Slash and Yaoi as Subversive Art Forms - Part I

There is a certain strain of female fan within the larger set of science fiction/fantasy/anime/manga fandom that is at best tolerated, and at worst vilified by the majority of fans: those who are into slash and yaoi.

“Slash” sounds violent, but it’s not. It refers to the slash in “K/S,” as in Kirk/Spock.

It all began with the original Star Trek TV series in the 1960s. Somewhere and somehow, some person – undoubtedly a female – thought Kirk and Spock’s relationship more properly went beyond just being a captain and his first officer – and a whole new way of looking at male characters in entertainment was born. ;)

Slash is m/m (male/male) homoerotic romance, as defined by the fans who find this idea attractive. These fans are overwhelmingly heterosexual and female. It is played out primarily as fan-generated fiction and artwork, and disseminated mainly through (what else) the Internet.

It started with Kirk and Spock, but understand, it has gone way beyond that. A great many science fiction, fantasy, and general entertainment TV series and movies over the past four decades have been co-opted by slash fans for their own use and enjoyment in this regard. The list includes Star Trek and all of its sequel series, Starsky and Hutch, Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Blakes 7, to name a few of the older ones. More recently, there has been Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter universe, the Star Wars universe, Stargate SG-1 and its sequel series Stargate Atlantis. The list goes on and on and on. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. Nearly every series or movie with two male leads has its own fanbase of slash writers and fans.

In the early days - the days before the Internet - the only method of dissemination was getting together and sharing zines (an abbreviation of “fanzine”). You had to meet with other slash fans in order to engage in this interest, either at someone’s house on the weekends, or occasionally, at conventions. I recall driving to Scottsdale, Arizona in the late 1980s with a group of women for one of these conventions.

For various reasons, I walked away from slash fandom for about 15 years. When I returned, I found the Internet had changed everything. With the click of a mouse, it was all there: the fan fiction, fan artwork, communities, forum discussions, notices of upcoming conventions, etc. Slipping back into slash fandom was an easy thing.

When I became an anime fan, I discovered yaoi. Yaoi is Japanese anime and manga that contains a male/male romantic or homoerotic relationship (overt or implied) as part of its storyline.

Yaoi is openly accepted by the general populace in Japan, as opposed to slash here in North America. To put it another way: people in Japan have no problem accepting that a sizeable minority of women find male/male romantic and erotic material to be a very desirable and engaging form of entertainment.

Slash, on the other hand, lives underground in North America, as it is fan-created alternative fiction and art that is based on characters from licensed entertainment properties – with studios and distributors always potentially lurking in the background to call in the lawyers and lower the boom on offenders.

But I think slash also remains an underground activity here in America for another reason: a general lack of understanding of – or even interest in – women’s sexuality and what some women really want to read and to watch.

Where slash and yaoi - these two sisters-under-the-skin worlds - now meet is in a very interesting place: the phenomenon of yaoi manga, officially licensed from Japan and translated into English – and which is currently being bought in mass quantities by young women all across America.

Next week: Part II - How slash opened the way for yaoi in North America... and why slash and yaoi are subversive.

The Mystery of Boba

I used to work in a neighborhood of Los Angeles where coffeehouses featuring boba drinks were on every corner. I finally tried one. I couldn’t figure out what the big deal was.

Boba(s?) is (are?) tasteless balls of starch. They’re a dark indigo color, about half an inch in diameter, resemble large blueberries, and are placed at the bottom of glasses of Asian-style milk tea, milk coffee, fruit tea, etc. The drinks can be either hot or cold, and are served with a jumbo-sized straw (even if the beverage is steaming hot) through which the boba can be sucked up.

Boba drinks are Korean in origin, although you can now find them in any Asian-nationality neighborhood, and beyond.

Here’s the source of my confusion: boba are described as being “pudding balls.” Not only are they not sweet at all - unlike real pudding - but they have a weird, tough, chewy texture, almost as if the scientists at Jello had learned how to harden their product to enable survivalists to store it for 20 years in their basements.

The thing is - well, let me just describe the arc of your typical boba drinker. You drink your first boba drink (boba milk green tea, or whatever), anticipating that these “pudding balls” must be something special. You suck up your first boba ball and chew it, only to find that it has no taste and feels like you’re chewing flesh. Disgusted, you finish the beverage part, trying not to suck up any more boba.

The second time you order a boba drink, you swear you’re going to ignore the boba and just drink the milk coffee, or whatever. Inevitably, you suck up some boba by mistake and rather than offend people by spitting them out, you chew them and swallow them.

You tell yourself that there’s nothing to this boba stuff, but the next time you order a boba drink, strangely, you find yourself searching for more boba at the bottom of your glass, moving and poking your jumbo-diameter straw around to find, chew, and swallow all the boba.

The fourth time you order a boba drink... you finish it and say, “Hey, I didn’t get enough boba in this drink - they didn’t put in enough boba.”

And therein lies... the mystery of boba.

Next week: some thoughts on slash and yaoi as subversive art forms.

The Last Airbender - Being Invisible

I’ve apparently been living under a rock, having not noticed until now that there’s a controversy going on involving The Last Airbender, a feature film directed by M. Night Shyamalan. (This film has just wrapped production and is due to be released in theaters next year.) It’s basically an Asian story about Asian characters. It has been cast with Caucasian actors. The following, from Derek Kirk Kim’s blog, is a great post on the topic:

http://derekkirkkim.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-day-in-politics-same-old-racist.html

I particularly love this quote:

>>I was speaking with Gene Yang (author of “American Born Chinese” and National Book Award nominee) about the casting and he said it best: “It’s like a white Asian fetishist’s wet dream. All the Asian culture they want, without any of the Asian people.”<<

Derek Kirk Kim also mentions that when he was in high school, he dreamed of becoming an actor. I am sure I am much older than Mr. Kim, but this struck a chord with me, since I had that desire when I was young as well. The thing with the casting choices made for The Last Airbender is that it’s a story which obviously could have featured Asian actors, but the choice was made to cast white actors instead. What this kind of choice, made over and over again in Hollywood, winds up doing is that it leaves Asians and other minorities invisible, and in just the properties in which their visibility would make perfect sense. (And it’s not the only recent example either – the movie 21 was based on a real-life story about an Asian-American geek student-turned-gambler. In the movie, the protagonist was played by a Caucasian actor.)

And what these casting choices lead to ultimately is people like Mr. Kim and myself, Asian-Americans of different generations, coming to the conclusion at an early age that even thinking of becoming an actor is a non-starter, having not seen anyone who looked like us in movies and TV.

There are exceptions, of course, and bless John Cho (Harold and Kumar, Star Trek), who must have noted the odds when he was young, and decided to pursue an acting career regardless. And I believe if you’re really meant to do something in life, you will end up making that choice anyway.

But this endless default casting of white actors is retro-thinking – and not the cool or good kind of retro either. In a nation that just elected a black President, this seeming fear in Hollywood that no one will come to see a movie unless the actors are white makes it apparent that it’s Hollywood that is behind in its thinking - and not the audience.

Anime Expo 2009

Anime Expo 2009 was held this past weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

AX is the largest anime and manga-related convention in North America (the number of unique attendees for AX 2009 was estimated at 44,000 following the event), and the place to take the pulse of the anime and manga industry. In various keynote addresses and industry roundtables, the consensus appeared to be that the recession was definitely affecting the industry, particularly the smaller and more niche companies; and further, that digital distribution of anime was beginning to fulfill its promise as the new standard for delivery of anime at virtually the same time as it is aired in Japan.

The experience of being around 44,000 anime fans in one place is a bit overwhelming. All of that youthful energy, many of them wearing cosplay outfits (designed to make them look like their favorite anime characters) and in high spirits (read: shrieking and running down hallways), can be a bit startling.

Another startling thing may be, if you’re not already familiar with it, the demographics of the fans you’re seeing. A casual eye-estimate shows you that minorities are in the majority here: Asian-Americans, African-Americans and Latino-Americans make up perhaps 65 - 70 percent of the fan base that come to conventions.

Does this mean anything? I think it does, in the sense that mainstream American entertainment is still dominated culture-wise and image-wise by Caucasian-Americans and by what is perceived as being middle American cultural norms and values. The fans who are ethnic minorities have discovered, in anime and manga, a different view of life, made by non-whites and from a different culture with which they feel more comfortable identifying, at least some of the time.

Stories in Japanese anime and manga, while often utilizing fantastical elements, are basically like stories written in any culture: they’re about life and people, about childhood, and about making one’s way in the world. What they’re not about is sanitizing or sugarcoating the experience of being human; and particularly of being a child. Anime and manga stories often feature abusive parents or other authority figures, merciless enemies, and other obstacles that the young protagonist must face. And yet, by the end of the story, the hero often discovers his empowerment through his desire to protect others, as opposed to living only for himself; and even more amazing, the villain is usually revealed to be just as worthy of being considered fully human as the protagonist is.

This multi-layered, in-depth characterization of even the bad guy in a story is only one of the attractions of anime and manga. And I think minority fans in America, looking for entertainment that is different from a mainstream culture that largely either ignores or stereotypes them, have found a universe that speaks to them and within which they can feel included.

All 44,000 fans who showed up for Anime Expo are on to something. (And of course, they represent just the tip of the iceberg – as not every fan wants to attend or can afford to attend conventions.) They’re saying yes to a different kind of storytelling, one that allows for the full spectrum of life experience. And if Hollywood wants their dollars, it might consider paying some attention.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood - Fullmetal Alchemist Lite?

I am torn about the new anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood.

This new rendering of the Fullmetal Alchemist story has the same seiyuu (Japanese voice actors) for the main characters, the brothers Edward and Alphonse Elric; the same producer as the original anime series, Bones; and the same high-quality production values as the original series.

I was and am a huge fan of the original anime series, Fullmetal Alchemist. Fullmetal Alchemist began production while the manga was still being written. The anime episodes caught up very quickly with the manga storyline, and the decision was made to take the anime storyline thereafter in a completely different direction from the manga. The new anime series Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood starts once again at the beginning of the story, but this time it will follow the manga storyline after the point where the original anime series diverged from the manga. This divergence point will be reached at Episode 14 of the new series.

The issue I have is that – at least with these initial episodes where they’re repeating the first half of the original anime storyline – this retelling of the adventures of the Elric brothers lacks the depth of character development of the original anime series, as well as presenting with a lighter tone that seems inappropriate for the story.

I remember how I felt watching the original series. Fullmetal Alchemist was one of the first longer series (51 episodes) that I watched as a new anime fan. The darkness of the storyline, the tragedy of the boys’ mother’s death, their decision to commit the forbidden act of human transmutation, the unusual setting—Amestris, a kind of imaginary Germany/Austro-Hungarian Empire circa 1914—all combined to create a full, rich, dark story that simply demanded to be watched all the way to its concluding episodes. Ed and Al were vulnerable and so alone—surrounded by hidden enemies and befriended by a mentor, Col. Mustang, whom they were never sure they could fully trust.

By contrast – Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood has almost a breezy tone to it. The flashbacks to their mother’s death and their crime of human transmutation, and their starting adventures are retold in a kind of let’s-get-this-over-with fashion that sets exactly the wrong mood and tone for the story. It feels like Fullmetal Alchemist Lite – which I am certain is not what the producers intended.

Just one example: the scene in “The Ishbal Massacre,” Episode 15 of the original anime series, where Scar attacks Ed and Al. In the original series, when Scar destroys Ed’s mechanical arm, as Ed falls back - eyes unfocused in shock - we see the pieces of automail scatter through the air in slow motion, in an art image so iconic that it has been featured in publicity stills and in FMA calendars ever since:


As Scar approaches to deliver the death blow, Ed agrees to die so long as Scar promises not to kill Al, and further mocks Scar for his hypocrisy in killing others when he acknowledges that doing so won’t bring back his brother or the other massacred Ishbalans. Scar places his hand on Ed’s head to blow his brains out as Ed, facing death unflinchingly, glares up at him (you will recall that Ed is all of 15 years old at this point in the story).

Meanwhile, younger brother Al, lying helpless on the ground – his metal torso having been splintered apart by Scar – screams at Ed to run away and save himself. The voice actor (Rie Kugimiya) actually hyperventilates as she screams, and we can feel Al’s desperation over losing Ed. It is an absolutely chilling and unforgettable scene.

By contrast – in Brotherhood, Scar’s wounding of the brothers takes place as just part of a longer fight scene involving numerous others. And after Scar escapes, friends rush in to aid and comfort the two boys. The sense of Ed and Al being everything to one another and being alone in the world – and about to lose each other – is gone.

If I were new to the Fullmetal Alchemist universe and Brotherhood was my first exposure to the story and characters, I would wonder why everyone was such a fan and what all the fuss was about. The deep characterization and sense of gravitas present in the original anime are, so far, missing from the new version.

Of course, all this may change from Episode 14 onward, when Brotherhood begins to follow the different storyline of the manga and becomes its own original creature. But even if that occurs, I think the producers are trading heavily on the fan base’s patience and goodwill in their decision to treat the first 13 episodes in this manner. (And they had to have known there would be comparisons to the original.) I do have to add, though, that many fans of the manga are excited about Brotherhood, seeing it as being a long-awaited representation of their favorite version of the story.

A final point, and I almost hate to bring this up, but – the manga series is still ongoing, which means – conceivably – that Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood may catch up to where the manga is at, and might well have to diverge from the manga storyline as did the original anime series Fullmetal Alchemist. Like an endless hall of mirrors, I cannot believe that this would lead to a third anime series based on the same story, and yet I suppose anything is possible.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Elderhood, anyone?