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.

1990-1994: Move aside Son Goku, it’s all about Rukawa x Hiei x Kenshin. TOTALLY!

There were 3 major titles that caught the attention of the fangirls. These were Slam Dunk, Yuu Yuu Hakusho, and Rurouni Kenshin. There were two factors that became crucial in the recognition of these titles as fujoshi havens. The first factor were the bishounens. I have to give dibs to Inoue Takehiko, Yoshihiro Togashi, and Nobuhiro Watsuki. These men have immortalized some really handsome faces in Jump history. Who can’t forget the sweaty face of Rukawa? Or maybe Hiei’s cold stare? Might I add Aoshi’s smirk¹? These boys were drawn quite handsomely by Shounen Jump standards. Compared to their predecessors who either had comical faces, if not realistically masculine faces; these mangakas managed to create a great balance. They were handsome but not pretty. They were masculine but not scary.

The anime industry also provided great help in feeding the fandom. First, for whatever rough lines that were drawn in the manga, the anime made it more smoother and appealing. Any girl would agree that the anime posters for Yuu Yuu Hakusho would have blown them over the moon. The characters look cleaner than their weekly manga counterparts. More so, it would have reached a particular standard once it goes in anime. Gone was the once chubby and lion mane hair for Kenshin. For any detail missed in the weekly, it is somewhat compensated with the anime poster. It was partly a marketing ploy, but it worked for the girls. Especially those damn YYH posters with the four guys in suits. GOD! Although this marketing strategy was introduced with Saint Seiya, it reached it’s full potential with these three animes. Imagine all the character albums just for the characters alone is amazing!

Invasion of handsome demons, foxes and boys from the dead.

Now, let’s look at these series closer and see the popular pairings in them. Let’s start with the series that pretty much started the fujoshi in me, Yu Yu Hakusho. Ah, going through this series is a constant reminder of my bad fangirl beginnings and my fujoshi awakening. <3 This series is hardcore makai² action with Yuusuke as the leader of his ghost hunting team. He has three underlings of sorts, Kawabara, Hiei, and Kurama, that he has whipped to submission sometime during the series.³. The story for this series is rather simple. The YYH boys had to protect the earth from greedy spirits and monsters, at the same time ferry some lost souls back to the spirit world. It’s rather sad that the series had no complete closure, but the mystery of the future always leave a good aftertaste for fans.

There really is just one main pairing that catapulted the series to great fujoshi heights — Kurama x Hiei. Since the revelation of Kurama’s demon form, the girls even experimented with Demon Kurama x Kurama x Hiei. It was their strange closeness that piqued the curiosity of many fangirls. Kurama teased Hiei more than any man should and Hiei, to an end, feared Kurama’s wrath. This relationship eventually inspired a lot of doujins and fandoms. A favorite of mine is the Petit Hiei series by Private Label⁴. In this series, you have have Kurama taking care of toddler Hiei. It’s primarily gag, but deadly cute. It’s also quite interesting how Yun Kouga⁵ is also a known doujinshika for the series. She’s been doing doujins for other Jump Series like Tsubasa and Saint Seiya, so creating doujins for another Jump was nothing new to her.

There were other pairings in YYH. Another favorite is Yuusuke x Kurama. Then it gets more obscure with Yuusuke x Kuwabara. Throw in some Toguro in there and Sensui. Yeah. No one was spared from the pairings. Maybe it has something to do with the guy:girl ration again. Ah~ the fujoshi imagination is really scary. ^^;;

In my experience, YYH was one of the early Jump fandoms that I witnessed taking over the internet. I mean, I type Yu Yu Hakusho back then and there were a lot of information sites, fanfiction sites, and so on. In Anipike, it had tons of sites related to YYH! And the fanfiction sites and mailing lists were amazing. Being fresh into the fandom, with no shounen-ai experience whatsoever, the idea of Kurama and Hiei doing the deed with KY⁶ was beyond my imagination. It was shocking at first. But just like that first hentai video you accidentally borrowed from your video lady thinking it was just another anime, it was a guilty pleasure that you kept on reading out of your own personal curiosity. I wasn’t too big into the YYH Yaoi movement, although, I cannot deny its existence. There was this one fic⁷ I enjoyed because of all the crazy pairings that were in the series. For one it had that Yuusuke x Kuwabara pairing. PLUS, it had a whopping chapter size that my friends and I printed it so that we can read it while we were not online at home. It was crazy but I do remember that by the end of it, even I found that sly fox as one seductive demon. God Kurama, you’re hot. And you know it. ><;;

On a side note, there’s also a bit of sexual ambiguity with Kurama which could have affected his image. It was quite obvious that in the Philippine dub of YYH, they had the mistake of calling Kurama, Denise. Later on, they just called him Dennis. lol.

And then there was that Basketball team…

Around the same time that YYH started was another manga written by the ambitious Inoue Takehiko. For him, his manga was all about perseverance and the struggle to change your life and fulfill your dream. Retribution, pride, and victory became the key themes in his Jump masterpiece, Slam Dunk.

The art of Slam Dunk was rather interesting. Takehiko-sensei’s art style is very realistic but unlike JoJo and Hokuto no Ken, it was neither violent nor gory. This made the series a little more pleasing to the girls. Plus, the guys didn’t look too bad altogether. Sure, Akagi (Gori) looked scary, but his character earned him the respect of many. The rest of the team were charming but there was one guy that many girls (and boys) swooned over. L-O-V-E, Rukawa!!

Rukawa was handsome beyond words. I know guys who are actually in love with him. And they’re straight. He also had that ‘cool’ factor that girls found very attractive. On the other hand, you have Sakuragi who was more of a monkey than GoriAkagi will ever be. Unlike Rukawa, he was emotional and temperamental. Their domestic banter in every panel was so charming and amusing that girls used this as their base for their relationship. Rukawa played the Kichiku-seme in this scenario. He would generally appear cold and uncaring, but in the end he would do anything for Sakuragi. Sakuragi was the wild monkey he had to tame. Their chemistry is interesting and very dynamic. The RuHana swept the hearts of many fujoshis, such as BL mangaka Yamane Ayano.

There were some doujinshikas who experimented with other couples. One such doujinshika was Yoshinaga Fumi who drew Mitsui x Kogure. Oh yes. You read that right. Yoshinaga Fumi. I’m not sure if her claim to fame were her Slam Dunk doujinshis, but checking her doujinshi list, it seems to be the she’s been faithfully creating MitKo doujins even after winning her manga awards for Antique! It’s amazing really. I didn’t sense that she was the doujinshi type, but I guess Kogure’s megane charm totally drove this megane otaku crazy. God, her doujinshis go where her mangas would never be. Unlike her BL doujins that maintained a balance between the sex and the story, her doujins just go all the way with sex! And some lovey dovey lines in between. When I crossed one of her doujins, I was just blown over with the rate that Mitsui was going at it with Kogure. Amazing! It’s like all of her dreams of Ono’s escapades were placed in Kogure’s doujins. lol. That aside, this is one of the more mature pairings in the series. They’re both handsome plus it had that nurturing atmosphere. And slightly naughty too, especially with Mitsui’s character. *blushes*

After a chit-chat with Ed, I realized that there were other interesting pairings that were present in Scram Dunk… err Slam Dunk. Apparently there’s a GoriKawa movement. It’s the whole Beauty and the Beast aspect which I think can work, but only after I have drunk around 5 bottles of vodka. I know there’s also a Sengoku x Rukawa (SenRu) movement as well. Pairing the two aces together is really interesting. A very sexy dynamic, in my opinion. *blushes*

Now, the $20 question. For fans of Genshiken, I know you’d be asking “So, who’s the pairing that lured our dear Ogiue to reveal her fujoshi side in the Genshiken Room?” Based on the illustration of the cover it was a MitKo doujin. The number on the guy with the glasses is 5 (Kogure’s) and the other guy, based on his hair and features is Mitsui. In her heart of hearts, she’s really quite a romantic. If she had drawn Scram Dunk instead of KujiAn, I can only imagine what kind of MitKo doujin she would have drawn. I mean, just imagine Angela’s reaction and add the dynamics that Yoshinaga Fumi uses for her MitKo doujins… *blushes* :3

Then those boys with their swords.

Next up, and perhaps the last for this set is Rurouni Kenshin. Kenshin started rather slow for fans but picked up once the Shishio arc was in motion. Watsuki’s art was stunning, if not brilliant. He had a knack for motion and drama. Drama involved a lot of tension between Kenshin and his rivals. I think those cold piercing eyes drove some fangirls insane.

Although sexual tension is the key for most of the pairings, in this case, it’s the close friendship between the protagonist Kenshin and Sano that pushed some crazy fangirls to draw. Of the lot, their pairing was most popular. Their relationship is funny and comforting. It’s almost like an “I Love Lucy” but this time it’s like “I love Kenshin” at work. Sometimes, they’ll introduce a third wheel, either Saitou or Aoshi, just to break up the lovey-dovey relationship that these two have. But in the end, you can expect some fluffy ending (and luckily some schmex) afterwards. The likes of Erio Horio and Misato Ibuki were some doujinshikas who drew for the Kenshin x Sano x Kenshin pair.

There were crazier pairs, some bridging shota and some bridging S&M. The SaitouxAoshi pair delved into that sadist side that Kenshin’s Saitou seems to project. Although I think the real Shinsengumi Saitou is far from tying a young ninja leader til he bleeds, but the idea is definitely hot and sexy. And quite a lot of doujinshikas abused that. lol. Especially if you’ve got an uke’s who’s got battle-scarred chest.

Shota comes in many forms for RK. The most popular is the Hiko x Kenshin. And just like the predecessor, Kenshin x Yahiko has a following as well. In one occasion, I read Sano x Yahiko. That was kind of funny, but the circumstances were also weird. *sigh*

Internationally, I think the distribution of Samurai X for Rurouni Kenshin also raised the popularity of the series, exposing many anime fans to the world of samurais at the same time, exposing the girls to yaoi. On a global scale, this was kind of a big fandom, and possibly succeeded Yuu Yuu Hakusho in terms of popularity. Most fangirls of my age would probably have joined a mailing list that involved Rurouni Kenshin, whether it was simply a discussion list or a fanfiction list.

The fuel to feed the fire

In essence, this time became crucial in the development of the popularity of the yaoi genre. If Seiya and Tsubasa were responsible for building or setting the foundations of the fandom, it was this age that may have successfully been responsible in corrupting girls en masse. More girls became exposed to the magazine especially after they chased their favorite bishounens. Their stories, relationships and characters became the playground of many popular mangakas who wanted to try making it big as a mangaka. The amount of sales made by the doujins made publishers see the potential of the fujoshi market. After this came the birth of magazines beyond that of June. Biblos and Wings took in these writers and eventually built a burgeoning genre which we will eventually know as BL.

Yeah, a lot happened in this period and I’m sure I missed out on some despite having written a LOONG ENTRY about it. But one thing’s for sure, if it weren’t for these three titles from Shounen Jump, we prolly wouldn’t know BL as we know it today. Of course they weren’t entirely responsible, but you can say that they played a big part in building the genre.

Internationally, these three titles also opened a lot of girls in the genre. With the beginnings of the internet, the presence of these animes in local channels, and the publishing of the localized version of these mangas, foreign fans finally saw the potential of what a crazy girl’s imagination about her favorite manga can do in a boring Algebra class.

Coming up next… unbelievable middle-school children, rivalry, and an explosion that not everyone can stop. Oh god, this entry is long. >3< But I might dedicate the next one to just Tenipuri! >3<

1. God. Aoshi. So much memories
2. demon underworld
3. Ugh, did I just say that? It’s really hard to get those fujoshi comments out, but it’s partially true
4. Doujin Circle for Fuji Shinichi
5. Creator of Loveless
6. Whoever remembers this fic, the author, and where I can read it again, I’ll give you big virtual hugs!! XDD
7. Only Yuu, I think.

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.

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

1985-1989: Men and their poses and cosmos

I have to confess. I needed time to write this article because I knew little about Seiya. I do know that it was popular in fujoshi circles, but since I was not an avid follower of the series, I really had little to say. Thankfully, one of my good fujoshi friends Krimi had a lot to say about Saint Seiya. Since I knew her, this girl’s eyes light up upon the mention of Saint Seiya. She loves the series and I’m very happy that she helped me with this one. I’d also like to thank another good friend Anne who also gave me her two cents on the series.

Now let’s see, according to them, the main reason why Saint Seiya just clicked with Fujoshis is the amount of boys participating in the story. If there are 88 constellations and each constellation is represented by a saint. You can go and figure out the permutations on how many pairings you can imagine with that one. The amount of boyish charm was overwhelming but not quite enough for the fujoshis. The lack of female characters and the focus on the bonds and rivalries among saints fueled their otomegokoro¹ and inspired them to write and draw their doujins.

There are many pairs in Seiya. Almost no one was spared. As I was studying through the series for this article, I realized that camaraderie and strong ties between friends became the basis of the pairings. For example, in the case of Hyoga and Shun, Hyoga owed his life to Shun hence he would do ‘anything’ for Shun. For Camus and Milo, the friendship between them also became the basis for their loyalty towards each other.

Another important factor is the art of Saint Seiya. Had I not known better, I would have easily mistaken this series as shoujo title. With those bright glistening eyes and blow-dried long hair, I swear to god it could have been published in Margaret! The Androgynous Beauty as my friend puts it, is the highest factor why many fujoshis were drawn to the title. With Saint Seiya, Jump aesthetically drew the girls in. The boys were beautiful. Their armors and their mythos were nothing short of majestic. The manga showed everything that girls fantasized about mythological boys. And more.

The chemistry between the saints as well as its beautiful art became an important factor for many doujinshika who were active at this time. Some famous Saint Seiya doujinshikas were K2 (Kazuma Kodaka of Kizuna Fame), Arina Toshimi (BL mangaka), Reiichi Hiiro (BL mangaka), and well a famous group, CLAMP.

Although Clamp didn’t write BL mangas but mostly AniParo of their favorite characters such as Shun, these doujins became the ground for their establishment as mangakas. Their art styles matches so well that eventually, even CLAMP set off on their own, they too inherited Kuramada’s knack for detail and androgyny. Of course CLAMP has gone to places, but just like Kuramada, they too love to cross the line in terms of themes and stories. Most of their stories are published in shounen magazines and yet they still have that shoujo flair.

During the time of heroes, Jump had to deal with the popularity of their androgynous Saint Seiya. Sure, the magazine was swamped with manliness especially with titles like Hokuto no Ken and Jojo’s Bizaare Adventure, but for the girls, it was this androgynous beauty that caught their hearts.

In the next segment, we’ll be seeing more of how Jump crosses the line between shoujo and shounen as a league of bishounens invade Jump. Oh my dear heart²

1. Trans. The Ladies’ Heart, the heart of the Fujoshi
2. Images from Saint Seiya came from Fuu-chan’s Saint Seiya Shrine. http://fuunoroad.free.fr/saint.html.

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.

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.

1980-1984: The Captain Tsubasa Fantasy

I cannot remember when and where, but I do know for a fact that the first yaoi doujinshi published was that of Captain Tsubasa’s. And I wouldn’t wonder why. It had elements, such as friendship and rivalry, to match those found in shounen-ai mangas. To look closer into its ‘shounen-ai’ potential, let’s look into the setting and the characters of Captain Tsubasa.

Captain Tsubasa’s story begins when Oozara Tsubasa moves to a new town and joins the local soccer team. In here he met great friends who eventually pushed themselves to the limit in order to become great football players someday. It was a tough dream, but they knew that with Tsubasa around, they can pretty much do anything. As they played in the national tournament, they met other great players for the Japanese team. Eventually these guys became Tsubasa’s team mates for the National team.

Just by looking at my summary, Tsubasa’s story is no different than any other sports-based story out there. However, the strong ties and chemistry between some players as well as the tension between rivals drove the fangirls insane. Might I add that their youthful innocence was an extra factor to the story. Misaki saying things such as “I’ll always be by your side, Tsubasa” totally set their hearts a flutter. In the 1960s, these lines wouldn’t have meant nothing. But by the 80′s, with the influence of shounen-ai, these lines were gold.

Of the lot, the most obvious was Tsubasa’s relationship and his on-field partner Misaki. To many fans, they are as good as a married couple. And when they had to part ways, they still kept their friendship and often thought of each other when they’re on the field. If Tsubasa was here, I could have done this. If Misaki was here, I could have done this. This deep-rooted partnership became jailbait for many fujoshis. When I first caught Captain Tsubasa on the telly, I can’t help but admire the relationship between these two kids. Both were completely dedicated to the sport and both know knew very well that they would need each other’s talent to fulfill their dreams of becoming great players. As some fangirls put it, their love is so true.

Another interesting pair from Tsubasa became the starting ground for one talented mangaka. For her, she saw romance between a dedicated striker and his ever-faithful goalie. The strong ties between Meiwa’s Kojiro Hyuga and their goalie Ken Wakashimazu only proved their sexual attraction towards each other. Hyuga was a ruffian and Ken was the guy who kept him on a leash. Her SM experiments between these two characters took off and eventually became the base of her own shounen-ai tale, Bronze. The mangaka is Minami Ozaki, a true fujoshi who made Takuto and Koji icons of yaoi.

I had a shot in reading some of her Tsubasa doujins and they were bleeping hot¹. Since it was an old doujin, most of the dialogue were handwritten with Ozaki’s scratchy handwriting which is greatly compensated by her wonderful art. If you have read Bronze, you may immediately think that this was a Bronze doujin, but then you’ll realize that on some scenes that showed the rest of the Japanese football team. Only then you’ll realize that it’s a different story altogether.²

Anyway, the Tsubasa fandom remains as one of the strongest fandoms in Japan. There are still a lot of circles tackling Captain Tsubasa today. I have a feeling that as long Tsubasa is aiming to get that World Cup, we’ll still be seeing Tsubasa doujins being created.

For the next installment, we’ll look into the internationally popular Zodiacs, another big name mangaka(s) creating doujins for a big name Jump Title, and may I add dance poses too? The age of heroes sparks more creativity for the dear fujoshis so better watch out! :3³

1. thanks Rotch! XD
2. Yes, her handwriting can be that difficult that I can’t for squat read the kanjis at all! TAT;;
3. Disclaimer: I don’t own the doujin images in this website. Got it from http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Ginza/1365/main.htm :: Du Zhan Yu

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

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 “Hetaria¹ ”

² …. I know. Having been a History major, I know first hand that poking fun at historical events has its own dangers. Change of perspective. Change of details. And the danger of transmitting wrong information to the next generation (Hello, Showa Kids!) But when it says it’s just comedy, it should be taken lightly. It’s not like it’s propaganda or something.

Hetaria is closer to a parody of nations than it is a historical outtake on WWI and II and some bits before and after that. Having studied these guys, it’s funny how well Himaruya captures the country’s attitudes during the World Wars. Example, Italy is helpless without Germany’s help. He is often whiny, clumsy, and often apologetic of his actions. Germany is deeply annoyed at Italy’s whimsical attitude but since they’re allies, he has no other choice but to help. Japan is very straightfaced and often curt and direct. He even goes to the extent of saying “I’m sorry, but I don’t understand you.” as a line to capture Japan’s then inability to freely communicate their thoughts.

The representations are hilarious, and maybe even BL friendly, if you take the crack further. The stories somewhat follow history (esp. how Germany saves Italy’s ass all the time).　And for me, as long as the historical connections go well with the crack, it works fine by me.

The art for Hetaria is cute and wispy. The mangas can be a little rough and sketchy and well… I find some of the kanjis hard to read, but it’s a funny read nonetheless. If you love to take a crack at history, Hetaria’s one funny comic you should start reading.

Hetaria. I love you. You have set my heart ablaze with your insane Axis power crack and insanity. *bows*

If you’d like to read more Hetaria, you can just click on the image below. :3　(( DISCLAIMER: I would like to pose no claim to the art featured in this website. This is Hidekaz Himaruya’s work and I don’t own it.))

———-

Translation for the comic above.
[ Why is this guy so useless? ]
Italia: I ate a really stinky pizza in this place. It was made by some Englishman³
–
[It was the Imperial blood that drew us in but, it wasn't originally this bad, right?]
Italia: Hey check that out, Germany. What’s going on there.
–
Board: Why the world don’t need Italy
Professor: Tomatoes have been a key ingredient in their motivation for global conquest.
Professor: The continuous consumption have rendered them useless as a consequence.
–
Italia: Oh, the old guy’s saying some stupid things.
[ I see...]

1. Hetare means useless.
2. you can read the translation of the comic below
3. Thank you Mieko for the translation!