>Hugz<

Recently I had a chance to read Ramuneikki by Sansuke Yamada. If you have read my previous posts, you would know, by now, how I love his artwork. His artwork, though seemingly raw and simple, is very lively and well-proportioned. (c) Sansuke Yamada, photo from Amazon(Japan) I almost bought this book just because he drew some figures for the book. Anyway, Ramuneikki is filled with short stories which were previously published through magazines. Each time I turned the page, I was suprised to see how freely his mind goes when he creates. I ENVY him!!

I posted her previous work, Lies are a gentleman's manners. I also purchased another work of hers, Almost Paradise. It was set in a high school in a small city. And a new art teacher and one student became more closer than they expected. The book also contains another story featuring sort of a werewolf and a wizard, I recalled. The story and artwork are very impressive. But the thing is that she does not release many materials.

It's been while since I read or posted about any BL comics. Recently I had a chance to read Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas. It was set in a boys-only boarding school in Germany, sometime in the 20's century.      I did not recall her name but I had a book of her, They Were 11, an award-winning SF comics.      And she also wrote famous/notorious "Cruel Gods Reign" which I have not even tried but am familiar with the tile of. The story and the artwork of The Heart of Thomas were charming. Though I cannot found it realistic that nobody in the school worries about sexual orientation at all. Everybody takes it as it is!! Isn't it a little bit ideal? Of course classmates tease when one falls for another male student. But that's not because of homosexuality but because that's how children react when they are not accustomed to the feeling of loving someone outside family. This comic was written in 1972!!! OMG. Even that early some readers embraced BL ...

This is the book I mentioned last April. The man on the left is a medical school student who earns money by selling drugs which he steals from the hospital. The other man is a professor who sort of threatens the student and they become lovers. The professor has also some love stories of his own. I love the art of this manga artist and looking forward to seeing her other works soon.

A few days ago, i had some free time at the train station while waiting for my train. I love to visit music store or book store. There was a bookstore inside the station and i surfed the titles in the comic section. One book titled "lying is the first virture of gentlemen" caught my eyes. The picture was impressive and the storyline seemed interesting. A medical student who steals medicine for supporting himself and the professor who threatens the student and asking sex for being silenced!! Mmm yummy!!!! So i bought the book and secretly read it on the bench. Time flied and i thought for a while "what a blessed country this is" or something.

Fumi Yoshinaga is a Japanese cartoonist who is famous for dealing with love affairs between men. She got a fame via Slam Dunk(famous Japanese Comics on high school basketball teams) parody cartoon in which the characters of Slam Dunk are portrayed as gays. In Japan, there are many yaoi comics dealing with love affairs between men. But usually they tend to focus on one thing, sex. Not like usual yaoi cartoon, works of Yoshinaga show people's various feelings from suffering, agony to joy and happiness. One of her works, Antique Bakery(see the picture) was adopted to Japanese soap opera and animation of same title. And in the upcoming winter, a Korean movie of the same title will be run in the theaters.