Archive for the Yaoi Manga Category


Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia

October 16th, 2022

I treated myself to a copy of Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia, edited by James Welker recently and I honestly found it to be really inspiring.  Obviously, Boys Love media as such is not terribly interesting to me, but the way fandom creates, interacts with and consumes it, is.  While I read the various essays in this book, I found myself having some of my questions answered and new ones forming. As a result, I will (eventually) be making a survey to do some primary research on Yuri fandom  and I hope you’ll help me out when it’s done by filling it out. ^_^

In the meantime, I found the various essays in this book really interesting in part for the history of how BL media made inroads in various Asian countries outside Japan (mostly through scanlations,) and how various local fandoms have absorbed and adapted BL concepts to fit their own ideals and circumstances. Additionally, a few of the essays discuss the response to BL from queer fandom (and in a few, the impact queer fandom has had on BL.)

Which is where my brain kind of stuck. There’s a lot of throwing the word “queering” around in regards to BL and this got me thinking. IMHO, there are a number of gaps between 1) media being queered by a straight audience and media being queered by a queer audience or; 2) between queer media and straight media being queered; or 3) by queer media being consumed by straight folks as opposed to queer folks. Fundamentally, it is hard for me to credit the “queering” of straight media by straight people as being “queer” in any meaningful sense. Nonetheless, this appeared to be a commonly held assumption about BL based on this selection of articles. (Of which some of the writers are, I know, to be queer themselves.) 

My thoughts as I read these essays often turn to the idea of replacing “BL” with “lesbian porn.” If a writer is making a statement about BL’s inherent queerness that might sound absurd if I replaced it with “lesbian porn,” I question if it could be true. Is straight people creating queerness out of mainstream media “queer?” Is a straight folks imagining lesbian sex between two female movie stars “queer?” Why might one be “queer” and the other not? I have no answers, but I do have a lot of questions. Some of which I will ask James when I interview him for Casa Con this December!

Also interesting for me was the several mentions of misogyny in BL and BL fandom and it’s impact on and relation to local feminisms. I have seen how BL empowered women…and also how some empowered by fandom, turn on other marginalized folks in their communities. Is that changing? Is it worse or better than it used to be? I can answer that a little for Yuri, but not for BL.

Lastly, there were some tidbits of research subjects talking about how BL helped them either empathize with gay issues, or find their own queer identities and that interested me a lot, so that’s probably where I’m going to be focusing my research. How has Yuri made an impact on fans’ identities and sympathies? Let’s find out!

Overall, I found this book to be a fun and interesting read. Few of the articles were bogged down in over-dense language. I was especially interested in the section on China as mostly everyone can see that danmei is already the next big cultural export from China…even as it’s not apparently acceptable by their own media laws.

Ratings:

Overall – 9

If you’d like to understand how fandom studies look from the inside, or are interested in BL and/or queer media studies, I highly recommend Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia. It got me thinking – I look forward to seeing what comes out of this thought and I hope you do, too. ^_^





Dick Fight Island, Volume 1

April 10th, 2022

Today we’re doing something a little different. I sincerely mean that. too, because while it might seem that Dick Fight Island by Reibun Ike, is as far from Yuri as you could get, it has more in common with some of the issues I’ve talked about here on Okazu, than not.

Some while back I did an article on problematic content and why you may still enjoy it, you should also be aware that your enjoyment comes at the price of someone else’s dehumanization or, perhaps, trauma.

Dick Fight Island (it’s Japanese title is a much more staid  “8 Fighters”) is a story about Haruto, a young man who comes from a small archipelago of 8 islands, where once every 4 years a representative is chosen to “fight” in order to become the King of the Islands. The form of battle is a sex contest in which the winner makes the loser ejaculate first. This is entirely representative of world politics and also utterly ridiculous at the same time.  ^_^

Haruto has a lover on the “outside,” but he returns home to participate in the battle. That is basically 98.5% of the plot. Most of the book are the “battles” themselves, which, like the premise, are ridiculous. But when the battle part is done, it turns out that there’s a series of romances inside. Haruto’s lover arrives on the island and they are reunited, other pairs that were working out stuff in the battles live happily every after and I’m thinking that maybe just everyone could have kept the old king without all this mishegas.

The art in this volume was outstanding, honestly. Even aside from creative dick armor, the designs of the battle costuming was lovely and utterly exploitative. The fighters wore the male equivalent of elaborate chain mail bikini for female fighters. There was no question that this was supposed to be that very thing, and done beautifully. 

And then there are the “battles” themselves. If you can imagine gay porn where the participants have sex in an arena, and they and people around them comment on their techniques, you have the idea. I was reminded of a current manga running in Comic Yuri Hime called “Asumi-chan is interested in lesbian sex work!” (彩純ちゃんはレズ風俗に興味があります！) where different kinds of sex play are “explained” through teaching Asumi her job.  In both cases, the “explaining” isn’t making the act any sexier, in my opinion, it just casts the audience in the role of innocent/clueless voyeur. I imagine, based on how many porn stories utilize this role for the viewer, that it’s a popular one. Frankly, I far preferred the snark-filled worldliness of Sakuran. (I don’t think I ever reviewed it, but Kate Dacey’s review is a very good one.) When sex is stripped of intimacy, I’m inclined to accept thinking it of as a business more readily than as a contest.

I felt kind of icky reading about these “islanders” and their weird sexual ritual as a form of entertainment, as well. That just sailed right off the coast of historical fetishism of indigenous cultures and was impossible for me to ignore.

And lastly, as a gay person, fetishizing gay sex always makes me uncomfortable. The English title of this book establishes the tone for the story pretty solidly. This is meant to be “tee-hee”d at.  Treating gay sex as something to be “tee-hee”d at is still pretty problematic in my book.

So all this said, what did I think of Dick Fight Island? I don’t think I enjoyed it, honestly. I can see where BL fans would and it doesn’t quite make me happy.  I think it has some outstanding art and some lovely costuming choices – even beyond the battle armor. The characters were good enough that I probably would enjoy a slice-of-life around their fantasy islands more than this story.

As I said in my previous article, “It is perfectly all right for you to like problematic content but it shows you’re a decent person if you’re mindful as to why that content might be problematic to someone else.”

As a title with which to revisit this idea, Dick Fight Island was perfect.

Dick Fight Island is available on Amazon,  RightStuf or wherever you get your manga.

For what I presume will be a completely different perspective, check out the Mangasplaining Podcast, which will be covering this same volume in third season!
 





BL Metamorphosis, Volumes 1 and 2

August 30th, 2020

It’s Sunday, a day that we like to stretch out a little and look at things beyond the Yuri landscape on Okazu, from time to time. Today I wanted to take a look at a series that is wholesome, but isn’t really queer or even queer adjacent. Let’s call it queer tangential. BL Metamorphosis by Kaori Tsurutani, out from Seven Seas isn’t really about Boy’s Love so much as about fandom and the enjoyment of having connection with people through that fandom.

In BL Metamorphosis, Volume 1 we meet Urara, a high school girl who embraces her separateness and self-identifies as “strange” for her enjoyment of BL. She ends up introducing Ichinoi, an elderly neighborhood calligraphy teacher, into the world of BL. Almost reluctantly, Urara gains a comrade and a friend…

In BL Metamorphosis, Volume 2, Ichinoi embraces BL with a gusto that embarrasses Urara as much as it thrills her. Despite Urara’s desire to cling to being a weirdo, Ichinoi becomes a role model for Urara, as she simply refuses to be at all ashamed or secretive about her new hobby.  In this volume, there is a scene which is 100% on point for the two characters: At a comic market event, they are separated and half out of concern and half out of fear, Urara just stays put, while Ichinoi throws herself into the noise and confusion of the event happily, exploring different groups’ work without the shame Urara feels.

This, to me is a critical lesson. So many people seem to desperately cling to some wrongness they feel in themselves, and never think to just reinvent themselves at all, like Urara. And here’s Ichinoi happily opening up a new chapter in her life with no baggage at all. To some extent, we’re supposed to see this as a feature of Ichinoi’s age and maturity – she has nothing to lose by doing this, but…neither does Urara.

Almost reluctantly, Urara takes the advice of her new friend and picks up a pen to start work on her own BL story and it becomes clear to us that this was never a tale of Ichinoi’s metamorphosis at all, that Urara is the one that is stuck in her cocoon. It is Ichinoi who can fly already and Urara who has yet to grow wings. Hopefully, she’s about to start creating the Urara she wants to become.

It is very lovely to see a manga star an older woman as a lead, generally. This manga features what is being sold as an “unusual” friendship, because it spans generations, but I can attest to the fact that anime and manga fandom pretty much does away with the idea of chronological generations and instead has it’s own generations, as determined by which series was your first obsession. American anime fans are Ranma generation or Naruto generation or  My Hero Academia generation, Yuri fans can be Sailor Moon, or Utena or Strawberry Panic! or Bloom Into You, etc… generations. Ichinoi and Urara are years apart…but they are the same BL generation. ^_^

Tsurutani’s art has a  gentle quality to it.. As you know, I’m not a BL reader myself, but the art didn’t not feel at all to me to be BL-ish – which is a wholly ridiculous statement, I’m well aware. BL is of course not one style. But this feels more like an artist’s diary sketchbook, than a dramatic narrative. One expects random drawings of flower gardens and landscapes, if you know what I mean. It lacks tension, in a good way.

On a wholly personal note, setting the comic event in Sunshine City set all my “I miss Ikebukuro” bells and whistles off, so that was a joy. I remember that people mover and know exactly where those pillars are and that bench(!! That bench has seen some things) and …and…. ^_^ I can hear the noise of the comic market, as I presume, can the bulk of the Japanese audience.

This is another lovely bit of work by the team at Seven Seas. I want to especially bring your attention to the series logo, designed by Ki-oon. That is pretty fab work, vastly different from the Japanese logo, but is speaking differently to a different audience, as a different symbolic construct for a different title. The Japanese title is メタモルフォーゼの縁側, Metamorphose no Engawa, Margins of Metaphorphosis, which I think focuses on the liminal spaces of change, while the English title and logo are more about community and finding one’s self.) I give it top marks for translation and design.

Ratings:

Art – 9
Story – 8
Characters – 9, certainly Ichinose is.
Service – 0.5 The story itself has none, but it circles the discussion of BL service sometimes.

Overall – 9

BL Metamorphosis is a sweet story about finding friendship in BL fandom, but it’s also about pushing yourself out of the limitations you create for yourself. And for that, I think it’s absolutely worth reading.  What is life for, if we’re going to stay the person we were as a child all our lives?

Volume 3 in English is slated for a winter release, with a fourth volume in Japan released this past March. This June, creator Tsurutani-sensei said there is a little bit remaining of the series, as reported by Jennifer Sherman on ANN.

Thanks to Seven Seas for the review copies!





Pride Month Manga Thread on Twitter

June 5th, 2018

To celebrate Pride Month I decided to share a LGBTQ manga recommendation every day on Twitter. (Disclaimer: Not every suggestion will be manga. ^_^)

We’re up to day 5 and I wanted to give you all the thread link, so you can follow along – and feel free to suggest your faves in the comments – you know I’m always on the lookout for good LGBTQ manga and comics!





Sparkler Monthly Brings You Girls Love for the Holidays

November 28th, 2014

BYGHT It’s the holidays, what better time for us all to enjoy the sparkle of the season? ^_^ We’ll start with a new look at Sparkler Monthly, the magazine put out by Chromatic Press.

Sparkler was launched to be a venue in which female writers, creators, and fans are given an open and LGBTQ-friendly space to enjoy manga and manga-derivative works – in effect, an English-language Josei magazine. Sparkler Monthly lead their first year with a license rescue of Tokyopop Rising Star Jen Lee Quick’s BL story Offbeat. They’ve also published volumes of other series, a few one-shots, prose stories and an Audio Drama.

Last year they had Denise Schroeder debut with a cute “Story A”, girl-meets-girl, Before You Go. Well Denise is back for the December issue with a sequel and our friends at Sparkler have given her characters the cover!

Sparkler Monthly is periodically open to submissions, so if you are a writer or artist (or team) do check their submissions schedule and guidelines. They are closed right now, but bookmark this link and keep it in mind for future use.

More importantly, Sparkler Monthly is run by people like you – fans of manga, who feel that there ain’t nothing wrong with Shounen Jump, but there’s room in the universe for something that’s female-friendly. This is not just a doujinshi, either – the editors are experienced industry professionals and they know what works. Sparkler is available by subscription – 12 months for the price of 10, plus a free ebook. A one-month trial is a mere $7. If you want to try them out before you hand over a cent, you can – they have chapters of their manga up for free and I gotta tell you – new series Windrose looks mighty nice.

Sparkler Monthy wants to get us all in the holiday mood, so they are doing a big Holiday sale. Use the code HOLIDAY to get 15% off almost everything in the Sparkler shop! And hey when you’ve subscribed, let ’em know what *you* want to read and buy, because they actually do care about that. ^_^

Personally, I’d love to see them succeed. It’s long past time for a Josei manga magazine in the west to make it on its own. And this is the one I want to see make it. ^_^ Let’s give ’em a hand, shall we?