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