Yeowie!... oh, no... I meant Yaoi!

[alexpgp]

LJ friend greymaiden asks:

Thoughts on Yaoi? This I gotta see.

And so...

I should remark, at the outset of this essay, that I posted the original text of the "meme theme" without editing it, or imposing conditions, so as not to dilute its impact.

As it happens, prior to looking up the definition of yaoi on Wikipedia I had no idea what it was, and had this been that party game where one guesses or makes up a definition for an exotic-sounding word, I would have come up with something like "of, or pertaining to a subordinate grouping of indigenous Polynesian peoples, distantly related to the Maori of New Zealand."

My guess would have traveled wide of the mark, it would appear.

As it turns out, despite being in need of attention from a subject matter expert, the Wikipedia article provides the following definition, which for our purposes I will assume to be accurate:

Yaoi (やおい) is a publishing genre which focuses on male/male relationships and is marketed at females.

Having had no idea that such a niche existed, I can honestly state that, up to sitting down to write this post, I've never had any thoughts about yaoi. Moreover, the very first thing that crosses my mind upon learning about it is utter admiration for the kind of marketing mentality that is required to recognize such a market and then exploit it!

"Hey, Boss!"

"Yeah, whatcha want Nakamura?"

"You know that awful story we got the other day, about the two guys...?"

"Yeah," laughs the boss, "what a load of junk!" Then regaining his composure, he snaps, "What about it?"

"Well, I took the liberty of taking the manuscript home after work on Saturday, to have something to line my parakeet cage with, and my girlfriend got hold of it," Nakamura paused to bow in apology.

The boss grunted in dismissal of this violation of company policy, "And...?"

"Well, she sits down and doesn't pay any attention to me the rest of the night until she puts down the last page and then asks me if there is any more to the story," says Nakamura, "and then she disappeared somewhere yesterday morning, after which I start getting calls last night from all her friends asking the same question."

"Nakamura," said the boss, his eyes lighting up, "I think we've stumbled across something here!"

Yeah, I know. It's a little far-fetched.

Then again, I suppose the same thing could be said for the phenomenon of manga and anime in general. As an indirect result of my daughter's former job with a major U.S. publisher of anime, I've no doubt seen more of the genre - and read more manga - than some overwhelming portion of Americans, so when I am told that most consumers of the stuff are actually past the age of puberty, my brow furrows with puzzlement.

Why? Because with some few exceptions, such as Ghost in the Machine and the Claymore series, there seems to me to be not enough plot in the stories to support the weight of even one angel dancing on top of it. So is the point, then, to leer at animated images of prepubescent girls wearing school uniforms? I mean, by comparison, the adventures of Wonder Woman make sense.

Of the titles that are unmistakably aimed at a crowd that seeks sexual titillation in its animated escape (here I have in mind the likes of Crying Freeman), well... my puzzlement grows exponentially. Animated nudity? Animated sex? Bo-ring!

As far as yaoi is concerned, I think I may have read one volume of manga in this category, the title of which escapes me, where one of the main characters is a police officer, if memory serves. There didn't seem to be much happening in the story - at least I don't remember anything of it - but I am left with the impression that some kind of effort was made to create a sexual tension between him and his sidekick. Perhaps that tension was released, somehow, in subsequent volumes, I don't know.

Moreover - and this summarizes my views on the subject - I don't actually care.

Cheers...