Otaku Champloo

Tag: aniya yuiji

  • The 2017 Dangerous Boys Love (BL) Manga

    The 2017 Dangerous Boys Love (BL) Manga

    Kono BL ga Yabai Cover

    2016 was quite surreal as seemingly impossible things just got real. From the deaths of our cultural heroes to the figure skating anime we never realised we actually needed, 2016 was exceptionally cray. 2016’s BL titles were no exception. 
     
    The 2017 list of BL’s “dangerous” titles, as selected by Japanese BL readers and critics for Kono BL ga Yabai, represents an audience’s thirst for something different, exciting, if not, a bit “dangerous.” This is more apparent in 2017 than in previous years as readers and critics chose stories that were definitely “yabai”. 

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  • #801MMF Spotlight: BL’s New Wave

    When a couple of Japanese BL scholars went down to Manila, I spent a good week with them – interviewing local female artists and getting to know BL fans in Manila. During down time, they had a chance to ask me, “What kind of BL do you read?” And as with everything that involves my feels, it was hard to say a proper answer and went on to say the names of the authors I love: Yamashita Tomoko, Nakamura Asumiko, Kumota Haruko, etc. As I go down the list, they were completely unfamiliar with the names until I said “Est Em” and one of them interjects, saying, “Ah! So you like New Wave works!”

    “Eh? New Wave?”

    “Yes. New Wave.”

    Back then, I had no idea if they meant some 80s music movement but I silently nod until months later, upon reviewing for this MMF and the Fujoshi Bible, I’ve been reminded of the term New Wave. It seems this New Wave is sweeping the future of BL.

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  • Starting the year right with some handsome boys

    Starting the year right with some handsome boys

    Last night, I was thinking about the first thing that I should blog about here in Champloo.  I’ve had a couple of hiccups last year and this year, I made a resolve to write more for my blogs than elsewhere.

    But what should I write?

    Should I write a review?

    Or should I talk about some handsome boys?

    The idea of talking about handsome boys for the first day of the year excited me and there’s no other book that came to mind other than the collection of handsome boys that caused waves last year, Moedanshigatari.
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