I have mixed feelings about Yoshinaga's work. Some of it I like a great deal, and some of it bores me. I liked the series about law students but haven't read all of it. How much I like a particular work of Yoshinaga's seems to vary depending on the level of explicitness with the more explicit stuff boring me. I've also found that I'm helped by not reading different works in close proximity to each other because, when I do, I start getting caught on how alike the characters often look.
No, this is helpful! I suspect I may be with you re: the explicitness, since I like her portrayals of obsessions like manga or art or baking or the like the best so far. She's so good at capturing how off-putting it sometimes is to others (Majima!) but also how that love is so wonderful as well.
I stopped reading Flower of Life after the second volume, almost certainly because of that one plot point you mention disliking. You're the second person on my flist who's recommended the third volume, though; I should probably check it out.
As for other Yoshinaga series: you won't want to read Gerard and Jacques, which has both non-con and huge power differentials. Ichigenme, the law student series that therck mentioned, was enjoyable enough in the first volume, but I really didn't care for the second. If the second volume is in fact the end of the series--which seems to be the case--then it's completely lacking in anything I'd consider a resolution. Also, while the first volume's pretty mild on the non-con/power differential scale, the second one is considerably less so.
I love the third volume Christmas party and the little bit on the manga artist going shopping so much! So much! It made me warm and happy and fuzzy on the inside.
On the other hand, the disturbing plot element gets more disturbing, so... yeah. I am mostly trying to pretend it doesn't exist.
Thanks for the notes! I was eying G&J too, so I will avoid it now, though law student series sounds potentially interesting.
Bwahaha! I had to struggle to not laugh out loud at your descriptions. I think Moon and Sandals and Ichigenme definitely sound good. How is Don't Say Any More Darling twisted?
Also OMG! I know! Why is Ooku not out here? Why why why?
Works I've enjoyed of Yoshinaga's: Ichigenme (particularly the first volume), Antique Bakery, Flower of Life. Her explicit doujinshi featuring the Antique Bakery characters leave me cold, though, and I'm with you in being squicked by some of her kinks (yep, non-con and power-differential stuff are decidedly not my thing).
What I love about her work are her human-interaction vignettes, and the tragicomic, wistful feel to some aspects of the plot in these stories. I also really like the time she spends on her female characters: Harutaro's relationship with his sister; the female friends who meet again in the first volume of Antique Bakery; the way that one female classmate felt about Harutaro's defense of Shota; the plot arc in Ichigenme devoted to the hero's good female friend.
Garden Dreams was pretty but a bit depressing for my tastes.
Gotta admit, I fell in love with Antique Bakery's baked goods, and the rhapsodizing the characters do over them, as much as anything. (And it's not every day you come across a manga series with
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Does the plot point you don't like in Flower of Life intimately involve Majima and someone else from school?
YES OMG YES.
Also, yeah, I really love that Yoshinaga a) has female characters and b) likes them! I particularly loved the shopping trip in v. 3 of Flower of Life. Thanks for the recommendations!
I do not know whether you personally would like Gerard and Jacques, but it is my favorite Yoshinaga; however the reasons it is are not reasons that may apply to most people. Basically the entire thing is a riff on tropes of eighteenth-century philosophy, as applied to yaoi; which means that yes, there is a lot of non-con and a lot of abuse of power differentials, but it's entirely self-aware. I mean, the book name-checks both de Sade and Rousseau, and I am absolutely one hundred percent certain that Jacques is named Jacques as a reference to Denis Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist and his Master, given that Yoshinaga did the cover for the Japanese edition of that. And I thought Gerard and Jacques managed to say some fairly biting things about both eighteenth-century philosophy and yaoi.
So I don't know whether you personally would like it, but I do feel I have to mention that what it is doing is very interesting and complex and really not what it initially looks like.
I may end up avoiding G&J anyway, just because I sadly do not have the philosophical background to pick up on all that! But that is very interesting and I greedily encourage you to do super-spoilery posts so I can read and enjoy vicariously!
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Sorry not to be more help.
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As for other Yoshinaga series: you won't want to read Gerard and Jacques, which has both non-con and huge power differentials. Ichigenme, the law student series that therck mentioned, was enjoyable enough in the first volume, but I really didn't care for the second. If the second volume is in fact the end of the series--which seems to be the case--then it's completely lacking in anything I'd consider a resolution. Also, while the first volume's pretty mild on the non-con/power differential scale, the second one is considerably less so.
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On the other hand, the disturbing plot element gets more disturbing, so... yeah. I am mostly trying to pretend it doesn't exist.
Thanks for the notes! I was eying G&J too, so I will avoid it now, though law student series sounds potentially interesting.
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Also OMG! I know! Why is Ooku not out here? Why why why?
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What I love about her work are her human-interaction vignettes, and the tragicomic, wistful feel to some aspects of the plot in these stories. I also really like the time she spends on her female characters: Harutaro's relationship with his sister; the female friends who meet again in the first volume of Antique Bakery; the way that one female classmate felt about Harutaro's defense of Shota; the plot arc in Ichigenme devoted to the hero's good female friend.
Garden Dreams was pretty but a bit depressing for my tastes.
Gotta admit, I fell in love with Antique Bakery's baked goods, and the rhapsodizing the characters do over them, as much as anything. (And it's not every day you come across a manga series with ( ... )
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YES OMG YES.
Also, yeah, I really love that Yoshinaga a) has female characters and b) likes them! I particularly loved the shopping trip in v. 3 of Flower of Life. Thanks for the recommendations!
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I do not know whether you personally would like Gerard and Jacques, but it is my favorite Yoshinaga; however the reasons it is are not reasons that may apply to most people. Basically the entire thing is a riff on tropes of eighteenth-century philosophy, as applied to yaoi; which means that yes, there is a lot of non-con and a lot of abuse of power differentials, but it's entirely self-aware. I mean, the book name-checks both de Sade and Rousseau, and I am absolutely one hundred percent certain that Jacques is named Jacques as a reference to Denis Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist and his Master, given that Yoshinaga did the cover for the Japanese edition of that. And I thought Gerard and Jacques managed to say some fairly biting things about both eighteenth-century philosophy and yaoi.
So I don't know whether you personally would like it, but I do feel I have to mention that what it is doing is very interesting and complex and really not what it initially looks like.
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I may end up avoiding G&J anyway, just because I sadly do not have the philosophical background to pick up on all that! But that is very interesting and I greedily encourage you to do super-spoilery posts so I can read and enjoy vicariously!
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