Tag Archives: fudanshism

The Limits of the Fujoshi Files

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In 2008, I had an idea: archive every fujoshi character I could possibly find. At the time, it seemed like an achievable task. Fujoshi characters were around but fairly rare, especially compared to the “girl otaku” that tended to share the same interests as the guys. However, a lot can change in eight years, and over this period the position of the “fujoshi character” has changed tremendously, leading me to think about all of the limitations imposed on the Fujoshi Files as they currently exist.

First, while the 2007-2009 period featured a kind of “fujoshi boom” as the term came into prominence, if you look at the fujoshi character today she’s basically been kneaded into anime and manga as a whole. The archetype doesn’t exist in its own universe, and she’ll appear in works more disconnected from the realm of hardcore fandoms. I mean, a yuri school detective comedy? A weird political satire light novel?

Where once the Izumi Konata-style female otaku was taken as the standard, now the de facto girl fan in anime and manga is the fujoshi. They’re basically everywhere, and it can be hard to keep up with all of them, which is why I’ve slowed down the pace a bit. Perhaps this means I should be doing more for the Fujoshi Files than ever before (and believe me, I’m still on the look-out), but I also want to make sure that the blog remains diverse thematically, as I think that’s one of its strengths. In other words, I don’t have the time to tackle every single work with fujoshi characters, but I wish I did.

Of course, if you find any fujoshi not currently on the list, by all means please leave a comment.

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Second, the number of fudanshi (rotten boy) characters steadily increases. Back when Genshiken Nidaime first came out, I was faced with a decision: do I include Hato in the Fujoshi Files? Ultimately, my decision was to not give him an entry because he identifies as male, and the list is for female characters. Then I found out about the series Fudanshism. A brand new series, Fudanshi Koukou Seikatsu, featured prominently in the summer season. Now the fudanshi is in the position the fujoshi once was, and to ignore them seems something of an issue.

Third, these Fujoshi File profiles I’ve written are very basic, and tend to be in-universe, but there are are often interesting aspects to these characters, like how they’re utilized in terms of narrative, elements of their designs, etc. Not including these factors leaves the Fujoshi Files without any real analytical teeth, though I’m not sure if that should change.

So I’m left with a few questions.

Should the Fujoshi Files branch off into a “Fudanshi Files?”

Should the Fujoshi Files go from being a series of small blog posts here to an entire Wikia?

Has the Fujoshi Files served its purpose already, in that it’s already over 150 characters strong?

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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.

The Fujoshi Files 98: Takaide

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Name: Takaide (高出)
Alias: Mikoten Trio (みこてんトリオ, Manken Three (漫研三人組)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Fudanshism: Fudanshi Shugi na Seikatsu

Information:
Takaide is a teenage student at Kentei Academy, who along with her closest friends Azumi and Nakajima comprise the Mikoto x Tentel pairing faction of the school’s manga club. This puts her in friendly contention with the Ten x Miko fans. Like her friends, she also pairs manga club president Matsumoto Atsumu with his best friend Kiyokawa Atsumu, in that order. Takaide is friends or at least acquaintances with Matsumoto Setsuna.

Takaide watches Omakase Tentel every week with Azumi and Nakajima in the hopes of seeing Miko x Ten win out over Ten x Miko. In addition to drawing and publishing Miko x Ten doujinshi, Takaide is also into construction tool personification yaoi, an interest she shares with Setsuna.

Fujoshi Level:
On a trip in Osaka, Takaide laments the fact that Miko x Ten is much more popular there, and wishes that she would be able to live there someday.

The Fujoshi Files 97: Nakajima

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Name: Azumi (あずみ)
Alias: Nakajii (なかじー）, Mikoten Trio (みこてんトリオ, Manken Three (漫研三人組)
Relationship Status: Dating
Origin: Fudanshism: Fudanshi Shugi na Seikatsu

Information:
Nakajima is a teenage student at Kentei Academy, and of the three primary members of the Miko x Ten faction of her manga club, or the group which supports the pairing of Omakase Tentel mascot characters Mikoto x Tentel, the opposite of Ten x Miko. Liker her best friends Azumi and Takaide, she also pairs the manga club president Matsumoto Atsumu with his best friend Kiyokawa Atsumu, in that order. Nakajima is also friends with amateur voice actor Ookubo, who eventually becomes her boyfriend.

Along with Azumi and Takaide, Nakajima watches Omakase Tentel every week to see if Miko x Ten will prevail over Ten x Miko. She also draws and publishes Miko x Ten doujinshi with her two friends.

Fujoshi Level:
Nakajima’s devotion to Miko x Ten is about the clearest indicator of how rotten she is.

The Fujoshi Files 96: Azumi

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Name: Azumi (あずみ)
Alias: Azumin (あずみん）, Mikoten Trio (みこてんトリオ, Manken Three (漫研三人組)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Fudanshism: Fudanshi Shugi na Seikatsu

Information:
Azumi is a teenager attending Kentei Academy and a member of the school’s manga club. She is the de facto leader of the Miko x Ten faction in the club, or the group which prefers the pairing of Omakase Tentel mascot characters Mikoto x Tentel, the opposite of Ten x Miko. Similarly, she pairs the manga club president Matsumoto Atsumu with his best friend Kiyokawa Atsumu in specifically that order, the opposite of fellow fujoshi Konishi Nozomi.

Azumi and her best friends Nakajima and Takaide typically gather every week to watch the newest episode of Omakase Tentel, looking for Miko x Ten moments that they can use, as well as watching to see if Miko x Ten prevails over Ten x Miko that episode. Azumi also draws.

Fujoshi Level:
Little is known about Azumi’s fujocity, other than that she actively pursues Miko x Ten along with her friends.

The Fujoshi Files 91: Kawashima Moko

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Name: Kawashima, Moko (川島もこ)
Alias: Gojappe (ゴジャッペ)
Relationship Status: N/A
Origin: Fudanshism: Fudanshi Shugi na Seikatsu

Information:
Kawashima Moko is a worker at an Akihabara maid cafe with a love of frilly and gothic lolita clothing, though is at first unsure of wearing the latter. Originally, a fan of the doujin circle Gojappe, she eventually ends up becoming a part of the circle, helping at every convention to sell their doujinshi. Though at first unaware of the fact that the fujoshi known as “Amane” is a guy, she learns the truth as a result of helping Gojappe.

Moko is a regular attendee of Comic Manga Market, and is a fan of the anime Omakase Tentel, particularly the pairing of Tentel x Mikoto, or Ten x Miko.

Fujoshi Level:
The exact degree to which Moko is a fujoshi is not known, but it is clear given her interest in Gojappe that she definitely is one.

The Fujoshi Files 90: Matsumoto Setsuna

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Name: Matsumoto, Setsuna (松本刹那)
Alias: Macky (まっきい）, Kimouto (キモウト)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Fudanshism: Fudanshi Shugi na Seikatsu

Information:
Matsumoto Setsuna is the younger twin sister of Kentei Academy’s  manga club president, Matsumoto Senri. Extremely similar in appearance, the two share what can be best described as a sportingly antagonistic sibling relationship, where Setsuna mockingly refers to her older brother as “onii-chama” while Senri has labeled his sister “Kimouto” (disgusting little sister). Originally attending a different school from her brother, at the start of high school she also begins to attend Kentei. She is able to deduce on her own the fact that gothic lolita fujoshi “Amane” is actually her brother’s male classmate, Miyano Amata.

Setsuna is friends with a fair number of fujoshi, such as Gen’ei Ryou (though primarily online and through mahjong), and the manga club’s Takaide. Unlike many of her peers, she enjoys but is not maniacal about Omakase Tentel, and is far more interested in titles such as Hameai and the genre of construction tool personification yaoi, for example Hammer on Nail action. She can often be seen giving a wry smile while saying, “Aha.”

Fujoshi Level:
Not above pairing her own brother with other people (though doing it partly because she knows it gets under his skin), Setsuna’s facial expressions belie the fact that the gears are constantly turning in her head to turn anything and everything into a BL situation. One example is when she becomes fixated on a pen and its cap, with the pen being the seme.

The Fujoshi Files 80: Rittoku Kanae

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Name: Rittoku, Kanae (六徳カナエ)
Alias: Kana (カナ）, Ankoku Miko (暗黒皇子), Anko Kumiko (あんこくみこ)
Relationship Status: Complicated
Origin: Fudanshism: Fudanshi Shugi na Seikatsu

Information:
Rittoku Kanae is a teenager attending Kentei Academy with a love for cosplaying as men, gothic lolita fashion, and visual kei. Believing that her developing figure prevents her from being the ideal image of a girl (something she derives from visual kei), Kanae tends to minimize the appearance of her very large breasts through the use of wraps and loose clothing. It is Kanae’s experience in this regard that allows her to immediately notice that the gothic lolita fujoshi “Amane” is actually a boy. Despite the fact that she harbors feelings for not only Amane but Amane’s true self (fellow classmate Miyano Amata), she does not realize the two are the same for a very long time.

Kanae’s hobby is to compose dark poetry on her website under the pen name Ankoku Miko, “priestess of darkness.” Her favorite band is Beni Kagerou, a two-man band featuring male crossplayers. She is also a fan of the anime Omakase Tentel, though not to the extent of her friends and acquaintances.

Fujoshi Level:
Rittoku is not an extreme fujoshi, as her other hobbies seem to hold higher priority in her life. On Miyano Tamae’s fujoshi rating system, she is a “Visual Kei (Bangya) Fujoshi” with a Delusion Power level of 2500 and an Economic Power of 200.

The Fujoshi Files 79: Morikawa Rion

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Name: Morikawa, Rion (森川璃音)
Alias: Sohora (そほら), Gojappe (ゴジャッペ)
Relationship Status: Single
Origin: Fudanshism: Fudanshi Shugi na Seikatsu

Information:
Morikawa Rion is a school nurse at Kentei Academy who, unbeknownst to her fellow stadd and even the otaku in the student body, is a famed BL doujinshi author. Better known as “Sohora” to all of her fans, she is the founder of the popular Ten x Miko circle Gojappe, and is a regular attendee of Comic Manga Market. It is with her direct help that Miyano Amata, brother of fellow Gojappe member Miyano Tamae, initially transforms into the gothic lolita “girl” Amane in order to work the desk at Comic Manga Market.

Whether as a nurse or as a doujin artist, Sohora is adept at caring for others and listening to their problems. She is a fan of the magical girl series Omakase Tentel, and also has a thing for seemingly opposite genres, the Salaryman and the shota. In her mid-20s, she is also the oldest fujoshi in and around Kentei Academy.

Fujoshi Level:
When Morikawa once found herself with a seemingly insurmountable writer’s block, she was able to use a simple experience talking to a couple of the students at Kentei Academy to overcome it. Tamae’s ranking system has her as a “Closet Fujoshi,” whose Delusion Power is at a somewhat low 700, but is bolstered by an extremely high Economic Power of 5000.