Otaku Champloo

Tag: doujinshi

  • It’s time for the 2016 BL webcomic roll call

    Yes gaiz. It’s almost August. If you stalk me well enough, you know that August is the time when this site goes crazy. This year, it’ll be wilder for reasons that I will only reveal on the 801. 
    For now, I’m calling all you fujoshi and fudanshi to lend me your awesome powers in finding the best BL webcomics you’ve read in the last year! Share with our fellow fujojos the BL webcomics that made you squee, crai, and loved dearly n the last year! Make sure that the comic you shared has not been listed in the 2012, 2013, and 2015 BL webcomic lists. 

    As for what counts as a BL webcomic, any comic that highlights some form of romance between boys or men counts. BL does stand for ‘boys love’ but I’m not strict when it comes to the genre. Over the last few years, the BL webcomic recs have been pooling a diverse set of works that explores amazing representations male homosexualities as written by various creators from all walks of life. So I’ll take every rec granted it’s a BL comic that is easily accessible online. 

    In return, this year, I’ll be giving away to a lucky contributor a copy of Takarai Rihito’s illustration book: Mirror! 

    If you want to contribute, you can leave a comment below, send me (@khursten) a tweet of your rec with the hashtag #801blrec, or e-mail me (check my About page!) with the subject [801BLRec]! Contributions will be entertained only until 31 July 2016 23:59, US Eastern time. 

    Looking forward to your recs, fujojos!! 

  • Calling for recs for the 2015 BL Webcomic Rec List

    Calling for recs for the 2015 BL Webcomic Rec List

    Webcomics

    SO! Another year has passed. What happened to 2014? I was doing research shenanigans and I missed celebrating 801 as well as updating this lovely BL list. That made this fujojo sad so I’m making up for it this 2015 and to get the party started, I’m doing my annual roundup of BL Webcomics online!

    (more…)

  • Fujojocast #6 – Shipping wars, doujin scanlations, and the IP blocking mess we’re in

    Perhaps this is the first “breaking news” podcast I’ve done. Not that this is completely breaking news but it, nonetheless, an interesting development in things that we do in fandom.

    Last week, there was a bit of a stir when it was made public that a particular scanlation group has said that they’re blocking Japanese IPs so that publishers and doujin creators can’t access their works. Clearly, this doesn’t sound right on all angles but in this podcast, Nellie, who works for Crunchyroll and is an editor genre fiction, discusses with me the complex story that arises from this decision of said scanlation group as well as discussing the complexities we face as fans of Japanese animation and manga.

    Some of the things we definitely discussed is the protective attitudes and measures of artists and with regards to the fan works which goes on both ends (Western fandom side and Japanese fandom side). You might have seen pages or websites with the mark OFP which is Online Fanarts Protection group (now defunct). If you want to consider the economic states of doujin artists, you can read this research on how much doujin artists make in Comic Market. Or maybe you can also see the problems of Manga artists too. And for those who are thinking of permissions, here are some things that can help in case you are lost in translation. Asking permission does make an artist happy. Of course, stealing and sharing it a whole lot early can make artists mad, as is the case of Yamamori Mika’s page leak for Hirunaka Ryusei.

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download


    OP/ED – Rage On! by Old Codex (Free! Season 1 TV Opening)

    In the end, we are in a conundrum, finding no real solutions (although honestly we hope that attitudes DO change). Personally, I’d love to hear every one’s comments on this. But let’s not make this a bashing of the group or that scanlations is wrong but rather really open up discussions on fan attitudes and what needs to be changed so that we can meet fans and content producers in Japan halfway.

    If you wanna tune in our future discussions, we’re in also ITUNES now, so feel free to subscribe!

  • Recovering from the awesomeness of BLush 2014

    Blush

    I always say I’m too old for conventions but I guess I’m never too old for Boys’ Love conventions.

    This year, I took part in another Boys’ Love convention, this time it’s closer to home. Last 3 May 2014, my friends and I organised and held the second BL convention in Manila, Blush Convention. The theme this year is Secret Confessions and we used it to launch our second Blush anthology. However, it seems that there’s a lot of girls (and boys) who had a lot of feels to confess. Their voices are still ringing in my ears.

    (more…)

  • Jump History and Fujoshi (4): Move aside Son Goku, it’s all about Rukawa x Hiei x Kenshin. TOTALLY!

    1990 to 1994 can be considered by many as one of the strongest periods of Jump. The title that carried this period was an epic intergalactic superhuman masterpiece named Dragon Ball Z. It was so popular that no one in this world could not have encountered this anime. However, despite its popularity, the fujoshis focused their attention towards the other titles that were also great but somehow fell under the cloud of Dragon Ball Z.

    For the Fujoshi, Goku and his dragon balls did not spark a fire to their fragile fangirl hearts. Instead, they looked at the bishounens from other Jump titles. The era of androgynous men have come to an end. In this era, it was all about the handsome boys of Jump.

    (more…)

  • Jump History and Fujoshi (3): Men and their Poses and Cosmos

    Jump History and Fujoshi (3): Men and their Poses and Cosmos

    For this round, we have to remember something: the girls follow where the pretty boys are. By the time our dear Fujoshi’s have been hooked line and sinker with Captain Tsubasa, they found themselves regularly reading Jump. During Jump’s heroic age, wherein most heroes had bulky bodies, serious manly faces, and crazy poses, some fangirls focused their attention on the Masami Kurumada’s epic tale of astrological proportions, Saint Seiya.

    saint seiya - hades ova covers

    The mythical backdrop of Saint Seiya provided the perfect setting for every fujoshi’s fantasy.
    (more…)

  • Jump History and Fujoshi (2): Captain Tsubasa love

    1980 to 1984 marked great development and diversity in Jump. The second part of the WSJ Illustrated Guide would probably tell you more about the growth of the magazine and the rise of its future mangaka superstars.

    On our end, this period is monumental. Why? It is in this period that a bond was established between the fans of Shounen-Ai and Shounen Jump. As the authors of shounen-ai experimented with more mature themes and story lines, their fans started to starve for the genre. Unlike today wherein you have tons of mangakas for BL, there were only a select number of authors who tried to write shounen-ai. Later on, their fascination for boy stories led them on a quest to find other tales that exhibited the same potential as those that have been written by shounen-ai mangakas.

    home

    Their search ended with a tale of a young boy named Oozora Tsubasa and his journey to achieve his goal of representing becoming a world class football (soccer, for Americans) player.

    (more…)

  • Axis power crack, anyone? With yonkomas too!

    Rarely do I feature doujins because of their apparent inaccessibility. However, a WebComi doujin shouldn’t be so bad. For my first WebComi doujin feature, I present… Hetaria!.

    My friend Anne, gave a link in her journal on what she said to be was CountryxCountry slash. At first I thought how that’d be funny, so I gave it a check only to realize that it was more than just your usual CountryXCountry slash, but rather a WW Axis Power Country slash, even with appearances of Allied powers. Hidekaz Himaruya… YOU ARE A GENIUS!!! m(_ _)m

    Hetaria characters

    Himaruya-san created a Web Comic called “Hetaria”. Hetaria features an anthropomorphication of the different Axis countries as they fight in the first World War (and later the second World War). Or that’s what it’s trying to present, but the insanity revolves in the little exchanges that happen between the countries during the war. The story generally revolves around Italy who was, as illustrated, a good for nothing country. Hence the pun on Italia by giving the name “Hetaria ((Hetare means useless.)) ”

    (more…)