarding its relatively unfocused story. Considering the very mature subject matter, however, the story is still better told as a film series rather than on TV.
Twittering Birds Never Fly: Clouds Gather is available for streaming from Sentai Filmworks.
If you are a U.S.-based victim of sexual assault or misconduct in need of help, contact RAINN at 800-656-4673 to be connected with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. If you are based outside the U.S., click here for a list of international sexual assault resources.
