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Buried Treasure - Ai no Kusabi


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Tenchi Kaze



Joined: 24 Jun 2005
Posts: 28
Location: Alberta, Canada
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 3:51 am Reply with quote
sunflower wrote:
Tenchi Kaze wrote:
I've tried reasoning with girls like that before, say, by telling them that polarized seme-uke dynamics are mostly unrealistic and silly...


Actually, not to change the subject here, but a gay friend I was just speaking to over the holidays was surprised to hear that opinion was common among BL fans, saying most gay men he knew preferred to be one or the other. He told me this was a non-argument.


I'm aware that preferring to be top or bottom (in the physical and/or personality sense) is real and common, but the degree to which this dynamic is often taken in most yaoi stories is just absurd. As Justin pointed out, it sometimes goes so far that you wonder why the uke was even made a male character at all. I'm not saying that all male characters should totally conform to male gender stereotypes, but that doesn't mean that one that totally conforms to female stereotypes is any better.

It wouldn't even be so bad if just a few stories featured such feminine male characters; it can be interesting to see what happens when a man prefers to be more feminine than is commonly "acceptable" for males. It's just the sheer prevalence of this exaggerated character type in the genre that irks me.

Quote:
Tenchi Kaze wrote:
Does Earthian really even count as yaoi?


The manga is technically shoujo, having been published in a shoujo magazine, but that's because there were no yaoi magazines back then (all yaoi was shoujo). But by standards in US publishing, where it's published by a yaoi imprint, yes it is. The whole point of Earthian is that their homosexual love is punished in heaven by death, so they run away to Earth together to fight as rebels. It's not the amount of time people have sex on screen that makes something yaoi or not.

I will point out that you missed the part of my post where I said that yes, the manga counts more as yaoi because it covers the subject in more depth. My point was that calling the ANIME version a "yaoi anime" is misleading because the focus on that aspect of the story is incredibly scaled back; the focus of the OVA is more on the outside plot than on Chihaya and Kagetsuya's relationship.

CCSYueh wrote:

It was one of the earliest titles I saw on International. My teen & I track VA's & Kazuhiko Inoue is forever known as "the rough angel" for that conversation where Chihaya complained about how rough Kagetsuya was last night in bed. Just because it doesn't show sex doesn't mean it isn't yaoi. Hollywood movies in the 30's didn't have to show the couple ripping one another's clothes off to show they had sex-one picked up on the clues-things said & done.

On the other hand, I do buy Yun Kouga is more shoujo than yaoi. Granted, my only experience is Earthian & Loveless, but both include yaoi couples, yuri couples & hetero couples.

Sorry if the original post was unclear. I didn't mean to make it sound as if sex was the only thing that mattered in calling something yaoi/BL or not (although, you could make that argument, since technically "yaoi" is supposed to refer to the more explicit side of BL). I just meant to use it as an example of how little focus is put on Chihaya and Kagetsuya's relationship in the OVA. I think there were only a few things done to show implications of their feelings before that point, even.

Also, would you call a 30s movie that happened to have a romantic liason in it for a very short time a "romance" movie, if the rest of the movie was more focused on, say, gangster hijinks? This is what I'm trying to say about the Earthian OVA - a few hints and thirty seconds in bed do not a yaoi title make. They make a shoujo/bishounen OVA that happens to include some yaoi in it.
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rocklobster



Joined: 22 Jul 2005
Posts: 200
Location: Planet Claire
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 6:58 am Reply with quote
Do you take requests? If so, how bout covering Project A-ko?
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 12:00 pm Reply with quote
carbonkid wrote:
So do/can real gays actually appreciate yaoi?

As a gay guy, yes, I can appreciate yaoi, but it's on a very, VERY surface level, and the appreciation doesn't go very far. Basically, I can appreciate seeing some guy on guy action, but only if I ignore majority, or all, of the plot and more-often-than-not (to quote Justin) underwhelming artwork. I dismiss the entire genre much more than I follow it, and even if I wanted to flip through a random title on the shelf, I can rarely even get past the cover art.

Gay guys aren't the target audience, and it's hard to fake it because the characters aren't gay, or anything like it, they just seem to be going through some experimentation. I may be generalizing and jumping to conclusions, seeing as I've only read three yaoi titles, but from what I've gathered this seems to be the average plot. These fangirl fantasies aren't anything like a gay relationship, and they shouldn't be, because if a manga were to be written about an average, real gay relationship, it wouldn't be much of a fantasy, or make for a very good story. Hell, hook up to break up could be covered in one volume.


This came up on the BonB forum discussion & it's really what a lot of the Western audience overlooks.

Yaoi is made for a Japanese audience. Happily Ever After

Yeah, Western fans understand it's manga & it's from Japan, but a lot of it ends right there. Where the head of a Japanese yaoi fan or mangaka is at isn't necessarily where we are in the West.

Here gays are working on equality & it's sad to think many mangakas & Japanese fans are under the impression homosexuality is more acceptable here than over there AND MORE PREVELANT. Yeah, there's all the excuses-a guy having sex with a guy doesn't make him homosexual as long as he's got the wife & kids (doing his duty to carry on the family line) or Japanese are more stuck on the whole duty to fit into normal society so young people might experiment, but will do their duty & marry & produce more productive cogs to the system, whatever.

It's the differences in society. Gay in the US-you can probably find an area in the US where it's pretty well accepted, though I don't believe one can escape the gay-bashing hicks (I work about a mile from our large gay community in town & yeah, the idiots from other areas do drive thru & shout ignorant drivel or maybe beat themselves up a "fag" to show how tough they are) Gay in Japan is maybe politely ignored or openly discriminated against from most of what I've read. They don't fit the formula of normal society just like the shut-ins. Hikikimori don't work. Gays don't produce future cogs. Both are unproductive in the general view.

But back to yaoi, it IS Japanese & an outgrowth of shojo. It is a giant fantasy, NOT that Japanese girls & women want to see gay guys getting it on (Often the couple just happen to fall in love-curse fate we're both male, but we can overcome this obstacle!!!! Our love is greater than that!!!!!) It is more '30's & 40's Hollywood glamour--the idea beautiful & glamourous movie stars didn't live mundane lives like the rest of us. In yaoi, the boys are beautiful & even if they are schoolboys & average, their lives are not as average as the readers.

It's almost more one of those "What would you do if you were the opposite sex for one day". One of the couple (usually the uke) is basically a chick with male plumbing. One of the issues in Japanese society is the woman is expected to serve her man. His demands & needs come first. She is not equal. In yaoi, both of the lovers are male, making them more equal (in the mind of a Japanese woman apparently) than the reality of Japanese society in the 80's & 90's that yaoi grew out of. The Japanese aren't supposed to be big on Public Displays of Affection. I've seen write ups where guys apparently rarely even say "I love you" to their wives, more a notch or 2 down. (DOn't speak Japanese, so I have to take other people's word for the subtle differences in how to say I love you & I like you a lot). In yaoi, the boys often say I love you & lavish loads of kisses on one another. I think anyone reading manga has come across that whole "Oh, he's lived in America, so that kiss didn't mean anything! THey kiss all the time in America!" (Apparently American's even kiss total strangers in some manga I've read. Sure we do) I really draw the line at Japanese characters who feel their "first kiss" was stolen by someone performing CPR. That is really too uptight for words.

At Comic-Con when they launched Be Beautiful, the editor commented the idea behind yaoi was in traditional shojo the reader can feel conflict with the female heroine for the boy. Yaoi removes that & the reader can enjoy her choice of 2 boys, or enjoy both boys. It sounded weird when she said it, but I do know I hate most shojo heroines as wimpy & spineless or too fricken indecisive. I want to slap most of the ingenues. If the author thinks those idiots are what females are like, it's an insult to our gender. I don't have these issues with yaoi. They're both guys. Yeah, I recognize one has the soul of a chick because I really don't know too many guys that behave that way, but hey, it's FANTASY. If one accepts yaoi as the female version of the Penthouse Letter (any similarities to the real world are purely coincidental), it works.
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Sashatwen



Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 7:09 pm Reply with quote
Wonderful review! I am happy to see Ai no Kusabi getting some appreciation. Hands down, it's one of the best adult romance anime out there, no matter the gender of the pairing.

You mention, however, that this DVD is available in Germany. This is news to me (I live in Germany). Are you, by chance, mixing it up with Kizuna or Fake? To my knowledge, Ai no Kusabi has never been available in Germany. Please, do correct me if I'm wrong and point me to a copy Cool

Edit: Sorry, should have read more carefully.
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katatsumuli



Joined: 11 Jan 2008
Posts: 1
PostPosted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:06 pm Reply with quote
Thank you for reviewing Ai no Kusabi Smile. You're right, it is one of the best yaoi anime titles out there, and I also wish there were more. I guess I never really thought about how few there were. It's pretty depressing that it's not just because they hadn't been brought over here. However, while I saw the crappy fansub of this awhile ago, I don't think I ever knew it was based on books, not a manga series, and much less that they were being published! I'll definitely be buying those. I'm curious about the world now, and it's hard to go wrong with dystopian sci-fi (especially since it's already proven itself).

I'm also greatly enjoying all your reviews, both Treasure and Garbage, which are hilarious Laughing. (Cooking Master Boy reminded me I loved it when my friend showed me a few episodes years ago, and love Yakitate! Japan but never watched most of CMB, so now I will.)

[quote="jsevakis"]
akeleven wrote:

I haven't seen a good number of the other shows people have mentioned, but I have to say... I found Zetsuai interesting, but its sequel, Bronze, was an unintentionally hilarious exercise in shirt-ripping histrionics. Do any women really find those character designs attractive?! Justin is confused...


I for one don't find this style attractive (although it's fun to make fun of). Everyone has insanely huge hands with insanely long nails, and all the women look like guys in drag. But I guess that's just the manga. Their chins are really pointy and their eyes practically touch. I could easily get used to it though. I had the same issue with FAKE for a little while - their eyes are drawn pretty strangely with those gigantic overemphasized corners - and with especially the first volumes of the Yami no Matsuei manga (it looked like she couldn't draw; the necks were weirdly proportioned and placed wrong). Hell, the later volumes of From Eroica With Love have some pretty strange looking faces (some would argue the whole series does), and a few times the leg length was more ridiculous than Zetsuai. In Patalliro Saiyuki* anyone drawn in profile looks REALLY weird (not even touching Ban's ridiculous makeup), and some of the men look so much like girls you can see some boob. But when it comes down to it a good story is a good story, and it's people's personalities that matter way more than the style. I try to ignore it or get used to the art. I actually like FAKE's style a lot now.

*[I enjoyed Patalliro Saiyuki, although it seems like it got pulled off the air or something because the 26th episode just...cuts off, but that's the last one on record for existing. I tried watching Patalliro but it really grated on my nerves. I keep hearing good things about it though so I'll probably give it another shot sometime.]

Hullut Sisarukset wrote:
Another innovative BL series I'm very much into right now has never been made into an anime, but still, From Eroica With Love is definitely worth reading, no matter whether you like BL or not. It has outrageous plots set into Europe during the Cold War and great, lovely characters, and it's downright hilarious.


A hundred high fives to you Very Happy! Shame on me since it's one of my all-time favorite series, but I didn't think to mention From Eroica With Love in a discussion about yaoi; the story is such a conglomeration of unusual (especially for manga) things it's really hard to classify. I guess Dorian's impossible-to-tell-if-it's-requited love (or lust) for Klaus does make it BL (maybe teetering on the brink of BL). The plot is way more about hilarious spy adventures than romance, but it is fun to hypothesize about the undercurrents (which, apart from the blatant flirting by Dorian, can be ignored by non-yaoi fans, thus making it lovable by all). But yeah, if we're doing recommendations for other series, everyone is right that Winter Cicada is very good, but Eroica also definitely deserves a high spot up there. I can also testify to it being enjoyable by everyone - I am a big fan of BL, and my husband is not, and yet he will steal the manga from me to read it first. The fanbase is also for some reason 99% mature and awesome, and has more Japanese and foreign members from all over the place participating in the english fanbase than I've seen for any other series (although admittedly I don't hang around many other forums).

As for it not being animated, yeah, you're right, the closest it got is two stills in one of the Project A-ko movies where most of the main characters are hidden in a crowd. There's also a sound cd of Eroica, and a new Takarazuka play of El Halcon/Seven Seas, Seven Skies (about Klaus and Eroica's ancestors) so maybe they'll make one of Eroica (they have done a cosplay photo shoot of Eroica). Maybe they're waiting until the manga ends.

Come to think of it, that embarrasingly long thing is sort of actually related - Eroica has no overemphasized seme/uke thing going on either. Both of the main characters are very powerful alpha males (yes, a flaming alpha male), and the people around them are not yaoi stereotypes (except Caesar, who is basically gone by the end of volume 1).

Another series I can think of sortof on that theme is Seikimatsu Darling!, which maybe isn't a classic, but the manga is still very funny. (The OVA is ok but really short.) It actually has somewhat of a parody on the seme/uke thing for the main plot - two dominant and seme men fall in love with each other and don't know what to do about it, so they start having a contest to make the other one fall in love with him first or more or something, thinking that will make them be the uke.

You're right, the good ones really are mostly in manga. Now I'll flee before this gets any longer ^^;;.
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fuuma_monou



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1816
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 4:13 pm Reply with quote
Hi, Sasha. In case you don't recognize the username, it's Johann from the Yuri ML.

So far I haven't seen any yaoi anime, though the Kaze to Ki no Uta OVA directed by Yasuhiko Yoshikazau looks interesting. Need to read the manga too (probably no way in hell a U.S. publisher will touch it, though, what with underage boys having sex on the very first page).

The only yaoi manga I've bought was Level C Vol. 1, and only because I found it at Book Sale. Maybe it gets better, but it just seemed too damn silly. And if a manga is marked adults only for sex, I actually want to see it. The cone of light and featureless crotch were in full force here.
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Sashatwen



Joined: 01 Jun 2005
Posts: 7
Location: Germany
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 7:06 pm Reply with quote
fuuma_monou wrote:

The only yaoi manga I've bought was Level C Vol. 1, and only because I found it at Book Sale. Maybe it gets better, but it just seemed too damn silly. And if a manga is marked adults only for sex, I actually want to see it. The cone of light and featureless crotch were in full force here.


No, Level C is downright silly all the way. It's completely not my cup of tea either, but it surely must be someone's...

The thing with yaoi manga is that, like with all other manga genres, a lot of what's out there is just mediocre, generic stuff. I personally count Level C as below mediocre. IMO, it was just made so people could parody dub it. The anime's sad count to fame is that it just so happened to get made into a really bad anime during that short window of time in the 90s, when Japanese studios were cashing in on the genre (or trying to, in a lot of cases). Hardly any of the really popular yaoi series nowadays get made into anime, and FOR GOOD REASON. It's a small market, the budget is not high, and it ends up as freeze frames accompanied by elevator music.

Ai no Kusabi is a rare and gorgeous exception.
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AyumiHamasaki



Joined: 17 Mar 2005
Posts: 219
PostPosted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 8:18 pm Reply with quote
Thank you so much for reviewing this title.

I haven't seen it but i have heard about it. Haven't actually read an actual review but have seen posts on forums and such but I'm really curious about it right now.
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Ishmoo



Joined: 11 Nov 2006
Posts: 413
Location: Fredericksburg, VA
PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 1:11 pm Reply with quote
Thanks for the review and also thanks to CCSYueh for the perspective on Yaoi. I've often wondered about the whole yaoi phenom. There are several titles that I enjoy in the genre, Ai no Kusabi being one of them, Mirage of Blaze and Kaze to Ki no Uta are others. I'm a consumate anime lover and skip across every genre, since there's something to love in each catagory.

As a mature married woman, I enjoy a little smut sometimes. What I've noticed is that there are very few, if any, passionate romantic titles (that aren't outright hentai) where one of the leads is female. I watch yaoi because it often goes beyond the tame portrayal of romance contained in most anime and for me, passion is passion. I don't really care what the gender is as long as the story is compelling. There are several mangas out there that satisfy this niche, Shinjou Mayu's being a good example. However, very few of these seem to make it to anime and, when they do, are really toned down. Take Kaiken Phrase, for example. The manga is scorchingly sexual, but the anime is relatively tame. I think a lot of western yaoi watchers, me being one, would love to see a similarly explicit show with a female/male pairing. They're just not available.

The "why" of Yaoi has always interested me. I've often wondered if it's a way for women to fully enjoy sexuality without the negative implications often attributed to being a "loose woman." If both characters are male then neither must suffer the stigma attached to being both female and sexual. While titles like Nana and Rumbling Hearts don't go into the kind of graphically sexual depictions of many yaoi titles, the characters do engage in sexually active relationships. What a breath of fresh air! I hope that more of these "Josei" titles will be released. I'm not an expert on the Japanese market, but I think the American audience would embrace some more mature fare. Much of yaoi is essentially a romance novel in animated form (albeit with male leads) and we see how well those sell stateside.
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rinmackie



Joined: 05 Aug 2006
Posts: 1040
Location: in a van! down by the river!
PostPosted: Sun Jan 13, 2008 5:09 pm Reply with quote
I agree with ishmoo, there needs to be mature anime/manga brought stateside. And by "mature" I don't necessarily mean hentai. NANA is a perfect example; though why it was serialized in Shojo Beat, I don't know. It's more josei than shojo, but I'm glad it was published otherwise I don't know that anyone would have read it. Just hope the anime comes out soon, I'd love to see it!

To continue, if more adult-oriented stuff were brought over here, we might could increase the anime/manga fandom. But instead all the American companies are too busy catering to the young teenage fandom, while stuff that would appeal to an older audience is completely ignored.
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fuuma_monou



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1816
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:35 am Reply with quote
Sashatwen wrote:
fuuma_monou wrote:

The only yaoi manga I've bought was Level C Vol. 1, and only because I found it at Book Sale. Maybe it gets better, but it just seemed too damn silly. And if a manga is marked adults only for sex, I actually want to see it. The cone of light and featureless crotch were in full force here.


No, Level C is downright silly all the way. It's completely not my cup of tea either, but it surely must be someone's...


I'm having trouble seeing how the plot was stretched out for six volumes. At least hentai manga is usually short stories. jpqueen.com has a couple of categories, erotic manga for men and women, that are are basically ecchi stuff (the sample pics seem pretty explicit) with a more substantial story. At least some titles manage to go on for multiple volumes so I hope there's a good story behind them.

Main reason I don't pick up English-translated yaoi is that they're usually in the larger more expensive format, due to the niche market. Hard enough for me to set aside money for the stuff I do want.

I am trying to be partial to male homoeroticism in comics. P Craig Russell's work, for instance, particularly his adaptation of Neil Gaiman's Murder Mysteries.

Fumi Yoshinaga seems to be well-represented in the U.S. market (which means bookstores and comic shops in the Philippines have her books in stock), and the reviews have been good. Guess I have enough reading material stockpiled to put off buying new books for a while and try some good yaoi manga.
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CCSYueh



Joined: 03 Jul 2004
Posts: 2707
Location: San Diego, CA
PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:06 pm Reply with quote
I liked Level C.

Trust me. I can make fun of anime with the best of them. I pissed my daughter off when she was playing Persona 3 while I was trying to read Laugh Under the Sun making rude comments about Vic Mignogna's canned lines Sunday morning at 1 A.M.

But I enjoyed the pretty boys in Level C & the sex was plentiful thruout all 6 volumes. THe anime is Shinichiro Miki & Akira Ishida with Takehito Koyasu as the brother-can't ask for a better cast. You get competition from a school buddy who wants the uke. You get a gal from the seme's past. The couple affirms their love. The uke actually is pretty independant, considering he has a better-paying career than the seme. The seme may be related to money, but there's no indication he's seen any benefit from it. He seems to be just an ordinary office worker.

Unlike any number of yaoi where the uke does rely on the seme.

I pay between $8.75 & $11 for the stuff that costs $12-$16 & $6 for the $10 stuff. I'd rather spend $10 for a yaoi title than waste $60 following a shojo title that I'm going to abandon. I've never tried hentai manga, but the hentai anime & have is about as thin on plot as the porn movies I've seen & I really don't get off on seeing naked women moaning orgasmically for 15 minutes talking dirty. If I didn't like Obari, I wouldn't have wasted the money. Blue Wolves is one of my yaoi anime that has been watched the least (The most is probably Yami no Matsuei-at least 5 times thru) which is why I'm sort of iffy on the descriptions of Ai no Kusabi in this review (still waiting for someone to finish with my copy of the novel...)

Why do you think people go for certain artists? Because the art style appeals to them. If you don't like the style of Level C, there are plenty of artists out there. There's one I'm following-is it in Chara or BeXBoy?-where the art reminds me of the '60's-big head, smaller body. It's like Beatles yaoi except they don't resemble the band. And there's times I'm looking at something & I swear it's one artist, but then I check the name & it's not--it's just an amazing simulation of the style. I love Oki, but no one's brought her stuff over yet. (have an artbook. Have lots of artbooks, in fact)

The other yaoi fan in the house wants there to be sex or she isn't interested. I want a nice romance & as long as I see a nice naked ass or 3 & all the way down, but not quite, I'm fine as long as the story is satisfying. I don't need sex for the sake of seeing naked male body parts. I want romance. I don't want interlopers mucking it up too long. I want a happy ending. Princess Uke & Prince Seme happily ever after. I do like humor. I'll forgo sex for funny. I really don't need the forbidden to the extreme some yaoi goes. I don't need anyone dying for anyone else (no killing bishies) It's not romantic, it's just sad so don't write the situation.
Considering the general similarities in the yaoi market, I think happy endings are the overall desire of the fans. If Japanese females are reading yaoi as a fantasy equality dream, then it makes sense the boys would be happily ever after considering the gals have a reality of inequality facing them in their own lives.
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fuuma_monou



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1816
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
PostPosted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 5:56 pm Reply with quote
CCSYueh wrote:

But I enjoyed the pretty boys in Level C & the sex was plentiful thruout all 6 volumes. THe anime is Shinichiro Miki & Akira Ishida with Takehito Koyasu as the brother-can't ask for a better cast. You get competition from a school buddy who wants the uke. You get a gal from the seme's past. The couple affirms their love. The uke actually is pretty independant, considering he has a better-paying career than the seme. The seme may be related to money, but there's no indication he's seen any benefit from it. He seems to be just an ordinary office worker.


See, my old comic shop had the DVD on clearance, but the cover art held me back. Maybe I'd listen to an audio drama wit the same seiyuu.

Biggest stumbling block to me enjoying yaoi is that the art styles by and large don't appeal to me. Maybe I'd be better off looking at manga for gay guys.

(I never bothered to get the Sailor Moon manga after reading it in MixxZine becuase I couldn't get into Naoko Takeuchi's style.)

Quote:
I pay between $8.75 & $11 for the stuff that costs $12-$16 & $6 for the $10 stuff.


For some reason Del Rey titles get massive discounts at bookstores, so the sticker price is much lower than what the cover price would indicate. I paid 486 pesos for Suzuka Vol. 6, for instance ($14.95 cover), and most of the $11 stuff costs less than Viz or TokyoPop's $10 ones. Probably to do with distributor volume discounts (Del Rey manga is probably tied to Random House titles in general). Vertical books are relatively cheap, too, and since it's a small publisher their discount almost certainly has to be tied to their distributor.

Quote:

I've never tried hentai manga, but the hentai anime & have is about as thin on plot as the porn movies I've seen & I really don't get off on seeing naked women moaning orgasmically for 15 minutes talking dirty.


Live-action porn tends to bore me more than H anime. Probably because they seem to be really padded; clips of the good bits would be much better. Anime porn tends to have a bit more story. Not much more but enough that some of it can be stripped of the sex scenes and still make sense.
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The Neon Valentine



Joined: 03 Dec 2008
Posts: 43
PostPosted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 4:36 pm Reply with quote
domino wrote:
I'd almost forgotten about good 'ol Ai no Kusabi. Reading this makes me want to hunt down a copy and watch it again.
The art is gorgeous and the plot is great. If only the rest of the genre learned how to be like this instead of tumbling down the road of cliche girly-man fanservice (then again, anime in general seems to be going down the mindless fetish road lately...)


Seconded! I am so irritated by the constant flow of garbage yaoi that has flowed in the 90s, and although shounen-ai has become very good lately (Gravitation, Loveless, Junjou Romantica, Sukisho, Patalliro Saiyuki, Legend of Duo, etc.), it is sad to see there is no anime that is yet to match Ai no Kusabi's standards in portraying a tender love story with a crisp script, sharp voice acting and fluid animation.

- neon
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