Archive for the Now This Is Only My Opinion Category


Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan

February 6th, 2014

passionateDeborah Shamoon’s Passionate Friendship: The Aesthetics of Girls’ Culture in Japan traces the development of girls’ literature and, eventually, Shoujo manga from the end of the 19th century through the 1970’s, with particular attention to the girls’ magazines of the 1930’s, the Magnificent 49-ers and the birth of Shoujo, Josei and BL manga. Shamoon addresses Yoshiya Nobuko’s writing, but does not talk about “Yuri” as a genre. Nonetheless, anyone interested in the formative years of Yuri and its literary precedents may want to read this book. There is some definite value in here, and I promise to spend time on the good points, but before we get there, there are several major negatives with this text that I want to address, in ascending order of importance.

The first serious problem I encountered with Shamoon’s work is her tendency to dismiss all theories but her own, particularly if she can hold up a shield of a Japanese scholar’s work to support her theories. You might not see this as a problem, unless, like me, you have an issue with absoluteist thought.

At no point in time does Shamoon ever imagine that another interpretation – especially that of the audience which reads the work –  might be as valid as her own. Any suggestion, any filter other than her own is immediately dismissed, something that strikes me as…kind of ridiculous. When I am repeatedly cautioned to stop interpreting what I read through the filters that make up my life experience well, there’s really no polite response for that. Instead of acknowledging that other scholars have other interpretations, she brings them up only to wholly, completely, utterly dismiss them.

Whether I actually agree that girls’ literature revolves around a “culture of sameness” as Shamoon does, I would not here suggest that this is a terrible idea. Tween and teen girls culture is, largely, defined by the pressure to fit in. In that sense, I agree with her, but in the sense that Shamoon proposes her theory to define the illustrative style for early 20th century Japanese girls’ lit, I would say that she’s missing a major factor here. Which brings me to my second point.

It’s not until well past the first half of the book, into the chapter about Takahashi Makoto’s (Sakura Namiki) influence on Shoujo manga, that Shamoon acknowledges the literary and artistic constraint of commercial art. As a friend so succinctly put it, “Commercial art must sell.” Well yes, and Shamoon acknowledges this has an effect on Takahashi’s art. But she completely fails to acknowledge what every commercial artist knows…deadlines are brutal. There is not enough time in the world to get things done, so we create macros, templates, stencils, tones and other shortcuts. Some of the illustrations she chooses to make her “culture of sameness”  point could far more simply be explained as artistic stylings made sensible by deadlines. Anyone who reads manga knows that manga artists often begin with the same face or one of a few body types, then elaborates on instantly identifiable characteristics. Change hair and skin tone slightly and you have a new character (or the same character pretending to be differrent, as Sailor Moon fans all know.)

Which brings me to my third and most important point.

This is what my copy of the book looks like:

Thoughts

What you can’t really see is that I began making notes on these cute little sticky strips, then graduated to the small sticky pads, then the 3″x4″ size, then, in a moment of crisis switched to a 7″ note pad, entire pages of which were filled. I eventually moved back to the small stickies, but *a lot* of them.  And here’s why:

In Shamoon’s chapter on Yoshiya Nobuko’s work, she begins by “cautioning” us to not use the obvious filter of reality and allow Yoshiya’s actual life with an actual female partner to cause us to mistakenly interpret her work as in any way lesbian.  She then follows that eye-roller up with the conclusion that because Yoshiya does not write about a separatist vision of society, or exhort her readers (tween Japanese girls of the 1920s and 30’s,) to adopt a separatist vision of society, her works cannot be seen as feminist.

Let me refer back to my second point – commercial art must sell. Yoshiya was a female writer, living on her writing, in early 20th century Japan. Her work was subject to male editorial supervision and had to be approved by government censors. And even within the restrictions of writing stories that would sell to their target audience, on deadline, that would be approved of by male censors and editors, she wrote a novel in which two women chose to step away from society and make a life together (Yaneura no Nishojo), one in which a woman creates an alternative adoptive family for herself, after redeeming her reputation which has been smeared (Ban-sensei) and told tale after tale of young women growing up, some marrying, some not, but all finding their way into adult life (Hana Monogatari Volume 1, Volume 2.) Creating one’s own family outside the constraints of society is, IMHO, the very essence of feminism…the right for every woman to choose for herself what her love, her family…her life….will be. If we take off the incredibly narrow blinders Shamoon would have us wear, Yoshiya’s work is unremittingly feminist in nature.

I did say that there was value in this book. And there is. Shamoon’s more factual passages, historical discussions of girls’ literature, magazines and manga are exceptionally useful to a student of Yuri or BL. As a result of reading this book, I have recently concluded reading Otome no Minato, by Yasunari Kawabata (for which I have a posted a 2-part special review.) And I’ve added Ban-sensei to my to-read pile, because I can already see some great analogies with manga and anime series you’ll know in what appears to be a very Dickensian tale. So, yes, definitely worth the time it took me to read it. But I would have loved it, had Shammoon not been so intent on refuting all other scholars and insisting that Yoshiya could not be read as feminist (much less lesbian) because none of her books follow Straw Feminist doctrine.

Ratings:

Value as a Chronology – 8

Overall – 6





2014 Okazu Guide to Buying Anime and Manga from Japan

January 5th, 2014

glsign-aniA number of folks are asking about buying from Japan, or buying Yuri in Japan. I’ve written about this a number of times but sites close down and stores go out of business, so I’m going to do an updated guide. This is not meant to be comprehensive – any attempt at comprehensive in a rapidly changing world is doomed to fail. ^_^

I want to clearly note that this is not a definitive Guide to Shopping for Yuri. It is a guide to shopping for Japanese items; manga, anime, etc. There re no all-Yuri on one place stores in Japan, The lack of all-something-everywhere is true for any genre. There is no store in Japan that sells every BL comic, or Seinen comic ever published, either. Manga stores in Japan give store space to the new and the best sellers, just like American bookstores. (The new Yuricon store is getting closer to being just that all-Yuri-in-one-place store online! We have all the English-language Yuri anime and Yuri manga and a lot of the Japanese Yuri manga , digital manga, literature, Drama CDs, and even light novels…and we’re adding new items every day. Check out the Yuricon Store and see for yourself!)

I’ll be using Manga as the default example, so unless otherwise noted, the item in question is a book. And in Japanese. ^_^ It might be a Drama CD or an artbook or a Japanese DVD set, but it’s all the same for our purposes.

Also, this is not a guide to buying Yuri anime or manga you can get from western companies. RightStuf, Funimation, Sentai Filmworks and Seven Seas, are all available on the Yuricon Store. I trust you to be able to look those up for yourselves on the site search, or use links provided here on Okazu. You should also be able to place manga orders with your local comic book stores or chain stores, and there are any number of  respectable online websites like Anime Castle and Robert’s Anime Corner that stock all sorts of toys, anime and manga.

Before I get to the meat of this post, let me remind you of two things:

1) This is an Okazu Guide. It comes imbued with common sense and a dose of harsh reality. ^_^ Manga, Anime, Figurines and Games are Luxury Items. You do not need them. You want them. The presumption of all market forces is if you want a thing, you have to be able to afford it.

2) You can get things you want but one way or another you will pay for them. When I buy Japanese manga, one of us, the manga or I, has to travel 6500 miles to get it. Either way, it costs money. ^_^

That having been said, here we go!

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Part 0. Know What You Are Buying

Before you start shopping, I strongly recommend you learn at least a few things:

1. The actual Title of the Manga in Japanese.

It’s all well and fine to say you like “Chatting at the Amber Teahouse” but there is no manga with that name. There is only an illicit scan. No bookstore, no website can help you find that. The title of Fujieda-sensei’s manga about two women and a tea shop is 飴色紅茶館歓談. That is what you will need to have with you when you search.

2. The Author’s name in Japanese. Wikipedia, AnimeNewsNetwork and other encyclopedias are a huge help to identify this sort of thing. Put an author’s name in a search engine and you will find that Fujieda Miyabi is written 藤枝雅. For Part 2, Shopping in Japan below, you might want to print out the title, publisher and author’s names for yourself. For Part 1, Shopping Online, cut and paste will do.

3. When you plan on shopping in person, it also very much helps to know what demographic audience the book is for. This is indicated by the Publisher and Imprint. We’ll get more deeply into that in Part 2.

 

Part 1. Shopping Online

2015 Update:  We’ve made amazing progress on the new Yuricon Store. Check out the listings there first.

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We have links to major retailers (Amazon, Amazon JP and RightStuf), descriptions, links to reviews, and you can search in English or Japanese, for author, title, or publishing company. And series have been tagged by subject, so you can look at title that are about adult life or magical girl with ease.

For instance, you can search for Aoi Hana or 青い花, both of which will bring up all the English and Japanese listings – anime, digital manga, and Japanese manga. If you search Sweet Blue Flowers, you’ll only pull up the English-language anime and the English-language digital manga.

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Amazon Japan is my default for purchasing Japanese items. I choose them because 1) their selection is very good (often better than shopping in stores in Japan); 2) I am an affiliate, so every time you buy through a Yuricon Shop or Okazu link, I get a few yen to support my own habit and;  3) It is very easy to use.

Let’s say you click through an Okazu link for Aoi Hana, Volume 8. Here’s what you see:

AJP1

 

Everything is in Japanese, except one thing. Notice the red arrow on the right? It points to a sentence that reads “Would you like to see this page in English? Click here.”  If you click the link, the page looks like this:

AJP2

Things like this book is “In Stock” and the “Add to Shopping Cart” button turn into English. The title, the author, the publishing company do not. They don’t, because the title of the book is still 「青い花」 and the author’s name is still 志村貴子.

What that English link does do is make checking out much faster. ^_^ If you’ve ever used Amazon, you probably don’t even need to bother turning the page to English, the checkout is the same, all the buttons shapes and sizes are the same. But if you want to lessen the friction, just click that English button and it’s all words you know.

Shipping: Amazon only ships by air. You can choose that you want the items grouped or separate, but no other shipping options exist. My advice is to order about 20 items at a time, grouped into one order. That brings the shipping cost-per-item down to $4, which is totally palatable. Exchange rates will make a difference too. Shipping that might cost $100 when the exchange rate is good could be a lot more when it’s poor. If you choose “group them together” and something hasn’t been released yet, sometimes Amazon JP send it separately when it gets in stock and sometimes they hold the whole order and I have not been able to figure out what the triggers are. It’s often haphazard.

There is no Yuri category on Amazon JP. Yuri books are listed under the BL category. Book>. Comic/Light Novels/BL> Comic:  本 > コミック・ラノベ・BL > コミック You need to know your title, or your author’s name in Japanese.

Amazon JP often will not ship figurines, but to be honest, I do better in cost these days buying figurines on Amazon.com. Last year, I would have paid $45 or so for a Saber figurine in Japan, then would have had to get it home on my own. I found the same figurine for $36 with free Prime shipping on Amazon.com.

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YesAsia is a popular choice for buying Asian goods. I have not used them in probably a decade, so I have no idea how good their service is. They do offer shipping discounts for orders over a certain amount.  If you want Japanese manga, but do not know any Japanese at all, they seem like a decent choice.

yesa

 

The site is in English, the dollar amounts are in USD and it looks like they still offer various shipping options, like standard mail and express. Their stock is not bad, you can search for authors and titles in romaji (English characters used for Japanese words, like “ameiro kouchkan kandan”).  The cost of the books is higher than on Amazon JP because YesAsia includes the cost of shipping to them in the cost of the item. Some books, especially newer books, might more expensive as a result. Thanks to Greg for the testimonial on them and  Laura for letting us know that YesAsia ships worldwide.

There is no Yuri category on YesAsia. You need to know your title and/or author’s name transliterated name in English.

Rinkya is a buying and bidding service. They’ve been around more than a decade. I have never used them (for entirely personal reasons that are irrelevant here.) If you are bidding on an item on Yahoo JP auctions and want a buyer to bid for you, arrange the shipping and payment (since most Japanese auctions won’t ship internationally) they can do that. Sometimes they sell stock that people never claimed from their warehouse. They do offer slow boat options for shipping. Yahoo JP auctions are like the Mandarake of online shopping. People get rid of collections, old toys, rare items. It might not be cheap, but back in the day when I shopped the auctions, I got some amazing stuff.

BK1 used to be a popular book selling alternative, but they have become honto. AudioErotica has graciously jumped in to tell us that they still do ship internationally and yes, they have slower/cheaper shipping methods available.

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Part 2. Shopping in Japan

In November 2012, I wrote a guide to Shopping for Yuri in Japan. By October 2013, some of the store-specific information was already obsolete.

But this is where the info I mentioned in Part 0 really comes in handy. I have said this with every single buying guide I’ve written:

To effectively shop for manga in Japan, you need to know three things. Books are not generally shelved by genre, but by imprint. So first you need to know what age/gender demographic you’re looking at, then publisher/imprint, then author. And once you have found one publisher’s Yuri manga, don’t think you’ve found it all. The sign above might say “Yuri”, but there could be more under a different publisher’s imprint elsewhere.

Know if the book you’re looking for is for girls (少女), boys (少年),for women (女性), for men (男子) – these  are not necessarily listed as sections in the bookstore, you just need to know who the title you’re looking for is targeted to. Then look for the publisher, (Hobunsha 芳文社, Ichijinsha 一迅社, Futabasha 双葉社) then look for the imprint (YH Comics, Tsubomi Comics, Mangatime KR Comics) then look for the author. If you are new to this, and don’t read Japanese, take a printout of the cover you’re looking for. And take a look at the spine of the books you do have and memorize the characters. The publisher is listed at the bottom of the spine, the imprint along the top. Get to know your books!

The main areas of Tokyo for manga shopping are:

Akihabara for guy-focused stuff (which includes Yuri)

Ikebukuro for girl-focused stuff (which includes BL, but you can find some Yuri)

Nakano Sun Mall for older stuff, like classic Yuri.

Shibuya for another Animate and Mandarake.

Stores change their location, stock, layout and focus all the time, so check out other resources for what is open and what isn’t. Every large city in Japan has its own geeky area. Check current travel guides or look for Animate store locations as a orienteering hint.

There are, as of October 2013 no Yuri-only stores anywhere in the world. You’re going to have to shop the old fashioned way.

**New as of October 2014** – Toranoana in Akihabara has a multipublisher Yuri section. So does Comic Zin in Akihabara, although it’s fairly small. This is a major, massive change. Never before has there been a section that was really “Yuri”. It was amazing to see different publishers side by side.

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Part 3. Shopping at Conventions and Bookstores

If you live near or within travel distance of a large city, you probably have two possible old-fashioned fan choices to shop in, that you’re not using.

Anime Conventions used to be the ONLY place a fan could go to get toys, anime and manga. Because it is so much easier to shop online, a lot of fans forget that cons are still a good place to go to find stuff. But they are. ^_^ What cons aren’t any more is…rare. So the old wheeze that if you shop on Sunday as people are packing up, they’ll give you a good deal doesn’t apply much. What the dealer doesn’t sell this weekend goes with them to the next con and the next, and the next. If you have a local con and you haven’t been in a while, drop by…you never know what you’ll find. But…fashion and media still go hand in hand. If you’re looking for old school items, don’t be surprised when all the vendors are carrying the new, the hot, the hip. They want to sell stuff. Carrying that girl-type Ranma 1/2 figure around for a decade until you decide you’re ready to buy it isn’t really cost efficient, when they can sell 1500 Attack on Titan things instead. ^_^

Japanese bookstores. Kinokuniya and Sanseido are two large Japanese bookstore chains that have US locations. They will order books and magazines for you, but you still need to know the publisher and title. (Bring along a print copy of, say,  コミック百合姫、一迅社, to let them know you want Comic Yuri Hime put out by Ichijinsha.) If you’re in a location near or within travel distance of either store, it’s worth a visit, so you can see how the manga are arranged by demographic/publisher/imprint/title. (English manga is arranged alphabetically by title, and who can blame them?)

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Conclusion

Shopping for Yuri is still challenging, but do not despair! The hunt is part of the fun.  Take this opportunity to learn a bit of Japanese, and you’ll find that you’ll be able to understand more of what you’re buying, as well.  ^_^





New Year’s Thought

January 1st, 2014

New_Year_wallpapers_New_Year_2014_-_the_year_of_the_horse__a_white_background_047049_I was asked this question today: Is there something you feel you must convey each time you write?

Here is my answer and my wish for you for the New Year.

Think bigger.

Don’t stop at the media, the desire, the skill or the thought that you just had; push it prod it, stretch it, until you can include as much of the wide world as possible in it.

If you’re reading a comic book, learn about the artists who inspire the artist, the dance it referred to, the novel it resembles. Visit the place (at least via the Internet), read the sources.

Always, always think bigger than you are at this moment.

Let this be what drives us all to be greater things than ever before in this New Year. Happy 2014 to all of you!





Why Japan is so Weird and Wacky!

December 23rd, 2013

I’m sorry for lack of reviews –  its not for want of trying, but 1) I’m at the DVD box/Light Novel portion of my piles, so it will be slower and 2) people celebrate various holidays at this time of year, you might have heard of this. I haven’t even begun to think about end of year lists, I really had better do that. /sheepish/

Instead, I wrote this article on Medium:
Why Japan (or China, India, The United States or, heck, Denmark) is So Weird and Wacky!

I hope you’ll enjoy it – and do let me know what you think. All recommendations on Medium and.or comments here are welcome!

 





How to “Understand” Art

November 25th, 2013

You know, we talk about comics here, but I rarely talk about “Art.” This is because: 1) Interpretation of Art is absolutely personal and; 2) The art in a comic is less important to me than the story and/or where story and art intersect. This is why I separate out the Art and Story categories for my Ratings, because the one does not guarantee (or even compliment) the other in manga.

Because I am not naturally visual, I’ve relied on a lot of other people to tell me what I was seeing…and why I should care. Today on Quora, I had a chance to share my process in learning to “get” art.

What is the point of this picture by Carlos D. Donjuan? I understand that it must have something to it because a lot of people seem to like it. I just don’t “get” it. Is there a message? Does it appeal to people emotionally?

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Here is my answer:

Here’s the thing about Art. Not everyone needs to resonate with every artistic endeavor.

For instance, here is a very famous work of Art that millions of people come to see from all over the world. They stand there and sigh and cry and are all sorts of emotionally moved by it:

I don’t “get” it at all. The women have male bodies with breasts. It’s allegory, which I think should not work as a guiding model  for a life after 8 years old or so. People love this painting.

There all different ways a person can enjoy Art. It might speak to you personally on an emotional level. You can think it’s pretty. It can evoke a memory. You may hate it. You may admire the technique, the draftsmanship, the skill…and still not like the piece.

Art is largely subjective. The piece you used as an example means nothing to me yet. Neither did Picasso’s Guernica, until I had a chance to learn about it and really grasp what he was doing with it. I can’ say I “like” it, but I can appreciate it.

I don’t know Donjuan’s art, but I have always liked graffiti and collage as media, so I’m kindly disposed to the piece from the outset. The more I look at it, the more I like his take on portraiture. So, yes, in the time it has taken me to write this, I’ve come to a place where I “get” this piece. Here’s what he’s done. He’s taken a picture of a mother and son and…pets…maybe…

…and rendered it in collage. Both mother and son look happy, even though they have no faces. They look comfortable with each other and their environment – an environment that is…water? They appear to be chest deep in water. 

And oh, look, there is a halo around the child’s head. This is not a “mother and son” this is a Madonna and Child picture. The “pets” are the Evangelists, I’ll venture. And the water is meant to evoke the Baptism, at a guess. 

So, yes…I “get” this painting now. And I don’t dislike it, although I’m not moved by the theme.

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What does that have to do with manga, you ask? It has everything to do with “understanding” what you see and what you read here. Right now, I’m reading Sakura Trick, Volume 1 (桜トリック), in preparation for the upcoming anime.

Here is the manga art:

sakura_trick_vol1

What can you tell about the series from the picture? Well, right away, we can see it is a school-life romance, so we can guess there will be nothing ground-breakingly new here. But, we can also see that the relationship is consensual…and as this is the first page of the book, we have to presume that the relationship is established either before the book starts or early on. Why do I say that? Because if the relationship is the climax of the story, the first page gives it away.

If we look at the publisher of the manga, we can see that is published by KR Comics. We then know it is very likely a gag comic strip, because that is what they specialize in.

When we look at the anime art, we can see that, if anything, the character designs have been simplified.

skf

We are not yet given any backgrounds, but it seems likely, as it is a gag series that focuses on schoolgirls and the art is simple, rather than realistic, that we’re looking at something rather like Yuri Yuri than, say, Strawberry Panic.  If you said to yourself just now, “Yeah, I knew that,” you already understand some of the conventions and tropes of manga art.

(As an aside, based on all this, I am looking for someone else to consider reviewing the anime for me, since I can tell that it probably will not be my cup of tea. ^_^)

What does it mean when a manga page has a black border and background around the panels? Do you instantly realize that this is a visual indicator of a “flashback?” Then you “understand” this visual cue, probably without realizing it. Certain kinds of motion and speed indicators are almost universal, as well, – think of the visual convention for “scuffle” – a cloud with random body parts and items protruding at random angle and motion lines.

Understanding art is about context. It is up to the artist to initially supply the context or the reader may just never have any idea what is going on. Genre checklists shortcut that process. Evil eyebrows and big-ass swords are indicators of personality and motivation…and skills.

If you pick all this up without explanation, that’s great, but if you’re out there wondering what the heck everyone sees in a particular manga, you’re not alone.

When you next look at at a picture or series that makes no sense to you, you can of course, just slide past it and give it no more of your time – or, you can slow down and see if you can “understand” it.  ^_^

If you have any questions about manga visual conventions and tropes – or you just want to wax poetic or complain about a visual indicator you like or love, hit us up in the comments!