Brother, where art thou

Ever since I returned from Japan I haven't read comics, BL included. This mostly has to do with school and the amount of work I have to do this semester. Workshops. Ugh. So much reading. BUT I made time this weekend to read a couple of BL works and downloaded Giglio and Brother X Brother from Dangerous Pleasures. Giglio, by Inariya Fusunosuke, made me miss the time I devoted to reading my favorite manga genre. Brothers X Brothers, by Kisaragi Hirotaka, had me running to my homework.

This isn't the first time I've read Brother X Brother. In fact I can recall having a soft spot for this manga. However, whatever the author is doing with her current plot line isn't working for me. It's too predictable. I found myself rolling my eyes on quite a few occasions as I read chapters 12-15. And the sad thing is I like the characters and I feel there is so much potential for them to grow.

I mean, the author was pushing it with the whole "my ptsd makes me want to sex someone up". And maybe I could be more forgiving if that plot device was used for lots of sexing. The thing is, this story is definitely not sex driven, it's plot driven, therefore, the plot must be intriguing. And Brother X Brother just isn't anymore. For me, that is, what drove the story was the history behind Kaname and Masato. But with that all explained in previous chapters the mystery is gone.

From this point on there will be spoilers.

Okay, yeah, I like Kaname and Masato as a pair. But I don't dislike Souichirou and I can see him with Kaname, I just don't like how things seemed to have ended between Kaname and Masato. Kaname's all like "I'm gonna go get help for this problem I have" and Masato replies "yeah, you know, I think we shouldn't be using each other sexually anymore" and that's that. It shouldn't be so simple, especially if someone is suffering from PTSD, that's some hard stuff to overcome. I know Kaname wants to make a change, but I can't help but believe he won't need Masato there to hold his hand until he gets to a point of stability. Yeah, Souichirou is suppose to take his place, but the story would be far more interesting if Kaname and Masato continued on with their relationship as Souichirou realizes his feelings for Kaname, but recognizes that for the time being, Kaname needs Masato.

So, yeah, that's just my two-cents. Brother X Brother isn't godawful (this is), I'm just a little disappointed it hasn't lived up to it's potential.

Why I'm not buying Junjou.

Last year RightStuf announced they acquired the rights to Junjou Romantica. Being the dreamer I am, I hoped magically somehow it would be dubbed. Last month all the specs for the dvd were released and I made my decision to forgo this purchase.

This is not a first for me. If you look at my dvd shelf BL is very sparse, almost nonexistent. Sad, I know, but for me, dubbing is a huge reason why I purchase anime. Oh, yes, sometimes a dub can be atrocious such as the redub of Macross (whose bright idea was that). But for the most part, there are days when I just don't want to listen to Japanese, because when you're still learning a language listening to the language you're learning is work, thus it's tiring. Yeah, there's subs, but I prefer to have the tv on and do other things while I listen. So, dubs, no matter how bad, are necessary. This hasn't just hindered my purchasing of BL but other series also, such as Tears to Tiara and Simoun. Especially since, for the most part, a lot of these are streaming online or I can catch them on the anime network. There are those collectors who just have to have the series they're into, but for me that was a phase I have long since out grown.

I understand BL is a niche market but I really do think they had a chance to snatch up more fans with Junjou. Not including a dub you're cutting out a part of your market. And believe me, there are many people out there who are turned off by subs. And if they weren't going to include a dub track they have to offer something to entice people like me. Blu-Ray would be nice, but if this series can't get dubbed there's no way it will get a Blu-Ray release. You can get me with extras. And a nice little bonus would have been the interviews with the voice actors you can find on youtube such as this one here featuring Kamijou and Nowaki's VA's:

Pencil boards, postcards, trading cards, keychains would have all been nice little add-ons. Come on, Right Stuf, woo me! I've already seen Junjou, now give me a reason to own it.

Up, up and away...

Back home in the states and I'm welcomed by this news: Tokyopop is raising prices on their BL titles. BLU manga will now cost 14.99. This doesn't sit well with me. I know the economy sucks for everyone and TP probably is hurting for money, but I don't see how raising prices is going to help them any, especially when everyone is cutting back. And I doubt BL is on the top of anyone's buy list. I'm also not easily won over by their promise of bonus color pages. Going by their track record they can just as easily pull these pages without any explanation to the customers and expect us to keep paying the same price. This is probably why I'm not too keen about the new price because I don't know how long they will keep printing these color pages, nor am I confident this new price raise will prevent them from doing yet another, and another, and another.

I don't know. I'm all about supporting the genre, but I guess everyone has their limits and I think TP has reached mine. This isn't just about the raise in prices, but a lot of things TP has done over the years. So, this is more about not supporting a company then not supporting a genre. BL will continue to get my money one way or another, but TP won't.

In Japan!

Oh, little yaoi blog, I haven't forgotten you. I'm just at a school that has really, really bad computers which makes updating all the more laborious and just not fun. Japan has been lovely. I'm in Nagasaki and I'm surrounded by beautiful green mountains. Because this is a BL/yaoi/slash blog I don't want to get too into what I'm doing here if it's not tied to those subjects.

So, yeah, Nagasaki, very beautiful, the nicest people in the world, but, very little doujinshi, from what I've seen. I found a place called Book Bank and they have a doujin section filled with Gundam, RoyxEd, and Oofuri. Their Naruto section is minuscule, which made me cry the saddest fangirl tears ever. But, I was lucky to happen upon a Naruto doujinshi Tanaka Suzuki did in 2000. I also snatched up that Code Geass doujin I wrote about in this entry. So many funny little panels in this one. Also, a lot of CC, which made it all the more awesome.

Used bookstores are my haven. You guys have probably heard of Book Off which is sometimes paired off with a Hobby Off and you can find used comics anywhere from 100 yen to 350 (of course there are those that cost more but those prices are just a fraction of the original price). I am partial to Book Bank though because they have doujin and a lot more BL than Book Off.

Anyway, I still want to try my best to keep this blog active while I'm here. So look for an update hopefully once a week starting from today. Oh, and I want to thank the people who left comments over the past few weeks. I hope no one thinks I'm going to stop posting because I don't get comments. This blog is personal so I intend on continuing it until I stop liking anything with boys loving boys. And I don't see that happening anytime soon :).

It's a revival! Hallelujah!

So, way back when I actually updated this blog in a timely manner I wrote a post about the webcomic Tei and Riki. I mostly wrote some of my thoughts on why I believed the comic went from a comedy to an angst-fest. Not long after I made that post I received an email from the creator, Eve, who kindly informed me of the reason for the change. Being the total fangirl I am, I spazzed at receiving an email from the person who I give full credit for sparking my love of BL. Yeah, Yu Yu Hakusho got me into yaoi, but Tei and Riki introduced me to the world of original man on man lovin'. I really had no idea any of that even existed until I fell upon Tei and Riki. Plus, Tei and Riki was something my sisters and I would gather around the monitor and read together. Ah, memories.

One of the things I was hoping to hear from Eve was that she had a DA page or something going on at the Y!, but sadly, not a word. Until today. I recently received a message from some awesome person who has informed me that Eve does have a page over at DA and she is continuing Tei and Riki. I thought I'd pass this great news along to everyone else. So, if you're like me and been hopin' for new updates on Tei and Riki head on over here and check 'em out.

Sukitomo

Last night my mom asked me to put a movie on, so I rummaged through my computer to find something she hasn't seen. I came across Sukitomo and remembered I had downloaded it from a BL website. So, I'm like, BL tonight, yay!

No. No yay. Because this movie is not BL. This is a story about a girl dealing with her feelings for her brother. Yes, her brother's best friend is in love with him, but the focus of the movie isn't on their relationships. We follow the little sister to school where she waits to here good news about her brother's boxing match, into her room where she complains about Yoshiki and makes a confession to her friend, and to the boxing ring where she cheers her brother, Tomokazu, on. Yoshiki does get a few moments here and there and we get one of those "oh noes I must protect you by throwing my body on top of you, oh, hello thar" scenes, but everything will inevitably lead back to the sister. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but you know how when you're expecting something to taste one way and than you get thrown off because it ends up being something completely different? That off kilter feeling can be a bit off putting.

Okay, there was no real boy/boy lovin' in this movie but snatches of it, so how did the movie fair overall? Sukitomo is every shoujo cliche tied up and wrapped with a bow. So, if you like seeing something you've seen a hundred times before, then go watch this on youtube right now! You'll love it! But everyone else might want to pass on this. Aside from the eye candy that is Saito Takumi, this movie is forgettable.

Mice, Carps, and Setona

The first manga I ever read by Setona Mizushiro was X-Day. If I'm remembering correctly it was released when manga had just started to gain traction in the US market so there was some glut but it didn't flood the market as it does now. So I trusted X-Day would be on par with the majority of the other manga I had been purchasing. I enjoyed the first volume of X-Day but had a feeling, from the way the story had unfolded that it was going to end in a very predictable cliche shoujo way. It did. And so I was content with reading it during my lunch break at Waldenbooks and not purchasing it. Unimpressed by her writing I avoided anything by Mizushiro for years. Then one day as I scrolled through my LJ post I noticed a BL cover drawn by her. "So she does BL also," I thought to myself, "I bet it's just as cliched as her shoujo work". Oh, how wrong I was.

Setona Mizushiro's story about a gay man who is in love with a straight man and the trials and tribulations of their relationship is one of the best manga I have ever read. I know the premise sounds like every BL story in existence, but it's all about how you tell that story and Mizushiro tells it well. Her two characters, Imagase and Kyouichi are just...raw. You see their strengths and their weaknesses and you learn quickly that these two people aren't the nicest guys in the world. They have weird quirks, get jealous, cheat, lie, argue, shout at the top of their lungs, fight when they should be working on a peace treaty or not fight when they should put up a battle. This isn't a list of negatives, this is a list of realities. Of behaviors that make us human. Not bad. Not good. Just is. And just like us, they aren't aware of their feelings, nor are they quite sure of who they are, especially in Kyouichi's case. And Imagase, who comes off very self assured is always shaky because his foundation is Kyouichi. The whole first volume of The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese is a roller coaster ride that keeps going down. It's exhilarating and fun, but you need a brief reprieve so you can catch your breath. Setona never gives you a chance to breathe.

The second volume, The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice, the ride comes to a screeching halt and knocks all the air out of you. I use this analogy because as you slow down a feeling of relief shoots through your body before the sudden stop that jolts you. And although the first chapter, Melancholy Butterfly, starts out just as rocky as the previous volume Mizushiro ends it so bitter sweetly that one can have hope where there wasn't any before. Maybe things will work out? Maybe they can be happy together? What is interesting is Kyouichi is asking himself the same questions. By the third chapter, Owl, he seems to settling into the idea of a life with Imagase.

And that feeling, that possibility, is the one time you're able to sit back and inhale. Things do eventually come to a head but there isn't a crazy soap opera explosion. I think of Totally Captivated and how Mookyul and Ewon eventually have an all out war. I don't know what I expected to happen between Kyouichi and Imagase. If anything at all. But what transpires isn't at all a thunderstorm, but a light down pour. And for some reason, that made it all the more heart wrenching.

Man, I cried like a baby while reading this chapter and after. And it sucks that I can't say why because I don't want to ruin it for any of you who haven't read the latest chapter or even the manga. I will say hurry over to Presencedear and download it if you haven't. I promise, you will not be disappointed.

Why aren't you slashing them?!

And why haven't I ever made a post about these two? These two who? Why, Seiji and Kouta from Midori no Hibi. What is Midior no Hibi? It's a shounen romance comedy created by Kazurou Inoue where the main character, Seiji Sawamura's right hand is replaced with a green haired girl named Midori. There is also this guy:

Kouta Shingyouji is Midior's childhood friend. When Midori enters a sort of coma he takes it upon himself to find a way to awaken her. Deciding it best to overlook all scientific explanations Kouta instead focuses his attention on fairy tales, because they have indeed saved many a comatose individual. If he wants to wake a princess he must find a prince. And there is no better prince than Midiori's crush, school delinquent Seiji Sawamura. But when Kouta meets Seiji something unexpected happens:

He falls in love. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! What I adore about Kouta is we get to see his little boy crush develop. The audience is there from the sweet blossoming to the bitter end. We slashers get treated to many a slashy moment such as this:

And this:

And my personal favorite:

Ha-ha! Threesome.

Usually when there is a shounen romance and a guy becomes the object of affection of another guy it irks me because I feel the creator is trying to say "the main character is so special even guys want him" (a great example of this takes place in I"s by Masakazu Katsura). Although Kouta's infatuation with Seiji is used for comedic purposes I like the fact we see the relationship develop. We get to see him and Seiji become friends and how Kouta struggles with his sexual feelings for Seiji. It's all very adorable. And very cannon. So if you haven't read Midori no Hibi then GO READ IT NOW.

His Favoritest

After years of avoiding it, I finally sat down and read Suzuki Tanaka's, Aitsu Daihonmei. The reason for my avoidance stemmed from reading the original release in Libre's Pheonix anthology. The topic given to the creators participating in the issue was basically ugly guys and the hawt guys that love 'em. In my opinion, no one actually stayed true to the topic (except for Saika Kunieda) because none of the ugly guys were ugly. One of the characters looked like he might've been a teenaged version of Timmy Turner from Fairly Odd Parents, but that's not ugly, just a little odd and kinda funny. What I didn't like about Tanaka's story is it seemed her version of ugly required having almond shaped eyes.

Almond shaped eyes?! Is that what got you all riled up, you oversensitive girl?! Well, yeah. It seemed illogical to me to have a trait that so many Asians shared labeled as ugly. It's like the pot calling the kettle black. Maybe it is a bit oversensitive to completely avoid a title because I don't agree with the premise, especially when I take pride in exposing myself to a variety of things so I can become more knowledgeable. I guess one of my problems with Aitsu is I was thinking too much like an American who has wide knowledge of American racism. Mind you, I am not saying that I found Aitsu racist, but my history with racism made me sensitive to the content. But Aitsu is created for the Japanese by a Japanese author and their rules of prejudice and racism are different from our own. So I concluded that it would be best for me to read the rest of Aitsu before passing judgment. And that I did. The whole almond eyes = ugliness is still something I want to explore but I have to admit that the story swept me away. Maybe because, I don't know, it had a hint of familiarity.

Hmmm...Two high school boys, one that's unattractive and the other is very attractive hook up. Attractive guy has jealousy issues and is always ready to jump the bones of his lover, although his lover isn't too receptive to his advances. Sounds kinda like...

Menkui! One of the big differences between Menkui and Aitsu is the prior one took place at an all boys school. In Aitsu, the main character, Yoshida is constantly being picked on by girls because their idol, Satou, lavishes him with attention. It makes me wonder if Kotori would have received the same treatment if their school had been co-ed. If anything the characters in Aitsu seem to be extreme versions of Kotori and Aikawa. I'd even go as far to say Aitsu is a parody of those high school romances Tanaka is so good at writing. Other than the extremities of the characters there's the fact that Tanaka doesn't really draw any backgrounds, which seems to compound the fact that this could quite possibly be a parody. Everything tends to be stark white. When she pans out on the school it's never a well detailed building, it looks like something your little brother might have scribbled on his math homework. And the building is very reminiscent of the thousand school buildings you've probably seen in manga and anime. Tanaka seems to be relying on her audience to fill in the blanks and parodies are always completely reliant upon the knowledge of the audience. And it is kind of weird seeing a Tanaka title without any sci-fi touches. So I am most definitely leaning in the direction that this is a parody.

I don't know. I can't help but see Aitsu as Menkui sans the whole sci-fi twist. It's just pure and utter high school romance fluff. Which, if that's your thing, you'll fall in love with this title. I still want to put on my sociologist cap and analyze it to death, but for now I'll just enjoy the syrupy sweet goodness of Satou/Yoshida. And, boy, is it good.

Will I ever be able to keep up with this thing?

'Cause I would really like to. I know this is a personal blog and it shouldn't matter how much or when I update, but I made this blog for the sole reason to see if I could dedicate myself to something. And BL/yaoi/slash is something I'm very dedicated to...until life gets in the way. You see, I'll be going to Japan in the fall so I've been brushing up on my Japanese, translating doujin, and trying to complete this stupid Junjou Romantica doujinshi before I leave. Since I've been super focused on those things this blog has kinda been forgotten. Until I see something I just have to post about, such as:

Suzuki has made it onto the cover of B-Boy again. Yay, for more exposure for her, but boo for the bad cover art and for this series. I really need to make a post as to why I'm put off by this series. Anyway, go here to check out the previews (click on the line up bar) for this month as well as to see who's gonna be in the next issue. Yoneda Kou's on the line up, this makes me soooo happy. Maybe I'll pick this up while I'm in Japan?

Oh, and in case you haven't heard: JPQUEEN IS ACCEPTING ORDERS AGAIN!! They've scaled things back considerably, which is quite understandable given the current economy. At least they're still alive and kickin'. I wish them luck and I hope they're able to make it through these rough times.