Dôsôkai review (lots of screenshots)

[riccichan]

Originally, I wanted to write a short summary. But... it's more a re-narration than a summary and has gotten quite long. Still, I feel that it's alright, because the dorama is not slow paced, and I want to do the topic justice. Needless to say, the text contains massive spoilers, so if you still want to watch this dorama (there are no subtitles

Comments

[frenchthyme]

More than Mary, I think more of Julie 'coz Mary must be as old as Johnny while Mary was part of Kimpachi's 1st batch of students^^

It's been mentioned many times by various JE boys that being an idol is being in the business of creating dreams. That's why the characters they play become part of that dream machine..I think...
As for fanservice, I think it's more acceptable because fans would rather see the guys with other guys rather than girls-> perhaps it's not considered as homosexuality, but rather fanservice? bimyouni chigau to omou...

I don't know about Kimpachi's theory^^ but I think there might be some historical events that will explain the change in terms of attitudes towards nudity in the public space/media. What does physicality mean though? you mean how people view the body vis-a-vis the public space? or sex? That's hard to tell though on a societal level. But what Dosokai proves is that, at least, from a Johnny's perspective, Johnny didn't have those strict rules about sexual representation as he does these days.

"I think that has a long tradition in Japan (I'm just thinking of onnagata, for example) "

Longer, probably. It's also interesting to see how this is connected with homosexuality in the historical sense of older male lovers coupled with younger male lovers. The word escapes me right now, but I'm talking about how Oda Nobunaga's relationship with his young lover is called. ( Wentz Eiji to Sorimachi's Nobunaga^^)

I wonder though if my former uni still keeps up with the "tradition". You know, the weird part was that the other people on CHuou sen ignored the spectacle and acted as if nothing happened^^.

[riccichan]

IIRC, Mary is even older than Johnny! By four years or so. *laughs* But if I were her, I'd definitely have some of my idols escort me to fancy dinners or public events or something. Isn't this what this Mori woman does, too?

I'm not sure about the fanservice theory. While I was active in yaoi fandom, I researched this topic quite a bit, and I don't think the main point is a kind of twisted jealousy. In my opinion the problems of definition already start with the term "homosexuality" itself. I think fanservice really is a modern development of the Kabuki teahouse / prostitute tradition - it's a means to market goods to a female / male audience.

Like you say, it's closely connected to shûgo, the younger/older lover thing in the Edo period and earlier. The important thing to consider, in my opinion, is that fanservice isn't construed as a statement about sexuality, like shûgo wasn't considered as personality trait, but rather as "hobby" (I think here lies the reason why homosexuality is still seen as exactly that by a lot of contemporary Japanese).

The interesting (modern) change is that historically, "homosexuality" in this sense predominantly catered to a male gaze, while now it is the female gaze. And still the image itself of the so-called bishônen hasn't changed much. There are authors who argue that the bishônen is actually a third gender, falling outside of all the gender roles in the male/female dichotomy, and I'm inclined to agree with them.

*looks word up* Damn, I was so sure the word existed... in German, we call it "Körperlichkeit". It just means "presence of the body", or "importance of the body", a mixture of those two. I hope that's clear. ^^;;;

Isn't the train generally an anonymous space where everything gets ignored? XD Must have been interesting to watch!