If moé is the cancer killing anime, is yaoi the AIDS killing shoujo manga?
The weekend before the last, I spent one night and part of the following day to read the seven volumes of Mieko Koide and Akizuki Koh’s Yatteranneeze!. The manga is far better than most BL manga out there, even if it is not enough so to be good. Anyway, it was a tremendously enjoyable and nostalgic experience, as I felt like I was back to my old fudanshi days, some two or three years ago, when I loved “shounen-ai” and my affinity for (3D) guys was still a rather abstract matter.
In particular, I appreciated how the series tries to tackle several common subjects of anxiety in the life of real gay men. Unfortunately, for the most part, it does not work out very well
For example, the issue of one’s acceptance of their own sexual identity is a complex one, and it’s usually a pleasure for me to read about characters going through this kind of troubles. However, in Yatteranneeze!’s case, I felt like it was very overplayed and ended up making the uke protagonist quite disagreeable.
But one of the things that left me the most troubled is the series part were the characters have to deal with the possibility of having been infected with HIV.
It is quite unusual for manga characters, be it in male or female-oriented works, to protect themselves during intercourse. Yatteranneeze! is not an exception, and everybody has sex happily without worrying about rubber.
What was quite disturbing is the discrepancy between, on the one hand, this customary disregard for health issues in the writing of love scenes, and on the other hand the high consciousness of the problem which is induced by the presence of an AIDS arc in the manga.
It is common sense that anybody who has fooled around with a number of “nameless girls”, probably without protection, would usually think of testing themselves when they want to start a long term relationship. However, this does not seem to strike our protagonist, who wouldn’t even think about it if one of his sex-friends wasn’t very likely to be positive. The level of the character’s awareness of the problem seems not to be the same as ours.
But the moment that really stroke me as contrary to my common sense was after the announce that Masaki’s sex friend was, in fact, not seropositive. It is natural for the characters to be relieved, but I was surprised to find out that the problem seemed to leave their mind completely and immediately. This “Okay, everything’s fine, so let’s fuck now and stop worrying about the rest” attitude isn’t exactly incoherent with the rest of the story but well, at least for me, it felt quite out of place.
As the series is quite old, I wondered if the reason for this was that it had been written at a time at which AIDS awareness wasn’t so high. The series has been written between 1994 and 2000, therefore the scene I’ve been talking about must have been written around 1998. This is 3 years after the end of what we call in France “les Années SIDA” (the AIDS years), and would the author had been French, it would have been impossible to lay the responsibility of this lack of awareness to her culture. However, it does seem that in Japan, things are noticeably different. Unfortunately, many links in this Wikipedia article are dead, but it does seem that HIV and AIDS in Japan are a much smaller and younger phenomenon. It is thus understandable, I guess, that Akizuki Kou’s perception of the whole HIV/AIDS thing must have been quite different with mine.
btw, I got tested today. The results are for tomorrow.
update: I’m negative.
Comments
>this customary disregard for health issues in the writing of love scenes
In some cases it may not be so much of a disregard as perhaps an action that is meant to be understood (without saying). It’s also probably avoided because condoms and lube and all the other necessary components of sex are not exactly “romantic,” or idealized. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need to protect ourselves, we could just go at it. So I think with a lot of authors, myself included, we tend to leave out those little details because we would rather focus on the “good stuff” than talk about the necessities. Another example, we don’t really see any manga characters taking a poop, ever. But we assume that they do.
It also seems to me like perhaps the author was using “aids” as a poorly constructed plot device. But you said at the beginning that it was good. Is this manga worth hunting down?
That looks like a reasonable explanation in that case and many others. Altough in the case of outright porn, the interest for the technicality of the relationship makes such an use of innuendo unlikely, I guess it does make sense when the love scene is designed to illustrate, well, love.
As for the poorly constructed plot device, that’s indeed probably the case, but I want to give the author the benefit of the doubt on this point. On the other hand, you misread me, as I never said that Yatteranneeze! is good. The idea I wanted to express is that it is, in fact, quite bad, but still much better than the asinine and insipid average of BL manga.
As a side note, what you write looks quite interesting. I don’t know how you found this place, but thank you very much for your interest!
Yeah, I can see where details are important in porn XD …A lot of BL titles tend to fall somewhere in between porn and romance, and I think it’s because we (BL fans, a predominantly female audience) want romance with a lot of sex. But not exactly porn, more along the lines of fiction. When you write fiction, you should write about things that are interesting. That’s why people want to read your books/comics–because they find them interesting, entertaining. Condoms aren’t all that interesting, nor are they entertaining. I understand why people argue that there is somewhat of a social obligation that writers (of television, fiction, comics, etc) have to present condoms in work of fiction, but honestly, we need to fix our problems with the state of sexual education in the US before we criticize writers. Sex is a dirty word in school, not an academic one, and that’s a major problem. (Sorry, I got off-topic a bit.)
>”I never said that Yatteranneeze! is good. The idea I wanted to express is that it is, in fact, quite bad, but still much better than the asinine and insipid average of BL manga.”
Haha, I was wondering if that was the case. Yes, it seems that BL is at a lack for titles that can be considered good, “artistic,” pushing the envelope, etc. ESPECIALLY in english. I love BL, but it seems like even titles that look like they are going to be good are ultimately disappointing on most levels. And then, there are many good titles that I have found scanlations for, but there is no indication that these titles will ever see english releases. (such as Bokura ni Matsuwaru etc, and other works by Kyuugou.)
I found you through tsurupeta’s blogroll. I love thought-provoking pieces like yours, I hope that you keep blogging
(It’s also fun that your blog is named 半ズボンLOVE, and mine is Yaoi Briefs. XD I got a kick out of that.)
As for my writing, I’m working on my first manga, it’s just hard to get going because I also have a “real job.” I plan on posting it online to read for free, and indy-publishing it, because I do believe that yaoi fans (in general) buy copies of the book when they come out. Here is what the art looks like: http://yaoibriefs.com/snp.jpg
> I understand why people argue that there is somewhat of a social obligation that writers (of television, fiction, comics, etc) have to present condoms in work of fiction
Well, as a consumer of loli and shota porn, I would have a very hard time trying to ask of writers any moral consideration in their writing of sex scenes, and I would particularly not give them responsibility in educating their readers on sexual practices.
Mind you, it is not something I hold against manga to not promote security, I just noticed that in this case it did create a surprising discrepancy.
> good, “artistic,” pushing the envelope,
It’s not that much about being “artistic”, it’s more that for most of BL, the characters and story seem to be but a pretext for yaoi scenes. And I guess it is enough for most scangirls when the “kyaa” effect is there.
To put it another way, a good BL manga would be one that is enjoyable for somebody who dislikes BL..
> But not exactly porn, more along the lines of fiction.
Porn is fiction too, you know.
> ESPECIALLY in english
The situation in France is worse. We got published yaoi several years later than the US, and most of the stories published are, well, sub-par. God, they got as far as publishing some Piyoko Chitose.
> (such as Bokura ni Matsuwaru etc, and other works by Kyuugou.)
I will read that.
Thank you for the advice
> I love thought-provoking pieces like yours, I hope that you keep blogging
It is funny that I did not think of it as “thought-provoking” at all when writing it, just… personal. Anyway, thank you very much, and I do hope too that I will find myself able to write more.
> (It’s also fun that your blog is named 半ズボンLOVE, and mine is Yaoi Briefs. XD I got a kick out of that.)
I noticed that too
Good luck for your manga! I do hope to read more about it one day!
As a side note, I followed you on Twitter, I’m the account with private tweets and a French word as username.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to make it sound like you were scrutinizing the morals of the comic. I guess I hear it too often from moral crusaders, and thought there was a correlation. Although yes, just looking at it from the standpoint of this story, it is actually really, really funny. XD
>To put it another way, a good BL manga would be one that is enjoyable for somebody who dislikes BL.
Yes! I agree completely. I guess what I meant is that “good” BL would have good writing, good/interesting art, interesting storylines, and be entertaining. Most BL, the best of it, you seem to only get one or two of those things. Such as, “Alone in my King’s Harem” had good art and was entertaining, but the characters were flat and unrealistic. “Dining Bar Akira,” the storyline and the characters were interesting, the art was “edgy,” but there were times I thought it was boring or that the comic wasn’t really telling the story all that well.
And like you said, “good” BL would also be interesting to people that weren’t necessarily fans of the genre, and you didn’t have to be a fan to appreciate it.
>The situation in France is worse.
Really?? I thought you guys had that yaoi magazine that was owned by Libre (BeXBOY). Here I was thinking that you were better off. XD
>It is funny that I did not think of it as “thought-provoking” at all when writing it, just… personal. Anyway, thank you very much, and I do hope too that I will find myself able to write more.
You’re welcome! I will be watching your blog and hoping for more
>Good luck for your manga! I do hope to read more about it one day!
As a side note, I followed you on Twitter, I’m the account with private tweets and a French word as username.
Thank you!! I added you back
I’ll be announcing over twitter when the comic is finally available. It will be a while though. XD
“The situation in France is worse. We got published yaoi several years later than the US, and most of the stories published are, well, sub-par. God, they got as far as publishing some Piyoko Chitose.”
> The first yaoi manga published in France was Zetsuai back in the end of the 90′s and the sales were so catastrophic that Tonkam and the other publishers, I think, decided to end the “Yahoi” (“Yaoi” is a registered trademark in France) experience before it really started. Honestly, Tonkam didn’t pick the best one to begin with. But at the same time (early 2000′s) Panini manga released New York New York, one of the best “realistic” yaoi manga I’ve ever read. And it talks about AIDS. And condoms. It’s been reissued, still in 4 volumes (the covers seem better than in the first edition ;_; If it’s true, I think i’ll sell my old manga and purchase the new ones), and is still worth the read.