Sexualized Saturdays: Girl-Bashing in Yaoi Fics

Disclaimer: Hello, Ace here! Tsunderin and I wrote this post about fanfiction a while back, and for our content we like to pull quotes to help strengthen the arguments we make. Previously, we named both the authors and the fanfics in question that we used for the sake of honesty. We wholeheartedly believe that when something is published, it is subject to criticism. However, it should be noted that fanfiction writers are often young, and that fanfiction is done solely for fun. Critiquing a fanfic is not the same as critiquing a published novel. As such, I left out links in order to discourage our readers from going to those people’s pages—not because we believe ourselves exempt from criticism or backlash or that we don’t want the original authors to know what we say about them, but because we want to discourage any form of harassment against those authors.

Recently, we had a reader go to the site of one our our example authors and leave them a review. We are sure that this person was well intentioned, but this ended up being an upsetting experience for the original author and an eye-opening experience for us. The names of authors and fanfic titles have now been removed from this post as a result and we send our deepest apologies to the original authors.

This blog currently has over 3000 entries on it, and I am certain that we have other posts I’ve forgotten about that also give negative critiques on fanfiction work. We absolutely discourage everyone from going to pages of individual fan authors. Critiquing can be harsh, and having a negative review on top of finding out your years-old fic was used as an example for internalized misogyny on another website can easily feel like an attack. For now, this post is remaining up, although it is possible it might be removed in the near future. We apologize to everyone we have hurt with our insensitive words and will try to do better in the future.

MadameAce: I love fanfiction. Don’t you? Fanfiction has created a wonderful community where people can share their interpretations of a story. Share how they perceive the characters. Offer new insights into the narrative. Represent sexualities that don’t otherwise get represented. Fanfiction is a realm where people who are otherwise oppressed can come out freely through pre-written characters. There are very few places more sexually liberated than fanfiction. Fanfiction is wonderful.

Unless of course, you’re a female character in a typical yaoi or slash story.

Manga Mondays: Waving the White Flag of Love

Good day, readers! All you USA-ers, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and to everyone else I hope November treated you well. Jumping back into the game here after a somewhat hectic holiday I come bringing a review of one of my favorite doijins I own. If you didn’t catch my last doujin review and have no idea what I’m talking about, take a look over here at my short explanation of the art form.

Our story this week comes from one of the larger fandoms on the internet at this time, Himaruya Hidekazu’s Hetalia. Depending on the people you hear from, this is either the most horrible/annoying/EVIIIIL fandom ever or a good one full of wonderful people. Given the mercurial state of all fandoms, I tend to look at it from a person-by-person account, but I digress. If unfamiliar with the series it can be summed up rather easily: personified countries have crazy hijinks during World War 2 (and sometimes other time periods). Given the sensitive nature of this topic, there are times that the show misses its mark and with the release of the dub (and the dumb direction they took it in) these issues have been inflamed by a wide margin. However, these issues are usually dodged in the doujin due to the very nature of the artform. Today we look at Nanka-Izuno-Uenohou (Mumu)’s I Am Yours!.

This story focuses on the Axis powers (Germany, Japan, and North Italy) as Japan tries to mediate Italy’s one complaint about his lover, Germany. In the series it is strongly hinted that Germany has a thing for Italy stemming from his childhood, back when he was the Holy Roman Empire, and having a crush on the much more innocent, adorable Italy. As with my last review, this pairing is exceedingly popular and almost canon to the point it hurts. Drawing from the source material, there is also an abundance of ways this relationship can play out in a realistic manner. So, how does Mumu do?

Surprisingly well! It is a fear of mine that when writing about a pairing that has such a power differential already (Germany is a BAMF, Italy is…a

tomato box fairy) the quickly eroding slippery slope into “stereotypical yaoi” land will always be taken because it’s easy and it works. However, in this case Mumu shows the complexity of not only the characters, but the issues in their relationship as well. Germany is not only a badass, he’s a badass that has problems admitting his feelings out loud because, damn it, they’re embarrassing and Italy should already know. On the reverse side, Italy is not only a silly man that acts in hyperbolic tears, he is also a man who just wants to hear once how much he is treasured by the man he loves and is afraid that he may never hear it. Japan also plays his role as the mediator wonderfully. He is quiet and patient, but not afraid to dish out some stern words when Germany is about to give up all together. The friendship between the three of them is shown so well in such a short amount of pages: it is truly an impressive feat.

As bland as the storyline seems (“I just want him to say he loooooves me!!!”), it really is a lot more interesting when shown through these characters. The story is short so the tension can rise, expressing what really is at stake if Germany cannot admit his own weaknesses—his relationship with not only Italy but Japan too, as well as losing respect for himself. It’s not complex, but the characters make it complex. Or as complex as one can get in 13 pages.

Since I love the story so much, I really want to love the art too. And I do, I just wish there was more. Again we have the background problem: background range from gradients to just plain white save for one panel with an actual wall and hallway. There are also no real objects in the setting either. However, the characters look good for the most part and their expressions are wonderful. I have a feeling that Mumu was trying to bring

attention to the characters and their expressive postures, but in leaving everything else out it creates a void so it almost makes it seem like this is happening in some sort of afterlife scenario. Juxtaposing the comfort of a friend’s house to the emptiness of a wish unfulfilled would have added another interesting layer to this drama sandwich, but I’ll take comfort in knowing that the resolution happens in a situation like that.

I would recommend this doujin simply on how well Mumu gets the characters and expands them into more complete roles. Also, on how they treat the relationship in a respectful, realistic manner rather than relying on the old stand-by stereotypes.

Manga Mondays: Doujin 101 & Beauty is the Beast

Today we’re going to explore the mystical realm of doujins. It’s a lot to absorb but stick with me! Being an anime fan for a vast majority of my life, I have experienced many things. I’ve seen really awful shock comics like Mai-chan’s Everyday Life. Silently observed ship (relationship) wars over characters so fierce they might have burned a hole in the internet itself. And, of course, I have seen really soul-wrenchingly bad translations and usages of Japanese. Not everyone wishes to take the language and that’s cool but for the love of god, if you don’t know what it means, don’t use it. And, above all else, don’t try to translate things.