http://k2c.pinky.ne.jp/event/main.html

Hibiki? Hibiki is on the cover of Hana to Ryuu 13? Poor guy didn't translate well to color. Dark events must be coming, but I would prefer it if he had been pictured with his brother rather than Ryuji. Is it March yet?

My jamall order arrived at last today. My OCTOBER order. Rather than race to open the box, I check Fujisan to see if G Defend is on its way.

posted at 9:38 PM

 
I wish I knew of a web resource listing all artists/circles with web pages who produce yaoi doujinshi and accept mail order. Not that I need more opportunities to spend more money, but I enjoy the feeling of supporting the circles directly and not relying upon luck and the second-hand stores. Once I finish the XML project and can turn my mind to more frivolous matters, I'll see how many I can dig up on my own. So far, I have only ordered from K2 Company, Kengamine Bishowjobu, and Death Powder.
posted at 8:25 PM

 
Catching up (and keeping up) on my shoujo collecting is hampered by the fact that I haven't had to research shoujo artists on the web for more than 4 years. I recognize my favorite BL artists by name, but I recognize my favorite shoujo artists by their artwork or by series name. I've added the shoujo (mainstream) publisher links to combat this.
posted at 11:54 PM

 
born to be a librarian
Nothing makes me happier than researching a text. This time, it was "Lesson VI," a title that has been included on Aestheticism's list of shounen-ai and yaoi videos since the page was first created...three years ago? I had seen most of the videos on the list, and could recognize the source material for the others, but Lesson VI was a complete mystery to me. No one ever mentioned it/reviewed it/traded it. So where did it come from? God bless Google. Searching on the title called up this page. I don't know how, I don't know why, but I do know that somebody, somewhere had to mistake the classification code "VI" as part of the title. And the page's creator had accidentally left the "XX" off of Lesson XX. Mystery solved.
posted at 7:37 PM

 
Are two titles enough to make up one's mind against a manga artist? Good. After reading Koibito Shigan and Kindan no Amai Kajitsu, I have decided that Haruka Minami is definitely not for me. Too shoujo, too pretty-pretty. What is interesting about her works is that she is supposedly making the transition from shota to regular BL with these books, but that transition doesn't involve changing her character designs or her themes.

Did I mention that fujisan cancelled my Motto!! G-Defend order as out of stock? Yes, I suppose it would first have to be published before it could be considered in stock, but...really. It's as if they don't want to make money, when they put quick processing before customer service. I have little hope that jamall will come through with it -- they still haven't sent my October order, for crying out loud! -- but I'm giving them a shot at it.

posted at 2:29 PM

 
The fates punish the self-righteous. I'm so noble, ripping only DVDs I own for my own use, and demmed laughing Greek demis run after me, making sure that the file which plays just fine on my home computer has jerky pauses on my work computer. Even downloading the file to the drive didn't help.
posted at 6:34 PM

 
I installed the DVD drive Thursday and am now in search of a hack that will let me get around the limited switches to the region code. I did rip my first DVD and burn my first CD today, so I can watch (or at least listen to) the Odoru Daisousasen movie at work. Volume's a little low. File's a little large.
posted at 9:44 PM

 
Well, here's the problem! In order to install the DVD drive, I have to turn off the computer, and that's just not going to happen.
posted at 11:24 PM

 
deja vu all over again
I don't grasp the appeal of watching an anime that doesn't deviate one iota from the major points in the manga you have already read. Okay, you're getting more of the thing you love, but you know the events of each episode before it airs. Months before it airs. It's like premasticating your food. (Okay, ick. Bad me.) I'm not frothing at the mouth to get to these HikaGo DVDs because I've been there, done that, bought the t-shirt. And I loved the 12 episodes I saw before reading the manga. The many faces of Sai (especially cute like a bunny cheerful Sai) and the intensity of Hikaru and Akira's relationship kept me riveted, the way the latter still does in the manga.
posted at 7:13 PM

 
Hmph. This entry will stand as a monument to my lengthy review of Chouko Kabutomaru's Seifukusha, which was cruelly erased in some blogger glitch. Bad Blogger. To sum up: I'm mildly dissatisfied with this title, a collection of unevenly successful short stories. The one that nags at me is the eponymous tale, about a young and beautiful government official who is secretly a willing sex slave to his bodyguard. The contrast between public and private self is enticing, but the story is too short, the sex scenes too modest (yes, too modest -- sex toys off to the side to suggest the action don't cut it here) and the psychology is insufficiently developed. Do I think it would be there if I could read the text? No. I did like the twist to the tale of the man being sexually abused by his boss on the train every morning, as well as the story in which the seme deconstructed the uke's typical protests and complaints.
posted at 4:46 AM

 
So here it is, the December order. Smaller not because of the trip to Tokyo but because December was slim pickings for Boy's Love.

1. G-Defend 16 by MORIMOTO Shuw
2. G-Defend 17 by MORIMOTO Shuw
3. Motto!! G-Defend by MORIMOTO Shuw
4. Motto!! Koori no Mamono no Monogatari by SUGIURA Shiho
5. Boku no sensei wa fever by MOTONI Modoru
6. Shinyuu henjou by MIZUKAMI Shin
7. Paraphrase by TAKAKURA Row
8. �D‚«‚É‚È‚Á‚¿‚á‚¢‚¯‚È‚¢�l by CJ Michalski
9. Lady M. o Sagase by FUJII Akemi

Let's hope I'm in a G-Defend mood when this shipment shows up. The Shin Mizukami title is one I saw serialized in the Magazine Be x Boy I picked up in Mandarake -- the one that caused all the trouble with the overcharge. If I hadn't seen it there, I would have been a little put off by the cover and sample art. Mizukami has a second title out from Biblos this month and another from Houbunsha in February, 2003. Here's an up and coming artist.
posted at 3:13 PM

 
Jamall cancelled G-Defend 16 as "out-of-print or out-of-stock indefinitely. There is no due date for reprinting." Uh-huh. We'll see what Fujisan has to say. Now I'm more impatient than ever to finish this %@&$ cataloging exam, so I can place my order with them. I knew I should have picked the book up in Tokyo.
posted at 3:53 AM

 
a good ramble, spoiled
This entry meant to be a lovely ramble on the superiority of Mamiya Oki's Lover's Diary as an art book with a BL slant, compared to works such as Kazuma Kodaka's Illustrations, Youka Nitta's Charisma and Shiuko Kano's Playgirl. The problem is, on my web search for an official artist's or publisher's page featuring the cover/ordering information for Lover's Diary, I began to question my own assumptions.

My memory told me that Oki's work was superior because she would suggest an entire story in a single frame. This impression was based on images like Libertine Life. When I compared my memory of Oki's work with Shiuko's new collection, the latter seemed more character-focused and less story-expansive. I theorized the difference lay in the fact that most of Oki's work was in novel illustrations (where a single cut might be expected to convey an entire scene) while most of Shiuko's was in manga, where a set of panels would unfold the action in a scene. But memory can be tricky. Comparing the two artists' web galleries, I realized that most of Oki's illustrations had the same composition as Shiuko's.

• Mamiya Oki's gallery
• Shiuko Kano's gallery

A large percentage of Oki's illustrations are fantasy while Kano builds her worlds closer to home, but both mostly feature portraits of their characters with backgrounds that don't call attention to themselves. It's the background in Libertine Life -- the paraphernalia and props -- that creates a story from the still life. In the absence of that, the image needs to capture an action that evokes a story (Lover's Diary has a great one, with a man in a tub pulling his fully-dressed paramour into the water). But the most exceptional images -- the ones that made me venerate Oki -- are missing from her page, just as Kano's most intriguing images are missing from hers...though her tattooed men are a world of their own.
posted at 11:01 PM

 
How many and varied are the analogies available for that elusive object of desire: sour grapes, the one that got away, even the good shepherd reclaiming his errant sheep. Why do none apply to my situation? I wanted doujinshi by Naifu and couldn't find any when I went to Tokyo. When I got back home, I did a web search in the hope that she did mail order -- no such luck, though it turns out that the doujinshi which inspired this obsession is part of a series. ARGH! Compilations and the book in the series are available at auction, but I need someone in Japan to bid/complete the transaction. I have never wanted my friends out of this country so badly.

I have paged through 18 HikaGo dj anthologies with only one story making an impression on me. Most stories are gag, because sex is funny, darnit. Akira is frequently cast as an obsessed stalker (big surprise). Sai gets no action at all. Touya-papa and Akira and Hikaru are Ogata-sensei's elusive objects of desire. Kishimoto has a bigger role in doujinshi than he ever had in the series (it's 'cos he looks like Tamahome and you'll never convince me otherwise). Waya and Isumi and Mitani are sexed up (WxI in a romantic way, Mitani as the series' sex kitten...literally). And, most delightfully, Tsutsui puts the moves on Kaga. Take that, Kodaka.

Know what I think? These anthologies are treading a delicate line not to offend the studio, publisher, rights owners, etc. Or the Japanese really do prefer gag to romance and eroticism.

posted at 10:26 PM

 
Friday
I checked into the hotel @ 7pm (room 806, with a middling view of Shinjuku 5 kilometers in the distance) and raced over to K-Books for some "just landed in Japan" shopping. Unfortunately, I don't carry a watch and was still browsing the Hikaru no Go doujinshi ten minutes after the shop had closed. Gomen, ladies!

Saturday
Aqua House first thing in the morning. I found it by walking past it by one block, then looking back and seeing the "Happy Place for Ladies" sign in the second-story window. This place would be BL heaven -- comics, novels, art books, drama cds, games, magazines, some character goods -- if the staff weren't so...rude. One other thing chafed at me: all the books are unwrapped for reading. This should be a plus (there's even a counter set up at the window with wrapped moist towels for browsers to sit and read -- very civilized, yes?), except it bothered me that I was now paying full price for books that could have been handled dozens of times. I returned to the hotel room with my loot and was chased away by housekeeping. (Okay, not literally, but she wanted to make up the room and I wanted the room made up and there wasn't room enough for the two of us to be in there at the same time.) I headed over to Animate and was rather disappointed in the selection of HikaGo goods. Not even a decent shitajiki, couldn't find the deck of cards being advertised above the crowded shelves (HikaGo was squeezed in between Prince of Tennis and...what? I don't remember.) After Animate came another visit to K-Books, which was packed with the Saturday shoppers. I couldn't find anything, though I bless them for the maps and lists posted at the ends of the aisles. Finally, I wasted hours and punished my foot by wandering around looking for Book Off on the west side of the station. I walked much further north than I needed to, finally giving up when I crossed the train tracks back to the east side via a walkway bridge. Hopelessly lost, but eventually found my way back to the Parco department store next to the station, from which I made my way back to the hotel.

Sunday
The first day I hit the rails, and the only day I really should have purchased an all-day discount pass for the JR lines. Also the first day with rain. Saturday had been gorgeous and temperate. I headed from Ikebukuru to Shinjuku to meet K at the Kinokuniya. I arrived with plenty of time to shop the comics on the first floor. Bought 2 of the new Earthian volumes for A, a few shoujo volumes for myself, and Zips 35 which I realized I had failed to pick up at Aqua House on Saturday. Then I made my way up to the foreign-language books where I had agreed to meet K. She found me (the fracture boot may have been a dead giveaway) picking up the fourth Harry Potter with the British "adult" cover. I pattered around behind her like a puppy (or a leech) while she browsed the English-language books, then we headed off for Shibuya to eat lunch at the shabu-shabu place above the Mandarake. Before we went upstairs, K dropped in some hobby place filled with gumball-like vending machines and UFO-catchers. She didn't find what she was looking for, but I asked her to drop 100 yen into a HikaGo keychain dispenser. Out came...Touya Kouyou! YEA! We didn't go to Mandarake (ah, to live in Japan and not feel obligated to drop in to every doujinshi store in search of the elusive fan book), but went back to Ikebukuro where K introduced me to KAC. Where has this store been hiding on my previous two trips? I couldn't find much to buy, but -- bless 'em -- the doujinshi are labeled. Labeled! series and pairing and love-loveness. K had left me while I was still shopping at KAC, so after dumping the goods back the hotel, I returned to Shibuya to go to Mandarake. I decided to pick up a Magazine Be x Boy that I thought had the last chapter of Love Mode in it (because I couldn't possibly wait 'til January for the tankoubon), which caused no end of trouble. I don't know how much I bought total, but I do know that I bought 18 volumes of used manga at 300 yen and the one magazine at 100 yen, because at the register, the clerk accidentally rang it up as one manga at 300 yen and one magazine at 18,100 yen. The funny thing is, I saw the wrong number pop up on the register and didn't say anything because I thought it might be the subtotal of all the manga before the doujinshi were entered. I didn't recognize the mistake until I got back to the hotel and tallied my day's expenses. Total panic. I thought I was going to have to carry the HUGE bag back to Shibuya to "prove" the error. I called the telephone number on the receipt, but the person who picked up did not speak English and I couldn't say "I was overcharged 13,000 yen" in Japanese. Head tumbling with ideas on how I would handle this, I eventually went down to the hotel's information desk and explained the problem to the woman there. It took a couple of run-throughs, but she eventually understood what had happened and called the store. Can I just say how impressed I am that Mandarake picks up its phone nearly an hour after closing? The accounting staff offered to look into the error and call back, so I was sent back to my room (with a note in hand, explaining what had happened in Japanese) where the information lady called about 30 minutes later to let me know the error had been fixed. *whew* But if I wanted a correct receipt, I would need to go back the next day and speak with Mishima-san or Ohta-san.

Monday
Guess where I went? Back at the Shibuya Mandarake, I confidently and incorrectly asked in Japanese to speak with Mishima-san. Eventually, Ohta-san (who speaks better English than I do Japanese) appeared and pure chaos resulted as she zeroed out the previous day's transaction and rang in the correct amount. Then? More shopping. Kind of an unpleasant experience, with two identically-dressed "hustler" girls aggressively claiming space in front of all the manga shelves I wanted to look at. This time, I tallied up my purchase before heading to the register and paid cash. I also grabbed another HikaGo keychain from the vending machine: Ogata-san. Regrettably, this set did not include a Sai to go with my Touya Kouyou. The evening included more searching for Book Off in Ikebukuro. Emboldened by seeing the Ikebukuro environs subway map, I thought I could get there using the directions I had printed from the Book Off web site. Wrong! That night, on TV, I caught an episode of Detective Conan.

Tuesday
I left the hotel fairly early for a trip to the Nakano Mandarake, a move which backfired on me when it turned out that the store doesn't open until noon! More proof that I can't be bothered to read the various directions that I printed out. I walked a few blocks down to the Nakano Book Off, which I had no problem finding. The web site says the store is small and they're right -- nothing of interest to me there. Back at Mandarake, the manga shopping was light. Most notably, I picked up a hard-to-find copy of Gakuran Tengoku 2 by Inuhiko Murano. Still haven't acquired volume 1. The yaoi doujinshi store promised on the third floor in this English-language map does not exist, so far as I can tell. (Of course, now that I'm home, I can check the Japanese site and see that it doesn't exist, really.) I did find a lady's doujinshi store on the second floor, but wasn't inspired by the selection. Mandarake definitely has better prices than K-Books in doujinshi, but used manga usually is the same at both stores (300 yen, with more recent releases going for 350). Mandarake does have a selection of 200-yen manga that K-Books doesn't offer, the price difference based on some combination of condition and age and popularity, I suppose. With my fairly light purchases tucked safely away in my fabulous tote, I got back on the train to Yoyogi to changed from the Chuo to Yamanote lines (because Yoyogi is sane and Shinjuku isn't), then got off at Komagome to visit Rikugi-en. Never doubt the wisdom of going to a Japanese garden in any season. It was beautiful, though my counterclockwise walk around the outside wall of the garden before I finally reached the entrance nearly exhausted me. Back to the hotel, where I caught an episode of Pokemon, then I was inspired to run back to Aqua House (which is open 'til 9pm). After making my purchase, I was turning to leave when I spotted what I thought were Haru wo Daite Ita trading cards. I splurged and bought a box (7 packs of 10 cards). When I got back to the hotel, I realized they were Biblos trading cards, featuring images by Nitta and Kazuma Kodaka and Yuki Shimizu and from the novel series Tokyo Junk and Pretty Baby. I decided to open the curtains and look out at Shinjuku while I played with my new purchases.

Wednesday
My last full day and Tokyo chooses not to rain but pour. I was late getting out of the hotel room and quite pouty, because this was supposed to be my day for going up to the 60th-floor observatory and a washed-out Tokyo is not a promising view. Looking out of the window to gauge the weather conditions, I noticed people in the damp courtyard below with cameras pointed skyward. I glanced right to see what fascinated them and was treated to the spectacle of two parasailors jumping from the top floors of the Sunshine 60. They swooped down, slid across the slippery courtyard, then packed up their chutes and ran off with the camerafolk in tow. Life can't always give you what you're hoping for, but it will usually compensate with the unexpected, as long as you're open to it. After that, I was open to a visit to Tokyu Hands, Animate, KAC, and K-Books (in that order). Later in the afternoon, I surprised myself by hopping the Yamanote to Sugamo, where I picked up the Mita line (expensive!) to Jimbocho in the pouring rain. My goal was the fourth floor of the Shosen Book Mart, which was in great disarray, but still offered the only copy of the third HaruDaki drama cd I was able to find in Tokyo. That evening, I turned melancholy and anxious, contemplating the uncertainly of my position at work, so I refrained from heading back to Aqua House to pick up another two packs of Biblos trading cards. I was fortunate enough to catch an episode of Hikaru no Go on TV...unfortunately, it was "Sayonara, Hikaru," and my superstitious mind ran rampant with the significance of that. After the anime, I ran across to the Sunshine 60 building and headed up to the observatory for half an hour. Tokyo at night is a jewel.

Thursday
I was Animate-d out by this time (although I now realize I'm missing the HaruDaki writing pad to accompany my Love Mode pad), so instead of doing the traditional manga shopping on my final day, I went to the aquarium on the top floors of the World Import Mart. It was sad in the way that most zoos are sad. Sad to think of these adorable dolphins and otters and penguins spending their lives in these tiny concrete tanks. But I could still enjoy the diver clad in a Santa-suit feeding the stingrays. Back in plenty of time to check out before 11am and catch the 11:20 "airport limousine" to Narita, where I discovered that the average price of a souvenir shot glass is 1000 yen. Wearing my fracture boot, I couldn't hope to climb the stairs to the plane, so NW had to call "the special bus" for me, and I was elevated to the opposite door.

posted at 11:57 PM

 
What do you mean, I have a papa fetish?
Of course, what Chiharu from Utsukushiki Kemonotachi. and Saeki from Waka!! have in common is their role as the older protector to the slightly spoiled son of a wealthy/powerful family. It's fun to see the many ways this motif can be played out in BL manga, though Masa will always be my favorite.

Probably a very western thought, but I notice that all these surrogate parental relationships take place in a world where the father is still there, though he is usually a distant player. So while the lover provides the support and guidance one might expect from a father-figure, he is not really there replacing the father. Tinge of incest alleviated?

posted at 11:59 PM

 
There is nothing Kou Fujisaki can do that will affect my love for Chiharu. Not transforming him from the magnificently cool and stern counterpoint to Kazuki's childish behavior into a groveling lover. Not mutating him into a jealous lover intent upon committing murder-suicide in a big angsty scene. I love this character and I'm thrilled Fujisaki developed the secondary relationship from Happy Yarou Wedding in its own book, even though that relationship did things to his character I never expected it to.

Waka!! was another big winner from the trip. There's double pleasure to be had when a book you're hoping to enjoy turns out to be every bit as good as you hoped. Not only do you get the satisfaction of a good read, you also escape disappointment...unless, like me, you choose to be disappointed that the series appears to end with just two volumes. I don't see what else Kirishima can do to advance Saeki's and Takara's relationship now that they have a mutual commitment.

Speaking of disappointment: I am still waiting for jamall to complete my order with volume 16 of G Defend. I saw it everywhere I went in Tokyo and didn't pick it up. Now I'll probably wind up ordering both 16 and 17 from Fujisan at the end of this month.

posted at 11:18 PM

 
the final tally

17	BL manga (new)
87	BL manga (used)
8	shoujo manga (new)
4	shoujo manga (used)
2	shounen manga (new)
4	artbooks (well, one's a game mook for Escape)
47	doujinshi (couldn't find Kemonomichi no Toriko OR anything by Naifu)
18	commercial doujinshi anthologies (all HikaGo)

For A-san: 9 novels and 2 manga

posted at 10:58 PM

 
When I left for Tokyo, I took the leftover currency from my previous trip -- about 950 yen in coinage, which the currency exchange booths at Narita won't accept. I have returned with 73 yen.

My checked bags weighed 50.3kg (about 111 pounds). When I rest up, I'll do a volume count and tally expenses.

I feel the urge to make a list of the woulda shoulda couldas so that I don't repeat the mistakes/experience the same regrets on my next trip, but I can already feel them evaporating. A couple of quick notes. Drink more water. Bring enough gum and mints from home for the trip out and the trip back. The window seat is great if there's no one in the middle seat, but I do feel trapped by the person on the aisle. I HATE 9-hour flights.

posted at 10:57 PM

 
Found band-aids in suitcase. Book-capacity: 90 volumes.

3 hours. How I wish I could sleep.

posted at 4:34 AM

 
Test book-capacity of suitcase, gather passport and credit cards, pack clothes. Pay rent!

Forgot to buy band-aids.

11 hours.

posted at 8:20 PM

 
Print shopping list, withdraw (a little more) cash, test book-capacity of suitcase, gather passport and credit cards, pack clothes. Finish homework!

35 hours.

posted at 8:40 PM

 
Buy watch, buy map, print shopping list, withdraw more cash, test book-capacity of suitcase, gather passport and credit cards, pack clothes. Finish homework.

64 hours.

posted at 3:16 PM

 
Buy watch, buy map, locate at least one Book-Off in Tokyo, complete and print shopping list, withdraw cash, test book-capacity of suitcase, ask A and M to confirm subway route to Mandarake, gather passport and credit cards, call Bayporter for ride, pack clothes. Do homework. (Where can I find cutter tables?)

Why does "all the time in the world" suddenly evaporate into 72 hours?

posted at 11:26 PM

 
I can't re-read volumes 13 and 14 of HikaGo because of Sai's fate in volume 15. I love the whole idea of Touya Kouyo x Sai, and the "culmination" of their relationship is attached to the most unfortunate event in the manga. Argh!
posted at 11:26 PM

 
If hell is other people, fandom is surely the eighth circle of the Inferno: panderers, flatterers, hypocrites, thieves, and sowers of discord.

Here endeth my brief foray into bitch blogging, inspired by the existence of and requests for scanlations.

posted at 2:08 AM

 
I desperately need something to distract me from the situation at work, but I don't have volume 19 of Hikaru and my October manga order is stalled at Jamall thanks to the Tosuisha titles. I'll probably be in Tokyo when it arrives, where I could have picked up the books for less. Grrrr. Okay, my favorite Stargate episode will help me calm down (thank you, SciFi channel), and then maybe I can work on my Tokyo shopping list. Or my last XML assignment. Or just sleep and forget.
posted at 7:11 PM

 
Kanade Tokiwa's Dynasty IV is a complete wash as a picture-read. After three separate attempts, I can't tell the difference between Silva and Astaroth, or begin to comprehend why they're doing what they are to Lowe and why he's putting up with it, being in line to be the Holy Roman Emperor and all. Heck, half the time I can't tell what is being done to Lowe. The artist's style combines all the worst aspects of Minami Ozaki and Shima Asahi and Bohra Naono and Sakia Higa. Hulking, misproportioned figures against a background of squiggles.

Maybe the story is fabulous. If so, it would be better presented as a novel, using the dozen or so eye-catching panels as cuts. I'll try to remember this book next time I whine that I wish some BL novel were manga, instead. Comics != comprehensible.

posted at 10:13 PM

 
Hikaru no Go vol.15. *sob*
posted at 8:14 PM

 
52
This episode contains competitive intensity bordering on sexual obsession. As always, there's Hikaru and Akira. Hikaru is thrilled that he has "at last" (it's been, what, a year?) become a pro so that he can play Akira at or near Akira's level. He's trying to express this anticipation and excitement to the other boy when Akira cuts him dead, walking right by him in the lobby at the Igo ceremonies. To my mind, this is the counterpoint to the rejection way back in the pre-double-digit episodes, when Akira stands outside the window of the Go club at Hikaru's school -- sakura blossoms floating by -- while Hikaru refuses to play against him. Of course, Akira is nowhere near as indifferent or egotistical as that gesture makes him appear to Hikaru. He's tense with anticipation, silently declaring war. Oh, and the two of them in their suits at the ceremony...yes, time is passing and soon the boys will be old enough to be taken out of the box.

Then there's Touya-papa's dignified, polite, and impassive face-off with Ogata-sensei. Ogata is sophisticated, but he's not as controlled as the great Touya, so the viewer can sense his urgency and his passion. Victory is tantalizingly close, and his opponent's quiet confidence is a red flag.

Finally, Sai wistfully questions when he will be able to play against someone of "that person's" strength again. Soon, Sai-chan. Touya wants you as badly as his son does.

posted at 7:43 PM

 
list mania
I usually look up ISBNs for my monthly orders on Book1, but using Amazon.com Japan has its advantages: the links to the recommendation lists posted by Japanese readers that are sutomatically generated along with the results of your search. For BL, the emphasis is inevitably on novels (go figure), but this time something extraordinary captured my eye: a list in English amid all the Japanese comments:

A Yaoi Mania's Reading Recommendation

posted at 2:22 PM

 
xml homework? what xml homework?
Apart from 5 hours spent with Matoh's Ra-i at the hospital while having my fractured foot treated, I used the long weekend to wallow in back issues of Gold and Reijin. I was surprised and a little disappointed to discover that I enjoyed many more of the stories in Reijin this time around (most of which are yomikiri, incidentally). The disappointment comes from having let my subscription lapse a couple of months ago, since I was interested in only one story at most when the new issues first arrived. Always Bohra Naono (but she doesn't show up in every issue), occasionally Shiuko Kano. But nothing like my experience with Gold, where I can anticipate being interested in two or three chapters per issue. Reijin's little extras are more appealing than Gold's, but "That's Tanbism" is lost on a picture-reader and the gay video review manga essays can prick my realism nerve.
posted at 11:55 PM

 
The October update to Yuki Shimizu's Biblos page says that Love Mode volume 11--due to be published in January, 2003--will be the end of the series. Nooo! That's too bad. With the B & B dating club, Shimizu had established a universe that could have supported dozens of stories. I suppose she felt that the main relationships in the series had "peaked," but I have to disagree. Sure, there wasn't much more for Reiji to be magnificent about and Kiichi's mischievous matchmaking has always been one(or two)-note, but the boys still have to become adults. I like the idea of Shimizu doing Blue Boy side stories, focusing on the club's staff and members, but offering glimpses of the main characters' development. I particularly like the idea of Naoya and Izumi being longtime friends, like their respective lovers. I want Love Mode Gaiden, darnit.

I wonder where Shimizu ends the series. The last chapter I saw in Magazine Be Boy was a flashback to Aoe's and Takamiya's youth, and their relationship with Shiki.

The one benefit to ending a series that still has energy in it--besides not having it become stale--is closure. I don't have to worry it will always remain open-ended. Every time Kodaka puts Kizuna on hiatus, I worry that she might be unable to return to it. Bronze is the prime example of this unendingness, even though I'm mostly indifferent to seeing it completed. At this point, any conclusion to Kouji and Izumi's story (other than death) would feel anticlimactic, which is an uncomfortable position for an HEA romantic.

posted at 2:09 AM

 
They slash hobbits, don't they?
Okay, I was all set to begin writing "The Axe and the Bow," my epic LOTR slash trilogy featuring the under-utilized erotic pairing of Legolas and Gimli, when I did a Google search and discovered that people *are* slashing them. And the title has already been taken by a web site. Fine. I'll just slash the third shadow wraith from the left and that silent elf from the forest of ... what was that the forest of? I'm sure if they ever met, they would be madly attracted.

There is nothing sadder than realizing you're in love with your great, hulking traveling companion only when he lies dying in your arms, confessing his love to you: "my brother. My captain. My king."

Fortunately, Frodo doesn't make the same mistake: "Sam, I'm glad you're with me."

posted at 7:00 PM

 
sexing Schama
Gladstone and Disraeli should have been secret lovers. Their conflict of personality and politics--Gladstone's morality and liberalism, Disraeli's imagination and imperialism--reads better as fuel for the love that dares not speak its name. My preference is for Disraeli x Gladstone, with the Grand Old Man of liberal politics in the role of a beleaguered oyaji and Disraeli (eternally youthful to me, though in reality older than Gladstone) vainly trying to assert control through penetration. Maybe it's because their mother figure (younger still than both men) preferred Dizzy, leaving Gladstone to mope over the sting of her rejection. However, with Disraeli's romanticism and cunning, I can also picture him as the seductive, manipulative uke running circles around his reluctant seme. Well, to be honest, I don't picture Disraeli. I picture Shimizu's Kiichi-sensei as Disraeli. Seme!Disraeli would be something by Fuhri Misasagi, I think. Or Nitta (sans reversibility). Gladstone, top or bottom, would be a Bohra Naono oyaji, all good intentions.
posted at 2:28 AM

 
Naruto
4 episodes into the anime: I don't think I would have pondered the yaoi-ness of Naruto without already knowing there was a HUGE yaoi fandom in Japan for it. This 12-year-old ninja apprentice has all the right emotional catalysts, but he's...repulsive. Except when he's adorable. Or in profile.

Reading what slash-kun writes on the mailing list, it sounds as if Japan is developing two yaoi paths: adult pairings for the mature yaoi readers and kids for...well, everybody else. (*fretful* It suggests the slippery slope of slash politics to me. I prefer to let my emotional response to the characters determine pairings. Or else pair two really sexy guys, which frankly doesn't seem to apply to anyone in Naruto yet.) So the pairing of Iruka-sensei and Kakashi-sensei is popular with the dj-ka? Right now, I'm drawn to something intergenerational, with Iruka-sensei as Naruto's first love. (Hey, after only 4 episodes, Kakashi doesn't have an emotional life for me.) In his relationship with Iruka, Naruto melds Naoya's emotional triggers with Kai's attitude. Iruka-sensei is, so far, a good man. A kind man. A selfless man. An insightful man. And a capable ninja. What's not to love? Alternately, I can see the producers have laid the path for Naruto x Sasuke (or vice-versa) with the "first kiss" scene, reminiscent of Hana yori Dango, of all things.

What does impress me is that this series was a huge yaoi-magnet in Japan and a mild yaoi-magnet in the west even before it was animated.

gentle grump
Where has all the good yaoi talk gone? (For the purposes of this discussion, we'll define "good" as "stuff I'm interested in.") Blogs? Series-specific mailing lists? AMLA never really talked about characters or stories in-depth, but does no-one even think in broader trends--other than smut, smut, muscles and smut--anymore?

posted at 11:58 AM

 
HikaGo again
Akira believes he will only be complete if he faces and defeats Hikaru. Of course, what he doesn't realize is that the force he's contending against is really Sai. Hikaru, swept up by the Touya passion, decides that he won't play Akira again until he is able to compete on his own. Meanwhile, Sai desires Touya-papa...well, to play against him, at least. It's classic Japanese love geometry, all the more erotic for supposedly not being about romance at all.

I think I see the appeal of shounen manga/anime for the yaoista. The emotions are all there, incorrectly channeled. Just kiss already, guys!

posted at 11:30 PM

 
exercise in picture-reading
The Fumi Yoshinaga story in Gold 12/02, "Watashi no Eien no Koibito," goes from funny to sexy to tragic (gruesome) to romantic to poignant in 50 pages. It would make a great OVA, but that may just be me wanting more of this story. Since any kind of a follow-up would just steal its impact, I need to see the exact same thing in a different medium.

The story also illustrates the hazards of picture-reading. I was three-quarters through before I realized that the characters other than Lawford weren't part of a computer simulation. I swiftly readjusted my understanding of the "androids" (I am very confused by Yoshinaga's use of "clone" as well, since these are two separate beings to me, one AI and the other entirely human), but the story left me wondering just who the uke was in relationship to Lawford. Was he an iteration of Lawford's (presumably dead) brother, or is the "aniki" just part of Arthur's programming? I need to know more about the puppetmaster. Nevertheless, the end left me with emotions bleeding everywhere: admiration for Miss Hamilton's selflessness (machine or not); pity for Arthur's realization that he, too, was an android (and sorrow that this meant the end of him), and my familiar romantic sympathy for Lawford, the creator, who destroys what he loves only to build it again. I hope.

Unfortunately, I was thwarted by the uke's name. A-sa-/Aasaa/Arsar/ARTHUR! I can blame the evil s-for-th ("chi" for "ti" in katakana'd "romantic" does it to me as well), but I get "birthday" (baasudei) and "sank you." I would rather blame the name "Arthur," which I find singularly unattractive. Sexier pronounced the Japanese way, yes?

vocabulary lesson
Hikaru no Go taught me "makeru." I first heard the term "make da" from Muroi in Odoru 11, but seeing it again and again in the context of resigning a match in HikaGo has cemented it as part of my manga vocabulary. Odoru, on the other hand, gave me "fuzakeru na" in one of its slashier moments. I won't be forgetting that soon, thanks to Muroi's pouty delivery.

posted at 8:44 PM

 
Riding home on the bus today (I really must buy a watch if I'm going to continue to take public transit), I saw two young woman with large Kinokuniya shopping bags reading manga: Sotsugyou M and Satosumi Takaguchi's Utsukushii Otoko. I have to check out where that bus line goes to figure out if that's the best way to get to SF Kino. No more BART to Civic Center followed by a trek up Van Ness? That may be a necessity if my foot doesn't improve.

Be Boy Gold 12/2002 arrived today, and--yea me!--I was right about Tachibana-kun having a crush on his family's Masa. Kodaka's twist on the story was to have the boy believe that Nakatani was in love with Itsuki's sister, Ruriko. Ah, jealousy. Itsuki can't quite believe that Nakatani loves him: "but, Nakatani, you're not gay!" "That's true," Nakatani muses, "I'm not attracted to other men. But [something about Itsuki's pheremones?]" My favorite yaoi stuff, the character who isn't gay but just loves this one particular guy. It did seem a little odd/cutesy/improbable to see Masa giving "bon love" support to his counterpart, if only because his relationship with Kai is still a closely-guarded secret from the Sagano crew.

posted at 7:32 PM

 
I injured my foot and took Rinta Hashiba's Mind Distance to the Emergency Room with me. (Self-conscious? Not until I was seated in the crowded minor injuries clinic and reached the rape scene. Thank God for Japanese bookstores' generosity with paper book covers.) None of the hospital personnel I encountered acted like Matsuyama or Yana...shoot. I forgot his full name. I blame the cute side-story manga at the end, where his character is "Yanakitsune." Sexy, sexy fox man. Actually, cute chibi fox becomes sexy, sexy fox. It made a charming appendix to this story, but I would love to see an original foxy tale from Hashiba. I am continually astonished at the freedom and desire manga-ka have to "doujinshi" their own characters and stories. HikaGo does the same, putting the middle-schoolers into a 16th-century Japanese setting in one of the volumes.

Speaking of chibi, J-with-two-Ns came for a visit last weekend. One of the benefits of hearing her use fannish Japanese is the reminder that the "i" is a long ee sound.

posted at 6:26 PM

 
I get a rush from the original Hikaru no Go opening credits, when we're given a tight close-up on Touya-papa's very stern face, then a dissolve to the equally intense but much younger Akira. Yes, that's what he's going to grow into. Lucky boy. Luckier Hikaru.
posted at 12:46 PM

 
Two jamall cancellations:
    Shiawase no Category by NISHIMURA Syuko
    Waka! by KIRISHIMA Tamaki
Both Core Magazine titles, both apparently readily available through bk1.

I must have been going through a fallow yaoi period in August when Biblos first announced the drama cd for Yubisaki no Koi. This could be a spur to greater popularity for Bohra Naono, or it may be a reflection of her current popularity ("this is the longest continuous story she's ever written; let's capture it while we have the chance"). I have no plans to buy it, though I am looking forward to the third Love Mode cd and I'm contemplating ordering the Ai no Kusabi DVD from AmoTokyo. By making a special arrangement with a distributor, June/Magazine Magazine recognizes the popularity of yaoi abroad (yes!), even if they can't handle it.

posted at 11:47 AM

 
My favorite yaoi video is Fujimi Symphony Orchestra. Grown-ups, not schoolboys (bye, Lesson XX and Fish in the Trap). I like the characters (bye, Zetsuai and Bronze). Nobody dies, loses their limbs, or gets castrated (bye, Ai no Kusabi). More romance than sex (bye, Level C). But there is sex (bye, Fake and Kusatta Kyoushi no Houteshiki). And there's no corn (bye, Boku no Sekuhara).
posted at 2:24 PM

 
Kaga's appeal for Kodaka? He's a farcical middle school Sougetsu. How could she resist?

I can feel doujinshi's influence on my interpretation of the source text with the tug on my heart when Tsutsui wins his first match in the 3-on-3 tournament. He turns to Kaga to share his astonishment and joy, only to find Kaga totally engrossed in Hikaru's game. Tsutsui's accomplishment is lost in the drama. He earned that moment of validation. Since he and Kaga are now lovers in my universe (thank you kindly, Kodaka), the slight reads more like a betrayal. It hurts even more that Tsutsui accepts it without thought.

posted at 7:07 PM

 
In episode 9 of the Hikaru no Go anime (volume 3 of the manga), Akira is bullied by his senpai in the Go club at school. The only reason he joined was to be able to play against Hikaru in a forthcoming tournament (this is lurve), and the older students resent his genuine talent as well as his integrity (or lack of good manners, depending on one's viewpoint). It's bad form to beat your senpai, even if you are better than they are.

Anyway, one of the bitter boys corners Akira in the club library or storeroom or someplace half-book/half-mess and forces him to play "blind" (with his back to the board). When Akira actually defeats him, two more bullies break in to find their classmate chastened, head hanging despondently over the board. These two then force Akira to play them both simultaneously...still with his back to the game.

The whole thing reads as incredibly sexual to me. I've seen ijime in shoujo anime and manga -- Hana yori Dango springs to mind -- so it's not as if the activity is somehow coded "yaoi" for me, but... Damn. Is it hot in there or is it just me? Threats, dominance, defiance, Akira's trembling with frustration and humiliation and anger...

Speaking of ijime, I'm sure there are many yaoi titles that incorporate bullying as part of the road to rape and true love, but only one stands out in my mind: "Koufuku no Dorei" in Kimi no Kuchibiru Boku no Toiki by Sohta Kazamatsuri. This one's memorable for the seme being bullied by the uke, over some unrequited love thing from grade school, if I'm reading this correctly. The uke's dominance masks his need, the seme endures and then triumphs over humiliation by first resenting and then forgiving his tormentor. A good mind screw can be so much hotter than the flesh. (Argh! to the penis-spotters cluttering the mailing list right now. Here a penis, there a penis, everywhere a freakin' penis, Old MacDonald had some yaoi, e-i-e-i-aaaaahhhhhhh)

posted at 9:48 PM

 
rescued read
I wonder how I managed to ignore Shin Mizukami's Zenmon no Tora - Koumon no Ookami so completely since receiving it in March. This manga is fabulous! Jotetsu is a military commander in ancient China (how ancient is ancient?) sent by a corrupt politician to roust some mountain bandits. The politician thinks Jotetsu will be defeated and his son will then be able to assume Jotetsu's command. Instead, Jotetsu is "defeated" by falling for the supple, sassy bandit leader, Roh. This is a Magnificent Uke story: Roh, seeking revenge for the military raid that killed his parents and drove Roh and his childhood playmate Rekko into the mountains years before, plots to kill Jotetsu by seducing him and stabbing him in bed. Of course, he can't go through with it. Instead, he punishes Jotetsu by giving his finger a nasty nip. In the second story, Jotetsu takes Roh and the gang back to the city, where Roh and Rekko capture the fancy of all the women and many of the men...including Jotetsu's rival, Karyuu. This secondary relationship is taunting me, since its status seems to remain ambiguous at the story's end. Rekko is clearly attracted and Karyuu is still interested, but I'm not sure Rekko would be willing to tolerate (or, dare I suggest, admit he likes) Karyuu's abusive approach. I want Karyuu to be a magnificent bastard with a heart of gold, but I think he's probably just a really buff businessman with a bondage fetish. Roh appears a little jealous of Jo's concern for Rekko, which is a nice bonus. All this action and intrigue is accompanied by hilarious moments, including the chaos the bandits create at every turn. This book is a great recommendation for those who complain about wet-kleenex or passive uke.

Roh and Rekko's "beauty" is one of those conditions more evident from the responses of others (and the dialogue, including mistaking Roh for a woman at their first encounter) than it is from the character designs themselves. The mountain bandits are certainly scrawnier than the bandit-hunters, but they look just as deadly.

It's fairly obvious that Jotetsu is the "Tiger" of the front gate and Roh is the "Wolf" at the rear gate, but it makes me wonder if those gates aren't seme/uke sexual innuendos. Too much of a stretch?

I don't know that I'll be getting Mizukami's previous tankoubon, Otoutoutachi no Tsuiseki Jijou...the uke looks a little too young to be interesting.

posted at 1:15 PM

 
The October order, placed at jamall instead of fujisan. It's large enough to indicate the death knell to Tokyo in November. I'm beginning to think that anything short of a vision of Tokyo Tower grabbing the Rainbow Bridge by the hand and skipping into Mandarake to buy Odoru doujinshi is going to be the death knell to the trip. (You know, there's a point at which indecision makes the decision for you.)

1. Makete tamaru ka! shirobara no kisu by KIZUKI Jin
   the novel. What was I thinking?
2. G Defend 16 by MORIMOTO Shuw
3. Kiss yori Toiki yori 2 by KAGUYAMA Kazuho
4. Shiawase no Category by NISHIMURA Syuko
5. Trouble Maker by AGAWA Kouko
6. Waka! by KIRISHIMA Tamaki
7. Senshi wa Izuko de Nemurunoka by SAKURA Rie
8. Seiyaku by NOMURA Keiichi
9. Himitsu na Body 21 vol.2 by CHI-RAN
10. Love Hustler 2 by HIIRO Reiichi
11. Seifukusha by KABUTOMARU Chouko
12. Arabian de Naito!? by NANASE Kai
13. Makka ni Nagareru Bokura no Chishio by TORAMARU
14. Holy Blood 3 by ISHIDA Ikue
15. Tantei Aoneko 2 by MOTONI Modoru
16. Koi mo 2 dome daze HORII Jingorou
17. Tarantula by MINAMI Megumu
18. Okini Mesumama by AJIMINE Sakufu
19. Sora ni taiyou ga aru kagiri by AIHARA Miki
20. Hot Gimmick 1-3 by AIHARA Miki
    I've fallen behind in my shoujo shopping since I've been carless.

posted at 5:45 PM

 
The Autumn issue of Shousetsu Beast includes a "Harry Potter Love Essay" by AJIMINE Sakufu. Judging from the cover of the title she published with Biblos last year, she would be a student fan rather than a Sirius/Lupin or James Potter/Snapes fan, but I still wish I could see what she has to say about the Harry Potter phenomenon from a Japanese perspective.
posted at 11:11 PM

 
The unfillable hole meets the recognized error
Watching Hikaru no Go the way I watch all television -- while writing at my computer -- I missed the crucial moment between Hikaru's sitting down to play against Touya-oyaji and his running away from the table and out of the building. I filled in the scene with the assumption that Fujiwara no Sai had freaked out. He always had electric reactions when he saw Touya. Maybe something had bubbled over. "A? Why did Sai freak out?" A: "I don't remember the scene, and my manga is at home."

Then I picked up the first eight volumes of the manga (if there's ever any question about fanworks generating income for the series' creator...) and find that encounter in volume 1. Hikaru picks up the stone between index and forefinger (previously, he had been using index and thumb) and sets it down on the board with great confidence. A panicked expression crosses his face and he leaps up from the table and runs out of the room to a nearby park, where he rants at Sai. Aha! "A, I misinterpreted the scene before. It was Hikaru who freaked out because Sai used his body." A: "Actually, *Hikaru* misinterpreted that. Hikaru *thought* Sai had taken over his body to play. What had really happened was Hikaru's hidden talent just popped out."

*cough* Sure, I would have seen that. If I had read the wavy ghost dialogue: "Hikaru, chigaimasu!" Maybe. Picture-reading requires checks and balances.

posted at 11:38 PM

 
I was tempted by the seventeen volumes of Saiyuki anime for $80. Really tempted. All fifty episodes! No rent-and-return! In the end, I didn't pass because of the price or because it was unsubbed, but because I don't have room for seventeen clamshell-cased VHS tapes on my shelves. My inner four-year-old (who spends most of her time out, anyway) still gets to whine, 'cause she wanted it and couldn't have it. Not fair!
posted at 11:46 PM

 
Hikaru no Go
I rented the first four volumes of Hikaru no Go from my (not particularly) local Japanese video store, and I now totally understand Kodaka's unfortunate obsession with Kaga. He's a real middle-school hottie. Pity Kodaka writes him in a way I find utterly repulsive. I understand the urge to transform Mitani into a seductive, manipulative uke, but Tsutsui is presented a bit younger in the anime than I expected (yes, they're all the same age, but I had given him some of Kogure's maturity when he's really just a very earnest child).

Because Hikaru and Akira are not growing up fast enough to satisfy me (just kiss already!), I've decided to fixate on Akira's dad x Sai. (Who would let a little thing like a lack of corporeality stand in the way of True Love?) Watching the anime has settled one question: Akira will be the seme. Yowza.

Tennis no Oujisama
Oh. My. God. Could Prince of Tennis be any more blatant with the yaoi? After my Hikaru no Go marathon, I could barely force my eyes to stay on the tv monitor for a second anime, and the first couple of episodes didn't make a big impression on me. Then they brought out the Seigaku tennis club and I started to pay attention (because I am a complete Kodaka whore, and if she says the boys are yaoi-worthy, I'm going to watch). In the last episode on volume 1, the intimidating (high school?) team member Kaidoh plays against the titular "Prince of Tennis," middle-schooler Ryoma. When Kaidoh flubs a shot, his eyes go all reptilian at the prospect of actually losing a game to this upstart kid. Cut to the Echizen household, where the king of tennis is reading a rather wholesome girly magazine while teasing the family kitty...with a toy snake (one of those wooden, hinged deals). Cut to a closeup of Ryoma-kun's face with its enormous kittenish eyes and *zing* went the yaoi in my heart. What do I want to see more, Kaidoh x Ryoma or Ryoma being handed his ego on platter?

Incidentally, Tezuka has a frightfully deep voice to be ukefied by Kodaka. Then again, I get all swoony over Momoshiro, whom she hasn't touched at all, so...

Finder no Hyouteki
So far, Finder no Hyouteki has been the big yaoi winner from the September manga order. (The unfortunate Japlish translation on the front cover is "You're My Love Prize in Viewfinder.") I had been trying to order a copy since the book was published in March, and it always came back as out of stock. Now the title is in its FOURTH printing in just six months. Way to go, Ayano Yamane. Yamane's art and character distribution remind me a bit of Shiuko Kano. A mix of the young and cute or young and impetuous or young and athletic with thirty-something sophisticates and outright oyaji. Of course, this means that I am sometimes more interested in the secondary characters than the protagonists, but *shrug* that's nothing new.

The title refers to three episodic stories about a young freelance photographer and an older yakuza-type businessman who decides to teach him a lesson for snooping. The second of these tales gets extra points for not killing off the gorgeous Chinese gangster. (I'll have to keep this volume in mind when I'm looking for a manga to illustrate the "rape as handshake" yaoi mentality.) The title stories vie for the position of my favorite with "Koi suru Shokubutsu," a short story about two high school students who suspect their fathers are having a homosexual affair. The boys are good looking, but I want more with the dads, darnit!

posted at 3:56 PM

 
Both my September Fujisan order and my Kodaka doujinshi order arrived today. It's going to take something extraordinary to drag me out of the house this weekend.

All the Kodaka dj include a note requesting that the books not be re-sold in net auctions. This isn't a problem for me, since they'll be peeled out of my cold, dead hands in 40 years, but I do wonder about the reason for the warning. Is the artist offended by inflated prices? Afraid of auctions undercutting her own fixed own price? It's worth noting that the the message is in Japanese, unlike the notes in English on Japanese web pages warning ignorant gaijin not to steal the graphics. Since the Japanese enjoy the illusion that only Japanese read Japanese, I assume that this note is directed at the native audience. Hooray!

Hana to Ryuu 12 begins where the last volume left off, at the Sagano household in Osaka. Kai is torturing Masa by expressing a preference for Ryuji. I didn't think about it in volume 11, since I was so excited about seeing young Masa and younger Kai, but this affection must remind Ryuji of his relationship with his stepbrother in those halcyon days. I'll have to pull out all the dictionaries and A-sensei (for help with the Kansai-ben) to translate the conversation between Masa and Araki-san. The book ends with Araki-san telephoning Hibiki, who is casually raping Iba. This series is all about family ties, of course.

I find nothing redeemable in the Kaga or Mitani characters in Kodaka's Hikaru no Go books. Tsutsui's sincerity would own my heart if he were prettier, but I really really want Kodaka to do Hikaru and Akira. Which one is her seme type? Would it be a rambunctious, Enjouji-like (in attitude, not appearance) Hikaru topping the intense Akira? I love an intense uke. Or would it be the more tightly-wound Akira topping a cute, protesting Hikaru? Will these two just grow up already?!!

What I like about her Prince of Tennis doujinshi are the inter-couple interactions between Kodaka's favored pairings. Fuji (spooky face, except when he's kissing Tezuka, my favorite) offers romantic advice to Kikumaru. The steadier Tezuka and Oishi study together and live in exasperation and fear of the trouble the other pair will bring them. Kikumaru is too too cute for me. I think I would rather see Oishi x Tezuka, but *shrug* there ya go. What do you do with two characters who are too withdrawn to pair up with anyone on their own? I'll check out the anime some day, just to see how Kodaka's version maps to the original characters.

The September manga order included

1. Aniki Joutou by Shiuko Kano
2. Finder no Hyouteki by Ayano Yamane
3. Happy Honey Life by Jun Kajimoto
4. Kedamono no Onedan by Hitotsubu Izumi
5. Kizetsu Restore by Yoichiro Kohga
6. Kohri no Mamono no Monogatari 22 by Shiho Sugiura
7. Tokyo Yabanjin by Sonoko Sakuragawa
8. Yuri to Yura by Shushushu Sakurai

...and a couple of volumes of shoujo manga. So far, I've only had a chance to skim Kohri 22. Sugiura has forgotten the importance of snuggles and smoochies. Well, okay, there's a cute Wild and Rapunzel moment, but I don't need Ishuca to demonstrate his strength by NOT flinging himself into dark-haired Blood's arms at the first opportunity. Least he could have done was ask to braid that long hair.

Now, before I place the October order, I have to decide whether or not I'm headed to Japan for Thanksgiving. Indecision is my least attractive attribute.

posted at 7:27 PM

 
decisions, decisions
Reasons NOT to go to Tokyo in November:

1. The money should go toward a new car. Or a new computer.
2. School.
3. Work.
4. Break Dad's heart, why don't I?
5. Alone and unjapanesed?

Reasons to go to Tokyo in November:

1. Odoru doujinshi!
2. It's calendar season.
3. Drama cds! Video games!
4. Low airfare.
5. c'mon! It's Tokyo!

posted at 5:37 PM

 
rescued reads
Instead of working on my XML assignment, I spent the day giving second chances to some books that hadn't made an impact on me when they first arrived. Picture-reading begins with a book (or magazine chapter) making enough of an impression to motivate the illiterate reader to stick with it. What makes that impression varies by reader, I suppose. Pretty character designs, graphic sex scenes, the fact that she just spent $x.xx on this book, so she's going to figure it out, darnit. For me, it's story. It doesn't have to be the story -- the story I would get if I were translating -- just a story. What makes A x B in this book different from M x N from that book? I usually skim a new book until the pictures begin to assemble themselves into characterization and plot.

• Over Reach Boy by Ai Hasukawa
  Six stories, five couples, little or no impression beyond the sweetness of the first pairing's (Kaoru and Sin) meeting when Kaoru was a street jewelry vendor and Sin was just a boy. Their character designs carry over to the book's third chapter, which is unfortunate, since that story is about a new couple, Tetsuya and Reiji. I was momentarily intrigued by the idea that Kaoru might have walked into a club to see the devoted Sin making out with a girl, but no such luck. That scene remains a bit interesting, though, since Reiji is so pretty that Tetsuya originally thinks he's seeing a lesbian couple.
• Kiss no Mukou by Aoi Kujyo
  If nothing else, my complete indifference to this book is proof that sex scenes aren't enough to grab a picture-reader's interest. Not that this book is a graphic sex-fest, by any stretch of the imagination, but it moves beyond Over Reach Boy's chaste smooching to discreet bed scenes in four of its six stories. I think the turnoff here is the shoujoesque art style. I was only able to stay with the art through the first three chapters, in which love changes the friendship shared by three adolescent boys: Shirou loves Kirio who loves Eita who loves a girl. It's a sweet story, spoiled in part by Eita's inexplicable appeal for Kirio, but rescued by the fast forward into Shirou and Kirio's future.
• Daddy! Arisawa Family by Sakuya Kurekoshi
  Family comedy about a too-young, too-cool father whose teenaged son is in love with a male classmate. The secondary characters in this story are a lot of fun. I had just enough of the middle-aged delinquents who haven't changed since their wild younger days with the senior Arisawa (Riku), but I would have loved to see more of Naoya's three older brothers. Unfortunately, the picture-reading fell apart after Takashina's apartment burned down and he moved in with Riku and Tomoki. Too hard to tell teh difference between the three dark-haired men, even if two were substantially older than the third.
• Sonna no Ai ja nai by Kazuna Uchida
  This weekend's big winner. The first time I picked this book up, I must not have been in the mood for high school delinquents or Uchida's character designs or I may have been put off by the vague hint of slashy realism implied by the title ("they're not in love, they're just fuckbuddies"). Now, I like the reverse ijime, Hano's switch from the bottom in Atsushi's photos to the seme in his encounters with Atsushi, and the bawdy, vulgar humor of the two episodes in this volume. I'm more ambivalent about the third, unrelated, story entitled "Garnet," in which the spoiled but sexually abused scion of a wealthy family repeatedly lives out the paradigm of his father's murder until...spoiler, spoiler, spoiler. I don't have much patience with tragic hysteria, and the devoted family retainer boasts my least favorite Uchida character design, but the hired assassin has some appeal. Still, the tragic tales go down better with translation.

posted at 1:14 AM

 
visual bias (aka "I can't make my eyes stick to the page long enough to read their stories")

MONCHI Kaori: a member of the rat-faced adolescent boy school of character design. A half-circle for the top of the head, fused with an inverted triangle for the jaw. Add saucer eyes for the uke or sloe-eyed slits for the seme, and voila. If you like this kind of thing, Monchi would be heaven. If you don't... I hate it, but I'm always fighting against the urge to purchase Kokuhaku no Kotoba no Nai Kuni because the cover hides these traits.

KAYAMA Yumi: her adult males look like her adolescent males to me. I met her adolescents first, so even though I want to enjoy recent volumes with adult characters, I see teenagers playing dress-up.

FUKIYAMA Rico: her males of any age -- does she do adult males? -- look like sugar cookies.

Don't judge a book by its cover
Nice! Drap Comics offers both cover and interior scans of all the tankoubon they've published so far.

notes from left field
Just when I thought shota was fading away, Shobunkan starts a new anthology series entitled "Shota-Comi."

posted at 1:00 PM

 
ah, serendipity
What was it...a week ago somebody on AMLA said she was interested in "manly" character designs because otherwise she would be reading m/f stuff? Another listmember recommended Shushushu Sakurai. Today, I picked Sakurai's Otoko no Aishikata off my TBR pile and found -- after 4 or 5 yaoi stories of varying quality -- an m/f story the author originally published ca. 1997. A m/f story packaged in a tankoubon published under a BL imprint (Pixy Comics Aqua). Yet another sign that western prejudices have no place in this genre.

ah, newbies
Spoken with some degree of affection, I promise. Personally, I think when someone delightedly points out the "great discovery" of a new resource for ordering manga that turns out to be an old resource, it indicates a lack of centralized information in the fandom. Of course, the "great discovery" is linked from the great clearinghouse of anime and manga fandom, the Anipike, so I guess some people think the rest of us need to be hit over the heads with bricks. Oh, never mind. That wasn't going anywhere particularly affectionate at all.

What's great about Jpqueen for the Japanese-illiterate fan?

the instructions are in English

each listing includes a cover image...and an ISBN, if the book is a commercial release (order new! order new!)

hyperlink madness! No need to perform bothersome searches - hyperlinks by title and author and genre

What's not-so-great about Jpqueen for any fan?

random prices, some fairly high for used books. If you're going to pay $5.90 to jpqueen for a used copy of Tantei Aoneko 2, why not pay $6.33 to jamall for a brand-new copy? (Of course, I also feel that way about ordering manga from Aestheticism's Cybershoppe. Put in a little extra effort, people, and order new!)

awkward navigation (try getting from the shopping cart to where you were when you placed your order...better use your back button and not theirs) and bad site design in general (it's just not pretty or elegant).

posted at 5:37 PM

 
Coming up with a monthly manga order involves opening multiple browser windows, copying and pasting, and transliterating. The whole process would be so much easier if I just placed my orders through amazon.co.jp or bk1.co.jp. I could pretend I don't because neither carries Tousuisha titles, and this month I have to order G Defend 16, but the truth is that I think a Japanese business is justified in assuming it can and will conduct its customer service in Japanese, unless the site specifically states otherwise. If a problem came up, how would I handle it?

6 handy windows to have open during the whole process:

1. Comic Shinkan Lineup
   to identify the monthly new releases
2. bk1
   to look up ISBN numbers
3. Jeffrey's Japanese-English Dictionary Server
   to transliterate titles and artists' names
4. Slash-kun's Japanese yaoi publications news/information
   to see a list of monthly yaoi releases, already transliterated. Then why do I bother with #1 and #3 above?
   • because I'm also interested in monthly shoujo releases
   • because I need the ISBNs, and it's easier to copy and paste the kanji into bk1's search field.
   • because I often recognize favorite titles/artists better in kanji than in romaji
   • because slash-kun has occasionally transliterated a title or name inaccurately (HUGE ego-boost for me, incidentally)
5. Manga Bonbons
   to see the covers of the artists' earlier tankoubon (the Japanese online bookstores tend to be weak on providing cover images for books published more than a year or two ago)
6. Fujisan
   to place the order

Of course, Comic Shinkan Lineup doesn't list Tousuisha titles, either. (I could use the monthly lineup from animate news, but I prefer to skim down a page of titles and authors.) So the last step is always Tousuisha's web site to see if there's a Sugiura or Morimoto title being released that month. If there is, then it's off to Jamall to grab the ISBN.
posted at 3:07 PM

 
Waiting for Kodaka...
My supplier notified me two days ago that my K2 Company doujinshi order had been "duly shipped" on October 7 (gotta love the international date line). I'm impressed, since I submitted the order on September 27. I'm also impatient, since I actually dropped by my private mail box this afternoon to see if it had arrived. Unfortunately, I opted for SAL shipping, which does not come with a handy-dandy tracking number.

To distract myself, I should probably compose my October manga (+novel) order, but Fujisan hasn't mailed my September books yet. (I can't believe it's a shoujo manga slowing everything down.) Besides, the longer I wait, the more ISBNs I'll be able to find at bk1.

This is frustrating
Naruto is now animated, so I go to check out the web site in anticipation of the series suddenly catching fire with western yaoistas the way the manga has with the Japanese. (What builds a fandom in the west? Animation, translations, fanfic.) At this moment, there is one Naruto page listed on the Anipike. Let's check back in 12 months.

Anyway, for a couple of years now, I have assumed that I knew what Naruto was. Or, to put this in the correct sequence: a couple of years ago, I saw a collection of doujinshi by different artists featuring these average-looking guys in basic black and facekerchiefs. I somehow got the idea that these were Naruto dj and understood instantly why this series would not get much hype among western fans. Now I visit the Naruto web site and see the characters are the generic spikey-haired proto-anime types. So who were those masked men?

posted at 6:55 PM

 
I regret not starting a reading journal 5+ years ago when I bought my first manga. Yes, the blog medium makes this easier, but would it have killed me to keep it in Word on my computer? My first manga purchase: random volumes of Zetsuai/Bronze (Bronze 5, if I remember correctly, the one where Hirose kidnaps and "defiles" Izumi) and random volumes of Hana Yori Dango. My first manga discovery (i.e. a purchase based on no previous knowledge of the story or art): Kanata Kara. My first BL manga (and anime, come to think of it): Kizuna.

One thing I've lost is the opportunity to capture my past errors as a picture-reader. Most mistakes have been overwritten in my memory with the revised reading. I can remember one of my earliest errors: Zetsuai 1989 3 concludes with a short story competely unrelated to the Zetsuai plot. At a time before I knew how to identify names, I tried to fit this piece into the Zetsuai narrative. And my most recent misreading: the character of "Billy" introduced in G Defend 11. Until I saw the b&w "cast" picture at the back of volume 14, where Billy is wearing quite the sexy evening gown, I had no idea "he" was a "she." Billy was built on an elegant biseinen model, not at all like Iwase's cute little sister, but Morimoto doesn't leave her gender ambiguous to the Japanese reader: when her character is revealed to the members of the garrison, a big deal is made of the fact that this woman might be mistaken for a man. The clue for me, had I been reading the text even at my level of Japanese, would have been the use of the word "kanojo" in reference to Billy. But I was skimming the pictures, not particularly interested in Billy's backstory.

In the back of my head is the idea that keeping a reading journal would also have mapped any trends in my BL preferences over the past 5 years. Although my tastes have always been pretty eclectic. I didn't go through a "willowy, silver-haired angst" period before passing on to "dark-haired, muscular eroticism." I'm not a collector, I'm an accumulator.

posted at 1:34 AM

 
One (or Two) Hit Wonders
These artists made me a fan with a book or two, and I'm still waiting for them to take me back there.

• ASAGIRI Yuu, Knock Three Times and Second Love
  Knock Three Times was the first manga I felt absolutely confident summarizing completely on my own, because the sex is the story. It's a fun story, over-the-top and populated by characters I would find repellant in reality but somehow manage to be appealing on the page. I've never been fond of Asagiri's kittenish ukes, but I love her uber-semes.
• HIGASHIZATO Kirico, Shatei Hani
  A little different than the others on the list, in that Higashizato had a substantial body of work that I was mostly ignoring until Shatei Hani came along. It's kind of a yaoi screwball comedy...at least, that's what I tell myself. Otherwise, because of the high school setting, I might have to think it was a yaoi Porky's or American Pie. Eeeew. Anyway, it's the protagonists who won me over. Plot? What plot?
• KUROKAWA Azusa, Kaeranai Natsu
  I blame myself. I want more funny, sexy, romantic stories from Kurokawa, but she wants to focus on real relationships. I think I need the humorous and improbable elements to counter Kurokawa's shounenesque character designs. I can only handle X amount of reality.
• MINAMI Megumu, Hanaotoshi
  The penalty for producing something truly extraordinary is that nothing of lesser quality will satisfy, though Minami's White Rose was a close runner-up. While her character designs have never lost their visual appeal for me, their unrelenting similarity leeches the newness from her later publications. And, frankly, her storytelling seems to have degenerated into a kind of incoherent eroticism.
• SHIMA Asahi, Body Kiss Love
  Her stick-thin, over-emotional, under-intellectual ukes really grate on me in later publications, but the scenarios in this volume mangaed to push my buttons. Two of the stories -- "Body Kiss Love" and "Fall" -- have worthwhile sequels in Love Affair.
• YOSHIKI Aya, Gekka Bijin and Tsubaki no Rin
  I've always winced at the character designs, but the story concepts in these volumes swayed me: the classic straight-arrow student falling for the school's bad boy in Gekka Bijin and the anthropomorphic population of Tsubaki no Rin.

posted at 8:02 PM

 

• G Defend, 15-10

Too much of the day was spent looking for G Defend 14, which went AWOL just when I decided to read my way backwards through Esumi's story. Poor little mouse of a guy. Morimoto doesn't allow him a single heroic action. Doesn't he at least deserve a word of praise for trailing around in the dangerous wake of his boss, Miyazawa? Unfortunately, I think he and Gray have reached the end of their story arc with the chapter at the end of volume 15, and all we'll see of the two of them from now on (when Gray's not doing his job getting shot at, of course) are those cute little "couple" moments Morimoto supplies for all the paired characters in this series. Nice touches, those, but I want Esumi to push his boss out of the way of projectile weaponry just once. Esumi won his badge of honor from me when he confessed his love to Iwase, but I want the others to see he's not just an administrative cog.

Despite the lack of fireworks in this chapter, I was pleased to see Morimoto finally give the Gray x Esumi romance its own story arc. The parallels are a bit convenient: two lovers individually rejected by Iwase and Ishikawa come to love each other. It could even be argued that what makes the pair fall in love with each other is very much like what they saw in their unrequited love. Gray falls in something like love at first sight when he sees Esumi without his glasses. Without those, Esumi might be said to bear a slight physical resemblance to Ishikawa. And thsi kind of impulsive emotional behavior echoes Gray's enthusiastic pursuit of Ishikawa. Esumi falls in love with Gray for his life-saving heroics...and who doesn't love Iwase for his dramatic rescues?

I also spent some time today thinking about artists who do the "reversible" thing but don't show the couple reverse, keeping it all in the narrative. Soh Aoki does that in Fancy Love, apparently, and then there's Katou and Iwaki's honeymoon night in Haru wo Daiteita 6. Is the second inning omitted to avoid jarring the sensibilities of fans who are more comfortable with seme x uke distinctions? Is it handled this way because a sex scene carries one emotional message in the author's mind and there's no sense playing out the same emotional dynamic a second time, with the physical positions reversed but the feelings the same?

posted at 7:05 PM

 
I'm stuck in the rut of old favorites. Series like Haru wo Daiteita, Kizuna, Kohri no Mamono no Monogatari, and Love Mode. Artists like Bohra Naono and Shiuko Kano and Reiichi Hiiro and Kou Fujisaki and Miya Ikushima. I still love them, but it has been a long time since I've discovered someone or something NEW in manga to get excited about. In fact, I think the last time was Ikushima's Hitodenashi no Koi, and that was three years ago.

Today, I was looking at the monthly new publications list on Biblos's site and thinking that it might be time for me to get seriously serious about learning Japanese, so I can shift from BL manga to novels. Okay, I just want to read this novel by Jin Kizuki. It's Ranmaru and ... some sexy Kansai guy. (This is not my Masa x Ranmaru fantasy, really! Look at that beard. Masa would be appalled.) The cover artist is Shinano Oumi, incidentally, who is a hit-or-miss artist with me. Really hit-or-miss, as in I like only 1/3 of any tankoubon she's published. The last time I was this tempted by a noberu, it was Locus of Blue. I desperately wanted that series to be mangafied, not just for Mamiya Oki's artwork, but because the covers introduced me to characters whose story I wanted to follow. This book is a little different -- I don't doubt that I would happily read it as a manga, but I would love to take a crack at the prose. Oh, what the heck. I'm ordering it.

posted at 7:06 PM

 
No new titles today. I'm still pondering Sadahiro's work. Does the increased "occidentalism" in her manga represent the start of a trend in yaoi? Manga is as imitative as it is innovative. Will there be more reversibles (Nitta Youka, Kazuna Uchida)? More of that slashy faux-grittiness and anti-romanticism? Would I recognize it if there were? Japanese culture is so foreign to me that Japanese "realism" might still read as a fantasy landscape.

Just in case...there are other sources for stylized romance. Tonight, I killed time waiting for West Wing by watching a costume drama in Chinese on KTSF. I would have watched the new Japanese drama I received on Saturday, but I was concerned I would lose track of the time. Besides, the protagonist in this Chinese thing had Hotohori-hair. How could I resist? Although I'm addicted to the Japanese dramas and love the "Bollywood" clips this station airs, I've never been inclined to pause in my channel flipping to view the Chinese-language programming. Too bad, really, since I understand that a couple of months ago they broadcast the popular Taiwanese live-action version of Hana Yori Dango, Meteor Garden. After one hour of this show, I'm filled with questions: where was it filmed? Why does it look as though every role except the monkish teachers has been re-dubbed? It's subtitled in what looks to be Mandarin, so what language are the actors (or their dub voice actors) speaking? How can I know so little about the rest of Asia?

posted at 11:55 PM

 
I've been reading lots of Sadahiro Mika today, thanks to a post on AMLA praising the mangaka's western sensibility in recent titles like Buddy System.

• Rub in Love
• Agnus Dei
• Neji no Kaiten
• Love Songs
• Buddy System

My worst genre nightmare: the westernization of BL manga. If I wanted western sensibility in my m/m fiction, I would read slash. There's a trickle-down effect here, since I tell the slashers that, if I wanted the reality of gay life in my m/m fiction, I would read gay porn. Of course, Sadahiro has been doing reversibles and western settings for a while now. The difference with Buddy System is the overt attempt at a shift to a buddy-show type relationship between the protagonists of the story. Starsky and Hutch, not The Odd Couple. I didn't recognize how essential this was to slash fandom until I remarked on how slashy Odoru Daisousasen is. A viewer with a keener eye for genre conventions responded that she would have expected the designated pairing to be partners at work, in that case. Anyway, Sadahiro is a big fan of American police dramas and detective shows: she cites Miami Vice, Nash Bridges, and Homicide in her profile. And rumor has it that she loves Oz. Her next story will even be set in a prison.

The "buddy" relationship in Buddy System might be patterned on western slash (I'm not the best judge of that), but the character designs are still 99% yaoi. The focus is clearly on making an aesthetic impression. Even a guy pretending that he's turning tricks wouldn't wear that cape. But does this really differentiate yaoi from genre fiction created in the west? Mutant X, one of last season's new syndicated under-plotted sci-fi shows, had the most disconcerting habit of ending each episode -- sometimes, it felt more like every scene -- with an elaborately established cast pose. The cast didn't act so much as vogue their way through each episode. And the ads for the latest Clive Barker film remind me that horror has always been a genre based on aesthetics more than plot.

Despite Sadahiro's preference for reversibles (which she discusses in the Free Talks in Neji no Kaiten and Buddy System) and my preference for clearly defined seme x uke roles, she still managed to enslave me with Agnus Dei. Shima Asahi has me in the same trap: I read ONE really great story by an author, and I have to buy every new publication to see if she can take me back to that place. Sadahiro hasn't done it yet, though she came close with Love Songs. Like Agnus Dei, Love Songs is a collection of high-concept hardcore short stories. The difference is that AD stroked my kinks while LS's attempts at being edgy left me feeling like I had been exposed to a freak show. To each her own, but I'm not the type who would pay $5 to watch some guy pound nails up his nose, or to watch lovers wallow in their own self-destructive desires. Well not unless it's Bronze.

posted at 7:47 PM