 Hagio and Takemiya were roommates in Ōizumigakuenchō, Nerima, Tokyo from 1970 to 1973.Norie Masuyama, a friend of Takemiya's, introduced Hagio and Takemiya to "Barazoku", the first commercially-published gay magazine in Japan.The magazine inspired Takemiya and Hagio to create "shōnen-ai" works.