Monday, September 10, 2007

Yaoi Heaven!

An interest that was first jump started in January this year and rapidly ballooned to fill the gaping void left by the erstwhile all consuming obsession that was World of Warcraft; Yaoi continues to remain a keen interest to this day. While it no longer commands an intensive compulsion as it once did during the zenith of the obsession back in March where I was searching the various yaoi forums for new offerings on a daily basis as well as translating full time for two scanlation groups (Obsession and Bliss), often finishing an entire book (translating) in a couple of days; it remains a pleasurable past time.

Those translation days are gone, Sean was right that I'd be too lazy to keep it up for long but it was good while it lasted, which was about 3-4 months. I genuinely enjoyed translating and giving back to the community as part of a scanlation group. My free time these days is split between Yaoi, Anime and the occasional gaming session. Once in a while I even manage to spare some time for the PLC stuff. I still trawl the forums, just not so regularly and more selectively, finding my favourite mangakas then making a mental note to get the english release when and if it has been licensed.

The one bad thing about living in Singapore is that your english manga is normally damn expensive, about 15-25 bucks A book, and it's usually available only some time after the mangas are already released by the licensed US companies in US. One can always e-bay from Amazon but I did the math, unless one is buying 10 books or more, it's still cheaper to buy from here. Aileen usually screams at me for not buying the cheap Chuang Yi Chinese version ones but it doesn't really bother me because

  1. some of the titles from my favourite mangakas like PlayBoy Blue by Shiuko Kano are not available, usually the more explicit ones. Censoring also tends to be prevalent for the Chinese copies. Which bloody sucks.
  2. My Chinese is not fantastic, when translating I had the help of a dictionary for the more complicated terms. And the complex Chinese as opposed to the simplified Chinese Singaporeans learn is even worse. I'm sure I can scrape through while reading the manga and comprehend what it's saying with some difficulty but the whole point of reading manga is to have a light and enjoyable read. Scrutinising every other sentence and deciphering it, isn't enjoyable.
So I was particularly thrilled today to find that the store I frequent had stocked up with a lot of new titles since I'd last visited a month back and more importantly, that they were from my favourite mangakas and series that I've been following (Kizuna, Level C, Love Mode). They even had the tantalising 'Love Pistols' vol 2 by Tarako Kotobuki (which incidentally is known as Sex Pistols in Japan, the US company which bought the license probably thought love has a nicer ring to it). Like they always say, a picture says a thousand words.

Yaoi Fanboy's new haul (Clockwise from top left): Kizuna Vol 8 :) , Spell by Hyouta Fujiyama :P, Love Mode Vol 6 by Yuki Shimizu, Hate to Love you by Makato Tateno of 'Yellow' fame and Love Pistols (Sex Pistols) Vol 2 by Tarako Kotobuki. Which left him a hundred bucks poorer - if only the bill was as nice.

Sorting through the buys, I realised that I hadn't unwrapped the previous month's purchase for some reason, choosing to stow them away instead. Which in effect means it's like a second haul. Double the entertainment value. ^^

Last month's stash (clockwise from top left): Alcohol, Shirt & Kiss by Yuko Kuwabara, Picnic by the yaoi mangaka queen Yamada Yugi, A King's Lesson! by Aoi Futaba & Kurenai Mitsuba and Delivery Cupid by CJ Michalski.

A few of my favourite titles I have in my current stash of 50+ hardcopy mangas (as opposed to the softcopy scanlations).....

Select All-time Favourites (clockwise from top left): Gakuen Heaven by You Higuri, Little Butterfly (1-3) by Hinako Takanaga, Desire by Yukine Honami (I love this one - this reviewer reviews it nicely) and last but certainly not least the fantastic yaoi classic, Close the Last Door by Yamada Yugi (one i can read and re-read again.)

Of course what decent semi-otaku would be without his plushie? I saw the seated Ichigo a month ago at the store and just couldn't resist not getting him. Plus he looked so much better than the ones you find at the vivocity shop where the head is disproportionate and the features just don't look right.

Ichigo and his Number 1 favourite yaoi title by the mangaka he absolutely adores for her drama, hot guys, anatomically correct bodies and pure smut, Play Boy Blues by Shiuko Kano. All hail the Queen!

13 comments:

wildgoose said...

There are female comic artists? I'm surprised. And is Playboy Blues really like Playboy? :D I'm so 'swaku' about comics.

Aelgtoer said...

Yeah there are! Just like there are shounen (geared towards guys) manga which are primarily drawn by the male mangakas, there are shojo (geared towards the gals) manga drawn primarily by female mangakas.

Yaoi which is the more expicit subset of the BL (boy love) genre is almost exclusively drawn by female mangakas, I only know of a couple of male mangakas who draw yaoi (and are like gems ^^). The female mangakas are very talented.

Heh and no Playboy Blues is nothing like Playboy, it basically derives its name from its story which is about two male hosts (yes they have those in Japan's Shinjuku district) who fall in love with each other.

The resulting story and character development is great as is the art and smut, haha. We're all 'swaku' about things la, I'm still pretty clueless about Yoga. :)

wildgoose said...

Oh wow. That's a pretty good introduction to manga.
Yeah,there's always more to learn. :)

0ne said...

Oh, try to get your hands on Lamento doujinshi. To quote my fujyoshi friend, the men in Lamento are HAWT XD

Aelgtoer said...

Wildgoose: Yep, intend to take up Yoga sometime soon. :)

Zero: Thanks for the recommendation! :) Doujinshi's tend to be rare in Singapore but I'll go source around online :P

light4l said...

hrmm it is strange... i wanan read about Play Boy Blues... is it about a sad story?

ein said...

aah! stumbled upon your blog by accident. I was tryin to find a new way to buy yaoi since it was BANNED IN MALAYSIA ALREADY. arghh may the one who reported it got burned or whatever. Anyway, ive compared the prices from malaysia kino and singapore kino! OMG a lot of difference! ahhh.. that means if i wanna get my yaois from singapore i better save a lot. the travelling and all. *sigh*

any advice to me on where to get cheaper ones in singapore? Thanks!

Aelgtoer said...

light: Nah Playboy Blues rocks, pity volume 2 is still stalled in translator hell for both the scanlated and the licensed version :(

Ein: No way, they finally banned yaoi in Malaysia? Some censor must have caught his/her daughter/son reading yaoi.

Damn and the selection of books at Malaysia's KL borders always rocked. The range you will find in Singapore (kino only) is both limited and expensive.

Try the anime/manga shops at sunshine plaza, i used to get my stash there. Bit more pricey than KL but still good and u can order the ones u like.

If all else fails there's always Yaoi shares.:P

cheezy said...

Lol, same as ein, I found this post while google-ing for ways to buy yaoi in Malaysia, since it's banned >_>. But just recently I managed to buy Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi by Nakamura Shungiku who did Junjou Romantica from Kinokuniya KL =D It's a must read. BUT when I tried to order the artbook by said artist, they said it's banned >_< wtf...

Sunomiya_dark said...

Hi :D
I'm finding it a little hard to keep a yaoi collection in singapore. There's barely shops that sell them (except the one at sunshine plaza, but they rarely restocks :S)
and the kino in singapore doesnt have much yaoi titles, let alone any :( the only ones that i got so far was kyou kara maou, silver diamond and togainu no chi...which are mainly shonen-ai:(
know of any good places to stock up? :D
but it's nice to know there are fellow fujoshis in singapore:D
hooray:)

jimi said...

i know they said yaoi is banned in malaysia but i manage to buy it from MPH mid valley...last time i buy kawaii akuma.. just check it out from MPH

Sin Ni said...

Sorry, can i know where you buy yaoi comics from?

darren_yatashi_suzuki@yahoo.co.jp said...

I am a yaoi fanboy,

about yaoi/BL reading materials in Kuala Lumpur, i have a friend that working in Borders Bookstore The Gardens, she said that Borders last time sell BL/yaoi books. And i also purchased some of the yaoi manga at there too.

Recently Borders management announced that they will no more importing new mangas, same as BL/yaoi books.

Anyway there is still a few more BL/yaoi manga on the shelf.

I will going to K-books, Kinokuniya and Mandarake at November to buy some BL/yaoi manga when i am back in Japan.

email me if any inquiries.