On November 25, 1970, paramilitary leader Yukio Mishima stripped to his loincloth and knelt on the floor of Gen. Kanetoshi Mashita's office in Tokyo. This was not an act of supplication, as the general had been bound to a chair by Mishima's followers. From the balcony of the office, Mishima had just made a speech exhorting members of Japan's weakened postwar military to rise up and exercise real power. They had laughed.
Nonetheless, 45-year-old Mishima was where he wanted to be--at the center of attention. He had forced the nation to listen to his political views. His tanned and muscular body was on display and, with the help of his young lover and follower Masakatsu Morita, he was about to spill a great deal of blood. His favorite themes came together in this final moment.
Using all his strength, Mishima drove a foot-long dagger into his side, slicing open his abdomen. That done, Morita was to behead his master with a sword. It took him several strokes. But the result was the same, and the younger man followed the older in death a few moments later.
With Mishima's demise, Japan lost not only a controversial public figure but also a 20th-century literary giant. A prolific novelist, essayist, and playwright, he had been talked up as a likely candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Much of his work, including the autobiographical novel Confessions of a Mask, explored gay themes.
For a few years now, I have been an active fan of Japanese Anime. One area of Manga/Anime that is not known to most Americans is a genre known as
Yaoi.
Fake is my favorite manga series.
The article mentions some parts of it:
Meet the queer denizens of anime (a term used outside Japan to describe Japanese animation). In a homogenous culture where sexuality is considered a very private matter, these characters--stars of Gravitation, Yami no Matsuei, Ranma, and Steel Angel Kurumi, respectively--hold exotic appeal for an ever-insatiable gay (and straight) audience.
Many anime films started life as manga (comic book serials). One of the most peculiar crazes among Japanese schoolgirls is yaoi (pronounced "yah-oh-ee") -- manga that focuses on love between young men. Marketed to women, these titles cover a wide variety of genres, from giant robots to high school romance. Japan's most successful yaoi magazine, June (pronounced "ju-nay"), sells twice as much as Japan's top gay magazine, Badi.
I still don't know why young girls like Yaoi so much.
If you went to some of the Anime message boards on the net, there are a few homophobic Anime fans that don't believe there should be Yaoi. If anything, they are probably only the Anime fans that like to look at Japanese schoolgirls with big boobs and play PS2 all day.
Gay TokyoOne of the best sites for Yaoi Material, althought it is in Spanish, is at www.amor-yaoi.com
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