I’ve already decided that 2010 will be the year of Natsume Ono, so what better way to kick things off than with a license request. In addition to her lovely seinen work, she also creates yaoi under the name Basso. I’m fairly picky about yaoi, but I already have enormous trust in Ono’s sensibilities. She seems interested in portraying rounded human experiences. Her characters have lives and jobs, and she seems scrupulous about rendering the places and times in which they live. Those qualities are some of the biggest deciding factors in whether or not I’ll like a given yaoi title.
I’ve found three of her yaoi works, all published by Akane Shinsha, about which I know nothing. Here’s Akane Shinsha’s frequently not-safe-for-work web site, which doesn’t send one into romantic and sensual raptures, but it’s navigable, so that’s something.
First up in the Basso catalog is amato amaro, which is about an apparently bi-curious economist who asks his bodyguard to help him explore. In the real world, this is known as a potentially hostile work environment, but this is yaoi, where potentially hostile work environments are sometimes required to inspire sexy time. Ono does nice work with bodyguards who have ambiguous relationships with their employers. She also seems to occasionally favor lower-case titles, which is only mildly annoying, because the actual comics are so awesome.
Next is Gad Sfortunato. Online translators are absolutely no help at all, but I think it involves artists. Male artists. Male artists who presumably have sex with each other.
Last is Kuma to Interi, a collection of interconnected short stories which features a liason between waiters and politicians, among other things. Among those other things is a story called “Bear and Intellectual,” which is actually the title of the volume, and if “bear” is being used in the sense that I think it is, WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT. The promise of yaoi featuring a character with secondary sex characteristics beyond the vague suggestion of an Adam’s Apple is almost overwhelming to me. I’m seriously beside myself.
I don’t know which yaoi publisher would be most likely to publish these books. I don’t really care. There’s a bear in them there hills. Don’t make me wait.
Akane Shinsha is famous for Ero managa,so its website is dangerous to browse.
Thanks for the heads-up! I only searched by title, so I didn’t come across any of the NSFW content.
I would love to be able to read these.. ^_^
Dangerous? Aww, porn manga isn’t going to bite you and steal your money, I promise.
That said, for a direct link to the Edge/Opera books:
http://www.akaneshinsha.co.jp/online/edge/e-comics.htm
There are actually some rumblings of an English online distribution plan at Akane Shinsha. Whether that includes their BL stuff, I cannot say, but I see no reason why they would exclude it…
BL was one of the earliest categories to go digital in Japan, wasn’t it? At least in terms of cell phone downloads and stuff? Or am I remembering things incorrectly? And as Avenue Q taught us, the Internet is for porn.
I don’t know if it’s “first”, but manga for women in general have found more success online than other kinds of manga. Not just yaoi, but older shoujo and women’s titles.
I think one of the reasons for this (out of countless ones for sure, but this is one I don’t think has been brought up often) is that shoujo manga ages well; it has lasting power for its readers. (The typical ero manga reader, on the other hand, rejects anything that doesn’t look like the latest anime fad or cater to the newest otaku fetish.) Now add to that the early reticence of most publishers to offer new manga for digital distribution, it seems natural that vintage women’s manga would have early dominance over the new market.
“Among those other things is a story called “Bear and Intellectual,” which is actually the title of the volume, and if “bear” is being used in the sense that I think it is, WANT WANT WANT WANT WANT. The promise of yaoi featuring a character with secondary sex characteristics beyond the vague suggestion of an Adam’s Apple is almost overwhelming to me. I’m seriously beside myself.”
Sorry to bust your bubble, but he’s strictly a yaoi-style bear; tall, broad-shouldered, square-jawed, zero percent body fat, scruffy little beard, no body hair.
It’s a great book, though.
I’ve read Orso e Intellectuale before and it’s a lovely sexy book. Until now… I can’t get over the president of Italy getting screwed by a beary looking man. (IT WAS REALLY HOT!!!)
A part of me wishes her BL line would get licensed but I dunno, I’ve been trying to procure the other two books for the last two months by asking friends in Japan to uproot all the bookstores and they couldn’t find it. I went to Singapore to check this in Kinokuniya stores and none either (and was fairly disappointed that Saraiya Goyou was unavailable as well!). I’m only getting it around March by contacting a local Japanese delivery service who has contacts to publishers. Odd. It seems that the publisher is quite small and only a few prints of these are available. More often than not, I find it hard to get. I’m not sure my little hunting would make sense but with a small publishing company like this, I do hope American publishers would consider getting her Basso line.
I swear to god her BL mangas are thrice hot than Gente and Saraiya Goyou. Other than this, her stories are as soft and delicate at the same time masculine. I have a favorite story here about two lovers and they were sharing ice cream with each other and the ice cream was one way for the seme’s father to accept his son’s lover. It was touching, really. It’s been a while since I’ve read good BL like that.
^ Yo Khursten.
I actually have Amato Amaro and Kuma to Interi, and hopefully I’ll be importing Gad Sfortunato soon as well. I know of a few places you can import them from online.
bk1 and nippon-export have them, last I checked. Though I think that bk1 doesn’t have Kuma to Interi right now, iirc. But I bought it from nippon-export.
hope that helped.
I would love to see some Basso stuff on the shelves. Her style is artistically accmplished and distinctive, her subject matter mature and non-common, she has a wonderful sense of humour (which I find crucial in everything I read), and seems to suffer from the same Italian mallady that I have been under for the past few years. A kindred soul indeed.