Otaku Champloo

Tag: fujoshi no hi

  • [801] And so the pr0n goes to….

    So before I make the reveal on this, I first want to thank the following lovely ladies who replied to my call for BL Webcomics on time (meaning before 3 PM NY/Easter Time – 3 AM in Manila): Lamborg (@neuromantically),  Jocelyne Allen (@brainvsbook),  Melinda (@mbeasi),  Ellestrois (tumblr), Kimiko (@ShroudedDancer), Cathe/Tiny Taikodrum (tumblr), Elibard/Corallini (tumblr), Anne Lee (@apricotsushi). Thanks to all of you, we made an awesome list and more and more people are even suggesting that I should look into other titles!

    At the same time, I want to thank those who gave their recs much later than the contest time: fishydotlove (tumblr), montflorit (tumblr), tachixneko (tumblr), @Oshioki_koneko, @Kanzen_Ron. Do know that recs came in time and I will actually append Parallet in a few minutes!

    So ladies, without your efforts we probably would be in the dark as to where we will turn for our BL webcomics. And for those who are just chiming in, you might as well bookmark that list because I’ll try to update that post for any recommendations. Maybe I’ll be doing this as a yearly thing.

    Anyhu, on to the winner (the first girl in the randomized list as randomized by Random.org):

    So congratulations to @neuromantically!! I’ll probably be calling you or DMing you in a minute to arrange how we’re going to bring your bacon hoem!

    Again! Thank you so much for all your recs and keep on recommending BL webcomics you’ve been reading online!

  • 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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  • [801] The Ultimate BL Webcomic Rec List

    Can you believe that Boy’s Love comics has been around for more than 40 years?

    One would think that Shounen Ai, Yaoi, Boy’s Love is just a passing fancy among girls but its continued influence not only in Japanese otaku subculture but in the global subculture shows the power of the genre.

    Yes. Yaoi is all over the globe. There’s a book on Boy’s Love that speaks about Yaoi fans in Indonesia, Germany, Italy, and Chine. And there are scholars in Japan who study other fujoshi subcultures in the Philippines and even Latin America. The internet has made yaoi accessible and day by day, girls like you and me become aware of their fujoshi goggles.

    In the last few years I’ve become more and more aware of emerging BL artists outside of Japan. What was once amateur efforts in writing BL have eventually involved in a BL that’s quite mature and very different from Japan’s. It’s fantastic how many of these artists are yet unpublished and find the internet as the space for their works. If I had money, I’d get these artist to publish in an anthology because they all deserve a shot in getting their stories more available to the public.

    To pull this list of BL Webcomics, I asked fujojos and fudanshis to give me their recs for a prize! Many gave the same recs which proves that there are those who have made a name out there. The prize I’m giving away is also from an artist who made a name drawing BL for Suikoden and Devil May Cry, Jo Chen. In These Words was a comic she drew for her doujin circle Guilt|Pleasure. Initially a webcomic, Guilt|Pleasure’s efforts eventually gave them enough fan base and chapters to make a volume before it was published by DMP and now published in Japan under Libre’s BeBoy Gold. Isn’t that fantastic?

    But I’m quite sure outside of here there are many BL webcomics online. Here are your recommendations (in alphabetical order)!

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  • [801] Hello. I am a Fujoshi. Today’s my day.

    Fujoshi. Fujojo. There’s no denying that I am all of this.

    It’s already in my blood. I don’t think I can ever unsee life without fujoshi lenses and I must confess that my fujoshi vision has given me nothing but pleasure in life.

    Until, that strange awkward moment when you’re introduced to an esteemed colleague as one. See, last year, we had a guest who was giving a talk about Japanese manga and its presence in real life, and here comes my adviser introducing me as a fujoshi. Better put your bad foot forward, right?

    I have issues going public about my fujoshi-ness. Don’t you? It’s my realm of fantasy and as much as possible, I’d like to keep this part of my life to people who won’t judge me for my manXman needs. I have had strange experiences that in the face of a general population, the mention of homosexual suggestion will only mean awkward silences and people’s hasty conclusion that I am a perverted person.

    I know — we know — that liking BL, yaoi, slash, and permutations thereof is partly a perversion and as much as one would like to think that we are past the concepts of sexology and that these preferences are not in anyway sexual deviances, a good portion of the world still thinks I’m weird. Thus, I’d like to keep my fujoshi life a secret identity only open to friends who are happy with the batshit insane.

    And I’m not alone on this. I have friends in prestigious positions, from doctors to lawyers to academes who shy from “coming out” with their fujoshi life.

    Thus, when said adviser introduced me as a fujoshi, I immediately backpedaled and corrected him in saying I was into gender studies. That sounds a lot more respectable, isn’t it? Strangely, this esteemed colleague was not fazed by my fujoshi title and simply said “Oh just say you are a fujoshi. It’s something to be proud of.”

    At that moment, I questioned if the time was right to come out as a fujoshi. I tried to admit to this colleague, with a sense of shame, that I was indeed a fujoshi but again she empowered me with supportive words that fujoshi are a powerful lot and there should be no shame in being a fujoshi.

    And in hindsight, you know, she’s right. In the last century, the earliest of “fujoshi” have been shaping the face of comics. Thanks to the Magnificent Year 24 Group, we were able to explore shounen ai. They’ve also pushed the sci-fi genre, the josei genre, and finally managed to develop comics for women and their fantasies.

    As fans, fujoshi have been most conscious about gender. Their fujoshi vision have made many fujoshi gender aware and have pushed gender debates to many directions.

    Despite its “rotten” roots, there’s something beautiful about being a fujoshi.

    And while the world masks boys’ love behind bromance, unresolved sexual tension, etc. etc., the fujoshi would probably be the first of the lot who would come out and embrace many men and women who used to keep their sexual preferences private.

    I think today’s a great reminder on the amazing things that fujoshi have done in this world.

    I’ll be posting some articles in the next few hours in celebration of this day just for us fujoshi. I’m hoping the weather would be nicer! Right now, my office has no electricity and I’m stealing time at another office just to post this for this day!

    That said, among my readers and fellow fujoshi, are there still many of you uncomfortable in “coming out” as a fujoshi? Share me your stories and your experience and also, do you think it’s time to “come out” as a fujoshi?