New Manga Stash from Japan.
Came in yesterday, while I was out. Sadly, I didn’t order from Rainbow Shoppers–I love them still, I do…but I bought from Gay DVD Japan this time; same price, but there was two movies I wanted and when I purchased them, they sent me an email asking me if I’d be interesting in ordering additional items–because my movie purchase amount qualified for free overseas shipping.
My Stash
About the new announcements—I didn’t order Macho Type #8. I had a feeling that when Muscle-Aqua began adding ‘noted’ women mangaka to the ranks of M-Type, we’d end up with the same sort of tired bullshit that’s bogging down BL in Japan. Yep—formula forced entry BL…why why why? The next anthy is a ‘no no no don’t touch me….but I have to force you to make you understand you’re gay’….sort of issue. The elite like to call it seme/uke imbalance—outsiders looking in call it, Rape. No thanks, not this month.
Urageki 3rd volume, and finally…the art is starting to appeal to me. Last issue, I debated on not bothering with it anymore, but I said fuck it. In the ads though, I saw that G-Men’s releasing that weird-ass bondage story by Tagame that never quite fit in the G series anthy anyway. Seriously, I assumed this series was the reason Tagame headlined the Urageki series, where his work could be featured in a ‘Gay man’s BL’ anthology, without his stories looking and feeling ‘out of place’. The story, looked to be about two guys who’d been POWs revisiting the era in their current lives, is the sort of bondage manga that’s all about physical pain and abuse—the same plots that dominated gay manga stories for quite some time in the 90’s, and to be honest—didn’t really make enough money to warrant large-publisher interests. It’s not up my alley [shockingly enough, I love the bondage works of Tori Maia, but not Tagame…I guess that makes me a wiener—
[Time Out] As a reader, I have this sort of like/hate relationship with Tagame’s work, and as I look over his latest collection, The House of Brutes, I can see why. My resentment is fueled by the lack of real interest on the part of some western gay voices out there–looking to embrace something other than yaoi, they champion the first tangible Japanese creator–Tagame, and overlook scores of other gay mangaka who actually make stories they’d enjoy [which by reading their blogs and lists--aren't bondage]. It bugs me to see certain gay sites and blogs promote his kink-work collections, I often wonder if they’ve actually seen the ‘real Tagame’ manga material, they’re promoting. I see Tagame artbooks in their sidebars, and his bondage comics in their ‘gay manga recs for gay men’ entries, and then I see some of these same dudes make entries about how they abhor weird fetish behavior in ‘yaoi manga’…they say it’s demeaning and not ‘all gay sex is fetish’. Color me confused. I get the feeling that some of these sites just promote Tagame because he’s a gay icon in the Japanese art world, an essential pioneer in ‘Japanese gay comics’ but I wonder–have they actually taken the time to discover what they man is passionate about? In some cases, I seriously doubt it. Either way, I like Tagame when he manages to avoid c/b torture, intense rope play, and blood games [which is unfortunate, because obviously this is his joy--to write stories about this lifestyle, a life that arouses him--this is probably his best work, and I'm missing it because it's not my thing].
[back to entry]
I enjoyed Virtus, though he seemed to dip into his usual kinks here and there, but the story—overall, was interesting and sexy. It appealed to me as an erotic-historical fan. I DISLIKE pretty much all of his SM-Z material, and G-Men series about the POWs, “Do You Remember…” is no exception. I suppose it will have an audience, and be purchased by those who want to support gay manga–no matter what it looks or read like…but I must warn female fans of ‘muscle yaoi’; any girl looking for buy this series because she likes the Macho Type or Gekidan books—y’all better be careful*. This shit will squick you. It’s not cute romantic or ‘bara-ish’, ok? I felt it was completely out of place when it ran in G-Men…just saying.
*yes link is dated, but the same notions applied then, as they do now.
ZIN’s collection is awesome! It’s called Iron Donkey, or [Eisen Esel]…it’s really sort of cute. The collection has four stories by mangaka ‘ZIN’, none of them are from his recent, butched up run in Urageki though—these are G-Men and Gekidan stories. Still, it was worth the purchase for the cover story alone. I also got my hands on the the hot schoolboy manga about teen thugs and fighters from Monaka Natsuo [AKA Sansuke Yamada], called Seishun Fight Love [cover left]. Overall, it’s pretty sexy. I adored BL mangaka Moduru Motoni’s Dog Style, not just because of the funny story, but because of the hot sex in school boy outfits. This is sort of a ‘gay man’s’ style of ’schoolboy yaoi’ - with plenty of comical moments and a plethora of hot panels featuring sexy schoolboy uniform [gakuran] action. If you’re extremely uptight about the age thing, this book wont squick you upon picture reading–mainly because the boys are all buff and over idealized. Mindless, good stuff!
I want to give a shout out to JP Queen, who’ve managed to reel it in and offer some of these books at reasonable rates. You’ll pay about a 10 spot for titles like Seishun, and even less for Virtus [strangely enough, as cool as Virtus is--according to the lady at JP Queen, it didn't sell well to their buyers [the yaoi-fen that still dominate JP Queen]–you’ll find that with JP Queen, if the women like the ‘bara title’ the price will be sky high…so if you’re one of those sort male-fans who’s looking for something that ‘yaoi fangirls’ dislike, just keep an eye on JP Queens Gay Yaoi manga lists, and watch the prices. If it’s over $10, it’s got yaoi-fangirl appeal. (^_^) Personally, I’d stick with English friendly Rainbow Shoppers.
