Top 5 “Melodrama” Picks
I don’t want to give the impression with my Saturday post that I dislike emotional porn. Good heavens, no! Quite the opposite in fact. I’ve left my freshman college English major self in the dust. While it’s true that I don’t think teenage girls emulating the likes of Bella Swan is a good thing, I do think it’s perfectly wonderful to imagine that somewhere, sparkling in a tree, Edward Cullen waits. Hmm, I know far to much about this Twilight business than I should considering I couldn’t make it through the first book.
Ok, on to my top 5!
1. Vampire Knight – I do despise Yuki with her cow-chewing-cud stare but this story has three things that I can’t resist: Boarding schools, hot (shirtless) vampires and hall monitors with guns. Throw in the occasional ball and I am all over it. I’ve kind of quit reading but the first few volumes are yummy.
2. Absolute Boyfriend - so good. So so good. And here’s why. The love triangle includes a horny robot. I’ll repeat horny! robot! The first volume even features said robot, neked with a bow. I know! Making a robot fall in love and deny his robot self is unadulterated emotional porn.
3. You’re so Cool – Here he is, the bad boy. Not “bad” in the sense that he wants to suck your blood but really really bad. He’s cruel, taunting and you are the only one who can melt his cold heart.
4. Chocolate – Hello, boy band.
5. Fake – remember in those tv dramas, Moonlighting, X-Files, Bones – all that will they/won’t they stuff? Well this is like that only the Hayes/Scully/Brennan character is much hotter and also male. Be warned though, it includes a sweet side story that annoyingly gets in the way of the fun.
What are your top 5? Recommend some to me!
New Word for YBY: Bishōnen!
Young Bill Young here. Sadie and her readers are probably laughing, but since Manga is still new to me, I keep stumbling across the different genres as I explore manga sections in library stacks and at local OKC comic shops. While browsing at Atomic Pop on South Western, I looked at a title categorized as bishōnen. Say what?
So, it was off to an Internet search. Bishōnen is a japanese word that means “beautiful boy,” and the bishōnen asthetic has been in existence in Japan for more than 1,000 years, although today it is very much a manga term. College student Can Tran, in this interesting post says a comparable western term for bishōnen would be metrosexual. (Now we’re getting somewhere!)
Unlike yaoi—that other gender-bending, mind-blowing Japanese manga term that Sadie shared with me—bishōnen features young men “whose beauty (and sexual appeal) transcends the boundary of sexual orientation.” (According to the bishōnen definition in this Wikipedia entry.) While the artistic depiction of bishōnen men in manga may be feminized, the protagonists are more stereotypically-male in other respects: they possess physical strength, often manifesting martial arts skills and a talent for sports. (Makes sense, since the title I picked up at Atomic Pop was definitely an action/adventure story.)
Bishōnen heroes also tend to be highly intelligent, with a “comedic flair.” (Wikipedia, again.) That may explain one of the reasons why, like Yaoi, it is a very popular genre with Japanese girls and women. (Gotta have some meat with those potatoes!)
In the end, I didn’t pick up the bishōnen title. Instead, I purchased the first issue of Pluto, a reimagining of Osamu Tezuka’s ground-breaking manga, Astro Boy. (Read Pluto online.)
But I’m going to keep my eye on the bishōnen genre. You can too at Bishōnen Guide.
Finally, is Adam Lambert bishōnen?
