Otaku Champloo

Tag: est em

  • The BL Manga Starter Kit

    The BL Manga Starter Kit

    blstarterkit

    I’d like to think of this BL Starter Kit as Pandora’s Box. When Airin raised the idea to me, I was obscenely curious over what she had to say. In fact, I’ve been very curious what titles people suggested because getting someone started on BL is like opening Pandora’s Box. The entire world thinks that it has nothing but evil — homosexuality, misrepresentation of homosexuality/masculinity, sexual aggression, yaoi hands, etc. Before you even grab your first BL book, people would have told you 9000 reasons why it suck and why you should not read it. It’s reached a point where any person who likes BL will openly tell you “Yeah, it’s TRASH,” as if acknowledging that nothing good comes out of it. And yet, a recent book about BL has earned an Eisner nomination. Amazing artists such as Yoshinaga Fumi and Shimura Takako started their careers as BL writers. And then the people who considered BL also trash also openly admitted that they genuinely love the genre. Doesn’t that make you want to open this Pandora’s Box?

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  • Fujojocast #10: Building a BL starter kit!

    Fujojocast #10: Building a BL starter kit!

    Honto Yajuu vol. 8

    So I posted last weekend about pooling people’s recs for a BL starter kit! If you’ve got a few titles in mind, that’s great! Let me know about it!

    However, if you’re still thinking how to go about it, let Airin, Maija, and I help you build a criteria for your BL starter kit! In this podcast, we share our thoughts on BL titles we think is accessible for curious readers! It may have been recorded last year but I think our selection still holds! Listen in and I hope it inspires you to rec for the BL Starter Kit!

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  • 35. Sono Otoko Amatou ni tsuki

    sonootoko

    This is the manga for the chocolate lovers. This is also not the manga for chocolate lovers.

    This manga excites me because it’s written by Est Em. It also makes me feel distraught because it’s by Est Em.

    This conflicted feeling lies on the fact that this is perhaps one of the most beautiful manga I’ve seen published and at the same time it’s the most troublesome manga when you’re devoid of chocolate. Rarely do I bother with such titles, but if it’s Est Em, I don’t mind this bittersweet affair.

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  • 13 awesome manga for 2013

    news_large_cover11

    I’d like to think that I read a lot this year but I’m not exactly sure if I did. In the last year I’ve been gorging on texts that I think I had around forty books, mostly academic, in my bibliography. Was there time for manga? I always wish there was more time for manga.

    I did try to read some manga this year and this is the list of my favourites that I have read. I honestly wish I read more. Again, this list is not based on whether it was released this year but are based on titles that I managed to read this year. And I read a couple of awesome ones this year. Here’s 13 awesome titles from 2013.

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  • #801MMF – Fujojocast no. 1: Not enough BL in the world!

    Right-o! Put three fujojos in a room and they talk about pr0n. Even in a skype chatroom.

    For the 801 MMF, I’m happy to share some time with Anne Lee from Chic Pixel and Jocelyne Allen from Brain vs. Book to talk about something close to our hearts: Boy’s Love Manga

    Anne Lee’s translated a number of titles for DMG and she’s currently doing her PhD on Boy’s Love. Jocelyne Allen is also a translator for Sublime but she’s got a roster of BL titles under her belt. On the other hand, I’m just a BL fan. lol. Well, Anne and I move around the same academic BL circles, so we get around.

    Either way, for this podcast, we’re doing an overview of BL and prattle on about sound effects in BL and all that jazz!

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

    OP & ED – Splash Free! from Free!

    The Fujojocast Podcast Index

    00:00 – 2:30 – Introductions
    2:36 – Beginnings with BL
    9:20 – Elements of a good BL/yaoi
    15:30 – Translating cultural nuances in BL
    25:00 – Notes for cultural nuances in BL
    28:00 – Anne’s Favorite Authors: Est Em, Basso, Yoshinaga Fumi
    33:00 – Jocelyne’s Favorites: What Anne Said, Kumota Haruko
    36:00 – My favorite: Nakamura Asumiko and why we can’t bring some of her works here
    39:00 – Yoneda Kou
    40:00 – Inoue Satou and Male BL Artists
    41:00 – Gengoroh Tagame
    42:00 – Ten Dance by Inoue Satou
    44:00 – Craziest BL stories that you’ve read
    Jocelyne – Incredible Kintaro
    Anne – Equus
    Khursten – Chintsubu
    50:00 – Vibrator Company
    52:00 – Hey, It’s Me
    53:00 – Things to look forward to in BL
    01:02:00 – BL going mainstream
    01:05:00 – Kusama Sakae: The Match Seller, The Bed of my Dear King
    We had so much fun doing this podcast and I’m personally considering doing this quite regularly. I better invest on a good mic! 😀
    If you guys have topics related to BL that you want to hear about, what would be the topic? I’d love to hear from you and hopefully maybe invite you to talk about your feels for the next Fujojocast! 😀

  • #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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  • #801MMF: The Fujoshi Bible

    In Eureka’s Fujoshi Manga Compendium, there’s this interesting section where they list down the things a fujoshi must read.　They called it the Fujoshi Manga Bible.  I thought it’d be best to share the list down here for fujoshi to check what these women think are titles that we fujojos must read. I’ll also try to append what’s available in English!

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  • 2012 manga were awesomesauce

    Wow. What a year.

    As compared to last year, 2012 was good to me — very good to me.

    However, because it was good to me, it also meant it ate my time. Lots of my time. Particularly, my champloo and manga reading time. In terms of my time for this blog, I didn’t fulfill my wonderful spotlight series monthly. Nor did I even continue the columns I wish to continue! I wish I can do more and please don’t blame my tumblr habit. ; 3; It’s easier to reblog than write. My life in tumblr is filled with likes, porn, and tons of reblogs. But yes, in general, I have nothing but my life to blame on why I didn’t get things up to speed. At the very least, I was happy that I managed to host my first MMF quite successfully.

    Despite this madness, 2012 was still a great year of manga. Here’s a list of 12 mangas I read in the last year. They’re not necessarily manga released in 2012 but they are all amazing manga that I’ve discovered and love this year. In no particular order, here are my favorite mangas read from last year.

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  • Spotlight (801 Special): Est Em

    Spotlight (801 Special): Est Em

    I have this horrible habit of figuring out the lives of people I see when I’m traveling. I love to do this in airports since people hold many stories in such a small space.

    A woman walks by, clutching her Berkin bag. Probably a trophy wife of some Asian business magnate and she just arrived from shopping trip in New York. A tall lean guy with long legs, tattered jeans, and a Real Madrid jersey felt like a backpacker on his way home. If he had the hipster glasses, it’s either his boyfriend’s jersey or just something he wore to impress someone.

    Sometimes there are people who become alive just by what they wear. A Spanish guy in a plain white shirt and fitted jeans walks to a coffeeshop. He sits cross legged, reading the newspaper he got from the plane, sipping his coffee with such elegance. God knows why my eyes are drawn to him, but in my head, that man must have been a matador once. Or a painter. Probably the hero of an Est Em novel.

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  • #16 – Red Blinds the Foolish by Est Em

    #16 – Red Blinds the Foolish by Est Em

    Red Blinds the Foolish by Est Em
    Serialized in Mellow Mellow and Gekidan
    Published by Ohzora Publishing and Deux Press

    There was a time when I used to dream of Spanish fiestas. La Tomatina. Hogueras de San Juan. San Isidro de Madrid. Corrida de toros.

    And I did not dream of this because my country, the Philippines, used to be a Spanish colony. My fascination with it lies in the romance of the activity. There was something beautiful and romantic with the order that comes with the chaos of a fiesta. I’ve seen bits and parcels of it in my own local fiesta, but that charm extends just as much with the Spanish ones, particularly with the Corrida de toros. I find the power in controlling the bull fascinating.

    It is in this same fascination that I ended up reading more through the pages of Est Em’s Red Blinds the Foolish. While I admit that I did grab it first because it was written by Est Em, I didn’t realize that she will drag me into this romantic world of toreros.

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