#two are fudanshi guess which ones

[addynosketchpad]

tennis ball's bucket list: walk in on two boys making out

bi version

and of course the original doodle

[metalandmagi]

Romance Anime Starter List

I don’t know about you guys, but I’m sick and tired of seeing “Top ___ Best Anime of All Time” lists that are nothing but shounen. So I wanted to put together a list of some romance anime that I consider good “starters” for the genre. Because if I were just now becoming an anime fan, I’d think all there was to offer was shounen action series.

And by “starters” I mean basic stuff that’s not too…out there, and actually involves the characters getting together instead of just harems or using romance as a side plot (sorry Ouran High School Host Club and My Next Life as a Villainess). 

So if you’re new to anime and want stuff that’s not just guys beating the shit out of each other (which is also fun, don’t get me wrong), here are some basics.

Taisho Maiden Fairy Tale- When the pessimistic Tamahiko Shima loses all function in his right arm, his family sends him away to live in the mountains with the cheerful, hard working Yuzuki Tachibana…who was purchased by the Shima family to pay off her family’s debts and basically act as a caretaker/future bride for Tamahiko so they’d never have to deal with him again. It’s a more cheerful version of My Happy Marriage (without the supernatural stuff), except in this one, the guy is the one who has massive self-esteem issues and an abusive family. There are still very serious themes, but ultimately it’s not meant to make you cry every episode. I swear it’s so good, but nobody watched it!

Horimiya- A slice of life in which pretty and popular high school queen bee Hori, finds out her quiet, unassuming classmate Miyamura is hiding piercings and tattoos that could get him expelled. The two gradually find out more about each other and get together in the most realistic way I’ve seen depicted in an anime. It’s also fucking hysterical and genuinely emotional.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie- Another slice of life that focuses on two adults who meet in an MMO game without realizing they also know each other in real life. I don’t want to say much more than that. It’s adorable, and the main character is so relatable it hurts.

Love with Yamada-kun at Level 999- Speaking of MMOs, this is a newer series about Akane Kinoshita, a college first year who’s reeling from a bad break up. In an attempt to get back at her ex, she winds up meeting Akito Yamada, a popular gamer who happens to be in her guild in the MMO they both play at an IRL meetup. The two go from acquaintances to something more as they keep running into each other. Even more relatable main characters and just wholesome relationships all around.

Snow White With The Red Hair- A fantasy in which an apothecary named Shirayuki (meaning, you guessed it, “snow white”) runs away from her home in order to escape becoming the concubine of her town’s prince. While fleeing, she is rescued by Zen, the prince of a neighboring country, and she ends up becoming an herbalist to repay him. It's super cute with some genuinely swoon worthy moments and a couple that just works so well together. I have a habit of comparing this to Akatsuki no Yona, even though the two aren’t really that alike. This is more romance driven while Akatsuki no Yona is more of a serious historical fantasy with romance elements (Yona manga is amazing, but the anime barely scratches the surface, so that’s why I didn’t include it).

Sasaki to Miyano- When the shy, easily flustered Miyano meets Sasaki, a cool “delinquent” upperclassmen, the two end up bonding over manga…specifically BL manga. That’s right, Miyano is a fudanshi, but due to his small stature and somewhat feminine appearance, he’s constantly trying to convince others that he’s not interested in having his own love story where he’d be reduced to a stereotypical doe-eyed uke. But as Sasaki and Miyano spend more time together, they realize that what they have is more than friendship, and they have to come to terms with their own perception of gay relationships. This is my favorite romance of all time. It’s a slow burn, but boy is it worth it. Their relationship is so natural and realistic, just like Horimiya. Just two people hanging out and bonding over things the way people do in real life!

Given: The story of some boys in a band with trauma. Enough said. It's great. Go watch it.

Bloom Into You- Yuu Koito is a high school girl who’s been waiting her whole life for her own perfect romance to start…but when she receives a confession, she realizes she doesn’t know how to respond when she’s just not into the guy. And then she gets another confession…this time from the cool student council president Touko Nanami, who basically jumpstarts her lesbian awakening. Very cute story about how we perceive the concept of love vs actually feeling it. Also has a canonically aro/ace side character, so that’s a win for me. Another show like this is Adachi to Shimamura (but I honestly don’t remember much about it. It just didn’t stick with me as much).

Ore Monogatari- Takeo Gouda is a tall, bulky high school first year with a sensitive heart of gold. He wants nothing more than to find his own true love, but most girls are intimidated by his enormous stature, and they end up falling for his conventionally attractive friend instead. That is, until he meets the tiny, adorable Rinko Yamato. He falls in love instantly, but he’s sure she’s interested in his best friend like everyone else, so he vows to help get them together, even though his heart is breaking. Peak himbo behavior. Pure of heart, dumb of ass.

Yuri on Ice- Yes it’s the gay figure skating anime everyone knows. And yes it’s a fucking romance, okay? I will die on this hill. The romance between Viktor and Yuri is just as important as the plot!

Kaguya-sama Love Is War- Two insanely smart high school students both have a crush on the other, but since they’re…you know…high schoolers, neither of them wants to admit it first. So they come up with increasingly convoluted plans to get the other to confess first. This will go down as one of the best of all time. It’s a hilarious yet poignant modern classic.

Fruits Basket- I’ve talked about it before and I’ll talk about it again. A romance “comedy” that slowly morphs into a drama about a girl named Tohru who finds herself living with the mysterious Sohma family after her mother dies. Little does she know, the Sohmas are the victims of a  (somewhat silly, but ultimately tragic) curse that she must fight to break. Even though I’m more into it for the family drama, the romance is still top tier and plays an important role in the story. This is my second favorite anime of all time, and it’s a classic for a reason. If anyone hasn’t watched it yet, GO WATCH IT! IT WILL RIP YOU TO SHREDS!

Blue Box- A sports romance about an aspiring badminton player named Taiki Inomata who has a massive crush on the girls basketball team's star player Chinatsu Kano. Through a twist of fate, the two end up living together and having to hide it from the rest of their classmates, all while Taiki tries to work up the courage to ask Chinatsu out. It's so sweet and wholesome, and it's a great blend of sports anime and romance that can appeal to anyone who is more hesitant to get into the romance genre. The animation is also so freaking gorgeous!!!!

Insomniacs After School- A slice of life/drama that follow two high schoolers with insomnia who meet and form a connection while using their school's abandoned astronomy club room to sleep during the day. They soon find themselves spending more and more time together and bonding over their personal issues. I don't want to say too much, because there are a few spoilers that heighten the stakes of their relationship, but the characters are so great. They're fun and realistic without being annoying. And the show is mostly chill, but it definitely builds the drama by the end.

365 Days To The Wedding- A workplace romance between the two most awkward people you could possibly imagine! The story takes place at a travel company that is about to open a new branch in Alaska, but because our two main characters are...like I said...very awkward, they come up with a plan to avoid being sent to work at the new branch...by telling their boss they're getting married. Because they wouldn't want to split up a married couple by making one move away, right? As ridiculous as the premise sounds, hilarious shenanigans ensue, but there's also a surprising amount of serious discussions about romance and marriage. The main characters also have major autism coding, so if you're looking for a neurodivergent romance, this is it. (There's also an episode that involves a princess wanting to give up the throne to pursue a life with her girlfriend!)

And now for some honorable mentions that didn't quite fit into the regular list:

Ride Your Wave- A movie about a surfer who falls in love with a firefighter……and I’m not going to say any more than that. Go into it blind. If you like stuff like Your Name, this is a good one to watch.

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun- A comedy about a high school girl who finds out the upperclassman she has a crush on is actually a shoujo manga artist, and no matter how she tries to confess to him, he just never gets it.

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague- A slow burn slice of life that focuses on a guy with ice powers who has a crush on his coworker. That’s it. That’s the show. When I say slow, I mean SLOW. It’s perfectly cute and fluffy, but my god does it take forever to get anywhere with these two.

Skip to Loafer- A high strung, small town girl decides to go to high school in Tokyo, where she meets a variety of classmates, including the laid back Sousuke Shima. The unlikely pair become friends, and soon enough, she starts to feel something more than friendship. The only reason I didn’t include it in the main list is because they don’t get together by the end of the first season, but it’s still really cute (also canonically trans character for the win!?)

So that’s my starter list. And no, I didn’t include Toradora, even though it’s a classic. I know it’s blasphemous, but I like it more as a comedy than a romance. It kinda lost me with the ending. But anyway, maybe someone will find something they like. Or maybe you'll just want to roast me and my picks 😅

[neonscandal]

Just see this in twitter by someone : "I'm starting to think maybe people should read actual BL manga. perhaps considering manga written with actual gay characters in it in addition to shipping m x m from whatever battle shounen you're into."

Like because of those subtext, there can be fanfics and fanarts, right? And then I decided to come here, your blog is really one of my comfort place....

Comfort place!? This makes me want to carve out time to post infinitely more. 🥹 Even though it feels a bit aimless, I’m glad I could cultivate that for you and hope I can continue to do so.

RE: twitter, without context, it's hard to tell whether this person is earnestly recommending people to expand their interests into BL or if they're dumping on people who tend to support and identify queer shipping across other genres.

On the one hand, heavy agree that if you appreciate queer pairings of any kind to absolutely find media and stories that shows healthy (and authentic, if possible!) representation of whatever you're into. I feel like sometimes in BL, specifically, there’s a lot of toxicity or violence passed off as romance which is why I recommend being discerning. Here are some green flag recommendations and I kind of touch on the importance of identity through engaging with queer content by way of BL's featuring fudanshi's there. Isn't always the case, but it's a storyline I appreciate.

If the poster was side eyeing queer ships in "mainstream" or shonen stories... they should grow up. I've been in and out of fandom for like.. 20 years. There have always been people who recognize and popularize queer ships. Back in the day? Characters didn't even have to share the same show, universe or genre to end up in a crossover slash fic on Fanfiction.Net.

Don't get me wrong, I've definitely needlessly explored several crack theories or made off-base assumptions about a story for the sake of trying to guess at where it’s going. But I sometimes question people's competency for reading/watching comprehension when a particularly shitty hottake is making its rounds on social media. Like are we not watching the same thing?

Subtext does exist. I don't know that all authors are as elegant or intentional in its execution but if you're not bothering to consider the possibility, you're potentially missing out on critical pieces of a story you're choosing to invest hours/years of your life into! This isn't simply as it pertains to shipping but also picking up on critical exposition (Attack. On. Titan.) or even questioning whether the information we're getting as the reader or viewer is conveyed with any sort of narrator bias. Yes, this is absolutely a My Hero Academia call out. ✨

Queer coding does exist. Tons of reasons why queer characters aren't always explicitly identified as such. More often than not, there's some form of censorship. Whether at the editing level during manga production or when it comes time for manga/shows to be approved for international distribution (re: information that's lost in translation vs outright decisions to alter the flow of the story). Most glaring example of this that comes to mind is Haruka Tenou or "Sailor Uranus"/Michiru Kaiou or "Sailor Neptune. In addition to gratuitous name changes when Sailor Moon was pushed abroad, several countries would rather portray the two as unusually close relatives despite the clear romantic undertones exhibited whenever they were on screen together. Also, IDK why, but pretty sure I'd seen somewhere that, initially the creator of Naruto did want to canonize Sasuke/Naruto but, truth be told, I've never watched the series and that could have been a fanon theory I'd seen.

Overarching messages exist. Similar to the first point, a story is seldom just a story. More often than not, you're looking at some sort of social critique or opinion that's being expressed or explored through the story. To not bother thinking critically about what you choose to spend time in enjoying is a pretty bland way to miss the point of it.

When all else fails, it's not our fault that the only relationships most shonen mangaka focus on developing is the one between "rivals". That's it. If there were more dynamic characters or literally any consideration toward the depth of intimacy between the main character and whatever tritagonist female lead the male lead inexplicably ends up with (aside from the simple rationale that "she is the girl 🎀"), then maybe fans won't have to hone in on how the only agency, equality and intimacy is between the only two characters of substance. That was a mouthful but so are the overly poetic soliloquies shonen rivals inevitably share about one another.. ✨

I'm guessing this question might be related to the last anon ask about fanfics? I agree regarding the fact that subtext allows for a richer selection of fan art and fics. I think, depending on content, the motivation for reading fics will subsequently differ. For instance, I'm less likely to read fanfics for a romance series even if I sometimes write for them because the source material generally satisfies what I wanted from them. But fix it fics, angst and romance fics for shonen/seinen series'?? I'll definitely pick them up because, 1) there are usually unexplored relationship dynamics in the source material, 2) there are alternative domestic/fluff storylines you'd never see because the genre doesn't allow for it, 3) the canon plot is usually so devastating *cough, JJK, cough* that I need a respite, and/or, 4) the developing plot tends to have a lot of holes that writers can explore to craft uniquely compelling AU's and alternative plotlines that I wouldn't imagine.

Man, it's been a while since I nerded out and really took the time to bang out a rant. I've had so many thoughts bouncing around but just zero time. Thank you for your ask and the reminder that there's someone else out there in the shipping trenches. Stay safe out there, anon!

[yoiasaarchive]

which of these didn't happen in 18trip? poll results! as well as explaining all of the options that come with it.

so, what didn't happen in this tourism game? drumroll please!

...

.....

...

what didn't happen in 18trip is the "an npc is the kangel equivalent of this universe." option! (9.9% of total votes)

-> to explain, while it is true that this npc does have an internet persona, there is little known fact about it to be directly compared to ame/kangel.

thank u so much for voting! 🫶🫶🫶 the very overwhelming amount of response is wonderful to say the least!! there's sm happening in this game that i may consider doing a second version but, this is all for now.

spoilers and explaining the options under the cut! keep in mind that these are spoilers for the ENTIRE game, including main stories, ward mayor novels, and event stories. if you'd like to keep knowing about the spoilers out of context, i recommend going in blind! (-ish.)

a character is a jirai-type fudanshi. (4% of total votes)

refers to kurama ushio of day2! the 'jirai' here means that he has many dislikes called 'landmines' about the interpretation of his fav ship and characters! eg. no reversal, no multiship, etc. its different from the subculture and fashion style. i forget the right english word for this... however! he does block and mute accordingly. (as one must!)

a conflict happens because one of the siblings wanted to go to law school. (26.7% of total votes)

happens in l4mps main story, designs of happiness side:B, wherein after ryui's shop opening, toi finds a law textbook that his older twin has been keeping a secret from him. this is resolved later in the story, and during the hoslive, toi expresses his support for ryui so he may get into law school! this is a very minor conflict though.

three of the characters are victims by two separate cults. (5% of total votes)

refers to shiramitsu ryui and toi, with their family (particularly their grandfather and mother) running the cult that worships an 'angel'. the third character is kinouchi tao, whose parents were in a cult. it results in his 'death', and his brother suffering parental neglect from a young age.

a character is possessed by a demon, and in that same regard, another character is possessed by 5 other spirits. (5.9% and 10.9% of total votes respectively)

refers to shiramitsu toi (and ryui by an extension) and kinugawa kiroku! toi is possessed by astaroth, referred to as 'oshisha-sama' by everyone. toi himself calls them 'a-chama'. while kiroku's finger puppet friends are all implied to be either spirits, or other supernatural entities that have stuck to his body as said by the twins. this is in his mayor novel story.

one unit's concept is 'prison idols'. their crimes are: assault, murder, fraud, theft, incitement. (1% of total votes)

refers to the evening group, ev3ns! yes, these are all real. to nontrippers, have fun guessing who's who<3

two characters form a suicide pact together. (5.9% of total votes)

refers to the ev3ns' first feature event story: sand sculpture of the heart, epilogue. azekawa kinari asks doumeki kuguri to 'destroy' him when the time comes for the both of them to die.

two, presumed three, characters are in a reincarnation cycle. (4% of total votes)

this is about lu liguang, and kiba, the original renga in this timeline. renga himself is a possibility only, as it has been stated that this was the first time that renga has ever appeared in these cycles via liguang.

a character's father has been abducted by aliens. (5/9% of total votes)

in reference to kaguya muneuji's father. looking for him is his main reason for becoming an astronaut.

an npc gets stabbed on stage. (17.8% of total votes)

in ev3ns sideB, kitakata nayuki, the conductor for the unit, takes the hit meant for kitakata raito.

one of the characters is committing identity fraud. (3% of total votes)

nishizono renga, the one the players can gacha and play in the game is not the real one. his name is ren, and originally came from the ward 3's slums. the original renga, kiba, finds him, befriends him and switches places with him, which results in what we have today. dna test conducted proves that they were not related.

phew! and thats all. again, thank you for your participation, and HAMA Nice Trip!

18TRIP POLL !! SPOILER ALERT !!

18trip has been out for like almost 6 months. i like the stories so here's a bunch of spoilers taken out of context and mildly exaggerated for comedic effect! enjoy.

first time holding a week-long poll, oops. this will be open from sept. 14th to 21st! reblogs r appreciated 🫶🫶🫶

[sour-n-salty-citrus]

Saw something that annoyed me, so I wanted to say

I'm firmly pro-fujin/fudanshi/fujoshi.

Honestly, it's not a crime to want to consume content just because it has romantic/sexual relationships between two men. Yes, even if you're female or afab. For some reason this is a wild take, but it's one I stand by firmly. You don't need to defend your tastes for anyone. Questions like "would you still like this ship if it were straight", or "would you still read this manga if it were about two girls instead" are purposefully trying to bait you.

At the most base level, I guess you could say, girls and women who are straight enjoy content featuring two or more characters of the sex they personally find attractive. Rather than read a story about a straight couple, only one of whom they might find attractive, it's more fun to read about two.

Many straight men enjoy lesbian porn (if, for argument's sake, we are reducing yaoi/BL to *just* the erotic elements, though there is more to it than that). Sometimes it's hot to see two members of the sex you're attracted to getting it on, rather than just one.

This is of course, ignoring that many fujin are neither cis women, nor straight. As well as that many enjoy yaoi for story and relationship and visual elements, oftentimes the erotic scenes are a "bonus". It's like fanfic- some fics are pure smut, some have none, and some have a bit of both for everyone.

"But why do fujin HAVE to read stories about mlm! Why dont they just read het stories?"

Is a non-binary person only allowed to read stories/erotica with non-binary characters? Are asexuals not allowed to read erotica at all? Is a trans person not allowed to read a story with an all cis cast? Some lesbians enjoy yaoi. Is their sexuality no longer valid?

Again, why do these people need to explain their preferences to you? Why do you care so much about what kind of fiction, especially what kind of erotic fiction, they like? It's creepy and pervasive. Policing what people are and aren't allowed to find "hot" or "interesting". As long as fujin aren't acting inappropriately towards real life mlm (which, yes, sometimes a VERY SMALL portion of them can do, but it's mostly younger ones who need educating/aren't mature enough to understand their actions), then, again, why does it matter so much to you what they enjoy?

[bobeni]

before you follow.

this is a queer, black/poc oriented reader-insert blog. since there aren’t too many fics with that type of combination, i wanted to contribute a bit. i don’t write & post often, for starters. so don’t expect too much lmao.

bg info about myself, i guess.

it’s obviously not my real name lmfao, but you can call me sin. or sinny. idrc which one you use. i’m more of an artist than a writer, so this is just a hobby acc.

i’m not a conversation starter, or that talkative in general bc interactions make me anxious. but i’ll still try if needed be. i’m currently a student, so bc of that (and other bs) i disappear a lot. i also have shit grammar so if you see a mistake or two, shhhhh.

general rules & warnings.

don’t ask for nsfw for anyone under twenty, i’m not gonna age them up. i now only write nsfw about characters that are actual adults in canon bc i realized i can’t do otherwise anymore 💀. characters that are younger than -15 are rarely, if ever even, written about bc i can’t do it (e.g. nezuko, muichiro, gon, killua, blah nigga you get it). if i’m asked to, i might depending on what it’s about. also if & when requesting, please be specific. it’s even more of a struggle for me when i don’t have much to work with besides one sentence.

do not interact.

under fifteen & over twenty-five, fetishizers (fujoshis & fudanshis, talking to y’all. i’m gonna start blocking you niggas now cause it’s getting annoying), pedo/ephebophile/map/zoos/whatever the fuck & supporters, proshippers/anti-antis, anti-lgbtq, racists, pro-ana blogs. if you’re old as shit and thirsting for minors. & i don’t want you interacting with me if you have weird kinks either (cnc, pet play, ddlg/ddlb, shit like that). but blah, blah, blah, just go away if you’re a weirdo.

[zykamiliah]

His tone was like that of an eldest brother, which made Shen Qingqiu remember his former self’s two brothers. He felt a slight sorrow, but greater still was the comforting sense of warmth, to the point that even his dejected report came out cheery. “Unsatisfactory.” (chapter 2: mission)

sy knows there's no point in dwelling into what he's lost. he died. he'll never see his original family again. he'd rather appreciate the new one and be happy with that.

also, remember that he doesn't talk much about his feelings, so even if he had times where he'd get depressed by thinking about them, we wouldn't know xD I don't think it's comparable, because here sy's original life it's not part of the plot, no matter how many times it's reference, however briefly. it's a basis of his character and his understanding of the world. meanwhile, qijiu's storyline was left out because

When written within the bounds of the original genre, this kind of character was extremely difficult to handle. You could say he was scum, but he was also pitiful. But if you tried to acknowledge his pathos, his ruthlessness was real too. Characters that were both scummy and tragic always drew aggro, and they were a hotbed for wank, leading comments sections to devolve into massive flame wars. (chapter 19: shen jiu)

would give complexity to sj and yqy's characters that airplane thought wouldn't be appreciated, even after he lost his original outline, which is the other reason he didn't write it. and even with their history omitted from the main plot of pidw, there were people who picked up on the complexity of their relationship, as demonstrated by how the fans talked about it.

#28 Overtaken by Longing, Mistaking Red for Green: But I feel like I can see which peak lord has really fallen in love with which other peak lord (delusional)… But speaking seriously, the same-sex interactions he wrote between brothers and comrades were all much more detailed and natural than Bing-ge’s scenes with his wives. That deep emotion was practically visible to the naked eye. Airplane really is a natural fudanshi. PS: To the sister at #24: Guess you’ll eat anything when you’re starving, huh… (chapter 26: airplane's fortuitous encounter)

qijiu just shines through, backstory or not lol

another thing about the death/usurpation of identity in svsss that gets me is that in most isekai/transmigration, the transmigrator either doesn't have anyone who misses them in their old life, or the one or two people who do manage to follow them to their new one somehow. but shen yuan describes a family that loves him and would mourn him... and yet literally nothing comes of it. he doesn't even let himself think about it much. and that makes sense for him as a character, because he is the embodiment of If I Do Not See It(tm), but it leaves a sort of emotional hole in the narrative.

(just like how the backbone of shen jiu and yue qi's relationship got left out of the original novel.)

[ladyloveandjustice]

Fall 2018 Anime Overviews: Two Short Looks!

Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san

Skull-Face Bookseller Honda-san is a series of eleven-minute shorts that focus on a group of employees who handle the comics sales and customers at a bookstore. Its probably one of the most manga-like anime adaptations out there. It has limited animation and even includes those omakes where the mangaka and the editor talk about the process of making the comic. This is because the titular Skull-face Honda-san IS the mangaka, and these vignettes are based on his real experiences as a bookstore employee.

Of course, Honda PROBABLY isn’t an animated skeleton in real life. The show represents the customers as normal people, but all the bookstore employees have a Halloween-like appearance going on, and are named after whatever weird mask they’re wearing. 

If you love bookstores and manga like I do, you’ll find plenty of interest in this show. And if you’ve ever worked a retail job, you’ll find a lot of it painfully relatable. Honda is represented as a skeleton because you are required to be DEAD INSIDE to get by in a retail job, which he straight up says at one point.

This series has the employees dealing a lot with foreign manga fans, which since I AM one of those, I found it really interesting to see those like me from a Japanese bookstore employee’s perspective. The series shows Honda struggling with English (”IT’S LETS BULLSHIT ENGLISH TIME!”) and occasionally being a bit surprised at the things foreign fans do, but the show’s humor is never cruel or intolerant. 

The show is just very good-natured and avoids being mean or judgemental about fans overall. Honda works with the BL section and though he’s often overwhelmed by the passionate fans, he never treats them as weird or gross. Most of these fans are represented as being women, but there’s actually a sequence with a gay couple coming in and enjoying BL (which also makes some light commentary with the fact the bookstore doesn’t stock many non-BL gay comics, which the couple is shown to be disappointed by) and Honda finds out one of his coworkers is a fudanshi (male fan of BL). 

Skull Face highlights both ridiculous interaction with rude and obnoxious customers and more positive ones and also fully shows how hectic and draining it can be to work in a bookstore. You get a good look at some of the behind-the-scenes operations of a bookstore. It CAN get a bit dry when dealing with certain things (the whole-saler episode was hard for me to follow) but it mostly remains interesting and a good time. Also, it’s ripe for meme-able screencaps.

There really are some great jokes in there, the whole bit with the poor dad who doesn’t seem to realize the gift his daughter asked him to get is tentacle porn being one of the many highlights. It’s a short, funny pleasant watch that gives some insight into the industry, so if you’re looking for something like that, try this out. 

Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood

This slice-of-life show follows a mild-mannered, otaku vampire and the girl who’s in love with her, alongside both their vampire and human friends.

This show was fluff, plain and simple, and sometimes fluff’s just what I need to relax to. The main focus of the show is Akari the human and Sophie the vampire living together, and much is made about how while Sophie is the vampire, Akari is the thirsty one. Sophie is peaceful and subdued, and refuses to suck Akari’s blood no matter how much she begs. Sophie is more often weirded out by her friend’s macabre interests than vice versa. 

Akari also has a human girl friend who has-an-obvious-crush-on-her-but-doesn’t-seem-to-realize-this and Sophie’s vampire friend Ellie, who is audacious and always after any pretty girl, also joins the cast pretty quickly.

You shouldn’t go into this show expecting characters with a lot of depth, or a laugh riot. There are a couple good jokes, but overall the humor tends to be more “cute” than actually funny a lot of the time. Cute is really what this show’s all about, full stop. But I like vampires and I like lesbians, so I guess that’s why I chose this as my fluff for this season.

The show is mostly just pure sweetness and light that steers clear of gross stuff, but it does feature some light fanservice and some “ugh” moments. Akari is fairly pushy with her affection while Sophie is less enthusiastic (though she clearly likes having her around), but she never really (to my memory) crosses the line to touching Sophie without her consent and generally stops when Sophie tells her she’s going overboard. 

The moments most worth warning about specifically have to do with Ellie- there is a bit in her introduction where she sucks Sophie’s blood against her will, which is uncomfortable considering the sexual connotations traditionally associated, something the show is very aware of and plays up often. There’s also the bit where she just straight up grabs the boobs of a girl she just met. The scene is treated as bad and a source of conflict and Ellie does apologize, but way more emphasis is put on the fact Ellie made a comment that triggered the girl’s insecurities about her breast size than the fact she, y’know, molested her. Everyone’s even surprised when the girl gets upset and leaves, like that isn’t a perfectly reasonable reaction to have when someone gropes you.

Ellie does seem to genuinely grow as a character and come to value consent- in a later episode, even though she’s starving, she mentions they have to find someone who will consent and “surely some weirdo will be into getting their blood sucked”. So while the characters in this show are mostly static, they do grow a BIT- Sophie and Akari get closer, though of course their relationship doesn’t develop enough to be an actual romance or anything.

So yeah, this show isn’t like interesting or impressive in any way- but it was cute, it was generally sweet and it was solidly “fine” and just a soothing thing to turn my brain off too. Vampires being nerds! Girls drooling over other girls! These are just things I want to watch sometimes, I guess. 

[darklightsworld]

Hi, I saw a defintion of fujoshi as "For anyone confused, a Fujoshi is a yaoi fangirl who basically sexualizes gay relationships to a high degree. Aka "Omg my sinners!!1!" Or "Omg yaoi" when they see a gay couple irl or in media, which is HIGHLY homophobic." I was wondering, if a girl (it's always a girl somehow, they never mention fudanshis) doesn't sexualise m/m relationships in the media(media? or just japanese media?) I presume they are not fujoshis?

Oh and I guess it’s always presumed the fujoshi will scream YAOI! and ‘uke/seme’ when talking about m/m which does walk the line of being a weeaboo. Are people just mad about 2000’s yaoi con weeaboos with yaoi paddles? Does shipping a pairing from any japanese media mean you are fujoshi? Does their gender and sexual orientation affect the criteria of being a fujoshi? Sorry if this is worded weirdly.

Ahh sorry for the bother. I have just come to the conclusion people are angry about (mostly) girls calling themselves fujoshis and generally being obnoxious about it e.g. hating a woman character for breaking up their OTP, seeing two men holding hands and squealing about it etc. It’s more about their behaviour huh. I guess because some of them declared themselves as fujoshis everyone seems to think all fujoshis are like that. Just like how extreme fans of Naruto are called Narut*rds.

Yes, I think you are right. Those who define fujoshi the way you wrote in the beginning screams hatred for those who “dare” to ship something that the speaker does not, gross overgeneralization, imaginary moral superiority over what they believe fujoshi are, with a hint of misogyny - the usual mix, I would say.

As usual I can only talk about what I know about the Japanese situation, but it is quite similar and very different at the same time. The first and foremost difference is, fujoshi is mostly related to manga/anime/games, to a lesser degree to fictional live-action content and almost never to real life people! Even among fujoshi shipping live-action characters can be considered weird, and those who ship real life men are literally shunned within the community!

Also, being a fujoshi is not related to sexuality, sexual minorities in any way - it works as a dreamworld fantasy only. As opposed to the US where many immediately link things to LGBT, in Japan there’s no connection at all. Of course there are queer fujoshi, but the two may or may not be related at all. In general for most fujoshi it’s just fiction, shipping and dreams, and they don’t link their m/m content to real gay people, so it won’t really happen that fujoshi squeal at the sight of real gay men holding hands - they will most likely not care at all, and sad but some will be disgusted.

Another difference is, that fujoshi in Japan prefer to lay low as opposed to the loud (probably teenage) girls you mentioned. Here people would not out themselves as fujoshi, they keep their hobbies a secret from their families (I’m talking about adult women with children here!), and they generally dislike it, when the eyes of society are suddenly directed at them - for example due to someone famous outing themselves as fujoshi (who will definitely be flamed afterwards) or overly big media campaigns for a BL movie and such. It works most probably like: if you keep quiet you are left alone to do whatever you want, no one will judge you, try to regulate you etc. There is also the problem that the word fujoshi is often misused for every female manga/anime fan even in Japan (of course by those not involved in the subculture), and those who are not fujoshi feel uncomfortable by that.

As for the similarities, fujoshi is always tied to shipping (thus doujinshi and other derivative works), and obviously the shipping happens in non-BL manga and anime, that’s how is has been since the beginning. And this is where male otaku (and to a lesser degree m/m hating female otaku) come in and hate upon fujoshi, because they dare to ship two male characters, something that’s not canon, and they defile the holy original material. Well, shipping _is_ about fantasizing the way you like, so that argument about canon absolutely doesn’t make any sense. I’m also calling double standards, because male otaku obviously ship non-canon hetero pairings and enjoy non-canon porn doujinshi, not to mention non-canon yuri pairings, so they are just the same, really.

The next step that made male otaku butt-hurt was when non-BL contents started to cater to fujoshi, like making boys more attractive and “easier to ship“ for example in Shounen Jump many years ago or more recently in anime. Content-makers obviously realized the financial possibilities of the fujoshi crowd, so it’s no surprise they try to utilize it, there’s no helping it. Also, it’s not like Shounen Jumpmanga cannot be enjoyed like before (or that there’s less male-oriented fanservice in it): there are many readers who don’t care about this, and many don’t even notice that boys are easy to ship - it’s something you only notice when you know what to look for.

In any case fujoshi get a lot of hate on the Japanese net from mostly male otaku for shipping male characters (calling them 腐豚, where豚 means pig - kind of equivalent to fujoshit). And Japanese fujoshi are not even loud about their preferences, so I guess there would most probably be hate in the US even if there were no obnoxious fans. Obviously the doujinshi world is based on m/m pairings, but that’s how is has been since the very first Comiket, and there are obviously m/m fanarts for example on pixiv, but these are tagged as such, so it’s not like they cannot be avoided. And if someone posts m/m content on their own social media that’s their own business, nobody has the right to police them for their fantasies. All in all, be it in Japan or the US, if someone doesn’t want to see m/m content about their favorite anime, they don’t have to, but it’s easier to call names on the internet, just because someone dares to enjoy a story in a different way they do - when in reality manga and anime _are_ about multiple readings.

[electofmotion]

The All-Gender Gaze (also Chapter 22 of Spotted Flower)

I’m sure somebody has made this point before, but I thought of it on my own so whatever. Genshiken the original focuses more heavily on the male gaze and how the largely male cast observes female anime characters as objects of lust. It doesn’t take long for Ohno to be introduced, but she’s kind of the outlier as a general nod to “Not all Otaku are male guys!!” Then we get Ogiue, who really expands the perspective of Fujoshi and clarifies that it’s not just how this one creepy girl really likes butch men but still lets herself be objectified to fit in with the dudes. By the end of Genshiken the original there’s a pretty even split between showcasing the straight(?) male and female gaze while still existing under the construct of a male-dominated Genshiken where by default, the girls are being objectified most (see: cosplaying).

Genshiken Nidaime initially sets itself out as “just a reversal” of this by having the female-dominated Genshiken where by default, the male are being objectified most (see: literally the entire fucking manga they’re shipping the past male members of Genshiken). We’re given our token male character, Kuchiki, who, while happy to view himself as the member of a harem (ironic, isn’t it, that he’s the only “male“ character of the Genshiken who doesn’t in Nidaime?), is only viewed a component of the fujoshi’s shipping. (As you totally-not-alt-right youngins would say, get cucked!) But besides this and a fu”danshi”, it’s just doing the opposite of before, right?

Heh. Heh. Time to pull out my large, round spectacles and kale smoothies, my friends. It’s queer time. I’ve probably said it before, think about it for two seconds and you can understand, but Hato exists largely as a fujoshi, not as a fudanshi. It’s fucking spelled out for you by like, the fourth chapter or something, I’m sure you know the explanation by now. If not just ask me and I‘ll make a separate post on it. Anyway, Hato kind of is this catch-all of gender and sexual exploration. Don’t say they aren’t... come on. They literally prefer to live as male and female part time in Nidaime and !Hato presents as female in Spotted Flower and has gotten a boob-job to boot. There’s your gender exploration. Now how’s about the big question that becomes the central plot of like, a few volumes of Nidaime about how the fuck is it possible for somebody who reads that much yaoi to not find themselves a little bit attracted to men. Tada!! Queer representation, guys! Y’all straight people can do it too, you know? Just don’t make it a super negative representation and have a good grasp on how pronouns work... maybe have done some research about discrimination queer people face... yea, okay, fair enough, I see why you don’t, but Kio did and it makes me happy (disregard the pronouns bit; I’m not sure how common gender-neutral pronouns are in Japanese so he gets a pass). Anyway though, Hato’s purpose is largely to demonstrate how fucking interesting a queer perspective of traditionally binary objectification in manga can be. I know it takes some research, but it makes your story so much more interesting. Spotted Flower, I don’t even know what the fuck it does. It’s 4D chess or something. (It doesn’t help that my translation of what Chapter 22 says is provided by Google Translate.) Muda-kun has probably covered this better than I can already, but lemme do my best. I’m only like, four months late to the hype train. We were talking about the objectifying gaze, but let’s just address the elephant in the room.

So basically !Madarame is making !Hato an option, he’s letting himself be seduced by them, because he’s been weighed down by all the responsibilities of marriage and having a life and garbage like that. He says (according to Google Translate anyway), that he doesn’t want to make his wife embarrassed by his childish interests and behaviors, but also how this in itself is childish behavior, letting himself be changed by his desire to please the woman who pleasures him. And Hato, ever the beautiful succubus, asks if he wants to become a dirty adult. Not only this, but they’ve prepared. They’ve always been waiting for this moment to happen (and they fucking say it too). They’ve researched all about how two penis-havers actually do it (not like all that yaoi shit). Madarame (shit, sorry, I meant !Madarame) realizes partway through that he really is a sou uke at heart (It was always meant to be HatoMada. You know it. MadaHato was just the excuse so he could maintain face of still being straight. Now that Hato’s got boobs though, he can handle getting fucked in the butt.) and Hato’s TRUE POWER LEVEL IS FINALLY SHOWN. YEAAA!!! They become God, literally, and satisfy the dream they’ve had for like, the past 10 years or however long it’s been since Genshiken (shit, they’re separate timelines guys, okay?!) about being THE REALEST BOI!! Google Translate may not be much, but I understood the part where they say “I will love you with all my body and mind... relax and let me do it... (p 25).” I don’t think there’s much lost in translation there. (Also in the next chapter they literally say they did more giving than taking. I’m pretty sure it was Hato’s dick in Madarame, okay?)

Um, was I going to analyze something here? Oh, right. So Spotted Flower said fuck you to the traditional notion of male / male yaoi (Imean, they are both biologically male, but that’s about it). Instead it embraces the more gender-neutral satisfaction of shipping two characters, not to appeal to fujoshi, but to appeal to fans of HatoMada. Actually, let’s be real, it’s probably just to piss everybody else off. I’m sure some HatoMada fans are pissed too since their love is only satisfied in a kind of disgusting affair (dude, your wife just gave birth and you’re cheating on her. That’s pretty fucked), but you know what? I was depressed on a likely clinical level after it dropped that Madarame wasn’t going to pick Hato and once again when Madarame picked that fucking bitchass twat Sue. So to see HatoMada come to fruition in any extent pleases me greatly. Not to mention, this is undeniably Madarame’s fault here. Like, say what you will about Hato being guilty for preying on him, but Madarame called them over, Madarame asked them for sex. It is his fault 100%. And you know what, I’m not a fan of HatoMada because I sympathize so deeply and truely with Madarame. It’s because of Hato. Even beyond this too, Hato makes the extra good boi move of telling Madarame he shouldn’t and that it’s betrayal et cetera. So, you know what? I’m pretty happy with this.

Also, you know what, fuck you Angela! FUCK YOU! You said that Madarame sou uke was fiction and this was reality, but you know what the real reality is? IT‘S MADARAME GETTING THE D BOIIIII!!!! AHA!!! I WIN! HATO WINS! IT’S THE BEST!!!!!!! Madarme fucking asked for it. HE ASKED FOR IT. All you faithless, weak-hearted sorts didn’t believe, but I did. I never stopped believe in HatoMada. Ask my friends, even, I’ve had debates over death of the author being used to the extent of not accepting the last volume of Genshiken as canon. I ALWAYS KNEW AT HEART THAT HATOMADA HAD TO BE TRUTH.

And if this is all that happens— if the two never fuck again, I’m still satisfied. I don’t need a relationship even. I just needed to see HatoMada be true once. And oh boy it was, in gratuitous detail. The irreverent, non-hyper-sexualized, non-pornographic even, tone that it takes only makes it better. After all, I’m too much of a queer boi to be turned on by such normal interests as penis-in-butthole sex pumping back and forth.

So basically woohoo! We’ve got our queer representation of sex in !Genshiken. Something about the queer gaze ... I guess it goes that Hato is queer and they lust after Madarame, male (though as the traditionally feminine role in yaoi, which in itself is interesting, since the original intent of yaoi was for the uke to be relatable to the female reader and further satisfy the male-dominant, female-submissive cultural notion where the man takes what he wants and the female is helpless, but here Hato is, undeniably serving the  role still as a fujoshi and yet lusting and relating to the dominant position... is it somehow because they were assigned male at birth?), but also after women (as evidenced by the fact that their partner is Yajima), but they kind of exclusively read fujoshi-oriented manga i.e. male-male yaoi. It’s almost as if Kio knew about how the uke is supposed to be what “straight” women “project” themselves onto and also about how fujoshi really don’t project themselves onto either character per se but rather just take the truly position of power by being just an observer, a powerful observer, who derives sexual and non-sexual pleasure just by seeing how it all goes down. And also about how by fujoshi sharing their fantasies they occupy this virtual lesbian state (see: Akiko Mizoguchi’s “Reading and Living Yaoi”). And also about... you know. Point is he gives a good representation of fujoshi and shit. It’s pretty cool.

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 5/31

SEAN: Believe it or not, under 20 releases is now a quiet week. Welcome to the Manga Boom, here’s your accordion. So what’s out next week?

J-Novel Club has an odd license. Despite being available to them, no one thought the company would license Invaders of the Rokujouma!? for two reasons: 1) It’s 23 volumes and counting in Japan, and 2) it already had a well-regarded fan translation of the first 22 volumes. But J-Novel has licensed that fan translation, is giving it an edit, and doing a fast release of the first three volumes of the series, with more to come monthly, apparently. As for the title itself, it’s a harem comedy, so moving on…

ASH: It’s probably not a series that I’ll ever pick up, but that’s an interesting publication history!

SEAN: Kodansha has more digital Del Rey rescues. Alive 16, Nodame Cantabile 20, and Yozakura Quartet 12.

…and I guess that Kodansha has Battle Angel Alita 1-3 out digitally too. I knew it was coming, but not so soon. This is the original BAA (as opposed to the Last Order reboot), with a new translation.

Their lone print release this week is the 60th volume of Fairy Tail, which should be wrapping up in Japan soon.

Kodansha also has new digital releases. Kasane is an award-winning work, and runs in the magazine Evening. It appears to be a dark thriller with lots of bullying and abuse overtones. But, magic lipstick!

Real Girl (3D Kanojo) is a shoujo/josei title from Dessert, involving a nerdy outcast type who ends up working with a cool beauty, the sort he hates, but gradually comes to realize that cool beauties are people too.

ANNA: I have mixed feelings about these digital releases, I’m so happy that more shoujo/josei is coming out, but having been burned before by the crash and burn of digital manga programs in the past, I’m concerned about some of these titles actually being finished. Also, it would be great to have some more josei print manga! Even with these handy reminders for the Manga Bookshelf team, I’m having a hard time keeping track of all the digital releases that I’m interested in.

MICHELLE: There certainly are a lot of them! That said, I will give these two new ones a try. And yay for more Nodame, as well!

ASH: I’m glad that these titles are being licensed at all, but I’d definitely like to see more of the released in print, too.

MELINDA: I share Anna’s concerns. I’m glad these are being released, but I’m still reeling from the loss of some JManga series I was really invested in (that have not, to my knowledge, been picked up by anyone else), and I admit I still mistrust digital.

SEAN: If it helps, the JManga title To All Corners of the World was rescued by Seven Seas and will be out in November in one (print) omnibus.

Seven Seas has a few new titles next week, starting with a (gasp!) novel, The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku, based on the seemingly unstoppable Vocaloid idol.

The manga debut is The High School Life of a Fudanshi (Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu), a comedy title from Zero-Sum Online about a straight guy obsessed with BL, and his drive to find someone else to share his obsession with.

ASH: Knowing a few straight fudanshi myself, I’m rather curious to see how the series handles the topic.

MELINDA: Cautiously interested.

SEAN: And there’s a 5th volume of Shomin Sample, which must have run out of girls showing us their panties on the cover by now. (checks) Sadly, apparently not.

Vertical has the 8th Ninja Slayer, for all your Ninja needs.

They also have a light novel based on the Seven Deadly Sins manga, subtitled Seven Scars They Left Behind. Judging by that title, I wouldn’t expect a lot of laughs.

Yen Digital has some new volumes for us, as we get the 10th Aphorism, the 10th Crimson Prince, and the 10th Sekirei.

And while it’s not Vol. 10, Yen On does have the first four Sword Art Online novels now available digitally, for those obsessed with reading light novels on their phones (like me).

Are you taking a week off? Or getting something here?

By: Sean Gaffney

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on manga stuff from the rest of Anime Expo under the cut

Stuff from Vertical [not much to say so may as well do it first]:

-I’m INCREDIBLY excited to see Moteki get an English release. I’d thought it might happen since Yuri on Ice is so popular and they might want to bring over an earlier work of Kubo’s, but it’s still great to see. Apparently Moteki is/was really popular in Japan so I’m curious to see how I feel about it. Thankfully it’s only gonna be two volumes long [hopefully they include volume 4.5 with the second one] in omnibus form, so it won’t be a huge commitment, and the first volume is apparently coming out in October so I don’t even have to wait that long. I’d love to see someone pick up Again, but that’s way longer. Maybe Kodansha can pull through and at least pick it up digitally.

-[Which reminds me that Kodansha really didn’t have much to show off print-wise. Which is a bit surprising. I guess they really are focusing mostly on getting new digital licenses. Hopefully some of their digital stuff gets proper English releases eventually. Anyway, the only things they showed off print-wise I’m interested in are the Cardcaptor Sakura sequel, and the Sailor Moon Eternal Edition. But I need to get Dark Horse’s CCS omnibuses before I get the sequel, of course. I sure hope those don’t suddenly go out of stock.]

-Nothing much to say about City or My Boy, other than that I have vague plans to eventually get Keiichi Arawi’s stuff in general so it’s nice to see them pick up more. Not sure how I feel about My Boy given that the synopsis’ whole thing of ‘are this 30 year old woman’s feelings for this 12-year old boy just maternal or are they something more?’ is putting me off so goddamn hard. YIKES. Also for a minute there when I saw it, I got confused and thought they’d licensed My Girl by Sahara Mizu [who drew the Voices of a Distant Star manga they’re putting out next year which I kinda wanna get] and I got excited about the idea of another manga of hers getting licensed. Oh well.

-Oh yeah and they technically officially announced their license of Strangulation Romanticist but we’ve all known about that for ages now and I’ve already made a post about it. So not a whole lot to say, other than that, once again, I REALLY hope they complete the series since it’s unclear if Shaft will adapt beyond the first book. I’m also interested by them saying it’ll have ‘brand new cover art’. Is it . . . not just going to be a slightly edited version of the newer JP cover, like what they did for Kubikiri Cycle? I’m really concerned. On the one hand, new art by take is super appealing as a concept, but I’m already annoyed enough at how inconsistent design-wise their release of the Monogatari series is, so I’d hate to see this suffer a similar fate. I just don’t want it to look too different to Kubikiri, especially in terms of the spine. I’m still reeling over how drastically different Nisemonogatari 1′s spine [and front cover] looks to the rest of the series.

-OK this section ended up longer than I thought it’d be lol.

Seven Seas stuff:

-OK just to get it out of the way right from the start, they didn’t license Shimanami Tasogare, and now I just want Seven Seas to bury me when I die so they can let me down one last time. OK I’m MOSTLY kidding, but I’m also still kinda genuinely bitter about this even though I totally expected it. Ugh. They obviously might just license it later down the track, and it’s not a huge deal since I’m even planning to import the JP volumes anyway, but STILL. Maybe Viz will pull through and pick it up eventually. They seem to be getting better at getting manga with LGBT representation recently. I guess I’ll just keep suggesting it each month to them until SOMEONE picks it up.

-I’m probably gonna eventually pick up the entire Orange series since I loved the anime and I’m buying their release of Dreamin’ Sun, but man, why are they doing v6 as a single volume release? We know there’s going to be a seventh volume, so they could have just waited until that came out so they could do an omnibus release to match their release of the main series. Now it’s going to be really weird and inconsistent and it’s making me feel disinclined to buy it. Ugh.

-Definitely excited for Made in Abyss. I figured that’d get licensed soon enough. I’ll see if I like the anime first, though.

-I’m happy to see Seven Seas get more into LNs in general, even if I’m not terribly interested in any of them.

-Hoo boy RANT TIME INCOMING.

-I might get Nanashi no Asterism, at least since it looks like it might have an m/m sub-plot, which is nice.

-I had a whole multi-paragraph rant about Seven Seas, and to a lesser extent other mainstream publishers, and how they seem to oh so conveniently be licensing pretty much exclusively yuri manga while casually ignoring stuff about/including queer male characters, but ugh I’d probably rather not put THAT much bitterness in this sorta post lol. But if there’s one rant-y thing I’ll let myself say here, it’s that a few weeks ago Seven Seas advertised their Fudanshi manga by posting a tweet saying ‘What’s a guy gotta do to get some BL around here?’, and my response to that is just ‘I don’t know, Seven Seas, what DOES a guy gotta do to get some BL around here? I keep looking at your website but all I see is over 20 yuri titles and 0 BL titles’. I still stand by the fact that that tweet was tone-deaf as fuck, even if I’m not gonna send them hate or anything about it. I’m just gonna side-eye it privately on my blog lol. OK, rant over.

-But seriously I still might get Nanashi no Asterism if it has SOME element of m/m romance in it since that’s at least SOMETHING, and I’d like to support it. Which is part of why I’m gonna eventually buy their Zestiria manga since that has a gay male protagonist even if I’m 99% sure that they as a company are aware of that. You can’t make me buy their Fudanshi manga, though. I’m not even just basing that off of a surface-level glance at the synopsis or whatever. I watched the entire anime adaptation of it as it aired and I basically hated every minute of it. So I KNOW it’s not for me and I want no part of it.