Manga
Classmates was conceived after editors at the manga magazine Opera approached Nakamura about creating a manga series for the magazine in the boys' love genre (male-male romance, also known as BL). While Nakamura had previously created works depicting male homosexuality in the erotic comics magazine Manga Erotics F, she had never created works in the BL genre; Classmates would ultimately become Nakamura's first BL series, and her first series published in a BL magazine. She has stated that she wished to create Classmates as a story about a "slow, serious love" that was "cliché" and "almost hackneyed" in its execution. For example, Nakamura chose the setting as an all-boys school – historically a common setting in BL manga – despite the fact that BL works centered on schools and students had declined in popularity at the time of Classmates' initial publication.
The series is noted as a departure from Nakamura's earlier and subsequent works, such as Double Mints and Kaori no Keishou, which typically focus on darker themes and erotic subject material. Nakamura has stated that she had created "aesthetically pleasing works" with "soft images" prior to the publication of Classmates, but did not have the opportunity to publish them. In Classmates, Nakamura stated that she wished to balance the exaggerated romance elements typical of BL with elements of realism, particularly in regards to LGBT issues and identity.
Classmates and its sequels and spinoffs have been published in Opera since 2006. Dou Kyu Sei was serialized from June 2006 to July 2007, Sotsu Gyo Sei – Winter was serialized from January to October 2008, Sotsu Gyo Sei – Spring was serialized from January to August 2009, Sora and Hara was serialized from December 2009 to December 2011, O.B. was serialized from April 2012 to December 2013, and Blanc was serialized from February 2018 to September 2020.[3] Home was originally published as a spin-off manga series on Pixiv Comic from October 2019 to January 2020[4] before beginning serialization in Opera as an ongoing series in December 2020[5] and concluding in the March 2022 issue.[6] Sajō Rihito no Chichi to Sono Buka (佐条利人の父とその部下) began serialization in the September 2022 issue of Opera.[7] The series has been collected as nine tankōbon volumes published by Akane Shinsha.[8]
In North America, the digital distribution platform JManga released an English-language translation of the first volume of Classmates under the title Doukyusei in April 2012. In 2014, Digital Manga published the first volume of the series as an eBook under its yaoi imprint Juné as Classmates;[9][10] it also published the second and third volumes in the series as Graduate: Winter[11] and Graduate: Spring.[12] In July 2018, Seven Seas Entertainment announced that it had acquired the North American license for Classmates, and began publishing the series in June 2019.[13] Internationally, the series has been translated into French by Boy's Love IDP,[14] Spanish by Ediciones Tomodomo,[15]
Audio drama
Since 2008, a series of audio drama CDs that adapt the manga have been produced by A+, a division of Comic House.
Film
Doukyusei: Classmates (stylized as Doukyusei -Classmates-), an anime film adaptation of the first volume of Classmates, was announced by March 14, 2015 and released in theaters on February 20, 2016. The film is produced by A-1 Pictures, with its primary production staff composed of Shōko Nakamura as director, Akemi Hayashi as character designer, Chieko Nakamura as art director, and Ritsuko Utagawa as color designer. The film's soundtrack is composed by guitarist Kotaro Oshio, while its closing theme is performed by Oshio and Yuuki Ozaki of the rock band Galileo Galilei.
In North America, Doukyusei: Classmates received a limited theatrical release through distributors Aniplex of America and Azoland Pictures, which opened on May 6, 2016. The film was released in North America on Blu-ray by Aniplex of America on September 20, 2016.[40]
Graduation Album (卒業アルバム), a Classmates art book, was published by Akane Shinsha in September 2011.[41] A deluxe re-release was published in February 2016.[42] Classmates was additionally included in a pop-up cafe run by Opera in Harajuku, Tokyo from March 16 to April 8, 2018. The cafe featured original merchandise and menu items inspired by the series.[43]
