Category Archives: fujoshi

The Fujoshi Files 124: Ero-hon G-Man

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Name: Ero-hon G-Man (エロ本Gメン)
Alias: G-Man (Gメン), Ero Books Government Man, Class President (委員長)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Denkigai no Honya-san

Information:
This Japanese government agent inspects erotic books in order to find inappropriate content. However, as a fujoshi, she herself is a fan of erotic materials and reads them in her off-hours. She treats her job not so much as a form of censorship but rather a form of protection for ero manga, preferring that they be labeled correctly in order to reach their desired audiences, while being appropriate enough that they don’t get removed outright: at one point she dressed up as Santa Claus to distribute orphaned erotic comics.

The Ero-hon G-Man has known the employee at Comic Umanohone famous for his excellent recommendations, nicknamed “Sommelier,” since they were little. Sommelier introduced her to the world of erotic books, forging a life-long friendship and a mutual attraction. As a child, she was a fan of the badminton-themed manga  The Prince of the Shuttlecock.

Fujoshi Level:
She occasionally attends Sommelier’s manga recommendation evenings, and is notorious for being very specific in her interests in yaoi manga. At the same time, her tastes are fairly broad including both pretty boys and muscley men.

The Fujoshi Files 123: Choco Donuts

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Name: Choco Donuts (チョコドーナツ)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Married
Origin: Inaka no Sengyou no Shufu-chan

Information:
Choco Donuts is a “shufu,” a fujoshi wife, who moved to the Japanese countryside after getting married. Living in “S Prefecture,” she must not only hide her yaoi-loving side from the innocent old ladies who reside there, but must also deal with the fact that it is more difficult to obtain BL works compared to more densely populated regions. Originally becoming an otaku in high school, Choco Donuts would become a complete BL fan in college. She is also a fan of the manga series Junjou Maron, which features a complex love web including a hero, a rival, the hero’s father, and even a horse.

Fujoshi Level:
Choco Donuts traveled to four different bookstores in S Prefecture just to find the latest volume of Junjou Maron.

The Fujoshi Files 122: Muryou

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Name: Muryou (無量)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: N/A
Origin: Fudanshifull!

Information:
A member of the middle school Kentei Academy manga club along, Muryou is friends with the club’s president. Muryou is a fan of the Tentel x Mikoto pairing from Omakase Tentel, though she can be very shy and embarrassed about it, especially around guys, whom she believes would only mock her.

Fujoshi Level:
While definitely a fujoshi, Muryou lacks experience at Comic Manga Market, which may indicate that she is fairly new to being a BL fan.

The Fujoshi Files 121: Buchou

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Name: N/A
Alias: President/Buchou (部長)
Relationship Status: N/A
Origin: Fudanshifull!

Information:
The president of the middle school Kentei Academy manga club after Matsumoto Senri, she is friends with Muryou and hopes to join Matsumoto’s high school manga club when it’s her time to graduate. She is a fan of the Tentel x Mikoto pairing from Omakase Tentel, as well as the pairing of Matsu x Kiyo, Matsumoto and his best friend, Kiyokawa Atsumu.

Fujoshi Level:
Although clearly a fujoshi, her inexperience navigating Comic Manga Market may indicate that she has not been one for very long, or at the very least has not attended very many doujin events.

A Flying Pussyfoot or Two: Genshiken II, Chapter 107

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Chapter 107 of Genshiken II mostly takes place on a train. Unlike Baccano!, there is no trail of dead bodies, thanks mostly to Yoshitake.

The crew is traveling to Nikkou, a popular domestic and foreign tourist destination, which happens to be located near Yajima’s hometown. As Kuchiki feels that his spotlight has been stolen by Madarame and the women who love him, Yoshitake placates his (somewhat justified) anger by playing with him various classic school trip games, like UNO UMO, at the same time she tries to encourage Madarame towards a romantic conclusion. Before arriving at Yajima’s place, Yoshitake reveals that she deliberately split off Kuchiki and Madarame into their own hotel room to keep boys and girls separate, except also intentionally failing to mention that Hato is considered one of the girls in this instance.

Genshiken can generally be considered something of an ensemble series, with a rough protagonist in each part. First it was Sasahara, next it was Ogiue, now it might be considered Hato. However, if you were to take just this chapter by itself, and define protagonist in the conventional sense as the character whose actions move the narrative forward, then Yoshitake is clearly the hero in this instance, setting the characters on their paths, or at least trying to do so. That, or she’s like Satan, purveyor of half-truths, hiding her ulterior motives by giving reasons that appeal to her targets’ senses. For Madarame, pushing him towards altruism by bringing closure to his harem woes and preventing any potential fractures in the club hide her simple desire to see her friends end up happy.

Not that I dislike Yoshitake, but rather, as Japanese blogger tamagomago once said, Yoshitake is very good at being the glue that holds a group together. Here she demonstrates that ability to full effect using her silver tongue, managing to set up two different groups that take on different dynamics depending on which guy is placed within them. Madarame surrounded by Angela, Keiko, and Sue is pretty self-explanatory, but as soon as he shifts over to Yoshitake, Yajima, and Hato, it becomes an opportunity to see how Hato and Madarame react to each other. At the same time, Kuchiki being with the other girls lets him somewhat fulfill his harem fantasy, if only in the most bare-bones manner.

Of course, the other characters get their own moments too. While Yoshitake is the one moving things about, it’s the others’ lives that are the concern. Angela makes her appearance after a long while, and in a few moments she gets tied directly into the developments of the previous chapters. Specifically, she has a duel of confidence with Keiko, which references the close call that Madarame had with her, and she gets her breasts fondled by Sue, who is still mad about Madarame’s comment about breast size. Despite being so far away, she still perhaps has a “chance.”

Another character makes her return in Mimasaka, Yajima’s old friend, only this time she has tiny hearts literally emanating from her being. Previously I had considered the possibility that her affection for Yajima might merely be platonic (or at least something like what Sue feels towards Ogiue), but this little detail changes things.  For one, it makes for a complex chain of romance where a girl likes another girl who likes a boy who dresses like a girl who likes a guy who recently had his heart broken and is currently popular with the ladies. We also get to see Yajima’s mother, who clearly resembles her. The chapter mentions something about genetics in terms of appearance, but I do find it interesting that Yajima’s mom is so much more cheerful than her daughter. Obviously their lives and circumstances are different, but it does make me a bit curious what her home life was like.

Ogiue literally took a backseat this chapter, staying out of the storm while on the train. One notable moment is that you can see her internal speech is still Tohoku-ben (Watashi wa zutto Sue to issho nandabeka…).

As for next chapter, the preview mentions that it’ll be centered around the Yajima household. I for one am curious when that Angela-centric chapter will happen. It’s really on a matter of when.

One last thing to mention: a new volume of Genshiken came out in Japan, and once again it comes with different store exclusives. This time, they’re Christmas-themed, and they feature Sue, Hato, and Angela, as well as a group shot.

The Fujoshi Files 120: Koujiro Frau

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Name: Furugoori, Kona (古郡こな)
Aliases: Koujiro Frau (神代フラウ), FRAUKOJIRO, Frau Bow (フラウ・ボゥ)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Robotics;Notes

Information:
Furugoori Kona, better known by her internet handle “Koujiro Frau,” is the genius hacker and programmer of the popular mecha battle game Kill-Ballad. A hikikomori who tends to use internet lingo in real life, Frau is also obsessed with yaoi and erotic games, and will make frequent mention of them in everyday conversation, provided she’s talking to anyone in the first place. She is also known for her distinct laugh: duhuhu.

Unbeknownst to most, Frau is also the daughter of the director of the giant robot anime Gunvarrel, though her mother mysteriously disappeared after the show was abruptly canceled. Though reluctant at first, Frau eventually becomes a part of the Tanegashima High School Robotics Club, where her expertise helps the club to not only create a second prototype of their life-size giant robot, but also aids them in unraveling the elaborate conspiracy responsible for her mother’s disappearance.

Fujoshi Level:
In addition to her constant playing of yaoi games, Frau also frequently exclaims her desire to see her male club mates go at it, with her continued ramblings giving increasingly elaborate detail along the way. Frau is not only a fujoshi, but also one with very little filter.

The Fujoshi Files 119: Saotome Haruna

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Name: Saotome, Haruna (早乙女ハルナ)
Alias: Paru (パル), Great Paru-sama (グレート・パル様 Fictrix Comica (漫画製造者)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Negima! Master Negi Magi

Information:
Originally a middle school student at Mahora Academy, Saotome Haruna is at that point already been working as a doujin artist under the pen name “Paru.” Though she shares a close friendship with her classmates Ayase Yue and Miyazaki Nodoka, she is originally unaware of the fact that her 10-year-old teacher, Negi Springfield, is actually a powerful magician because her friends are afraid that Haruna’s gossipy nature would reveal Negi’s secret to the world. After eventually finding out, she enters a magical contract with Negi (as do many of the girls in their class) and gains the ability to bring her drawings to life as golems (a magical artifact known as “Imperium Graphices”), also earning the title “Fictrix Comica.”

Haruna is a talented artist whose skills bring her much success in unusual ways. In one case while trapped in the magic world she introduces manga to their world and earns enough money to buy a large goldfish-shaped airship and names it after herself. In her adult life, she becomes one of the most popular and best-selling BL manga creators ever, her work enjoyed by both magic and non-magic users alike.

 

Fujoshi Level:
In addition to becoming a best-selling BL manga artist, Haruna also regularly attends doujin events as both an artist and a customer.

Shoujo Face, Bishoujo Body

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I’ve been reading one of Crunchyroll’s latest manga, Watashi ga Motete Dousunda (aka Kiss Him, Not Me) by Junko, which is premised around a fujoshi who loses a ton of weight after her favorite anime character dies and so inadvertently gives herself a makeover that attracts all the guys. Given the idea that the main character Serinuma Kae is supposed to be absolutely gorgeous, I find it interesting how this is expressed, because it’s somewhat unconventional for shoujo manga.

When looking at characters in manga, one can generally get a sense of who the artwork is trying to attract based on how characters’ sexual features are drawn. In manga for girls, even when a character is supposed to have large breasts, they tend not to really stand out compared to how they’re portrayed in boys’ manga. This is quite noticeable, for example, when looking at the difference between how the character Maya looks in the Survival Game Club anime vs. the manga. Another example is when a work depicts its female characters wearing unrealistic shirts that look practically painted on. You rarely if ever see this in a shoujo series.

Kae has what I would call a face that is fairly typical for beauty standards in shoujo manga, but her body is closer to what you would find in a bishoujo series, that is to say a manga for guys all about attractive ladies such as Love Hina, making her a hybrid of sorts between the two styles. Moreover, while the clothing isn’t so unrealistic so as to basically be super spandex, there are times when Kae’s figure is accentuated and her clothing clings to her chest. Again, this would not be so surprising to me if it were in a series that ran in, say, Dengeki Daioh, but Watashi ga Motete Dousunda is definitely a shoujo series, as evidenced by the fact that so much effort is made to portray the guys themselves as various degrees of angst, handsomeness, and dream-boatitude.

Watashi ga Motete Dousunda is not the only series to do this, though maybe there’s something to be said (about me or manga more generally) about the fact that the first example that immediately came to mind was another fujoshi-themed manga, Mousou Shoujo Otakukei (aka Fujoshi Rumi) by Konjoh Natsumi. Like Watashi ga Motete Dousunda, Konjoh’s series portrays its guys as tall, attractive fellows in that way you’d more typically see out of shoujo manga, but the girls, especially the character Matsui Youko, are given a kind of physical attractiveness that is more in line with guy-oriented stuff.

In his introduction to his book The Moe Manifesto (a collection of industry, scholar, and fan interviews about the subject), Patrick Galbraith makes mention of how Azuma Hideo, the “father of lolicon,” created his cute girl characters by combining the expressiveness of shoujo characters with the bodies more in the style of manga pioneer Tezuka Osamu. It could be said that Watashi ga Motete Dousunda is going for a similar effect, though of course calling it lolicon wouldn’t quite be accurate, even if one were to take into account how the definition of that term has changed over time, as it seems to be less about the intersection between youth and adulthood, and more about expressing a new type of ideal.

The Fujoshi Files 118: Kanamori Hakata

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Name: Kanamori, Hakata (金森 羽片)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Ebiten: Ebisugawa Public High School Astronomical Club

Information:
Kanamori Hakata is a high school student and a member of Ebisugawa Public High School’s “Tenmonbu,” or “Astronomical Club.” A cosplayer in addition to being a fujoshi, she is often teased and sexually harrassed by the club’s president, Todayama Kyouko. Kanamori is also extremely clumsy, and is a fan of a variety of series, including Saint Seiya.

Fujoshi Level:
Hakata is regularly seen carrying around yaoi doujinshi even in class.

The Fujoshi Files 117: Sakuraba Midori

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Name: Sakuraba, Midori (桜庭緑)
Alias: N/A
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Gakuen Polizi

Information:
Sakuraba Midori is a student at Hanagaki All-Girls’ High School and a long-time member of the undercover inter-school student police force “Gakuen Polizi.” Having transferred from another school, Sakuraba is paired up with a new agent named Sasami Aoba. Though often exasperated with Sasami’s enthusiasm and rookie mistakes, the two work to solve various issues pertaining to the student body. Cool and reticent, Sakuraba is also a member of the manga club and often draws BL manga in her spare time, though she tries to keep it a secret from others.

Fujoshi Level:
Sakuraba’s manga appears to be solely dedicated to yaoi. Though she argues that BL manga is just a hobby for her, she also devoted a considerable amount of attention to it.