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Hey, Answerman! [2007-07-06]

darkchibi07 wrote:

That'll be a disturbing turn of events; yuri leading to more cross-dressing male related shows. For some odd reason, that doesn't seem to surprise me. Aren't most Japanese male otakus want to "be part of the action" in ogling relationships with female characters?

I've been thinking somewhat along the same lines, of males not easily identifying themselves with female heroines in Yuri stories. You can have lesbian side characters, or a hint of it between main characters (or all-out in hentai) but it's more difficult for romantic Yuri stories with female leads. Even in Kashimashi there had to be a gender change. The cross dressing stories have better appeal because of the added wish fulfillment factor. Put a dress on a guy and suddenly he's really popular with the girls.

It might interest you to know that Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show was adapted into an independent anime/bizarre performance art piece, which is now available on DVD in France (it comes with subtitles in five languages, including English). Hiroshi Harada, the director and person who almost singlehandedly animated the entire 55-minute film, adequately captured all of those delightfully squeamish moments from the manga.

Put a dress on a guy and suddenly he's really popular with the girls.

Yaoi & yuri have been an also in many titles that were brought over (Sorcerer Hunters, CCS, Saber Marionette, etc) They have been wearing down our resistance slowly. It's a conspiracy to corrupt us all.

CCSYueh wrote:

Yaoi & yuri have been an also in many titles that were brought over (Sorcerer Hunters, CCS, Saber Marionette, etc) They have been wearing down our resistance slowly. It's a conspiracy to corrupt us all.

Yes, exactly but that's also why I don't really see fandom developing a specific yuri culture that's as prominent as the yaoi culture. We get enough of it in everyday anime, but that's also true of shounen-ai themes.

Also, I think men (I say "men" loosely regardless of age and maturity level) - they want their female x female stuff to be more in the form of hentai (so it's there but it's enjoyed in private), but women would like yaoi to become something more mainstream and in the public eye.

http://www.anime-cons.com
Lists most of the major ones AFAIK

http://www.fansview.com/consked.htm
also has a pretty comprehensive schedule

I don't know about women wanting yaoi/shonen ai to be kept PG all the time. I have yaoi fangirl friends and I've seen plently of decriptions on fanfiction.net and it isn't just shonen ai.

mistress_reebi wrote:

I don't know about women wanting yaoi/shonen ai to be kept PG all the time. I have yaoi fangirl friends and I've seen plently of decriptions on fanfiction.net and it isn't just shonen ai.

Yeah I guess I kind of overlooked that yaoi can get pretty racy and explicit too (and that has quite a following), but I'm talking about it as a commercial product. Hentai whether it's homosexual in nature or not is just as legit of a commercial product as regular anime/manga but most of the commercially published literature we are talking about is rated teen or mature (but not considered pornographic) - ie anything you'll find on the shelves at Borders and the like.

I think lots of manga titles get the label "Mature" simply for being about same sex relationships, and yet have little or no explicit material. So the impact of them becoming popular is slightly greater because of that implied mature status, when I think the overall content of romantic graphic novels is fairly consistent from title to title (again just speaking about commercially published and printed material).

Sidenote: Why the hell was there a wall of Ed/Al FMA books? WHY?! Hell, even my friend thought it was disgusting.

Xyex wrote:

ikillchicken wrote: Xyex wrote: Quote: Theres a big big difference between extreme violence and guro. Though its kinda concerning, most people find violence cool. Idunno if thats a good thing but Its fairly common. Whats not common is the combination of violence and sex. I wouldnt say anyone who is into guro is a "future serial killer". For starters, Future Rapist would be more approprite. But more importantly, just because you like guro, it doesnt mean you will turn into a killer/rapist. However I have no problem making the blanket statement: If you get off to guro there is definitely something wrong with you and you probably should get some therapy. But not all guro is violent. Or even extreme. Sure, you've got beheadings and crap, but you've also got pieces that the average person would call beautiful and peaceful, if not for the slit wrists or ligature marks on the neck. And not all Guro involves rape, pain, or death either. It's a much bigger, much broader genre than people seem to realize. Well, I'll admid I've never read any guro. To be truthful I hadent even heard of it until today. You probably know more about it than me. But by its definition it would seem that unless it contains that kinda stuff it isnt guro. Are you saying that this definition is innacurate? See, but Guro's a hard thing to define. The only true and applicable definition is 'anything grotesque is guro' but what, exactly, do you define as 'groteque'? What one person finds as qrotesque another may not. Yes, you've got the extreme blood-and-deaht end with dismembered corpses, but the gentle 'romantic' death scenes also count. Scat is also considered by many to fall under the mantle of guro. And then you have things that are just bizarre (such as the previously mentioned works of H.R. Giger. Limiting it as you do would be the same as saying that, to bring in another part of this weeks article, all Sci-fi shows are about Giant Robots.

I don't see how thats the only applicable definition. True it isnt an absolutely set definition. However If you wanted to pick a definition, I think the best one would be: "artwork that depicts extreme/bizarre violence (mutilation, dismemberment, scatology, etc.) in an erotic manner." If you want to define it as anything that is grotesque, firstly, I don't know why you would do that. It seems if youre gonna expand it to that then theres no point in having a term. You could simply call it grotesque. Its only useful to have a term if its something somewhat specific, such as the combination of grotesque and erotic. Secondly, If you want to define it that way, thats up to you. However don't expect others to. From the wiki article, it seems that really isnt the commonly accepted definition. Therefore don't go off when someone makes statements like mine based on the more common definition, just because you define it differently.

BTW. I don't see how what im doing is like saying all Sci-fi shows are Mecha. If anything its your definition that does that in that it says everything from a larger group such as sci-fi or grotesque falls under a much more specific catergory like Guro or Mecha.

The Xenos wrote:

Sidenote: Why the hell was there a wall of Ed/Al FMA books? WHY?! Hell, even my friend thought it was disgusting.

Ewww..... Elric-cest.