I don't know what to make of Kodaka's lastest manga title, Ihoujin ~Etranger~. It's different from anything she's done before, though the parts are played by mostly familiar character designs. For instance, slut!Kai is paired with young Elvis!Masa. The chapters seem disjointed, the characters oddly detached, the premise a mystery to me. I get that at least two of these characters are eternally youthful incubi, but...um...why? Uncommitted, non-monogamous demons playing house? The story might be pure genius if I could only understand why some people who have sex with pointy-haired Kai die, and some people don't.

There's such a hodge-podge of elements here -- new romance lost to the vengeance of a rejected lover, the pain and boredom of immortality, comic jealousy, goofy lecherousness, chibi cuteness and potty humor -- that the narrative never gels. At first, I thought this was because the story was divided in two sections, but the "tragical-comical-historical-pastoral" genre-mixing is found throughout.

Plot would just get in the way of the wings in Sachiyo Sawauchi's Devil x Devil. Demons and fallen angels walk among us for the express purpose of ... well ... making out with each other. You would think they would at least want to corrupt humans, but we don't have the wings. Although I had seen the first chapter serialized in Gold, I had forgotten how rough the art was. Some elements -- the lank hair? the spindly limbs? the huge shoes!-- remind me of a much less skillful Ai Yazawa (Gokinjo Monogatari). I liked the stories, but I wouldn't recommend this volume to anyone who wasn't a fan of Kou Fujisaki. Copious crabby ukes paired with smugly superior semes. (Sorry for the alliteration. Blame the BL cliche, not me.) Did I mention the wings?

Juuni Kokki 9 - I think I liked the idea of Taiki and his emperor more than the reality of Taiki and his emperor (a little arrogance goes a long way), but I'll reserve judgment until I've seen the animated version. It still disturbs me that the novels don't resolve the mystery of where Tai-ou is and the recovery of Taiki's unicorn powers. I hope the dj-ka address this.

posted at 6:45 PM

 
Tonight, I was poking into AAR's columns on romance and feminism -- it makes me sad that so many of the more interesting columns on the site are "stale," having been published 5+ years ago -- when I ran into this opinion from Catherine Asaro:

Romance acknowledges the "female gaze." We hear a lot about the male gaze in literature. An author may extol the aesthetic value of the heroine to such length that female readers are tempted to say, "all right, already. Get on with the story." Romance is the only genre I know where it is perfectly fine to extol male beauty.

Meet Boys Love, a troubled feminist genre? I include the question mark because Asaro sandwiches that comment between two other observations about the "feminism" in romance:

1. "What the heroine values is given priority."

There are no heroines in BL. Can we substitue "what the (female) reader values is given priority"?
2. "The main character of many romance novels is 'everywoman.' She may be of noble birth, or have other qualities we don't associate with our everyday lives, but she doesn't have to be a male-identifed heroine to be considered interesting or worthwhile as a character."

I don't mean to repeat myself, but there are no heroines in BL. However, Asaro continues, "In so much fiction, female characters fade into the background unless they have qualities deemed 'important,' where too often the definition of importance ignores aspects of life traditionally in the female sphere, for example, child rearing, homemaking, or simply a female outlook on the world." BL does this in spades. Relationship-building instead of world-building.

I've been discouraged from politicizing yaoi/BL, and I can't say hushing me on this subject is inappropriate. After all, I really don't know the culture that produces the genre except through manga, and I would be the first to admit that an illiterate Western reader will bring her own world to the text. For a politically-incorrect instance, look at the way some gay men (LJ rant) have tried to "own" this imported genre. Still, if yaoi is not self-consciously, militantly political in the way that slash can so often be, BL does prioritize female values and celebrate the female gaze.
posted at 4:31 AM

 
AMLA is talking about this probable bit of manga plagiarism. The "borrowing" artist has assembled a patchwork of panels from Youka Nitta's "When a Man Loves a Man" and constructed a new story from them. Some of the panels had to be modified, because she took Urushizaki (the submissive seme) for the seme, and he doesn't have the dominating sex scenes with Ryo Takaaki that the new story required. In "When a Man Loves a Man," Urushizaki is a concerned older brother who comes to a host club to demand that the #1 host Takaaki stop seeing his sister. He doesn't realize that there are two Takaaki's at the club, and he's been matched with the wrong one, who seduces Urushizaki and uncovers his need to be dominated. In contrast, "Kyouken" ("mad dog") from Zettai Reido 4 is about the spoiled late-teen son of a corporate president who provokes his "keeper" (a 20-something man in his father's employ) into taming him through sex. The son-uke is Takaaki's character design, the keeper-seme is Urushizaki's character design.

It's an interesting reinterpretation of Nitta's visuals which hints at the hazards of picture-reading. Okay, maybe not so much, since the new story could only be created from cherry-picked scenes from different chapters in the original. The original is perfectly clear. What it does demonstrate is how easily more than one interpretation, more than one text, can be applied to the same image.

posted at 5:42 AM

 
SPOILERS - Naisho de Hallelujah - SPOILERS

Nabako Kamo's Naisho de Hallelujah opens with Shuu Ohga throwing 100,000 yen at a naked young man lying in bed before storming out of a hotel. The angry man's internal narrative informs us that he's a composer and is frequently approached by aspiring idols, actresses, and reporters. Since the dark-haired man he left behind was certainly no actress and a bit old to be an idol singer, I suspect Shuu thinks his pick-up is a scandal-mongering journalist about to reveal that the number-one hitmaker sleeps with men. He muses that he's always been a romantic fool and flashes back to some hospital scene from his youth...then it's the next morning in the Ohga house and we meet the cutest 5-year-old boy, Shuu's son Botan. Botan is all big eyes and starfish hands and "anone, anone, Papa-chan."

Botan has a friend whose cat has had six kittens, and Botan thinks it would be great if Papa-chan would let him have one. This question has clearly been asked many times before, and Botan, deflated by his father's refusal, trudges sadly off to school. But he who meows last meows best: that afternoon, Botan brings a stray home. Botan is convinced that "Umechan" is a cat...even though he looks exactly like the young man his father slept with the night before. Apparently, having the sexy young man lick him on the nose and rub up against him "nyaaing" was enough to throw Shuu off his game. He allows Botan to keep the new "pet" for now, which also gives Papa-chan a willing -- albeit untrusted -- sex partner. Chara Comics are definitely getting "sexier" in terms of their content, but the heart of this story is the little boy. Although Shuu is a dedicated parent, he's too busy to recognize that his son is missing a mother's touch, which the new pet provides by picking Botan up from nursery school and nudging Shuu into going through the little courtesies of hugging the boy and welcoming him home. Umechan (whose real name we eventually discover is Shizuka) is the touching, cuddling parent Botan yearns for. At the end of the first chapter, Botan reacts with shock and horror when "Umechan" reveals that he isn't a cat. When Shuu comments that they would have preferred Shizuka as a pet, Shizuka's hackles rise and Botan points with delight, convinced that he's really a cat after all. And then there's the cute omake at the end of the volume, showing what Botan and his kitten-owning friend "Torachan" will look like in 7-8 years. They're wearing Chinese garb and Tora's clearly going to be a seme someday...lucky Botan.

For people who aren't swept away by adorable little kids and heartwarming family dynamics, the lovers spice up the mix with mistrust and angst...although it's pretty heartwarming angst. While Botan brings out all of Shizuka's nurturing tendencies, Shizuka proves to be an enigmatic and sensual uke. He and Shuu are bound together by a childhood incident in which Shuu was injured by a falling structure while pushing Shizuka to safety. Shuu still bears the scars on his torso and arms, and Shizuka still bears the guilt and fear. (I'm developing a fetish for "hatsukoi" stories -- there's one in Piyoko Chitose's S<><> Friend that rescues the volume for me.)

(Shizuka turns out to be a freelance illustrator, incidentally. One more for the kitchen sink of BL cliches in this volume. This mix still doesn't compare to Reiichi Hiiro's Passion Fruits no Kaoritsuki for its sheer outrageous mix of yakuza and host club characters meeting and mingling over children who are not their own but who transform lovers into a family.)

posted at 9:56 PM

 
BK1 ORDER #1

1. Juuni Kokki 8 by Fuyumi Ono (yippee!)
2. Kimi wa Pet by Yayoi Ogawa
3. Tsuki no Shippo by Rinko Ueda
4. Hikaru no Go 22 by Yumi Hotta
5. Virtual Lovers by Kaoruko Maya
6. Samishii yoru no himitsu by Youko Mizuno
7. Bespoke by Tsukasa Matsuzaki
8. Tantei Aoneko by Modoru Motoni
9. Tsuki no Hana by An Mihashi
10. Kamen Teacher by Atsuki Kyouyama
11. Anata no kiss mo kokoro mo zenbu by Ai Hasugawa
12. Yoru ga aketara by Kazuho Kaguyama

BK1 ORDER #2

1. Pheromone Mania Syndrome by Ichiha
2. Juuni Kokki 2 by Fuyumi Ono
3. Juuni Kokki 3 by Fuyumi Ono
4. Juuni Kokki 4 by Fuyumi Ono
5. Juuni Kokki 5 by Fuyumi Ono
6. Moonlight Sonata by Nachi Yasuhara
7. Yononaka wa bokura ni amai by Satosumi Takaguchi
8. Kimi ni CHU oshi 7 (Hikago anthology) I have a bad feeling I own this already.
9. Taboo no Ori by Harumi Benisako

posted at 3:33 PM

 
Aqua House, a "Happy Place for Ladies," is closed. If Tokyo can't sustain a BL store, can any place?
posted at 11:23 AM

 
Ordered from bk1 today:

1. Kimi no Hitomi ni Koishiteru (Hanaoto MAX 24, megane tokushuu)
2. Yogoto nayamashii niwa de by Sakuya Fujii
3. Rakuen no Izumi by Fusanosuke Inariya
4. After 5 wa Kiss no Ame 4 by Nabako Kamo
5. Yannatchaukurai aishiteru by Row Takakura
6. Powerful Gossip by Mako Toyama
7. Kimi wa "Pochi" da! by Tamaki Kirishima
8. Juuni Kokki 7 (anime ban) by Fuyumi Ohno
9. Go Bang!! 2 (doujinshi anthology)
10. Naisho de Hallelujah by Nabako Kamo
11. Underground Hotel by Mika Sadahiro

Ordered from Fujisan:

• G-Defend 18 by Shuw Morimoto

posted at 9:39 PM

 
Kodaka's website is once again open for mail-ordering, so I can get Hana to Ryu 13. I have been so good, so patient, for the past 6 weeks. I'd even held off ordering a Kengamine Bishowjobu doujinshi because I wanted to combine orders, and when I went to place my order today, I discovered that her web site had moved. Utter panic followed by Googling. Eureka!
posted at 8:54 PM

 
Irony is... There was a conversation a while back on AMLA where the woman who served as You Higuri's translator at the first Yaoi-Con mentioned that Higuri had been offended when a fan had referred to her manga as "yaoi." So I find it paradigmatic of Western fandom that this yaoi fanlisting uses a scan of Higuri's artwork as an illustration.
posted at 4:45 PM

 
There's an announcement on Biblos's page expressing concern about point-of-purchase merchandise appearing for sale in online auctions. If I'm reading this correctly, part of the concern is for the artists being deprived of income, since the POP items are designed to lure people into buying more books to get the freebies, and the auctions are a way of circumventing the royalty-bearing purchases.
posted at 8:50 PM

 
2003.7.19 Dance Again
The offical Odoru Daisousasen page has a link to information on the new movie in ENGLISH. And Chinese. But I don't read Chinese, so we're going to pause and celebrate the English, however broken it may be. I'm taking it as a sign that when the DVD is released, it will be subbed in English. (The first movie was, but I'm a nervous nelly and need all the evidence I can get.) According to the synopsis, they're really sticking to the classic Odoru formula, which makes me very happy. The shooting schedule for the film is March to May of this year, with a July release. Nothing like the shooting and post-production schedule for a Hollywood blockbuster, and Odoru is big in Asia. Really, they'll tell you so on the site. I'm impressed. I'm less impressed that they've replaced the site mascot. It used to be Pipo-kun, the real Tokyo Metro Police mascot; now it's this Wangan-kun cartoon.

I want all of these posters:

But I'll settle for Muroi. Somebody go to Japan and steal one for me. Thank you.

posted at 6:00 PM

 

Rakuen no Izumi (Fountain of Paradise)

The art style reminds me of Modoru Motoni (the sharp contrast in tones) crossed with Simone Yotsuya (the distorted angles that form the older man's face). I love it, but -- comparing it to the volume's cover -- I don't trust it. The summary promises three stories, and I wonder if the three figures in the image represent players in three separate tales. From the synopsis of the first story, I'm pretty sure the unappealing but dramatic figure on the cover image would be the soldier named Ryuuji. Maybe the pretty priest and damaged middle-aged man are together? I could enjoy that. Unfortunately, this is a Zero Comics publication, so I'm not going to enjoy it as a picture-read and my reading skills aren't even up to the challenge of the synopsis.

posted at 9:32 AM

 
misreading shounen
This is why I don't read shounen manga.

There's an arc in the DragonBall Z anime where Vegeta decides to participate in some global martial arts tournament because Goku suggests that there's going to be some amazingly strong new talent there. Vegeta enters, looks around at the competition, and can't see anyone particularly remarkable. He's constantly asking Goku who it is, while Goku waves his curiosity aside. Then Goku asks Buu to work his magic to guarantee that he gets paired with this amazing new talent. Spotting an empty bracket, he tells Buu to change his draw to 3. Again, Vegeta asks who the contender will be. *eureka* goes my internal light bulb. It's Vegeta himself, and this has been some clever ruse to get him to participate. Goku has Buu wave the next contender to 2 (against adorable Pan), and then the next person comes to draw. It's Uub...and he's the one Goku wants the match against. *dimbulb*

If I had been paying attention to the name, I would have noticed that it was "Buu" backwards, but I'm all primed for slash and oblivious to the conventions of fighting anime. Would Goku and Vegeta spar any time they wanted to? Is it inappropriate for old enemies, new allies to compete?

posted at 11:13 AM

 
So my punishment for not celebrating the appearance of Saitoh on Rurouni Kenshin is a return to the first episode? Nooooo! More Saitoh. Less "that it is."
posted at 7:18 PM

 
Saitoh's voice in the dubbed Kenshin...my ears are bleeding, my heart's breaking. I waited weeks and weeks through this pitiful dub and didn't assume that Saitoh would be handled as badly as the rest?

The little girls are growing on me, though. Must be the limited exposure.

posted at 7:21 PM

 
My April 3rd order is here! If only SAL were always this fast. Boku wa ne looks too difficult for me, but I'm looking forward to what A described as "the Touched by an Angel of slashiness. All goodness, light, and family values."
posted at 12:52 AM

 
When was the "warring states" era?
posted at 12:32 AM

 
Hey! Vash has translucent bishounen hair (when wet). And Lupinesque features when laughing.
posted at 12:31 AM

 
Picked up Bronze 12 at Kino today, along with the latest HanaDan and Mayu Shinjo (talk about rape fantasies!). The "brand new" Tomu Ohmi I picked up last week (see below) turns out to be a January release. What else have I missed in my carless state?

No sign of Kanata Kara 14 or Hikaru no Go 21. After what A has promised about Touya-Papa's yearning for Sai in this volume, I'm panting to see for myself.
posted at 12:30 AM

 
tag, you're it.
posted at 7:56 PM

 

I picked up Shin Mizukami's Sennen ni hitotsu no koi ("Only lover for thousand years") at the new and improved Kinokuniya in San Jose on Monday. The tankoubon is a collection of 5 short stories and one "bangaihen" set in a highly fictionalized version of ancient China. The first story -- about a tiger who can transform into a man and the young lord he is destined to love -- was an immediate winner. Its side story describes what happens when the man-tiger goes back to the village with his uke. Neat tidbits: he can transform his hair from fair to dark, but can't get rid of the tail, which the uke ("Hakua") ties around his waist like a belt for his robe. The side story ends with Hakua bopping Youko on the head for using a pillar in their home as a scratching post.

Great stuff, not to be judged by the cover. Except, well, okay...if you hate the character designs on the cover and think your eyes would bleed if you had to look at them for longer than two minutes, then maybe it would be a good thing to skip this artist. She has only one seme design, slightly modifiable from scruffy to smooth, but shows more variety is the appearance of the uke. All very much the tall & brawny x small & lithe contrast. Here are a couple of uke samples from different books:

contemporary:

historical:

A recent flood of Mizukami titles makes me wonder why it is that some artists break out into superstardom (Naduki Koujima) and some seem just to reach the brink. Does Koujima have a long series? That usually seems to propel one to fame and fortune faster in BL manga publishing.

posted at 7:17 PM

 
More bk1:

1. Cross Light by Fuuri Misasagi
2. S** Friend by Piyoko Chitose
3. Ichigo mashumaro by Touko Mizuno
4. Ikoku irokoi romantan by Ayano Yamane
5. Oasis Keikaku! by Kazumi Ooya
6. Namonaki tori no tobu yoake by Hirotaka Kisaragi

50/50 smut and sweet
posted at 7:01 PM

 
"bishies" on AMLA? may be time to unsubscribe and head for the yaoista hermitage.
posted at 12:52 AM

 
The Speed Racer parody episode of Dexter's Laboratory cracks me up. Slash value? Zilch.
posted at 7:58 PM

 
Yesterday, I placed my latest bk1 order:

1. Gush Mania vol. 1 (an anthology)
2. Kimi ni CHU oshi 8 (a Hikaru no Go doujinshi anthology)
3. Trouble Maker 2 by Kouko Agawa
4. Love Rush by Chi-Ran
5. Kimi shiruya by Satoru Ishihara
6. Konna otoko ni dare ga shita by Shiuko Kano
7. Breath by Chifumi Ochi
8. Yoru o hashiruemono by Maia Tori
9. Dear Gentle Papa 2 by Nase Yamato
10. Boku wa ne 1-3 by Kiyo Fujiwara

I'm a little concerned about placing such a large order right now: yesterday, I also received a book1 order that had shipped on 3/17, but the order previous to that (shipped 3/03) hasn't arrived yet! Fortunately, the missing order only contained six books. With SAL shipping (not traceable), it looks like I'm going to have to reorder.
posted at 1:18 AM

 

What Anime Stereotype Are You?

Wow. This may be the only time I haven't had a pathetic "what anime whatever are you?" quiz result.

posted at 12:11 AM

 
The scanlation rationalization continues. Sure, it's wrong. But it's okay because the people who download scanlations and don't buy the manga would never have bought the manga anyway. Where else does this particular bit of logic work? I would never buy a designer handbag or an SUV or a pair of stiletto heels. Does that mean I can take it for free? What enables these manga pirates is the confidence that they won't be penalized for what they're doing. If their boon is fan praise, then their penalty is fan condemnation. Disparage them and their clientele. Praise plain-text translators and the folks who maintain review/synopsis web sites. Redirect the energy.

Okay, that's too optimistic. Like will find like. But until I know enough Japanese to report these folks to the publishers and artists involved, I'm going to have to settle for my own comforting rationalizations.

posted at 10:35 PM

 
Evidence of Kodaka's declining popularity in Japan makes me sad. She won't have a series running in Magazine Be Boy for the rest of 2003.
posted at 9:31 PM

 
I never post these things, but my results made me laugh:

If they told you I'm mad, then they lied. I'm odd, but it isn't compulsive. I'm the triolet, bursting with pride; If they told you I'm mad, then they lied. No, it isn't obsessive. Now hide All the spoons or I might get convulsive. If they told you I'm mad then they lied. I'm odd, but it isn't compulsive. What Poetry Form Are You?

Clever girl, this quiz-maker.
posted at 12:22 AM

 
Tarot reading
present state: The Emperor
present task: 10 of swords
present energy: 4 of cups (reversed)

brought to the reading by: Page of Wands
immediate past: Page of Pentacles

immediate future: The High Priestess (reversed)

my attitude about the question central to the reading: 5 of swords
others' attitudes: 10 of pentacles [?] (reversed)
the obstacle that lies ahead: The Tower
The outcome: 2 of wands

posted at 11:05 PM

 
From a post on AMLA:

I wanted to inform everybody that scanlations of Haru wo Daite Ita and Not Ready Sensei available on Streamload and IRC and maybe more P2P networks use translations stolen from my site...

If you find these scanlations somewhere, please ask their owners not to share them because they are a work of a thief.

Dear heart, these scanlations would still be the work of a thief even without your translations. Why should a fan translator expect any more courtesy from a scanlator than the artist herself receives?
posted at 6:11 PM

 

KnMnM 23 and the 10th anniversary edition of Magazine Be Boy arrived today.

posted at 7:12 PM

 
dub v. sub
Rurouni Kenshin may be one of the worst dubs I have ever heard, both in terms of voice selection and translation. Inuyasha has been one of the most enjoyable. Is the difference really that I have heard all of Kenshin in raw Japanese, while I've only seen Inuyasha in English?
posted at 6:29 PM

 
They came, they came they came. The 2/12 and 2/16 bk1 orders. The flat was the 4/2003 Gold from Fujisan. Too tired to write anything up right now.
posted at 6:41 PM

 
It looks like the San Jose Kinokuniya will be moving out of its cramped quarters inside the Mitsuwa "department" store and into the building once occupied by McWhorters.
posted at 10:06 PM

 
"Your son shares a bond with this man. It runs deep."
"Very deep. It's the kind of bond only men can share."
posted at 7:38 PM

 
Dropped by MBE to discover that a "flat" is waiting for me. Probably the 4/2003 Gold. I don't think I'll bother to pick it up until Tuesday.
posted at 7:27 PM

 
From M's description of the panel on "The Queering of Japanese Media" she's thinking about attending this April:

The film "Okoge" appeared during a gei buumu ("gay boom") in Japan in the early 1990's. Its portrayal of two men (and their female friend) who fall in love and are faced with social and personal obstacles presented the ordinariness of contemporary male-male love for the first time on screen and did much to dispel the commonly-held opinion that homosexuality is either non-existent in Japan or confined to drag clubs. At about the same time, a serial program entitled "Doosookai" ("Reunion") appeared for ten weeks on commercial television that depicted a four-way relationship between three men and one woman. While both of these media events represented situations that were psychologically honest, socially realistic, and cinematically believable (though somewhat melodramatic), their resolutions were completely within the purview of that which is socially acceptable in Japanese society. This presentation will show how that which was initially subversive in both Okoge and "Doosookai" is neutralized by their endings.

I, too, am impressed that this was included in an announcement of Japanese-themed events set to her by the Japanese consulate.
posted at 8:37 PM

 
Dragonball Zlazh
"What did you expect? Goku and Vegeta were two of the strongest fighters in the world before they were fused. The fact that they were enemies makes the bond that much stronger."

or something like that

posted at 5:57 PM

 
I'm forgetting to record my orders for future reference. Laziness inpired by the history kept on bk1's site. Ordered 3/13/03:

1. Okane ga nai 2 by Tohru Kousaka
2. Chijin no Koi by Nayuna Sakurano
3. Renai no Skill by Shyuuko Nishimura
4. Yojyouhan Sweethome by Shinano Oumi
5. Sonna Kimi to Boku Dakara by Soh Aoki
6. Hertz 1 (anthology)
7. b-Boy LUV 2 (anthology)
8. Kinniku Otoko 4 (anthology)
9. Motto Ecchi ni Aishite Oujisama (it's het!)

posted at 5:58 AM

 
mmm...Catholic schoolboys
What happens when four giggling boys get hold of Romeo and Juliet?
The piece has an undeniable homoerotic tension, as you would expect from any love story played out by four attractive young men. But this isn't a gay version of Romeo and Juliet, nor a coming-out story. Calarco's production is erotic because it is so chaste - he was horrified to see photos of an Australian production where the actors appeared to have discarded their shirts - and its emphasis is not on the boys' sexuality but upon the codes of behaviour that bind them together and pull them apart.

Perhaps most of all, Calarco taps into a subtext of Shakespeare's play, finding in it a story full of secrets and concealed obsessions, something forbidden. Romeo and Juliet's love is a forbidden love, just as the feelings that the boys experience as they act it out are forbidden and suppressed at the school they attend. This sense of something hidden being unleashed was very much something that Calarco wanted to achieve. After all, the life of the teenager is largely hidden from view, a life unacknowledged and unrecognised by the adult world.

"We think of Romeo and Juliet as a love story, but it is so much more. It is a very dangerous play," says Calarco. "Romeo and Juliet don't just fall in love, they fall into a kind of madness, the madness of obsession. It is a very teenage thing to do, those incredibly intense feelings that you have at that age. The same thing happens to the boys. They go beyond acting and into a kind of madness. They start really believing what they are saying. The line between the play and the boys blurs. It is dangerous territory - so dangerous that you can end up dead."

posted at 10:58 PM

 
An old review, from June of 2002:

MAYA Kaoruko		Houshuu no Ouji
Taiyo Tosho
4-8130-0907-7

The shifting tenses in the English-language blurb on the front cover of Houshuu no Ouji suggest this manga has a prequel: A minor country "Lester" surrendered the prince Eriot to powerful one "Magoat." He chose willingly to live as a slave of sex. What has become of him? Impressive finale for you. Of course, you can't judge a book by its blurb. Although a similarly-themed short story can be found in one of the artist's earlier works ("Lion and Pelican" in Kaidou-kun no Junan), this volume is no sequel. The first couple of pages tidily dispose of Eriot, defeated prince of Lester...or, at least, dispose of his clothing. Eriot (or "Elliot") takes to the life of a sex slave with amazing alacrity. Not masochistic joy, just a kind of tearful resignation that allows the artist to spend the next 125 pages cheerfully putting the young man through his paces.

Reading the story's "impressive finale" immediately sent me to Amazon.co.jp to verify that Anne Rice's Sleeping Beauty series had been translated into Japanese. I wouldn't be surprised to find Rice's erotica on Maya's bookshelf (in the afterword, she confesses to a "royalty complex" and a love for fantasy books). The Imprisoned Prince doesn't pose as a fairy tale exposed, and the sexual scenarios eschew the elaborate role-playing of Beauty in favor of lots and lots of group sex and sex-on-demand. The point -- as it is with so much yaoi -- is to force the uke to admit that he wants sex, then to bring him to ecstasy. 'cause being in control is fun, darnit. And orgasms are even better. But the conclusion is so like the end of the Beauty books that I have to wonder if the imitation is a deliberate homage, or if that's the logical conclusion to every female fantasy of sexually enslaved royalty. Well, every fantasy other than mine.

posted at 2:11 AM

 
I have no money because I have no patience
Before class today, I bought Kizuna 9 at Kinokuniya. This would normally be a cause for Great Rejoicing, but I'm expecting it from bk1 and...well...I've already read it all in BeBoy Gold.
posted at 8:57 PM

 
From a NYT article on music and musicians protesting against the threat of war against Iraq:

Their job is less to persuade than to provide slogans and jingles to rally the converted and convince them that they're not alone.

The writer is referring to "genuine, partisan protest songs," but I (of course) see it as analogous to the splintered approach to fandom on the internet. You speak radical thoughts, but you're preaching to the choir. Is it good manners or exhaustion or cowardice that drives the fringe element to further marginalize itself?
posted at 3:40 PM

 
I dreamt shoujo manga (Chotto Friday) and ants last night.
posted at 12:47 PM

 
At 3:56pm, I frantically tie my shoes and race to MBE to check for packages. I can see from across the street that the closed sign is already up, when the cute boy who works there peeps out of the door (oh, no, is he leaving?) then ducks back in (whew). The place is dark when I unlock the door, but the gate isn't down, which means someone is still back there who can get my package. I unlock my box...

no slip.

Okay, so no manga to play with, but I had quite the drama for a 3-block walk.

posted at 7:04 PM

 
Do slashers slash the bible?...asks L
I'm not a slasher, but I do romance the bible stories. Can't watch the cartoon version of the Exodus -- the musical put out by Dreamworks called... argh! -- without pairing Moses and Ramses. It's the chariot race at the beginning + the casual handoff of the Ethiopian slave girl + the whole mutual betrayal of their brotherhood. And don't get me started on Judas x Jesus in the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. Other possibilities? Pharoah and Joseph. Jacob and the angel (Genesis 32:24-28):

[24] And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.
[25] And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.
[26] And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
[27] And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
[28] And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

Yeah, Jacob sends his wife and kids away and "wrestles" all night with another male, touching his thighs and trying to slip out of a morning-after snuggle without even revealing his name? The patriarchs were so closeted.
posted at 11:25 PM

 
Why do I do this to myself?
Scanlations drive me crazy, so what am I doing? Cataloging every title I find mentioned or hosted on the Web. In the process, I found a point-counterpoint thread on scanlations that both heartened and discouraged me, and a page that stole L's translation of Ikegami's Recipe from Aestheticism to make a scanlation entitled "Ikegami's Romeo." (No, I won't link the site. With the exception of Toriyama's World, which I have adopted as my example of copyright violation run amuck, I will never direct someone to a bootlegger's site.)
posted at 2:10 PM

 
I'm feeling an unexpected urge to adapt javascript games to a yaoi theme. seme x uke hangman? Bishounen concentration? Hey...what about seme x uke concentration? That would involve some real script modification!
posted at 7:16 PM

 
From a NYT article about Bill Clinton and Bob Dole reviving the old "Point-Counterpoint" segment on 60 minutes:

Mr. Dole's name came up, Mr. Hewitt said, after some discussion about possible partners for Mr. Clinton. The two former adversaries have become friendly in recent years...

Don Hewitt, the executive producer and creator of "60 Minutes," said the segment would not use the "Point-Counterpoint" title. Instead it will simply be called "Clinton/Dole" one week and "Dole/Clinton" the next week.

The slash is everywhere.
posted at 1:21 AM

 
The Secret Diaries of...
Every day, with increasing anticipation and expectation, I check for my February 12 bk1 order. Every day, it isn't there. "Still not the..."

I'm searching for information on the fate of Eclipse, the BL novels magazine published by Outou Shobou (which is out of business now). The Locus of Blue series was published under the Eclipse imprint, and I'm hoping it's not finished along with the magazine.

posted at 11:33 PM

 
The link to the boys love manga from Bk1's manga page is labelled "Shizuka na Koi, Dotou no Ai" (Quiet Passion, Raging Love). Because the site uses cookies, I can't provide a direct link.

Did I or didn't I order the latest three Kodaka doujinshi back in February?

posted at 7:27 PM

 
Kodaka's keepers update her site at last. Since January 15th, it's been. Turns out the site was down with the flu.

Watching Get Backers, I'm reminded that the anime tendency to deform an attractive character into something chibi and round and cute used to annoy me in Fushigi Yuugi. Now, I consider that conventional surrealism one of the assets of the genre. Meanwhile, She Who Introduced Me to Anime (and explained SD to me) is now annoyed by it. Go figure.

posted at 10:06 PM

 

I was re-reading Haru o Daite Ita waiting for the arrival of volume 7 (which will probably come tomorrow, when I can't pick it up), when I realized that, by not attending Yaoi-Con in 2002, I had probably missed my one-and-only opportunity to ask Youka Nitta about her comics avatar. I love its blobbishness, appallingly reminiscent of a half-formed foetus.

Elsewhere in Haruland, the character profiles in volume 2 contain actual birth years for both Iwaki and Katou. On the one hand, this lets us know that Iwaki is roughly 5 years older than Katou. On the other hand, this makes the pair age rapidly as real time usually flies by faster than serialized manga time. In 2000, the pair were 30 and 25. Are they now 33 and 28?

posted at 6:02 PM

 
yuki!

The sculpture�fs destroyers, Amy E. Keel �f04 and her roommate Mary C. Cardinale �f03, said they leveled the ice penis in order to spare others from being offended by it.

�gI think that women or men who are walking to class should not be subjected to a penis,�h Keel said. �gIt was a structure put up to assert male dominance.�h

On an unrelated note, I like the Harvard Crimson's original motto: "I won't philosophize and will be read." It's validation: I do and am not.

posted at 2:59 PM

 
no yaoi here
Just... Oh. My. God.

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled yaoings.

posted at 12:25 PM

 
seizure days
Adventures in Tokyo Wonderland: The state of Tokyo drama, 2003, posted at Tokyopia.com, reminds me that I am not brave enough to be foolish or foolish enough to be brave. I could never travel without the security of shelter. I knew this the first time I went to Tokyo when, walking around the station at Shinjuku, I was approached by a blonde teen- or twentysomething (American, probably. At least, I don't remember any accent) asking if I knew of a cheap place to stay that night. No, I was staying at a friend's apartment.

Who am I kidding? I knew before the first time I went to Tokyo that I would never travel without the security of a place to stay and money for food and transportation. My need for security and American cable television means that I'll never move to Tokyo. Ever. Right now, I'm happy with yearly visits. A week of vacation that provides true away-ness. Nothing to remind me of work or school or home. For that one week, nothing I buy costs money. Nothing I eat has calories. Coming back is like coming down from a high.

posted at 6:17 PM

 
from AMLA:

They want to publish boy's love manga in Poland
but,
the publisher gives me 3 conditions:

1) maximum 2 volumes long (obvious, since it would be first such publication here)
2) no sex scenes (kissing OK)
3) preferably published by Biblos

It's vexing that there are all these great stories with minimal sex that are too mild to recommend to smut fans and too sexy to recommend to Polish publishers.
posted at 2:24 PM

 
something to talk about
L asks about the works of Noriko Satou, and -- after reading slash-kun's description of Dark & Angel at Manga Bonbons -- I realize that the first story from that volume was translated as "Professor Peach" at Aestheticism. But more interesting is the realization that Dark & Angel probably reflects the artist's obsession with Furikaereba Yatsu Ga Iru, a Japanese drama series from 1993 contrasting two doctors in an urban hospital: Ishikawa, kind and caring but fatally ill, and Shiba, a shady and extremely skilled surgeon. The dynamic is implicit in the title, and the drama may be referenced in the characters' names from "Professor Peach": Ishikawa, the "good" teacher, and Shinobu (the first kanji is the same as Shiba's), the "wild" student.

But now I'm debating whether to chance buying the "Dark & Angel" doujinshi from the Cybershoppe (currently priced at $13.20). Will that story be in there?

posted at 6:57 PM

 
Another bk1 order. Let's call it "the rest of February" order:

1. Gobanchou Boys (Hikaru no Go doujinshi anthology)
2. Zainin no Kiss by Shin Mizuki
3. Aijin Ichiman-en by Dr. Ten
4. Nudist 1 by Kazuna Uchida
5. Juuni Kokki 1 by Fuyumi Ono
6. Juuni Kokki 6 by Fuyumi Ono

Meanwhile, it turns out that Bronze's "final chapter" is 14+ chapters long...so far.
posted at 6:09 PM

 
Is it possible that the 2/20 issue of Margaret really includes the end of Bronze?
posted at 11:44 PM

 
Juuni Kokki and visitors with Japanese pronunciation
Thanks to A, I've seen Juuni Kokki through episode 22, and I can't get the universe out of my head. First, because they've left me with a puzzle: why is Taiki back in Japan with his despicable family? And where is his master? Next, because the fantasy world of the 12 countries is perfectly set up for borrowing. There's an established paradigm that will be repeated again and again in all twelve countries. The kirin is born into the care of a nyoukai, will be raised at Mt. Hou, and will eventually choose a ruler who will be gifted with (conditional) immortality. Add the possibility of one or both of the pair being swept off to Wa (Japan). We've seen selfish rulers poison their kirin, and become mad with jealousy over their kirin. We know that "no kirin dislikes being near its king, and no kirin isn't sad to be parted from its king." With that structure in place, there are hundreds of stories to tell.

A visit from A is also a reminder that I mispronounce everything Japanese, even "anime." (ah-nee-may)

posted at 9:25 PM

 
A passing reference to art books on AMLA makes me wonder what BL art books are out there. I've waxed analytic on some of the books I do have: Kazuma Kodaka, Mamiya Oki, Shiuko Kano, Youka Nitta, Sanami Matoh. Then there's the SuperWorks poster collections from Tosuisha -- do they count? If not, then what about the Motto!! books? Art + character profiles = too much information?

One of the spiciest and least appealing art books I own is the collection for Okane ga nai, featuring the art of Tohru Kousaka. I will never like the uke in that series, or his pathetic dynamic with the seme, who is easily twice his age and size. Still, some of the illustrations are attractive, whimsical (love the Shinsengumi poses) and imaginative.

Among the books I don't have is Aoi & Kurenai's Kairakushugi. Under the names Sano and Watanabe, they've also published Edge.

posted at 7:20 PM

 
Things I want today

• a complete G-Defend translation
• a page (romaji) linking the webpages of djka who do mail order
• my copy of Kizuna 9

posted at 4:34 PM

 
Can you inadvertently march for peace?

The box turned out to be my latest order from Amazon (domestic).

posted at 6:13 PM

 
box waiting
I'm not expecting anything, but there's a parcel-sized box waiting for me at MBE. Excitement and dread.

Thursday's dream has far to go
I was a pampered daughter being shown around a magnificent post-modern skyscraper owned by my incredibly wealthy absent parent. (Why Larry Cooperman was the one showing me around...?) The building was blue and silver, steel and glass and chrome, constructed on spot where the student union is. The lower levels were shopping and fine dining -- we walked through a magnificent restaurant where a bride a new was celebrating her wedding with a small group of family and friends -- then we took a magnificent roller-coaster elevator ride to the top floors, where the penthouse apartments were. There seemed to be four apartments (one for each corner of the building) and a separate elevator had to be taken to access each. But the elevators didn't need a key, which meant that anyone could reach them. This point concerned me, since one of the apartments, still in the process of being decoratated, was to be mine. The elevator didn't open onto a lobby or living room, but what looked to be a utility corridor.

posted at 9:42 AM

 
More manga from bk1 arrived today. (I need to order on a weekly basis, so there's less of a gap between deliveries.) This time, the package did not include a bk1 bag. I'm disappointed that it's not a regular bonus, since I'm sure I would have found a use for them.
posted at 11:25 PM

 
Excerpted from AMLA:

I recently got DSL got more agressive with my downloading Manga, I must've gotten about a gig of Manga downloads in the past couple of weeks.

P.S. I'd love to get steered to more manga, especialy Yaoi, to download.

P.P.S. Now all I need is someone who has contacts with Japanese Manga publishers and can act as translator/go between to help me get my comic artwork published as manga. I have Yaoi stories and layouts that I wish I could interest a publisher in staking me to doing as full art. (comic art is helaciously labor intensive, you need to work full time on it to produce or almost not at all)

I wonder if there could be some kind of direct relationship between publishers selling books and artists getting paid?

posted at 7:43 PM

 
Ordered from bk1 this afternoon:

1. Uchi ni Oide yo by Yuri Ebihara
2. Kairaku Han'i by Kirico Higashizato
3. Kizuna 9 by Kazuma Kodaka
4. Ai ga Areba Toshi no Sa nante by Mieko Koide
5. Haru o Daite Ita 7 by Youka Nitta
6. Aniparo to Yaoi by Mari Nishimura

Yes, the last is a book about yaoi. In Japanese. Because if I put it under my pillow, the knowledge will seep into my head. (The "to" means "and." This isn't a progression.)

I've got a number of books with "4-15 days" order status piled up in my "waiting to be ordered" list. I'm working up the nerve to place an order that may involve actually communicating with bk1.

posted at 6:34 PM

 
Motto!! G Defend arrived today. 9 pages of "character pick-up." I have no idea what the term means, but one thing it definitely doesn't mean is "character profile." Out of 38 characters, only four had character data included. The rest are pictures and names (in kanji and romaji - yea!) plus a brief blurb under the heading sakusha kara hitokoto (a word from the author).The layout reminds me of the doujinshi reviews in my back issues of Comic Box Jr. Each of the two main characters gets a whole page, the next two get half a page, then a quarter of a page, then an eighth of a page... I'm hoping this will help me learn to tell some of the minor characters (read: anyone who hasn't had their own featured romance) apart and start to care more about their interactions.

Oh, and I skipped class to sleep. Don't tell anyone.

posted at 7:40 PM

 
In dreams, Ben Affleck buys me cars
Go figure. I was driving down the same road that Gillian Anderson had been walking down with the shopping cart, except this time the lakes were back. I drove my snazzy red car into a swampy area and it began to sink. The Ben Affleckish guy who had been a passenger was now urging me from the bank to get out. I did, and surprisingly, the car seemed to effortlessly be removed from the water as well. But it needed to be replaced, so Ben-alike gets on his cell phone and orders me a new one.

This is what happens when I'm not awake to prevent movie hype (Daredevil) and my reluctance to shop for a car from taking over my brain.

Good enough for government research
This week, I ran a poll that conclusively proved yaoi fans prefer to buy pretty doujinshi featuring sex between characters they like from a series they know rather than ugly doujinshi containing no sex based on a series they don't like.

Seriously, the results did indicate that fans care more about the quality of art in their doujinshi than the quantity of sex. I would have preferred a larger response group, but I have long since stopped being surprised by the general antipathy toward research. Because the questions were doujinshi-only, I can't make the next leap that's bouncing around in my brain: based on the general significance of genre (19%) and pairing (25%), I hypothesize that this group would prefer to read a doujinshi without sex to BL manga with sex.

posted at 6:38 AM

 
desktop anthropology
Ever wonder what your browser history would reveal about you? I'm sure most of my surfing behavior is pretty consistent -- BL and L's blog and news sites and Japanese language and hundreds of thousands of Google searches -- but sometimes a segue (really a bit of ADD multi(non)tasking) makes me stop and wonder what page A and page B are doing open on the same desktop at the same time. Today, it was Dave Barry's blog and a Biblos page for a Spring book fair (postcard gifts for people buying Biblos publications at select Japanese bookstores in March).
posted at 4:22 AM

 
My first bk1 order (from 1/12) arrived today. Interesting filler - a pressed syrofoam-type material with a woven look to it. Smells like peanuts (the shelled kind, not the packing kind). And they included a plastic bag...just in case I wanted to open the package at the post office and carry my books home?

The end of Love Mode made me cry. Though I'm glad they lived "happily ever after" and I'm pleased it included Shougo's fate, I still wish the focus had been Aoe x Naoya. Thankfully, that's not why I cried.

posted at 7:52 PM

 
open to interpretation
The third Kizuna OAV doesn't "carry through" on the sex scene in the love hotel, which may leave anime-only viewers with the impression that Enjouji was the uke in that encounter. Was that the animators' intent?

Incidentally, there's a trace of Enjouji and Ranmaru's first kendo encounter in Hikaru and Akira's relationship. The feelings Ranmaru experienced at the thought of having a rival of his own age are echoed in Akira's side story in volume 18 of Hikaru no Go.

need to discover
I've talked a lot about my need to discover books for myself, and I do tend to project the same desire onto other fans and protect them from spoilers in recent releases. After discovery has charged my interest, however, I savor input from other fans. My responses, particularly for an ongoing series, can be shaped by other people's analysis or simply by their enthusiasm for their favorite characters (which is more likely, since there just isn't a heck of a lot of analysis going on in BL fandom). Case in point: both G-Defend 16 and 17 contain cute character-study moments for Nishiwaki, who is not my favorite and whom I would have ignored if it weren't for the fact that L really likes his character type. Now he's special to me, too.

The cute moments:
vol. 16 ends with a happy side story about characters exchanging Valentine's Day gifts. At the end of the chapter is a 4-koma strip in which Naitoh arrives home to find a bottle of wine from Nishiwaki.
vol. 17 ends with a nearly textless "day in the life" story from the perspective of the stray dog Esumi found in vol. 15. In one early panel, the dog flees the infirmary when Nishiwaki arrives, because he associates Nishiwaki with being leashed. At the end of the story, Nishiwaki finds the dog outside by the gate, leashes him and brings him back in. A textless insight into Nishiwaki's orderly personality, sense of responsibility, and kind nature.

Basically, I want to be able to read a text first in isolation, then immerse myself in a community discussing the same texts or at least pointing out things I may have missed.

posted at 7:37 PM

 
My December order arrived from Fujisan yesterday and my Fruits Basket DVD arrived today. I am my own consumer culture.
posted at 4:37 PM

 
Fruits Basket

1. Shigure*, Yuki*, Kyou*
2. Shigure, Yuki, Kyou, Uo-chan and Hana-chan
3. Shigure, Yuki, Kyou, Uo-chan and Hana-chan
4. Shigure, Yuki, Kyou, Kagura*
5. Shigure, Yuki, Kyou (Tohru goes "home")
6. Uo-chan and Hana-chan, Shigure, Yuki, Kyou (friends visit)
7. Yuki, Kyou, Momiji*, Hatori*
8. Hatori, Kyou, Shigure, Yuki, Momiji (Tohru visits the Souma compound)
9. Kyou, Yuki, Shigure, Uo-chan and Hana-chan, the editor*, Momiji (New Year's)
10. Hatsuharu*, Kyou, Yuki, Shigure, Hana-chan, Hatori (marathon)
11. Yuki, Kyou, Kagura, Shigure, Hatori, Momiji (Valentine's Day)
12. Momiji, Yuki, Kyou (onsen)
13. Yuki, Kyou, Momiji, Hatsuharu, Akito, Shigure, Hatori (new schoolmates)
14. Yuki, Ayame*, Shigure, Kyou, Momiji, Hatsuharu, Hatori
15. Yuki, Shigure, Kyou, Uo-chan and Hana-chan, Momiji (grave visit)
16. Shigure, Kyou, Yuki, Hatori, the editor, Ayame (villa visit)
17. Yuki, Hatsuhara, Kisa*, Shigure, Kyou, Momiji
18. The Prince Yuki Fan Club, Hana-chan and Uo-chan
19. Uo-chan and Hana-chan, Yuki, Kyou, Shigure, Momiji, the editor, Hatori, Risa (Tohru's fever)
20. Ayame, Yuki, Shigure, Mine, Hatori (Ayame's store)
21. Hiro*, Kisa, Yuki, Shigure, Momiji, Hatori
22. The Prince Yuki Fan Club
23. Ritsu*, Shigure, Yuki, Kyou, Hatori
24. Kyou, Yuki, Kazuma-dono*, Shigure, Kagura, Akito
25. Kyou, Yuki, Kagura, Akito, Kazuma-dono, Uo-chan and Hana-chan
26. Kyou, Yuki, Kazuma-dono, Shigure, Kagura, Akito, Hatori

It's not exhaustive and I don't think I'll feel a compelling need to do this for the manga, but sometimes I just want to watch all the Ayame episodes or all the Kisa episodes or all the Momiji episodes. I could live the rest of my life without ever seeing episode 22 again.
posted at 5:54 AM

 
Note to self: order 4-87287-776-4.
posted at 5:38 PM

 
I had another surreal dream last night and meant to log it as soon as I turned on my computer at work, but I got tied up in the stuff they pay me to do and by the end of teh day, couldn't remember a bit of it. Except I do know it had no Japanese/anime/manga "hook," so it didn't really belong here, anyway. Must keep the blog pure.
posted at 11:12 PM

 
Where did I hear that the 2/2003 issue of Be Boy Gold would have an essay by the editor who attended Yaoi-Con 2002? Nix that source: no word.

Edited on 1/30 to add
I forgot to log my second January order with bk1. Ordered on 1/28 and shipped on 1/30:

1. B-Boy Luv 1 (anthology)
2. Deep Aqua 2 (anthology)
3. Barairo no Jinsei (anthology)
4. Ookami nanka Kowakunai (anthology)
5. Free Albeiter Ken & Joe by Ringo Manda
6. Renai Shohousen by Shuuya Toizumi
7. Anata no Geboku ni Naritai by Aya Yoshiki
8. Akuma to Otohime 1 by Deborah Simmons
9. Akuma to Otohime 2 by Deborah Simmons
10. Hanazakari no Kimitachi E 17 by Hisaya Nakajo
11. Koucha Ouji 19 by Nanpei Yamada

(Kind of daring, I think, since the first order hasn't arrived yet.)
posted at 10:45 PM

 
In dreams, we're all Gillian Anderson.
Must have been because I had heard her voice in the dubbed Princess Mononoke yesterday. In my dream, she was Scullyish, escaping from who-knows-where when she traded her sober sedan and a dark night for wheeling a shiny chrome shopping cart down a sunny suburban highway. I know this road -- with its tall green grass -- from other dreams. Usually I'm driving down it. But on the side Scully is walking with her cart there's supposed to be an intricate network of lakes and rivers just beyond the first view-obstructing grassy hill. Instead, it seems to be a grassy plain, and there's construction work going on at the gate at the roadside. Scully is determinedly wheeling her cart through the construction workers, when suddenly I'm inside the house at Tara's party. Huh? The construction work on the gate turned out to be decorating for a birthday/graduation party for Tara. I'm in the entrance hall of a mansion, not actually an invited guest at the party. Tara's partner comes down and shows me a magazine featuring a scandal that had just been uncovered involving Harrison Ford covering up a Mark Hamill peccadillo at a Star Wars premiere party (what would that be? 25 years ago?). Our conversation is awkward, and she goes back upstairs. In the "all lesbians know each other" theory of dreams, Diane (my college roommate) comes down and is chatting with me when she's joined by Tara and Tara's partner. Tara's partner and Diane seem to be the same height, but Tara's partner is clearly taller relative to Tara than Diane is. This anomaly fascinates me. I'm trying to find a graceful way to exit the not-party, while Tara is implying that I could be incorporated at the table for dessert.

I wake up.

My cable guide's blurb for Princess Mononoke: A prince gets mixed up in an environmental conflict involving samurai, an iron-mining colony, and forest gods in this anime tale set in 14th-century Japan. Title character, anyone?

posted at 4:36 AM

 
I agree with both of me
The Odoru Daisousasen television series, specials and movie make a perfect arc. Part of me fears that the new Odoru Daisousasen movie will spoil that. Aoshima has learned and sacrificed and taught and accomplished and sacrificed. Muroi has risked and learned and risen and sacrificed. Can a second movie sustain the tension between the two? But Odoru Daisousasen fandom was fading even in Japan and I'm hoping a new movie will energize it -- perhaps even introduce the characters to English-speaking fans.

picture read this

Reiichi Hiiro's Love Hustler

Twins? Somebody needs a haircut. It's as if Youka Nitta decided to blend her Haru o Daite Ita and When a Man Loves a Man universes. (It seems inconceivable to me that she hasn't in a doujinshi somewhere.)
posted at 6:29 PM

 
more misfanthropic muttering
When I first became wired, nine years ago, fan mailing lists included insightful analysis that increased my enjoyment of the shows. (The shows in this case were X-Files and Lois and Clark.) That level of analysis seems to have been subsumed by fanfiction. It's seen a pseudo rebirth with the popularity of Television Without Pity's recaps, but slyness and snarkiness, while entertaining, rarely enlightens. I don't leave a snarkfest understanding more about the show or the characters.

Now maybe I'm just lookig for love in all the wrong places. Mailing lists, which were a refuge from the appalling signal-to-noise ratio of newsgroups 5+ years ago, have been supplanted by webforums (for those "the more the merrier" and "fandom is my performance art" folks) and weblog circles (for those who simultaneously seek exclusivity and an audience). Maybe all the thoughtful analysis without the attendant demand to write a fanfic has drifted there. Or maybe analysis is alive and well on gen lists and my preference for slashy goodness has doomed me to disappointment.

It seems that most slash fans need to see the homosexual relationship in print and in character to make it "real." Sure, there are a very few fandoms with canonical homosexuality (Queer as Folk, Velvet Goldmine, etc.), but the culture is rooted in source texts that will never fulfill the fans' visions in that way. So analysis is relegated to serving fanfiction. blech.

posted at 12:58 AM

 
Hypocrisy, thy name is...me
I placed an order with jpqueen for some out-of-print/hard-to-get manga titles. Just remember, with jpqueen, it's caveat emptor. Most used manga stores in Japan charge 300-350 yen for their BL titles in fine condition; new, these books cost in the neighborhood of 562 yen (check this currency converter and do the math yourself: that's about US $5.10). If jpqueen is charging more than $3.50 for a used BL manga, they're overcharging you. And if they're charging more than $6 for a recent release, you can get it cheaper new from bk1.

• Fujimi Doujinshi World #5 (anthology)
• Aku no Hana by Simone Yotsuya
• Anatadake ga Suki by Ashika Sakura
• Anata ga Hoshii by Kazuna Uchida

posted at 3:49 PM

 
Fujisan responds...
...that my orders are now being shipped from the LA fulfillment center, so I should patiently wait another week for my manga zasshi to arrive. One of the reasons I could tolerate having to pay tax on my Fujisan orders (lucky people who don't live in California) was that the shipments arrived ridiculously quickly, since we were in the same town. Now I might as well be living in Boston. Better off in Boston, actually, since I could visit Sasuga Books there.

Fannish fretting
These days, no piece of speculative analysis goes unmet with "oooh! write that story!" as if fanfic were the be-all and end-all of participatory fandom. Very disconcerting for someone who neither reads nor writes the stuff. Textual analysis for its own sake is going the way of the Great Auk. Like an army generated to mask the absence of thoughtful analysis, fanfic brandishes canon in its defense.

posted at 5:28 PM

 
Jamall just cancelled my Motto! G-Defend order, so it's back to Fujisan, which has me verrrry nervous: Fujisan has marked my Gold shipment and my last manga shipment as shipped on 1/06 and 1/09 respectively, but I have yet to receive them.
posted at 10:54 AM

 
The term "out-of-character" raises my hackles when people are talking about fanfic.

In doujinshi, I see something that more closely approximates my own sensibilities. Doujinshi artists often focus on a particular facet of a character and represent that quality iconically. Same with a relationship dynamic. Muroi is isolated and tightly wound. Aoshima is eager and well-intentioned. Put those qualities together and this is how it looks.

ooh, baby

posted at 10:10 PM

 
I'm spending the weekend cataloging my manga for the XML project. It's slow going, made slower by the measures I'm going through to include cover scans without having to scan them in. I've done the two shelves in the kitchen and one shelf from the bedroom and I'm already at 230 volumes. If I multiply that by the $6 I spent per volume...well, let's not go there. Apparently, I never did pick up HanaKimi 17, which strikes me as odd. I'm torn between ordering it now and waiting until I've done the data-entry on the rest of the collection, just to be sure.

One think I do know for sure: I don't have room for all of these and never will in this apartment. It's a conundrum. I'm not moving out of my rent-controlled shoebox, and I'm not getting rid of the manga. I need a hammer space storage system.

posted at 3:04 PM

 
For future linking consideration:
Honya Town
Book Service
ES Books
posted at 2:44 PM

 
This should be an entry droning on about all the anime on DVD I'm buying (because I want to put some money where my mouth is...though, really, it's times like these I wish I could just say "ore no kotoba" instead), but I have been killing an entire day by ambling through quizzes. While the questions in this one aren't well-constructed, the quiz does embody a concept I have to applaud: finding a more creative way to critique annoying fannish phenomena. I am so bored with narrow-minded rants.

No, I won't tell you which butchered LotR character I was.

posted at 3:45 PM

 
My Aestheticism order arrived today: Balalaika #8 Japalish. Pleased as I am to have it, I was rather hoping that the "flat" waiting for me at the PMB was last month's issue of BeBoy Gold. I want to know if there is an essay on Yaoi-Con, and -- if so -- what the editor has to say.

posted at 6:06 PM

 
Woohoo! My Kengamine Bishowjobu doujinshi, ordered via fromjp.com on December 7, arrived today. I haven't made sense of volume 11 yet, but the side story about Hiko and baby Sei trading places (Bouhatsu Sunzen, Count 1) was hilarious...and now I think I understand the title, which roughly translates to "on the verge of an accidental discharge." And more good news: Count 2 was released (hee!) for Winter Comiket, 2002.

http://me.halhal.net/~hdi/frame/frameD.html

The books smell of something I can't identify, though it makes me think of a pizza place I used to go to in college. It's not particularly appealing or repellant. It's just there, reminding me that there is so much I don't know about Japan. Is it a potpourri used by the circle? The odor of my package's neighbor during shipment?

posted at 6:39 PM

 
What's with the weepiness lately? First, I can't make it through an episode of Fruits Basket without bawling (the title story, told by Tohru, and the story of the Foolis traveler, told by Momiji devastate me). Now I'm crying at Yuusuke's funeral in the first episode of YYH? When I've already seen it before, subtitled? What's next? Hallmark commercials?
posted at 11:01 PM

 
Closing Time, a NYT editorial on the closing of the Oscar Wilde Bookshop after nearly 36 years, offers:

Yet sad though it is to lose the Oscar Wilde Bookshop — or, for that matter, any bookshop — the fading of the gay bookstore as an institution is far from a tragic sign. Yes, in part these independent booksellers are a casualty of competition from bookstore chains and Internet booksellers. But their decline is also a reflection of something very positive — namely, the entrance of gay Americans into mainstream culture over the last decade or so.

Increasingly, gay men and women are open, fully integrated members of society. Consequently the need for specifically gay institutions is fading. A generation ago, places like the Oscar Wilde Bookshop were thriving because mainstream bookstores simply wouldn't have stocked a gay book. It was a time when gay novels — that is, novels written by gay people, about gay people, for gay people — were the only way for gay men and women to escape from a world in which they were despised into a world in which they were taken seriously.

In 2003, however, you don't have to read a gay novel to see gays treated decently. The line between gay and mainstream fiction is blurring. Heterosexual writers no longer omit gay characters from their universes; authors formerly categorized as gay writers are now reaching mainstream readers. Michael Cunningham, who not long ago was pigeonholed in this manner, won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Hours," recently adapted into a heralded film. For more and more readers — and writers — a good book is a good book, period.

Is slash a world that takes homosexuality seriously? I think so, yes. Sometimes pedantically so. Is BL becoming such a space? Maybe, in a niche or two, but niches in Japan have the rather intimidating ability to become trendy overnight. Trends flourish then wane, leaving their focus somehow more deflated once the hoopla is over.
posted at 2:46 PM

 
My January order, placed though bk1. It's an experiment in ordering directly from Japan. If I continue using them as a distributor, I may have to place semi-monthly orders.

1. Deep Aqua 1, an anthology
2. 3 1/2 by Mika Sadahiro
3. Hageshii Ame by Shinri Fuwa
4. Love Mode 11 by Yuki Shimizu
5. Mantayuu to Ore by Shushushu Sakurai
6. Hikaru no Go 20 story by Yumi Hotta & art by Takeshi Obata
7. Hot Gimmick 5 by Miki Aihara
8. Koi Monogatari 14 by Chiho Saitoh

Now off to investigate s-book, which may be useful for non-BL titles, but I doubt I'll ever have a large enough monthly order to justify it.
posted at 7:08 PM

 
And Cartoon network moved its anime programming from Saturday night to weeknights...late weeknights. Well, tonight was a bust wasn't it?
posted at 11:45 PM

 
There are no longer any English-subtitled J-dramas on KTSF at 7pm on Saturdays?
posted at 8:05 PM

 
Irony?
I'm in the middle of full rant mode against scanlations on one yahoogroup, and another group dedicated to scanlating shoujo manga sends me an invitation to join. What madness is this?
posted at 11:02 PM

 
I always thought that, under stress, my dreams became bland and workaday, but lately they've been quite colorful. From two night ago: I still remember sitting on a Tokyo corner (although this was a Marmalade Boy version of Tokyo, with a pastel-colored building on one of those triangular intersections) while Superman and Lois Lane had an adventure in the alleyway which was designed to resurrect the Lois and Clark tv show.

I'm so busy that I haven't had time to make up my January order yet. If I wait too long, I worry that I won't be able to get Love Mode.

Yes, I worry a lot.

posted at 7:46 AM

 
Keep sleeping through Cartoon Network's adult swim on Saturday night, featuring Inu Yasha and Yu Yu Hakusho. Grrrr. Not to mention the fact that I have no idea what dramas KTSF is running at 7 and 11pm anymore. And, since this seems to be a whine fest of missed television opportunities, did I mention that I missed Meteor Garden when KTSF broadcast it?
posted at 3:13 AM

 
Koi mo 2 dome daze by Jingorou Horii
Slashers into SM would like this title. All of the encounters are consensual, though the "SM" is limited to bondage, vibrators, and a bit of candle wax rather than the elaborate scenarios from Maia Tori's ouevre. The men are muscled and vulgar (that treasured western myth: the real man), and even this picture reader can figure out that they're not spouting poetry or cooing sweet nothings to one another.
posted at 8:14 PM

 
Romance and feminism
The only feminist issue here is choice. So long as women can choose what they want to read, the thought police can stay out of our reading preferences thankyouverymuch. Saying that women (or girls) should read insert genre here instead of romance is reminiscent of the days when women's reading material was limited to the Bible and books of manners.
posted at 5:38 PM

 
dream, slipping out of my consciousness (1)
I'm in a 9-story building in Tokyo (2), looking for someone or something. On the eighth floor, which turns out to be the Sony offices, I need to go to the restroom. In the corridor behind the receptionists' desk are the elevators and discreet entrances to what I assume are the men's and women's rooms, but walking in an unmarked door I find that the restrooms are co-ed. And there are no stalls, merely commodes lining the sea-green and gold walls. Some have discreet covers you can place over your lap when you sit down, some do not. The room angles a few times, and at some of these angles are low wooden walls, providing further much-needed privacy. At one of these walls, an old man seated at a coverless commode seems to be holding court. The room is surprisingly busy, but he's not going anywhere. Less-desirable (coverless) toilets become free, and I wave other women ahead of me, including one with a baby. I look around a curve in the room and discover a smaller alcove with a covered commode free. I sit down, and see behind me that there are video games embedded in the low counters that run behind and between the commodes. At one end of this short alcove is what looks to be a cashier's counter. Seated at the next commode is a large western women who appears to be perfectly comfortable with her coverless commode and the situation in general. She starts to give me advice about not fearing the men in the room, just think of them as the effeminate figures they are. (She doesn't use the word effeminate, but gestures toward the old man next to the wall in the other room (3) and describes him as an old baba.) She continues on about not fearing or being amazed at the games, and her opinions about how I should behave are starting to wear on me. Suddenly, I feel very tired and drift in and out of her monologue until there's nothing but blackness and I hear an indistinct voice in the distance.

"Of course we won't be able to take the body home immediately, but we will eventually."

I'm behind a glass wall. Suspended in fluid or just in suspended animation. The woman is speaking to a nurse-figure and is passing herself off as my mother, but I know it is not my mother. It is my aunt. (4) My aunt is arranging to have me euthanized. Sometimes I'm me behind the glass and sometimes I'm a smallish dragon. Gray and dull green scales with black eyes and jointed wings. Claws come out of the joints I associate with my shoulder bones. Children are brought by on school outings. I seem to be something of a mascot to them. They don't know I'm about to be put down.

I wake up.

1) Not manga, but I'm slipping it in because it takes place in Tokyo. It contains elements that appear in a lot of my dreams, though probably not the elements you think.
2) petite for Tokyo, tall for Berkeley, typical for my dreams
3) which, logically, we shouldn't be able to see from the alcove
4) neither of my real aunts, incidentally

posted at 12:39 AM

 
Not an earth-shattering epiphany, but a comfort.
Just when I thought reading was dead for me (seriously, I'm a little frightened by the fact that most of my leisure reading material these days is stuff I can't read), I realized that I still associate my friends with what they read. Reading isn't dead, it's just displaced.
posted at 2:49 AM