Ok, I could tell a few seconds into the intro that this was supposed to be Yaoi. The instant I catch on then wham classic Yaoi embrace,you know no shirt wit pants unzipped.
Now that I have seen about 10 eps, it looks like the problem is that Naoe is gay and Kagetora is straight. Looks like a woman from their past is also involved. Anyone care to spoil me on that?
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The Second Coming is merely the return of common sense.
It's never explicitly stated that Kagetora is gay/bisexual (though, yes, it is true that he's had female lovers in the past), but by the end of the series...well, it's a hard thing to "spoil" because it partly depends on your interpretation, but I think that Kagetora and Naoe both have strong feelings for each other. It's just that after hundreds of years of supressing them they no longer know how to express these feelings.
Naoe does finally confess his love at the end of the series, and Kagetora...well, he doesn't exactly pull away. There's no kissing though, and the most "yaoi" moment in Mirage of Blaze actually comes in the OVA, which takes place after the series (and is also shown on WAM). It's actually a very intense scene, and kind of explicit, but it's non-consensual. So...is Kagetora gay? You'll have to watch the rest of the series yourself and then tell me what you think.
Yes, I know, it's annoying sometimes when a character's sexual orientation is left "open to interpretation", but I think it fits perfectly in this series because, even if Kagetora does feel something for Naoe, he would never admit it. He enjoys the hold he has on Naoe way too much. In that sense, Kagetora is a sadist, too, it's just not as obvious as it is with Naoe. Kagetora dominates Naoe mentally, Naoe dominates Kagetora physically, and...emotionally? I think they both kind of dominate each other in that category.
But I really do hope you'll finish the series, and that I didn't ruin it for you. Whether or not they're an official gay couple, I still say that the yaoi relationship between Kagetora and Naoe is one of the most complex and engaging that I have ever seen. Not to mention one of the most twisted...but you'll find out more about that when you learn who the "woman from their past" is. ;-)
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." -Anton Szandor LaVey
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Yeah, it is really confusing, but here's how I understand it: Naoe was extremely angry at Kagetora for not returning his feelings, so he raped Kagetora's female lover, Minako, as a way to get revenge against Kagetora by sort of dominating him on that emotional level, and maybe to get back at Minako for having what he wanted. But Kagetora, who was out fighting while all this was happening, was suddenly brought back seriously wounded. He would have died, but Naoe quickly put Kagetora's spirit into the body of Minako, thus killing Minako instead. He did this knowing full well that Kagetora would rather die than kill his lover, because who wouldn't?
Probably a combination of Naoe's selfish wish to keep Kagetora alive, a need to eliminate the woman he saw as his rival, and his continued desire to emotionally dominate Kagetora, all drove him to make that decision. Though he did have to make the decision extremely quickly, so maybe he didn't really think it all the way through and it was just an instinctual reaction beause the man he felt so deeply for was about to die. I guess it's up to you to figure out his motives, since the anime never fully goes into them (I'll bet the novels do, and maybe the manga).
Also, when Kagetora is in Minako's body, he realizes that she is pregnant. He guesses that this child might be Naoe's, which makes him even more anguished. I'm not sure, but I think he might then kill himself/try to kill himself, because remember when he has that dream about attempting suicide, but then looks at his reflection and sees that he is a woman? He doesn't realize who Minako is at the time, but we find out later during the flashback sequence.
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." -Anton Szandor LaVey
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