Indigo Mood (Indigo no Kibun)
Indigo Mood is a combined prequel/sequel to Japanese BL drama Pornographer - though the prequel sections make up 95% of this series. It's far superior to its predecessor and is well worth spending time on its six twenty-minute episodes.
SPOILERS WARNING: you should definitely watch Pornographer before watching Indigo Mood. Besides the fact that it would spoil Pornographer to watch it back to front (due to the presence of the sequel elements), a lot of its screenplay won't make much sense because it assumes you're familiar with what's been going on between the three main characters. You should also reconsider reading this review, though I'll keep story details to a minimum.
Summary: Indigo Mood spends most of its time in the past, before the events portrayed in Pornographer, where student Kusumi had his bicycle accident that launched him into the life of pornographic novelist Kijima-san. It focuses on how Kijima and erotic fiction publisher Kido-san - former friends from university - meet again by chance at a funeral, several years prior to the bike accident. Kido-san is engaged to be married, but his fiancée's parents won't tolerate their daughter marrying someone who works in pornography. Kijima's idealistic ambitions of becoming a professional writer have hit a dry patch, and he is on the verge of financial difficulty. Spurred on by both jealousy and admiration for his friends' abilities, Kido-san suggests that Kijima write erotic novels to earn some quick easy money. Kijima wavers, but the sense that he is attracted to Kido-san begins to wear down his distrust. Can Kijima retain his high-minded ideals about his writing, or will his feelings for Kido-san lead him to make a fateful decision?
There's plenty to like about Indigo Mood, but I loved best the way it deepened the predominant themes from Pornographer of degradation, humiliation and - most of all - the potential destructiveness of sexual desire (especially the 'perverse' kind). Kijima is the centre of the moral tug-of-war this time, and it doesn't take long to see that his downfall is going to be his innocent willingness to trust Kido-san implicitly. It's an understatement to say that Kido-san's motives and behaviour are less than pure, almost inhuman, no matter how much he tries to explain them in a better light. He is the narrator of the story, and his voiceovers are little more than repeated self-justifications that will set your teeth on edge with their immorality and total lack of self-awareness. These two men feed off each other's unspoken yet insatiable need for control and passivity, and contribute to the inevitable disaster.
The BL drama that unfolds as a result of this sexual tension is unlike any other I've seen in traditional BL. It takes its own quiet time, suggesting everything through psychological nuance and revealing almost nothing directly. It generates such a weird atmosphere of repression and sexual urges fermenting under the muted politeness, and on the occasions that it chooses to be explicit, it holds nothing back in its gut-punches. There's a scene where the two men meet Kido-san's elderly client Gamouda-san, a famous (though terminally ill) erotic novelist who makes a conditional job proposal to Kijima that's so offensively outrageous, you won't believe you're hearing it. Even more astonishing is witnessing Kijima's response to it. There's none of the usual innocence of youth or cute schoolboy crush stories here. This is very much an Adults Only version of BL, unafraid to make you squirm with discomfort at the thought of what's really going on in this very strange, masochistic story of sexual and psychological debasement.
In a lot of ways, it mirrors the structure of Pornographer, and it uses its similar plot to reinforce why
Kijima treated Kusumi the way he did. It also amply demonstrates what happened to Kijima to twist his personality into something unrecognisably broken, and why he and Kido-san are so at odds and yet so close when we meet them in Pornographer. Indigo Mood sets their backstory within a framework that helps us understand them both so much better - something that was distinctly missing from Pornographer and also its greatest weakness. It's even possible to say that we can identify with them after watching Indigo Mood, though that would open up a Pandora's box of such disturbing possibilities that any respectable person would only want to close the box again and hide it away forever.
At its core, this program is a morality tale. It asks us to always consider our responsibilities to each other - and what constitutes decency in human conduct - first, without letting our baser impulses and instincts lead us astray. That this is so extremely difficult for all of us to do doesn't excuse us when we - oh so easily! - just give in to them.
Rating: 14 out of 20
Ending: you need to watch Pornographer next to find out
Best scene: Kido-san's horror at Gamouda-san's conditional job offer to Kijima is only matched by Kijima's unparalleled reaction to it. Though I also really enjoyed the scene with Kusumi right at the very end of the final episode, which was disturbing and touching in equal measure.
SPOILERS WARNING: you should definitely watch Pornographer before watching Indigo Mood. Besides the fact that it would spoil Pornographer to watch it back to front (due to the presence of the sequel elements), a lot of its screenplay won't make much sense because it assumes you're familiar with what's been going on between the three main characters. You should also reconsider reading this review, though I'll keep story details to a minimum.
Summary: Indigo Mood spends most of its time in the past, before the events portrayed in Pornographer, where student Kusumi had his bicycle accident that launched him into the life of pornographic novelist Kijima-san. It focuses on how Kijima and erotic fiction publisher Kido-san - former friends from university - meet again by chance at a funeral, several years prior to the bike accident. Kido-san is engaged to be married, but his fiancée's parents won't tolerate their daughter marrying someone who works in pornography. Kijima's idealistic ambitions of becoming a professional writer have hit a dry patch, and he is on the verge of financial difficulty. Spurred on by both jealousy and admiration for his friends' abilities, Kido-san suggests that Kijima write erotic novels to earn some quick easy money. Kijima wavers, but the sense that he is attracted to Kido-san begins to wear down his distrust. Can Kijima retain his high-minded ideals about his writing, or will his feelings for Kido-san lead him to make a fateful decision?
There's plenty to like about Indigo Mood, but I loved best the way it deepened the predominant themes from Pornographer of degradation, humiliation and - most of all - the potential destructiveness of sexual desire (especially the 'perverse' kind). Kijima is the centre of the moral tug-of-war this time, and it doesn't take long to see that his downfall is going to be his innocent willingness to trust Kido-san implicitly. It's an understatement to say that Kido-san's motives and behaviour are less than pure, almost inhuman, no matter how much he tries to explain them in a better light. He is the narrator of the story, and his voiceovers are little more than repeated self-justifications that will set your teeth on edge with their immorality and total lack of self-awareness. These two men feed off each other's unspoken yet insatiable need for control and passivity, and contribute to the inevitable disaster.
The BL drama that unfolds as a result of this sexual tension is unlike any other I've seen in traditional BL. It takes its own quiet time, suggesting everything through psychological nuance and revealing almost nothing directly. It generates such a weird atmosphere of repression and sexual urges fermenting under the muted politeness, and on the occasions that it chooses to be explicit, it holds nothing back in its gut-punches. There's a scene where the two men meet Kido-san's elderly client Gamouda-san, a famous (though terminally ill) erotic novelist who makes a conditional job proposal to Kijima that's so offensively outrageous, you won't believe you're hearing it. Even more astonishing is witnessing Kijima's response to it. There's none of the usual innocence of youth or cute schoolboy crush stories here. This is very much an Adults Only version of BL, unafraid to make you squirm with discomfort at the thought of what's really going on in this very strange, masochistic story of sexual and psychological debasement.
In a lot of ways, it mirrors the structure of Pornographer, and it uses its similar plot to reinforce why
Kijima treated Kusumi the way he did. It also amply demonstrates what happened to Kijima to twist his personality into something unrecognisably broken, and why he and Kido-san are so at odds and yet so close when we meet them in Pornographer. Indigo Mood sets their backstory within a framework that helps us understand them both so much better - something that was distinctly missing from Pornographer and also its greatest weakness. It's even possible to say that we can identify with them after watching Indigo Mood, though that would open up a Pandora's box of such disturbing possibilities that any respectable person would only want to close the box again and hide it away forever.
At its core, this program is a morality tale. It asks us to always consider our responsibilities to each other - and what constitutes decency in human conduct - first, without letting our baser impulses and instincts lead us astray. That this is so extremely difficult for all of us to do doesn't excuse us when we - oh so easily! - just give in to them.
Rating: 14 out of 20
Ending: you need to watch Pornographer next to find out
Best scene: Kido-san's horror at Gamouda-san's conditional job offer to Kijima is only matched by Kijima's unparalleled reaction to it. Though I also really enjoyed the scene with Kusumi right at the very end of the final episode, which was disturbing and touching in equal measure.
Comments
I think the ending emphasises that Kijima is always going to be a wasted shell of a man, no matter how attached he is to Kusumi (who clearly loves him very much). It's so hard to get a handle on what's going on in Kijima's head, but that final scene suggests that, like everything else he has experienced, he just passively accepts his relationship with Kusumi as part of his life. It's Kijima's creepy passivity that's so disturbing to me. It's as if he has given up. I wish I could see it as an entirely happy ending.
Love how you break things down and put in your own opinion.
Keep up the good work here.
But I have to disagree to your rating on this, it's so well-made and it deserved more than 14/20.
What surprised me was that I really love him in this BL drama! You see I always feel like Takezai was ill-casted, sort of underrated, in all his previous dramas & movies. Eventually, out of anything but in a BL series, he can showcase his acting and got recognition. There's a very strong sensuality flows through the series underneath all that quietness and calm atmosphere. I can feel Kijima's vulnerable yet intriguing side unfold slowly in this prequel. I can't stop myself compare Takezai's acting career with Kijima's writing - both couldn't progress any further on the mainstream, yet found acclaim on the side track.
For me, Mood Indigo wouldn't be the same if Kijima is played by someone else. But again, as I mentioned, I came to watch this series because of Takezai ...