Category Archives: fujoshi

The Fujoshi Files 88: Yamada Moe

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Name: Yamada, Moe (山田もえ)
Alias: Moemoe (モエモエ)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Princess Ringo’s Adventures in “Wota” Land

Information:
Yamada Moe is an office worker who is aware of her coworker Himenogi Rin’s fujoshi identity. The two have known each other since their middle school years, though Moe has since been much more upfront and open about being a fujoshi. Eager to help Rin be truer to herself, Moe sets up semi-elaborate schemes at work in order to remind Rin of her fujoshi side.

Like Rin, Moe is into the anime Prince Salaryman, particularly the Red x Black pairing. Moe also forms a bond with a male coworker and fellow otaku named Watanabe over their mutual love of Rin’s cosplay alter ego “Hime Ringo.” While Rin sees her cosplay from her overweight days as a mark of shame, Moe remembers Rin’s cosplay much more fondly.

Fujoshi Level:
Rin is an unabashed fujoshi willing to even show her merchandise at the office, and always eager to talk about her favorite shows and pairings, which can get quite complicated and specific.

The Fujoshi Files 87: Akai Ringo

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Name: Akai, Ringo (赤井林檎)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Okami-san & Her Seven Companions

Information:
Akai Ringo is a high school student at Otogi Academy in Otogibana City, where she works for the “Otogi Bank,” a school organization which helps with student requests in exchange for future favors. Patterned after Little Red Riding Hood and ending all of her sentences with the syllable “no,” Ringo exudes an image of youth and innocence. In reality, Ringo is a “rotten apple” with a cunning and manipulative personality, albeit loyal to her friends.

Ringo is best friends with her fellow Otogi Bank member, the wolf-like Ookami Ryouko, while supporting Ryouko’s burgeoning relationship with the timid Morino Ryoushi. Her feelings towards Ryouko are somewhat complex in that she would be very comfortable with a romantic relationship, but does not desire her normally otherwise. Ringo is also the half-sister of Shirayuki Himeno, a poor but beautiful fellow student who cares for seven younger siblings.

Fujoshi Level:
Akai once created a fictionalized movie where Ookami, Morino, and she fight the three terrorist Tonda brothers. The story called for the pig-like brothers to do possibly indescribable things to each other as the result of a penalty game.

The Fujoshi Files 86: Mihara Touko

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Name: Mihara, Touko (三原塔子)
Alias: Mihara Touko (三原とうこ）
Relationship Status: N/A
Origin: Fujoshissu!

Information:
Mihara Touko is a doujinshi artist turned published manga author hailing from Yamagata prefecture in the Tohoku area of Japan. A long-time fujoshi, she regularly attends doujin events, and as a result has met a variety of like-minded individuals, including the fujoshi of Ryouhoku High, Megumi, Yuki, and Eri. In addition, she is high school friends with Ishioka Yuri, to whom she introduced BL. As a native of Yamagata, Touko speaks in a thick Tohoku dialect.

Wise to the point of slyness, Touko was able to offer advice to Satou Megumi when she was in doubt over how seriously she should take her own hobby. Notably, she pointed out the major difference between making comics for oneself and revising one’s own work for the sake of fostering serialization. Her own work, Hana to Kaminari (“Flowers and Thunder”), debuted in the magazine Sylph, known for titles such as Fujoshissu!

Fujoshi Level:
The specifics of Touko’s fujocity are unclear other than the fact that she has devoted much of her time and energy to fujoshi-minded work both amateur and professional. A better indicator however may be the way she has tried to foster a fujoshi mindset in not only her friend Yuri but other girls as well. In this sense, Touko’s abilities as a fujoshi may be greatest in her ability to sense potential.

The Fujoshi Files 85: Sawada Yumi

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Name: Sawada, Yumi (沢田ゆみ)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Fujoshissu!

Information:
Sawada Yumi joined the Ryouhoku High School manga club when her friend Komura Mai brought her along. Unlike Mai, Yumi is shy and more quiet. She also likes to dress up in gothic-lolita fashion even on hot days, but ducks into buildings frequently to keep cool. She will sometimes even go so far as to wear a goth-loli outfit to Comic Market.

Fujoshi Level:
Though not terribly vocal about her fujoshi thoughts (let alone anything else), she still exhibits a mind for BL, easily gelling with the existing fujoshi of the manga club, particularly when it comes to pairing the two new male members, Yonekawa Akito and Nakamura Shingo.

The Fujoshi Files 84: Komura Mai

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Name: Komura, Mai (小村舞)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Fujoshissu!

Information:
Komura Mai is a member of Ryouhoku High School’s manga club, which she decided to join after attending the school festival while still in junior high. As the main catalyst behind her decision to join the club was the manga artwork of member/president Satou Megumi, Mai holds her in high regard. Cheerful yet restrained, Mai is also friends with Sawada Yumi, whom she brought to the manga club as well.

Fujoshi Level:
Mai’s immediate fondness of Megumi’s work indicates that she is fairly deep. In addition, she is able to act on the same wavelength as the existing members of the manga club, like with the pairing of male members Yonekawa Akito and Nakamura Shingo and their friendship built on contrasting personalities.

Not Just a Fujoshi: Tora to Ookami

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When it comes to manga oriented around a fujoshi main character, there are two big trends.  First, they tend to come from pretty unknown authors in fairly obscure magazines. Second, the story typically revolves heavily around how their love of yaoi impacts the heroine’s relationships. Often there’s a romantic bent to this, where the girl’s fantasies directly impact her interactions with the guy she’s into. Even titles I adore such as Genshiken and Fujoshissu! possess these qualities in part, and while the fujoshi heroine subgenre is not exactly big, it’s produced a lot of similar works.

This is why Tora to Ookami is such a fine oddity. Having ran in Betsuma, which has been home to other popular titles such as Lovely Complex and Aishite Knight, what’s even more interesting is its creator, Kamio Youko. Fans of shoujo might recognize her as the author of Boys Over Flowers, a title which is spoken of in the same breath as other big shoujo works such as Nana, and has been adapted not only into anime but multiple live-action dramas around the world in different languages. In a certain sense, this title is quite a leap for fujoshi-themed manga, skimming along the mainstream even if not directly a part of it.

What I find especially impressive about Tora to Ookami, however, is how it addresses the second trend. A lot of times fujoshi characters, whether they’re in the spotlight or on the sidelines, are fujoshi first and foremost. Their hobbies revolve heavily around anime and manga if not yaoi outright. They’ll throw out random lines from an anime, most often Gundam or Glass Mask, or just have a one-note gimmick (constant pairings or glasses, for instance). They either have, or have had in the past, personalities and appearances which tend towards the image of the shy and nerdy girl. With Mii, the heroine of Tora to Ookami, however, you get a stronger sense of a well-rounded individual where she’s certainly into yaoi but it doesn’t dominate her life, nor her approach to interacting with others.

While Mii writes BL fiction, she’s also a chef who works at her family’s small restaurant, and that aspect of her plays a much more significant role in Tora to Ookami than her googly eyes over seeing her two love interests interact with each other. She may be a fujoshi, but she’s also a strong-willed person who’s more than willing to sacrifice her social life in order to help her grandma maintain their restaurant because it’s what she cherishes. Liking BL is just a natural facet of her among others, and because Mii’s fujoshi identity isn’t the central focus of the manga, her romance is able to develop in a way where the outcome isn’t simply determined by who can accept her for being a fujoshi. Although her fandom pops up occasionally in her interactions with her love interests, especially the titular Tora and Ookami, it’s pretty much never about wanting them to act more like characters from BL manga, nor does it involve confusing fantasy with reality.

I don’t know how well Tora to Ookami did in Japan, but six volumes is a fairly decent run, and at the very least it shows that fujoshi heroine manga don’t have to be limited by the fujoshi “gimmick.” As much as I enjoy the stories which do utilize the recurring fujoshi manga trends, Mii’s character is rather refreshing because of how she has more to her than yaoi, but also doesn’t trivialize that aspect of her. She’s believable as a fujoshi, but also believable as a human being.

The Fujoshi Files 83: Ishioka Yuri

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Name: Isihioka, Yuri (石岡ゆり)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Dating
Origin: Fujoshissu!

Information:
Ishioka Yuri is a college-aged woman who moved to the prefecture of Yamagata in the Tohoku region of Japan when she was little. While growing up, she spent years exchanging letters with her friend and long-time crush Roppongi Takefumi. A shy and clumsy girl since childhood, Yuri was able to begin a relationship with Takefumi upon moving back to her old hometown.

In Yamagata, Yuri was able to make a few friends, notably her neighbor Kana and eventually in high school her classmate Mihara Touko. As a fujoshi, Touko began introducing Yuri to various classic BL stories, which Yuri enjoyed without quite knowing what they were. Yuri is also a skilled pianist, having performed in recitals as a child.

Fujoshi Level:
It is unclear as to whether or not Yuri is fully a fujoshi, but the fact that she displays a Dear Girl ~Stories~ Hibiki cell phone strap is possible evidence as such. In addition, her friend Touko seemed intent to slowly mold Yuri into a fujoshi during their high school years, and the fact that Yuri was so moved by those BL stories indicates that the potential is definitely there.

The Fujoshi Files 82: Himenogi Rin

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Name: Himenogi, Rin (姫乃木凜)
Alias: Rinrin (リンリン ), Hime Ringo (姫リンゴ)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Princess Ringo’s Adventures in “Wota” Land

Information:
Himenogi Rin is a fashionable office lady who seeks the reputation of “Princess of OLs” among her co-workers, though unbeknownst to them she is also a hardcore fujoshi. This changes when one of her new co-workers turns out to be Yamada Moe, an old acquaintance and fellow fujoshi who tries to push Rin to be more open about it. Secretly a virgin, Rin tries to get with one of her fellow coworkers, but when he turns out to be a manipulative womanizer she cooperates with Moe and a victim named Chitose Sakurako to get revenge.

Rin’s favorite series is Prince Salaryman, and her favorite character is “Red.” Although once ridiculed out of cosplaying due to being overweight in her younger years, Rin returns to it with Moe’s encouragement where her current beauty garners her new popularity, including (to her horror) with one of her coworkers who isn’t aware of “Hime Ringo’s” true identity.

Fujoshi Level:
All of Rin’s prospective first times were halted by her yaoi fantasies when each man involved got too scared. In another instance, Rin, cosplaying as Red, was so into her BL persona at a doujin event that she french kissed Sakurako cosplaying the same character in front of an audience.

The Fujoshi Files 81: Yano

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Name: Yano (矢野)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Dating/Complicated
Origin: Bust to Bust: Chotto Kurai Kusatteru no ga Oishiin Desuyo?

Information:
Yano is a student who, after being absent from school, enters a sexual (and eventually romantic) relationship with a boy named Igawa who delivered her homework. Because Igawa’s childhood friend Shinobu and a teacher from America also vie for Igawa’s affections, Yano first competes with them but ends up agreeing to share him instead. Yano’s favorite series include Taiga and Tiger Sheet.

Fujoshi Level:
The reason Yano was absent in the first place was due to an uncontrollable BL-drawing frenzy.

Powerful Genshiken Second Season Episode 10

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Mysteries melt away this episode! Covering chapters 76 and 77, it’s one of the more significant parts of the whole series.

In previous episode reflections (a better term than review I now realize), I mentioned how elements from the manga were cut and shifted, sometimes for thematic consistency within an episode, but more often because the Nidaime anime clearly has a particular end goal in mind. With Episode 10, we’re finally able to see whether or not this “cutting of the fat” has paid off, more or less. It already began with the previous episode to an extent, but this is when the revelations truly begin, and it’ll continue into the next episode too.

In this regard, I think that Episode 10 is probably the strongest one of the season so far. Whether it’s because of Mamiko’s excellent performance as Kaminaga, the portrayal of the way Hato’s denial/hiding of his inner self to others weighs heavily on him, Konno’s amazing facial expressions, or some combination of the three, I think that this episode communicates all of the complex emotions which make up Genshiken. The manga chapters were already great and enlightening, and the adaptation does them justice. In some cases, it even makes things clearer. One example is when Hato sees his brother driving with Kaminaga, with the clear implication being romance. In the manga, Yuuichirou’s expression is kind of ambiguous, but in the anime you can clearly see him smiling. It wasn’t necessary, but it helps communicate that information more overtly.

When I say good adaptation, though, I don’t simply mean that it’s accurate or 1:1 in terms of elements. The anime added an additional thing about Kaminaga moving in with Hato and his brother, but in the manga Hato lives on his own in an apartment far from the university so that he can maintain both his BL and crossdressing. They even visited it in one chapter, which was cut from the anime. The original manga also shows that Konno had dyed her hair in between high school and college, while the anime has always been brunette. It doesn’t impact the story much, but it is curious.

Yamamoto Nozomi also probably puts out some of her best Ogiue performance as well this episode. I still give the edge to Mizuhashi, but Yamamoto really displays a sense of Ogiue, particularly her delivery of Ogiue saying that turning your own boyfriend into BL material is “normal.” It really gives off the vibe that this is an area where Ogiue has not only a lot of experience, but a lot of history, while also showing how far Ogiue has come from her previous self.

I really like how the anime took the scene of Sue mimicking Rei from Fist of the North Star from the manga and added the after-images and laser lines from Fist of the North Star‘s anime. Basically, the anime adaptation of Genshiken enhanced its portrayal of a manga scene parodying a famous manga by utilizing the iconic effects from that famous manga’s own adaptation. The Crunchyroll subs do not make the reference obvious: Sue says, “Nanto Kyuukyoku Ougi!” and likely the translator either misheard or didn’t even hear the “Nanto” part.

One of the categories in the Fujoshi Files is “Fujoshi Level,” which is a not-so-serious way of describing just how polluted the mind of a particular character can be. While I actually don’t create specific rankings and try to give just a general impression in them, here you could see an obvious hierarchy: Kaminaga is off the deep end, Ogiue is right behind her along with Hato, and Konno and Fuji are definitely not as powerful. It makes me want to perhaps write up a full Fujoshi/Fudanshi Tier List one of these days.