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Utena Manga Artist Chiho Saitō Publishers Her 1st Boys-Love Book

Manga creator Chiho Saitō is no stranger to complex sexuality and gender topics. She created the manga version of Revolutionary Girl Utena and she recently finished Torikae Baya, a historical manga focused on gender non-conforming siblings that switch identities. Despite her manga pedigree, Saitō has never written a boys-love work, until now.

Saitō debuted Sekai no Ōzoku (Royalty of the World) collection by boys-love magazine Be Boy Gold publisher Libre on February 9. The short stories and illustrations focus on historical royalty pairings in Japan and abroad, like the Middle East, Europe, Ancient Rome, and Mongolia. The pairs include a sheikh and a Japanese youth, a bodyguard and the Maharaja, a Roman emperor and an army captain, an escort and an Heian period emperor, Mongolian tribal chiefs, and the Emperor of Russia and dissenting serfs.

The large staircase up the Shishiden (ceremonial shrine) of the Kyoto Palace. The crown prince encounters a man whose identity is a member of the secret organization named for the legendary three-legged crow, Yatagarasu. He protects the crown prince from the shadows.

During a court event, the crown prince's life is endangered but he's saved by Yatagarasu.

During the Sakura Festival, two men hold one another in the castle tower.

Yatagarasu attempts to retrieve a ball caught in a cherry blossom tree, but finds the prince in the tree as well.

Protecting the crown prince of Japan are two beautiful soldiers of the Japanese Army and Navy.

A dying man looks up to the man comforting him and says, "It's okay if die, so long as it was your face I get to see at the end..."

The Mongolian empire was the greatest the world had ever seen. Two conflicting tribes decide to make peace through marriage, but the bride turns out to be...

The night before heading to war, the army captain pledges his allegiance to the Roman emperor, who is also his childhood friend.

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Saitō is currently publishing new chapters of the Revolutionary Girl Utena manga and will launch a brand new manga in Monthly Flowers magazine in April.

[Via Nijimen]