- Hisui

Thanks for stopping by my site. All I can say is that I do read A LOT of BL manga. I guess it’s that whole reading something that is on the fringes makes me a rebel!

One of the review sites that I like to check out regarding BL is Boys on Boys on Film. Their reviews are always very informative and interesting. Sadly they are on an indefinte hiatus and so there are no new reviews. Of course with my reviews I try to make note of how graphic things are, but I know I fail miserably.

Often time when I choose my boys love titles I take note of who the publisher is, the rating on the back, and whether the books are shrinkwrapped or not. That generally will let you know how graphic titles are (not always though). I made the mistake of going from a series like Gravitation by Maki Murakami (my first experience with BL) to then jumping in to Party by Tatsumi Kaiya. That was a huge mistake! I then went back to more vanilla titles like Fake by Sanami Matoh.

Keep up the good work. Continue on with the interesting social experiments. Forget about those who disagree with you and rake you over the coals for it. Stay honest and true to your opinions and keep learning!

-Kris (and don’t hesitate to check out my reviews, I’ll try to be more specific in regards to the graphic nature!)

Thanks for the support. It is always nice to hear. Narutaki and I were just talking about how people seem to think that the only experiments worth doing are the ones that turn out differently than you expected them to.

Plus as you said there is enough titles and genres out there in manga that everyone can pick what they want to read. I guess when you are a fan of a niche genre you wish more people would give your chosen genre a try. The more people who read a certain genre the more books will come out in that category and the more people you can talk about your favorite titles with. I guess that is why people get so up in arm. They sometimes equate not liking a genre with attacking that genre.

I distinctly remember not giving Higurashi no Naku Koro ni a chance until I heard a positive review on Anime World Order and that worked out well for me. Before that I had written it off as the stupid killer loli show. Kohaku was the one that convinced Narutaki and I both to try Hayate after I had passed it by so many times at various book stores. So I feel we should all try to push our boundaries everyone in awhile.

Except for Ero Guro. I am inflexible about that one. If that makes me a smaller person because of it so be it. I am willing to take that chance.

BTW – I was checking out your site and you have a good deal of BL reviews. Do you know of a good site that reviews BL but has a detailed report of how graphic the BL is? I know Narutaki would read more BL but it’s hard to know what is a love story with some tasteful soap opera sex in it and what is fluids flying all over the place (and in your face).

-Hisui

Well let me fire back a response.

I feel the disconnect between our opinion and yours of the heart throbbing moments in manga come from the “dirty old cameraman” again. Since the manga-ka loves to frame shots as sexually as possible, it is very easy to interpret anything in the manga as sexual due to her choices as an artist. Like I mentioned in the article, things that are totally not sexual take on a very sexual light if we are seeing an up-skirt at the time. The pervasive sexuality makes it easy to interpret Daisuke’s reaction as bashfulness instead of just embarrassment.

Also although Usa has somewhat of a mature body Rin and Kuro are very obviously built like elementary school children and Rin gets a majority of the service shots in the series. Also other than their hypersexual behavior they mostly act like elementary school girls. They are only really mature when it comes to sex.

I think it all comes down to the old saying one half of the world will never understand the pleasure of the other. You don’t have to love what anyone else does. You should just respect their right to enjoy what they like.

-Hisui

- Hisui

Just sayin’.

I liked your Deviant art page. Nice work. And now on to my reply.

I can’t say that it won’t appeal to any women. I also know girls who like DearS and Elfen Lied which boggles my mind to a degree but they still like the shows. Heck women play ero games. The oft mentioned Kohaku played Tsukihime and plans to play Fate/Stay Night.

There might be a deeper and touching story later on but I will never get that far. If the story was not winning me over at the end of book two it would probably never win me over. The main experiment was to see if we could read the first two books and find some story that would be so profound it would make us ignore the loli aspects. Narutaki guessed (correctly) there was nothing on this earth that was good enough to make him feel that way. I think that Scott felt if we actually sat down and read Kodomo no Jikan and gave it a fair shake we would enjoy it. I think that we gave it a fair amount of time to win us over but it never did.

If you enjoy the story more power to you. You are obviously able to see past the fan-service and take away a sweet story. Narutaki and I were unable to do that.

- Hisui

I think it’s because you rap about reality
Like you and your grandma drinking a cup of tea.

Conchords, ftw.

To quote wise men of our time:

Bret and Jermaine:
Other rappers diss me
Say my rhymes are sissy
What, what, what, why, why, why?

Jemaine:
Be more constructive with your feedback

- Hisui

I don’t deny that there’s nothing sexual about the fan service, and frankly, I probably wouldn’t be that into the series if it wasn’t for the eye candy. But I think the difference between your perception of it and mine is that I don’t see the characters as children. They’re anime characters, fictional creations that are influenced from human but in no way realistic. They’re drawn with far more adult like curves and features than any girl would have developed at that age, and as you mention in the post, there is no way that a third grader would act like these girls or say the things they do. That’s the appeal for me. Children aren’t attractive, but these characters are.

I also really don’t see the teacher forming that kind of lust for the girl as you’re building it up to be. What I see building is a platonic father/daughter relationship between the two… but I tend to find those types of relationship a lot in comics. :-P Those “heart throbbing” moments you mention are points where looking at Rin reminds Daisuke that deep down inside of him, he is lonely and longs for the sexual touch of a girlfriend or wife. He’s embarrassed that Rin triggers off this reminder for him, but in no way does it indicate he’s specifically falling for the girl.

And yes, the back story between Reiji and Aki is exactly what I meant by good story, and there are more instances of that throughout the entire series. But after reading how you felt about this storyline in the context of the series, it’s probably best that you never pick up a lolicon manga ever again. ;-)

It is interesting how both of our experiments ultimately lead to the same conclusion. I guess no matter how good certain aspects of a manga are, if the genre is not right for you, it ruins the whole damn thing.

Wooooooooow.

You guys and Scott all fail. :|