That Yaoi Priests Article!

Characterizations in Japanese BL run the gamut in fetish: from tattooed Yakuza  and Nazis in jackboots, to a samurai in his flowing robes, even men closer to home like the school-boy in his uniform or a salary-man in his business suit.  Many manga featuring diverse archetypes currently grace retail bookshelves here in the States, but there’s one popular character-type that has yet to make his debut:   the Catholic Priest.

Seishokusha are those who work in sacred vocations [1], and they appear in scores of BL manga anthologies ranging from soft subject romances like those found in the pages of BeBoy, to hardcore BDSM from anthologies like the now defunct Zettai Reido[2].

It’s the ‘cosmetic allure’ of the ‘holy profession’ that gives the Priest archetype his massive appeal[3]; some holy men are more palatable in the west than others.  Shinto Priests with their thick flowing robes or  the clean shaven heads of Buddists Monks who wear their gnarly necklace beads and matching sarongs.  These holy men are culturally different, exotic to western fans and don’t set off any bells with critics of the genre…yet the Catholic Priest is still the one that many non-BL fans just can’t seem to get their head around.  In the west, where Priests have become synonymous with tales of same-sex child abuse moreso then romantic lust with female parishioners, and critics of the genre are simply unable to understand why a reader would want a book about a Priest in a ‘yaoi’ relationship.

What they fail to realize is, the clothes make the man, or in this case…the fan.

Catholic Priests engaging in all forms of male on male action are found in many popular story collections like Amasaki Yoshimi’s Acid Flower [ISBN4-87734-729-1] or Minami Megumu’s Sono Ude de Boku wo Daite [ISBN 4-8322-8228-X].  I suspect, in most Japanese comics, the need for such stories is fueled by he concept of ‘costume’  play.  The fashionable allure  of Catholicism plays a major factor; priestly vestments rank up there as the ultimate in uniform hotness, along with that  other popular character that’s recognized for his outfit: the Japanese school boy.  Yet the ‘Gakuran’ BL has been brought brought over extensively by western publishers. How is this possible? US Publishers have taken it upon themselves to change the characters ‘ages’ of these junior high boys, and so now we have college freshmen wearing uniforms worn only by high schooler’s in Japan. 0_o.  Ridiculous, but it keeps publishers safe.

Some characters will never find acceptance in the West.  Many Western manga readers flinch at the notion of the popular-in-Japan ‘Nazi SS Officer’, or the bearded man of size [any man who might be fat];  or the character that’s old enough to be someone’s father – and often is.   All three of the aforementioned character-types are some of the most bought up types in the Japanese market.  US publisher Iris Print was one of the first to offer ‘Priest yaoi’, but they didn’t license it from Japan; it was meant for reader of ‘GloBL’ or English-language yaoi, and the title, Only Words [ISBN 0-97875-314-3] featured a Priest on the cover in arms of his Nazi lover.

‘Words’ is set in 1939 Poland, and is about seminary student Koby Bruk, a young man living on a German border down where most of the Poles have been displaced or replaced with German residents.  The book doesn’t touch on any aspects of the war, it  does however, focus on Koby’s budding attraction to a sadictic Hitler Youth in his class.  Will fans like this rather western take on what the Japanese consider a cosmetic theme? Time will tell, but fans of priest-yaoi do exist in the West, buying untranslated manga from Japan like Yuuwaku no Hitsuji [ISBN 4-7781-0156-1] by Maeda Momiji or Akuma demo Aishitekureru? [ISBN 4-89644-093-5] by Kagami Satoi, because they offer up those black flowing robes hiked up on hips during hot sexual scenes, and rosaries coming to rest on naked sweaty backs with a discarded peel of a white collar sitting nearby…

It’s the pious perversity of the costume and the sanctity of sexual sin that drives fujosi stateside to keep scanslating titles like Hitsujitachi no Bannin [ISBN 4-86134-070-5] by Satoru Ishihara, and collections that feature even just one priest-yaoi theme story, like CHI-RAN’s Crazy for Daddy [ISBN4-8322-8286-7].

So why aren’t these titles being licensed? I find it amusing that US publishers should care about what non-BL fans might think, after all, public criticism is the only thing I can think of that would stop them from publishing something so obviously popular.

While the high school boy can have his age changed despite the presence of his uniform, the Catholic Priest can’t afford the same luxury, and because of this,even something tame like Kamisama no Ude no Naka [ISBN 4-8352-1603-2] by Nekota Yonezou, is disqualified from publication in the West for fear of courting controversy. Despite his popularity, the Catholic Priest will continue to be ignored by publishers wishing to avoid raised eyebrows by implying there’s an audience for Catholic Priests engaging in same-sex relationships.  In the end, it’s a real shame for BL fans of cosmetic clergy, who accept their fixation for what it is:  forbidden hotness in ink and tone.

None of us would find an actual Nazi arousing, any more than we’d would find a murderous Yakuza-thug sexy.  BL is about escaping from what’s real, and what better form of escapism is there than a young man in his priestly robes engaging in something as erotic as a same sex relationship with a consenting adult?

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[1] Designer Christianity PT1 – Jeanne Johnson – Aestheticism
[2] Aestheticism List of BL Anthologies
[3] Designer Christianity PT2 – Jeanne Johnson – Aestheticism
[Note] seishokusha – Japanese term for Priests or Clergy
[Note] BL Categories/Characters June Categorization
[Note] Updated and edited in 5/2008