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ineffable-opinions · 7 months ago

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"Top", "Bottom" Discussion in Unknown ep. 12

The Office Gossip Scene

[Edited on 10th May; changes under clarification headings]

Now that the Unknown has resurrected the conversation about gong shou, let’s talk about it. The what and the why, so to say. Thank you @1serotonindeficientgirl (whose post inspired mine).

I welcome critiques and corrections. So, please feel free to do so.

Scenes and subtitles

The discussion in the episode starts with Wei Qian’s staff gossiping about his relationship with Wei ZhiYuan. One of the staff members comments that Wei Qian is like a little lamb (小绵羊) when it comes to his little brother:

只要遇到他弟弟就像小绵羊

Someone replies with the following idiom:

羊入虎口

(Literally: “a sheep enters a tiger's mouth”)

It means to enter a dangerous situation where one will certainly suffer [Source: Wiktionary].

The female employee (who witnessed their kiss) asks San Pang:

三胖哥谁是羊谁是虎啊 - Who is the lamb (羊; sheep) and who is the tiger (虎)?

This has some employees confused and they ask for an explanation. They receive the following reply:

就是攻跟受的差别啊 – [it means] between them, who is gong and who is shou?

One of the staff members repeats the unfamiliar terms:

攻受 – gong shou

and the fu-nu (腐女; fujoshi) offers an explanation:

好啦姊姊教你们 – let this elder sis explain

老虎看到羊会 – the tiger upon seeing the lamb…

Before she can complete her explanation, Wei Qian moves into the scene accompanied by the growl of a big cat. The gossipers disband.

In the end our fu-nu expresses their support for Wei Qian’s relationship with Wei ZhiYuan. Before she runs off, she throws him the question:

你们谁是攻谁是受啦 – between the two of you, who is gong and who is shou?

In the next shot Wei Qian is alone. He flexes his muscles and comments:

很明显吧 - It's obvious, isn't it?

[END OF SCENE]

Everyone at that office seems pretty close. The staff calls Wei “Qian ge” 谦哥 (first name + brother) and not as “Mr. Wei” (as the English subtitles suggests). Looks like Lao Xiong (emphasis on Lao = old) is the only one who clearly disapproves of such gossipmongering.

Notice how the terms gong and shou were translated directly into top and bottom in English subtitles. While that’s technically correct, there’s some nuance missing.

While there are tongzhi (同志;queer) people who use the terms gong and shou, these are not the most popular terms for top and bottom in the tongzhi community. This series specifically uses the terms gong (攻) and shou (受). Why? We’ll get to that in a minute.

In a BL, being shou means that character is the bottom in that particular ship. That character could be top, bottom, versatile or neither in another ship. A character is a bottom (as we use the term in English) only when that character is an absolute shou (sou uke in Japanese). An absolute shou is invariably shou. No matter which ship he becomes part of and no matter who he is paired with, he will be the shou. Similar difference exists between the terms “top” and “gong”.

English subtitles use ‘top’ and ‘bottom’ from the get-go. There is no need to explain what those terms mean. But that’s not the case with gong shou – only 腐 (fu) people (BL fans) really knows what those terms really mean and thus warrants explanation.

Clarification

[Edited. Thank you @abstractelysium and @wen-kexing-apologist for contributing to the conversation.]

As noted in the convo, Wei Qian is pretty ferocious in the office and is only gentle when it comes to Wei ZhiYuan. So, it is normal that gossiping irrespective of topic would end as soon as he arrives. Also, I think Wei Qian didn’t get what gong shou means other than allusion to tiger and lamb. The original language dialogues don’t make it clear that gong and shou means top and bottom (in a ship). [The English subs gives off that impression since gong and shou were simply translated.] Moreover, those terms are danmei literacies that has entered dictionaries but not necessarily public knowledge.

It is like an insider joke for fu-people made possible by Wei Qian’s ignorance. That wouldn’t have worked on Wei ZhiYuan who read danmei while growing up. That wouldn’t have worked if the fu nu (fujoshi) stuck around to explain what that means.

Usually in such conversations in BL, fu-people are shown to be mistaken: they either mess up the ship/dynamic (Love By Chance 1) or the character(s) in the ship deliberately trick them (Counter Attack). It is almost always played out with seme/gong’s approval in BL - not sure if that dynamic between fu-people & seme aka gong character ever appeared in any live-action dynamic. The trigger of this scene is Wei ZhiYuan’s deliberate choice of actions: PDA, kiss in the office right in front of a staff member.

BL literacies

BL is a media genre in itself with different sub-genres, genre conventions and classic works. It sure has a lot of overlap with other genres:

Romance as well as GL – they coevolved. They share mothers and other ancestors.

Queer – Is it really a genre? Even if one were to ignore queer as method in academia, it is still so complex.

Let me quote Taiwanese tongzhi author Chiang-Sheng Kuo:

… what exactly is queer literature? Is it queer literature if queer people like to read it, or is it only queer literature if there are queer characters in the books? Or is it an appendage of the queer movement? If a queer author writes a book without queer characters, does that represent a certain aspect of queer culture?

(You can find the whole interview here.)

Just as danmei (耽美; Chinese BL) has its roots in Japanese BL, so is gong (攻) and shou (受) from seme (攻め) uke (受け).

gong shou aka seme uke dynamics

Mother of BL, Mori Mari, didn’t come up with it, nor did her father Mori Ogai. Both she and her father, among the other dozen tanbi (耽美; same writing as danmei but different readings cause different languages, and different meanings cause different cultures) authors inherited it from authors before them who wrote on contemporaneous and historic Japanese male androphilia.

Spring Pastimes. Miyagawa Isshō, c. 1750 | seme uke dynamics in nanshoku pre-dates BL by hundreds of years.

While there is no dearth of riba (versatile) characters in BL, seme uke dynamics is:

a genre specialty. There are similar words in use in GL as well.

an enduring connection to the past of where BL was born.

remnants of a particular model of queerness; an alternative to LGBTQIA+ form of queerness.

What’s there in the scene

There is something hidden in the euphemistic explanation. On the face of it tiger devouring a lamb would be allusion to tiger gong devouring (topping) lamb shou.

But then tiger is a big cat and lamb is a herbivore. Neko (ネコ), the Japanese queer term for “bottom” means cat (etymology is obscure with this one). The term herbivore (草食) when used to describe a man means that man is masculine in a non-hegemonic way. In the series, Wei Qian embodies the hegemonic masculinity while Wei ZhiYuan is a quintessential grass-eater.

So, the description of lamb being devoured by a tiger would not be associated as simply as with the terms gong and shou especially when it comes from Taiwan which has been historically more connected to Japanese BL than any other BL producers (Sinophone or otherwise). This connection was highlighted during 魏之远 Wei ZhiYuan's naming scene where Le Ge used the borrowed Japanese possessive particle (の; no).

の = 之 (zhī)

The big cat sound effect for Wei Qian in particular adds to this. Wei Qian’s character is best described as a queen shou.

女王受 Queen shou: A shou who is as proud as a queen, and would devour gong. (source)

Wei Qian and Wei ZhiYuan’s ship is best described by Priest (the author of Da Ge, source novel of Unknown):

经典款毒舌女王和屁颠屁颠的忠犬组合 – paring of a classic, sharp-tongued queen and a tail-wagging loyal dog.

BL literacies & Affective learning

BL kind of has its own language (with words like gong shou), which fans use to share ideas and feelings. This secret language is what academics call ‘literacies.’ BL fans are all in on this and have their own ‘ways of behaving, interacting, valuing, thinking, believing, speaking, and often reading and writing’. Through ‘various visual, conceptual and textual literacies’, BL fans weave ‘an intertextual database of narrative and visual tropes which readers draw upon to interpret BL’. BL literacies is learnt through ‘affective hermeneutics – a set way of gaining knowledge through feelings.’ Audience learn BL literacies from BL works ‘which eventually leads to their active engagement’ with other BL fans. (source; Kristine Michelle L. Santos explains it in the context of Japanese BL but it applies to all BL media irrespective of where it is from.)

That scene in Unknown was set up to familiarize audience with BL literacies – not only those specific words but also the larger practice of imagining character pairing and indulging in that imagination. This is evident from the overall jubilant tone of the scene and the camera work. It is a celebration of moe. That is why we have a character who is not only a fu-nu but also willing to be openly fu-nu in that setting, sharing BL literacies and her colleagues interested to learn.

For other examples, check out Thomas Baudinette’s book Boys Love Media in Thailand: Celebrity, Fans, and Transnational Asian Queer Popular Culture. He has a chapter dedicated to explaining how genre conventions were taught to the early audience of Thai BL through similar scenes.

Why must they do this? Why break the fourth wall like this? To get more people interested in the intricacies of BL and to get them to participate in the culture. BL is created by fu-people and BL literacies are their tools and source of joy. BL must draw in more people to keep BL culture going. Commercialized BL we have today is the result of an affective culture formed over the years. It is built on years of labor of authors and their audience. I mean, look at the Unknown. This BL employs the well-developed Loyal Dog gong x Queen shou dynamics. Apart from that which the series took from the novel, it also drew upon other common BL beats to tease the relationship between Dr. Lin and his senior.

Teaching BL literacies is political. When Mainland Chinese government gets dangai productions to change names and relationships of characters (among other things), it is to prevent live-action audience from discovering BL as a genre with it disruptive potential. It is not only character's names and relationships that are changed. There are entire sub-genres of danmei (such as 高干) that got wiped out by censorship.

When a Taiwanese BL not only retains the character names & relationships and shows relatively explicit intimate scenes but also actively promotes BL literacies, it is an act of resistance. Discussion of gong shou, being genre specialty, manages to do so. Interestingly, they are doing it in an adaptation of a novel by Priest who has a particular reputation with self-censorship. That scene is not part of the source novel.

Heterosexual & gong shou

Association of bottom with the feminine (female or otherwise) has its roots in medicalization (and pathologization) of homosexuality in the west (such as through theories by scientists and doctors like Richard von Krafft-Ebing). This “knowledge” subsequently spread across the globe and was adopted to varying degrees and forms.

Moreover, the terms gong and shou applies to heterosexual pairing too.

BG (boy girl) ships have male gong and female shou

GB (girl boy) ships have female gong and male shou. [If this is interesting unfamiliar territory, check out the series Dong Lan Xue (2023).]

Moreover, if one is willing to look beyond LGBTQIA+ form of queerness (which is born and brought up in America), one can see other queer possibilities. For example, Kothi-Panthi queerness in South Asia which is characterized by explicit presentation of top bottom dynamics. There are very many similar forms of queerness in other parts of Global South.

In many cultures, sexuality doesn’t inform identity but sexual preference does. That’s why is you are to ask a kothi-panthi couple which one of you is the bottom, the kothi would tell you without hesitation: “I am.” Might even asked you in turn, “Couldn’t you tell?” For them, sexual preference (being kothi) rather than sexual orientation takes center stage. This is the inverse of how LGBTQIA+ form of queerness looks at it. While LGBTQIA+ model of queerness focuses on sexual orientation (being pan, ace, gay, etc.) as something that can be freely discussed but sexual preference (top, bottom, versatile, side, etc.) is considered private.

*Just to be clear, “kothi” is a term of self-identification. It means that the person is a bottom. Panthi is not self-identification. That’s how kothi address the men who top them.

While thanks to westernization LGBTQIA+ form of queerness enjoys more visibility, I think it is better to consider it as one type of queerness rather than the only model of queerness. Gong shou dynamics doesn’t fit into LGBTQIA+ form of queerness because it comes from another, much-older nanshoku model of queerness that made its way into Japan from China, hundreds of years ago. Friction between different models of queerness is common where ever they interact. In 1970s, Japan was witness to public debates between a younger, westernized Japanese queer activist Itō Satoru and other Japanese queer activists such as Fushimi Noriaki and Tōgō Ken who were rooted in indigenous tradition of male-male sexuality.

[Itō Satoru’s] insistence on the necessity of adopting western models of gay identity and coming out have brought him into conflict with other activists such as Fushimi Noriaki and veteran campaigner Tōgō Ken.

Interpretation and Orientalism: Outing Japan's Sexual Minorities to the English-Speaking World by Mark McLelland

Clarification

[Edited. Thank you @wen-kexing-apologist for contributing to the conversation.]

Under the LGBTQ+ model of queerness, it maybe considered inappropriate to have conversation about “top” “bottom”, especially in the office, going as far as to ask that to Qian ge. From that perspective, the BL audience (especially those who are unfamiliar with the terms gong and shou) are fair in their assessment of that scene being out of place or outright offensive.

I think things might have been a bit different if the subtitles retained the terms gong shou instead of “top” “bottom” since they aren’t exactly the same thing. That would have had the desired effect (of introducing BL literacies - gong shou in the context of 强强 (strong gong x strong shou) pairing) without unintended consequence.

What is considered rude under the LGBTQ+ framework is an essential part of fu culture. It is like addressing Wei Qian as just Qian – that could be considered rude in the original language but pretty normal in English. Different cultures, different norms, so to speak. It is only polite to be mindful of the cultural differences and avoid discussing about sexual preference where it is considered inappropriate.

As for the normalization of fu culture (especially discussions of gong shou), in my opinion the didactic scope of Unknown is undermined by the very fact that it is primarily a gǔkē danmei (via adoption (收养)) with tongyangxi vibes (highlighted multiple times by San Pang in the novel) associated with Wei ZhiYuan.

Somehow fu-culture gets judged by those who consume products of that culture. Everyone is happy with fu-cultural products as long as fu-people don't discuss who is gong and who is shou.

Why are fu-culture and BL always judged based on a culturally alien lgbtq+ form of queerness? Why must BL be arm-twisted to fit into norms of lgbtq+ form of queerness just because that is the most mainstream form of queerness?

That’s not much a conclusion but this is already so long. I really hope it gives you something to think about.

If you are interested, here's more.

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yunhogosailing · 4 months ago

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So…you want to know more about Korean shipping terminology (and how does this apply to Ateez?)

Luckily, I have spent the better part of six years of my life learning Korean! Which fortunately(?) means that I have learned plenty about the lingo Korean BL fans use re: shipping dynamics. Actually, this makes it SO MUCH easier to navigate websites like Twitter, where NSFW posting is censored for security reasonable. The difference is that English speakers do not have an organized method of referring to the members in their ships (for example, one user might write seongjoong as secngjccng where one might instead write sxxngjxxng, and where another one might even write sngjng, etc etc). But how do Korean speakers handle this situation? What is the context behind all of this? I will provide with you with a fun and easy chart at the end, but first….Let me explain:

Taking you back to the early 2000s

Our setting: the early Korean BL online forums. The terminology originating from these spaces were unsurprisingly heavily influenced by the original sources from which BL manga was derived: the Japanese language. Japanese has a system of Chinese characters used to simplify the writing process known as Kanji. Korean has a similar concept, known as Hanja. Where as Kanji is still heavily utilized to this day for a variety of reasons (my Japanese teacher would always say its main purpose is to minimize the amount of script needed to convey an idea), Hanja has largely fallen out of fashion—used primarily to clarify homophones in text, in literature such as novels and older writings, and as a stylistic choice to depict words such as Death and God, etc.

First, I’m going to give you some terms that are familiar to quite possibly all of you.

Seme (攻め) - the dominant figure in the relationship. Most often, this person will also be depicted as the top.

Uke (受け) - the submissive figure in the relationship. Most often, this person will also be depicted as the bottom.

Are you following so far? Great! In the most stereotypical depiction of homosexual relationships in Manhwa, these roles—the dom top and the sub bottom—reigned supreme so much so that eventually the community fell into the pitfall of believing these four terms to be interchangeable. While simplifying the process of understanding each person’s role in sexual intimacy, it also didn’t lend much of an allowance to explore ideas that defined this view of sexuality. This lack of nuance and flexibility has very little to do with why I’m writing today, but I do want to give some more context as to why these terms became such reliable shorthand.

Anyway…

In Korean BL spaces, these Kanji symbols (攻/受) were directly translated into 공 and 수, respectively. 공 literally means “Ball” but in the context of the Hanja, it means “attack” or “strong”, basically dominant top. 수—“Number”—“to submit” or “to receive”—submissive bottom. Don’t worry, this is the absolute last time I will be explaining these ideas.

How does this work in Korean BL spaces?

Now this may also be familiar to many of you: the placement of each figure in the ship name MATTERS! In SFW spaces, you can get away with referring to Yunho and Mingi as Yungi because….well….platonic friendships aren’t normally referred to by dominance dynamics. In NSFW spaces, specifically dealing with fictional depictions of gay sex, referring to Yunho and Mingi as YunGi will have most people assuming that you mean fanfictions in which Yunho is the top and Mingi is the bottom. Oh, you didn’t? Well, obviously you meant to say MinYun (or MingYun or MingHo, I’ve seen this written all kinds of ways tbh). See what I mean? Now this isn’t always the case—familiarity is everything, so it’s not uncommon to see Wooyoung and San referenced as WooSan, no matter who is intended to be the top.

In Korean, ship names are almost always written in order of placement. For example, 윤낫 (we will get into why the Hangul in San’s name is reversed later) would refer to a Yunho x San pairing where Yunho is the top and San is the bottom. Likewise, 낫윤 would imply the exact opposite. Anyone want to take a stab at what 밍웡 means? How about 섷쫑?

2010-2024, A minor shift in focus

As the spaces for these conversations grow and change with time, as did the terminology used to describe shipping dynamics and pairings.

If you are a fourth and fifth gen K-pop stan, you know what a coupling, or chemi, name is. Korean fans who did either did not want to discuss their idols in a romantic/sexual manner, or otherwise wanted some way to differentiate a typical shipping name from a platonic pairing name, developed the concept of using a chemi name instead. For Ateez, these would be:

E-Kang-Mo (에강모) / Yunho and Yeosang - the shortened version of 에이티즈 강아지 모임, literally translating into the Gathering of Ateez Puppies.

Matz (맏즈) / Seonghwa and Hongjoong - TWO MEN WE’RE ON FIRE 위험해‼️‼️‼️ Shortened version of 맏형 which literally translates into Oldest brothers. This quite obviously refers to our two oldest members within the group.

Elsewhere, you may come across 삼복즈, Jiwoong and Yujin from ZEROBASEONE. Or 채채즈, Chaewon and Eunchae from LE SSERAFIM. Usually this name is derived from some personality aspect or moment the two idols share, and can be given organically by fans or by the idols themselves. They are used strictly by both Korean and international fans as a means of referring to these idols and their friendships. It’s still possible that you find a fan who skips the whole “having to learn a completely different unit name” thing and just uses the traditional pairing name (I know, because I’m one of them), and in this case you can likely tell exactly when they first got into K-pop.

During this decade, shippers developed two more terms to further break down sexual dynamics, this time focusing on top/bottom. 왼 is the Korean directional word for “left”, and in the context of BL, means top. For bottom, Koreans use a shortened version of the directional word for “right”—른. I am not entirely sure whether the general consensus seems to be that these terms are still strictly tied to the idea of a dominant top and a submissive bottom, as most of the resources I used to search for these terms waffled on the subject.

In practice, 웡왼 will refer to shippings in which Wooyoung is a top (I searched for this on Twitter and came up unsurprisingly short….) and 쫑른 is in reference to shippings where Jongho is a bottom!

Enough Already!! Just give us the tags!!

Loud and clear, boss. However, I just need a bit more contextual information out there before I finally get into the list:

Variations - there are few variations that exist within the Korean shipping fandom, save for instances in which another pairing could possibly exist within a different group.

Censorship - Korean fans are also heavy on making sure these posts do not make it into the hands of Ateez themselves (see: the chaos that happened when San stumbled across self-insert fiction written by K-Atiny). Member names are not written properly, and will always be altered in some way as a means of masking it from normal search results. Please pay attention to this!

Pronunciation - some letters are altered in the pairing names as a means to aid with pronunciation. This is sort of an intuitive thing with Korean, so I’m not sure how to explain this in a better way.

And now…the list!

Here’s how to follow the chart:

Reading from the top down, you will find the 른—or pairings where the member is the bottom. For example, Seonghwa’s column reads:

홍섷 - Hongjoong x Seonghwa

윤섷 - Yunho x Seonghwa

솽섷 - Yeosang x Seonghwa

낫섷 - San x Seonghwa

밍섷 - Mingi x Seonghwa

웡섷 - Wooyoung x Seonghwa

쫑섷 - Jongho x Seonghwa

Likewise, reading the chart horizontally will provide you with the 왼—or pairings where the member is the top. For example, Mingi’s row reads:

밍섷 - Mingi x Seonghwa

솜몽 - Mingi x Hongjoong

밍윦 - Mingi x Yunho

솜여 - Mingi x Yeosang

밍낫 - Mingi x San

밍웡 - Mingi x Wooyoung

솜쫑 - Mingi x Jongho

Additionally, adding (Member name)른/왼 will provide you more general posts where Korean fans are discussing the idol as a top or a bottom in general without referring to a specific ship.

Hongjoong: 홍왼 + 홍른

Seonghwa: 섷왼 + 섷른

Yunho: 윦왼/윤왼 + 윦른/윤른

Yeosang: 솽왼 + 솽른

San: 낫왼 + 낫른

Mingi: 밍왼 + 밍른

Wooyoung: 웡왼 + 웡른

Jongho: 쫑왼 + 쫑른

Thank you for reading! I hope this was as useful for you as it was for me! Of course, I knew a lot of history regarding this topic due to the ample time I spent reading BL, but I will admit that I did not have much time to research this topic specifically. However, if you have any corrections to make, let me know!! This was so much fun for write, and maybe I can do something similar to this in the future as well.

Bye!

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otomehonyaku · 4 months ago

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DIABOLIK LOVERS More,Blood Genteiban DVD Translation ☽ Mini Drama II (Yuma, Shuu, Reiji)

Original title: DIABOLIK LOVERS MORE,BLOOD 限定版 SPECIAL DISK III Mini Drama II Voiced by Suzuki Tatsuhisa (Yuma), Toriumi Kōsuke (Shuu), Konishi Katsuyuki (Reiji) English translation by @otomehonyaku Click here for the audio (thank you @uzi-boozii for providing the audio!)

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Please do not reuse or post my translations elsewhere or translate my work into other languages without my permission.

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I'm on a roll with the drama CDs this week! Here's the next instalment of the More,Blood special disks. The final one in this series, featuring Ruki, Azusa, Kanato, and Ayato, is coming next week ✧ദ്ദി( ˶^ᗜ^˶ )

As always, have fun listening and reading along! (♡ˊ͈ ꒳ ˋ͈)

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[This scene takes place after Yuma takes Yui’s blood in front of Shuu at the academy. They are now in the school infirmary.]

00:00 Yuma: Tch. Your face’s white as a fuckin’ sheet. You don’t taste good when you’re already half empty. Hurry up ‘n save up some blood so I can suck it.

[Yuma chews on a sugar cube.]

Y: I won’t hand you over to those bastards. Not until I become Adam. Better rest up, Sow.

[Reiji walks in.]

Reiji: Oh? What are you doing here?

Y: None of your business, smart-ass. (1)

R: Heh. It seems that you have taken too much of her blood, rendering her useless.

Y: If you already know, you’d better fuck off.

R: Did you say something?

Y: Nothin’ in particular. Sow won’t be getting any rest anytime soon, though. We need her blood. More and more of it.

R: Heh.

Y: What’s so funny?

R: That is absurd.

Y: Huh?

R: Greedily devouring her without thinking of the repercussions… Exactly what I expect from mongrels like you.

Y: The fuck d’ya say?

R: Heh. It does not take a lot to upset you. How very predictable.

Y: Fuck off!

02:04 R: Good grief… If you continue taking her blood so carelessly, she will die before long.

Y: What’s wrong ‘bout a vampire suckin’ human blood? Don’t act like we’re not doin’ the same thing y’all did!

R: I would appreciate it if you did not liken yourselves to us. I have merely been treating her with the appropriate courteousness. Verbally abusing me without having the slightest notion of who I am is simply absurd. Foolish, rather.

Y: Hah! Foolish, you say. Right back at ya.

R: How so?

Y: Haha. You don’t know anythin’ either, do you?

R: What do I not know about you?

Y: You think we’re carelessly feeding on her for no reason at all? That’s foolish. We’re taking her blood ‘cause… Ah.

[Yuma catches himself before he divulges the Mukami’s plans.]

R: What is it?

Y: Heh. It’s got nothin’ to do with you.

R: That is regrettable. But even if you would have let your tongue slip, it is not that difficult to guess...

[Yuma grabs Reiji by the collar.]

Y: Why’re you pickin’ a fight with me if you already know?

R: I only know because you were chattering away, oblivious of your surroundings. Well, if lowly scum such as you former humans would be scheming anything… it would have nothing to do with me.

Y: Ha! Then you’re fine with me doin’ as I please with her?

R: Indeed. Because whatever you half-bloods are planning, you could never outmatch us to begin with. Besides, she is nothing but prey to us.

Y: What about you, huh? You OK with me takin’ Sow away from ya?

04:19 R: That is a foolish question. Are you saying she is valuable to us at all?

Y: Well, I’m glad. We’ll do exactly as we please with her, then.

R: However, please remember that when you make a move on the Sakamaki family, we will eliminate you without mercy.

[Reiji leaves.]

Y: Tch. What an indecisive asshole.

[Yuma leaves as well. The scene shifts to Yuma walking down the hallway, where he accidentally stumbles upon Shuu again.]

05:18 Y: Ugh, first that smart-ass and now this NEET (2), too?

S: Wait.

Y: What?

S: Are you really a vampire?

Y: The fuck? You askin’ that out of pride ‘cause you’re a pureblood? Like I said to Four-Eyes, we’re half-blood vampires. Used to be human. That’s got nothin’ to do with you.

S: Since when?

Y: Huh?

S: When did you become vampires? Who turned you?

Y: How’s that matter to you? I don’t get it.

S: Answer me.

Y: Tch. Don’t order me around like you're superior. It’s pissin’ me off. Ah… Who knows? It’s been so long that I forgot.

S: Have you always had that name?

Y: You listenin’ to me? Why do I gotta tell you? I don’t get it.

S: You don’t remember?

Y: What’d you say? What do you know ‘bout my memories?

S: Hm.

Y: And now you’re staying quiet. Tch. It’s not like I got anything to hide, though. I don’t remember my childhood. The only thing I’ve got left from then are my burn scars. I don’t even remember my own name.

S: Burn scars?

Y: Huh? Oh, and there’s a birth mark on my shoulder. But I guess that doesn’t really matter.

S: Ah!

Y: What? Why’re you so surprised? It’s not like it still hurts or itches now, either.

S: Hm…

Y: You seem kinda out of it. You sure you’re alright with us takin’ Sow away from y’all?

S: I guess. What you do with that woman has nothing to do with me.

Y: How’re you and that Four-Eyes so calm about all this? Don’t come cryin’ to me ‘bout it later!

07:42 S: She’s nothing but prey to us. Someone else will come to take her place when she dies.

Y: You really think so? She’s the only...

S: Aren’t you a little too interested in her?

Y: Heh. We have our reasons.

S: I see.

Y: Ha. Famous last words? You selfish fucking aristocrat. Tch. You’re all insane…

[Yuma walks away.]

S: Burn marks… So it is him.

[The scene shifts to Reiji.]

R: They are completely obsessed with her blood… There is no mistaking what they must be scheming. It seems there is an ulterior motive. When I think about it, it can only be him pulling the strings behind all of this… What on Earth is he planning?

─── ･｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

(1) 蘊蓄（うんちく）: Lit. ‘great/vast knowledge.’ Yuma uses this word to call Reiji 蘊蓄野郎（うんちくやろう）and in this case 野郎 (やろう) can be translated as ‘bastard,’ so—although it doesn’t cover the full extent of the meaning of these words—I translated it as ‘smart-ass’ here for convenience.

(2) NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training): Japanese-English abbreviation for young people who don’t do anything with their lives.

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ahgasegotarmy116 · 1 year ago

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Semantic Error Series Masterlist

Based off of Semantic Error (bl) by J Soori Summary: y/n is a Computer Science major that definitely fits the bill. Some call her a robot since she seems to have zero emotions or empathy for the people around her and only cares about finishing her degree. What happens when she prevents Jungkook, a Visual Arts major from graduating and finds herself in need of his help? Pairing: Techie inexperienced fem!reader x Artist fuck boy Jungkook Status: Ongoing Warnings: Explicit language, corruption kink, smut, angst, trauma, idk I suck at writing warnings.

A/N: This is heavily based off of the original bl (boy love) but I will be changing things here and there (for example this is a straight version with a female reader). If you don't mind spoilers I would highly suggest reading the original story. I read it on the app Manta with the english adaptation being done by Angy and you can also find the kdrama on Viki :) P.s. Not sure how many parts this will have but this is going to be shorter than the original story especially since that one is still ongoing so I will probably only cover the first two seasons.

>Chapter 1

>Chapter 2

>Chapter 3

>Chapter 4

>Chapter 5

>Chapter 6

>Chapter 7

>Chapter 8

Chapter...

Join my Taglist

Feel free to fill out the form or just comment to be added :)

#jungkook #jeon jungkook #jungkook fanfic #jungkook fanfiction #jungkook x reader #jungkook smut #bts jungkook #bts #bangtan #bangtan sonyeondan #kpop fanfic #kpop #fanfiction #fanfic #smut #angst #semantic error

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alexasaystuff · 7 months ago

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Hi! I’m not usually one to post anything like this but I really felt like I should do so this time

(Btw English isn’t my first language so 🙂‍↕️)

Warnings: BL, Bj, Satosugu, NSFW, implication of gay s€x, *all characters are adults*, not so original, bad English ><

After the sad separation between me and suguru… everything seemed… lonelier… harder… that I didn’t even realize when I even dialed his number on the phone that many times… suguru… I miss you… you were my everything… my one and only…

Then you answered…

My life couldn’t be brighter ever since, we arranged a few things… and now here we are… in an alleyway… hiding behind the trash bins… you on your knees slurping with all your might… wanting to leave me dry as I just try to seem as composed as possible…

Looking at how your tongue swirls on my exposed member… then taking it in your mouth and sucking… hard… fast… so much I couldn’t hold back a long desperate moan

“D-don’t tease suguru~” I wine stupidly as I watch you intently.

“They’ll hear you baby~ do you want that?~” you say teasingly as I finally seem to remember the sorcerers your curses were distracting a few streets behind.

I wine more, hating the fact that we have to hide our relationship as you’re fully deep throating me… oh god it’s like you have no gag reflex! It just feels so hot to hit the back of your throat so hard you’re choking… even though you swallow curses every day… you can never seem to be able to take me in for so long…

I harshly grab your hair, taking control of your sucking, pushing you up and down on me without warning as I fuck your face over and over… and I just chuckle at how you moan when I fuck your face this hard… mocking you for shutting me up earlier

“You want to shut me up *pants* when you can’t even stay quiet?~ Even when I go slow on your tight ass~ you can’t seem to help it~” I say huskily.

I just keep looking at your fucked up face as you try to suck at the same pace I’m thrusting into your mouth soon enough letting you go as you gasp harshly for air, panting as I let go all over your cute face panting as well.

I know it was short but it was just a little test text to see how much you guys like it and see if you got any requests if so.

Bye!! 👋

#sub jjk #sub geto #jjk satoru #geto suguru #jjk suguru #gojo satoru #satosugu #jjk smut #jjk fanfic #jjk gojo #jjk geto

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clairedaring · 9 months ago

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"Thai BL The Finest" Screening: I Feel You Linger In The Air & Scent of Memory

Hosted By Panoramist Spotlight

Date: 9:30-14:00 (Berlin), Saturday, 02/24/2024

Location: Colosseum (Schönhauser Allee 123, Berlin, 10437)

Public tickets (15€) available at https://shorturl.at/mDKMS

Details

Highly-acclaimed and award-winning in Thailand and abroad, "I Feel You Linger in the Air" is a Thai historical BL series with a fantasy twist, adapted from a popular Thai novel of the same title that has been translated into several foreign languages including English, German and Italian. It was co-produced by YYDS Entertainment and Dee Hup House and released in 2023.

The boys-love, or BL, series are those that depict a romantic relationship between two male protagonists. Originated from Japan, it is also acknowledged as a fascinating aspect of Thailand’s popular culture, showing the country's increasing openness towards people with different ways of life. In the past years, it has been continuously gaining popularity around the world.

"I Feel You Linger in the Air" tells a story about Jom, an architect in Chiang Mai overseeing the renovation of a rundown villa, continuously dreaming of a man he's never met. After his boyfriend broke up him for a woman, Jom is devastated, driving into a river. After regaining consciousness, he finds himself stuck in the time of 1927. In this unfamiliar world, he finally encounters the mysterious man from his dreams - Mr. Yai, and starts a bitter sweet love affair that defies social status, gender expectation, time and space.

"From the fantasy premise to the historical setting, I Feel You Linger in the Air is one of the most extraordinary BL dramas. Each fascinating storyline explores the past era and examines cultural nuances insightfully. It tackles many complex themes, including class differences, womanhood, and LGBTQ+ experiences. Thanks to the couple's enchanting chemistry, I'm spellbound by their majestic romance. Everything about this series evokes epicness." — blwatcher.com review

Therefore, we delightedly invite YYDS Entertainment to bring this masterpiece to Berlin for a public screening during the Berlinale, along with its special episode "Scent of Memory" that has not yet officially released globally. Beside screening, we will also have YYDS CEO Ms. Wan Thabkrajang to share some behind-the-scene stories and introduce the company and Thai BL production industry. She will also present a spoiler video of YYDS' upcoming BL series "My Stand-in".

We also prepare a souvenir gift that we hope can help keep this series lingering longer in your memory. The number is limited and will be given out on the first come first serve basis.

Planned agenda

9:30-12:00 I Feel You Linger in the Air (movie version)

12:15-13:45 Scent of Memory

13:45-14:10 Dialogue with YYDS Entertainment

I Feel You Linger in the Air Official Teaser Scent of Memory Official Trailer

Invite your friends to enjoy one of the finest Thai BL series together. Let this love linger in the air of Berlin ~

#i feel you linger in the air #ifylita #my stand in the series #my stand in #yyds entertainment #yaijom #bright rapheephong #nonkul chanon #i feel you linger in the air special episode #berlinale #i feel you linger in the air special ep #no because i find it a CRIME that european fans get to pay 1/4 of the price that thai fans paid for the special ep screening

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blbl-official · 13 days ago

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Hello, everyone!

As progress continues on BLBL, our BL library website that will catalog original English BL (M/M) webnovels, novels, ebooks, graphic novels, visual novels etc.., we’re looking for more volunteers!

(Thanks to everyone who voted on the names 🥰)

If you’re interested in the following and have time to complete the task(s) (with at least one other person, in a team), then please contact @bafflinghaze:

Branding: logo design

Marketing: art/graphic design for marketing purposes

Wireframing/Web design: help iterate and finalise designs

Web development: backend and frontend (need to be able to work with others)

We also need data collectors (gathering information from novels and uploading it to our to-be-created system) and website content copywriters (writing all the miscellaneous text that a website needs), but this is less urgent. If you’re interested, also contact bafflinghaze.

#boys love #yaoi #mxm #mlm #original english language bl #webnovels #ebooks #reading #web development

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absolutebl · 1 year ago

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Hello! In the latest EP of I Feel You Linger in the Air, Yai addresses Jom as Por Jom. Jom seems surprised but I have no understanding of what Por means so it's significance is lost on me. Perhaps you can help shed some light? Also, how was Yai addressing Jom before?

Por/phor honorific in Thai - I Feel You Linger in the Air

I'm glad you asked it so I don't have to.

I have not encountered it before in BL.

Any of the the Thai language spies still out there wanna weigh in?

I did some poking around - but I could be way off base. Still this what I discovered:

Por is a paternal honorific, luang por is used for respected monks.

So I am assuming this use is relatively old fashioned (the reason we don't hear it often in our normal BL) and either one step more intimate or, more likely, one step more respectful than no honorific. Possibly scholarly?

I'm thinking all this has to do with Jom's demonstration of education. Yai has figured out that one of the reasons Jom doesn't belong and cannot fit in with the servants is that he is more educated than a peasant, which adds up to him being originally from a high status and wealthy family, especially speaking English and having travelled (he has a non-Chang Mai accent).

There is very little Thai middle class at the beginning of the 1920s since trade is being dominated/dictated by the West, or Chinese merchant operations, and Siam is a monarchy. So for a nationalize Thai citizen it's either military, landed gentry with trade operations (like Yai), military, or... none of the above. This changes, especially in the south, throughout this decade (as it did in other parts of the world). So there is a rising bourgeoisie going on in the background but it's not that obvious in Chang Mai at this time.

What this means to Yai is that Jom's family either got wiped out or politically entirely disenfranchised possibly as part of the 1912 attempted coups (or even WWI)? This would be mystifying for Yai because Jom doesn't act like he comes from a military family at all. So his background and status is very confusing for Yai, but Yai does know one thing...

Jom is NOT lower class by the standards of Yai's temporal worldview and existence.

For a young man to be educated and yet entirely alone is very dangerous and suspicious. Also, let's be clear, Jom doesn't look or act like a laborer. He red flags "cultured" all over the place.

Yai is paternalistic and caring towards Jom out the gate because Yai has a big ol'crush but also because he recognizes "his own" is trying to survive while isolated and scared. Yai wants to rescue Jom.

Some Historical Context for I Feel You Linger In The Air

I love history and so here's some quick info that any Thai watcher would likely know, but you might not... ready?

Remember:

Burma (Myanmar) to the west is occupied by the British.

The French hold Vietnam to the east.

Everyone is bickering over what would become Cambodia & Laos.

China occasionally gets involved from the North (also, lots of immigrants from China at this time accounting for a large percentage of the merchant/middle class)

Eventually, Japan would invade during WWII.

In part, The Kingdom of Siam was kept a "neutral" party because none of the surrounding colonial powers wanted to risk offending any of the other players in the area.

Siam re-negotiated sovereignty in 1920 (from USA) and 1925 (France & Britain). But during the time of this show (mid to late 1920s) it was back to it's customary type-rope balancing act of extreme diplomacy with the allied western colonial powers that surrounded it. Recognizing that Thailand was never colonized, it's boarders were constantly nibbled at and it was "ambassador-occupied" off and on by Westerners whose military backing and exploitive business concerns simply outmatched the monarchy, especially in the technology department (as well as by reputation on the global stage at the time).

In other words, the farang in this show (James & Robert) are bound to be both the baddies and the power players of the narrative.

The king of Siam at the time (Vajiravudh AKA Rama VI) was initially somewhat popular but also regarded as overly extravagant since Siam was hit by a major postwar recession in 1919. It should be noted that King Vajiravudh had no son because he was most likely gay (which at the time did not much concern Siamese popular opinion, EXCEPT THAT it undermined the stability of the monarchy).

He "died suddenly" in 1925 (age 44) with the monarchy weakened and succession handed off to his younger brother.

In 1932 a small circle of the rising bourgeoisie (all of whom had studied in Europe, mostly Paris), supported by some military, seized power from the monarchy in a practically nonviolent Siamese Revolution installing a constitutional monarchy.

Siam would then go through: dictatorship, WWII, Japanese invasion, Allied occupation, democratic elections, military junta, the Indochina wars, communist insurgency, more democracy and popularization movements, multiple coups, more junta, more monarchy, eventually leading us to the somewhat chaotic insanity of Thai politics we have today. (Which is, frankly, a mix of monarchy, junta, democracy, egocentric popularism, and bribery.)

(source)

#P'ABL gets crazy academic for a moment #a brief history of Thai politics since WWI #Thai BL #I feel You linker in the air #it's a great fucking show but everything makes more sense if you have historical context #thai honorifics #thai language #thai linguistics

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ineffable-opinions · 10 months ago

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Seme/uke - long response

A decolonial and subaltern take on three posts on seme/uke dynamics that aims to contextualize them while questioning ethnocentrism. I welcome alternative perspectives, corrections and criticisms.

Post #1: Seme/uke dynamics in Be Loved in House...

@absolutebl responding to @echos-of-ivy

Seme – Uke

About two or more characters in a ship/pairing:

seme 攻め: top (the pitcher) (from origin - attack) also referred to as 左 (left)、タチ (tachi)、トップ (top)

uke 受け: bottom (the catcher) (from origin – receive / accept) also referred to as 右 (right)、ネコ(neko/cat)、ボトム (bottom)

riba リバ: verse (doesn't mind being either a top or a bottom) (from origin - reversible)

seme and uke are sourced from martial arts lingo: seme (martial arts), uke (martial arts) & is related to nanshoku tradition (depictied in ukiyo-e style painting below) of androphilia rather than western norms of queerness. Such differences in culture in queerness is seldom appreciated.

Spring Pastimes. Miyagawa Isshō, c. 1750

Sometimes, androphilic men use seme/uke/riba instead of the following terms which are popular in their queer community:

tachi タチ凸 - top

neko ネコ凹 - bottom

riba リバ回 – verse

Other BL producing countries also have similar terms for seme/uke/riba. And those countries also have terms for top/bottom/verse/side in their queer communities.

For example,

In Chinese BL (danmei), seme/uke/riba -> gong (攻)/shou (受)/hu gong (互攻)[1]

In Chinese tongzhi community -

top: gong (攻) or 1 or 上 or 凸

bottom: shou (受) or 0 or 下 or 凹

verse: bu fen (不分)or 0.5 or 10

side: 不10 or 纯爱[2]

四爱 (fourth love) is the Chinese term for heterosexual relationship wherein the woman tops. When fictionalized, such romances are referred to as GB (girl boy) romance as opposed to BG (boy girl) and the heroine is referred to as female gong 女攻め.

In Thai BL, seme/uke/riba -> me (เมะ)/ ke (เคะ)/ se (เซะ) & their queer community have these terms.

Evolution

When the work does not involve sexual acts, seme/uke/riba is assigned based on speculation (‘what if’) in line with audiences’ preference. There are a bunch of stuff that are employed to determine the dynamics but owing to variation in taste, audience don’t always agree with each other. Since seme/uke/riba archetypes rose to that status with the yaoi (doujin) boom with development of comiket, etc. tanbi, June, original shonen ai and other such types of BL don’t follow these archetypes. Live action which follows, to an extent, the latter tradition, such as Boys Love (2006), also don’t have uke/seme/riba archetypes, instead follows the archetypes that was popularized by tanbi literary movement. Tanbi literary movement was queer in more ways than one. It preceded/birthed BL (Mori Mari) and influenced it.

As no culture is passive recipient [pun intended], different glocalizations of seme/uke/riba dynamics exhibit different features, both within and outside Asia (eg. original English-language BL publication).

IRL

While being top/bottom/verse/side pertains to sexual preference/choices and acts or lack thereof, it is not devoid of other implications. Here are some interplay between these preferences/choices and the implications to consider:

Are these preference/choices innate or socially formed? Or both? Or neither?

What does it mean to be top/bottom/verse/side – within and outside the queer community?

Performance of masculinity, femininity, neither. Which masculinity/femininity? Is that masculinity/femininity performance – marginalized, soft, protest, hegemonic or amalgamated?

How local and global queer cultures influence it?

Is it some kind of conformation/attempt to fit in? If yes, what kind and why?

How are those choices impacted by history (including that of colonialism), legal/political implication (e.g.: pink certificate in Türkiye), local forms of patriarchy & heterosexism, class, nationality, race, skin color, caste, age, employment (including sex work) or lack thereof, physical location & avenues of exploration, abilities and disabilities, access to internet & other infrastructure, education (including sex education), health conditions and access to medical care, etc.

How do they form expectations regarding oneself and others?

While it can be argued that there shouldn’t be any other implication associated with such preference/choices, one can not simply wish them away as it is more often than not linked to certain social realities.

BL as well as gei comi are genres of fiction, telling tales of male androphilia – these are reproductions of imagination entwined with realities, reflecting desires, fantasies and biases plenty.

Conflation

I disagree that uke/seme/riba archetypes are conflated “casually” with bottom/top/verse in narratives and discussions around them. There is a difference that P’AbsoluteBL probably isn’t aware of:

Uke is the bottom in a ship. A character could be uke in a ship, seme or riba in another. For a character to be a ‘bottom’, he has to be sou uke or total/complete uke. It means no matter who he is paired with he will always be the uke.

Alternatively, a sou uke is a character that makes all other characters become seme for him and go after him.

Similarly, a character could be called ‘top’ when that character is a sou seme or total/complete seme. Unless a character is established as a sou seme or sou uke in the narrative, there is always a possibility that those characters are verse. While most BL involves set ships, it is not rare to find characters who are uke in one relationship becoming seme or riba in another. Sometimes, after a time skip, transmigration, reincarnation, etc. BL characters end up switching within a ship.

In Live Action

While there is plenty of riba ships in other BL media, live action has had very few.

These couples were riba in the novel:

Bai Luoyin and Gu Hai – Addicted – The censorship struck right after the couple had their first coitus interfemoris (based on the chronology in the novel).

Lu Feng and Cheng Yichen - A Round Trip to Love

Lan Yu and Chen Handong - Lan Yu

Dom/sub

While the P’AbsoluteBL is allowed to do whatever, I don’t think correlating dom/sub with seme/uke is a good idea in the context of BL because:

BL has a separate speculative fiction subgenre called dom-sub-verse (Dom/Subユニバース) which have its own conventions. It is one of the many subgenres that took inspiration from omegaverse and has grown parallel to it. It takes dominance and submission from the kink community and explores them as innate/biological traits.

It involves characters who are identified as Dom(ドム), Sub(サブ), Switch(スウィッチ), and Usual/Normal/Neutral(ユージュアル/ノーマル/ニュートラル). Along with the standard elements of BDSM in fiction such as safeword, sub space, sub drop and aftercare, it also involves additional elements such as kneel(ニール), glare(グレア) and collar (カラー). There are commands コマンド (命令) that Dom gives to Sub. Sometimes elements borrowed from omegaverse such as heats/ruts, suppressants and professional Dom also appear in this sub-genre.

Dom×Sub ship: Dom is the seme & Sub is the uke.

eg. Hizamazuite Ai Wo Tou 『跪いて愛を問う』 & Rhetoric 『レトリック』 by 山田ノノノ Mijuku Na Boku Ha Shihai Wo Kou 『未熟な僕は支配を乞う 1』 by音海ちさ

Sub×Dom ship: Sub is the seme & Dom is the uke.

Jouzu Ni Dekita Ne Watasesan 『上手にできたね、渡瀬さん』 by 野萩あき Shoshinsha Dom Ha Hameraretai 『初心者Domはハメられたい』 by やんちゃ Gohoubi Ni Kubiwa Wo Kudasai (ご褒美に首輪をください) by Naruse Kano

Dom×Switch ship: Dom is the seme & Switch is the uke.

Sono Meirei De Ore Wo Abaite 『その命令で俺を暴いて』 by 小夏うみれ愛の声で暴いて by 泉門くきいでおすわりしてみせて by 由元千子

Switch×Switch ship: One of the switches is the seme and the other the uke.

強情なSwitchの躾け方 by ことぶき

Dom×Dom ship: One of the dom is the seme and the other the uke.

コマンドミー、プリーズ by 町田とまとサディスティックに暴かれたい by 星崎レオ (uke is a Dom, seme’s identity is not made clear) Kyousei Switch 『強制Switch』 by 彩田あまた

Like most BL genres, it is yet to make its way into live-action BL.

There are plenty of BDSM themed BL as well as training (調教) style BL where seme/riba/uke can be switch or sub or dom.

Problematizing the Problem

Hence, the argument that conflation of seme/uke with top/bottom is “a PROBLEM” is ironic. The main reason given for that argument is that “het consumers [would] conflate (egregiously & incorrectly) top with male/masculine and bottom with female/feminine.” Here are some things that I think is relevant to think about that:

Why would ‘het people’ or any people for that matter think in terms of male-female / masculine-feminine binaries? Do they think in those binaries only and not other binaries such as wen(文)-wu(武)? Why think in binaries and dichotomies at all? Don’t they not think in terms of multiplicity of genders/gender expressions such as various kinds of masculinities and femininities) based off on their local contexts?

Do queer people not make such/similar conflations? (Hint: they do.)

Is it a problem? While this seems to be the popular notion, plenty of scholars from across the globe has dismantled it.

What exactly do P’AbsoluteBL think ‘het people’ conflate riba characters with? Feminine-feminine? Masculine-masculine? Neither? Both? Something else?

There are different conceptions of masculinities within a culture which get reflected in cultural goods, including BL, from there. Here are some really old depictions:

Qing dynasty Chinese Water and Land Ritual painting depicting a divine civil official and thunder god in military regalia. [Wen - wu]

Paintings of Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the Buddha, from cave 1 of the Ajanta Caves.

Moreover, if the problem is hinging on a particular understanding of seme/uke: the one in which seme is not feminine or uke is not masculine enough. If latter is the issue, it can be fixed by sticking to BL media with otokomae uke or macho uke. If former is the issue, there’s more than enough works with maiden seme and josou seme. If one is yet to encounter any such works, one is not looking far enough.

Masculinities in BL

Here are three central characters from Finder series embodies different types of masculinities – a lot of it is presentation, physical attributes, age, power and social standing. Akihito is a young and vivacious uke who happens to be short and sinewy. Asami Ryuichi is a supadari seme: a guy who is tall, well educated, high earning, with good looks. In addition, he cooks and cleans and cares when he wants to. Fei Long is tall, beautiful and cunning and can be regarded as a riba character. But can any of these characters considered not masculine by regular standards? Isn’t Akihito masculine enough for his age? And if we are to compare Asami, we are sure to find him lacking but then give him time to grow. They have a dozen years between them. Moreover, can average men stand comparison with a super darling? But then in the grand setup of patriarchy, isn’t power concentrated in the hands of the older men who dominates even the super darlings, both in real world and fictional ones.

Ayase Yukiya & Kanou Somuku from No Money

Consider the case of Ayase, would you call him a “feminine” uke? Probably yes. He is small in stature - petite and cute. He is definitely very small in comparison to his seme Kanou. They probably have one of the most exaggerated size differences and an extreme case of the traditional pairing.

The traditional pairing comes from the customary practice of androphilia in pre-modern Japan. It involves relationship between a wakashu and a nenja or from the tradition of nanshoku. The former is not considered a man by the period’s standards and is considered a third gender by some scholars. The latter is considered as a mentor and lover for the former. While the traditional faded with ‘modernization’, tanbi literary movement (among others) kept alive remnants of it through the writings of the likes of Yukio Mishima.

Note that the youth on the left is wearing a kimono whose style (furisode) and color was considered appropriate for adolescents of both sexes but not adult men, which along with the partially shaved pate denotes the boy's wakashū age status while the exposed bare feet indicates the purely sexual demeanor.

The traditional pairing has clearly inspired Japanese mangaka both BL artists and others. Look at the wakashu in customary androgynous clothing, younger, fairer and even smaller than the nenja, with relatively less experience being embraced by nenja who is in customary male clothing.

Check out more shunga about nanshoku to see visual ancestor of “yaoi”. The visual legacy continued with the likes of Go Mishima. The queers did it first.

From the series "Mishima Go Book of Young Man" - Japan - 1972 (Showa 47)

Ayase in No Money fits into the wakashu ideal. Moreover, the creators of this manga explicitly differentiated between feminine uke with wakashu uke by juxtaposing Ayase with Someya who embodies traditional femininity.

Someya and Honda from Henshin Dekinai

Putting it into perspective, it is noticeable that many a BL involves similar pairing. A lot of criticism BL faces is when it sticks to nanshoku dynamics. Interestingly, critics who can’t imagine genders beyond masculine and feminine, fail to tell apart “feminine” characteristics from wakashu characteristics. But there is no dearth of such dynamics getting subverted in numerous ways in BL:

ship with younger, lower class, petite, androgynous or any combination of customary wakashu characteristics in seme/riba.

ship with all parties being of similar age, class, physical attributes, experience, etc.

Emancipation

Shouldn’t typical uke archetype be seen as an example of subversion of the main character masculinity that dominates media landscape? Shouldn’t they be exalted for being what they are? Uke archetype that allows all genders to project onto and gain pleasure from, is that any less than a marvel in itself?

Pursuer & Pursued

In order to analyses if there is a shift in seme-uke dynamic, the P’AbsoluteBL employs the following to categories who is active:

who is pursuing whom

who makes the first call in terms of declarations and physical touch

who seems to be more in charge of the relationship

In BL, these are never reserved for seme/uke/riba. Who takes on which role depends on the narrative. BL rarely have fixed pursuer-pursued. All parties involved in a ship take on active role in different circumstances.

Take, for example, the original edition of Ossan’s Love, Hasegawa Yukiya employs certain indirect tactics to pursuing Soichi Haruta such as cooking, cleaning and caring for him. (These are tasks that seme/riba/uke usually engage in lighter BLs to gain and retain the attention/affection of the one they are pursuing.) Hasegawa also engages in activities they do together as a means to grow closer. Once he learns of his love rival, he switches up the tactic. He pursues more directly and aggressively. Soichi rejects him. He withdraws and returns to the original tactic but without attempts to grow closer. Soichi feels the loss and tries to get close to Hasegawa but is brushed off. He does not back down. Instead, he takes on a more aggressive route of pursuit - making amends and chasing after Hasegawa.

What P’AbsoluteBL implies with “I think BLIHID’s main couple has a REALLY weak seme/uke dynamic from the get go” is made abundantly clear in with “ShiLei does a lot of active pursuit, also he’s very self actualized.” Here, using pursuer/pursued would have sufficed. Instead, P’AbsoluteBL chose to disappropriate established terms ‘seme/uke’ and imbibed them with implications of “active pursuit” as well as “self-actualization” [regarding queer identity] that seme/uke/riba doesn’t carry originally. Most of it based on biases built on equating all BL to one type of BL: the one with traditional pairing that follows royal road progression.

What P’AbsoluteBL actively avoids discussing is that Beloved in House is basically following the super popular ‘domineering president’ plot based on a BG romance.

Live Action Struggles

P’AbsoluteBL mentions an imagined ‘struggles around seme/uke’ in live-action BL. I think the actual issue plaguing live action BL is the struggle to balance business and other interests while being able to do justice to the diversity within BL as a media genre.

source: (chil-chil.net)

In the chart:

ほのぼの – heartwarming – Example: Restart After Come Back Home

コメディ – comedy – Cherry Magic

ダーク – dark – Sing in Love

シリアス – serious – Cornered Mouse Dream of Cheese

キュン – exciting (kyun) – Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss

Japan has trouble in diversifying its live-action in terms of sub-genres and treatment/mood. Even Thailand, despite the amount it produces have trouble offering variety. Riba couple, maiden seme, yarachin characters, yandere X yandere ship, etc. are either very rare or non-existent in live action BL. Moreover, live action BL is seldom explicit and are mostly in the speculative territory with seme/uke/riba dynamics, making it all the harder to diversify.

Tbh, what fascinated me the most is the “I kind of automatically cringed” part of the question. I would love to know what brought about that reaction. I am sure that it would help shed some light on discourse surrounding BL in general.

Post #2: Blushing Maiden Trope & Seme/Uke

Discussion (intended and in italics) between an anon, @heretherebedork & P’AbsoluteBL on actions and reactions during physical relationships.

The discussion centers around “the character placed into the stereotypically feminine role” being repulsed/reluctant/hesitant when it comes to physical relationships. It is directly attributed to “purity culture in BLs”.

BL have a complicated relationship with “purity” or being “clean”. Tanbi roots of BL hinged on sexuality and obsession with beauty to the point of decadence. Shonen ai (original meaning) works also had characters who are usually promiscuous for one reason or the other, never forming very deep relationship (at least not enough to stick to monogamous unions for long) yet endlessly entangled with other characters, often baffling non-queer characters in those works.

from Song of the Wind and Trees

[Inviting readers to hazard a guess: who is the seme and who is the uke. Answer at the end of this post.]

But how explicit the depiction of physical relationships has varied in BL with time and space. Japanese BL with the self-published BL (aniparo / yaoi – original meaning) boom saw very explicit depictions side by side with the commercial BL which have barely any explicit content or those which take a closed-door approach. Now Japanese BL have a wide range in terms of explicit content and have grown to incorporate elements from other genres including gei comi. Korean BL is similarly doing well. It is not uncommon to have chapters or parts of chapter in manhwa and novels dedicated to the celebration of physical relationships. Thai BL also have no dearth of explicit content, especially in web publishing. Chinese BL in its early days had lots of explicit content, especially in self-publishing. But as censors started taking notice and cracking down, authors and platforms clamped down. Most BL were purged of any & all explicit content. Some of it migrated to Taiwanese platforms, AO3 & other foreign hosts. Now all danmei published is “pure love” devoid of even allusion to depiction of any physical relationship beyond above neck action.

When it comes to BL live action, things are a little different. In Japan and to an extend abroad, there has always been overlap between audience of BL and audience of Japanese GVs and pink eiga. Moreover, early live-action Japanese BL was probably aimed exclusively at hardcore BL fans. They were way more explicit on average and did not always involve physical relationship between the main ship. Same seems true about early live-action Chinese BL. A Round Trip to Love Part 2 (2016) even had bondage and SM scenes which wasn’t there in the novel; but then it didn’t have the hard-earned happy ending the novel had either. But now, even dangai with “socialist brotherhood” (社会主义兄弟情) can’t be aired. Meanwhile, Japan’s average BL today lacks much explicit content. This isn’t to say that it doesn’t drop an occasional Sei no Gekiyaku (2020) once in a blue moon. Here are my speculations to why more of those doesn’t get made.

There is another reason for “purity culture” in BL.

Sathaporn Panichraksapong, an MD of GMMTV, a major producer of BL series, claimed that audience members who are mainly heterosexual women look for romantic relationships among the characters rather than sexual relationships.

We know that our audience are [sic] women. Women want to see only two boys having romantic moments together. They don't want to see sex. Sexual relationships in BL are for a gay audience. That's why in SOTUS the Series we have only two kissing scenes. With only these, audiences were already screaming. This is enough for them. (Interview with Sathaporn, GMMTV, 10 Aug. 2017)

Jirattikorn, Amporn. "Heterosexual Reading vs. Queering Thai Boys' Love Dramas among Chinese and Filipino Audiences." (2023).

As Jirattikorn goes on to highlight, this [wrong] perception about the audience (“women”) have changed ever since.

While early BL series tend to portray pure love without showing many sexual relationships, later BL series started to show more sex scenes between the two male lead characters.

Jirattikorn (2023)

“It’s always the character being pursued, who is typically in his first relationship, who Never Thinks Of Sex. They’re often very sweet and innocent and wide-eyed.”

While heretherebedork attributes it to “purity culture”, it can be argued that this has to do with what audience wanted:

I like the way they portray love in Thai BL. It is a kind of puppy love. BL of other nations, like Chinese BL, are darker. In Thai BL, two male characters often start off friends, then develop feelings for each other. It is very light, very sweet. (Krissy, f, 27, Philippines)

Jirattikorn (2023)

and what media houses thought they wanted, as evidenced by Jirattikorn’s interviews with BL fans. This is not to dismiss struggles with purity culture which is often a very slow part of decolonialization.

P’AbsoluteBL goes further to the argument that “purity” is associated with seme/uke dynamics in BL and maps it to typical het pairing (BG):

The stronger the seme/uke dynamic (the more heterosexually dysmorphic and less actually gay) the more likely this trope will manifest. Simply put: the man (because he is hooah a MANLY MAN DUDE) wants sex but the woman (delicate pure flower of cleanliness and joy) does not. And if she does want it she is a DIRTY, worthless, whore - so she MUST protest sex (GASP) at every single turn. (Seme is acting the male and uke the female in these kinds of narratives.) *please sense my sarcasm dumb interwebs, mm’kay?*

It’s true that the argument seems persuasive but is it right? Probably not. Seme, uke and riba characters can be divided into strong/weak categories based on their characterization - with the strong ones being those who pursue, take initiative, most likely to initiate intimacy at least for their first time, etc. and weak ones being those at the receiving end of pursuits and initiatives. Pairing a strong one with a weak one is probably more traditional –

strong riba x weak riba like in Addicted (at least before time skip)

strong seme x weak uke like in Old Fashioned Cupcake

weak seme x strong uke like in Saezurutori Wa Habatakanai (at least before time skip; pavam Doumeki)

compared to those with both parties being strong (which leads to delectable friction and sparks flying when done right) or both being weak (which leads to audience wondering: will either of them do something? No? Very well!).

BL’s sex negativity

Seme gets overwhelmed by his lust for uke, acts aggressively and has to be shut down or warned off.

Not only seme, uke and riba characters does this too. P’AbsoluteBL attributes “getting overwhelmed by lust” and “acting aggressively” to seme when it can be attributed to both uke (襲い受け) and riba as well. Other than acting aggressively, characters may employ seduction (eg. Xia Shang Zhou in You Are Mine (2023) - tried and failed & Charlie in Pit Babe (2023) - successful) and/or manipulation (Color Recipe by Harada).

Seme won’t take no for an answer because his needs are too great and his needs take precedence (he’s “the man” after all) and the uke is just TOO CUTE how could anyone resist? (After all the seme is only gay for this one guy because he is so cute. Everything, therefor, is the uke and his cutenesses’ fault.)

Moreover, P’AbsoluteBL is probably not aware of kawai seme who employ their cuteness to get uke to lower the guard and to seduce. Cuteness is clearly not a uke prerogative.

Like the sailor-costume wearing seme on the cover, cuteness is sometimes invoked through conventionally women’s clothing, cosplaying (maid, sailor, nurse), etc.

If the seme makes the choice to have sex for the uke, then the uke is not at fault and is still technically innocent. Only if an uke wants it, is he actually impure (or actually gay). In H4 when they both comfort and sex shame the bottom after the rape sequence, this is the narrative’s mentality. (A man who does not want sex is assumed to be able to fight another man off.) Oh and ALSO, the seme must read the uke’s mind and know what the uke really wants.

I don’t even know what went into this argument. There is an entire subgenre: 調教 BL (training / conditioning) that is focused on pleasure training. If a character (seme/uke/riba) wants sex in a narrative, it usually only means that their partner is on the right track. Moreover, when a character wants, actively seeks and are denied intimacy for manipulation reasons, then their partner is made out to be cruel (either 鬼畜 or ゲス・クズ).

In other words, if the uke is interested in sex, he’s made impure by this interest. Sex of any kind is an act of desperation and indicates lack of control and therefor diminishes both parties but particularly the uke, therefor the uke shouldn’t have to take responsibility of wanting sex, so the decision must be made by the seme for both of them. He is being a “good seme” by doing this. The uke, therefore MUST appear reluctant to have sex, or he is not a good/pure/virtuous person.

Honestly, I haven’t come across BL which gives off this kind of message. However, two-faced scummy characters (seme/uke/riba) get to employ hypocrisy, which includes slut-shaming, to humiliate characters they are shipped with but then such narratives are built to illicit hatred (for scummy characters) and angst and often punished with:

(a) unhappy ending for the couple

(b) breaking up of the ship

(d) switching within ship – uke turns into riba/seme or seme turns into riba/uke – or shift in power dynamics (rich character becomes relatively poorer, junior from school becomes senior/superior in workplace).

A lot of readers find such dramatic plots satisfying and hence it is a successful subgenre.

Can you guess the seme in these 20 BL manga? Try this quiz on renta.

Post #3: How do they determine who will be archetype seme/uke?

Discussion regarding seme/uke determination in BL: @elynn0723 & P'AbsoluteBL (intended and in italics).

I think your confusion is partly nested in the fact that seme/uke is not about who fucks who, not really. Certainly not anymore. Seme/uke are narrative archetypes not physical acts.

Disappropritation. Discussed above.

I should say for the record that personality is NOT sexual preference.

P’AbsoluteBL goes onto give examples (all of which are fictionalized in different genres – GB, BL, etc.) but probably due to being limited by lack of exposure, goes onto ask, “How weird that anyone would think queers do this.” Queers do this. If one is willing to look beyond LGBTQIA+ form of queerness (which is born and brought up in America), one can see queer possibilities. For example, Kothi-Panthi queerness in India/South Asia. It is probably a good idea to pay attention to it when generalizing queerness given how big India/South Asia’s (queer) population is. There are very many similar forms of queerness in other parts of Global South. In many cultures, sexuality doesn’t inform identity but sexual preference does.

[ Aside: Kothi-Panthi model of queerness

This model doesn’t work for whole of India – region (India is so big and heavily populated - different sexual cultures and practices); linguistics (different terms in different region, same terms different meanings in different region, decline of Farsi (used in queer spaces in Delhi) and other queer argot/cant and their replacement with American English internet slang); class & caste (LGBTQIA+ being self-identification of mostly urban/rurban, upper class, English educated v/self- identification common among the sex workers, working class and other lower classes in rural as well as urban spaces who are excluded from consumerist queerness);

NGOfication of queer movement & action; global queering and neoliberal take over leading to americanization –– intermixing & “gay” (and other terms) being used differently by different classes.]

How do they determine who will be archetype seme/uke?

P’AbsoluteBL points to narrative roles - who is “after” the relationship more, and then goes onto claim “the heroine is the main character, the love interest is her love interest. It’s decided for them because it’s a romance novel.” I don’t know if this helps explaining either seme/uke/riba archetypes in BL or pursued/pursuer. Aren’t there romances where hero pursues heroine and the other way around? Aren’t there romances where both party pursue each other?

Even if we assume that androphilic female audience is projecting the sexual mores & expectations imposed on them onto male characters, then by the very act aren’t they subverting those expectations.

How do they determine who tops?

P’AbsoluteBL provides the following schema:

seme = active pursuer

since active pursuer is “the male role”

he should do the penetrating

which has to be done

P’AbsoluteBL also gives a term for this association: heterosexual dysmorphia - "the idea that any couple must fit into predetermined binary gender roles". This is probably coming from a place of ignorance since the example given is confined to musings about sexism concerning the upper class in Global North. Also, at least in the ambit of Kothi-Panthi sexuality, fitting into masculine top-feminine bottom dynamic doesn’t place them into any predetermined binary gender roles. Instead, it only places them in the fluid space of multi-genders: can/are seamlessly float(ing) between being kinnar/hijra/ali and being “cis-men”.

If one is to ask the question: “Which one of you is The Girl?” to a kothi-panthi couple, the kothi would tell you without hesitation: “I am The Girl.” Might even asked you in turn, “Couldn’t you tell?”

Kothi [is the word used by] effeminate men who desire to be penetrated by "real" men whom they call ‘panthi’.

Queer Movements by Paromita Chakravarti & Aniruddha Dutta

Seme/uke/riba archetypes are imbibed with different traits and different spin on personalities that a seasoned BL sommelier might be able to spot easily but would confuse those who are less familiar with all that the genre has to offer. The following excerpt from an analysis by @ranchthoughts reflects the most popular idea about seme/uke dynamics.

Most BL shows can be read through a lens of seme/uke dynamics, which originated in yaoi. The seme is the “pursuer” character and the uke is the “pursued”. There are certain physical (height, skin colour, etc.), social (age, wealth, social capital, etc.), and personality (active vs. passive, extroverted vs. introverted, flirtier vs. shyer) markers which are typically associated with either the seme or the uke. For example, semes tend to be taller, wealthier, older, flirtier, tanner, more active, and have a higher social status, while ukes tend to be shorter, poorer, younger, shyer, paler, and have a lower social status. “Seme” and “uke” roles are also sometimes conflated with masculinity and femininity (semes are “masculine” and ukes are “feminine”) and sexual preferences (semes are dominant and tops and ukes are submissive and bottoms). There are also tropes associated with either the seme or the uke, like ukes typically give cheek kisses and semes forehead kisses. Thus, things like height, age, wealth, personality, presumed sexual preference, and the role they take in tropes can index the character’s status as a seme or a uke, and in turn the character’s identity as a seme or uke in the narrative (pursuer vs. pursued) indexes a character’s personality, sexual preferences, etc., however unrealistic and simplistic that is in real life. In a BL, we would expect the seme (pursuer) and uke (pursued) characters to exhibit most, if not all, of the associated seme or uke traits and roles in tropes, though this is not always true (and some BLs have little to no seme/uke dynamics at all).

There are two interesting things about such an understanding of seme/uke dynamics:

It closely resembles nenja/wakashu dynamics (and its cousins) in the customary and mostly age-stratified androphilia in pre-modern Japan.

Live action BL, at least the ones that were current and popular, stuck mainly to a single type of dynamic: pairing of one seme of a particular kind (スパダリ – super darling) with one uke of a particular kind (ヘタレ – milquetoast). There are barely any riba couple. It is painting picture of BL in monochromes. So much so that Bad Buddy and My School President were seen as some path breaking feat and a break away from “yaoi” tropes by live action audience, rather than seeing them having just another (or less familiar) set of yaoi / BL tropes.

What P’AbsoluteBL identifies as “heterosexual dysmorphia” in “yaoi” is basically what BL inherited from Japan’s pre-modern androphilia including “femininity” in uke from chiago, wakashu and androgynous Kabuki actors and (hyper)masculinity in seme from nenja and others who enacted “the male role”. BL did not passively receive any of these. And for moe, artists and audience alike, subverted it all.

This is true for all tropes that are attributed to seme/uke.

Height difference – Earliest BLs had petite bishonen pairings. Yaoi introduced height differences – all of them: tall seme x short uke short seme x tall uke (this is probably the most sexualized height difference) tall seme x tall uke (with little to no difference) both/all short riba CP/ship both/all tall riba CP/ship tall riba x short riba short riba x tall riba

Cuteness – Used to establish how irresistible a character (seme/uke/riba) is irrespective of their attitudes and behavior are. Oft part of seme’s seduction tactic, especially when uke has a weakness for cute things. Even when cuteness is not one of the seme’s attributes, it is invoked either actively by serving kawai in speech or through actions including cosplay; or passively like in the following example where a typical super darling seme, Asami Ryuichi from Finder unintentionally triggers moe in Takaba Akihito (his uke) by cuddling a baby.

Uke’s cuteness is exploited to establish a sou uke (an uke every other character turns seme for) or subvert the same like in No Money where one of the epitomes of bishonen cuteness, Ayase (uke), who manages to enthrall others however isn’t a sou uke as one might expect and thus subverts the wakashu trope. Moreover, Kanou (seme) wasn’t initially drawn to Ayase due to his cuteness but due to Ayase’s kindness that lifted him out of the abyss of despair, when Kanou was at his weakest.

3. Bulk – BL have main characters (seme/uke/riba) with varying bulk and body types. There is far less diversity when it comes to Live Action BL.

4. Blushing maiden/virginal innocent trope – applies to all sorts of BL characters.

Edit: Conclusion

1. Surprisingly, ethnocentrism and loud echo of colonial masculinity in particular seem to permeate the discourse surrounding BL.

2. I really wish live action BL would have as much diversity as other BL media. Why is it so slow to diversify? Is it because of business interests? Is sticking to super darling X milquetoast pairing with royal road progression a sensible business decision? Or is sexism promoting wrong impressions of what audience want?

3. How come the Japanese terms "seme" & "uke" are used a lot but not "riba"? Where did live action BL audience learn these terms?

***

Yaoi = [how P'AbsoluteBL uses it] synonym for ボーイズラブ (boys love) manga.

= [popular use in anglophone BL manga fandom] BL manga with explicit content; as opposed to shonen ai.

= [original meaning] derivative works, which were mostly plot-what-plot type, that are self-published (doujinshi)

Answer to a question posted above: Gilbert Cocteau – uke in Song of the Wind and Trees

Below is the seme: Serge Battour

from Song of the Wind and Trees

Earliest BL manga had very pretty seme/uke/riba characters (if we are to call them so) and were not too preoccupied with "manliness" or a single type of "masculinity". But, they were surely obsessed with bishonen.

[1] 互攻 is also used to indicate POV switching between gong and shou in fiction.

[2] 纯爱 is also used to indicates asexual androphilia.

CP/pairing - involves 2 characters. Ship - involves 2 or more characters.

Inviting @waitmyturtles and @lurkingshan to share your thoughts if any (since I have noticed you guys use the terms "seme" & "uke" as well). Hope you guys don't mind the mention.

#japanese bl #boys love #bl history #thai bl #chinese bl #danmei #bl trivia #bl tropes #seme/uke #seme #uke #riba #korean bl #taiwanese bl

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theyilinglaozus · 9 months ago

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So for those who, like myself, no longer have x/twitter and perhaps weren't aware, Seven Seas has come under fire again due to a recent licensing announcement.

On February 21st, Seven Seas announced that they had secured the rights to license the Kinnporsche novels into the English language:

This announcement was met with both positive and negative reaction; the negative focusing mainly on two points. The first being that Daemi, the authors for the original Kinnporsche novel, were already under fire for their behaviours and treatment towards an actor in the KP drama, among other questionable behaviours.

But the other main negative reaction stemmed not from the novel or authors that were licensed, but towards Seven Seas themselves.

Kinnporsche is the first Thai BL novel of this kind to be licensed under the Seven Seas name. Yet Seven Seas has caused upset because, despite coming from a different country entirely, they have still decided to brand Kinnporsche as a danmei title.

Many fans took to social media explaining why this was an incorrect thing to do, yet rather than listening to them as well as both the Chinese and Thai communities, they instead decided to edit their websites definition on what danmei means:

For those that perhaps aren't already aware, danmei as a genre specifically applies to Chinese works. It does not apply to any other outside country - and that includes Thai.

It isn't just China that has a unique name for their male/male genre novels. In Japan, similar titles can be called yaoi. Thai takes inspiration from the Japanese name for this genre, often referring to their works as Y.

"Although the term boys-love, or its abbreviation “BL”, is more prevalently used internationally to denote the genre, it is more commonly referred to as waai (วาย) or “Y” in Thai. This term is derived from the first letter of the Romanized spelling of the Japanese expression for the genre yaoi. The term waai functions as an adjective and can be added, according to Thai grammar, after any media formats, such as siirii waai (“Y” series), niyaai waai (“Y” novels), kaatuun waai (“Y” comics). So, the next time you encounter “Y” alongside any Thai series, you will now be able to recognize it as belonging to the BL genre." (source)

While boys' love is the overarching umbrella for all these genres, it is both important and respectful to refer to the genre name of the given country of origin for a novel. Seven Seas has chosen not to do this, and instead has decided to band everything together under the danmei umbrella. This is both wrong and misleading.

If Seven Seas wants to publish such works under a more open branch, they'd be better rebranding under the boys' love term. But they won't, due to the success they've already achieved from their past releases of Chinese danmei. It isn't fair to other Asian, non-Chinese releases to not be referred to by their own title of the genre. Many of these potential new releases we're seeing are the first to come from certain countries - do they not deserve the same respect upon release as others?

I've been in fandom a long time - long enough to see the Japanese yaoi genre grow from being something rarely known in the west to something that's grown hugely popular. I've been here from the beginning of these danmei releases in the past recent years. While seeing how reintroducing stories to new audiences can come with its own difficulties and growing pains, we've come far along enough in the years that there is little excuse for Seven Seas not to show more care and respect when it comes to the way they handle these things; especially given how they've already received backlash in the past with their danmei releases when it's come to concerns over translation, treatment of translators and their work, the decline in quality vs. the rise in time between volume releases, as well as arguments that they don't always do the required research into licensing a title beforehand.

Don't get me wrong, I love that Seven Seas is bringing some of our favorite titles over to us. I just wish that the people behind them cared a little more, especially when it comes to these sorts of things which could very easily be rectified/researched into in the first place.

#seven seas entertainment #seven seas #seven seas critical #kinnporsche #i know i'm arriving a week late with the starbucks on this #but i've been sitting on my feelings on this since i read about kinnporsche being licensed via reddit #and i wanted to say something instead of sighing in frustration whenever i see something else about this situation #i'm not even that big into thai boys love and it didn't even take me a moment to do the basic research into the genre #(i am planning to watch kinnporsche eventually though. i'm just slow on starting it lmao)#for a company that's planning to license more titles under it seven seas could have at least done that.

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norwegianfantasia · 2 years ago

Text

How to support international stories coming out in English!

I've seen many English speakers ask when they see something not out in their language commenting "Will it ever come out in English?" "[…] Can't wait for for it to be available in English :) I bet it will be a success! 🎉" "I'm having a hard time finding these in English - are they available anywhere?" "I hope your books comes to the US! Looks cool!" "I've heard great things about your book! Is it translated to English? I was having trouble finding it, but I'd be interested in reading it ^_^"

Well, on their website Seven Seas Entertainment has a monthly survey where you can send in stories, this is seemingly the easiest way although you can only usually send in 4* a month/survey (which I won't link directly to as they are monthly and we are already at the end of April and I don't know when May's will show up, so just scroll down to it). So it can take a while, and preferably no repeats, so have a list you can check off those you have already requested. You can also ask people you know to fill it, or borrow their devices, maybe even use the computers at the library, airport, school, etc. You can also send in all the ones you are interested in to Dark Horse Comics for example, but in my experience are the ones replying to this email address on their Instagram account: contestATdarkhorseDOTcom to be much nicer although they don't really reply if they are considering the suggestions or not, nor do they appear to take regular novels which is a bummer.

There's also OniPress which are going to publish Snøkattprinsen, and Arctis who has published Ravneringene, and while claiming to bring the best from all over the world to the US have they mostly taken from their German branch's library (and seem to be mostly taking novels only, but you can try convincing them to broaden their horizons). There's Yen Press, which seems to be going pretty international or at the very least East Asian, as well as Scholastic and Penguin although the latter two might not take much comics/graphic novels compared to the comic and art book exclusive Dark Horse. Apparently these prefer suggestions done by tweeting at them, so this depends on you wanting to use twitter or not. But I'd avoid DC and Marvel as then the stories might have to become part of their established universes which might be difficult for the creators, and honestly unnecessary. There's also Tokyopop that was revived in English recently with Disney and GL&BL stuff, but with their history, do I not know if I want to trust them... Especially since they are proudly showing off the stories which rights they stole from their original underpaid creators...

Whichever you decide to go for, do I personally recommend pasting the urls from the links below or write them as "[story] by [author]" to make them easier for them to find, they are only human after all.

Picture from Alena Pons' Instagram

Want an inclusive story about a magical school that isn't written by a recist TERF? Or perhaps a comedy about monster children attending school and their shenanigans? Or about a non-binary ash elf and their dragon friend? Or about how a prophecy ruins the lives of the chosen ones as they have no choice how to live their lives? Then we have stories for you!

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Strawberry Moon 📖❤️♿

Underbyen 🗨️

Under Regnbuen 🗨️🤍🏳️‍🌈

Urara🗨️♿

The Urban Legend 🗨️**

Valhalla🗨️♿

Ville Poter 🗨️♿

보지도 못하고 듣지도 못해도 사랑해🗨️❤️♿

외발로 살다🗨️🤍♿

Legend: 🗨️=comic/graphic novel, 📖=novel, 🏳️‍🌈=lgbtqia+ characters***, ❤️=romance is a central theme, 🤍=some romance but not the focus, 🖤=no romance what so ever, ♿=disabled character(s) in a good light (counts by @cannondisabledcharacters rules), (some may change the more I read or as the story continues).

Art by @cha-c-san

That thing from that country vs just another movie

So since 2012 has Innovasjon Norge where they gave money to fund an animation movie by a little unknown animation company known as Disney over a Norwegian series, that have continued doing that. So Norway's top 3 ways of making money are:

Oil

Tourism

Salmon

So because of the environment, they want to phase out the oil and find ✨𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔢𝔴 𝔬𝔦𝔩™✨. So first they tried increasing the salmon "farming", which led to fleas and birth defects. After the seemingly huge success of Frozen, they funded the side stuff and the sequel. Then they funded a Mission Impossible movie, to have a scene on Preikestolen, the scene was so brief and didn't really add anything to the movie so they had to beg so it wasn't cut. Then in one of the latest James Bond movies they funded it to pretend that a Norwegian mountain is in India. So why do they fund so many American productions? Well, to put it simply, tourism. If they sneak in a little of Norway into these, they hope people will want to go to Norway.

But not everyone watching know that Arendelle is based on Norway, and it goes over to being just another Disney movie doesn't it? The clip of Prekestolen, I haven't heard anyone mention that scene as standing out, honestly, I haven't heard anyone talking about that movie. The James Bond movie, they are told that beautiful mountain is in India, India has many beautiful mountains, but pretending that mountain is in India in-movie will increase tourism there, disappointed when they don't find it. So unless you read interviews or the credits closely, you probably wouldn't know that you were lied to. And if hopefully the pandemic taught them anything, do not rely on tourism too much!

So after a while they just become another movie among many others. But if they support a Norwegian story making it as big as they deserve, it'd be remembered among people as "that Norwegian thing" wouldn't it? This is why I want to support stories not only from my home country but also from others. Among the ✨𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔫𝔢𝔴 𝔬𝔦𝔩™✨ they've tried is timber, which Sweden is known for, and like oil, is finite. There's no end in creative people, and they deserve support. Here they get only 10% of what they poored their soul into while the publisher last time I checked get 70%. This the result of a print shop strike where as they only got 5%, where the boss took 90% of that and the actual workers got the remains. I don't blame the print shop workers, they deserved more. But that the publisher snuck in and took the hugest percentage, is just BS as they do the least (here at least, most authors have to advertise in their own free time themselves).

Vegetarian vampires done right, comic by David Ramírez

* This April one asked for at least 1 Manga from Japan exclusively, 2 Manga/Graphic novels/Comics from wherever, At least 1 light novel from Japan exclusively, and 2 any kind of novel from wherever. [edited in April: they want 1 manga from the 90s or older] [edited in by the end of January as they were asking for these specific genres then] For the manga and light novels from Japan: 1 fantasy/isekai manga and 1 light novel 🐉, 1 of each with lgbtqia+ topics, 1 of each with comedy🤣, romance, or drama🎭, 1oe action⚔️, horror👻, or supernaturalψ, 1oe with fanservice, smut, and stuff like that, 1oe from the 90s or older💾, 2oe Chinese (or Taiwanese or any other country they publish stories in Chinese probably), 1oe Korean 🇰🇷 (the two on the bottom of the previous list are Korean, will add some novels here), 1 Hiveworks Comic, 1 International web comic (will add some below the Korean novels), and 1oe international comic/graphic novel and novel.

If you don't read much manga but want to suggest any do I recommend (these have no "fan service") 五色の舟🗨️📖♿🏳️‍🌈🐉 (Goshiki no Fune , about a found family of Japanese disabled people during WW2 as they try to survive, none of the opposing forces are demonized and just they trying to live their lives), I S―男でも女でもない性🗨️♿🏳️‍🌈❤️ (IS - Otoko Demo Onna Demo Nai Sei, about different intersex people and their lives), 斉木楠雄のΨ難 (Saiki Kusuo no PSI Nan/The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. 🗨️♿🤍🤣ψ A comedy about a seemingly aroace guy with supernatural powers he takes all too seriously), 放浪息子🗨️🏳️‍🌈❤️ (Hourou Musuko, about trans children and their lives, not perfect but also sweet, had an English translation that was sadly dropped due to lack of sales), Ballad of a Shinigami 📖🤍♿ψ (one of the first light novels Seven Seas published, but was cancelled as it was in the years light novels and visual novels weren't taken as seriously in the west, hopefully we can uncancel it), もののけ草紙🗨️🤍♿👻 (Mononoke Soushi , well, it has some nudity but not pervy nudity. It's about a young girl Tenome growing up right before WW2 and as an adult during the war, it's a love craftian inspired horror manga with Japanese folklore and she's really badass, and even if you are a coward like me is the art, story, and characters stronger than the horror so you'd probably like it,

＋アニマ🗨️🤍♿🐉(+Anima, a darkly cute series about children gaining animal powers, was officially in English once, but deserves more love again), Luck Stealer 📖⚔️🤍♿ψ by Hajime Kazu (story about an assassin taking lives by stealing their luck by coming near them, really satisfying and badass and understandable why he does it. There's one annoying character shoehorned in by an editor it feels like, but he doesn't appear much fortunately), 心霊探偵八雲📖🤍♿ψ (Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, a mystery series about a guy who can see ghosts, can get really dark), and finally 恋の神様古味直志短編集🗨️❤️🤍🖤ψ🐉🤣 (Koi no Kamisama, a collection of Komi Naoshi one-shots before he went mainstream with Nisekoi, a collection of weird and kind of psychological one-shots that are a lot of fun within few pages). P.A. (プライベートアクトレス) ❤️💾♿🗨️🎭 about a "private actress", pretending to be people's lover, daughter, themselves, whatever is needed, seeing her act and grow as a person, not perfect and shows it age some places but mostly surprisingly accepting. アノニマス🤍🗨️🎭 (Anonymous, about some Japanese teens from the 20s, raised without names or purpose other than to follow orders, but they meet some other teens they to their surprise befriend and so they decide to live for themselves). 周刊少年Girl 🗨️🤣🤍ψ(Weekly Shounen Girl, an absurd and wacky manga that takes full use of it's medium, it's amazing). スミレ♡16歳!! 🗨️🤣(Sumire♡16 years old!! Weird manga about a puppet attending school and somehow getting friends. Oddly sweet).

These don't quite follow the rules but are 💾: F. Compo (weird trans manga from the 90s, a cis man's desperate attempt at being "accepting", interesting to look back at), クロノクルセイド(Chrono Crusade, has some unnecessary fan service but is still my favourite manga. Is about a nun and a demon hunting demons in USA in the 1920s), ストップ!! ひばりくん! (Stop!! Hibari-kun! I remember some problematic moments, but a impressively progressive trans manga from the 80s!).

The promised Korean novels:레지나레나 - 용서받지 못한 그대에게 📖❤️♿(Regina Rena: To the Unforgiven, has a webtoon on... Webtoon and a region locked translation of the novel), 필리아로제 - 가시왕관의 예언🗨️🤍♿(Philia Rosé: The Prophecy of the Crown of Thorns, the WebToon is translated but not the novel), 마땅한 살인📖🤍♿⚔️ (Justified Murder, novel about a doctor forced to kill the father of a patient in self defense when he doesn't want her to tell authorities that he abused the patient. Her cop husband helps her dispose of the body by drawing a lipstick heart on him, the signature of a serial killer only going after the worst, it works a little too well as the killer contacts her and recruits her as the killer is actually a group). International webcomics/WebToons (those i do not know where are from don't have flags, some are already in English): City Vamps 🇪🇸, Heartblood🇫🇮, I Want to Be A Cute Anime Girl, Born From Death 🇮🇩, @XXIII, Angel's Quest 🇪🇸, Watermelon 🇸🇦, Seed 🇹🇷 (I think), Love Advice From the Great Duke of Hell 🇨🇭, The Witch and the Bull 🇹🇼, Project Novos 🇦🇹, The World Where I Belong 🇹🇭(I think), and more. Remember that the ones further up are the ones struggling to come out in English.

** Self published, but has been looking for an official publisher forever according to interviews.

*** a work not marked with this still could have some later, is not clear enough, I haven't read enough yet to know, or I haven't asked the author. But even if one seemingly does not have any does it not mean that the author is phobic or not part of the lgbtqia+ themselves, and as far as I know, no one on this list are phobic as far as I've checked.

youtube

Feel free to reblog with stories from different countries that aren't translated into English. The ones I suggest here are in languages that I understand or have accessed by other means. Also, many thanks to @godteri-takk for encouraging me and @ittibittium for making this post (which is very much have been the reason the series came out look at slide 2) and inspiring me. If you have any questions about the stories I've included here, feel free to ask ^^. If you wonder why I didn't link to Phenomena, Mørkalven, Under Regnbuen, The Urban Legend, and Underbyen on the booksfromnorway website is it that they're simply not there, the publisher haven't added them. I'd also link to Norway Comics more often as the website looks good, but haven't been updated in about 2 years, maybe they started to give up? I don't know. Thank you for your time and hopefully we can give more than a few authors a cool gift before the end of the year.

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ahgasegotarmy116 · 1 year ago

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Semantic Error | A Jeon Jungkook Series | Chapter 3

Based off of Semantic Error (bl) by J Soori Summary: y/n meets Jimin and makes Jungkook jealous Pairing: Techie inexperienced fem!reader x Artist fuck boy Jungkook Word count: 2.7k~ Warnings: Explicit language, Idk that's pretty much it for this chapter. A/N: This is heavily based off of the original bl (boy love) Semantic Error and it covers chapters (episodes) 4,5 and 29. I've switched around the timeline quite a bit and got rid of some scenes here and there to make the story progress a bit faster so they're not exactly alike but I would like to stick close to the original story so let me know what you think! P.s. If you don't mind spoilers I would highly suggest reading the original story. I read it on the app Manta with the english adaptation being done by Angy and you can also find the Kdrama on Viki :) Read from the beginning

The next day as I'm walking to the cafeteria I see a guy fall dropping some books and papers all over the floor. I decide to walk past because honestly it's not my problem but unfortunately once I'm in his line of sight he decides to call out to me. "Hey sorry do you think you could help me pick this stuff up? I shouldn't have tried to balance all of it on top of each other" he says clearly regretting his actions. I start picking things up quietly, not making an effort to make conversation and once we're finished I decide to turn and go.

"Wait! What's your name?" he asks preventing me from leaving. "y/n" I state and wait for him to continue on with whatever he had planned to say. "Well y/n would you mind helping me carry this stuff over to the music building? I'm just worried I might drop it all again" he says taking all of the heavy books and hoping that I'll pick up the folders full of sheet music. I stand there for a second trying to calculate the time it would take me to help him out and if I can fit it into my schedule.

"If you help me, I'll buy you lunch" he says with a bright almost perfect smile aside from his cooked front tooth. Thinking about it now with that incentive clearly tips the scale, providing him with a favorable result. I wordlessly pick up the things he couldn't manage to carry and wait for him to lead the way. "You don't talk much do you?" he chuckles giving me a sideways glance. "Not unless it's necessary" I say and continue to follow hoping I'll get this over with so I can get back on schedule.

"So...what's your major?" he says obviously trying to maintain a conversation with me. "Computer Engineering" I answer giving his as short of answers as possible. I'm not one for casual conversation, let alone conversation at all. Like I said, only when necessary. "I'm Jimin by the way, and if you couldn't guess already my major is music. Well, music and dance but my course load this semester is very music centric" I nod my head and he decides to keep rambling which seems to be something he's used to doing.

From the casual glances we're getting it seems like he's pretty well known in this department. "Hey Jimin you down to go grab some lunch in a sec?" a guy in a big group of people yells out. "Nah that's okay, I promised to buy y/n lunch for helping me out" he says motioning to me as best as he can with his hands full. "Oh...okay well have fun" the guy says and goes back to one of the many conversations going on over there.

I turn my head and look back up at Jimin confused, "You could've just given me enough for the cafeteria and have gone with them" I say hoping to brush him off and go back to my solitude. "I'm not gonna buy you food from the cafeteria silly, let's go somewhere! There's a cool pizza place right outside of campus that I've been wanting to check out. You wanna go?" he asks asks and nods towards the classroom that we're meant to leave these things at. "I guess" I shrug not really caring at this point. Since my class doesn't start for another two hours I guess I could afford to go off campus to eat for a change, especially since it's free.

As we make our way into the pizza place (creatively named Pizza Planet) we're greeted by a pretty big crowd but luckily we're able to find a table near the entrance right away. "Welcome in" someone yells letting us know they saw us come in and they'll be with us in a moment. "This place is pretty cool huh? He says referring to the theme that seems to be trendy these days. "Spaceships, nice" I say barely looking up while scanning the QR code to get the menu.

"Have you never watched the movie Toy Story?" he says, surprised that I don't have a better reaction to it. "No I'm not big on American movies or whatever. My family really only showed us media that was Korean or Japanese" I say hoping to show that I'm not interested on elaborating on the topic any further and luckily before he can say anything again our server comes to our table.

"Welcome to Pizza Planet guys, what can I get you?" he says with a bright smile until his glance falls on me. For some reason his expression changes to that of annoyance and I'm slightly confused but not enough to comment on it. "Do you know what you want y/n?" Jimin asks me and I take a quick glance over the menu and settle on the most expensive item. It's a free meal so might as well milk it for all it's worth.

Jimin places his order and the server looks back down at me and asks if we wanted anything else to which Jimin denies. "You guys do student discounts though right?" he asks holding out his card and the server takes his eyes off of me to inspect his student ID and confirms his suspicions.

Once he hands him back his student ID the server's gaze for some reason falls back on me. "Do you need to see my ID too?" I question suddenly weirded out by his glaring. "No" he says full of spite, pushing up the bridge of his glasses. "Okay well then you can go now, don't you have other people to serve?" I say shooing him off, to which he looks down at me with utter confusion and opts to just turn away to go put in our order instead of making an further discussion.

"Are you okay?" Jimin asks, clearly aware of the weird tension between the server and I. "Yeah I'm fine, he was just acting really weird" I say and shake it off for the time being. "Do you know him?" he asks tilting his head at me. "Why would I know a random guy in a pizza place?" I say confused as to how this all connects in his head. "Well because he goes to school with us, I believe his name is Jungkook, I had a class with him last semester and he seemed like a cool guy or so I thought. Are you guys okay?" he asks clearly concerned, seeing my face contort into an uncomfortable realization when I finally put the pieces together.

I guess I didn't recognize him because he was dressed so differently while sporting a hat and glasses. Looks like he clearly recognized me though, and he definitely wasn't happy to see me. I watch as Jungkook makes his way out of the shop as another server comes to relieve him. "Would you mind it if I went outside to go talk to him for a second?" I ask already standing up not really caring to wait for his permission. "Oh um yeah okay, I guess I'll just stay here" he says awkwardly while watching me walk out before I'm finally out of his view.

Looking around I notice that there's a small alleyway between this pizza place and the next building over and I can see a puff of smoke coming out of it as well as hear someone's voice sounding like some sort of argument. I walk over and thankfully it's the exact person I've been looking for. "Hey can you get off the phone?" I say and he looks up glaring at me and he stops leaves a pause in the conversation happening before he tells the person on the phone that he has to go. "What do you want?" he says before taking a drag off of his cigarette.

"We need to talk" I say seeing if he's open to it. "So talk" he says and purposefully blows smoke in my direction which leaves me having to wave away the smoke and clear my throat before I'm able to start. "I owe you an apology" I start off, "No shit you do" he mumbles under his breath. "Are you gonna let me talk or should I just go back inside?" I say getting short with him. "Yeah go back to your boyfriend, see if I care" he spits out and throws his cigarette on the floor to stomp it out before pushing himself up off the wall and making moves to walk off.

"He's not my boyfriend, in fact not that it's any of your business but we just met today and the only reason I'm here is because he offered me a free meal for helping him carry some stuff across campus" I say in one breath and open my mouth to continue "That doesn't sound like you" he interrupts laughing bitterly at my story. "Well it's the truth and you can ask him yourself if you really don't believe me" I say crossing my arm, becoming aware that this has now become my defensive stance of choice against him.

"No that's fine I believe you, I just find it adorable that you could be so food motivated. Helping out a perfectly good stranger and then making a trip with him off campus. That wasn't very smart of you y/n" he says taunting me. "Just because you're older than me doesn't mean that you get to talk down to me" I say getting even more irritated at this situation. "That's funny that you say that" he says getting closer until he's sure to tower over me, "because it looks like I have to love" he says trying to get some sort of reaction out of me.

I'm not sure exactly what it could be I decide to take a step back but as I do I find myself slipping on something and I mentally brace for impact but it never comes, now seeming to notice a firm grasp on my waist instead of my back on the cold hard street. "Be careful there y/n, we wouldn't want to have an accident on our hands" he says amused at our forced proximity and my facial expressions because of it. I get back up on my feet and push him away after I've sure I regained my balance. "I apologized okay? Now stop being so hostile, it's annoying" I say while straightening out my clothes. "But I like seeing the faces you make when I'm annoying you" he says with a smirk.

"What faces? I don't make any faces" I deny. "Why don't you go look in the mirror pretty, I'm sure you'll see why I like it so much" he says before walking past me. "Hey where are you going? Aren't you going to apologize too?" I call after him before he gets too far. "Sorry love, I've gotta go back to work, why don't we pick this up later?" he says sending me a wink before opening the door and walking inside. "But I don't want there to be a later" I say under my breath kicking the rocks that I had no doubt slipped on just moments ago. I shake myself out of whatever headspace he had me in and take a deep breath trying to calm myself down.

I've never had a rush of so many emotions running through me before, and the only other times it has gotten close to this it seems like Jungkook has been the one to triggered them. I groan and make my way back inside as well and I sit back down at the table not making an effort to say a word to Jimin. "So how did it go? It seemed like he was pretty happy when he walked in" he says intrigued by our polar opposite returns with me being the one who looks upset now. "He's happy because he was able to irritate me and get a reaction out of me. Ugh I should've never went out there" I groan and take a drink of my water.

"Why did you end up going out there?" he questions, clearly interested in the story behind our weird behaviors. "I said some things that were probably interpreted as being mean, I'm not the kind of person who cares much about others but I'm adult enough to admit that what I said was out of line" I say rolling my eye irritated that I let him get the best of me time and time again, but for some reason I end up being the bad guy.

"I swear this man is going to put me in an early grave" I say and then speak of the devil Jungkook shows up with our order. "That's not very nice, are you already trying to be mean to me again" he pouts jokingly. "No but you are being rather rude listening in on people's conversations" I roll my eyes and go back to taking a drink of water. "It's not my fault that you're talking about me right in front of me. Anyways is there anything else I can get you guys?" he asks looking between the two of us.

"No I think we're all set" Jimin responds sending me a smile which I return with a nod. "What about you pretty? Do you need anything else from me?" Jungkook says leaning towards me and tucking my hair behind my ear to see my face better. To which I respond to by choking on my water while also spilling some on the table. "Shit y/n are you okay?" Jimin asks clearly concerned for my welfare. I cough a few times and send him a thumbs up trying to calm my coughs down. "I'll go get you guys some napkins" Jungkook chuckles walking off.

"Man I swear guys like him think they can get away with anything just because they're more attractive than the average male" he says rolling his eyes at him and handing his napkins over to me. "Thanks" I say and clean up as best as I could while we wait for the rest of the napkins. "It's fine I'm over it" I say clearing my throat hopefully for the last time right as Jungkook returns with more napkins.

"Sorry guys I was just teasing, your meal's on me this time okay?" he says giving us both a charming smile. "You sure?" Jimin asks looking surprised as ever. "Yeah it's the least I could do for interrupting you guys and making y/n upset" he says but I can tell he's still teasing me even though he's behaving in front of Jimin.

"Thank you so much" Jimin says giving him a thankful shallow bow. "It's fine don't mention it, also you can call me Hyung if you want to, I don't mind" Jungkook offers, clearly trying to get on Jimin's good side. This whole act he's putting on is ridiculous, I haven't known him for long but I can sure as hell tell when people are lying. "Okay, thank you Jungkook hyung" he says and smiles back at me. "You can call me Oppa if you want to y/n" he says offering it to me as well, waiting for me to take the bait.

"Jungkook is just fine for me, I'll call you JK if you want me to, but that's it" I say not bothering to show any sort of respect and grace to the person who just bought my meal which is probably cold by now. "Aw come on just once?" he says mercilessly taunting me still. "Don't you ever get tired of being a pain in the ass?" I say finally fed up with all of his antics "Nope" he says popping the P at the end before leaning down to whisper in my ear "You look cute when you're feisty" he says making sure to blow on my neck again making me shiver slightly.

I stand up abruptly and he straightens his posture and takes a step back giving me the tiniest bit of room to pass by. "Jimin I'm leaving if you want I'll wait for you outside so we can take the food back to campus" I say and make moves to leave as quickly as I can, not missing the way Jungkook chuckles at me on the way out. "Um yeah I'll be out in a second. Hyung do you think you could box this up for us?" he asks using the new term he had been encouraged to use. "Sure, see you around y/n" he says making sure I hear it before the door closes behind me.

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scotianostra · 7 months ago

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One of my favourite poets, Edwin Morgan was born on April 27th 1920 in Glasgow.

Morgan is one of the poets associated with the Scottish Renaissance. He is widely recognised as one of the foremost Scottish poets of the 20th century.

An only child, he attended Rutherglen Academy and the High School of Glasgow, before studying English at Glasgow University. During the Second World War he registered as a conscientious objector, before serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, mainly in the Middle East.

He resumed his studies in 1946, and the following year began lecturing in English at Glasgow University. His first books – original poems and translations – appeared in 1952.

Edwin Morgan produced an extensive body of work. Endlessly curious and open-minded, he experimented with the language of machines as well as translating from a variety of European languages. He was a poet who was willing to give a voice to everything around him, whether it was an apple, the Loch Ness Monster, a cancer cell or the source of the Big Bang.

Edwin Morgan became a professor at Glasgow University in 1975, and retired from full-time teaching in 1980. In the 1980s he also began publishing with Glasgow’s Mariscat Press, notably Sonnets from Scotland.

In 1990 when he turned 70 he came out publicly for the first time as a gay man, imagine having to live that long before feeling he could do this……….

In the 21st century, and his eighties, he continued to write and publish prolifically, enjoying collaborations with young musicians. In 2004 he was appointed the first Scottish Makar by the Scottish Parliament.

Edwin Morgan marked his 90th birthday in April 2010 with the publication of a new collection of poetry, he died a few months later, on 19th August 2010.

If you know me through these type of posts you will know that I don't go for those long winded peices of verse, preferring shorter pieces like thes two by Mogan. To me poems need not make sense, to me they only need to make me smile.

‘Kiss me…’

Kiss me with rain on your eyelashes, come on, let us sway together, under the trees, and to hell with thunder.

The Loch Ness Monster’s Song

Sssnnnwhuffffll? Hnwhuffl hhnnwfl hnfl hfl? Gdroblboblhobngbl gbl gl g g g g glbgl. Drublhaflablhaflubhafgabhaflhafl fl fl – gm grawwwww grf grawf awfgm graw gm. Hovoplodok – doplodovok – plovodokot-doplodokosh? Splgraw fok fok splgrafhatchgabrlgabrl fok splfok! Zgra kra gka fok! Grof grawff gahf? Gombl mbl bl – blm plm, blm plm, blm plm, blp.

#scotland #scottish #history #makar #poet #translator

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fallloverfic · 2 years ago

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Where to read ENNEAD by Mojito, the boy's love manhwa

"The once peaceful land of Egypt has been stained with blood under the tyrannical rule of Seth, the god of war. Horus, son of the god Isis but not yet one himself, rises to challenge the throne and put an end to the chaos and destruction. Although the confrontation between Seth and Horus began with hatred, in time it becomes blurred by obsession and desire... The ancient mythology of Egypt comes to life as you've never seen it before in this compelling fantasy BL." - Tappytoon summary There are a lot of places to read ENNEAD, the Korean boy's love comic about gods in ancient Egypt, particularly Seth and Horus! But it can be a little confusing, so I'll put some of the big ones in a list, including how to read in English, Korean, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Thai (and here's a carrd version). If you're seeing this reblogged somewhere, check the original to see if there's been any updates, because I'll try to keep this up to date.

There are two versions of ENNEAD available most places it is available: an uncensored/mature/19+ version and a censored/16+/15+ version. The numbers refer to ages.

There is benefit to reading both! Mojito often modifies the censored scenes to show more of different scenes, and some of it explores character thoughts in ways you don't get in the mature version.

Episodes with version differences:

Season 1: Episodes 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 42, 43, 44, 74-75 (75 doesn't exist in the censored release)

Season 2: Episodes 19, 45, 46, 47, 71, 107, 108

ENNEAD is currently two seasons long with an ongoing season 2, and a planned season 3. Mojito sporadically posts on twitter in Korean, sometimes sharing updates, writing/drawing commentary, and extras.

ENNEAD updates in Korean every 10 days, on the 9th, 19th, and 29th (barring holidays and hiatuses), and on the last day of February when it's updating in February, around 22:00 KST. It updates in English, French, and German every 10 days, on the 10th, 20th, and 30th (barring holidays and hiatuses), and on the last day of February when it's updating in February. When the English is updating near-simultaneously, it puts out its latest episode around 00:00 ET. The English translation is currently 8 episodes behind the Korean. The French and German are 12 behind the Korean. The Chinese translation updates on the 5th, 15th, and 25th of each month. The Thai translation updates every other Tuesday.

Mojito has announced that ENNEAD in Korean will go on hiatus after the release of Season 2, Episode 108 until it returns on 20 December 2024 with Season 2, Episode 109. As all translations are behind the Korean, they will likely keep going until they hit Season 2, Episode 108, and then take a break to mimic the Korean, as has happened in the past.

Korean Audio Drama

On 5 November 2023, ACO announced a Korean audio drama of season 1 (Episodes 1-73). It was available for purchase in physical and is now available to purchase digitally by episode. You need to make an account on the digital site to purchase it there, and the individual episode site seems to require ID verification before purchase. More information here.

Print Releases

ENNEAD season 1 is available in print in Korean and Taiwanese, which you can purchase through Harumio and Koonbooks (along with other merch). Apparently the physical editions are a little cheaper if you look for third party sellers. Mojito announced on March 18th, 2023, that season 2 would be getting a physical release after season 2 was fully released online, though Mojito didn't specify in what language(s).

Seven Seas began release of an English physical edition starting in November 2023. "Seven Seas [is releasing] two versions of the series, which were originally drawn for different audiences: a paperback version rated Older Teen, and a deluxe hardcover version rated Mature. (Each version is standalone but has alternate depictions of some adult material.)" Season 1 is at least 6 volumes, and, like all physical releases, is using the Korean book covers.

There are also ongoing physical releases in German and Italian, and a completed season 1 release in Japanese.

Current physical release schedule:

21 November 2023: English volume 1 physical release

24 January 2024: Italian volume 1 physical release

15 February 2024: Italian volume 2 physical release

19 March 2024: English volume 2 physical release, German volume 1 physical release

28 March 2024: Italian volume 3 physical release

24 April 2024: Japanese volumes 1-2 physical release

16 May 2024: Italian volume 4 physical release

20 May 2024: Japanese volume 3 physical release

21 May 2024: German volume 2 physical release

19 June 2024: Japanese volume 4 physical release

18 July 2024: Italian volume 5 physical release

20 July 2024: Japanese volume 5 physical release

23 July 2024: English volume 3 physical release

20 August 2024: Japanese volume 6 physical release, German volume 3 physical release

17 September 2024: German volume 4 physical release

26 September 2024: Italian volume 6 physical release

12 November 2024: English volume 4 physical release

19 November 2024: German volume 5 physical release

18 March 2025: English volume 5 physical release

22 July 2025: English volume 6 physical release

Series Length and Physical Volume Count

Season 1 is complete at 73 episodes with 2 AUs (one for the uncensored release and one for the censored release, covering 3 episodes total). As a physical release, it is 6 volumes long, in every translation (with extra booklets for the uncensored AU and extra art), averaging to about 13 episodes a volume. Assuming season 2 is printed similarly, if it were printed at this point in time where season 2 is (108 episodes), season 2 would be ~8 volumes long, bringing the total series volume count to ~14 volumes. As there is a planned season 3, and Mojito tweeted in July that there is a lot left for season 2, but there's been no clarification on how long "a lot" is, the series total volume count will likely be more than 14 volumes. It is currently assumed that season 3 is the end of the series, as the series was only intended to be 2 seasons for years. But there's been no clarification that season 3 is the end, and as Mojito is adding seasons still (at least as of 2022), it is possibly going to be longer than 3 seasons. The only planned comic releases we know of outside the existence of a season 3 is that Mojito has said that season 2 will begin printing when it is complete online, Mojito said there would be an FGSeth Extra story, which is presumed to be included with season 3, and there is a planned rerelease of The Cat with God as Butler, a collection of non-canon comics from ~2017 about Anubis getting a kitten, which takes to Seth.

English, French, German

Tappytoon is the only place to legally read ENNEAD in English online. There is currently no downloadable ebook copy in English. Tappytoon is available on browser and the app (for your phone and/or tablet). Tappytoon recently added the mature version to its app, but if you have any issues reading it, both are available and purchasable on the browser version, which you can read on your phone/tablet through your browser if you'd like. Any funds you add and any episodes you buy through the app will be there if you switch to browser. It also has a French translation and a German translation, both of which seem to be censored.

Each version, age-wise, is marked specifically: mature says "Mature" (twice), and has a red M, while the censored/16+ version is marked as 16+, and is missing the "Mature" markers.

Uncensored/mature version^^^ (Again, this should be available on the app now, but if you have any issues accessing it, it has been and still is fully accessible via a browser).

Censored/16+ version^^^

These are both available on and off mobile. You do not need your phone to access Tappytoon. But you can use your browser and the app on mobile.

Obtaining episodes: The first three episodes on Tappytoon are free to read and keep forever (in Korean, the first five episodes are free). The rest are paywalled, but there are two ways to read it free, legally, through Tappytoon:

Both versions of ENNEAD are part of Tappytoon's Time Till Free program, where you log in each day and read one episode for free. It means only one episode a day, but you don't have to do anything else. The newest 73 episodes must be purchased with points (the site currency), though. As of March 21st, 2024, this would mean you can get the entirety of season 1 for free, and 6 episodes of season 2.

If you download the app for Tappytoon (usable on phone or tablet), you can watch advertisements to earn points to buy episodes. It's around 30 ads for enough points to buy one episode. If you earn points this way, you can still use them for the mature version if you open it on browser (the points stay in your account), and the episodes will remain in your account even if you can't see the mature versions on the app.

3. You can just buy points. Most credit cards and PayPal should work.

4. Points do not expire, and Tappytoon does deals to get points for cheap every now and then.

Korean

ENNEAD is available in a number of places to legally read in the original Korean. The original Korean is ahead of the English translation currently by 8 episodes, so if you read the Korean, you will be ahead. If you're not using Chrome, I would recommend installing an extension on your browser that translates pages (Firefox has a number of them, just Google "Firefox translation extension"), which will make this part easier if you can't read Korean.

Witchcomics

Witchcomics carries both the censored and uncensored Korean version (uncensored has the red 19 symbol on the top right). It also has a phone app. You will need to verify your age with adult identification to access the uncensored version, and you can use international ID and payment methods for Witchcomics. Simply create an account and go to the customer care page, where they'll explain the process.

Witchcomics also typically provides a preview on their twitter a number of hours (usually no more than 24, sometimes under 10) before the new episode is released. And while Ridibooks uses the current series poster as a filler for episode "previews", Witchcomics puts a mini episode preview up for each episode on the buy/rent page itself (similar to Tappytoon).

Witchcomics is also the site that gives Mojito the biggest percentage of each episode's earnings, so if you're making a decision on where to best support Mojito, it's one of the better options, and Mojito has commented repeatedly she prefers people buy through Witchcomics.

Ridibooks

Ridibooks carries both the censored and uncensored Korean version. To find the uncensored version, type 엔네아드 in the search bar. The uncensored version has a 19 in a circle on the cover. There is also a version with a red cover, which is the complete season 1.

Ridibooks requires you to verify your age by submitting identification in order to read the uncensored/mature version. This guide is very helpful in signing up, getting 19+ access, and paying for episodes. Ridibooks accepts both international ID and international payments to access and read episodes for both the uncensored and censored versions of the story.

Naver

Naver carries both versions of the series in Korean. The uncensored version has the red 19 to the left of its name.

Kakao

Kakao carries both versions of the series in Korean. The censored version has a tiny gray 15 on the upper right corner, and the uncensored version has a 19 in the middle.

Bomtoon

Bomtoon carries both versions of the series in Korean. You need age verification to view the uncensored version, which requires submitting an adult ID to Bomtoon. The censored version is viewable without age verification.

Chinese

The simplified Chinese translation is available on bilibili, though it is censored. The Chinese translation releases on the 5th, 15th, and 25th of each month.

Taiwanese

The uncensored version of ENNEAD is available online on various Taiwanese websites, including Bookwalker, Readmoo, Renta, and Hyread. Season 1 is available in physical form in Traditional Chinese.

German

Besides the seemingly censored Tappytoon online release, Panini Manga is releasing an uncensored physical version of the series. Volumes 1-4 are out! Volume 5 will release on 19 November 2024, while volume 6 does not currently have a release date.

Italian

Planet Manga, a division of Panini Comics, announced on June 6, 2023 that they would be releasing an official Italian translation of ENNEAD! Volumes 1-6 have been released.

Japanese

The uncensored ENNEAD has also been translated into Japanese and is available on b-boy, renta, CMOA, Mecha Comic, and Piccoma. A translation of the censored release began on 20 May 2024.

The physical release of the Japanese translation began on 24 April 2024. Volumes 1-6 have been released. There are various bonuses depending on where you order from.

Thai

wecomics carries the Thai translation, which updates every other Tuesday.

Merch

At this point there have been a few non-book merch waves and collaborations (with Mofun, ACO, BNOW, Gratte, Goodsbee, Good Smile, and Primaniacs), mostly available through proxies. This includes posters, cards, a cup, pins, keychains, popcaps, standees, jewelry, plush dolls, and perfume. Remember to check when comparing prices how much goods are priced + how much it will cost to ship to you. Seoul Comics doesn't sell any of its merch for some reason (e.g., the blanket, tarot cards, magnets, crystal ball, and incense burner), it's just given away rarely in lotteries.

Stores + Proxies:

Mofun

Goodsmile: Global, Canada/USA

Primaniacs

Harumio

Koonbooks

Nemo IT

Amiami

Extra Comics and Art

Finding Community

Please support ENNEAD legally if at all possible. Manhwa artists have a habit of stopping translations or releases entirely when they learn about pirating, and Mojito has spoken out against pirating a number of times.

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