What is up, ya’ll? I am back on the scene less than 24 hours la
First off, if you haven’t read Bleach Chapter 318, DO SO! I mean if you dont mind your world rocked from spoliers. Gin Ichimaru is now officially FUCKING BAD ASS:
I am looking forward to him taking on Hitsugaya or (Be still...wait for it...) Yoruichi. Maybe even one of the Vizards. With that being said, I never thought I was going to do this but man after the minger battle that Zach is going through I have to say something.
YAOI IS FUCKING LAME.
I am not homophobic, if there is anyone more firmly in the closet I would like to meet said person. However, yaoi fans are the problem and they need to just stop acting like it is BETTER than other anime/manga and realize it is just an OPTION. It sucks (EEEEEWWWW....innuendo) just as much at other genres and has its perks....I guess. For those of you who are unfamiliar with yaoi, it is a genre of manga/anime about the emotional, romantic or (Oy vey) sexual storyline between male characters. Now I am not discriminating against yaoi in any way. I think to each their own whether it comes to your sexual orientation or your manga. I for one am a fan of shonen AND shojo (Look it up) so I try to keep an open mind about most genres. Hell, I listen to showtunes for Jebus’ sake. Nothing is more gay than that…at least according to stupid females and bros.
However, my issue with yaoi after listening to Zach’s issues with yaoi fans getting bees in their asses because people question not that they like it but WHY they like it I felt it was time to explain some shit. So now, it is time to bring something back like that old school rap. Speaking of old school rap:
Word. Back to the rant!
Today’s Topic: Reasons Why Yaoi Fans Need To Stop.
By the way, the reason I am not doing five reasons is that….there aren’t that many reasons. It kind of explains itself. And away we go!
Reason #1: Yaoi Fans Need To Stop Because….You Want To Be Taboo.
Follow me on this one. You see, it is a well known fact that people want to be out of the norm on somethings. Hell, I was into anime when all people thought about anime was tentacle porn. Remember the days when all the anime was next to the porn and the selection on non-pornographic anime was narrowed down to Akira, Macross, Robot Carnival and Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind? I do, and needless to say it SUCKED ASS. Now you see anime in everything from TV commercials to Madonna videos so it is no longer something that is exclusive to a certain set of people. So inside anime there were genres that were segmented to a certain set of fans. You have shounen-ai (Gravitation, which had a bomb ass soundtrack) and shojo (Fushigi Yūgi is a good example…as is SUPPOSEDLY Inuyasha. Sorry, bad memories) for must teenage aged fans while yaoi and yuri are for the adult crowd. Then you have hentai which is a different rant altogether but I will touch on that some.
After talking to anime fans at cons and the comic book/anime stores around Colorado I hear the exact same dialog about yaoi (And to their defense, yuri as well):
• “Yaoi is different than regular anime!”
• “The characters are deeper in yaoi!”
• “Yaoi has better writing and plots than most anime!”
• “It’s taboo!”
Hmm, those seem to be rather valid arguments. However, lets weigh this all together. Yaoi is no longer taboo or different than any other series out there. Now proir to, when homosexual themes were rarely seen in anime, I could see that statement as being true and someone wanting to see something different. Hell, I kind of got tired of giant robots and ninjas which is why I grasped to Ranma ½, El-Hazard (VERY underrated…if not totally confusing) and Ah! My Goddess like I did. The fact is that the most POPULAR anime series have elements of yaoi in them, stopping just short of actual sex because that would mean you couldn’t get it on Cartoon Network, even Adult Swim. Although with some of the stuff I have seen on Crayon Shin-Chan…maybe hardcore gay sex is the next logical step. Think about it, how many anime do you know of that either have implied or flat out mentioned yaoi overtones, just not the sexually explicit aspect of it?
• Bleach (Ichigo & Renji, Aizen & Gin)
• Naruto (Naruto & Sasuke…who are full-blown boyfriend and boyfriend at this point)
• Air Gear (Itsuki & Akito/Agito)
• Fushigi Yūgi (Tamahome & Kagato)
• Gravitation (Boy love abound!)
• Death Note (A reach, but everyone at Borders said L & Light had sexual tension. Riiight)
Therefore, much like the “metro sexual” craze made it “cool” to be gay, the mainstream anime is doing the same thing for yaoi. It is no longer taboo; it is actually accepted and in the case of Naruto encouraged. If them getting together will advance the manga I am all for it because the story is getting BORING. As for characters, I only have experience with one even remotely yaoi show/manga and that was Loveless. The characters in Loveless (from what I got out of the one episode I saw) were just like any other character in any other anime in terms of reluctant to accept their power/responsibility and totally angst ridden. The only difference is that rather than a female love interest, there was a male one. Oh gee, having a male love interest completely changes the story! No, it doesn’t. You make Ichigo a female and Bleach really doesn’t chance. The social elements will (The love of Orihime becomes yuri) but aside from that the character can still be just as deep without sexually explicit content of the man on man (or female on female) variety.
Final Analysis: Yaoi isn’t taboo anymore because homosexuality is very visible in anime as a whole. As a form of ENTERTAINMENT, you can get your male/male dynamic from the mainstream unless you are in it solely for the sexual content. Which is cool, but admit it rather than acting like watching two animated Japanese men in a sexual situation is “deep” or “better than regular anime.”
Reason #2: Yaoi Fans Need To Stop Because….It’s NOT Different Than Anime.
Now this one was tough to accept because I say the same about anime as a whole. From older men dating/marrying WAY YOUNGER women to the ridiculous amount of fan service (Matsumodo’s breasts are like sentient beings) I believe it gets rather pointless sometimes. With that being said, I am not a fan of hentai, which I believe goes WAY too far with the pedophilia…although in Japan the legal age for sex is…conception so it makes sense. From what I saw about Loveless, there was an age difference between the main characters that was rather significant. Now we see that in “straight” anime all the time (Sailor Moon) and I am not going to judge heterosexual pedophilia against homosexual pedophilia because both are bad. I want to use one of my favorite characters as an example. Toushiro Hitsugaya from Bleach is (VISUALLY) a young man and perceived to be a child of some sort, maybe 11-14 range depending on how you want to slice it. However, I have seen both hentai pictures of him with Matsumodo and yaoi pictures with Gin Ichimaru. Both are conceivably wrong but yaoi fans at the Borders DEFENDED the Gin pictures and called the Matsumodo pictures disgusting. News flash, people…
BOTH ARE FUCKING NASTY.
Now that is an extreme case, but the sentiment is the same. Just because it is yaoi doesn’t make it any better (or worse) than its non-yaoi anime counterpart. Saying that a plotline or a character is better just because it is a male/male dynamic is like saying that the White remakes of Black songs in the 50’s were better because White people redid them. Or vice versa in Diddy’s case but he takes hits from the 80’s and makes them sound so crazy. Yaoi is a genre of anime much like sentai is a genre of anime (And live action TV. For those of you that DON’T know what that means…
Man, I wish I could find the “Red Ranger Forever” episode of Power Rangers. That was the greatest episode ever. Anyway, yaoi is a genre of anime that isn’t any better or worse than any other sub-set. My issue is when they say “Well if you don’t like it I don’t care and something is wrong with you because you are homophobic! Don’t Judge me!” It isn’t about judging yaoi or judging you. It is about choice. I choose not to watch yaoi because from what I have seen, I am not a fan. I don’t watch anime for sexual content, I watch it for entertainment (Which porn is, but not that kind of entertainment so to speak) and if you read/watch yaoi for the same then that is fine. Call it what it is. With that being said, I understand why some people may have preconceived notions about anime and I am prepared for that. However, my reasons for watching anime are clearly defined yet in my experience I have yet to meet someone that has given me a clear answer of why they like yaoi for the male/male dynamic but they are not gay.
Now watching yuri doesn’t make you a lesbian and watching shojo or hentai doesn’t make you straight. However, yaoi is almost solely based on the aspect of male/male relationships and interactions so in essence it would be considered a “gay” medium. Same with yuri and a female/female dynamic. However, just watching an anime with a male couple or a female couple doesn’t make you gay as much as watching an anime with a male/female couple doesn’t make you straight. However, like I mentioned before: yaoi at its core is based of homosexual themes and since homosexual themes are all over anime if you go to yaoi for your fix then that is okay, but just admit that you like dude on dude lovin.
Now people will say that I am being homophobic which is laughable because no one is gayer than I. I make George Michael look butch. I kid, I am actually straight and I am not a fan of the yaoi or the yuri I have seen. If you are that is fine but just because you like it doesn’t mean I have to like it or I have to embrace your enjoyment of it because from what I have seen the genres aren’t entertaining. Hell, homosexual relationships are all over the comic book and anime world to the point that if you have a sub-set genre it is specifically for a market….at least that’s how I see it logically. Those of you that say that regular mediums don’t include gay themes are incorrect. Think about this: there is currently a comic book called The Authority that I have been reading for over 5 years. The leader of the team (Apollo) and one of its strongest and most popular members (Midnighter) are a couple and they are both men. Quite simply, they are boyfriend and boyfriend. Not only are they a gay couple, THEY HAVE AN ADOPTED CHILD TOGETHER! How is THAT for progressive? If male/male interaction is what you are looking for in a storyline, it is already in popular comics and manga (See Sasuke and Naruto. C’mon, they are so gay!) so to read yaoi for the reason that the themes are non-existent in other books is false. Therefore, you are either reading it because you are gay or because you want to be edgy.
In the end, I honestly believe to each their own within the guidelines of the law. That being said, I understand that not everyone (See: NO ONE) likes what I like and I don’t see them as being close-minded as much as I say “well, you are missing out” because in my opinion they are. I don’t see them as being judgmental or insensitive because they like things that I may not. Just make sure that if you like something that is seen as unpopular or in some cases pointless (Like I feel about most if not all yaoi & yuri) that you have a good reason why if you want to challenge others about why they DON’T feel you should constantly talk about how great and different it is. When it isn’t.
That is all for now. I will try to be back up on Thursday but no guarantees because I am going out drinking a bit tomorrow. New job fools! Until next time stay up. And no dudes settling down! Unless it is Bi or Zac Efron and it is with me.
Chachi Out!
