When I heard they were going to make a live adaptation of Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami, I was pretty intrigued over how they were going to pull it off. Most yaoi manga adapted for screen tends to be those with relationship beats that can easily be separated from the more explicit panels of the source text, but UNF's whole deal is that an unlikely relationship blooms between two very different people who have almost nothing in common besides their workplace and their devastating sexual chemistry. It's not something you can pull the trysts out of, nearly eighty percent of the relationship progression, and thus the plot, occurs while Kaji and Fukami are in bed together. I had my reservations, but I am delighted to report back that this show not only pulled it off, but made something unexpectedly wonderful and lovely in the pursuit.
UNF is the kind of live action adaptation you'd expect from five to seven years ago; it is a low budget darling that has an ensemble cast of about 8 people, and not counting outdoor shots uses four economical sets. It probably took a week or two to film. And five to seven years ago, it would have exploded our minds. In the current landscape, with such a depth and breadth of BL to choose from, it probably will barely make a blip; there are definitely more expensive looking, and more plot-rich BL coming out right now, but I think it's an important adaptation in that it's doing something I see very few BLs do, which is let people talk during sex (not you Hockey Players Georg, you're built Canadian).
This is such a common trope in manga and novels that almost always gets flattened in favour of shirtless making out with a lot of music cut over top, but it often robs the story of some of the most tenderest moments. It takes out a lot of the character internality, and the emotional beats of the narrative. I am seeing other J-BL start to do this, Fake Fact Lips is also airing now with a much higher production budget, but none with such attention to detail as UNF, in which entire conversations are had mid-coitus, one most notably with Fukami riding Kaji. Both actors talked about how they spent a lot of time making sure their positioning, movements, and facial expressions were legit, because it was really integral to telling the story of Kaji and Fukami's relationship.
Kaji is a surface level-perfect man with impressive social skills who is deeply lonely, and Fukami is a fade-into the background IT nerd who thinks he can't love anyone, but is remarkably emotionally astute. They are great in bed together and like having sex together, and through that closeness they learn to care about one another. It's a great story, but you can't tell it without the sex, and the fact that this production was committed to that, and made a space where the actors felt comfortable to do that, feels a little revolutionary. There's a cuteness as well to the staging of the sex, Fukami and Kaji are always politely covered, but in ways that also show the progression of their relationship. At one point a bed post serves as a visual barrier between where they are joined, but also a physical barrier between two people who aren't on the same page yet.
All of this is to say, yeah, there are BL with higher production value, with perhaps deeper plots, with more sensationally filmed sex scenes, and even with more man flesh on display, but I think you should still check Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami out, if for no other reason than to encourage more adaptations like it. ;)
