Unless I’m missing something the “essay” is either a 4 page omake manga about the author’s experience walking around town without a bra on… Which precedes ch 9-10. Really pointless
Right… Tho it’s sometimes used affectionately by fans (ex Astolfo from Fate)… One thing I’ve been wondering - to what extent do trap & オカマ match/differ? Like are they synonyms, or is it similar but different?
I haven’t read it yet, but have seen reviews that say it does great on the trans representation, and terribly on the romance
I have to do a short trip for work this week, so I thought I’d better bring at least one new book as well as one I’m partway through. I picked 薬屋のひとりごと 1 | L38 and am enjoying it. The very short chapters make it easy to just pick up and read a little more…
I also remember people using the “it’s a trap” scene from Star Wars in reference to characters like this. Wasn’t there a mod over on WaniKani who was really sensitive to this terminology? I think at one point he threatened to ban users who used it.
I don’t think they are similar at all in terms of how they are used.
I think trap is used in the context of making straight, male viewers attracted to a male character. So the “trap” is having a character that makes them question their sexuality (or perhaps just “wasting” their emotional attachment).
オカマ is much worse as far as I understand it. I’m certainly not an expert, but from the few times I’ve seen it used in manga, I tend to translate it as faggot, less for the meaning and more for the similar intent. It’s not quite literally used as that meaning (I think it can technically refer to any effeminate man), but I think it has a similar level of how derogatory it is, which is why that translation pops into my head.
It depends who’s using the term (same for オナベ, in the opposite direction). There are people who willingly use the term to describe themselves (see for instance the title of the other book I mentioned earlier オカマだけどOLやってます。完全版 | L25) and there are places literally called オカマ bars (fun coincidence: the main character just went to one in the part I just read of 男をやめてみた~癌になったので女装して恋をすることにしました~ | L29). However, it’s obviously another story when a cis het person uses that term to describe someone else (in which case, it does feel the way you said)
God I hated that meme. Along with the attack helicopter “jokes”, it’s probably one of the worst things the Internet has brought us. I don’t remember that mod, so that might be after I left the WK forums.
Good to know that’s not necessarily pejorative. It came up in a book I’m reading and I kinda thought 'ah 90s books ’ but maybe that’s not necessarily the case as so far there hasn’t been anything else seeming to be negative in that respect.
I first came across it in マリア様がみてる | L30 where it doesn’t seem to be pejorative (except for the single time a character uses it pejoratively).
kinda spoilers for later マリみて books
There’s a character attending the all-boys school, named Kintarou Arisugawa (who later just becomes Arisu). The first time the word shows up, is when another character refers to them indirectly in conversation - vulgar (and shocks the sheltered MC), but not pejorative. The next time it shows up, Arisu herself is using it to self-describe, and other characters do so non-pejoratively. The third time it shows up is when a character who hates men (and doesn’t acknowledge Arisu’s gender identity) refers to her with オカマのくせに - which the MC rebukes her for.
Arisu is essentially treated by the author (and most of the characters) as female, but with some limits or exceptions like not changing together with the female students from the all-girls school. So it seems to basically be a stand in for “trans woman” there. Idk that that reflects IRL usage in the early 2000s at all though
It gets used in Fushigi Yugi about a character (kinda ad nauseam, if I’m being honest). And I believe sometimes in jest by that character.
Which is not to say that there aren’t cis het writer(s) (and almost certainly performers) behind that “joke”, but the places where I’ve seen it (most shojo and shojo adjacent works) it feels more like mean spirited but not necessarily a slur, but clearly can be weaponized, based on its usage. But more than anything it feels dated to me?
I might be totally off base though. These are just the situations where I’ve seen it most.
Been going through a bunch of old Yurihime short stories and single volumes:
This really surprised me! 5 stories each featuring a different sister (no siscon or incest) - dealing with different relationship life & dynamics. The last story was two adults working out their relationship issues - and that was a really nice surprise, since that doesn’t come up too often in yuri (I know there’s some out there). Left a review with synopses of each
A decent set of short stories, given that they were the author’s first works. Deals with stuff like jealousy, comphet, cheating, communication issues, etc. Of the 7 stories, 2 were adult characters, and the rest were high school. Left a review with rough synopses and impressions
それが君になる | L19 turned out to be a bit weirder than I remembered, which I should have expected given the hook. It also included a terrible bonus story. 2 stars
イケナイオトナ。 | L17 - this one was a bit better. Starts with the older character protecting the younger one from an abusive customer. More interesting writing and dynamics, including characters calling out that the (30 & 15) age gap is weird, regardless of lack of 下心 (though the characters do cave later). It unexpectedly went down a somewhat realistically written harem route. It overall could have used more development in some places.
So, in the end, I went ahead and bought all published volumes of 男をやめてみた~癌になったので女装して恋をすることにしました~ | L29 and binged them. I’m sorry for flooding the feed with err very peach colored covers.
It turned out to be really interesting, in the sense that volumes 3 and 4 have a huge focus on the main character exploring her sexuality and going to lot of night life places. I knew of some of them, but never stepped foot in there Also the あとがき mentions that she did a lot more, but the editor said you can’t put that in a commercial manga.
It’s also funny (?) that the shift in focus happens just after one of her series gets canceled and her editor at the time recommends to put more ero in her work “because it sells”. Considering that the author said that it’s the first time in *eight (8) years* that one of her series makes it past volume 2, I guess it’s true…
(At the same time, it’s kinda neat seeing non judgmental discussions of adult toys, kink, etc in a main stream(?) manga)
I’d be really interested to read about an FtM version, but heh, I can dream I guess.
That being said, the second half of volume 4 is more about romantic relationships and dealing with the feeling of being fake/broken/not a suitable romantic partner.
tl;dr contents warning, I guess? Viewer discretion advised.
I never noticed that features. Thanks!
I did hide volumes 3 and 4.
It also hides the fact I read it on the page of the book, though, but I can live with that.
They are standard overall, but since they are literally the main character, the あとがき is a lot more relatable, I guess
Well, the current series is published under a pseudonym (i.e. not their actual mangaka name) so you wouldn’t directly find them. I assume that the name she publishes under in the manga is also fake, but I haven’t checked.
Edit: yeah, it only returns references to the manga. There’s an interview of the author from 2023 (she seems nice!) but she only mentioned the first magazine where she published (which is indeed major).
Edit 2: Oh… I actually found the original mangaka’s name through Googling. I feel kinda bad about it. Looking through her publication list, though, there’s nothing I feel like reading It’s funny that the guy she meets in volume one is literally from one of her other series. I guess that’s one of the reasons why people noticed
You can always unhide it later. Since it will pretty much be off the feed after a few hours anyway (I had to click Load More at least 5x on mobile to even go back 12 hrs)
Oh - so it’s autobiographical then? Cool. I wasn’t sure if it was her own story or not
Any chance you could link the interview or series name? Feel free to pm
I finally finished last month’s Yurihime… Which is not particularly noteworthy, but the columns this time were on Wicked, and an interview with the voice actor やが君になる’s Yuu. So I thought I’d share in case they were of interest
I’m reading 卍 (まんじ) | L40 and realized that I’ve stumbled into a totally new genre to me: 百合. It was written in 1931 so I’m sure there are some major differences compared to modern novels, but I’m curious to what extent. Also is it common in the genre for the author to be male? I like 谷崎潤一郎’s writing, but I wonder if this particular story has aged well. In particular up to where I’ve read there’s been a lot of talk about how loving a man is different from loving another woman, which is used as an excuse for having another partner. I’m enjoying the story but the genre is about as foreign to me as the Osaka dialect it’s written in haha
It sounds interesting, but the genre of that book would not be considered yuri (despite having some yuri content or themes)
Yuri is a modern genre, though there was a genre/culture called Class S back then. I wrote up a bit on yuri, shoujo, and Class S history that may be of interest. We were talking about the fact that (unlike in BL) modern 日常 yuri rarely ever involves coed schools, often doesn’t include men at all, and largely doesn’t deal with themes like staying closeted vs coming out.
Afaict both Class S and yuri are overwhelmingly (but not at all exclusively) written by female authors. For Class S, an immediate exception is the 1938 乙女の港 | L34 comes to mind. It has a complicated history in that 川端康成 ostensibly wrote it (commissioned by 少女の友 magazine), but much of it was ghostwritten by his wife 中里恒子. His later stories in the magazine weren’t so popular (bc she didn’t ghostwrite them). There’s also the 1957 「パリー東京」「さくら並木」 | L24?? - which is a Class S story, but it’s format is closer to modern yuri manga. For modern yuri I could name a bunch of works as well
There’s not really much of this in modern yuri. There used to be more of it, and grappling with comphet earlier on (70s-00s). Edit: tho I can think of at least 1 trashy romcom with this premise: 彼なんかより、私のほうがいいでしょ? | L27 . Edit 2: おとなになっても | L27 (not trashy) is 2020s and deals with this as well I think
’ but maybe that’s not necessarily the case as so far there hasn’t been anything else seeming to be negative in that respect.
