Manga: Love DNA xx
Yuri Hime is a quarterly anthology magazine. I don't usually pick up anthology magazines, but this time, I was enticed by the pretty cover featuring gorgeous bifauxnen in Utenesque uniforms pouting and posing all over it.
They're characters from the unfortunately named Love DNA xx. That has to be in the running for worst named title of the year.
Still, it was fun to read.
Summary, thoughts and messy scanslation of a few pages here and there are under the cut.
The setting is a near-future dystopia in which a virus has wiped out all human males. The government, apparently fearing social collapse, implements 'Project EDEN'.
All fine so far. It is very reasonable to fear social collapse when half the world's population die off. That sort of thing is a horrible experience and probably creates a lot of stress. However, the social collapse the government fears isn't because continuing the species becomes a bit more difficult, nor is it because you've got a power vacuum where most of the politicians used to be, nor is it due to any other sensible reason: the government thinks that society is going to go to hell in a handbasket because all the men dying off means that there won't be any division of social roles along gender lines and oh, people just will not know what to do! (It's okay. You're supposed to think Project EDEN is retarded.) To that end, they decide that half the surviving women should take on a traditionally male role in society and the other half should have a traditionally female role.
Anyway, our protagonist Aoi is a male-role 'ADAM' who transfers into an elite school ironically named 'Kingdom'. There, she runs into a girl and fellow 'ADAM' called Sakura who seems to be Aoi's romantic interest.
(for those who don't know: "gokigenyou", especially when seen in this context, carries associations of shoujo-ai classic Maria-sama ga Miteru.)
She makes another friend called Matsuri to whom she expresses dissatisfaction with the Project EDEN system:
It's revealed that the school forbids romances between two male-role students or between two female-role students to the extent that they will be under threat of expulsion if they're caught at it.
Then Matsuri takes Aoi to her dorm room and when she's alone, Aoi gets her boobs out.
The setup for the shoujo-ai is similar to that in Simoun or that in Mai-Otome where girls are into girls by default, and they have no real alternative. However, the artificial roles imposed by Project EDEN mean that they may have a different interpretation of sexuality where hetero-social-role-ism is the norm and homo-social-role-ity is the path-less-travelled alternative.
Project EDEN is so cartoonishly backwards with its chauvinistic roles- the ADAMs go to work, fight in the military and run the state, while the EVEs raise children and tend the home- that I feel kind of sorry for it: it's so obvious that Aoi is going to burn it down like a straw man when she revolutionizes the system.
It's easy to look at Love DNA xx and write it off as shounen-ai with added boobs. The protagonists Aoi and Sakura are quite literally bifauxnen, they are almost certain to engage in some sort of illicit Forbidden Romance and they're drawn and written by mangaka who are more widely known for yaoi manga. But for all that Aoi and Sakura traptastically resemble bishounen, they more resemble Takarazuka otokoyaku stars: the school uniforms with their epaulettes and tassles, the self-conscious role-playing, even the way their school's classes are named after Takarazuka troupes- Sakura's in Moon, and Aoi is in Cosmic. They don't identify as male, they identify as women acting out a social role. When EVEs turn up in the story they'll no doubt have the Takarazuka musumeyaku style of exaggerated femininity, all ringlets and swooning and hoop-skirts. The kink here is not one catering to shounen-ai, but rather towards cross-dressing. This is especially evident where the scene in which Aoi unwraps her chest bindings is sexualized and in the way they don't let you forget that these are not bishounen, but are women who are dressed up and acting in the way their society dictates.
Anyway, I shall have to wait for the Winter Yuri Hime for the continuation to this.
In the meantime, there is a lovely colour two-page spread to enjoy.
They're characters from the unfortunately named Love DNA xx. That has to be in the running for worst named title of the year.
Still, it was fun to read.
Summary, thoughts and messy scanslation of a few pages here and there are under the cut.
The setting is a near-future dystopia in which a virus has wiped out all human males. The government, apparently fearing social collapse, implements 'Project EDEN'.
All fine so far. It is very reasonable to fear social collapse when half the world's population die off. That sort of thing is a horrible experience and probably creates a lot of stress. However, the social collapse the government fears isn't because continuing the species becomes a bit more difficult, nor is it because you've got a power vacuum where most of the politicians used to be, nor is it due to any other sensible reason: the government thinks that society is going to go to hell in a handbasket because all the men dying off means that there won't be any division of social roles along gender lines and oh, people just will not know what to do! (It's okay. You're supposed to think Project EDEN is retarded.) To that end, they decide that half the surviving women should take on a traditionally male role in society and the other half should have a traditionally female role.
Anyway, our protagonist Aoi is a male-role 'ADAM' who transfers into an elite school ironically named 'Kingdom'. There, she runs into a girl and fellow 'ADAM' called Sakura who seems to be Aoi's romantic interest.
(for those who don't know: "gokigenyou", especially when seen in this context, carries associations of shoujo-ai classic Maria-sama ga Miteru.)
She makes another friend called Matsuri to whom she expresses dissatisfaction with the Project EDEN system:
It's revealed that the school forbids romances between two male-role students or between two female-role students to the extent that they will be under threat of expulsion if they're caught at it.
Then Matsuri takes Aoi to her dorm room and when she's alone, Aoi gets her boobs out.
The setup for the shoujo-ai is similar to that in Simoun or that in Mai-Otome where girls are into girls by default, and they have no real alternative. However, the artificial roles imposed by Project EDEN mean that they may have a different interpretation of sexuality where hetero-social-role-ism is the norm and homo-social-role-ity is the path-less-travelled alternative.
Project EDEN is so cartoonishly backwards with its chauvinistic roles- the ADAMs go to work, fight in the military and run the state, while the EVEs raise children and tend the home- that I feel kind of sorry for it: it's so obvious that Aoi is going to burn it down like a straw man when she revolutionizes the system.
It's easy to look at Love DNA xx and write it off as shounen-ai with added boobs. The protagonists Aoi and Sakura are quite literally bifauxnen, they are almost certain to engage in some sort of illicit Forbidden Romance and they're drawn and written by mangaka who are more widely known for yaoi manga. But for all that Aoi and Sakura traptastically resemble bishounen, they more resemble Takarazuka otokoyaku stars: the school uniforms with their epaulettes and tassles, the self-conscious role-playing, even the way their school's classes are named after Takarazuka troupes- Sakura's in Moon, and Aoi is in Cosmic. They don't identify as male, they identify as women acting out a social role. When EVEs turn up in the story they'll no doubt have the Takarazuka musumeyaku style of exaggerated femininity, all ringlets and swooning and hoop-skirts. The kink here is not one catering to shounen-ai, but rather towards cross-dressing. This is especially evident where the scene in which Aoi unwraps her chest bindings is sexualized and in the way they don't let you forget that these are not bishounen, but are women who are dressed up and acting in the way their society dictates.
Anyway, I shall have to wait for the Winter Yuri Hime for the continuation to this.
In the meantime, there is a lovely colour two-page spread to enjoy.