A Commentary: Yaoi, Yuri, Dojinshi

I am actually going to look away from mythology and do a little focus for people to see what it is like. Mechademia is a collection of books and works from various different writers who were writing in context of the Anime community and also the affects manga has. It was also giving us a written documented history of the media.

In many cases I can tell you a lot about Japanese anime in several forms, but I am going to talk at length about something that does have a lot to do with my work. This is something that has started to show up almost since 2002 with several different forms of yaoi. It isn't just about "Level C" or "Sensitive Pornograph". This is more about the fact some of the yaoi that is out there has a lot to do with the history and also the progression of Shojo (Female's Manga) in Japan.

Mechademia Volume 2
"Revolutionary Romance: The Rose of Versailles and the Tranformation of Shojo Manga" and "Shojo Manga! Girls' Comics! A Mirror of Girls' dreams" are the first two sections that speak at length about the history of comics in Japan for girls.

Girls' literary magazines in the 1920s and 1930s, the shojo shosetsu (girls' novels) and accompanying illustrations serialized in them, developed a recognizable aesthetic and literary style. (Pg 4)

From the start of the first set of comics made for guys, there has always been a set for girls, at least in the Japanese world. Sadly for America, the female comics were not to show up until the 1950s with Archie comics and some of the others that were to show a passive role for women. Stronger women in comics were often seen in boys' comics. Not true in some sense in Japan when women were shown to have a lead role.

The views from the very long lived series called "The Rose of Versailles" was considered a masterpiece and even when it ended with the death of the main character, it won the hearts of the young teens. This again was back in the 1970s, where a lot of the shojo manga picked up and started to become much more powerful, with the 1980s and 1990s coming with CLAMP and many other animation companies to follow.

A first, most of the stories were of course very yuri (girl and girl) which was more for the fact that it was put in the idea of female friendships and love being more platonic and not very physical. It was by no means hentai, series like "Strawberry Panic," "St. Mary is Watching Us," and many others followed this tradition, even "Sailor Moon" with a lesbian couple, Haruka and Michiru who were seeming to be heroes too.

In some cases the social network scheme for girls has remained the same in Japan, but not so much in the United States or some other nations due to the different cultures.

Shojo though is also read by some males, mostly for entertainment and comedy, it isn't just for girls anymore. There are almost as many males reading it as females in the last couple of years in the United States alone. The world could consist of more. The reason for this is because many still believe comic books are meant for children. Even with the scale of protections.

Also what has become evident since this book was written a lot of the information about the readers has changed a little.

Some of the series does have some characters that have become much more complex. Series like "Black Butler" actually has a male following as well as female following of fans. There is also still the idea of yaoi that seems to follow most series these days. Then again, I am going to say this now, I am neither a fan of yaoi and usually though it not my favorite, I'm not going to say anything bad against it.

Yaoi has become part of the Shojo simply through the writings and modeling from the 1970s, several series that came out went from this period and has helped in the expanision.

What is also unique about Shojo is that many artists who are known for male dominate manga actually started out doing female comics. Osamu Tezuka before Astro-boy actually did a few female orientated manga that appeared in weekly Shojo magazines and have been reprinted several times. His classics include "Red Ribbon Knight" and "Kimba the White Lion", these were not jsut for girls and boys it was for adults as well.

Many of the great Mangaka (artists and writers) actually were born around 1949 to 1950 and became the driving force in most manga today. We have many writers who wee influenced by those of the past and have continued to raise their works up to the standard we know now.

What was also a driving force came not from Japan, but the United States from Walt Disney himself. He brought over more than just digital animation, but also a style was was unique. The Japanese went about improving it and it is now what we see today in most series and it is still an amazing way to tell a story.

In many cases we have a lot to be thankful for in anime and also manga because of this history. We see from the fact anime does come from the old commentaries of monks in illustrations, then when World War II was going, a lot of the artwork was more for war. There was other concepts that became part of the culture after the war, it was more that they wanted something that could become much more attached to leaving that part of their past behind.

Anime and Manga in general have risen from different sources. Mechademia volume 2 and many of the books that follow have pointed out the great amount of research and joys people have made about Anime.

Commentary:
As I said before I am neither for nor against yaoi, I am not the type of person who is actually a fan of the stories, but considering how important it is to have yaoi, I would not discount it as something wrong. Culturally it was bound to happen and though the United States had a huge wake up call when yaoi started to appear in mass during the early years 2000s. We are still getting what was popular back in the 1970s to 1990s coming in.

I would say that we are not done seeing yaoi or even yuri for that matter crossing into our anime and manga simply because of how important the social structure put it. From how I look at anime and manga in some sense as a researcher for mythology, I could not help but actually post this as part of a commentary I have about the topics.

Yes, I am not a fan of yaoi, but I am a fan of yuri, which is similar to some cases in history. And it would not surprise me that some people who are fans are also going to be interested in these facts about their yaoi.

So if you want to know about the book: Mechademia Volume 2: Networks of Desire
ISBN: 0-8166-5266-X

And if anyone else can help me find the rest of the series of books because I was told there are at least five more, please POST!