Spider-Man 3, books, etc.

Yay! My nearby Borders moved their manga section to a larger space! Finally!

Maybe they will also start getting stuff early so I don't have to jealously read coffeeandink's manga loot posts. Also, the new space consists of wall shelves in a bit of an alcove, which means no more tripping over tachiyomi-ing people in the aisles! And there is a bench.

Also! minnow1212 and other people who like Ibbotson! Speak seems to be reprinting her romances and targeting them to the teen audience. Um, ok, people maybe already know this, but I was happy to see it! Also, it makes me want to pet all the YA imprints and hug them and go "Yay!"

And now:

( Spoilers for Spider-Man 3 )

Tsuda Mikiyo - The Day of Revolution, vol. 01-02 (Eng. trans.)

Ummm, sorry vom_marlowe, I didn't really like this =(.

Kei is your standard BL/yaoi/shounen ai character who is short, somewhat feminine, and gets hugged by all his larger male friends. Alas for Kei, he finds that (through a series of medical handwaves) he is actually a girl. He decides that he might as well change his name and live as a girl; for reasons that I don't quite comprehend, he decides that this means he must learn all sorts of girly mannerisms.

When she (now Megumi) transfers, she finds that her old gang has also transferred. Refreshingly, everyone discovers her secret early on. Not-so-refreshingly, all the four guys want to date her and express that by crowding her personal space.

I think while this series occasionally hits on neat points on gender and sexuality and sexual identity, it does so mostly by accident (my main problem with it). The default assumption seems to be that women must act a certain way and men must act a certain way, and reading all that gender essentialism, despite the gender-bending main character, drove me nuts. I mean... why couldn't Megumi just be a tomboyish girl? Why the constant assertions of the boringness of "girl" shopping (clothes, accessories) vs. the interestingness of "boy" shopping (electronics, gadgets)? I think it would be interesting if Megumi chose to question this, but she doesn't. She (and presumably Tsuda) attributes any stereotypically masculine traits as coming from her male upbringing and any stereotypically feminine traits as things she must acquire to be a real girl.

Tsuda does make some interesting statements on male violence against women, particularly when Megumi is sexually threatened by a group of classmates. She (and her friend and "girliness" coach Makoto) notes that as a guy, she wouldn't have been as afraid because she would have been able to fight back, though she conveniently forgets that the guys' attitude toward her as a sexual object also would be lessened (though not gone, as this is BL and more feminine boys are threated sexually all the time by other men, but that is a whole 'nother can of BL worms and drives me nuts). Unfortunately, as opposed to this being seen as just one more thing women must contend with, it's sort of brushed aside as a fear that Megumi must get over.

To which I say: WTF?! Why? Why can't the guys just, oh say, not sexually threaten her?!

Also, her four guy friends drive me crazy and I want to hit them all over the head and tell them that giving women no personal space and attempting to force her to see them is really not the best way to get into her heart. Argh.

I feel sometimes it is completely futile to bring feminist critique into BL/yaoi/shounen ai, but really. How did a manga on gender-bending end up just reinforcing all sexual identity stereotypes? Possibly I will finally pick up After School Nightmare and read it as a comparison.

On a more minor, less political note, the art also bothered me. The character designs were nice, but the spazztasticness of Megumi/Kei was accentuated by the messiness of the panels -- too much text, too much yelling, too many images and emphases and clutter on a page for me to make out easily.

Yumeka Sumomo - Same Cell Organism (Eng. trans.)

(yes, the lack of a hyphen in the title is still bugging me)

This is a really gorgeous collection of BL short stories. The stories themselves don't have much plot: two high school guys, one shy and one not as much, have a relationship and discuss their future. An angel gives up angelhood to be with someone. Two high school students who enjoy being alone find that they enjoy each other's company in the attic.

Guess which one was the one that made me pick up the book?

There's this sense of wistfulness about all the stories, which are all about people who might have drifted through the world if it weren't for finding the other. The art and the panel layout echoes this: the art is spare and sketchy and sometimes seems to disappear into the page; and the panels are open, lots of white space and open-ness. I love just looking at it. Also, part of the aesthetics may have been enhanced by the good paper stock; it's thick and white and the blacks stand out superbly.

Also, vom_marlowe! It uses lots of wordless sequences! And I love how the panels focus on the small details -- a hand reaching out to another, someone bending down to kiss another person and then deciding at the last minute not to. I just love how spare and lovely it all is; there's so little dialogue, and yet, the mangaka nails the moods perfectly.

I am going to hunt down her other translated manga now.