Romantic manga vs printed PWP
See, there is yaoi which does contain complex characters and more-or-less realistic view of what a gay relationship might entail - see for instance Fumi Yoshinagas Ichigenme.. The First Class is Civil Law for instance. There are plenty of manga that pick apart and consider gender roles, expectations and queerness - See Setona Mizushiro and her work. They're mostly untranslated, alas, but I am reliably informed that After School Nightmare is along those lines
Aaaand then there's the stuff like today's haul: Stay Close to Me by Yaya Sakuragi and Target in the Viewfinder by Ayano Yamane....
The first one is pure fluff. Cute and really funny fluff, tho! Which, lemme tell you, is amaaaazingly hard to find, since most yaoi authors are completely unable to write comedy to save their lives and think that two guys moping about due to silly misunderstandings for 40 pages = drama.
I was not very surprised when I got home and checked the author name against the shelf, finding that it was the same creator as Tea for Two - the drawing style is similar and they're both genuinly funny. While there is still one top and one bottom, Sakuragi prefers to play around a bit with the seme/uke conventions.
Here, we have the childhood friends, one of which has grown into an ~otomen~, that is a maidenly lad who loves cooking and dreams of becoming a housewife, while the other is a strict, martial arts practitioner. Alas, the otomen has grown TALLER than his crush-for-years, oh noes!! But it's okay, because they've been together and love each other, even though the uke didn't quite realize that until another guy started hitting on him and everyone thinks they're both so cute together
This is the mental equivalent of eating chocolate cake with whipped cream for dinner /grabs spoon/
What can I say? Om nom nom, I love my chocolate cake!
And Viewfinder, does that really need an introduction these days...? Oh, all right.
Firstly, in case someone missed it - it's in print again. In English, yes.
Second, this isn't just the equivalent of a non-con PWP fanfic, it is one. Except the characters aren't from another series, but the setup is about as evolved as what you'd find on adultfanfiction.net... Some photographer guy kinda sees some crimelord's underling doing something, and in retaliation is kidnapped and sexually tortured/humiliated by crime boss. He is then tentpegged into liking this stuff and then it's basically lather, rinse, repeat. Ho-hum, the depth of intrigue, I am in awe of thee!
It's kinda been flying off the shelf though ^_^; I mean, it is decently drawn and the first volume contains, for yaoi manga, an unusually elaborate BDSM scene. The appeal is 110% the same as for people who read smut doujinshi, I swear. Only here you can actually understand what the uke is moaning, even if you don't know the japanese sign for Iiie! or Ya- yamete!
I was really surprised that almost half the book contained other stories, though. Especially since Viewfinder is several chapters long and all that other stuff... couldn't they have smushed it into a Ayano PWP anthology?
The plot is eerily similar in them all: Hot and/or cute guy looks alluring, ends up in situation with other hot guy who decides to sex him up. Aaaand so he does, following various amounts of protesting.
In conclusion: My reward to myself for acing my exam & having worked my arse off this week: One heaping of ♥ fluff ♥ and one kinky smut-collection, thx!
(On a finishing note, if you're turned off yaoi because the overwhelming amount of non-con themes, I can really recommend Stay Close to Me. They're both very obviously in love with each other and though the uke is shy and whatnot, he does react with enthusiasm every time they have sex)
Originally posted at Dreamwidth.