Yes! It’s all Jump’s fault!
Posted on 24. Jan, 2007 by Khursten in Features
I have a bad habit of reading my feeds too late. And thanks to that, I get late on the news. ^^;; So, the new year started with Comipress putting the news about the special relationship with Jump and fujoshi.
Fujoshi is what we, foreigners, would actually call ‘ yaoi/bl fangirls’. These are fangirls who have graduated from shoujo and are now crawling to the darkside and embrace Man x Man (Sometimes… Man x Boy ^^;;) affections. Because “what else could be prettier than seeing two hot boys getting at it?” To me, it’s one of the steps to otaku-dom. Among other things, it is indeed a true crawling to the darkside because well… yaoi and bl tend to be lewd in nature. It’s a little embarassing, nonetheless a very interesting experience. ^_~ You can read the technicalities of it in an earlier Comipress article
Now, going back to the article, I honestly wouldn’t wonder why Fujoshi would complain to Shounen Jump about the fanservice they give in their jumps. Honestly, have you guys been reading jump lately? Have you browsed through tenipuri!? I swear that series is GAY! If Tenipuri was one of the reasons that brought a large girl fanbase to Jump, I’m telling you, it’s the same reason why more girls are reading other things than Jump nowadays. God. -_-;; How gay can jump get!? There are just some titles that are too gay to mention. Maybe the girls are having an overdose of stuff from Shounen Jump
Just to clear things, don’t worry, I don’t hate Shounen Jump. In fact, like the article mentions, I owe my fujoshi side to jump. I love Jump! But there are just times when Jump fails me. ;A; and it’s not even fujoshi-related. Sometimes…
Now, why did I say earlier that jump is misread. There are some things that you just can’t read through without giving it a little meaning. In the world of the fujoshi, it’s always the hidden meaning of a scene or a panel that’s fun to look at. Just look at this lovely picture of Sougo and Toshi fighting. It’s like marital bliss! But there’s really just little meaning to it. It can mean one thing, but for fujoshi, it entirely means another. It could mean, as I put it, a short quarrel between two friends who have been ’screwing’ each other. The pun is definitely for big fujoshi who have always understood the tension between Hijikata and Okita. This to me is one of the better puns and jokes that come out of jump. More so, on Sorachi’s end, this was a well played pun for a comedy. It fits in the scenario and it’s A-grade! Puns like this, the subtle and careful pun that makes you look at the line over and over again just to know what he said is true or not definitely earns my fujoshi radar!
But there are jump titles that just doesn’t work on me with the fujoshi material and yet it’s a great fujoshi magnet. And I think sometimes, it’s not just the fault of the artists, but the fans as well. One that fell in such a chasm was The Prince of Tennis, or what fans affectionately call as tenipuri. Hey, this was a fun manga and I will not deny to people that I was into Prince of Tennis once. In fact, it’s one of many things that has turned me into some fujoshi.
At first, I actually denied the yaoi in tenipuri. At this time, I was already into the yaoi, but I do recognize that tenipuri has its ‘gay’ qualities, but not just there yet. I mean for chrissakes, they’re middle school kids! The innocence of hardwork, admiration, and team work can’t be easily tainted. However, as time passes, there are things that you really can’t deny. The closeness between Kikumari and Ooishi was much too… close. ;A; The whole idea of their ’secret place’ and with Kikumaru completely heartbroken and his eyes were to tears was something that I just can’t deny as gay. There are more instances such as Atobe’s obsession with Ryoma, Ryoma’s unending quest to gain the respect of Tezuka, the THOUSANDS of anime images of the boys dressed up like Johnny idols and happy intimate moments of sharing sundaes and piggy back rides and so on. ACCCCCKKKK!! ><;; The short subtle hints were sweet, but the influx of more openly gay images was too much for fujoshis to handle. I can only assume that this is the very reason why fujoshis are complaining. Please, we don't read jump because it's gay. We read it because it opens possibilities. If we wanted gay, we can just go to our BeBoy Zips and be happy with it.
As I said, the enjoyment of a fujoshi with shounen mangas rely on the hidden meanings. It is the short puns exchanged, like that of Hijikata and Okita. The banters between Zoro and Sanji. The tension between Roy and Ed. The misgivings between Gintoki and Katsura. The dependency between Katsura and Elizabeth (there’s a man inside that duck! I’m sure of it!). The reliance between Renji and Byakuya. These things, however small they are, is enough to set a fujoshi’s heart on fire.
The heart of the fujoshi love is the possibilities. If you give it away and there’s no possibilities left for you, there’s no fun left to imagine. These subtleties found in either jump or any shounen manga for that matter lights up a whole auditorium in Japan twice a year during comikket. I mean, just take a look at the choices and the possibilities. lol. And that picture down there is not even a 1/3rd of it. lol.
takk
Jan 24th, 2007
>>yaoi/bl fangirls
LOL
It is so funny
BTW
Do you know why called “YAOI”?
YA MANASHI
I MINASHI
O CHIINASHI
1)It is not rising to Story.
2)The end of the talk is miserable.
3)It is not significant.
English doesn’t hit on though it doesn’t know how I may tell it.
YAMA=Mountain
IMI=mean
OCHI=For instance, it becomes whether it is at the end though the presentiment in which something
happens in the first half of the talk does. …….?
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
?????????????????????????????
maybe,I think YUE knows about YAOI than me.
Khursten
Jan 24th, 2007
Hai~~! I know about the meaning of yaoi. ^_~ One of the first things I also learned when I became an otaku. lol. We even put out a joke that it also means ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????. lol. XDD
Yes, sometimes Yue and I talk about it too. I even lent her some of my yaoi mangas to read. ^^;; Ehehehe. I’m being a bad influence to her. But then she shows me some of her moe images from figures and stuff. ;A; >< I can’t stand it! Even I say “Moe~~~~~” XDDD
takk
Jan 24th, 2007
LOL
??????????????????
I think that is correct too.XD
good joke.
I didn’t have word about ??????????.
You know in english?
MangaBlog » Blog Archive » Wednesday quick links
Jan 24th, 2007
[...] At Otaku Champloo, Khursten looks at Jump through the fujoshi lens. [...]
tivome
Jan 25th, 2007
Isn’t ochi related to rakugo, the type of comedy preformed by manzai comedians? I believe in English the right term is “punch line”. For example, the ochi in a 4-koma manga is usually in the last panel. It’s the last word which completes the joke. YAOI has no punch line, thus “ochi nashi”. So YAOI basically means “a story without a climax, has no deeper meaning, and it’s not even funny.” But it’s got plenty of hot man-on-man sex! ^^
Khursten
Jan 25th, 2007
Wow! That’s really interesting! ^__^ I never knew that it could have gotten from a rakugo word. Ochi is indeed the punchline. That’s a nice way of defining yaoi as well. XDDDD
Ochi… tte ne…
I’ve never read yaoi in kanji since it’s always been in kana as it’s an acronym. Nor have I seen yamanashi, ochinashi, iminashi in kanji as well. But so far, from what I have read, and strangely there are quite a number of academic papers on this ^^;; yaoi can go something like this:
YAma-nashi (referring to the peak of the mountain, or in storytelling, the climax so = no climax
Ochi-nashi (referring to fall or going to the bottom, probably from ???????????????, in terms of story writing it’s like the conclusion or the way to the conclusion = no conclusion)
Imi-nashi (imi is meaning, hence no meaning)
In short Yaoi is basically a useless meaningless story that has no plot whatsoever. Hence, a lot of early yaois are really just about wild sex and more affectionately called by westerners as PWP storyes ( PWP = “Plot? What Plot?” = word pun on something that doesn’t have a plot at all. ^^;;)
But it’s funny though how yaoi is already different from BL as now, there is a stronger trend towards BL because BL has plot. lol. No longer it is yamanashi, ochinashi, or iminashi, ne?
Wow… looking deeper into the word of yaoi now enlightened me why Ogiue and Ohno of Genshiken both said that BL and Yaoi are not the same at all. lol. XDDD
takk
Jan 25th, 2007
>> tivome
Awesome!! ;D
The comic story and four-frame comic strip had been forgotten though it was Japanese.
It is easy to understand that it is four-frame comic strip.
It knew word Punchline for the first time.
Thank you.
>>BL
It is shameful when spreading to BL somehow.
There is “BL=Yaoi = Rose????????????????????????????????” though the argot that is not the main current now.
However, “BL” here is ..muscularity (favor of Ohnosan).. considerably man.
I love “Ogiue”.
my love.
Journalista - the news weblog of The Comics Journal » Blog Archive » Jan. 25, 2007: Return of the good gumbo
Jan 25th, 2007
[...] Two female-centric links from Brigid Alverson: Jen Parker examines the ramifications of rape scenes in yaoi manga, while Otaku Champloo looks at the intersection between the Japanese version of Shonen Jump and its growing fujoshi fanbase. [...]
tivome
Jan 26th, 2007
Khursten, I think Ochi has to do with punchline rather than just “ending” as in ochiru. Ochinashi in Japanese is written as “????????????????????” as takk-kun said, and when you write OCHI in katakana like this, it’s usually refering to the punchline. It’s a word used very often in Japanese TV shows so I’ve heard a lot of it. Japanese TV is dominated by manzai-like comedic pairs like London Boots from Yoshimoto Kogyo and when one of them screwed up a punchline the other one would scream “that’s a terrible OCHI!”. If they’re old fanshioned they may even hit each other with a folded paper fan like the one Chidori used in FMP!. Anyways I’m pretty sure Ochinashi in YAOI doesn’t mean “no ending” to the Japanese.
tivome
Jan 26th, 2007
Just a reference:
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%90%BD%E3%81%A1
takk
Jan 26th, 2007
?????????????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????(????????????????)??????????????????????????????????????!!!
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Khursten
Jan 27th, 2007
@tivome
Well we both have a point ne? punchlines would always be the last thing in a joke right? It is a conclusive remark that makes the joke work, as much as conclusions would always put things together. As said in the Ochi wikipedia remark, it is the conclusive aspect to the setup of the joke. As I said, you do have a point in your remark. The definition I wrote is an age old definition that I have understood from Fusami Ogi’s article on yaoi and the emergence of the genre in IJOCA.
@Takk????????????
??????????????????????????????(??????????????)/ ?????????????????????????????????????????????????muscular??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????It must be a little fun to see the soft side of strong men. ????????????????????????????? (??????????????)/ ??????????????????????????????????????????????????
??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? XDDDD ??????????????????????????????
Oh,links! « Decadence Go! Go!
Jun 22nd, 2007
[...] A reaction to the Jump and the fujoshi article. Which should be read even for just the mention of the second-best Het pairing(Sorry, Taikoubou/Venus is the ultimate Jump OTP) that has ever appeared in Jump! Zura and Elizabeth! XD Once again, TeniPuri is mentioned for its gayness. [...]