Happy Halloween

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween!

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Open thread

Yeah, I was thinking about why some people insist on yaoi being gay porn for women. Of course I have disputed that yaoi isn’t gay porn for women, despite the fact that it can be sexually explicit at times. If any yaoi fans out there would like to discuss this. I’ll be happy to hear some views.

Remember that cafe?

Yeah, I wrote a post on it awhile back and The Age did a story on it.

Wouldn’t it be cool if something like that existed here? Guess I’ll just have to dream about it then.

Even though the site is in Japanese, I still think you should visit the site.

Yaoi Manga Review: I Shall Never Return volume 4

Author: Kazuna Uchida
Publisher: Deux Press
Rating: Mature (18+)

As Ken travels to India with his stepfather J, we see how Ritsuro becomes more anxious as he longs for Ken. At this point, he’s lonely and hurt. However, Kazuyoshi decides that he wants to be with Ritsuro.

I liked how this story is developing into something deeper and we see the characters aren’t one dimensional. Especially with Ken, you can tell he’s going through some of sort of inner change, and at seems in the beginning that Ritsuro is heartbroken, but later on comes to accept that Ken feels he needs to travel to India. The two of them stay in touch with each other through letters as Ken sends him photos.

I also like how the character Moeko isn’t being marginalized in this manga, because Ritsuro still loves her as a friend. And she seems to have gotten over what Ritsuro has done to her. At times however, I didn’t like Kazuyoshi because he didn’t even remember Ritsuro’s eighteenth birthday, and during for the Star Festival Ritsuro wished that he would be happy, but he brushes it off as something that’s not important.

There’s one nice little sex scene, but in this case, it’s not that important. On a scale I’d give it a seven and a half.

Yaoi Manga Review: Future Lovers volume 1

Author: Saika Kunieda
Publisher: Deux Press
Rating: Mature (18+)

Saik Kunieda’s lovers manga is the story of Kento Kumiyaga who just wants to have an ideal family life. A loving wife and children. But things don’t as planned when he meets a young man named Akira Kazuki.

I enjoyed reading Future Lovers, because it’s very funny story and I feel that I was able to relate to the characters. At the same, the story is also very serious as Kento tries to figure why he likes Akira. After all, their ‘relationship’ starts off as a fling of hot passionate sex.

You also have the character Shindo, who has a crush on Kento. Normally in many yaoi stories the female characters are usually marginalized or invisible altogether, but I think with the future of this series, possibly more of Shindo will be seen. I also like the character contrast of Kento and Akira, they couldn’t be more different. Akira is flashy and engages in flings, he doesn’t have no intention of having a family (namely because he doesn’t have this option) and Akira is more conservative, as pointed out all he wants is a wife and kids.

This manga also comes with a bonus story, Winter Rabbit.

Overall, I believe any yaoi fan would enjoy Future Lovers. Though, the sex scenes aren’t very graphic I think it’s something that can be overlooked. The artwork is okay, but it was too sketchy at times. On a scale, I would rate Future Lovers as an eight.

Just a video

I’m just going to post a video this time to start you off on your weekend. Hope you enjoy it!

If you’re a fan of the series Death Note then you may appreciate this video.

Noted Mangaka: Minase Masara

Although I haven’t read any of her works, I am familiar with her. And I’m quite certain that many yaoi fans familiar with her as well. She’s written a large number of manga as well, specifically boys love, but she also wrote a shonen ai manga, entitled Tonari ni Iru no ni, Tooi. Most of her work deals with drama and school life. Masara has also wrote manga which deal with psychological issues.

But most of her work is boys love.

Yaoi in a slump???

Lately I’ve been hearing that the sales of yaoi manga have been on the decline recently. Or perhaps the sales are not so much on the decline, but lately there have been some discussions on what’s going on with publishers who publish yaoi. You may be familiar with the closure of Iris Print. Closed mainly due to financial issues.

DramaQueen also indicated that they were going to relaunch and release some new manga, as of April. But nothing has been released yet.

I plan on keeping everyone posted on the issue.

Boys love manga in the library

When I first became interested in yaoi, it was difficult for me to find yaoi manga at the local public library. I can’t say that I’m surprised because it has been known for libraries to come under fire for stocking boys love manga. And it just happened recently.

A city library has faced harsh criticism for being packed with boys love/yaoi novels and manga, with the complainant demanding to know just how much the library has spent on its collection of homosexually themed erotica.

The library for its part reports nearly six thousand BL books, having spent nearly $40,000 amassing them.

The outraged citizen, calling it the “shame of the city”, complains that having the titles on the same shelves as other books amounts to nothing more than “sexual harassment” towards library goers, and speaks darkly of it being “harmful to children”.

Read more.

Yup, stocking BL material is sexual harassment.

Libraries at times do take it upon themselves to indicate these titles are of mature content. But this is just someone being offended by homoerotic material and whining about it. And we’ve all heard the “it’s harmful to children” nonsense before.

Links and a video

Sand Chronicles volume three has been reviewed over at Animanga Nation.

Sunrise confirms details on science fiction bishojo anime, Sora o Kakeru Shōjo. Or in English, The Girl Who Leapt Through Space.

Boys on Boys on Film has gone on haitus, indefinitely.

A new josei manga magazine has been launched by Japanese publisher, Fusosha.

Death Note volume three, was reviewed at Active Anime.