...avoiding about 70 lines of the Iliad
Feb. 11th, 2007 10:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meretriculaso, apparently it's Haruka Minami's birthday sometime soon? a lot of groups are releasing her stuff in celebration. I find her style pretty fascinating. It's... shota-like most of the time, but (with a few VERY CREEPY exceptions that I could name) she sticks just barely to the cute side of kinky. I'm a total sucker for her semes, especially the ones in suits ~sweatdrops~ a la Sweet. Want want want the sequel NOW, incidentally. But even her ukes, as long as they're past the age of consent, tend to be very pretty, rather than cute. For that matter, her semes tend to have girlish faces as well. (They're only manly in one very important area. I think you all know which one it is.)
The two mangaka who would immediately pop into my mind for comparison are Yamato Nase and Fujii Mitori. My passion for Yamato Nase has admittedly faded since I first was introduced to her stuff, though that might just be because her works seem to get scanlated very slowly. As an avid follower of Shitsuren Mania, I'm still cheering for Fujii Mitori, though. It's odd, because I DON'T like shota, and especially not the kind with a mature adult taking advantage of a younger, naive partner, but I'll set aside that dislike for mangaka I admire. Sort of. An older partner blatantly manipulating a child CREEPS THE FUCK OUT OF ME. But something like Aoe-san and Naoya in Love Mode, where Naoya pretty obviously knows what he's getting into (more than poor Reiji does sometimes, I suspect...), or even Nakura and Satoshi in Shitsuren Mania, since I'm willing to believe that Nakura's poor taste in sexual partners is just his nature, and not an attempt to make Satoshi jealous, I can deal with.
Something that I have noticed in the manga of all three of the aforementioned authors continues to nag me, though. Nobody takes 'no' for an answer. In America it's so drilled into us - if someone says no, you STOP. Even if you're pretty sure they're interested, even if you can feel their goddamn hard-on in your hand, if they say no, you stop. That convention doesn't seem to exist in Japan, and that bothers me. So many first encounters in manga come uncomfortably close to rape. Others are nonviolent but still coercive. It's obviously not meant to be disturbing; shota is something not everybody likes, but the ukes who say 'no, no, no' and semes who say 'your body doesn't agree with your mouth' are ubiquitous.
In Love Mode, the first time Aoe-san gets Naoya into bed, Naoya says 'stop' and Aoe actually stops. It made me respect Aoe more, and looking back, it becomes more and more obvious that throughout the series, he has a really deep aversion to forcing Naoya to do anything. It has to be Naoya's choice. I think that comes from having had so few choices of his own, growing up with Shougo for a father.
Recipe (also by Shimizu Yuki) is the complete opposite. Kaiya's relationship with Kou bothers me on a very fundamental level, because Kaiya fucks with Kou's head so completely. Renji's relationship with his "nephew" doesn't bug me as much, because Renji has no malicious intent (though he also clearly has no moral compunctions about sleeping with what he thinks is a severely underaged rent-boy). The kid (whose name is also Satoshi, I think) doesn't exactly understand what's going on at first, but he picks it up before Renji does. Kaiya is actually emotionally abusive. He manipulates Kou into doing whatever he wants, and it's so painfully obvious that Kaiya understands exactly what to threaten Kou with, exactly what to say to get what he wants, and Kou doesn't have a clue. (In the afterword Shimizu Yuki mentioned that she thinks Kou will grow up strong enough to get the upper hand in his relationship with Kaiya. I sure as fuck hope so. Kaiya has it coming long long time.)
and now I REALLY need to get back to Homer. me love you all long time for putting up with my babbling! oh, and if anyone is interested in reading the series I mentioned, drop a comment and I'll find you a link.
The two mangaka who would immediately pop into my mind for comparison are Yamato Nase and Fujii Mitori. My passion for Yamato Nase has admittedly faded since I first was introduced to her stuff, though that might just be because her works seem to get scanlated very slowly. As an avid follower of Shitsuren Mania, I'm still cheering for Fujii Mitori, though. It's odd, because I DON'T like shota, and especially not the kind with a mature adult taking advantage of a younger, naive partner, but I'll set aside that dislike for mangaka I admire. Sort of. An older partner blatantly manipulating a child CREEPS THE FUCK OUT OF ME. But something like Aoe-san and Naoya in Love Mode, where Naoya pretty obviously knows what he's getting into (more than poor Reiji does sometimes, I suspect...), or even Nakura and Satoshi in Shitsuren Mania, since I'm willing to believe that Nakura's poor taste in sexual partners is just his nature, and not an attempt to make Satoshi jealous, I can deal with.
Something that I have noticed in the manga of all three of the aforementioned authors continues to nag me, though. Nobody takes 'no' for an answer. In America it's so drilled into us - if someone says no, you STOP. Even if you're pretty sure they're interested, even if you can feel their goddamn hard-on in your hand, if they say no, you stop. That convention doesn't seem to exist in Japan, and that bothers me. So many first encounters in manga come uncomfortably close to rape. Others are nonviolent but still coercive. It's obviously not meant to be disturbing; shota is something not everybody likes, but the ukes who say 'no, no, no' and semes who say 'your body doesn't agree with your mouth' are ubiquitous.
In Love Mode, the first time Aoe-san gets Naoya into bed, Naoya says 'stop' and Aoe actually stops. It made me respect Aoe more, and looking back, it becomes more and more obvious that throughout the series, he has a really deep aversion to forcing Naoya to do anything. It has to be Naoya's choice. I think that comes from having had so few choices of his own, growing up with Shougo for a father.
Recipe (also by Shimizu Yuki) is the complete opposite. Kaiya's relationship with Kou bothers me on a very fundamental level, because Kaiya fucks with Kou's head so completely. Renji's relationship with his "nephew" doesn't bug me as much, because Renji has no malicious intent (though he also clearly has no moral compunctions about sleeping with what he thinks is a severely underaged rent-boy). The kid (whose name is also Satoshi, I think) doesn't exactly understand what's going on at first, but he picks it up before Renji does. Kaiya is actually emotionally abusive. He manipulates Kou into doing whatever he wants, and it's so painfully obvious that Kaiya understands exactly what to threaten Kou with, exactly what to say to get what he wants, and Kou doesn't have a clue. (In the afterword Shimizu Yuki mentioned that she thinks Kou will grow up strong enough to get the upper hand in his relationship with Kaiya. I sure as fuck hope so. Kaiya has it coming long long time.)
and now I REALLY need to get back to Homer. me love you all long time for putting up with my babbling! oh, and if anyone is interested in reading the series I mentioned, drop a comment and I'll find you a link.
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no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 04:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 06:40 pm (UTC)http://www.hackthemainstream.com/
and I think Dangerous Pleasure has a few as well:
http://dpscanlations.deathsvertigo.com/
READ SWEET IT'S REALLY GOOD.
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Date: 2007-02-12 04:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 06:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 06:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 09:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 12:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 03:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 04:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 05:57 am (UTC)ignoring your logical fallacies, because I love you.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 06:58 am (UTC)Walesthe Sarah.no subject
Date: 2007-02-12 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 12:20 am (UTC)ALSO: HE'S REALLY HOT. BUT WTF DOES HIS NAME MEAN??? stupid spanish...
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Date: 2007-02-13 12:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 04:03 am (UTC)(ten points if you know the reference)
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Date: 2007-02-13 04:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-02-13 04:29 am (UTC)personal drama free!