A Midsummer Night's Lewd Dream / 真夏の夜の淫夢

The Movie Title Screen

About

A Midsummer Night’s Lewd Dream (Japanese: 真夏の夜の淫夢, Manatsu No Yo No Inmu) is an adult video; part of the Japanese gay porn series Babylon Stage released by the COAT CORPORATION in 2001.^[1] The video came to the attention of the internet, following a scandal in 2002 when it was discovered Japanese baseball player Kazuhito Tadano played one of the characters. Since then, a huge otomad/photoshop trend has been risen on some popular Japanese websites like 2Channel and Nico Nico Douga (NND).

Currently Manatsu No Yo No Inmu (or in short Inmu) is used as an umbrella term to describe the online video editing subculture on the web. Even some similarities can be noted with other online gay cults or memes in Japan (such as Yaranaika? and Billy Herrington/Wrestling Series), this online phenomena is considered more notorious than others.

Origin

This video “Babylon Stage34 真夏の夜の淫夢 〜the IMP〜” includes 4 episodes. The most popular episode is the first one.^[15]

Plot Summary

Three young athletes, Miura, Nakata and no-name, cause a car accident by rear-ending a car carrying a Yakuza (a Japanese mobster) named Tanioka. Nakata, driving the car, has his driver’s license taken away, and the three young men are taken to Tanioka’s office. To get back it from him, Miura is coerced into sadistic homosexual sex by Tanioka to atone. They later go on the offensive, when Nakata steals a gun from Tanioka. Miura rapes Tanioka aggressively, and, after finishing, Nakata kills Tanioka by shooting him in the anus.

The film is characterized by low quality acting and cinematography.

The Incident

Soon after this video was released, some viewers claimed Miura in this video resembled a famous college baseball player at that time. However, this rumor wasn’t spread widely until a gossip paper also reported it in 2001.

This topic finally made the headlines in the middle of 2002. Many Japanese gossip magazines and papers began reporting that a man who closely resembled a candidate of that year’s professional baseball draft appeared in a gay porn video with younger players on the same team. Though the reports kept his name a secret, they did so in vain, as it was commonly known that the player was Tadano. The manager of the baseball team at the university where he had gone made a statement saying that there were players on his team who had been in the video. As a result of this, he was unable to hear any offers from other Japanese professional baseball teams, out of fear of scandal.

The baseball player, Kazuhito Tadano^[2], went to the US and managed to continue his career by passing a tryout for Cleveland Indians. In January 2004, he left the comment about the incident to American media for the first time, saying “It was a one-time incident… I’m not gay.”^[3]

This video itself went out of print. Several episodes were compiled to DVD in later years, minus the first episode.

Spread

On 2Channel

2Channel users reacted to this incident in by sharing the footage and thoroughly doxing the actor’s personal information. Their research brought the video to many Japanese internet user’s attention and surfaced another video starring Tadano and his teammates. This caused people to doubt his statement saying he was straight.

At the same time, the videos’ poor acting, cheesy one-liners and nonsensical storylines made it the target of jokes on 2Channel. Many of them became jargon terms/inside jokes among some 2Channel users and many dirty Shift-JIS Arts for them were made. Those began being used in threads for reports about Tadano in MLB in /mnewsplus/ (Entertainment & Sports News) board in 2Channel since he advanced to the major in 2004 and were spread to other threads gradually by trolls. Those jokes, jargons and Shift-JIS arts began being collected to the threads in /gline/ (guide line) board in 2005, and were listed up to the video series’ Wiki page.^[4][5]

On Nico Nico Douga

Since Nico Nico Douga was launched in 2007, many of the videos and jokes have been uploaded to there, and some of them have been reused in MAD videos.^[6] Many characters have their own entry in Nico Nico Pedia, and the threads for their activity on NND have been also launched in the /streaming/ (video sharing service) board in 2Channel.

The supporters are called Inmuchu (淫夢厨, lit. Inmufag) in NND and are hated among many users because they often troll video comments with Midsummer Night’s Lewd Dream jokes.^[7]

Notable Examples

Characters & Quotes

Since the scandal surrounding the Tadano incident that never reported actor’s real name, commenters usually refer to actors in this video series not by their real name, but by their acronyms. (eg. Tadano: TDN, Tanioka: TNOK, Daibou: DB).

correlation chart for Inmu Families

TDN

The main character of this online phenomena. Many his quotes became catchphrases. In particular, his breathing voices in this video “Ah!” (アッー!) and “Holly Pleasant!” (ンギモッヂイイ！) are catchphrases for the series.

DB

The man playing Nakata and TDN’s junior in the college baseball team. In addition to his ridiculous acting in the video, he is popular among supporters because of his career in real life after graduating the college. They found that he got a job as a salesman in a major company and had an interview in the company’s official website. They kept mum about his performing in the gay porn video, but the title of his interview was “Sell Myself” (自分を売る).

In addition, he has various kind of his dirty Shift-JIS arts combining him and penises. Those are called Penis DB (亀頭DB, Kitou DB or Kitou Daivoh) and popular among trolls. There is a Wiki page specializing for collecting those Shift-JIS arts.^[8]

TNOK

TNOK is a professional gay porn actor. He is popular for his handsome figure and many misheard phrases coming from his bad pronunciations. His one-liners “What a dirty ass” (きたねぇケツだなぁ) and “Haven’t you played with here? Relax your ass, dude.” (ここは初めてか? 力抜けよ) are modified in various ways and being used in online forums and video comments.

The Beastly Senior / YJSNPI

The Beastly Senior (野獣先輩, Yajuu Senpai), sometimes called his acronym YJSNPI or Tadokoro, is a villain who plots a drugging-rape of a junior in a swimming club who is straight, and invite him to his room. He comes from the 4th episode in the video which was shared on the web for the first time in 2008. He appears on several gay porn videos and his leering and intense gaze to a junior and high piercing breathing voices are popular resource for MAD videos.

MUR

MUR is an acronym of the man named Miura, but he’s not TDN. This MUR appears in another one of Yajuu’s videos as his senior. His catchphrase,“Yes, Indeed.” (そうだよ, Soudayo) is one of most the popular catch phrases among Inmufags.

Pinky

Pinky (ピンキー) is the only female porn actress, who appeared in COAT CORPORATION’s productions. Mostly notable from the woman is her smile.

KBS Trio

KBS Trio (KBSトリオ) is the name given to the group, which they appeared in Babylon 30 _{Our Revenge}. KBS is an acronym standing for “Money, Violence, SEX!” (金！暴力！SEX！ Kane! Bouryoku! SEX!).

GO

GO is the nickname given to the character, who appeared in Babylon 28 Scout. Taken from his nickname, a phrase “GO is GOD” (GOは神 GO wa kami) has been created.

GO in the Nintendo Switch

On March 2nd, 2017, Twitter user inairesaikou^[12] noticed that one of the illustrated characters in the Nintendo Switch set-up page bore a striking similarity to GO. The tweet gained over 11,000 retweets that day.

Kotaku^[13] published an article about the tweet and the supposed similarity that day. A thread about the similarity was also posted to 4chan’s /v/ board.^[14]

DRVS

The Manager of the College Baseball Team

He himself isn’t a subject of mockery. “What a … surprise.” (なんだこれは…。たまげたなあ。), his too honest remark that he answered to interviews while watching the video, is one of the clichés among supporters.

MAD videos

Illustrations

Many parody illustrations are posted to Nico Nico Seiga^[10], an image board section in NND, and the Japanese social network service for illustrators pixiv.^[11]

Search Interest

External References