Edit: Nah I take it back fuck off "functioning adult" normal person retarded translator.
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If you're here for vtubers, I highly recommend you go to The Virtual Asylum instead.
They'll love you there
NSFW [Lolicon History] Fusion Product Lolita/Bishoujo Special Edition [Translation]
- Thread starter Taruby
- Start date
NSFW
I hope you share your own information. Just make sure you back it up into a text document.
I'm also nomadic and feel like Diogenes shining his lamp in daylight looking for a (true) human; too many English-speaking communities are anti-intellectual and cannot tolerate things that disagree with their tribalistic beliefs, so for one interested in the truth, you run the risk of making an enemy out of two warring factions like David Cole did when he wanted to find out the truth about Auschwitz. It's unfortunate the level of understanding regarding Lolicon on the western internet is at a level that is mostly negative or zero. The worst part are those with a negative level of understanding rejecting any new information that would allow them to have a positive understanding.
A year ago, a user sent me a private message on this board wanting to take a trip to Japan so he can speak to artists and shopkeepers around Akihabara, and he said he spoke to Patrick Galbraith, so it may be possible for you to contact Patrick directly; he's the only English-speaking person I know interested in this sort of thing with an academic background. It's interesting the artists and writers I share something in common with also grew up in a socially isolated environment far up north. I guess there's something about growing up in an environment near nature where one can easily freeze to death.
I already linked you to Ehoba's Twitter (Link), so I would recommend trying to talk to him, he has his head screwed on straight and is also friends with Kera, who has access to possibly the highest level of understanding of Lolicon among other things. If Ehoba operated a forum community as its administrator, I think I would want to join it, but he also seems to be the loner type.
As far as I know, Null isn't directly involved with this forum; I don't think he would find the humour in having his board reputation expressed in numbers of 'Lolis Fucked'.
The following are two interviews involving Takechi Yoshihiro, who programmed several games at PSK*.
※PSK=(P)ersonal computer (S)hop (K)ochi (パソコンショップ高知; Pasokon Shoppu Kouchi)
Takechi Yoshihiro (武市好浩) (Twitter)
When it comes to gaming history, it's common knowledge Square and Enix were involved in adult-oriented video games, it's also one of the first things I learned over 20 years ago when I first gained internet access. Horii Yuuji (Wiki), the creator Dragon Quest, was fond of Lolicon stuff, and personally wrote the article for 'Lolita Syndrome' in Shounen Jump.
PSK isn't a developer or publisher that has name value in the West, but Takechi Yoshihiro programmed games that would dominate the rankings in magazines like Login (the successor, E-Login is the magazine Okada Toshio mentioned being more relevant than Lemon People in the 1990s). In an issue of Family Computer Magazine (ファミリーコンピュータMagazine 1987/02/06), an article attributed to Takechi Yoshihiro (Takechi Loli-kun;武市ロリクン) was featured about a fake trick with mock-up images to unlock 'Cynthia Baseball Fist' in a game called 'Crystal Dragon' (水晶の龍) developed by Squaresoft.
The legacy of this trick has persisted, and has become something of a meme, with users even creating a flash game for it. So, it's likely westerners picked up on it, but I doubt they know the origin of this can be traced all the way back to Takechi Yoshihiro.
Source:『LOGIN』1984/04
Star Game Designer Introduction
By I. Sasamori
Y. Takechi
Master of Lolicon Soft, Takechi Yoshihiro is a Gentle and Sensitive True Lolicon!
Master of Lolicon Soft, Takechi Yoshihiro is a Gentle and Sensitive True Lolicon!
The sailor uniform becomes transparent and vanishes, the Shoujo's cheeks blush, his joyful and embarrassing debut work 'Lolita (Baseball Fist)' (ロリータ[野球拳]). And the Bishoujo rape adventure shrouded in an abundance of criticism and praise, 'Lolita 2 (After School Chase)' (ロリータ２[下校チェイス]). His third work, 'Alice' (アリス), is awaiting completion. Now, Takechi Yoshihiro is becoming a Lolicon without limits.
Miyamori Eiichi (System Reviewer)
Oh, no, bad news.
"You Lolicons are a pest of software culture, total garbage. You're eyesores, so don't forget you exist on a lower dimension."
This is the 'Lolita 2' review in the December issue of Login. A review by Takashiro* Mika-chan (高城ミカ) (19 Years Old), a computer-crazy Ronin.
※Her surname could be read differently.
What's more, the response was amazing. Letters of protest and phone calls kept coming and coming. Sorry for being on a lower dimension. We're not timid guys, and so forth.
Now we have no choice but to interview Y.Takechi, also known as Takechi Yoshihiro, the star of the Lolicon Soft world. It became such we have to say 'Let's go to Kochi'.
Unfortunately, while there's a lot of scans for issues of Login on Internet Archive, no one has scanned the 1983 December issue with the review by Mika-chan. So this barely readable photo is the best I could find. The article was written as a form of marketing, leading to naïve children taking the bait.
Matatabi for Cats. Mecha, Anime, and Girls for Lolicon!
I wondered if Takechi-san's angry. Since the programmers who appear in Login are timid guys, I wondered if he thought we were talking about him, and I worried as I switched trams at Harimaya Bridge. Onward to Computer Shop Kochi.
"The Login software review? I totally don't mind. 'Lolita 2 (After School Chase)' is said to be extreme to the extreme, but the reality is none of the girls take off all their clothes."
Takechi Yoshihiro. Born in 1955. Constellation: Scorpio. Blood Type: A.
As expected, he's unperturbed. Thank goodness.
"I hope other designers come up with interesting games soon. I use the FM-8, but there's nothing with good graphics. Speaking of After School, the girls are all strangely neat and pretty types who'll undress as a reward if you send them home safely. I believe the Honne (本音) is different. The reason I created 'Lolita 2' is because I wanted to turn my fantasy of wanting to assault a girl into a game."
He exists as the Onii-san of the computer girls and boys gathered at Computer Shop Kochi. Having their game become a hit and receive an interview might be a dream-come-true for them. His bodyguards (?) in groups of twos and threes clamour with excitement. He, alone, speaks in a quiet, calm tone.
"My main job is a laboratory technician at a hospital. I don't have any particular pressure where I need to release a new work, and I won't divide the labour. I create everything myself. My feelings are that of a fan. I love 'Door Door' (ドア・ドア)※1. I like small and cute things. I desperately watch TV anime. There aren't very many aired in our rural area, so I watch everything they put on. As for girls, Azuma Hideo's characters are the cutest. I also love reading Lemon People (レモンピープル)※2."
What was he doing at university?
"I was studying biology at Toho, Chiba. I was running around the fields, chasing butterflies. Even now, I splash around in the plankton on my days off. At any rate, I'm a sucker for small things."
This guy's a full-fledged Lolicon. Makes you understand computer freaks have a proper culture and aren't just glued to their CRT displays.
That's right. Vladimir Nabokov wrote the controversial novel 'Lolita' that gave birth to Lolita Complex's name※3. And the movie 'The Collector' (コレクター)※4. People who remember this are sharp.
A white Russian American author depicted the psychology of a man falling in love with Lolita, a Bishoujo much younger than him. Nabokov's main job was as a professor of Russian literature at Cornell University and a collector of butterfly specimens.
The film 'The Collector' is about a Bishoujo who is turned into a specimen by a perverted bank clerk. To express the protagonist's obsession, they made his hobby collecting butterflies.
The Butterfly→Bishoujo line is very traditional in both the real facade society and the fictional aesthetic world.
High-Toned Lolicon World
Perhaps it's precisely because they're amateurs, they play in the Lolita world.
The British author who wrote 'Alice in Wonderland', Lewis Carroll's main job was also in mathematics and logic. He shares something in common with Takechi Yoshihiro and Nabokov. They're intellectuals with proper jobs.
Another thing these three have in common is that they love and use pure, unsullied language.
For Nabokov, who was born in Russia and naturalised in America, the English in which he wrote 'Lolita' was acquired through fastidious study. Hence, why he cannot connect to the voice and form of his mother when she scolded him for masturbating as a child. Even if he were to do such, his mother would have scolded him in Russian. Meaning, it's precisely because he wrote in English, which wasn't sullied by reality, it became that sort of fantastical world.
Meanwhile, Carroll wrote 'Alice in Wonderland' in English, his native language that should've been sullied and impure. However, reality's dirty finger marks have vanished. His main job in logic※6 is a field that abstracts words in their meaning. Its Sensei, Carroll, is a laundryman of words, washing away each speck of reality's dirt, so to speak. So he was able to write the world of Alice's wondrous adventure in unsullied, pure English. It's fascinating how he keeps using SWAP in his English. The famous Cheshire Cat's 'a grin without a cat' is a SWAP of cat and grin in 'a cat without a grin'※7. Strange, nonsense. In BASIC, it would be like A$="cat":B$="grin":~:SWAPA$,B$. The same certainly goes for Takechi Yoshihiro. Computer languages are not directly tied to real things like sake or furo.
"I never had any intention of becoming a designer. Even now, I don't believe I am one. I'm an amateur for the most part. 'Lolita (Baseball Fist)' was something I made in a week cause I was so happy after buying an FM-8. I really just wanted to show it to my friends to see if they liked it; I made it purely as a hobby. I bought the machine at Computer Shop Kochi, so I could immediately show it to my friends, and they loved it. Even the company president was so impressed, he decided to publish it."
One of the charms of a Takechi game is that there's an atmosphere where the creator sets each sprite of the Bishoujo graphics, so you can acutely experience the feeling of falling in love with computers. If it were his main job, then he wouldn't be able to spend so much time to make them ridiculous and detailed.
For him, computers are not a type of meal, but a clean and cute tool to express a dream world.
Nabokov said 'Lolita' was a record of his love for the English language.
In that case, you could say Lolicon games are a record of Takechi Yoshihiro's love for the computer language.
Digital Lolicon Picture-Story Show?
The Name of His Latest Works is also 'Alice'
"As for 'Alice', I began planning from April of last year and started programming it in June. I'm thinking of a two-year plan where I want to release it on April 1st, April Fool's Day, but I wonder if I'll make it in time."
He says in a relaxed mood.
The creator's anticipated latest work, I tried a sample run of the half-warmed 'Alice'.
As I thought, it was good. Thumbs up.
Since it's an adventure game, unintentionally goofing around will reveal its contents. However, I must point out one unique aspect.
You see, the protagonist, Alice, often appears on the screen. Also, when she drinks the customary medicine that says 'drink me', unlike the original work (?), her dress remains the same size, so the composition is poor, little Alice shivering next to a massive heap of clothes. Ugh, kya, kya, she's so cute!
People who think there's nothing unique about that are people who aren't unique. Because it's normal in an adventure game to play as the protagonist, Alice, as if she were the person playing the game. So, the graphics reflect the same things within Alice's field of vision. During the game, it's normal to be unable to admire Alice's cute appearance.
It's hard to notice since the transitions come naturally while playing the game, but there's a mysterious feeling. You're Alice, and when Alice is visible, you split apart from the self that is Alice and return to your true self as you give orders to Alice. She'll even accept things like RAPE ALICE※8. However, if this happens, the self that became Alice is assaulted by the self......
At this point, art is completely technique. (What is the word for Alice-suru*?)
※Alice-suru is Alice in the form of a verb.
I wonder if I finally solved the mystery as to why the seemingly boring game-like Takechi Soft continues to be a big hit?
**********
※1:
Refer to SOFTLOG at the beginning of this issue. If you've missed the TOP5, then buy the backnumbers. Please.
※2:
A Bishoujo Manga magazine that boasts absolute popularity among Lolicon Shounen. They say you can tell whether someone's a true Lolicon based on their reaction when they pick it up.
※3:
Do you know what it means to be a Lolicon? It doesn't just mean those who love anime. In the past, if you said you liked the film 'Sundays and Cybèle', you would be treated as a Lolicon.
※4:
An American film released in 1963. The protagonist is played by Terence Stamp, whose unusual performance is good. The Bishoujo was Samantha Eggar, who won the award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival. An original story by John Fowles. The translation is released by Shinchosha.
※5:
In the past, Disney Productions turned it into an animated film, and recently, they've been working on a Japanese TV anime, so I'm sure all you readers know about it.
※6:
For those searching for books by Carroll-Sensei in that area, I recommend 'Logic in Wonderland' (不思議の国の論理学) (Asahi Publishing).
※7:
Something like this:
※8:
Why do Micro-computer Shounen, who play adventure games, love commands like RAPE, KILL, and BREAK? You ought to know nothing good will come of it!
Takechi Yoshihiro—It's a miracle his stomach doesn't bulge from being a drinker in addition to being a programmer!
Takechi Yoshihiro is an upright man. Even though he's a programmer, his stomach doesn't bulge. This is close to a miracle. There's many theories as to why he got involved with computers, but they'll certainly make your stomach bulge. They'll make your face become like the full moon, then baby-faced, and finally it'll take on the appearance of a manchild-type (とっつあん坊や). Even in ASCII, it has become an internal problem (apparently) that if one grows their hair long and wears glasses, there'll be no way to tell who from who.
In addition, he's a heavy drinker. According to local data, it sounds quite considerable. There are people who say one of the first requirements to be a programmer is to not drink alcohol. Despite being a drinker, it's because he's from Tosa, Kochi of 'Onimasa' (鬼龍院花子の生涯) and 'The Geisha' (陽暉楼) that he's on a different level. You see, the city always prides itself on its alcohol consumption which ranks first or second in Japan, and the amount they owe loan sharks (all of it's been gulped down). Their rate of murder incidents, divorces, and drunk driving is out of this world (Is it OK for me to write something like this? That's what the owner of Computer Shop Kochi told me. I don't know anything. Please don't be angry with me, citizens of Kochi).
Other than that, he's normal in every sense of the word such as getting a lot of sleep and being an outdoors-type. Meaning he's eccentric as a game designer and programmer, but he's an upright man.
※—※—※—※—※—※—※—※
'Lolita (Baseball Fist)' Travelling the King's Road of Lolicon Baseball Fist
Takechi Yoshihiro's debut work, which is outstanding among the many Baseball Fist-type games. What differentiates it from other Baseball Fists is the fine details of the graphics art. The sailor blouses, slips, shoes, socks, and, and...... they begin to vanish each time you win at rock-paper-scissors. What's more, you'll become fixated as the Shoujo's cheeks gradually blush. Taking advantage of the shortcomings of still images. Because the girl doesn't move, you can taste the pleasure of becoming clairvoyant to see through to the girl's nudity.
Shocking Controversial Work! 'Lolita 2 (After School Chase)'
A controversial work released by Takechi Yoshihiro as his 2nd work. You find 10 Bishoujo in a maze and rape them one after another in a cul-de-sac. An ultra-obscene adventure game where you cannot accomplish anything unless you (albeit reluctantly) use harsh commands such as 'USE HAMMER'. Art appears only for rape scenes. Until then, there's only text. However, the part it takes pride in is that by just showing 'there's a path to the south', you feel impatient. Your chest pounds in anticipation for the next Shoujo's cute and nympholeptic graphic. The art drawing is slow and deliberate. Some fans say they cannot bear it. It's said to be the biggest hit of 1983.
The Master of Lolicon Soft's 3rd Work Challenging the Spotlight, 'Alice'.
Currently in development (planned to be released in April). A märchen, high-resolution adventure game based on Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in Wonderland'. With full graphics (and plenty of detailed art), each and every screen is quite pretty and cute. Enough to make you want to turn them into posters and put them up. As a game, it's easy. The manual lists all the words used, and if you know Alice's story, you can proceed through it quickly. The main story is totally märchen. However, it also accepts strange commands that allows the story to proceed in that sort of direction as well. A high-quality digital märchen that seeks to be the ultimate Lolicon Soft based on the classics.
Source:『テクノポリス』1985/02
Hot ACCESS to Techno Man Part 21
I want to make a game to my satisfaction, so I want to do the programming myself. The next work will be radical———Takechi Yoshihiro-san
Thanks for waiting, here's your Okinawa-ken chicken-kun! In response to your requests, we bring you the creator of 'Lolita'. Yes, we're in Kochi, Shikoku, and this month's target is Takechi Yoshihiro, the master of Lolicon Games who has been releasing hit games with Shoujo as their protagonist one after the other. "If I'm going to draw art, then girls are better." Says Takechi-san with such an authority he calls himself a 'pro' when it comes to Shoujo. That said, we set off to Kochi and were hit by his true face that takes the 'form' of a versatile person that's unexpectedly hard.
Composition: Yoshida Sei (吉田斉)
Photographs: Aoki Miyabi (青木雅)
Created 'Lolita' on the FM-8. Now a 'Shoujo' Pro.
In 'Lolita (Baseball Fist)', when you win at rock-paper-scissors, the sailor-suit-clad Bishoujo on the screen begins to take her clothes off piece by piece. Takechi Yoshihiro-san, who made his debut with this slightly sexy software, steadily walked the Lolicon route with 'Lolita II (After School Chase)' followed by 'Alice', and has attracted the feverish attention of Computer & Lolicon Shounen across the country. We're here in Kochi, famous for its female self-independence that has the highest divorce rate in the country, so let's ask him, while he continues single-mindedly drawing cute Bishoujo on his display, about the severity of his Lolicon.
—When did you create your first work, 'Lolita'?
"It was 1982, so three years?"
—What was the trigger?
"It was right after I got my hands on the FM-8. That machine could draw delicate and pretty pictures with sprites, so I created it to surprise those around me. Looking at it now, the art feels a little rough around the edges, but I wanted to play around with graphics regardless. Graphics programs were often featured in magazines."
—Why pictures of Shoujo?
"It's more fun looking at the screen with them (laughs). Besides, there used to be a lot of pictures of spaceships, but I didn't see very many girls in them. Well, I suppose you could say I was trying to please my friends......"
—However, you've kept on creating Lolicon Soft since then.
"Hmm, if I'm going to draw art, then girls are better. I believe that's what the buyers are expecting as well... Even though it's Lolicon, I enjoy looking at it. It's cute, cute (laughs)."
—Do you often read Lolicon Manga?
"Yep. I only pick the ones whose art styles are pretty to look at. Stuff by people like Konoma Waho (孤ノ間和歩). I love Azuma Hideo (吾妻ひでお), so I place him in a special category, but I don't particularly enjoy the feel of the lines by people like Uchiyama Aki (内山亜紀)."
—So, are you good at drawing?
"Not necessarily, but I was good with my hands. Before working on 'Lolita', I never drew any pictures. After that, I became interested and started practising. It's a common practice to copy a manga character and once your hands get used to it, you can create your own characters."
—The girls in your 1st work were all middle schoolers, but in your 2nd and following works, they look even younger.
"Well, the setting for 'Alice' is childish, but for 'Lolita II', I decided on profiles between 8 to 16 years old and drew the art, you see. I usually decide on the age before drawing......"
—What else do you pay attention to when creating the art?
"I often look at the small girls walking around town. I have a rough idea how old they are by looking at the size and position of their eyes and if the shape of their feet are puffy."
—So you're a pro, huh?
"Yeah, well (laughs)."
The Games He Plays are Realtime. MSX is Interesting.
PSK (former name: Personal Computer Shop Kochi), where Takechi-san releases his software, is located along a bypass on the outskirts of Kochi City. During their relocation November of last year, it's a newly constructed and sparkly-clean shop, but it's 20km from his home. Takechi-san rushes on his motorcycle, different from the delicate character I imagined from his appearance and gentle voice, and during his university days, he had a history of completing a trip around Japan on his beloved motorcycle. When I asked this wild man, who's also a heavy drinker, about his first encounter with a computer......
—What got you interested in computers?
"The Invaders game, I wanted to play that, so I bought my first one. It costs money to play games in town, you know? The VIC came out around then, so I bought it and played with cartridges. I guess that was 3 years ago."
—After that?
"I bought an MZ-1200 and FM-8, built an Apple-compatible one, and then I used an FM-11 and MSX."
—You're playing around with a lot of different machines.
"Yeah. Though I generally look at the contents. Right now, other than using an FM-11 to create programs, I exclusively play games on the MSX. You only need to insert a cartridge, so there's nothing to worry about."
—What sort of games do you play?
"Realtime ones. Galaga (ギャラガ) is a favourite. I have most of the Namco series, but other than them, T&E's 'Trick Boy' (トリックボーイ) is also good. After getting an MSX, I got rid of all the discs, and now I'm playing with around 30 cartridges."
—It's interesting the games you play are realtime, and the ones you create are adventure.
"Adventure are easy to create. If you assemble them in order, you can make something to a certain extent, but realtime, you have to worry about things like speed. I suck at that. Without using machine language, there's nothing I can do. I'm not good at machine language at all. I don't have the character for it."
—What about your program studies?
"I learned by typing the programs that appear in magazines and by constantly debugging them. I often read magazines, but I didn't do any special studying. I originally bought a computer because I wanted to play games."
—What else do you do for fun?
"Fishing. In the summer, I only fish. I use lures to catch ones like black bass and suzuki. I also do surf fishing. So far, the two biggest ones I caught were a 2m sailfish and an 80cm suzuki. The charm of fishing is you get to be goofy, which is great. I also like motorcycles, canoes, and sake."
—What's your motorcycle history?
"Since my university days. I'm currently riding an SR500. I travelled around Japan on my motorcycle during my university days...... It took me about two months, camping and using youth hostels."
—That's amazing.
"It was quite an achievement. Once I started, I felt like I had no choice but to keep going."
—What made you want to do it......?
"My graduation thesis was a plankton survey across Japan, but to be honest, I wanted to travel across the country......... That's why I chose that theme (laughs). I didn't mind taking 2 months off for my graduation thesis."
—What got you interested in plankton?
"I love biology, and when I go fishing, it's interesting whenever I draw up the water and look at it."
—What about canoes?
"I believe it's called an Indian Canoe; I float it on a lake and run around."
—You're an outdoors-type, huh?
"I don't want to go outside during the winter or night, so I play on the computer during those times."
His Pride is Graphics. The Final Part of the Series is a Lolicon RPG.
The contents differ from his previous Lolicon entries. The handcrafted graphics, which do not use a digitiser, are being further refined. And the 4th work, a role-playing game that marks the end of the Lolita series, 'Final Lolita' is also in progress, good news for Takechi fans, so let's talk about 'Alice'.
—What did you find difficult about 'Alice'?
"90% of the time I spent on that work was creating the images. I was able to finish the main program quickly, but creating the image data was the most difficult part. If I don't like even one sprite, I have to start all over again, so it's been trial-and-error. Well, my program is such that once you remove the picture, nothing remains... (laughs)."
—Then is the point you're proud of the same?
"Yeah, well. It's boring while I'm drawing, but I'm happy when I see the finished picture. Though it would be easier if I had a digitiser. However, there's only room for 4K bytes on one screen, so it cannot be complicated. Depending on the screen, I use the space for 2 pictures, but I've been cutting corners quite a bit. If the size of the data were free, I would draw whatever is the most detailed."
—What about your scenario idea?
"For 'Alice', I thought I would try including everything that seemed interesting. So, walking around inside the game, I threw in everything I thought everyone would be interested in, but then I considered whether it would be a kinda strange world. Then I thought, since it's 'Alice', it doesn't matter what happens since it's Wonderland, so......"
—What do you make a point of in your adventure games?
"Don't create mysterious that cannot be solved. From there, I stopped doing anything that required twisted thinking. I also reject scenarios that are too broad or complicated, so mine end up being quite different from what they were originally."
—The Hangul-like spells that appear in them are interesting.
"If you examine them carefully, you'll find they're made up of 50 syllables. It's a code I exchanged with my friend during class back in high school."
—What about your next work?
"The final entry of the 'Lolita' series, I want to complete 'Final Lolita' and bring the series to a close. The story is more or less complete, but the graphics are still in progress."
—What's the content?
"I'm thinking of doing something radical. Cause it's the last one (laughs). There's been all sorts of comments up to now, like Lolicon isn't just taking off clothes... But I feel my specialty is purely undressing, so if you expect more than that, please look elsewhere."
—Sounds interesting.
"This time, the screen is slow, but I decided to take advantage of that...... The content has a tentative role-playing feel to it, you see, it's a revenge story about the girl who was assaulted in the previous work, and the Lolicon and girl engage in a street fight.
Computers Are His Hobby. His Next Goal Is Artificial Intelligence of a Girl
Though he claims his 'specialty is purely undressing', which is the standard for Lolita Syndrome, in actuality, he's a newlywed husband. Also, he's not a professional programmer; his real job is a laboratory technician at a hospital. Although he manipulates detailed graphics, he's also devoted to rough hobbies outdoors. Like peeking into the Wonderland of 'Alice', the secret to his energetic activity is——.
—I heard you got married October of last year. What's your wife's reaction to her husband creating Lolicon stuff?
"She's pretty fine with it. My wife often comes here (PSK) to play around with the computers, so she knew what was going on..."
—Did your wife help you or anything?
"Not really. To be honest, I haven't touched programming for a while due to PSK moving and getting married."
—Recently, there's been an increase in the number of cases where game soft are created through a division of labour, and some say doing so will produce better products, but what do you think about that?
"I want to make a game to my satisfaction, so I want to do the programming myself. When it comes to the software I create, I believe the good and bad are my work. However, to tell you the truth, I'm unable to include sound effects. You could say I don't have time to create sounds. Besides that, the copy protection and porting are done by a guy at PSK, and I mainly create the images........."
—What is the relationship between your current job and your computer work?
"I do my work properly, and whenever I have free time, I mess around with the computer. I don't really think of it as a business. I'm doing this as a hobby, so there's times I get really excited about making games. There's no quotas, so I can work until I feel like I'm done. Is that a strength?"
—What do you have planned for the future?
"I'm thinking of creating an artificial intelligence and playing with it. Nothing grand or anything, it'll be completely for fun. My idea is to put a girl inside the computer you can talk to, and she'll have have a secretarial and calculator function. But since she's a small girl, she can only do basic arithmetic, and if she does difficult calculations, then she'll start crying. I would also like to give her a voice."
—Please tell us your life philosophy.
"My philosophy in life is to do exactly what I want to do at that exact moment. I tend to change my mind easily, and I have a short temper..."
—Finally, please give a message to all the Lolicon Shounen across the country.
"Please live radically."
**********Profile**********
Takechi Yoshihiro
Birthplace: Kami, Kochi
Birth Date: 1955 November 6th, Capricorn. 28 Years Old
Graduated: Toho University, Biology Department
Family: Father/Mother, and two younger brothers. Currently he has a sweet home near his parents' house with his wife, whom he married October of last year.
Hobbies: Fishing, Motorcycles, Canoeing, Drinking
Special Skill: Episodic Solo Merrymaking
First Computer: VIC1001
Favourite Machine: FM-11
Created Games: 'Lolita', 'Lolita 2', 'Alice'
Favourite Game: 'Galaga' (MSX)
Recent Interests: Latest Motorcycle Trend
Favourite Book: 'Black Bass Complete Book'
Favourite Subject: Biology
Worst Subject: Physiology
Favourite Female: The past Kobayashi Asami (when she was a model for Shiseido)
Favourite Manga: 'Choujin Rock', 'Aoi-chan Panic', everything by Azuma Hideo
Favourite Musician: Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Pink Floyd
Treasure: YAMADS-6 (Full-Tune)
Honestly, I think it's really cool that Takechi also shares my fondness for Konoma Waho.
I can also relate to his insistence in creating his games on his own instead of joining a full-fledged development team.
... I don't know how to address the previous double-poster. Since starting this thread, I kept wondering if I would upset someone, since far too many people suffer from the human trait of only wanting things that agree with their beliefs, but my primary interest is documenting everything about this subculture, and if there's a war I want to fight, it's a war against misconceptions that have festered and persisted for decades with primary sources.
For example, the person who uploaded high-resolution scans of 'PC-8801 Legends' is the sort of queer they/them pronoun person who writes articles like this:
177: “It’s not a crime if it’s a game”
“Please enjoy the dangerous desires that lurk in your heart to the fullest in the game world. Never bring these acts into the real world.”
bumpcombat.net
Beautiful things aren't necessarily created by beautiful people. Someone, whose opinions I don't agree with, did something I found to be incredibly useful. I was curious about 'PC-8801 Legends' for over a decade, and thanks to such a person, everyone benefits. While it's impossible to get along with certain individuals, I think it's well within reason to acknowledge and support their positive and useful contributions, and to think about what sort of useful contributions you are making with your own life.
Takechi Yoshihiro: "Please live radically."
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Recently found out I'm being followed by a French academic called Julien Bouvard (Julien's Papers).
He's read Yonezawa Yoshihiro's books and did a paper on catgirls, so I feel a little self-conscious he's aware this thread exists; I'm the only one who's been proofreading my translations, which makes ironing out errors difficult.
Anyways, if you haven't found anything that satisfied your own curiosity, Julien wrote a paper called 'Les fantômes des mouvements zenkyôtô dans la culture otaku'.
Les fantômes des mouvements zenkyôtô dans la culture otaku
Les fantômes des mouvements zenkyôtô dans la culture otaku
www.academia.edu
Academia seems to prevent copy-pasting from their online pdf reader, but registering an account and downloading it will give you access to the real pdf file. Also, if you register an account, let me know if Academia also alerts you to the fact your name has been cited in many papers. It says I've been cited in many articles, including one of Julien's papers, but I didn't see anything I worked on ~20 years ago mentioned in Julien's catgirl paper (I did fan translations for a famous catgirl manga by Nagano Akane), so other than that, I have no idea why he would've cited me. I think the Academia website is trying to scam me into a membership.
Courtesy of Kera, I had the privilege to read a bunch of Aniwa Jun's writings for Comic Critique (漫画新批評大系).
These zines are a window into the earliest days of Comiket, and while it seems plenty of English books and papers mention Aniwa Jun by his name, I have yet to find any that actually shared his thoughts and opinions. All of them treat Aniwa Jun like a factoid in regards to his involvement with Comiket.
So while it's tentatively presumptuous, everyone reading this post gets to be the first to find out what Aniwa Jun thinks about Lolicon in 1981, though he prefaces this by talking about 'Worldwide Revolution' (世界同時革命), which is short for 'World Revolution' (世界革命), hence why I recommend reading Julien's paper to understand that Marxist meme's relationship with the manga industry. Personally, there's a lot more that should be explained about what I feel is the more relevant background scenery behind this article, since this was in 1981 after Harada Teruo (原田央男) resigned as president of Comiket, and Yonezawa Yoshihiro took over and moved the venue to Harumi. Back then, there were concerns about the ethics involving copyright infringement in regards to anime and manga parodies, and Aniwa Jun was a proponent of original manga, which is why he founded MGM (Manga Gallery & Market) because Lolicon turned Comiket into a chaotic festival of parodies.
There's a 836 page zine published in 2011 that compiled Aniwa Jun's writings into a neat bundle, but according to Kera, efforts to get it officially reprinted digitally into a pdf file failed due to complications. One site is selling it for 69,800 JPY, so for those interested in the contents for Comic Critique, there's a table of contents here (Link). Kawamoto Kouji and Takatori Ei also submitted articles to Comic Critique.
The first issue of Comic Critique is on sad panda (its uploader also submitted one of Nonki's doujinshi since that guy is pretty infamous). If you can transcribe an article accurately from that first issue on sad panda, I can try to get you access to one of the articles in the aforementioned table of contents, since I feel these articles should be transcribed so they're accessible for future researchers. Aniwa Jun has good penmanship, but an annoying habit of writing from the top to the bottom of the page, which makes reading some of his stuff cumbersome for me.
Source:『漫画新批評大系 第15号』 1981/11/20
Worldwide Revolution Declaration and Lolicon
By Aniwa Jun (亜庭じゅん) (Wiki)
Worldwide Revolution Declaration!
Suddenly, this sort of printed text leapt out. What!? I was momentary bewildered and stunned.
Eh!? Could this be!?
If I were to reveal the seedlings, this is the catch-copy of the Young Jump (ヤング・ジャンプ) advertisement that appeared in Shounen Jump (少年ジャンプ). It was merely about a Spielberg interview coinciding with the release of the movie 'Raiders' that will be published exclusively in Young Jump. A total exaggeration. Implying Young Jump's ambition to take on the world.
Worldwide Revolution Declaration!!
It's beyond belief they would use these words lightly. The principle behind advertising catch-copies is to be eye-catching to attract attention. Words, as pallid as their surrealism, are stripped of their value and emotion, and exploited to the fullest. Even though we know these words have many layers of meaning, they still carry a weight that makes it difficult to believe they were chosen simply for their effect.
Worldwide Revolution Declaration—as 1981 drew to a close, the key words of a dream from a decade prior suddenly sprang back to life. Setting all political differences aside, these were the only words that continued to smoulder from the depths of the 1970s, becoming an illusion. From the end of the 1960s to the 1970s, these words were thrown over our heads like a priest at a grand festival. While knowing such a day would likely never come; nevertheless, we entrusted our dream's lifeblood to these words, and the illusion of a grand festival indiscriminately summoned us.
I'm not reminiscing. If such were only a memory, it would've been discarded ages ago. It's definitely not a revisited dream. Since back then, as an illusion of a future, a lost tomorrow, it would've been a magnetic field of consciousness that reverse-irradiated the present from the future. What we were fighting was a phantasmic urban battle, and because it was an illusion, it had brought to us something much grander. It's because the image of the world towards that future, which was manga-like in its absurdity, was exactly 'manga-like' that we accepted it as a single, but definite image of the world.
Its sudden revival. And within that time frame.
Of course, I have no idea who wrote this catch-copy. However, perhaps the visage of a similar world still resides within his heart? Suggestive of its one world image, aren't these feelings of wanting to send these words out a second time why they're appearing in that catch-copy? There's no telling how much of an impact 'Worldwide Revolution Declaration' would have on the readers of Young Jump and Shounen Jump. Nevertheless, what's appearing in the end, counter to the progressing trends of the times, are nothing but those words. As a reaction and provocation to the festering public morals before us, 'Worldwide Revolution Declaration' existed as a story to counter the story that was being formed by the times. A foreboding sign, like a movie trailer, of the battle between stories that was about to begin.
On one side is the story of a 'Worldwide Revolution' trying to be reborn, and on the other side is the story of the 'previously lost children' who have lost their door to the world. The first thing we must do is shake the fantastical foundations of these two stories.
The 1970s was a time when the flaws in that story were exposed, and the dreams for that 'world' were closed one by one. In the process of dreams being forced into being dreams, and stories being trapped in fiction, we gained citizenship, but at the same time, our life force was being sapped away because we chased a 'world' that was faraway and beyond our reach.
What emerged in its place was 'surrender'. From the late 1970s to the 1980s, the times moved based on this strange 'surrender'. Things beyond our reach were treated as if they never existed, and in their place, a flood of reachable things appeared. What dominated is the 'story' that everyday life extends forever, and despite no one believing even half of it, for a while, we accepted the 'story' of 'everyday life' simply due to the fact it's a 'story' we can accept without making any decisions. Nay, we had no choice but to accept it. So long as we were in a state of 'surrender', we had no other option.
The 'story' of 'everyday life', however, is not a simple flattening of time and space. Rather, in exchange for surrendering the 'entire world', we were provided a variety of 'small worlds' anyone could obtain through some effort. And when it was filled with these 'small worlds', the story of the 'entire world' was distorted and degraded into another 'small world'. However, it wasn't just distorted. It even became an object of contempt, as something uncool and old-fashioned.
The major changes in the trends that happened in the world of manga, the stories from the stories of boys to the ones for girls are not unrelated to these things. Entering the 1980s without being able to overcome the failure of Togawa Mankichi (戸川万吉), shounen manga suddenly began to change into 'shoujo manga'. Despite retaining a portion of the former hard liners, most of these were gags, that lived and died for 'A BOY GETS A GIRL'. To be precise, with the addition of 'SF' (in parentheses!), this triangle is the maximum number of 'stories' that can be told in shounen manga these days.
Following the retirement of Yamaguchi Momoe (山口百恵) who was supported by women, Matsuda Seiko (松田聖子) returned to the public eye. The simultaneous bursts of Burikko and Lolicon, though there's differences in their strengths and weakness, are saying the same thing. In short, they're a labelling of performances. None of Matsuda Seiko's fans believe Matsuda Seiko is a pure and innocent girl. The myths that tell of a grimy entertainment world, as if being clean on the surface of the entertainment world is enough to secure stability, are thoroughly permeated. However, that's precisely why Matsuda Seiko is Burikko. Mutually acting out one thin layer of fiction with another thin layer is the relationship between the Burikko talent and her fans. Complicity in enjoying the surface of Burikko—that is more thoroughly attained through Lolicon.
The sexual desire for Shoujo known by the name called Lolicon is not the so-called Lolita Complex. As a case of perverse sexual desire, only when Lolita Complex is acted out consciously does it first become Lolicon. Lolicon is a thin mask, or more specifically, it's a term for reverse discrimination. There's nothing unnatural about yearning for Shoujo, especially Bishoujo, in of itself. To say nothing of the humans who call themselves Lolicon; if they're at most in their 20s, then it's nothing more than a normal relationship between a man and a woman, the good parts, nothing more than the boyish desires of an inexperienced man. However, what's called Lolicon isn't necessarily based on such conventional desires. Rather, the 'story' of an imaginary identity that opposes the 'story' of such realistic desires is Lolicon. Thus transforming Lolicon into a system of imagination rather than a medical case. The 'story' of a 'small world' with Bishoujo as its keyword is Lolicon. What cannot be overlooked is the point Lolicon call themselves 'sick'. Unlike the motorcycle-riding delinquent tribe, you could say Lolicon are more concerned with their state of being than action. Instead of raising and caring for Bishoujo, the Lolicon tribe are cultivating a sickness called Lolicon within themselves. A sickness in the sense of a protective membrane. By professing themselves sick and declaring themselves Hentai, Lolicon are able to slip through the gap between truth and fiction. They have created a fictitious Lolicon World. And from the 'world' they created, they sally forth. The first stage is the hierarchy structure among Lolicon. They're particular about their deviation and trivialism, so they create a hierarchy of deviation. This is what systemisation is all about. For them, the more deviant you are, the more you're looked upon with awe, and the more you pay attention to the details of the branches and leaves, the greater you become. The second stage is reverse discrimination, which manifests itself as a Dracula-isation of Lolicon. In other words, Lolicon measure everyone who love Bishoujo into their Lolicon hierarchy. You're also a Lolicon, you're a Lolicon as well, everyone smile-smile, the Lolicon tribe has appeared. What used to be a sickness, an object of perversion, though systemisation, they obtain their own value, reverse it, and reincarnate into the elite. And the third stage is the transformation of the world into Lolicon. They create a secret language, with their own system, and maintain an attitude of self-preservation towards the outside while forming a brotherhood of Lolicon within.
Does this process remind you of something? Yes, it's a complete and ugly parody of the manga fandom. The one hailed as the zenith of Lolicon is Azuma Hideo, one of Tezuka Osamu's most orthodox successors, and much too similar to him. There's no need to be selectively deaf to this similarity. Lolicon truly magnifies the weak side of manga fans. Torn between the ideas that it's just manga and that they like manga, manga fans are submissively weak in being manga fans, and Lolicon use the word sick, turning it into their counterattack weapon.
There's something strange about a boy who, when asked if he likes Bishoujo, answers that he hates them. Much less the bratty females rolling around. What became the starting point are the Shoujo clearly drawn with sexiness as one of their vectors by Azuma Hideo and Noguchi Masayuki. If you leave out artistic preference, responding that you're opposed to images originally drawn with a sense of sex appeal and saying you hate them is what's unhealthy. However, that is what's troubling about Lolicon. Supposedly, healthy people shouldn't like Bishoujo. So a healthy fondness for Bishoujo must mean you're a low-class Lolicon. So they say. "You also like her = Sick = Lolicon!".
The forced revision of rules is the greatest characteristic of Lolicon. They're like reformed Yakuza. There are fools out there theorising about Lolicon and encouraging them by handing out labels one after another they desperately crave. The Lolicon in question are soaring high above the clouds. It may be their intention, but it doesn't matter. It's just a case of pandering to the times. That said, there's some fools out there proudly wearing the labels given to them by information brokers, so when it comes to this area, we have no choice but to pick between the two. It's a difficult situation to salvage.
The problem, however, is not Lolicon. It's a lack of 'story' that drive Lolicon. The lack of 'story' of a 'world' gives rise to surrender in every possible aspect, and this unconscious surrender prepares a hunger for 'story'. Even though a bare 'sense of almost being at war' subtly sates this hunger, even here a resignation shows its face and overrides the possibility of choosing practical politics. The story of reincarnation proposed by 'Star of Cottonland' (綿の国星) was inherited by Arai Motoko's (新井素子) 'Until the Day I Become a Cat' (いつか猫になる日まで), and in the blink of an eye, both cats and relationships descended upon the present to create a horde of cat-eared nyan-nyan girls. Azuma Hideo is probably the most perplexed by the way some parts of the world are becoming Azuma-ised. So far, 'Archipelago 198X' (列島198X) is being mocked through Momoko-san (桃子), but what would happen if the focus was on hard action? Although this is a flaw in the great age of melodramas, it's not like the theory of responsibility to the citizenry developed in the style of Kishi Nobusuke (岸信介) doesn't have the power to convince. The fact '198X' lacked confidence in its original 'story' and pushed melodrama to the surface is not something to be ridiculed.
Ishizaka Kei (石坂啓), who's trying to inherit the lineage of Tezuka Osamu in a different fashion, announced in Young Jump, 'Isn't That What War is All About?' (戦争ってそういうモンじゃない?), depicting how young boys, unable to discover their own 'story', are swept off to war. You can think of it as Young Jump concocting an alibi, or you can call it old anti-war theory. However, how effective is this sort of knowledge-based strategy? Shouldn't we at least express our support for Ishizaka Kei for daring to do something so muddy and unfashionable during these times?
These times of 'surrender' are a time where the story of 'surrender' dominates. Girls who are raised to be true to their own sensibilities, to be true only to their emotions, since they were not given the 'world' from the beginning, may be an easy escape from this 'surrender'. When military uniforms started becoming popular at Comiket, the girls' feelings of 'it makes me feel intimidated, so stop!' are healthy. However, once these girls also step out from the frame of the 'girl' story, they'll immediately have no choice but to turn to the story of 'surrender'. The reason why josei manga cannot expand beyond the frontiers of shoujo manga, and is forced to retreat, is because they cannot discover the 'story' of 'women'.
I do not know whether the 'story' created by manga can compete with the 'story' of 'surrender'. On the other hand, the 'story' told by manga now are becoming more and more thoroughly related to 'manga' itself. Readers, too, are stuck in a tautology that 'manga' is nothing more than 'manga', and try to close 'manga' into a 'small world', and immerse themselves in it. However, the proliferation of 'petty princes' in such a 'world' is nothing more than a 'story' of 'surrender' while telling a story of 'manga'. In order to make a person, who says 'it's fine so long as it's interesting', take a shot is to give them a taste of an interesting they never experienced before. In these times where we can no longer be thoroughgoing 'idlers', 'lazy-bones', and 'energetic fools', will even the imagination power of manga only be directed towards 'cute girls', 'gags', and 'anime SF'? It's clear the vector is the effect, not the cause. Let's stop going on about this or that being the 'cause'. What's important is precisely what kind of 'story' can we construct? That's it. The real question is what do we want to do? When we sever all 'surrender', what sort of form will the 'world' take before us, and what kind of circuits will it connect? We must begin telling that 'story' here.
Raw Transcription of the Above Article:
Including this since it's been proofread by Kera and also contains corrections that were provided in the back of Vol.15.
Before being contacted by Kera, I was going to move on to translating articles related to Otaku bashing before the Miyazaki Tsutomu Incident, and slowly move on to Lolicon history in the 1990s and early 2000s (when I was experiencing it firsthand). However, stuff like the Ogata Katsuhiro interview and Aniwa Jun's writings are far more interesting to me. One of the things I wanted to explore, since I don't know much about it, is the western anime and manga fandom's early understanding of Lolicon in the 1980s and 1990s, since these people were ignorantly consuming Lolicon works. This would be in parallel to sharing my research regarding the historical origins of the western term 'hentai manga'. In the early 2000s, a Japanese user put up a joke bounty of one million dollars to find out which dirty Gaijin started calling their ero-manga 'hentai manga'. I don't know if I should create an entirely new thread with the stuff I've collected, or just pepper it in this thread, since western 'hentai manga' history is also part of Lolicon history.
On a humorous note, I didn't think much of Shimizu's use of Cybele Revolution, but after reading this article by Aniwa Jun, it's funny Marx's World Revolution was defeated in Japan, but the Cybele Revolution (Lolicon) is still ongoing with more and more nations slowly succumbing to it...
Anyways, here's a speech by Ootsuka Eiji that Julien shared about modern manga's wartime roots:
I feel bad for the interpreter; Eiji should've provided him a copy of his speech, so he could translate that than try to translate verbal Japanese in real-time.
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In the opening post in this thread when all of the creators were being introduced, an observant individual would surely notice Azuma Hideo's title was Bishoujo Mangaka while many of the others had Lolicon in their title, except for Uchiyama Aki who wanted to mimic Azuma Hideo by calling himself a Biyoujo Mangaka. One of the things I've been doing in this thread was purposefully translating all instances of Shoujo and Youjo as-is so it's easy to tell whenever an article was talking about Shoujo, or when it was talking about Youjo (girls younger than Shoujo).
When Lemon People, Japan's first Lolicon Manga Magazine, launched in February of 1982. It hailed itself a Lolicon Comic Magazine with artists like Azuma Hideo, Uchiyama Aki, and Dirty Matsumoto contributing to it, and internally Azuma Hideo was insistent about the magazine branding itself as Bishoujo Comic, which happened by around the 5th issue, when it labelled itself a 'Lolicon & Bishoujo Comic', this rebranding early in its life is the reason why the following copycat Lolicon Manga Magazines, including Manga Burikko under Ogata Katsuhiro and Ootsuka Eiji, also adopted the term Bishoujo Comic/Manga.
Back then, the term 'Bishoujo Manga' didn't make sense for the following reason as pointed out by Sano Kunihiko (佐野邦彦) in the 1982 April issue of Fusion Product. Shounen Manga is for Shounen (Boys). Shoujo Manga is for Shoujo (Girls). Josei Manga is for Josei (Women). Bishoujo Manga is NOT for Bishoujo, hence why Lemon People initially went with Lolicon Comic, since Lolicon Comic is for Lolicon, but Azuma's insistence on Bishoujo Comic is why this term exists and came to later be used for things like Bishoujo Manga, Bishoujo Game, and Bishoujo Anime. The way Bishoujo and Lolicon have been used interchangeably has persisted until the early 2000s, though the western interest in this subculture media that has led to COOL JAPAN in 2008 was the final nail in the coffin (there's a lot of stuff that needs to be shared about the history of westerners forcing Japanese creators to contort themselves into referring to Lolicon by other terms).
This thread has explored what Lolicon meant among all sorts of individuals, but what did Lolicon mean to Azuma Hideo and his assistant Oki Yukao? Well, let's find out starting with Azuma Hideo!
The magazine I'm sourcing is 'The Anime', which has some issues scanned on Internet Archive, but I had to import this particular issue, and I accidentally broke my spine (goodbye to its 1300 JPY resale value) trying to scan one of the pictures on the side, so this is probably the first time I scanned anything myself in this thread (my scanner doesn't have drivers to make it compatible with Windows 11, and I cannot fit entire magazines on its bed, though, so it has some weird quirks).
Source:『ジ・アニメ 』 1981/11
Research 1: Pattern Analysis
Currently, regardless of whether it's anime or manga, Bishoujo characters are gaining popularity. Even among doujinshi, Clarisse and Lana-related doujinshi are flying off the shelves. Of course, not only that, but even in all-age commercial magazines, Bishoujo characters are overwhelmingly popular, and starting with Clarisse and Lana, voices are clamouring for special features on even characters like Mimiko-chan from 'Panda! Go, Panda!' (パンダコパンダ). Even on the other side of the doujinshi markets, they're selling miniature dolls of Clarisse as well as panels of Clarisse and Lana made from colour copies.
Enthusiastic female fans are appearing in Clarisse costumes. Their dazzling white dresses makes them look as if Clarisse flew out from the anime. Also, on the manga side, Azuma Hideo's works are very popular. Starting with Myaa-chan from 'Scrap School' (スクラップ学園), Bishoujo characters like Asoko from 'Desperate Angel' (やけくそ天使) and Nanako from 'Nanako SOS' (ななこSOS) share a popularity that doesn't lose to Clarisse or Lana. The Bishoujo characters that appear in Azuma Hideo's work 'Hizashi' (陽射し) look exactly like Lana and Clarisse. Especially the Bishoujo characters that appear in Azuma Hideo works, they're pitiful and indescribably cute, filled with all sorts of Lolicon charm. Additionally, artists like Masayuki Noguchi (Uchiyama Aki [内山亜紀]) are growing in popularity. It's truly a Lolicon Boom.
They call it a Lolicon Boom, but is that actually true? Popularity is concentrating on Bishoujo characters like Lana and Clarisse, we're in an era where Lolicon Manga is booming and Lolicon photobooks are flying off the shelves, that must surely be a Lolicon Boom, right? One factor's the Anime Boom, which is experiencing what could also be called a 2D-Complex, some consider an admiration towards art is what triggered the Lolicon Boom.
As men become feminised, women become masculinised, and gender becomes neutral, even if you admire real women, you won't always get what you want, so could it be the current Bishoujo Character Boom is the result of people escaping into the 2D World of the Bishoujo they admire who can make their dreams come true? Do much purer, cuter and lovable beings, ones you want to protect, exist only in the 2D world of anime or manga? This may be one of the manifestations of what Jungian psychology calls anima (the eternal ideal female image hidden within the hearts of men). One must admit Bishoujo characters in anime are a spiritual oasis for the thirsty hearts of those living in a tightly-controlled society. Is it possible to say the current Lolicon Boom was born as a safety valve for the hearts of the youth living in barren cities such as the Tokyo Desert, the exam wars, and a regimented society......?
※—※—※—※—※—※—※—※
A Dream for the Ideal Shoujo Image
The ideal female image everyone draws in their hearts is currently manifesting itself in the form of the Lolicon Boom. The term Lolicon was originally derived from the novel 'Lolita' by the Russian writer, Vladimir Nabokov, which depicts a man unable to form romantic feelings for adult women and is only able to have romantic feelings for Shoujo, which came to be known as Lolita Complex, later abbreviated to Lolicon. However, the Lolicon currently being talked about may be functioning more as a fuse to protect ones heart from the end of the century anxiety caused by a bloodthirsty, regimented society and a muddling of values. There's nothing unusual about eternally dreaming about Bishoujo in a chaotic society.
What every human is drawing in their hearts, it's precisely because they live in such a society it takes the form of an innocent Shoujo.
※—※—※—※—※—※—※—※
Research 5: Special Interview
If you can draw cute girls, then the whole land is yours to rule! We thoroughly probed Azuma Hideo-sensei, who is now known as the 'God of Lolicon', about the appeal of Bishoujo characters. Now then, what sort of conversation will unfold......!?
Born in Hokkaido. Made his debut in 1964 with 'Ringside Crazy' (リングサイド・クレージー). His representative works include 'Futari to Gonin' (ふたりと５人), 'Absurd Diary' (不条理日記), and 'Desperate Angel' (やけくそ天使), among many others.
Lolicon is a Holy Sickness.
—Recently, there's been a spotlight on Bishoujo characters from anime in the 'Lolicon Boom'-like trend, but what do you think about this situation?
Azuma: Ehh, I believe the thing called 'Lolicon' is a holy sickness, not something where one shouts 'I like 〇〇!' out in public (laughs).
—There's boys around highschool age who're excited about the goodness of Lana-chan and Angie-chan, though...
Azuma: I wouldn't call that 'Lolicon'. Even if a guy up to age of 20 begins to like a girl around 12, there's nothing particularly strange about that. Well, it's because feminism——I mean, it's the same thing as cherishing women. Rather, what's strange are men over 30 who still haven't dated a woman. If guys become like that, you no longer can call them anything other than Hentai (laughs).
—Then what about you, Azuma-sensei?
Azuma: I have a wife and a child (note: her name is Chika-chan), so I'm not a Hentai (laughs). It's nothing more than a 'hobby'.
About the highschool boys I mentioned earlier, I don't think they should admit they're Lolicon before they turn 20. It's '10 years too early' for them to contract a holy sickness (laughs). This is what I want to say out loud! (Laughs) Well, those who fall in love with kindergarten girls are 'Alice Hobby', which is a serious sickness (Laughs).
He Likes Roly-Poly Girls
—Do you believe those called Lolicon are seeking the image of a 'fairy' in Shoujo?
Azuma: I don't believe so. Well, it's not particular to Lolicon, I believe it's fine to seek fairies, but you shouldn't always be thinking about making them into a manga.
—But fairies appear in Azuma-sensei's works (laughs).
Azuma: I'm fine (laughs). After all, I've been drawing fairies for the past 10 years. In that sense, young mangaka shouldn't be drawing fairies. Even if you were to draw that sort of fairy manga, none of the publishers would buy it (laughs).
—Many cute girls appear in Azuma-sensei's works.
Azuma: If they're not cute, I wouldn't feel like drawing them (laughs). Somehow, I'm trying to draw something close to my ideal girl.
—Then what is the ideal girl for Sensei?
Azuma: First, her face needs to be continental. The rest of her body's small, giving the impression she's roly-poly...... Personality-wise, I like girls who are steadfast and don't rely on others like Myaa-chan from 'Scrap School' (スクラップ学園) (being serialised in Weekly Play Comic) or Asoko from 'Desperate Angel' (やけくそ天使). I like those sorts of girls, so the characters I draw are also like that.
—Azuma-sensei's characters are very popular, especially among Lolicon men now, but what sort of characters do you think tickle Lolicon hearts?
Azuma: ...... Hmm, that's a tough one, I don't know (laughs).
—By the way, do you ever think about wanting to turn your characters into anime, Sensei?
Azuma: I don't think about such things. I don't think about turning my own works into anime...... Though I would prefer it if they were turned into something completely different from the manga......
I saw a western meme called 'Uohh～
', though the source of the meme is actually 'Uooooaaaaaah!!' (the machine translation tool simplified it as 'Uoohhhh!!'). But it's funny that 'Uooh' stretches as far back as Azuma Hideo.
It Goes Without Saying. Angie is the Best!
—Now then, what sort of anime Shoujo characters do you like?
Azuma: I don't really watch anime. It feels like they're just doing what I already know over and over again...... When it comes to girl characters, it's better if they're cute.
Well, it would be a problem if the story was a mess, but...... When it comes to stories, I like 'Future Boy Conan' (未来少年コナン).
The characters I like are Tezuka-sensei's girls. Cute ones, like Uran-chan from 'Astro Boy' (鉄腕アトム), or Tatsuko-chan from 'Goku's Great Adventures' (悟空の大冒険). I, myself, have also been greatly influenced by Tezuka-sensei's manga......
—I heard you were a big fan of 'Her Majesty's Petite Angie' (女王陛下のプティ・アンジェ), but......
Azuma: Angie's the best! Both her personality and face. Even the aspect where it's a minor work is good (laughs). There's talk about the art being terrible, but (laughs), I'll forgive them because it's cute. How do I put it? She's a character that subtly tickles my heart.
—What do you think about Lana from 'Future Boy Conan' (未来少年コナン) and Clarisse from 'Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro' (ルパン三世・カリオストロの城)?
Azuma: The lines are soft and nice. I also like Yasuhiko* (Yoshikazu)-san's characters. Although, I haven't watched anything more than 'Gundam' (ガンダム) (laughs).
※Yasuhiko Yoshikazu (安彦良和) (Wiki)
—Speaking of which, I noticed many anime characters appear in your manga. For example, Angie appeared in 'Desperate Angel', and......
Azuma: I don't make them appear that much. I sometimes use anime characters as my own characters. Of course, they're a little different.
—Lastly, what sort of direction do you believe the popularity of anime Bishoujo characters will take?
Azuma: That's a tough one~ (laughs). Well, even if people fall in love with all sorts of cute girls, that's perfectly normal, so I guess that's fine (laughs).
※—※—※—※—※—※—※—※
Let's compare Azuma Hideo's words to Miyazaki Hayao's words side-by-side to see both their similarities and personality differences in how they perceive and treat the Lolicon Youth.
Source:『アニメージュ』 1982/06
One of the two English articles that motivated me to create this thread with primary sources said some weird nonsense about Miyazaki Hayao being the lightside of Lolicon and Azuma Hideo being the darkside of Lolicon, and I have yet to find a single Japanese source that would collaborate this sort of analysis.
If I were pressed to label someone the 'darkside' of Lolicon, it would be Aoyama Masaaki, but even then, it would be incorrect, since Aoyama didn't exist as some shadowy figure that was the polar opposite of others; he was friends with Okada Toshio and Takatori Ei, and collaborated with Ogata Katsuhiro with the 'Lolicon Complete Works', but his antics and influence was instrumental in pissing normal people off. Mutation was a doujinshi that appeared in regular bookstores, so normal Japanese citizens got to experience Aoyama's writings firsthand.
While I need to reread Patrick Galbraith's words more carefully, in the video series he did with Pause and Select, he made it sound like normal people only hated Otaku/Lolicon after the Miyazaki Tsutomu Incident as they were trying to find something to blame for his actions when the reality was that Japanese society was bashing Lolicon/Otaku way before that (when Miyazaki Tsutomu's victims went missing, one of the suspects was Hirukogami Ken, and the mass media harassed him). Several months before Miyazaki Tsutomu was arrested, Aoyama wrote an article in 'Crash', and his memorial website shared the following snippet from that article (I would like to have this article in its full context, but it's a skin-mag, which isn't something I want to import).
Source『Crash』89/03
Reexamining 'Otaku' with Maximum Disgust
By Aoyama Masaaki (青山正明) (Wiki) (Source)
There's a very creep guy in the neighbourhood, but what the hell are they? There are times humans think those sorta thoughts. And most humans don't know how they should treat those guys. However, if it turns out those guys are 'Otaku', there's no need to fuss about how to deal with them. Yes, Otaku should be discriminated against, abused, and slaughtered.
Naturally, Japanese Otaku in the mid-2000s who found out about this article snippet got upset with one of them switching out Otaku with 'Drug-Addict' (As mentioned earlier in this thread, Lolicon was one of Aoyama's interests, but his true passion was drugs along with knowing trivia about anything and everything, like a walking human wikipedia for bad taste).
In any case, after I've done the necessary proofreading and checking of Cybele, I'm going to share an article and interview courtesy of Kera with Oki Yukao, who was jointly responsible for the creation of Cybele, and the reason they stopped publishing it.
When Lemon People, Japan's first Lolicon Manga Magazine, launched in February of 1982. It hailed itself a Lolicon Comic Magazine with artists like Azuma Hideo, Uchiyama Aki, and Dirty Matsumoto contributing to it, and internally Azuma Hideo was insistent about the magazine branding itself as Bishoujo Comic, which happened by around the 5th issue, when it labelled itself a 'Lolicon & Bishoujo Comic', this rebranding early in its life is the reason why the following copycat Lolicon Manga Magazines, including Manga Burikko under Ogata Katsuhiro and Ootsuka Eiji, also adopted the term Bishoujo Comic/Manga.
Back then, the term 'Bishoujo Manga' didn't make sense for the following reason as pointed out by Sano Kunihiko (佐野邦彦) in the 1982 April issue of Fusion Product. Shounen Manga is for Shounen (Boys). Shoujo Manga is for Shoujo (Girls). Josei Manga is for Josei (Women). Bishoujo Manga is NOT for Bishoujo, hence why Lemon People initially went with Lolicon Comic, since Lolicon Comic is for Lolicon, but Azuma's insistence on Bishoujo Comic is why this term exists and came to later be used for things like Bishoujo Manga, Bishoujo Game, and Bishoujo Anime. The way Bishoujo and Lolicon have been used interchangeably has persisted until the early 2000s, though the western interest in this subculture media that has led to COOL JAPAN in 2008 was the final nail in the coffin (there's a lot of stuff that needs to be shared about the history of westerners forcing Japanese creators to contort themselves into referring to Lolicon by other terms).
This thread has explored what Lolicon meant among all sorts of individuals, but what did Lolicon mean to Azuma Hideo and his assistant Oki Yukao? Well, let's find out starting with Azuma Hideo!
The magazine I'm sourcing is 'The Anime', which has some issues scanned on Internet Archive, but I had to import this particular issue, and I accidentally broke my spine (goodbye to its 1300 JPY resale value) trying to scan one of the pictures on the side, so this is probably the first time I scanned anything myself in this thread (my scanner doesn't have drivers to make it compatible with Windows 11, and I cannot fit entire magazines on its bed, though, so it has some weird quirks).
Source:『ジ・アニメ 』 1981/11
Fairies in the Anime World
Research 1: Pattern Analysis
"Exploring the Secret Behind the Popularity of Bishoujo Characters"
Popularity Concentrated on Bishoujo Characters
Why Did Such a Boom Come About...?
Popularity Concentrated on Bishoujo Characters
Why Did Such a Boom Come About...?
Currently, regardless of whether it's anime or manga, Bishoujo characters are gaining popularity. Even among doujinshi, Clarisse and Lana-related doujinshi are flying off the shelves. Of course, not only that, but even in all-age commercial magazines, Bishoujo characters are overwhelmingly popular, and starting with Clarisse and Lana, voices are clamouring for special features on even characters like Mimiko-chan from 'Panda! Go, Panda!' (パンダコパンダ). Even on the other side of the doujinshi markets, they're selling miniature dolls of Clarisse as well as panels of Clarisse and Lana made from colour copies.
Enthusiastic female fans are appearing in Clarisse costumes. Their dazzling white dresses makes them look as if Clarisse flew out from the anime. Also, on the manga side, Azuma Hideo's works are very popular. Starting with Myaa-chan from 'Scrap School' (スクラップ学園), Bishoujo characters like Asoko from 'Desperate Angel' (やけくそ天使) and Nanako from 'Nanako SOS' (ななこSOS) share a popularity that doesn't lose to Clarisse or Lana. The Bishoujo characters that appear in Azuma Hideo's work 'Hizashi' (陽射し) look exactly like Lana and Clarisse. Especially the Bishoujo characters that appear in Azuma Hideo works, they're pitiful and indescribably cute, filled with all sorts of Lolicon charm. Additionally, artists like Masayuki Noguchi (Uchiyama Aki [内山亜紀]) are growing in popularity. It's truly a Lolicon Boom.
They call it a Lolicon Boom, but is that actually true? Popularity is concentrating on Bishoujo characters like Lana and Clarisse, we're in an era where Lolicon Manga is booming and Lolicon photobooks are flying off the shelves, that must surely be a Lolicon Boom, right? One factor's the Anime Boom, which is experiencing what could also be called a 2D-Complex, some consider an admiration towards art is what triggered the Lolicon Boom.
As men become feminised, women become masculinised, and gender becomes neutral, even if you admire real women, you won't always get what you want, so could it be the current Bishoujo Character Boom is the result of people escaping into the 2D World of the Bishoujo they admire who can make their dreams come true? Do much purer, cuter and lovable beings, ones you want to protect, exist only in the 2D world of anime or manga? This may be one of the manifestations of what Jungian psychology calls anima (the eternal ideal female image hidden within the hearts of men). One must admit Bishoujo characters in anime are a spiritual oasis for the thirsty hearts of those living in a tightly-controlled society. Is it possible to say the current Lolicon Boom was born as a safety valve for the hearts of the youth living in barren cities such as the Tokyo Desert, the exam wars, and a regimented society......?
※—※—※—※—※—※—※—※
A Dream for the Ideal Shoujo Image
The ideal female image everyone draws in their hearts is currently manifesting itself in the form of the Lolicon Boom. The term Lolicon was originally derived from the novel 'Lolita' by the Russian writer, Vladimir Nabokov, which depicts a man unable to form romantic feelings for adult women and is only able to have romantic feelings for Shoujo, which came to be known as Lolita Complex, later abbreviated to Lolicon. However, the Lolicon currently being talked about may be functioning more as a fuse to protect ones heart from the end of the century anxiety caused by a bloodthirsty, regimented society and a muddling of values. There's nothing unusual about eternally dreaming about Bishoujo in a chaotic society.
What every human is drawing in their hearts, it's precisely because they live in such a society it takes the form of an innocent Shoujo.
※—※—※—※—※—※—※—※
Research 5: Special Interview
"The World of Bishoujo Told by Azuma Hideo, Number One in Lolicon Manga"
If you can draw cute girls, then the whole land is yours to rule! We thoroughly probed Azuma Hideo-sensei, who is now known as the 'God of Lolicon', about the appeal of Bishoujo characters. Now then, what sort of conversation will unfold......!?
Born in Hokkaido. Made his debut in 1964 with 'Ringside Crazy' (リングサイド・クレージー). His representative works include 'Futari to Gonin' (ふたりと５人), 'Absurd Diary' (不条理日記), and 'Desperate Angel' (やけくそ天使), among many others.
Lolicon is a Holy Sickness.
—Recently, there's been a spotlight on Bishoujo characters from anime in the 'Lolicon Boom'-like trend, but what do you think about this situation?
Azuma: Ehh, I believe the thing called 'Lolicon' is a holy sickness, not something where one shouts 'I like 〇〇!' out in public (laughs).
—There's boys around highschool age who're excited about the goodness of Lana-chan and Angie-chan, though...
Azuma: I wouldn't call that 'Lolicon'. Even if a guy up to age of 20 begins to like a girl around 12, there's nothing particularly strange about that. Well, it's because feminism——I mean, it's the same thing as cherishing women. Rather, what's strange are men over 30 who still haven't dated a woman. If guys become like that, you no longer can call them anything other than Hentai (laughs).
—Then what about you, Azuma-sensei?
Azuma: I have a wife and a child (note: her name is Chika-chan), so I'm not a Hentai (laughs). It's nothing more than a 'hobby'.
About the highschool boys I mentioned earlier, I don't think they should admit they're Lolicon before they turn 20. It's '10 years too early' for them to contract a holy sickness (laughs). This is what I want to say out loud! (Laughs) Well, those who fall in love with kindergarten girls are 'Alice Hobby', which is a serious sickness (Laughs).
He Likes Roly-Poly Girls
—Do you believe those called Lolicon are seeking the image of a 'fairy' in Shoujo?
Azuma: I don't believe so. Well, it's not particular to Lolicon, I believe it's fine to seek fairies, but you shouldn't always be thinking about making them into a manga.
—But fairies appear in Azuma-sensei's works (laughs).
Azuma: I'm fine (laughs). After all, I've been drawing fairies for the past 10 years. In that sense, young mangaka shouldn't be drawing fairies. Even if you were to draw that sort of fairy manga, none of the publishers would buy it (laughs).
—Many cute girls appear in Azuma-sensei's works.
Azuma: If they're not cute, I wouldn't feel like drawing them (laughs). Somehow, I'm trying to draw something close to my ideal girl.
—Then what is the ideal girl for Sensei?
Azuma: First, her face needs to be continental. The rest of her body's small, giving the impression she's roly-poly...... Personality-wise, I like girls who are steadfast and don't rely on others like Myaa-chan from 'Scrap School' (スクラップ学園) (being serialised in Weekly Play Comic) or Asoko from 'Desperate Angel' (やけくそ天使). I like those sorts of girls, so the characters I draw are also like that.
—Azuma-sensei's characters are very popular, especially among Lolicon men now, but what sort of characters do you think tickle Lolicon hearts?
Azuma: ...... Hmm, that's a tough one, I don't know (laughs).
—By the way, do you ever think about wanting to turn your characters into anime, Sensei?
Azuma: I don't think about such things. I don't think about turning my own works into anime...... Though I would prefer it if they were turned into something completely different from the manga......
I saw a western meme called 'Uohh～
', though the source of the meme is actually 'Uooooaaaaaah!!' (the machine translation tool simplified it as 'Uoohhhh!!'). But it's funny that 'Uooh' stretches as far back as Azuma Hideo.It Goes Without Saying. Angie is the Best!
—Now then, what sort of anime Shoujo characters do you like?
Azuma: I don't really watch anime. It feels like they're just doing what I already know over and over again...... When it comes to girl characters, it's better if they're cute.
Well, it would be a problem if the story was a mess, but...... When it comes to stories, I like 'Future Boy Conan' (未来少年コナン).
The characters I like are Tezuka-sensei's girls. Cute ones, like Uran-chan from 'Astro Boy' (鉄腕アトム), or Tatsuko-chan from 'Goku's Great Adventures' (悟空の大冒険). I, myself, have also been greatly influenced by Tezuka-sensei's manga......
—I heard you were a big fan of 'Her Majesty's Petite Angie' (女王陛下のプティ・アンジェ), but......
Azuma: Angie's the best! Both her personality and face. Even the aspect where it's a minor work is good (laughs). There's talk about the art being terrible, but (laughs), I'll forgive them because it's cute. How do I put it? She's a character that subtly tickles my heart.
—What do you think about Lana from 'Future Boy Conan' (未来少年コナン) and Clarisse from 'Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro' (ルパン三世・カリオストロの城)?
Azuma: The lines are soft and nice. I also like Yasuhiko* (Yoshikazu)-san's characters. Although, I haven't watched anything more than 'Gundam' (ガンダム) (laughs).
※Yasuhiko Yoshikazu (安彦良和) (Wiki)
—Speaking of which, I noticed many anime characters appear in your manga. For example, Angie appeared in 'Desperate Angel', and......
Azuma: I don't make them appear that much. I sometimes use anime characters as my own characters. Of course, they're a little different.
—Lastly, what sort of direction do you believe the popularity of anime Bishoujo characters will take?
Azuma: That's a tough one~ (laughs). Well, even if people fall in love with all sorts of cute girls, that's perfectly normal, so I guess that's fine (laughs).
※—※—※—※—※—※—※—※
Let's compare Azuma Hideo's words to Miyazaki Hayao's words side-by-side to see both their similarities and personality differences in how they perceive and treat the Lolicon Youth.
Source:『アニメージュ』 1982/06
One of the two English articles that motivated me to create this thread with primary sources said some weird nonsense about Miyazaki Hayao being the lightside of Lolicon and Azuma Hideo being the darkside of Lolicon, and I have yet to find a single Japanese source that would collaborate this sort of analysis.
If I were pressed to label someone the 'darkside' of Lolicon, it would be Aoyama Masaaki, but even then, it would be incorrect, since Aoyama didn't exist as some shadowy figure that was the polar opposite of others; he was friends with Okada Toshio and Takatori Ei, and collaborated with Ogata Katsuhiro with the 'Lolicon Complete Works', but his antics and influence was instrumental in pissing normal people off. Mutation was a doujinshi that appeared in regular bookstores, so normal Japanese citizens got to experience Aoyama's writings firsthand.
While I need to reread Patrick Galbraith's words more carefully, in the video series he did with Pause and Select, he made it sound like normal people only hated Otaku/Lolicon after the Miyazaki Tsutomu Incident as they were trying to find something to blame for his actions when the reality was that Japanese society was bashing Lolicon/Otaku way before that (when Miyazaki Tsutomu's victims went missing, one of the suspects was Hirukogami Ken, and the mass media harassed him). Several months before Miyazaki Tsutomu was arrested, Aoyama wrote an article in 'Crash', and his memorial website shared the following snippet from that article (I would like to have this article in its full context, but it's a skin-mag, which isn't something I want to import).
Source『Crash』89/03
Reexamining 'Otaku' with Maximum Disgust
By Aoyama Masaaki (青山正明) (Wiki) (Source)
There's a very creep guy in the neighbourhood, but what the hell are they? There are times humans think those sorta thoughts. And most humans don't know how they should treat those guys. However, if it turns out those guys are 'Otaku', there's no need to fuss about how to deal with them. Yes, Otaku should be discriminated against, abused, and slaughtered.
Naturally, Japanese Otaku in the mid-2000s who found out about this article snippet got upset with one of them switching out Otaku with 'Drug-Addict' (As mentioned earlier in this thread, Lolicon was one of Aoyama's interests, but his true passion was drugs along with knowing trivia about anything and everything, like a walking human wikipedia for bad taste).
This story has been compiled in 'A Machine from the Sea' (海からきた機械):
In any case, after I've done the necessary proofreading and checking of Cybele, I'm going to share an article and interview courtesy of Kera with Oki Yukao, who was jointly responsible for the creation of Cybele, and the reason they stopped publishing it.
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Kera somehow managed to acquire vintage issues of Pleasance, which are literary type doujinshi interspersed with cuts from illustrations and manga. The editor-in-chief of these zines is Oki Yukao, Azuma Hideo's assistant, and the co-creator of Cybele, Japan's first ero-manga doujinshi. A couple things to keep in mind about the later interview is that the omitted parts are in the original, and it repeats itself, so apologies if it's confusing. Kera also proofread the Japanese text for typos and provided his own 'Kera Notes'.
As a reminder, you can read the full issues of Cybele on Sad Panda, most of them were uploaded by tooecchi. Elgringo also did a table of contents, since the authors use different pennames between issues, like Konoma used Kappa Phoenix and Hiwaide Yarashi between Vol.6 and Vol.7. I feel that both Konoma Waho* and Kazuna Kei have had the most impact regarding western exposure to Lolicon Anime since they did the character designs for the few episodes that were localised in English back in the 1980s (i.e. Star Trap). But I'll get to this when I do an interview with Kazuna Kei.
※I've been reading his name as Kazuho for decades, but apparently it's supposed to be Waho (I own so many books by him that I could've sworn one of them used Kazuho (if you're doing a search for him in English, both Waho and Kazuho give different results).
As an aside, Oki Yukao's Circle Humbert, that published Pleasance, also published illustrations by an artist called Akaishizawa Takashi (赤石沢貴士) (Homepage) (Twitter). Takashi is a phenomenal artist that has done illustrations for Peppermint Comic, the same magazine whose editor also worked on Japan's earliest catgirl doujinshi, CAT PEOPLE. I've been collecting his works along with Konoma and Kazuna's stuff. Takashi has a serious fairy fetish.
Source:『プレザンスⅡ』1981/08/10（発行:ハンバート）
Oki Yukao (沖由佳雄) (Wiki)
Cybele & Member Information (Wiki)
The name 'Cybele' (シベール) is believed to have supposedly been taken from Cybele, the Shoujo protagonist of the French film 'Sundays and Cybèle' (シベールの日曜日).
The other day, I was blessed with the opportunity to watch this film, 'Sundays and Cybèle'.
The little heroine Cybele could be said to bear the absolute closest resemblance to the ideal Shoujo. The protagonist, traumatised by the Vietnam War, lives in a fantasy world with Cybele, and then was murdered by the violence and pressure of the real world. The inevitability in its sadness and hopelessness left a strong impression upon me. Perhaps I, too, will die like this. Well, if I met a Shoujo like Cybele and died like this, I believe I might be fortunate.
I'll leave my impressions of the film here, I would like to talk about the doujinshi 'Cybele' while making some connections here and there to the film 'Sundays and Cybèle'.
Now then, if 'Cybele' has something in common with 'Sundays and Cybèle', not just in its name, but also in its spirit, then I believe the discontinuation of 'Cybele' is obvious. 'Cybele' ultimately turned into a doujinshi that quickly sold out at Comiket. However, can all those who bought 'Cybele' truly say they have a Lolita Complex? I'm quite doubtful. If I had to give my opinion, I would say over 90% of those who bought 'Cybele' aren't Lolicon! They bought 'Cybele' with the intention of treating it like a manga version of a vinyl book. They're damned for even denying the common aspect between 'Sundays and Cybèle' and 'Cybele'.
If the general public doesn't receive the book as the publisher intended, or if the message isn't accurately communicated, then for the publisher, they're in a state where they'll lose the motivation to produce books. That's why 'Cybele' was discontinued. No, it had to be discontinued.
One of the reasons 'Cybele' was misunderstood by those readers was that 'Cybele' formally brought the sex of Shoujo to the fore. That may have been a challenge to taboos, but at the same time, it also reduced itself to a single pattern. So once the readers have formed their incorrect interpretations, it became nearly impossible to correct those interpretations.
Despite some of the works in 'Cybele' that tried to correct these misconceptions, they weren't sufficiently effective in correcting the overall trend. So, the final decision was made, "Rather than march forward amidst a quagmire of misunderstandings, we should simply retreat here". In other words, we discontinued it.
What the discontinuation of 'Cybele' reveals is the diversity and ambiguity of Lolita Complex, which is perhaps why there are so many misinterpretations and prejudices.
Perhaps Lolita Complex itself may never be understood by the general public.
Books related to Lolicon, Alice, and nonsense are filling the streets, but these are nothing more than quiet trendy phenomena that'll only last for several years. Many works have been published by people like Tanemura*, but Lolita Complex is a matter of sensibility rather than theory to be critiqued. Those who do not understand it may never understand it. The compliant general public of those who wear loose clothing, dancing to the words of certain intellectuals, are making faces as if they can comprehend Lolita Complex. Pseudo-Lolicon is rampant among the younger generation, who are very fashion conscious and accustomed to manga.
※Tanemura Arina (種村有菜) (Wiki)
Anyone can see 'Cybele' has been used as a nice bait for these folks.
The books sell out as soon as they're created, everyone around us praised them, and before I knew it, I began to lose sight of my true Lolita Complex.
So I believe they were forced to make a last ditch effort to protect themselves. When I think of it like this, then the end of the doujinshi called 'Cybele' could perhaps...
No, let's stop here.
There's no point in thinking about such ominous things. The two characters of hope (希望) should never be abandoned......
(End)
Source:シベールF・C『プレザンスⅢ』 1981/10/15（発行:ハンバート）
Last May 17th, we (Shirasaka [白坂] and Fumizukishiro [文月城]) received Petit Cybele at Cattleya in Oizumi, and afterwards had a short chat. Starting from here, I would like to share the conversations from that time over the next two or three issues.
一一一※一一一※一一一※一一一
(The interviewees are the editor-in-chief and Inuneko Usagi Sazaemon. The talk begins abruptly, skipping over the bad parts.)
※The editor in chief is Oki Yukao (沖由佳雄), Azuma Hideo's assistant who collaborated with him in the creation of Cybele. Inuneko Usagisazaemon (I.N.U.) is the doujin activity name of Toyoshima Yuusaku (豊島ゆーさく), who participated in Cybele.
(Previous Omitted)
—I would like to ask one question, the reason you stopped Cybele, was it because everyone became busy?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, to be honest, Cybele's members are humans who draw manga. Many of whom carry the aspiration of going pro, they can't really draw their own work if they're doing doujinshi, so sacrifices had to be made to begin drawing their own work. So, Konoma (Waho)-san (このま和歩) and I settled on temporarily withdrawing. Then a while later, we decided it would be best if we let it collapse sooner rather than later, so we drew once more for the finale...
—How was the last Comiket (This Spring's Comiket)?
Editor-in-Chief: We expected it would sell well since it was the finale, but (at this time, there was a line extending outside the venue just for people buying Cybele) we never expected it to sell that well. It completely exceeded our expectations, and to be honest, we didn't know what to do. We only printed 500 copies and didn't really feel like doing a reprint. We probably should've printed more, but we didn't want to make it public and expand it that much... Honestly, Cybele gained so much inertia, it was out of our hands, that's part of the reason we stopped.
—New faces joined you along the way, right?
Editor-in-Chief: We tentatively discussed having a rotation and tried bringing in new faces, but it kinda diluted interest. After all, the issues that featured many new faces were not very well received.
—So what are you going to be up to next?
Editor-in-Chief: We'll all be going our own direction. We're all people aiming to become professionals (not limited to manga)...
—Do you mean each of you are returning to your real jobs?
Editor-in-Chief: You could say that. What we do later will simply be hobby stuff, nothing grand.
—How come? Were there struggles when you were selling Cybele?
Editor-in-Chief: Struggles...? Towards the end, well, it was a struggle (laughs). But it's quite possible we could have sold more if we were willing to sell the soul of our editing, or rather our sales policy itself. If we were really motivated and wanted to advertise, if we were motivated and printed a bunch of copies, we could have sold more, but the reason we deliberately refrained from doing that was because we didn't want to be too flashy or noisy, but we had so much inertia, it became unmanageable. We didn't have many people with administrative abilities.
Inuneko: Everything was handled by the editor-in-chief.
Editor-in-Chief: Not exactly, well, we were well-equipped financially, and it's not like we weren't making that bad of a profit, either. Even so, we didn't have more than the initial costs*. However, unlike other doujinshi, we had no intention of going into the red (laughs). We originally published them as copy-zines, and even back then, we were in a dire state. Nevertheless, we sold them all.
※Kera Note: printing costs and other expenses
So, what I don't get is why you guys weren't really supporting doujinshi of the same type besides ours; are you going to just be looking back on ours being that good (laughs)?
—Well, looking back on it, there's things that were good and things that were not, so...
Editor-in-Chief: You collected those sorts of things?
—Well... For example, Cybele certainly did all sorts of things.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah.
—There's the opinion that didn't like how you ended it, and on the other end, there's the opinion that thought the ending was amazing.
Editor-in-Chief: How do I put this? There was a surprising lack of response to our expectations.
—For that reason, you created it thinking it would be easy for those who couldn't submit such unusual stuff to an editorial department, but...
Editor-in-Chief: I'm thankful for that, but it wasn't quite the right time (laughs).
—You need to to at least try it one more time soon.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, originally, I was planning to continue with Inuneko-san, you see, but looking at the past two or three Comikets, it's really gotten out of hand...
—This is my personal opinion, but it's gotten to where if you don't get to Cybele quickly, you won't be able to buy yourself a copy, so you have to get there much earlier, it's gotten to be a vicious cycle.
Editor-in-Chief: There were many who persisted from last time, so it was quite a struggle (laughs).
—Especially during Anibèle.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah. I would like to distribute it to everyone if possible, but since our basic policy was to not expand much, if you were to suggest we're responsible for not printing much, then I'll take responsibility, but well...
—Abnormal overheating (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: (Laughs) It really was more then we expected.
(Middle Omitted)
—You didn't intend for it to grow too much, yet it grew, or was it made to grow?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, I'm glad it sold well. It selling well feels good, but it was rough. While the doujinshi around us weren't selling well and had issues remaining, ours were selling like hot cakes and it felt good, but well, we bought ourselves quite a lot of resentment as well (laughs). What did they say? (Turns towards Inuneko), last time? Or the time before? Someone said that.
Inuneko: Said what?
Editor-in-Chief: They said don't lump us with them.
Inuneko: Wasn't that a long time ago?
Editor-in-Chief: About three issues ago, they were also using black for their cover, and someone asked 'is this it?' and they said, don't lump us with Cybele! (Laughs) I also get angry when people say things like that.
Inuneko: I guess that was around Vol.5. (Pauses) Wasn't that the external force that caused it to end?
Editor-in-Chief: The reason it ended was due to internal factors, there was just too much inertia, it got out of hand.
Inuneko: It felt like it was going in another direction.
Editor-in-Chief: There was that too.
—Explain in detail.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~m, well, apart from the animals.
Inuneko: (Laughs). Apart from animals? Apart?
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~m, how do I say it? (Some Silence)
Inuneko: I was the mastermind that muddled things.
—Do you mean you were losing the motif of Cybele by going in another direction?
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~m, well, I guess there was that. Originally, one of the reasons we started Cybele was to get new people together; it would've been boring just looking at the art drawn among our friends, so we started doing it because we thought maybe some new people would come, but surprisingly, no one came. What we tentatively gathered as members were pretty much the members we gathered for the first issue. Pretty much all of them gathered for that.
Inuneko: Yeah, that's true.
Editor-in-Chief: After that, most of the people, who drew after Vol.2, came from those who saw Vol.1, and the number of people who drew after that stopped increasing. Indeed, some were around for Vol.6, However, there were quite a few who gathered for Vol.5 that didn't really fit the tastes of our members. Well, what's mysterious is that there were so many readers, I expected them to gather, but the fact they didn't gather was one of the reasons I started to think there wasn't a point in trying any further.
—For one thing, you could say the readers were satisfied just looking at it.
Editor-in-Chief: Yes, that's true.
—That's another thing, have you ever felt what you were looking for was different?
Editor-in-Chief: Eh~, that's the problem; what I desired was something that didn't gather to us. I thought we would gather a few more. Honestly, no one came that really suited my tastes.
Inuneko: Hm~m.
Editor-in-Chief: There were very nice people, I'm not really commenting on their art skills, but regardless, I wanted someone who matched my colour.
Inuneko: Yes, yes. I think it's a problem to use good and bad as a standard for value.
Editor-in-Chief: I agree. In other words, there was no one who matched my style, and if that were the case, it wouldn't be very interesting if we just specialised in the writing. Well, as someone who also aspires to be a pro, I used it quite a bit as a practice board.
—About that, there was colour for Vol.6.
Editor-in-Chief: I thought about changing that area a bit, but it failed (laughs). Well, yeah.
Inuneko: So, was there no hope for Cybele after Editor-in-Chief left?
Editor-in-Chief: You can't know the unknown. It might've been better if I wasn't there (laughs).
Inuneko: Well, the past is the past.
Editor-in-Chief: In any case, there's still people who want to draw, but they don't want to go anywhere else.
Inuneko: It might've been the animal ban (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: Looking at Vol.5, did they gather all at once?
—No, it was little by little. It's not like they started gathering all at once, but they came here and there from before that.
Editor-in-Chief: So they gathered for Vol.6.
—We gathered some and I tried using many newcomers, but it felt a little sloppy.
(To Be Continued in Next Issue)
Source:シベールF・C『プレザンスⅣ』1981/12/20（発行:ハンバート）
—It's really regrettable Cybele is no more.
Editor-in-Chief: While I have a strong desire that wants to live up to the expectations of the readers, I'm also trying to become a pro, I cannot do all these things. Well, I guess I'll draw from time to time, tho~ose sorts of things.
—They say the road to becoming a pro is rough (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: Nah, doujinshi is easy to draw. Because there's no restrictions. Becoming a pro is naturally going to be rough, so I need to begin practising in that area as well.
—So you don't want to spoil yourself with doujinshi.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, it isn't that big of a deal, but I'm already old enough I need to start working on my submissions at any rate (laughs).
—You can't keep working on your indulgence forever (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: (Laughs). Well, to be honest, it is an indulgence.
—Even if it's something you'll do in your spare time, you whittle away at it with your buddies.
Editor-in-Chief: That's how it's gonna be; taking it to the outside and giving it another go... It's impossible to prosper this much.
—Is it arduous then?
Editor-in-Chief: It's arduous, there's at least a few willing to help. However, that alone would be difficult even if we rotated writers.
Inuneko: It was completely solid-Cybe*, so he wasn't able to do anything else.
※Kera Note: He's Talking About Cybele
Editor-in-Chief: I'm not a pro yet, so I need to completely devote myself to it while drawing my work. Thinking about it, I suppose it can become an obstacle if one aims to become a pro. Well, it's not like there aren't any pluses.
—So you weren't able to draw anything but Cybele?
Editor-in-Chief: It wasn't exactly like that, but on the contrary, I got fed up with it, I overdid it.
—That would be a contributing factor.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah... The most time-consuming thing, other than manga, is doing mail-order, so if I can leave that part to someone else, I might be able to do a little better.
—So there's something you're tired of other than drawing manga.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah, there are, quite a few things. Well, I'm really sorry for saying something so irresponsible, but I don't have any managerial skills at all. Anyways, I'm a human with no managerial ability, so I can't do stuff like receive mail-order letters and sort them. That's why there are still quite a few people who are delayed or haven't received their copy yet. I feel sorry for those people. Well, there are quite a few people who couldn't obtain one, so I cannot help but feel sorry for those people. There are many letters that are confusing to read, and in any case, there's a response, but the most common response were mail-order letters. Most of the mail order ones were very curt. I would've appreciated it if they could've written something along the way. Well, we're also a doujinshi, not a commercial magazine. If you don't have a certain level of motivation, you'll lose your motivation. No matter how well things go, if a writer loses their motivation, their work will disintegrate into the ether.
I would've appreciated it if they had given us some praise, even if it was just their impressions, though most people complimented us. It can be divided into two patterns. Solid-praise, on one hand, and well, how do I say this? And on the other hand, those who really read it, are the people who are—well—harsh with their criticism, these people were few, but there were quite a few. Well, it's not surprising they would criticise us so harshly. Though, I was expecting a little more would come.
—What sort of criticism?
Editor-in-Chief: Ehh, there's ones that say we overdid it, many saying we were too intense... Those ones didn't particularly say anything about our policy itself.
—Don't like it, don't buy it.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah, people, who don't like it, don't have to buy it... However, the book that'll be released (for summer Comiket) will be a very amazing book.
—Radical stuff is also indulgent.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah, that's true.
—How about the situation that's escalating unconditionally?
Editor-in-Chief: We tentatively put a brake on it. Even then, I still feel like it's gotten too out of control, so I believe I could've controlled it a little better.
—If you do that, it'll take longer.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~mm (Silence).
—The suppression was too weak, so you built up inertia.
Editor-in-Chief: When I said it had too much inertia, I meant it became overly large and complicated, I don't particularly care about the contents, so other than that (looking at Inuneko), I have no intention of interfering.
Inuneko: Is that so?
—If you do that, you'll be able to return to your real job, but what about the others?
Editor-in-Chief: The rest of us want to become pros, so it's not like we'll have a hard time making ends meet without Cybele (laughs).
Inuneko: However, it's a fact after Cybele ended, everyone suddenly started getting a foothold into becoming pros.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, it's probably the timing.
Inuneko: The timing really was perfect, too perfect.
Editor-in-Chief: However, our main force were amateurs with aspirations of becoming pros along with animators.
Inuneko: Animators and those aspiring to be animators.
Editor-in-Chief: Since that area was drawn by our main force, well, we all have our own path, so there's no one who would lose their purpose in life and hang themselves...
Inuneko: Eh, say what?
Editor-in-Chief: I was wondering if there are folks who lost their purpose in life and hanged themselves.
Inuneko: Hm~mm, that's a difficult topic (laughs).
(To Be Continued)
Source:シベールF・C『プレザンスⅤ』1982/3/15（発行:ハンバート）
At Cattleya Vol.3
Editor-in-Chief: Well, we've been drawing what we wanted to draw till now, so I believe even if we continue on this path afterwards, we would simply get bored, so you could say we were simply continuing simply due to the inertia. Around Vol.6 that colour started to become more pronounced. Quite a bit...
Inuneko: Everyone moved away from Shoujo and things became more story-oriented. I was the only one rolling along.
—So Cybele wasn't essentially story?
Editor-in-Chief: Cybele, or rather those sorts of scenes were supplementary, you could say it wasn't essential. There's a growing trend if you removed certain parts, they would turn into a normal manga.
—So the focus wasn't on Shoujo.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~mm, well, what I can say is that was the case.
—So you eventually grew tired of drawing girls.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, rather than say I grew tired of it, how do I say this? Well, to put it badly, you could say I grew bored of it. However, as I said earlier, this was simply practice for going pro, so my apologies to the readers. In that case, I couldn't afford to focus too much of my attention on that and it would be bad if I couldn't draw a proper manga, so that's what happened. Well, I'm just droning on and on about topics that only make sense in the dressing room and not to the audience.
—What was the response in the dressing room regarding that?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, the response was surprisingly good. Konoma-san received it quite well.
—Received it quite well?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, the critiques were pretty good. Though, I don't know if you can understand the meaning behind our dressing room talk.
—Konoma-san also did dressing room talk in Vol.6 and even Vol.7.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, he's been doing that quite often. Well, in that regard, to put it simply, it's easy to do. It's easy to create a story, that sort of dressing room talk.
—In Vol.7, everyone felt like they were running wild with dressing room talk.
Inuneko: It's the last one, the finale.
Editor-in-Chief: It's the finale, but since we were defeated, we need to try again.
Inuneko: Cybele felt like it had something in that regard.
Editor-in-Chief: That's right. We've done well, don't get mad. Yosh, we'll have our revenge in the next Cybe.
Inuneko: Also, in the end, everyone was aiming to become professionals, so it didn't feel like they wanted to be pure creators. So, that's why Shoujo-Shoujo-Shoujo was being pushed, they couldn't help but feel the urge to create a better drama.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~mm, well.
Inuneko: Also, to bring that into Cybele, we did the dressing room talk (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: If you're talking about the dressing room talk, we were almost at our limit using girls as a theme, so... Especially because I'm unable to draw many types of manga. I used girls for gags. It's not exactly the three topics*, but using girls for gags was becoming more and more restrictive, so stories of the same type were bound to increase.
※T/L Note: Telling a story on the spot based on three topics given by the audience, or an impromptu story based on three topics.
—So it was becoming one pattern no matter how hard you tried.
Editor-in-Chief: I was quite afraid it would turn out that way if I continued the way I was going. Well, you could say the tide was favourable in that area.
—Is it difficult to balance it with story?
Editor-in-Chief: The problem was which to focus on. Well, it would be nice if girls themselves were the theme, but that sort of thing is extremely rare, and it's extremely difficult to create that. Well, you would need to put more weight on one or the other. So, when it came to the previous issue that used a lot of newcomers, there were more works that focused on girls rather than stories. I think that's why things failed. It's regrettable it was seen that way.
—I had the impression the first half was like an illustration collection, one frame at a time.
Editor-in-Chief: That's probably, well, the result of the creator's incompetence.
—I didn't mean it like that... How I do I say it?
Editor-in-Chief: In any case, that's the reason we stopped taking in newcomers. There were many newcomers who only saw it that way.
—They only wanted to draw girls.
Editor-in-Chief: That's right, that's the theme. Well, it didn't match my colour.
—So there was a lack of a point to act as a cushion to soften the blow.
Editor-in-Chief: Rather than a cushion to soften the blow... It was simply my own selfishness. I gathered them to have them all draw for us, and then don't publish what I don't like, it was very one-sided, so I feel sorry for those creators, but since I'm creating a book called Cybele and selling it for a certain amount of money, I want to create something that satisfies me to a certain extent.
—So from now on, you'll be drawing story.
Editor-in-Chief: Could you call it story...?
—I meant what you said about starting to feel uncomfortable just drawing girls.
Editor-in-Chief: No, I like drawing them (laughs). However, I feel like they've about reached their limit as a work. If I could bring in some promising newcomers that I could acknowledge, I could have left it to them to continue things, but there weren't many people who were suitable for the glasses, or rather, people who were suitable for my colour, so without us, in terms of the number of people, it would be quite a problem, so I thought it's about time to quit, but... In any case, rather than say that's the main reason, it's a combination of various factors that led to its discontinuation in the end.
—Well then, since it's come to this, you've washed your feet of it (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: I won't say I washed my feet of it (laughs). It's not like I swore to God I would never draw again, but I don't want to bother myself over things like that anymore.
—Thank you very much for your time.
———＊———＊———＊———
It's already been a year since Cybele was discontinued. This is the end of the article that was published across three issues of Pleasance.
Although it was an interview venue frantically set up as a place to pick up Petit Cybele (プチシベール), and because I didn't organise my questions, I ended up asking the same questions over and over, so I would like to conclude this article by expressing my deepest gratitude to both the editor-in-chief, who responded to all my questions with a smile, and Inuneko Usagi Sazaemon. Thank you very much.
Like how the café, Manga Gallery (Manga Garou; 漫画画廊), was a popular place for creative mangaka and animators to meet and collaborate, Cattleya (カトレア) was also a legendary coffee shop from the 1970s to the mid 1990s. It was located in the basement near the Shinjuku Kinokuniya (one of the biggest bookstore chains in Japan). Many Comiket circles, including 'Labyrinth 1975' (迷宮'75), met there. In one of Azuma Hideo's manga (Majonia Eve [魔ジョニア・イブ]), he wrote he would consult Matsumoto Leiji (松本零士), the guy who created 'Space Battleship Yamamoto' and 'Galaxy Express 999', about stuff near the Oizumi Gakuen Station's Cattleya. There's something to be said about the influence of both Manga Gallery and Cattleya in helping to foster and develop the talents of early artists.
While he didn't define exactly what Lolicon means, I think I have a vague idea what Oki Yukao meant by the consumers of Cybele not being his kin. Azuma Hideo said Oki Yukao was an Otaku, and in Azuma's mind, the difference between him and an Otaku is that aside from Otaku being very knowledgeable about a single subject, Otaku are "Very picky. It feels like they won't tolerate even the slightest scratch or dent". Oki Yukao wanted a specific kind of audience, and specific kinds of artists to collaborate with him, which didn't happen.
Compared to the hardships of being a writer, while I feel people are way more willing to send messages to artists to the point I feel like it's pointless to leave them words of encouragement or useful feedback, I always find it weird to find out an artist I think is extremely talented feels demotivated because no one comments on their work; I always get the impression they're busy and don't appreciate random strangers bothering them, but that may only be the case for a few artists. It doesn't help the sort of people who generally leave comments only want to leave it in a sea of other comments because they themselves want attention, and then there's the artists traumatised by abusive time-vampires sending them messages.
I didn't have any illusions when I started this thread that it would allow me to meet like-minded individuals who have the work ethic and motivation to research this stuff properly, but I'm glad for the handful of non-mentally deranged individuals whom I've met after doing this. Being contacted by an exceptional person like Kera was worth being contacted by hundreds, maybe thousands, of people's worth of disappointing time-vampires. Though, I still hope the couple of people who commented on the first page saying they're going to 'research' Lolicon history do so; I'm only scratching the tip of the iceberg in this thread. Many westerners, including the black guy who played Morpheus in the Matrix, say they know about Hentai, but zero people know who Kawamoto Kouji is and his part in creating the 'Hentai' these super famous actors purportedly enjoy.
Commercial Manga Cover by Inuneko Usagisazaemon (I.N.U.) aka Toyoshima Yuusaku:
It's unfortunate none of Inuneko's books are available for sale digitally or on Akamatsu Ken's J-comi website. Oki Yukao also suffered the same fate. Here's a couple covers from Yukao's commercial works:
Reminds me of Hirukogami Ken's ominous words about manga magazine editors murdering mangaka. Like Akaishizawa Takashi, mentioned in the beginning of this post, only managed one commercial book in the 1990s; everything else he's done has been largely doujinshi. Commercial editors are truly demons.
As a reminder, you can read the full issues of Cybele on Sad Panda, most of them were uploaded by tooecchi. Elgringo also did a table of contents, since the authors use different pennames between issues, like Konoma used Kappa Phoenix and Hiwaide Yarashi between Vol.6 and Vol.7. I feel that both Konoma Waho* and Kazuna Kei have had the most impact regarding western exposure to Lolicon Anime since they did the character designs for the few episodes that were localised in English back in the 1980s (i.e. Star Trap). But I'll get to this when I do an interview with Kazuna Kei.
※I've been reading his name as Kazuho for decades, but apparently it's supposed to be Waho (I own so many books by him that I could've sworn one of them used Kazuho (if you're doing a search for him in English, both Waho and Kazuho give different results).
As an aside, Oki Yukao's Circle Humbert, that published Pleasance, also published illustrations by an artist called Akaishizawa Takashi (赤石沢貴士) (Homepage) (Twitter). Takashi is a phenomenal artist that has done illustrations for Peppermint Comic, the same magazine whose editor also worked on Japan's earliest catgirl doujinshi, CAT PEOPLE. I've been collecting his works along with Konoma and Kazuna's stuff. Takashi has a serious fairy fetish.
Source:『プレザンスⅡ』1981/08/10（発行:ハンバート）
Oki Yukao (沖由佳雄) (Wiki)
Cybele & Member Information (Wiki)
Personal Opinion: Cybele Theory
Neunzig
Neunzig
The name 'Cybele' (シベール) is believed to have supposedly been taken from Cybele, the Shoujo protagonist of the French film 'Sundays and Cybèle' (シベールの日曜日).
The other day, I was blessed with the opportunity to watch this film, 'Sundays and Cybèle'.
The little heroine Cybele could be said to bear the absolute closest resemblance to the ideal Shoujo. The protagonist, traumatised by the Vietnam War, lives in a fantasy world with Cybele, and then was murdered by the violence and pressure of the real world. The inevitability in its sadness and hopelessness left a strong impression upon me. Perhaps I, too, will die like this. Well, if I met a Shoujo like Cybele and died like this, I believe I might be fortunate.
I'll leave my impressions of the film here, I would like to talk about the doujinshi 'Cybele' while making some connections here and there to the film 'Sundays and Cybèle'.
Now then, if 'Cybele' has something in common with 'Sundays and Cybèle', not just in its name, but also in its spirit, then I believe the discontinuation of 'Cybele' is obvious. 'Cybele' ultimately turned into a doujinshi that quickly sold out at Comiket. However, can all those who bought 'Cybele' truly say they have a Lolita Complex? I'm quite doubtful. If I had to give my opinion, I would say over 90% of those who bought 'Cybele' aren't Lolicon! They bought 'Cybele' with the intention of treating it like a manga version of a vinyl book. They're damned for even denying the common aspect between 'Sundays and Cybèle' and 'Cybele'.
If the general public doesn't receive the book as the publisher intended, or if the message isn't accurately communicated, then for the publisher, they're in a state where they'll lose the motivation to produce books. That's why 'Cybele' was discontinued. No, it had to be discontinued.
One of the reasons 'Cybele' was misunderstood by those readers was that 'Cybele' formally brought the sex of Shoujo to the fore. That may have been a challenge to taboos, but at the same time, it also reduced itself to a single pattern. So once the readers have formed their incorrect interpretations, it became nearly impossible to correct those interpretations.
Despite some of the works in 'Cybele' that tried to correct these misconceptions, they weren't sufficiently effective in correcting the overall trend. So, the final decision was made, "Rather than march forward amidst a quagmire of misunderstandings, we should simply retreat here". In other words, we discontinued it.
What the discontinuation of 'Cybele' reveals is the diversity and ambiguity of Lolita Complex, which is perhaps why there are so many misinterpretations and prejudices.
Perhaps Lolita Complex itself may never be understood by the general public.
Books related to Lolicon, Alice, and nonsense are filling the streets, but these are nothing more than quiet trendy phenomena that'll only last for several years. Many works have been published by people like Tanemura*, but Lolita Complex is a matter of sensibility rather than theory to be critiqued. Those who do not understand it may never understand it. The compliant general public of those who wear loose clothing, dancing to the words of certain intellectuals, are making faces as if they can comprehend Lolita Complex. Pseudo-Lolicon is rampant among the younger generation, who are very fashion conscious and accustomed to manga.
※Tanemura Arina (種村有菜) (Wiki)
Anyone can see 'Cybele' has been used as a nice bait for these folks.
The books sell out as soon as they're created, everyone around us praised them, and before I knew it, I began to lose sight of my true Lolita Complex.
So I believe they were forced to make a last ditch effort to protect themselves. When I think of it like this, then the end of the doujinshi called 'Cybele' could perhaps...
No, let's stop here.
There's no point in thinking about such ominous things. The two characters of hope (希望) should never be abandoned......
(End)
Source:シベールF・C『プレザンスⅢ』 1981/10/15（発行:ハンバート）
"Cybele" Interview At Cattleya Vol.1
Last May 17th, we (Shirasaka [白坂] and Fumizukishiro [文月城]) received Petit Cybele at Cattleya in Oizumi, and afterwards had a short chat. Starting from here, I would like to share the conversations from that time over the next two or three issues.
一一一※一一一※一一一※一一一
(The interviewees are the editor-in-chief and Inuneko Usagi Sazaemon. The talk begins abruptly, skipping over the bad parts.)
※The editor in chief is Oki Yukao (沖由佳雄), Azuma Hideo's assistant who collaborated with him in the creation of Cybele. Inuneko Usagisazaemon (I.N.U.) is the doujin activity name of Toyoshima Yuusaku (豊島ゆーさく), who participated in Cybele.
(Previous Omitted)
—I would like to ask one question, the reason you stopped Cybele, was it because everyone became busy?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, to be honest, Cybele's members are humans who draw manga. Many of whom carry the aspiration of going pro, they can't really draw their own work if they're doing doujinshi, so sacrifices had to be made to begin drawing their own work. So, Konoma (Waho)-san (このま和歩) and I settled on temporarily withdrawing. Then a while later, we decided it would be best if we let it collapse sooner rather than later, so we drew once more for the finale...
—How was the last Comiket (This Spring's Comiket)?
Editor-in-Chief: We expected it would sell well since it was the finale, but (at this time, there was a line extending outside the venue just for people buying Cybele) we never expected it to sell that well. It completely exceeded our expectations, and to be honest, we didn't know what to do. We only printed 500 copies and didn't really feel like doing a reprint. We probably should've printed more, but we didn't want to make it public and expand it that much... Honestly, Cybele gained so much inertia, it was out of our hands, that's part of the reason we stopped.
—New faces joined you along the way, right?
Editor-in-Chief: We tentatively discussed having a rotation and tried bringing in new faces, but it kinda diluted interest. After all, the issues that featured many new faces were not very well received.
—So what are you going to be up to next?
Editor-in-Chief: We'll all be going our own direction. We're all people aiming to become professionals (not limited to manga)...
—Do you mean each of you are returning to your real jobs?
Editor-in-Chief: You could say that. What we do later will simply be hobby stuff, nothing grand.
—How come? Were there struggles when you were selling Cybele?
Editor-in-Chief: Struggles...? Towards the end, well, it was a struggle (laughs). But it's quite possible we could have sold more if we were willing to sell the soul of our editing, or rather our sales policy itself. If we were really motivated and wanted to advertise, if we were motivated and printed a bunch of copies, we could have sold more, but the reason we deliberately refrained from doing that was because we didn't want to be too flashy or noisy, but we had so much inertia, it became unmanageable. We didn't have many people with administrative abilities.
Inuneko: Everything was handled by the editor-in-chief.
Editor-in-Chief: Not exactly, well, we were well-equipped financially, and it's not like we weren't making that bad of a profit, either. Even so, we didn't have more than the initial costs*. However, unlike other doujinshi, we had no intention of going into the red (laughs). We originally published them as copy-zines, and even back then, we were in a dire state. Nevertheless, we sold them all.
※Kera Note: printing costs and other expenses
So, what I don't get is why you guys weren't really supporting doujinshi of the same type besides ours; are you going to just be looking back on ours being that good (laughs)?
—Well, looking back on it, there's things that were good and things that were not, so...
Editor-in-Chief: You collected those sorts of things?
—Well... For example, Cybele certainly did all sorts of things.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah.
—There's the opinion that didn't like how you ended it, and on the other end, there's the opinion that thought the ending was amazing.
Editor-in-Chief: How do I put this? There was a surprising lack of response to our expectations.
—For that reason, you created it thinking it would be easy for those who couldn't submit such unusual stuff to an editorial department, but...
Editor-in-Chief: I'm thankful for that, but it wasn't quite the right time (laughs).
—You need to to at least try it one more time soon.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, originally, I was planning to continue with Inuneko-san, you see, but looking at the past two or three Comikets, it's really gotten out of hand...
—This is my personal opinion, but it's gotten to where if you don't get to Cybele quickly, you won't be able to buy yourself a copy, so you have to get there much earlier, it's gotten to be a vicious cycle.
Editor-in-Chief: There were many who persisted from last time, so it was quite a struggle (laughs).
—Especially during Anibèle.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah. I would like to distribute it to everyone if possible, but since our basic policy was to not expand much, if you were to suggest we're responsible for not printing much, then I'll take responsibility, but well...
—Abnormal overheating (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: (Laughs) It really was more then we expected.
(Middle Omitted)
—You didn't intend for it to grow too much, yet it grew, or was it made to grow?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, I'm glad it sold well. It selling well feels good, but it was rough. While the doujinshi around us weren't selling well and had issues remaining, ours were selling like hot cakes and it felt good, but well, we bought ourselves quite a lot of resentment as well (laughs). What did they say? (Turns towards Inuneko), last time? Or the time before? Someone said that.
Inuneko: Said what?
Editor-in-Chief: They said don't lump us with them.
Inuneko: Wasn't that a long time ago?
Editor-in-Chief: About three issues ago, they were also using black for their cover, and someone asked 'is this it?' and they said, don't lump us with Cybele! (Laughs) I also get angry when people say things like that.
Inuneko: I guess that was around Vol.5. (Pauses) Wasn't that the external force that caused it to end?
Editor-in-Chief: The reason it ended was due to internal factors, there was just too much inertia, it got out of hand.
Inuneko: It felt like it was going in another direction.
Editor-in-Chief: There was that too.
—Explain in detail.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~m, well, apart from the animals.
Inuneko: (Laughs). Apart from animals? Apart?
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~m, how do I say it? (Some Silence)
Inuneko: I was the mastermind that muddled things.
—Do you mean you were losing the motif of Cybele by going in another direction?
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~m, well, I guess there was that. Originally, one of the reasons we started Cybele was to get new people together; it would've been boring just looking at the art drawn among our friends, so we started doing it because we thought maybe some new people would come, but surprisingly, no one came. What we tentatively gathered as members were pretty much the members we gathered for the first issue. Pretty much all of them gathered for that.
Inuneko: Yeah, that's true.
Editor-in-Chief: After that, most of the people, who drew after Vol.2, came from those who saw Vol.1, and the number of people who drew after that stopped increasing. Indeed, some were around for Vol.6, However, there were quite a few who gathered for Vol.5 that didn't really fit the tastes of our members. Well, what's mysterious is that there were so many readers, I expected them to gather, but the fact they didn't gather was one of the reasons I started to think there wasn't a point in trying any further.
—For one thing, you could say the readers were satisfied just looking at it.
Editor-in-Chief: Yes, that's true.
—That's another thing, have you ever felt what you were looking for was different?
Editor-in-Chief: Eh~, that's the problem; what I desired was something that didn't gather to us. I thought we would gather a few more. Honestly, no one came that really suited my tastes.
Inuneko: Hm~m.
Editor-in-Chief: There were very nice people, I'm not really commenting on their art skills, but regardless, I wanted someone who matched my colour.
Inuneko: Yes, yes. I think it's a problem to use good and bad as a standard for value.
Editor-in-Chief: I agree. In other words, there was no one who matched my style, and if that were the case, it wouldn't be very interesting if we just specialised in the writing. Well, as someone who also aspires to be a pro, I used it quite a bit as a practice board.
—About that, there was colour for Vol.6.
Editor-in-Chief: I thought about changing that area a bit, but it failed (laughs). Well, yeah.
Inuneko: So, was there no hope for Cybele after Editor-in-Chief left?
Editor-in-Chief: You can't know the unknown. It might've been better if I wasn't there (laughs).
Inuneko: Well, the past is the past.
Editor-in-Chief: In any case, there's still people who want to draw, but they don't want to go anywhere else.
Inuneko: It might've been the animal ban (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: Looking at Vol.5, did they gather all at once?
—No, it was little by little. It's not like they started gathering all at once, but they came here and there from before that.
Editor-in-Chief: So they gathered for Vol.6.
—We gathered some and I tried using many newcomers, but it felt a little sloppy.
(To Be Continued in Next Issue)
Source:シベールF・C『プレザンスⅣ』1981/12/20（発行:ハンバート）
At Cattleya Vol.2
—It's really regrettable Cybele is no more.
Editor-in-Chief: While I have a strong desire that wants to live up to the expectations of the readers, I'm also trying to become a pro, I cannot do all these things. Well, I guess I'll draw from time to time, tho~ose sorts of things.
—They say the road to becoming a pro is rough (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: Nah, doujinshi is easy to draw. Because there's no restrictions. Becoming a pro is naturally going to be rough, so I need to begin practising in that area as well.
—So you don't want to spoil yourself with doujinshi.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, it isn't that big of a deal, but I'm already old enough I need to start working on my submissions at any rate (laughs).
—You can't keep working on your indulgence forever (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: (Laughs). Well, to be honest, it is an indulgence.
—Even if it's something you'll do in your spare time, you whittle away at it with your buddies.
Editor-in-Chief: That's how it's gonna be; taking it to the outside and giving it another go... It's impossible to prosper this much.
—Is it arduous then?
Editor-in-Chief: It's arduous, there's at least a few willing to help. However, that alone would be difficult even if we rotated writers.
Inuneko: It was completely solid-Cybe*, so he wasn't able to do anything else.
※Kera Note: He's Talking About Cybele
Editor-in-Chief: I'm not a pro yet, so I need to completely devote myself to it while drawing my work. Thinking about it, I suppose it can become an obstacle if one aims to become a pro. Well, it's not like there aren't any pluses.
—So you weren't able to draw anything but Cybele?
Editor-in-Chief: It wasn't exactly like that, but on the contrary, I got fed up with it, I overdid it.
—That would be a contributing factor.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah... The most time-consuming thing, other than manga, is doing mail-order, so if I can leave that part to someone else, I might be able to do a little better.
—So there's something you're tired of other than drawing manga.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah, there are, quite a few things. Well, I'm really sorry for saying something so irresponsible, but I don't have any managerial skills at all. Anyways, I'm a human with no managerial ability, so I can't do stuff like receive mail-order letters and sort them. That's why there are still quite a few people who are delayed or haven't received their copy yet. I feel sorry for those people. Well, there are quite a few people who couldn't obtain one, so I cannot help but feel sorry for those people. There are many letters that are confusing to read, and in any case, there's a response, but the most common response were mail-order letters. Most of the mail order ones were very curt. I would've appreciated it if they could've written something along the way. Well, we're also a doujinshi, not a commercial magazine. If you don't have a certain level of motivation, you'll lose your motivation. No matter how well things go, if a writer loses their motivation, their work will disintegrate into the ether.
I would've appreciated it if they had given us some praise, even if it was just their impressions, though most people complimented us. It can be divided into two patterns. Solid-praise, on one hand, and well, how do I say this? And on the other hand, those who really read it, are the people who are—well—harsh with their criticism, these people were few, but there were quite a few. Well, it's not surprising they would criticise us so harshly. Though, I was expecting a little more would come.
—What sort of criticism?
Editor-in-Chief: Ehh, there's ones that say we overdid it, many saying we were too intense... Those ones didn't particularly say anything about our policy itself.
—Don't like it, don't buy it.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah, people, who don't like it, don't have to buy it... However, the book that'll be released (for summer Comiket) will be a very amazing book.
—Radical stuff is also indulgent.
Editor-in-Chief: Yeah, that's true.
—How about the situation that's escalating unconditionally?
Editor-in-Chief: We tentatively put a brake on it. Even then, I still feel like it's gotten too out of control, so I believe I could've controlled it a little better.
—If you do that, it'll take longer.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~mm (Silence).
—The suppression was too weak, so you built up inertia.
Editor-in-Chief: When I said it had too much inertia, I meant it became overly large and complicated, I don't particularly care about the contents, so other than that (looking at Inuneko), I have no intention of interfering.
Inuneko: Is that so?
—If you do that, you'll be able to return to your real job, but what about the others?
Editor-in-Chief: The rest of us want to become pros, so it's not like we'll have a hard time making ends meet without Cybele (laughs).
Inuneko: However, it's a fact after Cybele ended, everyone suddenly started getting a foothold into becoming pros.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, it's probably the timing.
Inuneko: The timing really was perfect, too perfect.
Editor-in-Chief: However, our main force were amateurs with aspirations of becoming pros along with animators.
Inuneko: Animators and those aspiring to be animators.
Editor-in-Chief: Since that area was drawn by our main force, well, we all have our own path, so there's no one who would lose their purpose in life and hang themselves...
Inuneko: Eh, say what?
Editor-in-Chief: I was wondering if there are folks who lost their purpose in life and hanged themselves.
Inuneko: Hm~mm, that's a difficult topic (laughs).
(To Be Continued)
Source:シベールF・C『プレザンスⅤ』1982/3/15（発行:ハンバート）
At Cattleya Vol.3
Editor-in-Chief: Well, we've been drawing what we wanted to draw till now, so I believe even if we continue on this path afterwards, we would simply get bored, so you could say we were simply continuing simply due to the inertia. Around Vol.6 that colour started to become more pronounced. Quite a bit...
Inuneko: Everyone moved away from Shoujo and things became more story-oriented. I was the only one rolling along.
—So Cybele wasn't essentially story?
Editor-in-Chief: Cybele, or rather those sorts of scenes were supplementary, you could say it wasn't essential. There's a growing trend if you removed certain parts, they would turn into a normal manga.
—So the focus wasn't on Shoujo.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~mm, well, what I can say is that was the case.
—So you eventually grew tired of drawing girls.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, rather than say I grew tired of it, how do I say this? Well, to put it badly, you could say I grew bored of it. However, as I said earlier, this was simply practice for going pro, so my apologies to the readers. In that case, I couldn't afford to focus too much of my attention on that and it would be bad if I couldn't draw a proper manga, so that's what happened. Well, I'm just droning on and on about topics that only make sense in the dressing room and not to the audience.
—What was the response in the dressing room regarding that?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, the response was surprisingly good. Konoma-san received it quite well.
—Received it quite well?
Editor-in-Chief: Well, the critiques were pretty good. Though, I don't know if you can understand the meaning behind our dressing room talk.
—Konoma-san also did dressing room talk in Vol.6 and even Vol.7.
Editor-in-Chief: Well, he's been doing that quite often. Well, in that regard, to put it simply, it's easy to do. It's easy to create a story, that sort of dressing room talk.
—In Vol.7, everyone felt like they were running wild with dressing room talk.
Inuneko: It's the last one, the finale.
Editor-in-Chief: It's the finale, but since we were defeated, we need to try again.
Inuneko: Cybele felt like it had something in that regard.
Editor-in-Chief: That's right. We've done well, don't get mad. Yosh, we'll have our revenge in the next Cybe.
Inuneko: Also, in the end, everyone was aiming to become professionals, so it didn't feel like they wanted to be pure creators. So, that's why Shoujo-Shoujo-Shoujo was being pushed, they couldn't help but feel the urge to create a better drama.
Editor-in-Chief: Hm~mm, well.
Inuneko: Also, to bring that into Cybele, we did the dressing room talk (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: If you're talking about the dressing room talk, we were almost at our limit using girls as a theme, so... Especially because I'm unable to draw many types of manga. I used girls for gags. It's not exactly the three topics*, but using girls for gags was becoming more and more restrictive, so stories of the same type were bound to increase.
※T/L Note: Telling a story on the spot based on three topics given by the audience, or an impromptu story based on three topics.
—So it was becoming one pattern no matter how hard you tried.
Editor-in-Chief: I was quite afraid it would turn out that way if I continued the way I was going. Well, you could say the tide was favourable in that area.
—Is it difficult to balance it with story?
Editor-in-Chief: The problem was which to focus on. Well, it would be nice if girls themselves were the theme, but that sort of thing is extremely rare, and it's extremely difficult to create that. Well, you would need to put more weight on one or the other. So, when it came to the previous issue that used a lot of newcomers, there were more works that focused on girls rather than stories. I think that's why things failed. It's regrettable it was seen that way.
—I had the impression the first half was like an illustration collection, one frame at a time.
Editor-in-Chief: That's probably, well, the result of the creator's incompetence.
—I didn't mean it like that... How I do I say it?
Editor-in-Chief: In any case, that's the reason we stopped taking in newcomers. There were many newcomers who only saw it that way.
—They only wanted to draw girls.
Editor-in-Chief: That's right, that's the theme. Well, it didn't match my colour.
—So there was a lack of a point to act as a cushion to soften the blow.
Editor-in-Chief: Rather than a cushion to soften the blow... It was simply my own selfishness. I gathered them to have them all draw for us, and then don't publish what I don't like, it was very one-sided, so I feel sorry for those creators, but since I'm creating a book called Cybele and selling it for a certain amount of money, I want to create something that satisfies me to a certain extent.
—So from now on, you'll be drawing story.
Editor-in-Chief: Could you call it story...?
—I meant what you said about starting to feel uncomfortable just drawing girls.
Editor-in-Chief: No, I like drawing them (laughs). However, I feel like they've about reached their limit as a work. If I could bring in some promising newcomers that I could acknowledge, I could have left it to them to continue things, but there weren't many people who were suitable for the glasses, or rather, people who were suitable for my colour, so without us, in terms of the number of people, it would be quite a problem, so I thought it's about time to quit, but... In any case, rather than say that's the main reason, it's a combination of various factors that led to its discontinuation in the end.
—Well then, since it's come to this, you've washed your feet of it (laughs).
Editor-in-Chief: I won't say I washed my feet of it (laughs). It's not like I swore to God I would never draw again, but I don't want to bother myself over things like that anymore.
—Thank you very much for your time.
———＊———＊———＊———
It's already been a year since Cybele was discontinued. This is the end of the article that was published across three issues of Pleasance.
Although it was an interview venue frantically set up as a place to pick up Petit Cybele (プチシベール), and because I didn't organise my questions, I ended up asking the same questions over and over, so I would like to conclude this article by expressing my deepest gratitude to both the editor-in-chief, who responded to all my questions with a smile, and Inuneko Usagi Sazaemon. Thank you very much.
Like how the café, Manga Gallery (Manga Garou; 漫画画廊), was a popular place for creative mangaka and animators to meet and collaborate, Cattleya (カトレア) was also a legendary coffee shop from the 1970s to the mid 1990s. It was located in the basement near the Shinjuku Kinokuniya (one of the biggest bookstore chains in Japan). Many Comiket circles, including 'Labyrinth 1975' (迷宮'75), met there. In one of Azuma Hideo's manga (Majonia Eve [魔ジョニア・イブ]), he wrote he would consult Matsumoto Leiji (松本零士), the guy who created 'Space Battleship Yamamoto' and 'Galaxy Express 999', about stuff near the Oizumi Gakuen Station's Cattleya. There's something to be said about the influence of both Manga Gallery and Cattleya in helping to foster and develop the talents of early artists.
While he didn't define exactly what Lolicon means, I think I have a vague idea what Oki Yukao meant by the consumers of Cybele not being his kin. Azuma Hideo said Oki Yukao was an Otaku, and in Azuma's mind, the difference between him and an Otaku is that aside from Otaku being very knowledgeable about a single subject, Otaku are "Very picky. It feels like they won't tolerate even the slightest scratch or dent". Oki Yukao wanted a specific kind of audience, and specific kinds of artists to collaborate with him, which didn't happen.
Compared to the hardships of being a writer, while I feel people are way more willing to send messages to artists to the point I feel like it's pointless to leave them words of encouragement or useful feedback, I always find it weird to find out an artist I think is extremely talented feels demotivated because no one comments on their work; I always get the impression they're busy and don't appreciate random strangers bothering them, but that may only be the case for a few artists. It doesn't help the sort of people who generally leave comments only want to leave it in a sea of other comments because they themselves want attention, and then there's the artists traumatised by abusive time-vampires sending them messages.
I didn't have any illusions when I started this thread that it would allow me to meet like-minded individuals who have the work ethic and motivation to research this stuff properly, but I'm glad for the handful of non-mentally deranged individuals whom I've met after doing this. Being contacted by an exceptional person like Kera was worth being contacted by hundreds, maybe thousands, of people's worth of disappointing time-vampires. Though, I still hope the couple of people who commented on the first page saying they're going to 'research' Lolicon history do so; I'm only scratching the tip of the iceberg in this thread. Many westerners, including the black guy who played Morpheus in the Matrix, say they know about Hentai, but zero people know who Kawamoto Kouji is and his part in creating the 'Hentai' these super famous actors purportedly enjoy.
Commercial Manga Cover by Inuneko Usagisazaemon (I.N.U.) aka Toyoshima Yuusaku:
It's unfortunate none of Inuneko's books are available for sale digitally or on Akamatsu Ken's J-comi website. Oki Yukao also suffered the same fate. Here's a couple covers from Yukao's commercial works:
Reminds me of Hirukogami Ken's ominous words about manga magazine editors murdering mangaka. Like Akaishizawa Takashi, mentioned in the beginning of this post, only managed one commercial book in the 1990s; everything else he's done has been largely doujinshi. Commercial editors are truly demons.
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Thank you again for putting all this together I think the fact that this exist is already great, as a fan not only of anime and manga but also as a fan of history, I consider it very important to preserve this sort of stuff.
Also Im not finished reading through it all bit your last paragraph in one of your previous posts resonated with me. That sometimes people we disagree with or straight up dislike may still bring something useful to the conversation and we shouldnt let our emotions cloud or judgement.
I myself still struggle with that admiteddly
Also Im not finished reading through it all bit your last paragraph in one of your previous posts resonated with me. That sometimes people we disagree with or straight up dislike may still bring something useful to the conversation and we shouldnt let our emotions cloud or judgement.
I myself still struggle with that admiteddly
I never asked this, but what sort of books have you read about anime and manga history?
Earlier you jokingly said you were a boomer, so I have no idea about your personal knowledge regarding these topics.
It's a struggle because strawmanning what other people say because you hate them is normal human behaviour, whereas steelmanning their words is unnatural. That's why people like Kera have an advantage over older researchers, since he doesn't have any sort of personal bias regarding the individuals involved in Japan's vending machine culture.
While this thread is going into a different direction, here's the infamous 1982 'Weekly Asahi' article, the magazine normal Japanese citizens read to form their opinions about stuff. It's the same magazine Kitahara Minori also writes for; something I forgot to mention about Kitahara was that she was arrested for hosting Megumi Igarashi's diorama at her shop, though she didn't spend any time in jail. Most people are mentally lazy and selfish, so being arrested on a matter regarding freedom of expression would explain why she doesn't have the same sort of knee-jerk reaction about regulating Bishoujo anime as Kobayashi's friend did when he disturbed the ant nest of Otaku by saying Bishoujo anime should be heavily regulated. Also found this article Kitahara wrote about Megumi Igarashi's arrest and Lolicon in her personal blog that she deleted (Link).
In any case, there's supposedly three of these sorts of infamous historical articles complaining about manga in Weekly Asahi with this being the second one, and the one that mentions Lolicon. Furuma (降間) (Pixiv) (Website) helped me a bit with this article, since he was researching this himself. But Furuma lost his copy of the article, so I had to order my own copy. Furuma has roughly been researching this stuff about as long as Kera, though most of his work is behind physical doujinshi right now. He has a digital version (30 pages) of his first 2020 doujin that covers ~40 individuals involved in the Lolicon Boom (Digital Version on DLSite), but he released a physical revised version that's 176 pages long, and a second part in 2022 that's 48 pages long (Physical Books on Melonbooks).
This article quotes Takatori Ei, Ogata Katsuhiro, and Ishiko Jun, the guy from the Japanese Communist Party that Kawamoto Kouji mentioned in his autobiography. I'm still on the fence regarding how much actual sway Ishiko Jun had with his books and antics, but this will be your chance to parse his words regarding the current state of manga in 1982.
Source: 「週刊朝日 82/05/14」
Heroines Spanning from Diaper Gals to New-Half
Modern Shounen Manga Report
The Wishy-Washy Love Manga Boom Comforting the Lolicon Generation (From Middle Schoolers to University Students)
Modern Shounen Manga Report
The Wishy-Washy Love Manga Boom Comforting the Lolicon Generation (From Middle Schoolers to University Students)
By Fukuda Kazurou (福田和郎)
Currently, the manga world is dominated by women. Girls are indulging in masculine action in their Shoujo Manga while boys are avidly reading wishy-washy school romance in their Shounen Manga. Even university students are pining for the Bishoujo appearing in them. Their Bishoujo interests have expanded so much that even manga featuring Youjo wearing diapers are being introduced and accepted...... What is happening to boys these days?
"Let's wash our hands before reading Manga. Let's wash our hands after reading Gekiga."
Manga critic, Fujimoto Takahito-san (藤本孝人) says these words are being whispered among fans of Shounen Manga. These days, Shounen Manga is filled with 'love'. Between 30 to 40 percent of the contents of each Shounen magazine is being dominated by 'school romance stories'. Introducing lovely girls and wonderful female teachers to make the hearts of boys flutter. Before reading their romantic stories, they want to wash their hands and feel refreshed.
On the other hand, when it comes to Gekiga, dirty delinquent boys will curse and hit each other shouting stuff like 'ondorya-', 'gya-', and 'gatsun'. Filthy and nauseating. Making even ones hands feel dirty after reading such filth. Likely why they don't represent the feelings of such pure and gentle boys.
These school melodramas, the so-called 'Gakumelo' boom, was triggered by the 'Flying Couple' (翔んだカップル) from 1978 (Yanagisawa Kimio, 'Shounen Magazine'). It's a story about two high schoolers, male and female, who end up living in the same room due to an error by the apartment landlord. The relationship between the two never progresses, and the boy gets nervous whenever the girl changes clothes...... giving birth to the basic pattern of modern 'Gakumelo'.
This work was accepted and turned into a movie. Miki Sousaku (三樹創作), editor-in-chief of Shounen Magazine, explains the reason why it was a hit. "It's probably because it was a fresh depiction of the psychology of adolescent men and women, which had been forgotten in Supokon <Sports Spirit> and hot-blooded manga until then. You could say it's a sort of personal consultation manga, or rather it has the elements of 'how to love'. The boy protagonist is an everyman type, and I believe he appeals to those who're unable to keep up with hot-blooded manga."
Since then, like bamboo shoots after the rain, various types of 'Gakumelo' have appeared. According to Minami Toshiharu-san (南端利晴) of the major manga specialty store 'Wonder Land' (わんだ～らんど), their best-selling tankoubon is currently Adachi Jun's (あだち充) 'Miyuki' (みゆき) ('Shounen Big Comic').
'Munasawagi no Houkago' that was turned into even a movie (Murao Mio, Shounen Magazine)
The Gakumelo Salarymen Also Read
The setting's miso* is a highschool boy living alone with his younger sister who isn't related to him by blood, and the name of both his younger sister and his girlfriend is Miyuki. Despite having the enviable status of being liked by two Miyukis, he's timid and unable to take initiative.
※Miso: derived from the concept of home-made miso or miso made by oneself; it means it's the point one is proud about.
For example, there's a scene like this. The younger sister gets a hot flash in the Furoba (bathroom) and faints. 'I want to look, but I mustn't look'. The protagonist turns off the lights in the house, and gropes around in the dark, carrying his naked younger sister to her bedroom. And despite being unable to see in the pitch darkness, he closes his eyes and dresses her.
Another one selling quite well is Murao Mio's (村生ミオ) 'Munasawagi no Houkago' (胸さわぎの放課後) ('Shounen Magazine'). The protagonist is also a pure-hearted boy. And due to an unexpected turn of events, he gets the opportunity to hide with the girl he likes in the closet of a Ryōkan on a school trip, 'heart-throbbing, exciting'. But in the end, 'I can't do such a brazen thing'.
And to spice things up, there's 'The Pumpkin Wine' (Theかぼちゃワイン) (Miura Mitsuru [三浦 みつる], 'Shounen Magazine'). Instead of a story about a girl, it's an exciting one about a girlish new-half* boy.
※New-Half: A term that became widely known after 1981 when Matsubara Rumiko (松原留美子) made their debut, either a male who dresses and behaves like a woman, or a transwoman. Regardless, the heroine from 'The Pumpkin Wine' is not a new-half, she's just a tall girl. The article writer must've confused this work with 'Stop!! Hibari-kun!' (ストップ!! ひばりくん!) by Eguchi Hisachi (江口寿史).
Love stories with female teachers are also popular. Murao Mio's 'Marriage Game' (結婚ゲーム) ('Shounen Big Comic') begins with the dream-like story of a highschool boy marrying his glamorous homeroom teacher. However, despite being married, they sleep in separate beds and have no sexual relationship whatsoever.
The wife (Sensei) approaches his bed at night. The protagonist's heart pounds with a 'maybe...... expectations'. However, it ends with a 'if you don't make your futon properly, you'll catch a cold', 'r-right'. While they respectively worry about her 'being a housewife, there's nothing to fuss about', they keep up their 'heart-pounding relationship'.
"It's not just middle and high schoolers buying these sorts of love stories. 'Miyuki' is also popular among university students, and salarymen are also buying them." (Minamihata-san [南端])
There is an increasing number of these sorts of works in Seinen magazines such as 'Young Jump' and 'Young Magazine'. They say the 'Gakumelo' boom is spreading to even salarymen in their early twenties.
Manga critic Ishiko Jun-san (石子順) is critical of this 'Gakumelo' boom, saying that boy's manga needs to be manly.
The female teacher protagonist of 'Tadaima Jugyouchuu!' (ただいま授業中!) (Okazaki Tsuguo [岡崎 つぐお], Shounen Sunday)
Rejoicing in the 'Life-and-Death State' of Romance
"I would prefer to refer to 'Gakumelo' as 'wishy-washy manga'. I say this because they all share common patterns. First, their dance is limited to only school and home, their world is very narrow. The parents of a girl like 'Miyuki' also don't appear. Making the manga itself into a diary. Furthermore, the boys are all good boys with no individuality, unable to assert themselves. They never say 'I like you', the drama hardly progresses in a story that goes round and round and is wishy-washy to the bitter end. Despite that, it becomes a convenient setting where these sorts of boys are loved by girls even though they don't make any effort to become popular. Speaking of the mountain* of drama, in older Shounen Manga, it was male-on-male confrontation, but with these, it's scenes where they catch a glimpse of a girl changing clothes and get excited. In the 'Marriage Game', even though the premise is that they're married, the 'life-or-death state of romance', where they don't reach out their hands, continues forever. It is not for boys to read and enjoy such things."
※Mountain (Yama): the most important part of something.
Manga critic Takatori Ei-san (高取 英) also agrees.
"'Renai Game' (恋愛ゲーム) is the opposite pattern of the Shoujo Manga 'My Wife is 18 Years Old' (奥様は十八歳) from around ten years ago. In 'My Wife is 18 Years Old', the story began with the premise they were naturally having sex, and in today's Shoujo Manga, they're not fussing about whether or not they're having sex. When they do it, they do it properly, you see?"
He says cynically. Minahata-san also says with a wry smile, "That's why girls mock boys who read 'Gakumelo' as 'cute, huh'."
Even looking at the scale of their stories, it is said Shoujo magazines overwhelm Shounen magazines. In March of this year, the manga review magazine 'Fusion Product' selected the 10 most popular works in a reader's vote, but only one Shounen magazine work made it in.
First place is 'From Eroica with Love' (エロイカより愛をこめて) (Aoike Yasuko [青池保子], 'Princess'), a spectacular spy romance about a homosexual getting caught in a battle between a NATO German intelligence officer and the Soviet KGB, and second place is 'Heaven's Son in the Land of the Rising Sun' (日出処の天子) (Yamagishi Ryouko [山岸凉子], 'Lala'), an ancient historical drama with the bold perspective that Prince Shōtoku has supernatural powers and is a hermaphrodite.
Also, the work 'Nankin Road in Hanafubuki' (南京路に花吹雪) (Morikawa Kumi [森川久美]), 'Lala') is the story of a Japanese journalist who challenges an international zaibatsu plotting to cause the Sino-Japanese War in the early Showa era, the whole work being a series of action scenes makes it hard to tell which is the manga for men.
"That's why boys unsatisfied with Shounen Manga are drifting to Shoujo Manga."
So says Ogata Katsuhiro-san (小形克宏) from the 'Fusion Product' magazine. Meaning, you could say there's a strange development where 'healthy' boys are running towards Shoujo Manga.
At least in the world of manga, men want to be strong, but what in the world has gotten into boys these days? Miki Sousaku (三樹創作), editor-in-chief of Shounen Magazine (少年マガジン), says, "To be honest, magazines are being dragged by the demands of readers, and regrettably, it's becoming too naïve."
With a sigh, he explains the background of the 'Gakumelo' boom. "In the end, we now live in a society where boys are tired and girls are full of life. In an increasingly regimented society, boys are forced to take exams while unable to see their future. On the other hand, girls are steadily becoming prettier in both style and fashion. Boys don't have the sense that if they worked hard like 'Tomorrow's Joe' (あしたのジョー), they, too, would become a champion. Rather than not having a hero, I believe they don't want to have the very concept of a hero. There's a feeling where you want to work hard and do your best. But instead of presenting it straight, it's turned into a gag. If you show a child the scene in 'Star of the Giants' (巨人の星) where Hoshi Hyuuma (星飛雄馬) is doing bunny hop training, they'll roar with laughter. They know such effort is necessary. However, they don't like seeing it in a direct manner cause it's tiresome. They won't accept heroes with power. It's no good if there aren't any elements where they're making a fool of themselves somewhere. And even though they're ordinary men, what little romance is left is them wishing there's a girl who would gently embrace them."
Popular Creator Adachi Jun's 'Touch' (Shounen Sunday)
The 'Middle-age Sickness' Shoujo Hobby to the Youth
The critic, Ishiko Jun-san (石子順), points out boys these days are hungry for 'love'.
"For example, 'Mobile Suit Gundam' (機動戦士ガンダム) being well-received is because, even though it took the form of a space war, its theme was 'love'. There's no distinction between good and evil, ally and foe. They must fight while being kind to one another. And because they shed tears at the death of their opponents, it moves their hearts."
That said, there seems to be a taboo for the male protagonist to form a deep relationship with the girl like in Shoujo magazines. Otherwise the heavy realities of things like marriage and pregnancy come into play and the story becomes dark, so Miki says stories that keep running in circles can be serialised for a long time. Behind the scenes of the 'wishy-washy manga' are the delicate psychology of boys and the technical problems of magazine production.
Not to mention they say a 'Lolicon Boom' is secretly spreading between middle and high school students to university students. 'Lolicon' is an abbreviation of 'Lolita Complex', and to put it simply, it's a 'Shoujo Hobby'. Originally, it was a term used for middle-aged men's sickness in regards to stuff like 'Sailor Blouse Desire', but nowadays, "When young people say 'I'm part of the Lolicon Tribe', they're using it in a fashion sense. In a broader sense, I guess you could say all the 'Gakumelo' that feature Bishoujo are Lolicon Manga." (Takatori-san)
A strong voice in the manga world says this.
There's a wide variety of 'genuine' Lolicon Manga, but most of them are nonsensical. A girl around elementary school age frolics in a flower garden, and undresses for whatever reason...... Emphasis is placed on 'undresses for whatever reason' rather than the story.
According to Fujimoto-san, who publishes a Lolicon mini-communication magazine, the Lolicon Boom that began two years ago has two trends behind it: the anime boom and doujinshi created by manga maniacs. It began with characters such as Heidi from Girl of the Alps (アルプスの少女) and Lana from 'Space Boy Conan' (宇宙少年コナン*) becoming popular among high school students who thought they were 'very cute', which laid the groundwork for the boom.
※The writer mistakenly wrote Space Boy Conan (宇宙少年コナン) instead of Future Boy Conan (未来少年コナン).
Then last spring, at an exhibition and spot sale of manga doujinshi from across the country held at the International Trade Building in Harumi, Tokyo, a doujinshi called 'Cybele' was announced as the first Lolicon Manga. Then in the blink of an eye, more and more doujinshi turned to Lolicon, and there's currently 30 to 40 of these doujinshi around the country. When they opened the exhibition and spot sale, there were lines in front of the doujinshi that specialise in Lolicon, they were so successful, some of them even handed out numbered tickets. Mangaka call this the 'Cybele Revolution' (シーベル革命).
When the 'Myaa-chan Sensual Photograph Collection' (ミャアちゃん官能写真集) (148 pages of photos) drawn by Azuma Hideo (吾妻ひでお), a mangaka who has cult-like popularity in this area, was exhibited for 200 yen, everything went into a panic, and currently those issues are said to fetch prices ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 yen at second-hand bookstores.
"Most Lolicon Tribe Shounen are gentle and meek. Since they're unable to talk to girls their own age, they're attracted to younger girls and desperately satisfy themselves through art. Their love for mecha is another one of their characteristics. Because machines won't betray them." (Fujimoto-san)
Playing 'Doctor' Through Manga
Lolicon Manga were secretly drawn in these doujinshi, but the 'first case where they entered an all-age magazine and gained civil rights' (Ishiko Jun) is 'Andoro Trio' (あんどろトリオ) (Uchiyama Aki [内山亜紀]), which appeared in Shounen Champion (少年チャンピオン) last year.
This is a 'Biyoujo' Manga that goes beyond 'Bishoujo'. The protagonist, Tsukasa-chan (a robot estimated to be 3 to 4 years old), wears a diaper. It has no particular story. It's a series of scenes where Tsukasa pees and writhes in cute gestures as her diaper is changed by boys. They say this is extremely popular and bromides of Tsukasa-chan are selling quite well. There's voices that say "it has a sick-type feeling" (Ishiko Jun) and "it's Doctor play on paper" (Takatori Ei-san), but the artist, Uchiyama Aki-san, laughs it off and says, "Isn't it fine so long as the manga is interesting? I receive these sort of phone calls from the elementary school readers. One said 'I hate Tsukasa-san. Cause she's always in a diaper and I can't see everything'. Children are honest, you see. Actually, I thought the PTA would make a fuss about it being 'outrageous' (ケシカラン) like they did during 'Harenchi Gakuen' (ハレンチ学園), but there was no reaction at all, so I felt a little disappointed. I guess it's so ridiculous it would be a challenge to defeat it."
And he says he has received inquiries from 5 to 6 other Shounen Manga magazines asking 'draw for us as well'. Now that a 'diaper gal' has become a Shounen Manga superstar, that's precisely what manga is going to be.
High Resolution Version of the Myaa-chan Snippet in the Article:
Surprised to find out there's fan translations for this serial in English. Though, I guess the original '男の娘' among '男の娘' (otoko no ko) character that popularised and defined the characters under that term before it was applied to Bridget from Guilty Gear, who changed its meaning somewhat, may be of more interest to a western anime fan than the plethora of other manga classics from the 1970s~1980s. ... I saw a term used on the western internet called 'tranime', and with the unfathomably weird Satanic Panic 2.0 going on these days, it's odd to know some of Hibari-kun's antics in the manga world are happening in reality.
New-Half Lolita Hibari-kun:
Source: 『ふゅーじょんぷろだくと』 1982/04
Kanda Institute of Foreign Languages Advertisement in Weekly Asahi:
The next thing I'll be posting will be chapters 35 and 36 of Yonezawa Yoshihiro's 'Postwar Eromanga History'. These chapters are heavy in raw information, which made them a monster to translate. Took me a few months... I doubt I'll be able to iron out the errors, since Yonezawa also made some minor mistakes I had to fix after checking some of the available sources.
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Interesting. So this would have been the "normies" (for lack of a better word) view of otaku and manga and its fans at the time right?
I find it a little funny that people were worried about boys being interested in romance, considering nowadays people are worried that boys aren't interested enough in it
I may need a bit of a refresher what is "vending machine" culture again? If you mean he did not personally knew the people of the lolicon boom then yeah I guess he would not have a bias about it, although wouldnt the same be true of most people researching the topic nowadays? Or have I misunderstood what you meant?
Something to always keep in mind in history, there is no such thing as an "unbiased source or interpretation" the trick is recognizing it and take into consideration when evaluating the work.
As for your question I was born in 93. So I guess I would be sort of an inbetween a millenial and a gen-z er I am an old fashioned person though so I have some boomerish tendencies and viewpoints.
No I did not read any books about manga or anime. I did watch some documentaries about cartoons and videogames that briefly touch on the topic, I also read that infamous
blogpost, you know the one that made you want to start a thread in the first place
Are there any books you would reccomend?
I find it a little funny that people were worried about boys being interested in romance, considering nowadays people are worried that boys aren't interested enough in it
I may need a bit of a refresher what is "vending machine" culture again? If you mean he did not personally knew the people of the lolicon boom then yeah I guess he would not have a bias about it, although wouldnt the same be true of most people researching the topic nowadays? Or have I misunderstood what you meant?
Something to always keep in mind in history, there is no such thing as an "unbiased source or interpretation" the trick is recognizing it and take into consideration when evaluating the work.
As for your question I was born in 93. So I guess I would be sort of an inbetween a millenial and a gen-z er
I am an old fashioned person though so I have some boomerish tendencies and viewpoints.No I did not read any books about manga or anime. I did watch some documentaries about cartoons and videogames that briefly touch on the topic, I also read that infamous
blogpost, you know the one that made you want to start a thread in the first place
Are there any books you would reccomend?
The target audience of Weekly Asahi are normal people; most of the individuals interviewed are deeply tied to the industry. Fukuda Kazurou, the guy who wrote the article, still writes for Asahi Shimbun (Link). Despite him being ~40 years older now, I imagined he looks just as he did in the photograph when he wrote this article, confusing one manga series for another, misremembering a title's name, and eyeballing Tsukasa and saying she looks like she's 3~4 years old. When you said you were a boomer, I also imagined you looking like Fukuda...Interesting. So this would have been the "normies" (for lack of a better word) view of otaku and manga and its fans at the time right?
I find it a little funny that people were worried about boys being interested in romance, considering nowadays people are worried that boys aren't interested enough in it
I may need a bit of a refresher what is "vending machine" culture again? If you mean he did not personally knew the people of the lolicon boom then yeah I guess he would not have a bias about it, although wouldnt the same be true of most people researching the topic nowadays? Or have I misunderstood what you meant?
Something to always keep in mind in history, there is no such thing as an "unbiased source or interpretation" the trick is recognizing it and take into consideration when evaluating the work.
As for your question I was born in 93. So I guess I would be sort of an inbetween a millenial and a gen-z er
No I did not read any books about manga or anime. I did watch some documentaries about cartoons and videogames that briefly touch on the topic,
Several months after this article, Takatori Ei wrote his article for The Tsukuru, which I translated early in this thread. I would recommend rereading that. Boys aren't interested in real romance nowadays precisely for the same reason they're not interested in romance at the time of this article; Kawamoto Kouji called them manga moratorium humans. These humans are content to engage with idols and/or manga/anime, and remain virgins all their lives. By the 1990s, this further expanded to them being assumed to be potential criminals and parasites (Hikikomori).
Book recommendations:
Pause and Select Book Club
Check those out to see if any of them interest you. I have a low opinion of most western writers on this subject, but Patrick W. Galbraith is an exception; he's cited by Japanese researchers (Patrick's Bibliography) (Patrick's Papers). Being that you haven't read any books, you would benefit from reading even Patrick's most casual and accessible book 'Moe Manifesto'. In Moe Manifesto, Patrick talks to Ootsuka Eiji. Maybe you'll retain knowledge about this stuff better after reading it; I get the impression you're skimming this thread and not digesting 95% of what's being written because I'm doing a terrible job of introducing these individuals.
Ideally, I would recommend Patrick's later, more expensive, books where he's able to talk about Lolicon specifically (he had to self-censor himself for his older books due to his publishers). If you can afford it, purchase 'Erotic Comics in Japan: An Introduction to Eromanga'. It's a translation of a much, much cheaper Japanese book by Kaoru Nagayama, but it's currently the best thing in English right now on the history of ero-manga.
Since I'm not going to be translating much about the 1990s and 2000s this year, there's also 'Beautiful Fighting Girl' (Saitou Tamaki) and 'Otaku, Japan’s Database Animals' (Azuma Hiroki). Jeko read those, though I think he places too much weight on psychoanalysts when I find them to be sitting at the children's table of science. That said, Saitou Tamaki, was deeply involved in analysing Otaku and reporting on it (he's the one who came up with the Japanese term Hikikomori). I read the English translators' foreword to Beautiful Fighting Girl this year, and noticed the English translators contributed to the misconception Miyazaki Tsutomu had 'Lolicon Anime' in his bedroom (they also said he was a paedophile when he specifically had ~3 experts examine him and conclude he wasn't a paedophile).
※—※—※—※—※
Japanese manga culture has at least 4 layers:
1) Bookstores
2) Rental Bookstores (Wiki)
3) Vending Machine Books (Wiki)
4) Comiket (Wiki)
Most normal people only have access to ①, and it's through ② that artists like Azuma Hideo discovered niche magazines like Garo or COM. Vending Machines are the wild west of magazines; you could do anything, and that's where many things originated. Type 'CTRL+F' and search for vending machine to find the articles in this thread that talk about them.
※—※—※—※—※
Ootsuka Eiji wrote an article earlier in this thread that he wants younger researchers to analyse his writing and the writing of his peers (he also wants his peers to write since he doesn't want to be the only one talking about the origins of Moe). Kera doesn't have the typical bias of someone who is actively trying to defend Otaku or vilify them, he's collecting and compiling everything, both the good and the bad. He's more of a reprint editor than an academic writing a paper with out-of-context sources as they insert their own opinions into their paper. It's a miracle he was able to convince Ogata Katsuhiro to be interviewed. If you skimmed that interview, reread it carefully and you should understand why Ogata would want his past to be buried and forgotten.
Kera's Comiket table (he's next to Manga no Techou, which was the doujinshi magazine of the guy who interviewed everyone for the Lolicon Roundtable talk in the OP). Kera's a member of 'Labyrinth 2024', Yonezawa and Aniwa Jun's manga critique circle.
At Kera's suggestion, I translated 2 out of 40 chapters of Yonezawa Yoshihiro's posthumous work 'Postwar Ero-Manga History'.
I bought this book shortly after it was originally released because I was told it was a very important work, and aside from looking at the covers and pages of the manga, I kinda hoped Yonezawa would've documented more magazines from the 1990s, but he literally died in the hospital before he could get very far into the decade that interested me most The first 32 chapters cover from 1945~1979, and from chapter 33, he begins to talk about ero-gekiga and Lolicon Manga.
This was an absolute monster that took a few months to translate, so I have no doubt there's still errors. I don't want to curse myself by trying to translate more than 5% of the book, but there's value to having this entire thing in English. I feel this would function better as a PDF, so you can have the covers and raw information close together so you can glance back and forth while reading. Right now, just focus on the paragraphs where Yonezawa is giving his insightful analysis.
Source:『戦後エロマンガ史』 2010/04/22
By Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米澤嘉博) (Wiki)
Chapter 35: Lolicon Manga and Bishoujo Gekiga
The Arrival of 'Lemon People'
Towards the end of December 1981, the February issue of 'Comic Lemon People' (コミックレモンピープル) (1982 February 1st, Amatoriasha) was launched as 'The Lolicon Comic that will monopolise discussions in 1982!!'. The 4C* 4-page gravure were street corner Shoujo. And the 4C pin-up was a calendar with illustrations by Azuma Hideo (吾妻ひでお) and Uchiyama Aki (内山亜紀). The fact manga were turned into pin-ups without nude gravure made it quite different from the ero-gekiga magazines before it. The opening manga was 'Lolicon Syndrome' (ロリコン・シ ンドローム) (Uchiyama Aki), followed by 'Space Fish Flash' (スペース・フィッシュフラッシュ) (Azuma Hideo). Other manga included the SF Gag 'Lolicon Strategic First Half' (ロリコン戦略前半戦) (Takeuchi Maki [武内真紀]), Ballet 'Swan Lake' (白鳥の湖) (Dirty Matsumoto [ダーティ松本]), School Love Romance 'I Love You' (アイLOVEユウ) (Fujisaki Suzu [藤崎鈴]), 'Kyou kara Lady' (今日からLady) (Miyanishi Keizo [宮西計三]), 'Mad City 16-Beat' (マッド・シティー 16ビート) (Hurricane Ryuu [破李拳竜]), and 'Kimama ni Daydream' (気ままにデイ・ドリーム) (Nakajima Fumio [中島史雄]). The 2nd coloured manga at the end of the magazine was 'Yukihime' (雪姫) (Yamamoto Kazuto* [山本和都]). Other than that, there were things like the Shoujo Note 'Lemon Experience' (レモン体験) (Illustrations: Hino Youko [火野妖子]), 'Lolicon Test' ( ロリコンテスト) (Hirukogami Ken [蛭児神健]), 'Doujinshi Pick-up' (同人誌ピックアップ) (Ajima Shun* [阿島俊]), and reader pages.
※4C refers to the printing colours CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black).
※Yamamoto Kazuto was Senno Knife's penname when he made his initial debut.
※Ajima Shun is one of Yonezawa Yoshihiro's pennames.
The issue featured Azuma Hideo and Uchiyama Aki, who were Lolicon Manga stars at the time, and selected artists from the ero-gekiga world, who were open about their commitment to 'Shoujo'. It also had youth school love comedies, doujinshi artists, and extensive reader pages. The structure that included doujinshi introductions may have been a compromise since the magazine started as a Lolicon Manga magazine without a clear direction. The style of its saddle-stitch spine was exactly in the form of an ero-gekiga magazine, but also contained the style of campus love comedies from recent seinen magazines, it was bright and also had the scent of a maniac magazine.
In the 8th issue, which was the September issue, there was an Azuma Hideo pin-up, Uchiyama Aki's 'Lolicon Android' (ロリコン・アンドロイド) as the opening manga followed by 'Calendar Girl' (カレンダー・ガール) (Minami Ippei [南一平]), 'ITSUMADEMO! DOKOMADEMO!!' (Aran Rei [阿乱霊]), 'Chiya-chan's Adventure' (魑夜ちゃんの冒険) (Yoshiki Shinobu [吉敷志信]), 'Rain Fantasy' (雨のファンタジー) (Fujisaki Suzu [藤崎鈴]), 'Swan Lake' (白鳥の湖) (Dirty Matsumoto [ダー ティ松本]), 'Gekisatsu! Uchuuken' (撃殺! 宇宙拳) (Hurricane Ryuu [破李拳竜]), 'Riatou no Risuafu' (リアトゥのリスァフ) (Noboru Makoto [のぼるまこと]), 'Ushiro no Shoumen Daare' (うしろの正面だぁれ) (Ikeda Kazunari [池田一成]), 'Okinimesu Mama' (お気にめすまま) (Iida Natsuhiko [飯田夏彦]), 'Lolicon Frontline' (ロリコン最前線) (Takeuchi Maki [武内真紀]), and Senno Knife (千之ナイフ), formerly Yamamoto Kazuto, did the final manga. The next issue featured a movie parody serial 'After Forbidden Games'* (その後の禁じられた遊び) (Makimura Miki = El Bondage [牧村みき=エル・ボンデージ]), 'Sleeping Beauty' (眠り姫) (Inoue Hideki [井上英樹]), and 'Waking Dream' (白 日夢) (Muraso Shunichi [村祖俊一]). And an increase in the doujinshi category.
※Forbidden Games (French: Jeux Interdits)
In the 8th issue, there was a 'Lolicon Heated Discussion' where readers were having a battle within the magazine over whether 'Is ero necessary for Lolicon?', indicating its oscillation between an ero-gekiga magazine and a maniac magazine. In addition, the maniac, parody, and SF aspects were brought in by doujinshi creators, which were generally 16~24 pages long, and short works that were 4~12 pages long began to be included in this sort of magazine. The magazine ran for 10 issues with saddle-stitch binding for 300 yen, and changed its format to a 500 yen maniac magazine with 160 pages of side-stitch binding. Its circulation was sluggish, but it was able to restart thanks in part to its passionate readers. By the way, the members of the 1984 November issue were Amamiya Jun (雨宮じゅん), Nakajima Fumio (中島史雄), Akechi Mei (明智明), Chimi Morio* (ちみもりお), Taniguchi Kei (谷口敬), Hurricane Ryuu (破李拳竜), Meimu (MEIMU), Ochazukenori (御茶漬海苔), Uchiyama Aki (内山亜紀), (猫井るとと), Konoma Waho (孤ノ間和歩), Aran Rei (阿乱霊), and Yasuda Shuuichi (安田秀一). In the December issue, Shinda Mane (新田真子) and Morino Usagi (森町うさぎ) made their appearance. In the 1985 September issue, there were Yasuda Shuuichi (安田秀一), Ryuukihei (竜騎兵), Taniguchi Kei (谷口敬), Meimu (MEIMU), Shinda Mane (新田真子), Uchiyama Aki (内山亜紀), Shinozaki Rei (しのざき嶺), and so on. With the exception of Uchiyama Aki and Nakajima Fumio, all of these artists came from doujinshi, Ochazukenori, Meimu, Amamiya Jun, and Taniguchi Kei later moved to all-age magazines and were displaying a new style. By 1984, the catch-copy changed from 'Lolicon Manga Magazine' to 'Bishoujo Comic', and while there was also ero, the contents didn't focus on it. The peak of 'Lemon People' was from the mid-1980s to around 1988. Afterwards, though its numbers decreased, it continued as a long-established magazine, and continued to be published monthly until 1998.
※Old penname for Takaya Yoshiki (高屋 良樹) (Wiki)
During the Lolita Boom
The concept of a 'Lolicon Manga Magazine' pioneered by 'Lemon People', shortly after its introduction, began to give birth to several trends. First, a trend of saddle-stitched ero-gekiga magazines with the theme of Lolita and Shoujo. Another is a trend of doujinshi and New Wave, creating a line for magazines such as 'Manga Burikko' (漫画ブリッコ) that sat between ero and mania. And a trend in side-stitched doujinshi-type ero magazines in a form that was particular about Lolicon. These began with A5-sized tankoubon/anthology-style magazines, such as 'Pumpkin' (パンプキン) that was introduced in 1985, and culminated in the saddle-stitched Bishoujo Comic magazines of the late 1980s, which began to replace the long-established ero-gekiga magazines.
First, let's take a closer look at the Lolita-type ero-gekiga magazines. Actually, 'Manga Lolita' (漫画ロリータ) (1982 February 1st, Shinju Shobo) was launched the same day as 'Lemon People'. The cover's an illustration that used an airbrush with a catch-copy that says 'The Scent of Young Bare Skin is Irresistible!!'. The opening manga was 'Pleasure Lesson' (快感授業) (Nakazato Chiaki [中里千秋]) that depicted 'Pretty Shoujo Temptation Play', 'Green Provocation' (青い挑発) (Sugiura Akito [すぎうらあきと]), 'Insatiable Angel' (欲しがる天使) (Sanjou Tomomi [三条友美]), 'Uniform Blood' (制服の血) (Sakakibara Takashi [榊原隆]) with its 'Targeted Bishounen!', the Lolicon Light Novel 'Secret Love' (秘愛) (Kutsuki Takashi = Mine Ryuuchirou [朽木多加志=峰隆一郎]), 'Even Young Swoon' (幼くても失神) (Ooshima Takeshi [大島岳詩]), 'It Doesn't Hurt!' (痛がらないで!) (Sawaki Akane [沢木あかね]) where it's written as the advent of a female gekigaka, 'Shoujo Hunting' (少女狩り) (Yamada Nora [やまだのら]), and 'Rope-Crazy' (縄狂い) (Dan Reiji [段・玲児]). There was nonsense by Igarashi Mikio (いがらしみきおと) and Kamachi Yoshirou (かまちよしろう). The ero-gekiga depicted with some reference to the styles of Hachuu Rui (羽中ルイ) and Nakajima Fumio (中島史雄) were mainly highschool girls and sailor uniforms, these parts are the so-called 'Lolita'. In the preview for the next issue, it says 'The Young Eros of Eager Fairies! The March Issue Will Also Include a Bewitching Bishoujo Hurricane!!!'.
Looking at the November issue of the same year, the opening manga was 'Virgin Flight' (バージン飛行) (Horikawa Hideharu [(堀川英晴]), then there were Yamada Nora (やまだのら), Hyuuga Jin (日向仁), Deizu Nin (出井州忍), Shiotsuki Takashi (汐月喬), Mayumi Kouji (まゆみ功児), Ishigami Yoshiharu (石神よしはる), and Oki Keiichirou (沖圭一郎) with most of the members changing. It appears to be a format in which traditional gekiga-style artists were commissioned to draw within the theme of 'Shoujo', and trying to adhere to Lolita did not meet the needs of the readers seeking a Shoujo aesthetic. The 'ero' symbols that consisted of sailor uniforms, highschool girls, and green sexuality* simply became 'Lolita'. The same magazine didn't last more than two years.
※Green Sexuality or Blue Sexuality (青い性) refers to young people with little knowledge and experience, unripe fruit. In the past, Japanese consider blue and green to be the same colour (青い).
'Manga Sei Shoujo' (漫画聖少女) (Million Publishing) was first published in November of 1981. Looking at the 1982 March issue, the opening manga was 'Erotic Letter' (エロチックな手紙) (Muraso Shunichi [村祖俊一]). It was an erotic fantasy comedy with a Youjo as the protagonist. Following it was 'Shoujo Love' (少女の愛) (Uchiyama Aki [内山亜紀]), which was clearly a parody of Senno Knife (千之ナイフ). This was followed by 'High Schoolgirl Adventure' (女高生の冒険) (Kageyama Akira [(影山朗]), 'Taste of Green Honey' (青い蜜の味) (Hiro Hoshimoto [ヒロ星元]), 'Housing Complex Aching Wife' (団地うずき妻) (Murata Yasuyuki [村田やすゆき]), 'So What's the Matter?' (だからどうしたの?) (Saga Miyuki [さがみゆき]), 'Towering in Porno' (タワーリングインポルノ) (Hotani Yoshizou [保谷良三]), and 'Shoujo Sweet Experience' (少女の甘い体験) (Nogami Toshimi [野上としみ]). The cover was by Sakaki Masaru (榊まさる), so it didn't adhere to Shoujo as much as the title suggests. It also included things like housewives, so it was half-hearted. The same magazine would eventually change its title to 'Manga Sei Shoujo Kan' (漫画聖少女館). Looking at the 1984 April issue of 'Manga Sei Shoujo Kan', the opening manga was 'Immoral Wife's Bitter Skin' (背徳夫人の怨み肌) (Sugiura Tsutomu [杉浦つとむ]). It had 'Shoujo: Dark Flame of Lust' (少女・闇の淫火) (Muraso Shunichi [村祖俊一]), 'Oji-san and Shoujo' (おじさんと少女) (Uchiyama Aki [内山亜紀]), 'Housewife's Burning Honey' (人妻の熱い蜜) (Miaki Hideto/Sawada Ryuuji [三秋秀人/沢田竜治]), 'High Schoolgirl Insult Play' (女高生・凌辱遊戯) (Hiro Hoshimoto [ヒロ星元]), 'Amorous Lodger' (好色な下宿人) (Hotani Yoshizou [保谷良三]), 'Peeping Bedroom' (覗かれた寝室) (Yamamoto Kouji [やまもと孝二]), and 'White Skin Lake' (白い肌の湖) (Dirty Matsumoto [ダーティ松本]). The members hardly changed. Murasou and Uchiyama were on the Shoujo line, but the others were housewives, scattered with ero-comedies. From around 1982 to 1984, Uchiyama Aki was the representative of Lolicon Manga, and as creators during the ero-gekiga boom, Nakajima Fumio (中島史雄), Murasou Shunichi (村祖俊一), Inoue Hideki (井上英樹), and Iida Kouichirou (飯田耕一郎) among others were part of the trend with the theme of 'Shoujo', and Dirty Matsumoto (ダーティ松本) was probably drawing the ballet line because he felt that was his only chance to draw it.
'Comic Hiroko' (コミック・ひろこ) (November 1st, Kasakura Publishing) was being published in 1984. Based on the street popularity of Yakushimaru Hiroko (薬師丸ひろ子), it could be said it's an ero-gekiga magazine of the Lolita line in another form. The opening manga was 'OH! Hiroko' (OH!ひろこ) (Tomita Shigeru [富田茂]). 'Crybaby Hiroko' (泣き虫ひろこ) (Nachi Ryou [那智良]), 'Love's Form' (愛のフォルム) (Torii Harunobu [鳥居春信]), 'Dentist's Secret Pleasure' (歯医者の秘かな楽しみ) (Zamaya Miro [挫磨屋ミロ]), 'Clone-ing Up' (クローンingアップ) (Imai Kunihiko [今井邦彦]), 'Shoujo Fruit' (少女果実) (Nogami Toshimi [野上としみ]), 'Touch Love' (タッチラブ) (Tokieda Ai [時枝あい]), 'Hiroko is 16' (ヒロコは16) (Tanaka Tomoki [(田中朝]), and 'Davi Housewife' (堕靡夫人) (Oki Keiichirou [沖圭一郎]). The nonsense was by Maekawa Tsukasa (前川つかさ), Shouho Hiromi (正保ひろみ), and Unose Kenichi (うのせけんいち). All of the manga had Hiroko as the Shoujo protagonist, making it rare as a themed magazine. It had a detailed and entrenched sensual gekiga-touch, and it had a youth love-comedy-style, but basically, it was an ero-gekiga magazine, and there wasn't much new in the magazine's contents. It's believed to have ended after three issues.
In regards to Lolicon, there were quite a few special issues and special features. For example, 'Manga Love & Love October Special Issue: Devil Shoujo' (漫画ラブ&ラブ十月増刊悪魔少女) (Seven Shinsha), published in October of 1984, had a theme that wasn't horror, but rather Shoujo as 'Little Devils'. It had 'School SM World' (学校SMワールド) (Aki Suguri [あきすぐり]), 'Hole Lover Mythology' (穴好き人の神話) (Oki Keiichirou [沖圭一郎]), 'Toy Angel' (おもちゃ天使) (Yamada Nora [やまだのら]), 'Hentai-Obsessed Shoujo' (変態熱中少女) (Horikawa Hideharu [堀川英晴]), 'Onanist Story' (オナニーストリート) (Kawada Tokio [川田時男]), 'It Feels Good' (感じちゃいます) (Torii Harunobu [鳥居春信]), 'Dangerous Position' (危険な体位) (Kousaka Yukio [高坂幸雄]), 'White Afternoon' (白い午後) (Imai Kunihiko [今井邦彦]), and 'Lower Body Triple Thrust!' (下半身を三度突く!) (Miyama Sadami [みやまさだみ]), and many of its members overlapped with 'Comic Hiroko' (コミックひろこ). The artists who had been drawing since the mid-1970s seem to have been replaced around this time, and it appears artists like Tomita Shigeru (富田茂), Sanjou Tomomi (三条友美), and Yamada Nora (やまだのら), who published tankoubon in 'Sei Shoujo' (聖少女) (Kubo Shoten), were popular.
Ero-gekiga magazines had 'Shoujo' as one of their themes since long ago. As the keyword of 'lust' and 'desire', housewives, OL, and high schoolgirls were the big three themes, followed by things like angels in white (nurses) and stewardesses. Things like sailor uniforms, school swimsuits, and bloomers were symbols of 'Shoujo', and these were also classics. Especially from the mid-1970s, artists like Noujou Junichi (能條純一), Hachuu Rui (羽中ルイ), and Nakajima Fumio (中島史雄) were known as Gal Sex or Lemon Sex-types, and artists like Sakaki Masaru (榊まさる) and Tsutsumi Shin (つつみ進) were leaders in the ero-gekiga scene for housewife-types.
Meanwhile, Lolicon emerged the same time as the Azuma Hideo Boom. Something akin to a self-awakening or acknowledgement of the eroticism of Shoujo in manga, the concept that had originally been put forward was very close to what we now call 'Moe'. Rather than realistic Shoujo rape or paedophilia, it included various things like love towards a spiritual 'Shoujo', memories of ones own childhood, and the beauty of 'Shoujo' granted autonomy as a world. It was the act of freezing those moments of innocent real Shoujo through camera and video, which were devices that record time. That was established regardless of the act of SEX. It was believed to be a yearning for cuteness or a collection of 'beauty'.
For a brief moment, the Shoujo lives in a 'time' where she is neither a child nor a woman. Since it's something that is lost, there's no ulterior motive beyond an attempt to record that most ephemeral of things. The reason why Lolicon are particular about the 'Beauty of Shoujo' is probably because the being known as 'Shoujo' are the size of a being that gives birth. However, that was confused with the real criminality of sex crimes against Shoujo. On the other hand, the word known as 'Lolicon' gave birth to pragmatic ero-manga that were consumed as 'commercialised sex'. This generalisation and confusion regarding 'Lolicon' may be what would cause problems later.
However, in the manga situation, 'Lolicon Manga' was a short period between 1980~1983, it burned up as a slightly dangerous fashion word, an excuse for getting excited over feeling the eros of 'Shoujo' in manga. Shoujo aesthetics have been talked about in relation to writers such as Nabokov, Carroll, and Ruskin, it was treated in a pedantic manner and exploited in the culture and arts of both East and West, past and present. It was similar to how 'JUNE' and 'Aesthetic' (耽美), along with artists such as June (ジュネ), Shibusawa Tatsuhiko (澁澤龍彦), and Mishima Yukio (三島由紀夫), talked about 'Shounen-ai' as a literary Shoujo Hobby. Like how June generalised normal Shounen through 'Yaoi', Lolicon Manga generalised 'ero-manga' that depicted the art of things like anime, shoujo manga, and shounen manga into 'Bishoujo Comic' as it began to vanish. Before that, we must take a moment to organise the trends from Lolicon Manga magazines to Bishoujo Comic magazines.
Chapter 36: From Lolicon Manga to Bishoujo Comic
The Brief Period of Maniac Lolicon Manga Magazines
When the form of 'Lemon People', 160-pages with side-stitch binding for 500 yen, settled down, several similar Lolicon Manga magazines were launched. Compared to the saddle-stitch 300 yen ero-gekiga magazines, the price was high, so they probably thought they could get away with fewer copies aimed at maniacs. If you include even one-off supplementary issues, then it seemed like more than a dozen or so magazines were published. This small boom happened mainly between 1983 to 1985. In the pile of issues, there's ones like 'Petit Pandora' (PETITパンドラ) (Issuisha), 'Melon Comic' (メロンコミック) (Video Publishing), and 'Halflita' (ハーフリータ) (Shobunkan). Since my books aren't organised, I would like to examine some of the books I have on hand. 'Petit Pandora' was first published in October of 1984. The editor was Hirukogami Ken, who was famous in the doujinshi world as the founder of the Lolicon world back then. Looking at the second issue published in 1985 January 10th, the cover was by Shinda Mane (新田真子), and the colour illustrations were by Saga Miono (サーガ・ミオノ) and Kitazono Mirei (北園美麗). The manga included 'Best Love Song' (いちばんラブソング) (Umineko Kamome [海猫かもめ]) that depicted robots and Shoujo, 'Twilight of 2000 Light Years' (2000光年の黄昏) (Eiji Kei [影次ケイ]) that depicted this and that in a spaceship, 'Onii-chan is an Invader' (おにいちゃんは侵略者) Shinozaki Hiromi ([しのざきひろみ]) where a Shoujo is attacked by a monster, 'Devils Until 6:00 PM' (P.M6:00までの悪魔たち) (Bangaichi Mitsugu [番外地貢]) where boys violate a housewife, the horror mystery 'B' (B) (Shinda Mane [新田真子]), the surreal nonsense 'Sa-ha-Suru Da-!!' (さーはーするだー!!) (Shintaisougaisha [新体操会社]), 'Sadtrek' (Sadtrek) (Oki Yukao [沖由佳雄]) where a Shoujo is devoured by another world, the horror 'Shinigami' (死に神) (Yoshiki Shinobu [よしき志信]), 'Secret' (秘密) (Hibiya Cooler [ひびやクーラー]) where a Shoujo has this and that done to her, the western romance 'Meimii Roriitia' (メイミー・ロリーティア) (Shimazaki Remu [島崎れむ]), the SF action 'Junk!' (JUNK!) (Saga Miono [サーガ・ミオノ]), and the slapstick period youkai piece 'Manya was the Scariest' (マーニャが一番恐かった) (Manji Tatsuya [万タツヤ]).
The articles included 'Freaky Heroism Lecture' (フリーキーヒロイズム講座) (Arashi [嵐獣郎太]), 'Prejudiced Trivia Lecture' (偏見雑学講座) (Hirukogami Ken [蛭児神健]), 'Little Barbie Theatre' (バービー小劇場), the Bishoujo porno light novel 'Noma of Bygone Days' (去りし日のノーマ) (Kitamakura Akumu [北枕悪夢]), and a reader column. The manga were 6~10 pages long. Many of the works were SF, horror, and fantasy, and over half of the works were suggestive of ready-made anime works and had a parody-like feel. Of course, the creators were mainly doujinshi creators. On the cover, there was a catch-copy that says 'We're All Lemmings for Copycat Magazines', and the casualness in this area has the feel of doujinshi. In the 5th issue, published in December of 1985, there were artists like Matsubara Kaori (松原香織), Amamiya Jun (雨宮じゅん), and Moriyama Tou (森山塔). It was a magazine with the personality of Hirukogami Ken and had a maniac-ness that differed from other magazines. Of course, the concept was a 'Lolicon Manga Magazine'.
'Melon Comic' (メロンCOMIC) was first published in June of 1984. The catch-copy of its August issue was 'Bishoujo-chic Magazine', and the cover was done by Senno Knife (千之ナイフ). The opening manga was an SF-style parody about a battle between mecha and Bishoujo called 'Gadroid Mimul' (ガドロイドミムル) (Hanamura Masaki [花村政己]). The Fantasy 'Sheryl Storia' (シャリルストーリア) (Hoshino Tomu [星野とむ]), 'Virgin Pregnancy' (処女懐妊) (Nakamori Ai [中森愛]), Shoujo-Action 'Atomic Tina' (アトミックティナ) (Watanabe Hideyuki [渡辺ヒデユキ]), Shoujo-Manga-Chic 'Flower Clock 3:00' (花時計・3時) (Eve Adam [イブ・あだむ]), Youth Story 'Sometime' (SOMETIME) (Fujiwara Kamui [藤原カムイ]), Fantasy-Romance 'Flower Flower' (フラウア・フラウア) (Bone Kaburaki [ボネ・鏑木]), Comedy 'Do Not Call Tsukasa Mama' (つかさをママと呼ばないで) (Nagisa Akira [ナギサ・アキラ]), Elementary Schooler Diary Series 'Involuntary ×× Mayumi-chan♥' (思わず××真由美ちゃん♥) (Amamiya Jun [あまみや淳]), 'Dream Chiyo Picture Diary' (夢チヨ絵日記) (Uchiyama Aki [内山亜紀]), and 'Shoujo Tsubaki Preview' (少女椿予告編) (Maruo Suehiro [丸尾末広]). The magazine also featured art by Sawaki Akane (沢木あかね), Taniguchi Kei (谷口敬), and Senno Knife (千之ナイフ), and felt like a plus-alpha for doujinshi creators.
In November of 1984, 'Peppermint Comic' (ペパーミントCOMIC) (Nippon Publishing) was published as a special issue of 'Comic Again' (コミックアゲイン). The opening article was an interview with the Shoujo idol group Carrot (キャロット). The manga included the School Story 'Bomber! Angel' (BOMBER!えんじぇる) (Tsukushino Makoto [つくしの真琴]), the Ladies Hero Story 'Miracle Girl' (ミラクルガール) (Aran Rei [阿乱霊]), the Horror 'Toothless Bunny Lips' (はのないうさぎのくち) (Moriyama Tou [森山塔]), the Märchen 'Sweet Memory' (スイートメモリー) (Yamanobe Anzu [山辺杏]), the Insect Anthropomorphism Story 'Amber Slumber' (琥珀色の眠り) (Ikeda Kazunari [池田一成]), the Ecchi Fairytale 'Restless Forest Witch' (眠れぬ森の魔女) (Shinda Mane [新田真子]), and the Bishoujo Who Leapt Through Time 'Trip-Trap Trooper' (トリップトラップ・トルーパー) (Sumio Fumi [スミオ・フミ]). Other artists included Yamamoto Okazu (Senno Knife [千之ナイフ]), Oki Yukao (沖由佳雄), Takahashi Shichiko (たかはしちこ), and Saegusa Samiyu* (三枝弥夢) among others. The cover catch-copy was 'Naturally, it's because it's Bishoujo we like it!!'. Rather than being published by Minori Shobo, 'Comic Again' (コミックアゲイン) was republished in A5-size. In the early 1980s, there were things like maniac-magazines, SF-manga magazines, and New Wave-type manga magazines; magazines aimed at manga fans had come and gone, and in the overlap between these and doujinshi ero-gekiga magazines, Lolicon Manga magazines were securing their place. For publishers, these were positioned as maniac magazines with a certain degree of ecchi content.
※T/L Note: The actual penname for this artist is unknown. Their given name could be read as Hiromu, but they signed their name as Miyu. And it's believed they took their name from Saegusa Jun (さえぐさじゅん).
First published as 'Manga Eros Special Issue' (マンガエロス増刊号) in October of 1986, there was the Bishoujo Clairsentience Faction Comic 'Pelican House' (ペリカンハウス) (Tsukasa Shobo). The cover was by Midorisawa Miyuki (緑沢みゆき), and the opening colour manga was 'Holy War Crusader' (聖戦士クルセイダー) (Ooya○Sahiro [おおや○さひろ]), and other artists included Yorichika Bibiru (よりちかびびる), Nakajima Akemi (中嶋あけみ), Matsubara Kaori (松原香織), Wolf Tarou (狼太郎), Funato Hitoshi (ふなとひとし), Ibuki Nobutaka (IBUKI・NOBUTAKA), Hibari Miki (ひばりみき), Hayase Takumi (早瀬たくみ), Donkey (DONKEY), K. Mitsufuji (K・MITSUFUJI), Tsuburaya Naoto (円谷なおと), Yuki Ayano (ゆきあやの), Cremutsu Cule (くれむつ・きゅーる), Wada Erika (和田エリカ), and Amamiya Jun (雨宮じゅん). There were many artists here who drew in the style of shounen manga, and many who later became members of ero-gekiga magazines.
'Raspberry Yogurt' (らすベリーヨーグルト) (Souryuusha) was first published in 1987 as 'Manga Plaza March Special Issue' (漫画プラザ3月増刊号). This is the final Bishoujo Comic magazine of this style with 160~170 B5 pages with side-stitched binding. Its members included Moriyama Tou (森山塔), Hihyuu Ran (飛龍乱), Nekojima Rei (猫島礼), Nakamori Ai (中森愛), Paja (破邪), Wada Erika (和田エリカ), Izumino Anri (いずみの杏理), Buruburu (ぶるぶる), Kitajima Akira (きたじま晶), Unonoeu (うののえう), Doi Yasutaka (土井やすたか), Katou Narumi (加藤成美), and Mai Tokiya (舞時也) among others.
Magazines of this style, regardless of the contents, were based on 'Lolicon Manga', and as imitators of 'Lemon People' (レモンピープル), many named their magazines after things like fruit. However, Lolicon requires a unique aesthetic dedicated to 'Shoujo', and sometimes sought even pedantic things. It wasn't a period where one could say they liked a 'character' from manga or anime without hesitation, rather they needed to have an excuse or reason. Although Lolicon Manga handled maniac themes such as SF, horror, and fantasy in the form of short stories, parodies, or comedies, most of them were nothing more than manga aimed towards amateur maniacs, and there was no conscious effort for them to be 'ero'. In the doujinshi world, Takahashi Rumiko (高橋留美子) was quite popular around 1983, and the Shoujo depicted were becoming more and more glamorous. From the special objects of Lolita, which were small breasts, silky and smooth bodies, and youth, a change where General Young Female Bodies=Bishoujo was moving towards being the ero-manga icon.
From Anthologies to Magazines
By the end of 1985, 'Pumpkin' (Byakuya Shobo) was launched. Its members included Wanabe Wataru (わたなべわたる), Eiji Kei (影次ケイ), Bangaichi Mitsugu (番外地貢), Araizumi Rui (あらいずみるい), and Midorisawa Miyuki (緑沢みゆき), but as an advertisement suggests with 'Lolicon, New Wave, Bishoujo Comic, Sailor Suit Manga, etc., Introducing a Super Indies Comic that Surpasses All Genres', it appears they were seeking a new ero-manga magazine based on the manga scene of the early 1980s by mixing everything together. A5 size, 170 pages, and 850 yen. Quite expensive for a magazine. In terms of format, it can be said it's an ero-doujinshi anthology in the format of an A5 tankoubon. However, by doing this, they were able to create an effective container even when the number of printed copies were few.
The Lolicon doujinshi manga anthology 'Lolita Syndrome' (美少女症候群) published by Fusion Product in 1982 became a huge hit, but around 1983, various types of tankoubon format magazines for things like SF, cyberpunk, fantasy, and horror began to appear. An intermediate format between maniac magazine and tankoubon published in few numbers at a high price had become established. 'Pumpkin' was born from such a trend. The ones that were popular were by Watanabe Wataru (わたなべわたる) who draws round, D-cups and soft female bodies with an anime-touch. Araizumi Rui (あらいずみるい), who later drew 'Slayers' (スレイヤーズ), was also very popular. The popularity of Watanabe led to anthologies featuring D-cup, big breast anthologies becoming standard around 1986~1988.
As a tankoubon format anthology of the same type, looking at 'REFLEX' No.1' (Byakuya Shobo), it was A5-size 170 pages for 860 yen. The paper's thick and included 10 coloured pages. Its 12 members included Nakayama Tarou (中山たろう), Fred Kelly (フレッド・ケリー), Ken-G (Ken-G), Yorichika Bibiru (よりちかびびる), Umino Yayoi (海野やよい), and Hibari Miki (ひばり・みき). There were colour illustrations by Mizuhara Masaki (水原まさき), Tsukushino Makoto (つくしの真琴), Ikeda Kazunari (池田一成), and Onda Naoyuki (恩田尚之). The articles included an introduction to doujinshi. There were things like SF, fantasy, and war stories, but 'Pure White Wind' (まっ白い風) (Hibari Miki [ひばり・みき]) was a nurse story, 'Hot-Bodied Gals' (熱体ぎゃるず) (Milaiya [MILAIYA]) and 'School Out' (スクールズ☆アウト) (Ginneko [銀猫]) were school stories, and 'Dark Desire' (DARKDESIRE) (Morimoto Mayumi [森本まゆみ]), Yorichika Bibiru (よりちかびびる) and Umino Yayoi (海野やよい) were manga with an ero-gekiga-style pattern. If I had to say what's new, it would probably be the ero-scenes using the highly symbolic art from things such as anime, shoujo manga, and shounen manga. Meaning, it was the beginning of an ero-manga for a new generation.
Granting that, due to their price, they were still far from being able to sell a large number of copies. It was natural magazines would be in demand. I'll introduce the first to appear as an A5 magazine. 'Lolipop' (ロリポップ) (Kasakura Publishing) was first published in February of 1986 and it was probably the earliest of its kind. Looking at its 3rd April issue, it's A5-size 214 pages with side-stitched binding for 500 yen. It was the same price as 'Lemon People' (レモンピープル), but the size was smaller and the paper quality was poorer to make up for its extra pages. The magazine opened with a special feature on 'Project A-ko' (プロジェクトA子), and the front colour was 'Lolita Personal Computer Soft' (ロリータパソコンソフト). The manga included 'Love Lesson ABC' (愛の講座ABC) (Fuyuhoshi Akichika [冬星章史]), 'Devil Hunter' (魔狩人) (Kuuke Gen* [毛羽毛現]), 'Dracula Shimasho' (ドラキュラしましょ) (Megta [MEGTA]), 'Xfer' (エクスファー) (Nakado Kunihiko [なかどくにひこ]), 'Beautiful Human' (美しい人間) (Itou Masaya [伊藤まさや]), '2010 Carrot Girl' (2010年のにんじん娘) (Amamiya Jun [雨宮じゅん]), 'Spring Breeze Room' (春風の部屋) (Kazusa Shima [上総志摩]), 'Masked Debauchery Party' (仮面淫蕩会) (Senno Knife [千之ナイフ]), and 'I am Piano' (私はピアノ) (Moriyama Tou [森山塔]). There were many full-length serials and not too many SF or horror ero-stories. It doesn't look like it began as an ero-manga magazine with Amamiya, Kazusa, and Moriyama's supposed ero-stories. However, looking at the 1988 August issue, the members included Hokazono Masaya (外園昌也), Komotoda Emai (小本田絵舞), Araki Akira (あらきあきら), Uncle Sam (あんくるさむ), Flaty Flat (FLATYFLAT), Gotou Juan (後藤寿庵), Suwano Toshi (諏訪野都), 7-Flavour Mentaiko (7味明太子), Arimori Tari (有森タリ), and Shioura (士央良), most of the manga had sex scenes. There were many settings rooted in daily life such as shoujo manga-style ero and school ero-comedies, each work was 16~24 pages long and told a proper story.
※This author normally romanises their penname as Kewke Gen.
'Manga Hot Milk' (漫画ホットミルク) (Byakuya Shobo) was first published on April 1st of 1986. It's A5 180 pages with saddle-stitched binding for 480 yen. The opening gravure was Shoujo idol and anime news, and the centre and end gravure were single nudes. The opening manga was 'Play in Grassland' (遊戯於草原) (Moriyama Tou [森山塔]). The other works included 'Miracle Ball Legend' (魔球の伝説) (Tororoimo Ichigou [とろろいも一号]), 'Sunday Morning' (日曜日の朝は) (Kawasaki Bura and Negura☆Nao [かわさきぶら・ねぐら☆なお]), 'Bogy Hunter' (BOGYHUNTER) (H You [H・YOU]), 'Radical Peach Lovely Milk' (RADICALPEACHLOVELYMILK) (Tsukushino Makoto [つくしの真琴]), 'Spring' (はる) (Nakayama Tarou [中山たろう]), 'Whatever You Say, It's Sailor Suits!' (なんてったってセーラー服!) (Makima Satoshi [三木間さとし]), 'Dreaming in Sakura Mood' (桜気分で夢をみて) (Tonami Muka [となみむか]), 'Kobishoujo' (媚少女) (Umino Yayoi [海野やよい]), 'Sleepless in Platonic' (プラトニックじゃ眠れない) (Nagata Tomato [永田トマト]), and 'Cattail Dreamers' (きゃとているDREAMERS) (Minami Yuuko [みなみゆうこ]). There were gags by Yamaguchi Miyuki (やまぐちみゆき) and Nishiaki Gurin (西秋ぐりん). There were some SF horror stories, but most were school ero-stories. The concept of a slightly maniac ero-manga magazine aimed towards the anime generation was probably a compromise between it being an ero-gekiga magazine and a Lolicon Manga magazine. Part of it succeeded from 'Manga Burikko' (漫画ブリッコ) by the same publisher that was discontinued the previous year; many of the works were drawn by women in the style of shoujo manga.
As a Lolicon Manga magazine, 'Manga Burikko' (漫画ブリッコ) (Byakuya Shobo) included things like New Wave, female doujinshi artists, SF, and horror, and while there were some ecchi-types by artists like Nakamori Ai (中森愛), Mon-Mon (悶悶), and Morino Usagi (森野うさぎ), it was mainly comprised of female artists like Okazaki Kyouko (岡崎京子), Shirakura Yumi (白倉由美), and Iku Tamaki (いくたまき) along with SF-type doujinshi artists, so it would be best to look at it as following the trends of SF manga magazines and New Wave Comic magazines. However, perhaps it can be said the A5 magazine format was a transitional one. Several magazines of a similar format appeared even into the 1990s, 'Himedorobou' (姫盗人) (Shobunkan) and 'Comic Flamingo' (コミックフラミンゴ) (Sanwa Publishing) were being published, but with the introduction of B5-size magazines by the end of the 1980s, Bishoujo Comic magazines began to replace ero-gekiga magazines.
Appendix
By Souda Yon (想田四) (Manga Researcher)
This book was written by Yonezawa Yoshihiro, a manga critic who died suddenly in 2006, October 1st. After three suspensions, it was serialised in 'Ax' (アックス) (Seirin Kogeisha) for nearly seven years, and with its completion around the corner, this is a compilation of all the works written before 'Ax' into one book as 'Postwar Ero-Manga History' (戦後エロマンガ史), which was the last work penned.
Born on March of 1953 in Kumamoto City, Yonezawa moved to Tokyo in 1972 to enrol at Meiji University. In 1975, while still a student, he formed the critique group 'Labyrinth' (迷宮) with Harada Teruo (原田央男) (Shimotsuki Takanaka [霜月たかなか]) and Aniwa Jun (亜庭じゅん), and he began earnestly writing manga critiques. In December of the same year, the Comic Market Preparation Committee (essentially Labyrinth) held the first Comic Market, Japan's first manga doujinshi exhibition and sale event. From around 1978, he started working as an editor, writer, and critic for commercial magazines, and from 1980 to 1981, he published three books, starting with 'Postwar Shoujo Manga History' (戦後少女マンガ史) followed by 'Postwar SF Manga History' (戦後SFマンガ史) and 'Postwar Gag Manga History' (戦後ギャグマンガ史) (Shinhyosha). Through these works called the 'Manga History Trilogy', he established himself as a manga critic who was well-versed in everything from before Tezuka Osamu to the latest doujinshi manga. Meanwhile, from 1980, he also became the representative of the Comiket Preparation Committee. Yonezawa greatly contributed to manga culture throughout his life in the dual positions of manga critic and Comiket representative.
If one tries to examine Yonezawa's early work in relation to ero-manga, he was one of the central figures who initiated the 'Third-rate Gekiga Movement' (三流劇画ムーブメント) that happened in 1978, and later planned 'Supplementary Shinhyo Third-rate [Ero] Gekiga World' (別冊新評三流劇画の世界) and wrote a large number of manuscripts as its main writer. In 1979, he was also involved in editing the vending machine book 'Gekiga Alice' (劇画アリス) (Alice Publishing), and in 'Alice', he appears to have even written his own ero-manga. He also serialised columns in ero-gekiga magazines such as 'Kannou Gekiga' (官能劇画) (1979, Minori Shobo) under the name Ajima Shun (阿島俊), Yonezawa's work has been inextricably linked to ero-manga from its beginnings.
Supplementary Shinhyo Third-rate [Ero] Gekiga World
Furthermore, Yonezawa has used the keywords 'Ero, Guro, and Nonsense' from an early period when he began his critiques. His first Tezuka critique published in a commercial magazine was 'SF Manga Ero-Guro Nonsense: Tezuka Osamu and Grotesque' (SFマンガのエログロナンセンス手塚治虫とグロテスク) ('Manga Kisoutengai' [マンガ奇想天外], 1980 Kisoutengai), and these keywords were a hidden theme in each part of his manga history trilogy (Shoujo = Ero, SF = Guro, and Gag = Nonsense). In 'Manga Pleasure Landscape, Lines, Female Bodies, and Grotesque' (マンガの快楽風景・線・女体・グロテスク), and in the 'Manga Critique Manifesto' (マンガ批評宣言) (1987, Aki Shobo) he edited and wrote, he reached the stunning conclusion that reading manga is a honeymoon, the act of sleeping with manga. Nonsense is akin to manga itself, and there's no doubt Yonezawa saw an essence of some manner in the ero-guro depicted in manga.
In regards to the grotesque in ero-guro, due to circumstances in the editorial department, it took on a reluctant shape, but he did the long serials 'Postwar Grotesque Manga History' (戦後怪奇マンガ史) and 'Horror Manga Genealogy' (恐怖マンガの系譜) ('Horror House' [ホラーハウス] 1986~1990, Tairiku Shobo). Perhaps because of this, from around the 1990s onward, he seemed to have focused more on ero than guro. At the very least, compiling the history of ero-manga must've been Yonezawa's long-cherished desire.
Yonezawa first serialised 'Postwar Ero-Manga History' (戦後エロマンガ史) in November of 1996 in 'Bad Taste' (BADTASTE) (Fromm Publishing, Tokyo Sanseisha). It was a vulgar magazine launched as a bad-taste-style subculture magazine that was popular at the time, but its publication ended with the second issue published in January of the following year. After a year-long hiatus, the final article of the ero-manga reprint series 'Mondo Erotica' (モンドエロチカ) (Ota Publishing), supervised by Yonezawa and published in May of 1998, was serialised again under the title of 'Postwar Ero-Manga History'. This Mondo Erotica version was based on the 'Bad Taste' version, and had been rewritten with a much more detailed discussion on prehistory and underground books. Hence why in this book, the 'Bad Taste' version is mostly omitted, and only the parts referencing ero-humour magazines and weekly-style B5 magazines from around 1955 that were not used in the Mondo Erotica version were excerpted and included as a supplement (p26-27). Mondo Erotica was planned as an alternate version of Ota Publishing's reprint manga series 'QJ Manga Anthology' (QJマンガ選書), which was launched after the reprints of the mysterious rental-manga-based 'Kaidan Ningen Jikei' (怪談人間時計) (Tokunami Seiichirou [徳南晴一郎]) became a hit, so the 1st volume of 'Sexy Kaijuu Rampage' (セクシー怪獣大暴れ) (Story: [近藤謙], Art by Shimaryuuji [島竜二] and Suganuma Kaname [管沼要]), and the 2nd volume of 'Super Lady Witch' (スーパーレディ魔子) (Kasama Shirou [笠間しろう]) were published at the same time. Besides 'Postwar Ero-Manga History', Yonezawa, the supervisor, was also in charge of explaining the reprinted works. Reprints of works with a critique of the works and authors through commentary, the three parts of ero-manga history into one, perhaps this anthology may have been the ideal style. At the time of its publication, Yonezawa wrote an agitation-style manifesto, so I shall publish the full text below.
On the Occasion of Publishing 'QJ Alternative Manga Anthology: Mondo Erotica'
As we approach the 21st century, popular culture is about to reach a major turning point. Not on the side of the creators, but rather the public themselves, who are their recipients, taking on a leading role. The meaning is bigger than that. But there's one thing that hasn't changed. 'Sex' as a human activity, desire, and fantasy. Since ancient times, expression has been inextricably linked to 'sex' and enjoyed. Many of the things that have been supported by the public emit the light of eros. However, sex that makes one feel guilty colluded with a sense of shame in modern Japanese culture, and increased its umami as a much more subtle and personal pleasure. A culture of shame that turns a blind eye to the blatantly hardcore and embraces a sham as its substitute. Intellectual, fashionable, pop...... Without these sort of excuses, the public doesn't want to accept 'sex' openly. The history of manga, not talking much about sex, also hasn't received much support. However, even in children's manga unrelated to sex, sex as a metaphor slips in and out of view, and the delusions of the expressive individual shines through. 'Ero-manga' has a vast underground vein that continues to flow throughout time. Because it's obvious these expressions are 'products', it could be said they directly fire punches at the lower body, deliberately sharpening expression by focusing on one point to bizarrely transform themselves into a feminine body and phallus. A history of manga that doesn't talk about manga that turned sex into a motif is a sham. The forgotten vintage eros, the manga group of eros, that leaves a trauma in the corner of one's memory, is the ultimate weapon that lights a fire and casts a light of another world upon manga on the brink of experiencing the heat death of the universe. What's being launched as the 'Mondo Erotica' series here is a group of manga that depicts 'sex' that unsurprisingly couldn't be included within the 'QJ Manga Anthology' framework. Rather than being a rubbish dump or graveyard, a great rescue operation for wonderfully ecchi, astonishing, never-before-seen, and fragrant pulp magazines is about to begin. Look forward to it with your lower body!
In its continuation as Mondo Erotica, which began this way, Sakaki Masaru (榊まさる), Inaga Takashi (稲賀隆志) (Matsumoto Masahiko [松本正彦], Mizuki Shigeru (水木しげる), and Fukai Kuni (深井国) were planned according to Yonezawa's memo, and in addition to them, Utagawa Taiga (歌川大雅) (Oka Tomohiko [岡友彦]), Ibara Miki (いばら美喜), Mishimi Noboru (好美のぼる), Muku Youji (椋陽児), Bonten Tarou (凡天太郎), Maeda Juan (前田寿安), Wakayama Hiroshi (若山ひろし), Makimura Kazumi (牧村和美), Fukuhara Hidemi (福原秀美), Tomi Shinzou (臣新蔵), Komori Kazuya (小森一也), Taguchi Tomorou (田口智朗), Dirty Matsumoto (ダーティ松本), Ishii Takashi (石井隆) (Deki Hideki [出木英杞]), and Azuma Hideo (吾妻ひでお) among others were narrowed down along their work titles and themes. There were many other artists mentioned even aside from these, it seems this was an attempt to systematically assemble ero-manga by adding all sorts of variations to the lineup. However, due to poor sales, Mondo Erotica was discontinued after the first two volumes. Ero-manga history was once again forced to go on hiatus after two parts.
As it was, the reprints in Mondo Erotica may have been primed water, but soon after, Kasama Shirou (笠間しろう) somehow became popular in the world of old-fashioned manga, and Muku Youji (椋陽児) in a similar pattern followed, and suddenly ero-gekiga began to draw attention. Exactly one year later, May of 1999, the publication of the 'Kannou Gekiga Complete Works' (官能劇画大全) by Seirin Kogeisha Publishing, published by Soft Magic, began, and starting with Kasama Shirou (笠間しろう), its lineup included Ken Tsukikage (ケン月影), Sakaki Masaru (榊まさる), Maeda Juan (前田寿安), and Muku Youji (椋陽児). This series continued with 'New Kannou Gekiga Complete Works' (新・官能劇画大全) and 'Another Kannou Gekiga Complete Works' (続・官能劇画大全), and has created a sort of boom where similar projects and ero-gekiga anthologies were created by other companies. This development may have been slightly different from what Yonezawa intended, but as a result, the buried ero-manga were brought to the light of day in the form of Mondo Erotica.
In September of 1999, when there was a movement to re-evaluate ero-gekiga like this, Yonezawa began his third attempt at ero-manga history with the first issue of 'Comic Rurihime' (COMIC瑠璃姫) (Amatoriasha = Kubo Shoten). This magazine was a Bishoujo Comic magazine that was launched as a supplement to 'Momoiro Komachi' (桃色小町), which was published as a supplement to 'Lemon People' (レモンピープル), which was where Yonezawa, under the penname Ajima Shun, serialised his long column 'Doujinshi Etcetra' (同人誌エトセトラ), and in 'Comic Rurihime', Yonezawa serialised two columns: 'Postwar Ero-Manga History: Extra Edition' (戦後エロ漫画史・番外編) and 'Omakase Doujinshi Review' (おまかせ同人誌レビュー) under the penname Ajima. As the title 'extra edition' suggests, it has a somewhat acrobatic structure that connects topics related to the publisher, Kubo Shoten, to ero-manga history, and similar to things like 'Bishoujo History in Manga' (マンガの中の美少女史) ('Comic Junkies' [コミックジャンキーズ] Core Magazine) in 1998, which was also discontinued after two parts, it would serve as a complement to the main part of ero-manga history. Towards the end of the serial's second part published in December of 1999, he wrote, "I'm thinking of covering 1960s third-rate SF ero-manga in the next issue if possible" (omitted in this book). However, just as Yonezawa predicted, this magazine also ceased publication after its second issue, and Kubo Shoten withdrew from magazines after this.
Comic Rurihime (Lemon People's Final Form)
After many twists and turns, it was in February of 2000 that the fourth instalment of 'Postwar Ero-Manga History' began to be serialised in 'Ax' (アックス), an alternative magazine derived from 'Monthly Manga Garo' (月刊漫画ガロ). Contrary to Yonezawa's initial fears, the series lasted nearly seven years and ran for 40 issues. The goal should've been within sight at last, but right about when 'Postwar Ero-Manga History' was about to come to a close, it unsurprisingly ceased to be written with the last part released in August of 2006. Yonezawa himself wasn't wrong when he called it a 'cursed series'.
Yonezawa completed the 40th manuscript on July of 2006 while hospitalised after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Of course, he didn't think this would be the end, and on the contrary, he continued smoking while they tried to cure his illness, but near the end, there was a preview for the next part, and a note saying it's almost time he 'wrapped things up'. After writing about the child pornography problem and the movement of adult games as new regulations on expression emerged, it appeared he was planning to fill in the missing parts due to the lack of material during its serialisation, as well as compile information about Japanese ero-manga that had been translated overseas.
It is truly a shame the last parts of 'Postwar Ero-Manga History' were left unfinished, but the same is true for all the works Yonezawa was supposed to write. Despite being unfinished, 'Postwar Ero-Manga History' fully demonstrates the depths of ero-manga history, and there's no doubt this breadth of attention, fearsome knowledge, and accurate understanding couldn't have been achieved by anyone other than Yonezawa Yoshihiro. Furthermore, though it is apt to be buried beneath the plethora of information, Yonezawa's unique perspectives, insights, and comments are scattered throughout, and the keys to deciphering manga expression and the history of manga are hidden here and there. The rest is up to the reader in how they read it.
There's way too many things to discuss after that massive information dump, so I'll just keep things simple.
Where did the Western Term 'Hentai Manga/Game/Anime' Come from?
Part One
Part One
1997: "Hentai" Software
I found this advertisement, and amazingly enough, the Wayback machine has an archive of J-List when it was online in 1997.
J-List Manga Catalogue 1997 April (Click!)
Fantajenne June 1997: "This thick issues has tons of color advertising the latest hentai games."
Surprised to see this at the top of the list; I've been collecting the comic version of Fantasienne (this is the proper romanisation) serialising a manga by an author I like called Caroline Youko, she was a talented kemonomimi artist in the 1990s, and she often referred to her characters as Lolita. I don't think J-List needs an introduction, but the person who runs it is from Australia, and I've always heard about Australia having strict laws about pornography. Back in 1997, Japan didn't have a policy where the adult manga, games, and anime have to state all their fictional characters are over 18 years old. If a girl in an ero-game is under 18, they would list her age in her profile, and Loli would be attributed to these characters; Lolicon is heavily linked to schoolgirl fetishism. I would be curious if Peter even utters the word 'Lolita' or 'Lolicon' on J-List in these archives despite exporting so much of it.
Caroline Youko (Oh!きつねさま [1996]): "Super Lolita Brand" (スーパーロリータブランド)
J-List Manga Catalogue 1997 May (Click!)
Shin Bishoujo Shoukougun (Lolita Strikes Back): "The Bishojo (lovely girl) Syndrome series is effectivelythe same as all other dojinshi anthologies published by Fusion, but these include about half original art by excellent dojinshi artists (i.e., not character art parodies). This volume includes five stories about Sailor Moon (and a nice Mercury story), some original work, andmore."
Reality is real interesting. Instead of using the English title, Peter avoids the word Lolita, and deliberately calls this anthology Bishoujo Syndrome. This Fusion Product anthology has been running for a long time under 'Lolita Syndrome' (美少女症候群). The newer version uses the subtitle 'Lolita Strikes Back' (新・美少女症候群). You can read these on Sad Panda; I was surprised to see them on there, but maybe Peter is responsible for their digital preservation.
Yonezawa Yoshihiro said:
An interesting thing I learned is that Lolita Syndrome was—and is—actually a term used in the west, predominately by western feminists.
(1981/03/03) 'Lolita Syndrome' is Denounced (Click)
Judy Klemesrud said:
Patrick W. Galbraith mentioned the west having a negative perception, but the way it's described here is about the same as it's treated in Japan. Fujiyama Takashi, the artist I'm helping, complained a few months ago about an evil Lolicon teacher. Learning stuff like the above makes me wish I could abduct and interrogate older localisers and import shops from the 1980s~1990s to find out whether western feminism played any part in their avoidance of the word.
Yonezawa Yoshihiro said:
Last edited:
Response to Taruby:
That was quite a lengthy read.
For the end of the post: what does your artist friend meant by "evil lolicon". That he was a pervert with the students. Or thst he liked lolicon manga works?
I didnt knew about the lolita syndrome thing but to be honest I really dont like the sound of that play
No lol Im not that old nor am I asian
Ill be sure to check thst interview again when I have the time
You probably mentioned already but are there any archives of the lemon people. I think they should be kept in an archive ar least considering its historical significance
Those gekiga works had some very interesting titles lol. Interesting thing about that green sexuality thing. I wonder if the thought behind the school girl/boy fetish is related to that.
Also while I mostly alright with the current way manga is drawn, part of me wishes there were more gekiga style works there is just something very raw to its style.
Hirukogami ken seems to be also quite significant to the doujinshi scene aswell.
Do you know if there still magazine of that style going on? Not lolicon or shoujo only, I mean like an actual magazine that also include works of various artists under a common theme.
Juan gotou? Finally an artist I knew from before. Funnily enough most of the worksI know him from are straight shota.
So as we established before the mid 80s were when the lolicon and similar magazines really took off
Would you said that manga burikko is where the bulk of female artist published their works? Why?
Died in 2006? Damn I wonder what would he think of today's landscape
I like that manifesto and its true. You cannot truly talk about the history of the medium without talking about ero-manga.
Smoking while being treated of lung cancer what a mad lad.
Its always sort of bitter sweet. These kind of people made a lot of great stuff and when they go we are left wondering what else they were working on and how it would have turned out.
Huh I had no idea j-list was that old. I need to look at that catalogue.
I hope this wasnt to confusing. I am on my phone writing this but wanted to do good by you and show that,this time lol, I did read everything.
That was quite a lengthy read.
For the end of the post: what does your artist friend meant by "evil lolicon". That he was a pervert with the students. Or thst he liked lolicon manga works?
I didnt knew about the lolita syndrome thing but to be honest I really dont like the sound of that play
No lol Im not that old nor am I asian
Ill be sure to check thst interview again when I have the time
You probably mentioned already but are there any archives of the lemon people. I think they should be kept in an archive ar least considering its historical significance
Those gekiga works had some very interesting titles lol. Interesting thing about that green sexuality thing. I wonder if the thought behind the school girl/boy fetish is related to that.
Also while I mostly alright with the current way manga is drawn, part of me wishes there were more gekiga style works there is just something very raw to its style.
Hirukogami ken seems to be also quite significant to the doujinshi scene aswell.
Do you know if there still magazine of that style going on? Not lolicon or shoujo only, I mean like an actual magazine that also include works of various artists under a common theme.
Juan gotou? Finally an artist I knew from before
. Funnily enough most of the worksI know him from are straight shota.So as we established before the mid 80s were when the lolicon and similar magazines really took off
Would you said that manga burikko is where the bulk of female artist published their works? Why?
Died in 2006? Damn I wonder what would he think of today's landscape
I like that manifesto and its true. You cannot truly talk about the history of the medium without talking about ero-manga.
Smoking while being treated of lung cancer what a mad lad.
Its always sort of bitter sweet. These kind of people made a lot of great stuff and when they go we are left wondering what else they were working on and how it would have turned out.
Huh I had no idea j-list was that old. I need to look at that catalogue.
I hope this wasnt to confusing. I am on my phone writing this but wanted to do good by you and show that,this time lol, I did read everything.
I received an e-mail alert that a user called dannyphantom left a message in this thread, but it seems to have been deleted. =\
It was the first message by an English-speaker posted in this thread who has read a Japanese book and knows about Aoyama Masaaki, so I was going to ask him some questions. I don't know whether he deleted it himself, or if he posted something (an image?) that caused his post to be deleted.
Also, if you own Takatsuki Yasushi's (高月 靖 ) book 'ロリコン - 日本の少女嗜好者たちとその世界', which doujinshi creator(s) did he interview? Despite it being cited by even Patrick W. Galbraith in Moe Manifesto, I still don't own that book; everyone wants to sell it for 2,000~3000 JPY second-hand when I know it went as cheap as 500 JPY used.
![[Maenaka Koushi]_Hiromi's_Trip.jpg](https://varishangout.com/index.php?attachments/maenaka-koushi-_hiromis_trip-jpg.18134/ "[Maenaka Koushi]_Hiromi's_Trip.jpg")
Hiromi's Trip by Maenaka Koushi
Insane someone would take so much time to write a dozen paragraph summary of their research, and then delete it.
Wish I understood what happened.
Coincidentally, the first bishoujo/lolicon comic in the very first issue of Lemon People is one called 'Lolicon Syndrome' by Uchiyama Aki, and it's a fucking catgirl manga. Aniwa Jun wasn't kidding about Comiket being taken over by a horde of nyan-nyan catgirls. Lolicon, Bishoujo, Moe, whatever it's called, it's fucking catgirls all the way down.
Manga Burikko was a minor magazine, and female mangaka have an advantage over men when it comes to that sort of thing. Kagami Akira literally worked himself to death trying to get his foot into the majors accepting any job that came his way, but a woman with the support of her parents or boyfriend/husband can more easily do consistent doujinshi work or work in a minor magazine that doesn't pay well.
This is just coincidence, but Kera asked me to translate an article about 'Hentai' he wrote for the May issue of Eiga Hiho (Official Twitter), a film buff magazine. The article is about Japan's first ero-anime, though Kera believes the information in his article is completely unknown in the English-speaking world, so he wants to let you know you're free to help make this more widely known.
I had to check to see what information for this exists in English, and while it is indeed barren, there's a couple sites that mention it, and even some that link to its Japanese wikipedia page (Wiki), which Kera heavily contributed towards. Though, this article goes beyond what Kera was allowed to add to the Japanese wikipedia, and also introduces an important cliffhanger. Basically, every Japanese citizen, and you guys, reading this small article get to be the first to know something VERY IMPORTANT before anyone in the mass media.
Source:『映画秘宝』2024年5月号
By Mushizuka Mushizou (虫塚虫蔵) (Labyrinth'24)
What is 'Hentai'?
Appearing like a comet during the dawning era of Bishoujo Anime, making the world aware of the existence of ero-anime, 'Cream Lemon' Volume 1 'Be My Baby' (1984/08/Fairy Dust) OVA Jacket.
The progenitor of ero-anime, 'Lolita Anime Ⅲ: Koneko-chan no Iru Mise' (1984/07/Wonder Kids) Flyer.
Two-dimensional ero (ero-anime, ero-manga, eroge, etc.) is popular all around the world. In particular, Japan's ero-anime is known as 'Hentai', and 'Hentai' has been the most searched word for 3 consecutive years on Pornhub, the world's largest porno-site, and as of 2024, Wikipedia's 'Hentai' page has individual articles in 58 languages, not counting the Japanese version, making it akin to a cultural invasion.
Its popularity is supported by what we call 'anime art'. Anime art is an abstraction of a human's external charm, that is to say its healthy and symmetrical beauty, brought to its maximum potential. Its beautiful, simple outline is, with or without eroticism, highly sexual. In that sense, 'Hentai' can be said to be the 'final destination of sexual expression' that's accepted throughout the world. 'Hentai' is like a collective unconscious, surpassing language barriers and penetrating beyond them, the true Cool Japan resulting from humanity's common wisdom, or perhaps it should be spoken of as a symbol of Japan's underground pop culture.
Hence why our country holds the name of 'Hentai Kingdom', but what exactly was the origin of Japan's first ero-anime, so-to-speak, its 'Hentai'?
Those who know, know. It's known by the name 'Suzumi-Bune' (すヾみ舟).
What's the First Domestic Ero-Anime 'Suzumi-Bune'?
A frame from 'Suzumi-Bune' reproduced in the manga 'Obiya Kagyou' (オビ屋稼業) (Art: Kougo Tsuguo [向後つぐお]; Story: Azuma Shirou [東史朗]; Shobunkan). Due to its mystique and topicality, 'Suzumi-Bune' has been passed down as a powerful source of inspiration.
Japan's first ero-anime 'Suzumi-Bune' is an illegal porno film, also known as a Blue Film (ブルーフィルム).
It's said an enigmatic animator, who lived in Koishikawa Tokyo, poured his heart and soul into creating this work over a three-year period in a studio he set up in the basement of his home. It was originally planned to be made into two volumes, but when the first volume was completed, it was confiscated by the authorities, but later, prints that were reduced to 16mm circulated the underground mainly before the war (incidentally, Hasegawa Takuya [長谷川卓也], known for his masterpiece 'Itoshi no Blue Film' [いとしのブルーフィルム)], said he watched 'Suzumi-Bune' after the war, but it's uncertain in what form it was screened).
It's said to have been produced around 1932 (Showa 7), but the exact date is uncertain. Some even say it's 1929 (Showa 4), 1930 (Showa 5), or 1937 (Showa 12). In any case, at the time Suzumi-Bune was produced, kissing and hugging were prohibited in movies, and even the slightest ero-depictions were not permitted.
In particular, 'Suzumi-Bune' was considered the 'greatest masterpiece of Blue Film' along with 'Kaze Tachinu' (風立ちぬ) and 'Yuzukko' (柚子っ娘) produced after the war by the film group 'Tosa no Kurosawa' (土佐のクロサワ), but before and during the war, its existence was never spoken about publicly. Its very existence was illegal and its nature as a private work made it difficult to turn into a discourse. The turning point was an article in the 1952 July issue (volume 27) of the monthly sexology magazine 'Ningen Tankyuu' (人間探求) (Daiichi Publishing), which was launched by Takahashi Tetsu (高橋鐵) and others after the war. In this issue, the painter Mouri Yaku (毛利厄九) contributed a review of 'Suzumi-Bune', which became the source of information for later books. It's thanks to this appreciation record this work has not been lost to history and is still talked about to this day.
Monthly Magazine 'Ningen Tankyuu' (Daiichi Publishing) 1952 July issue and its table of contents.
As there's practically no mention of what shape or form the film Mouri saw was screened, this remains unclear. All that is known is he watched it before 1937, and it was on 16mm film that was in very poor condition. Additionally, the condition of the projection equipment was so poor, it was impossible to determine what school or style the art belonged to, but nevertheless, he says its skeleton was conveyed with a tone that was rare for the Ukiyo-e style after the Meiji period. However, by this point, around 15 years had passed since the creator of Suzumi-Bune left the anime world, and around 20 years had passed since the film was confiscated by the authorities, and Mouri himself said, "Anyways, that was a long time ago", signifying the details were missing from his memory. Whereas, as it happens, it's thanks to the editor of 'Ningen Tankyuu' who asked a special film (Blue Film) company for the synopsis of 'Suzumi-Bune, and managed to write down an appreciation record, he said, "The separated parts came together all at once, and my memory of the whole became very clear".
Shall I go ahead and tentatively write its synopsis?
The story begins on a summer night by the banks of the Sumida River. Fireworks are rising up into the night sky, and small boats are passing by looking for Suzumi (涼; cool air). Meanwhile, the two heroines appear by the shore. One was an Ojou-san-type woman, and the other was an elderly wet nurse. Just then, a young handsome man approaches on a Choki-bune (a small roofless boat with a long, narrow bow).
The wet nurse immediately mediates the relationship between the two, and the young woman, although shy, entrusts her body to the man on the boat. It seemed an Ukiyo-e-ish exaggerated expression was boldly used here, and it was very much a breathtakingly excellent work. In the climax scene, a boatman with a cigarette in his mouth performs comedy relief by falling into the river saying, "I can't bear to watch this", which eases tension to elicit laughter. Shortly after, a light rain begins to drizzle and the man and woman board a Yakata-bune (houseboat) to avoid the rain and resume their act.
Meanwhile, the boatman, who had come out of the river, was feeling dizzy by the river's edge. Then he coincidentally encounters the wet nurse who was waiting for the young woman. The lustful boatman tries to flash his penis at the wet nurse, but she presses the boatman's genitals with her folded umbrella. When his erection subsides, the wet nurse takes advantage of that and hurries to the two lovers. The screen switches to inside the boat again. The wet nurse cuts a hole in the shoji screen to see what the man and woman were doing, but the boatman from earlier also follows her. And the two couples plunge into a love affair. The storm-like climax of female bodies were depicted over and over, again and again, and it was described to be the perfect climax for a finale. The last scene ends with a comb (櫛) rolling around. According to Mouri, the story went something like this. I'm certain I'm not the only one who can visualise the overwhelming sight filling the screen through imagination alone.
Based on the above, Mouri said the following about the value of 'Suzumi-Bune'. "This work is without kin in its generation and without a successor anywhere in the world even to this day. And though it's unknown how many prints remain or where, supposing any have survived, it can be stated it truly deserves the same level of cultural protection as an important work of art...". I believe you, reading this far, can roughly agree.
The Most Mysterious Animator 'Kimura Hakusan'
'Nonkinatousan Ryuuguu Mairi' (ノンキナトウサン 竜宮参り) (1925)
Beauties greet Nontou at Ryuuguu Castle.
'Kiken Chochiku Shiobara Tasuke' (勤倹貯蓄 塩原多助) (1925)
A young lady depicted in poster-beauty-style.
A scene from the earliest domestically produced shadow art anime 'Kanimanji Engi' (蟹満寺縁起) (1924, Director=Okuda Hidehiko[奥田秀彦]+Uchida Tomu[内田吐夢]+Kimura Hakusan[木村白山]). Oofuji Noburou (大藤信郎) was inspired by this work and produced 'Kujira' (鯨) in 1927. In 1953, a remake version was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received lavish praise from Picasso.
In the 1952 July issue of the aforementioned 'Ningen Tankyuu', an interview article with someone in the Blue Film business 'Man Who Projects Secret Movies' (秘密映画を映す男) was also included. Towards the end of the interview, the interviewer asks, "What about ero-anime?", and the interviewee answers, "Such works are expensive and not worth it" before quickly adding, "Kimura Hakusan's 'Suzumi-Bune'". According to the interviewee, he said he obtained the 35mm film of 'Suzumi-Bune' from a friend's bookstore, but when he was arrested in another case, the film was confiscated by the police, and the film was taken away to the central government office without ever being screened. During the interview, there was an anecdote he was slapped on the head by the police inspector, who later became Sunamachi's police chief, saying, "Creating so many works that haven't once been released into the world, you're most unlucky!". In fact, there's no evidence other than this testimony to attribute the creator of 'Suzumi-Bune' to 'Kimura Hakusan' (木村白山), but for the time being, I shall proceed with the assumption Kimura is the creator of 'Suzumi-Bune'.
What sort of person is Kimura Hazusan, the progenitor of ero-anime, and how did he create 'Suzumi-Bune'? Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive records regarding Kimura, but when compared to his remaining works and achievements, he's an artist with many mysteries; it's no exaggeration to say he is the 'most mysterious animator'. There are no records of his birth or career, nor any statements or portraits of him, except for his name and works, only fragmentary records remain. It is not even clear how to read his name, and some have even pointed out the possibility it's a shared penname between a 'Kimura' and a 'Hakusan', making it a 'trade name' rather than a personal name.
His works use rather unique styles. He uses a wide variety of painting styles, from manga to gekiga, from shadow art to live-action, and even though his works are deformed, they have a strange freshness that's eye-catching. In addition, among manga-style characters, they coexist with gekiga-style characters and poster-style beauties, creating a nonsense-gag-style. Furthermore, the richly shaded backgrounds give the worlds of his work a profound feeling, it is not hard to imagine 'Suzumi-Bune' was also a very glossy work in both the depiction of its characters and its backgrounds.
Below is a summary of his currently known history:
●Year of Death: Unknown. The reading of his name is 'Hakusan' (ハクサン).
●When he was young, he worked as an artist painting movie theatre signboards and backgrounds for exhibitions.
●He received technical guidance from Hashiguchi Hisashi (橋口壽) (a mysterious figure whose work history, and year of birth and death are unknown) of Kitayama Eiga Seisakujo.
●Made his anime debut in 1924 (Taisho 13) with 'Akagaki Genzou: Tokuri no Wakare' (赤垣源蔵徳利の別れ).
●At Asahi Cinema, he worked with Uchida Tomu (内田吐夢) and Okuda Hidehiko (奥田秀彦) to create some of the earliest shadow art anime in Japan.
●He was also commissioned to create an anime of the yonkoma manga 'Nonkinatousan' (ノンキナトウサン) by Asou Yutaka (麻生豊) and films for the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture (文部省).
●Around 1932 (Showa 7), he was arrested for Japan's first ero-anime, Suzumi-Bune, he self-produced.
●In 1938 (Showa 13), he left the anime world after creating 'Arawashi' (荒鷲) for Satousen Film Productions (佐藤線映画製作所).
●During the war, he worked as an illustrator for picture albums to raise fighting spirit such as 'Koua no Hikari: Seisenbidan' (興亜の光: 聖戦美談) and 'Daitoua Kessen Gashuu' (大東亜決戦画集)
●He's found to be credited as 'Illustrator: Kimura Hakusan' in postwar Magic Lantern (幻燈機) works.
As a side note, much of the materials related to the early days of anime were scattered during the chaotic period before the war, during the war, and the postwar, and has only been passed down in fragments. So, while there's an aspect where these mysteries being many cannot be helped, in recent years, research has progressed and the details are gradually becoming clearer. In 2017, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of domestic animation, the website 'Japanese Animation Film Classics' (日本アニメーション映画クラシックス) was launched under the initiative of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo's Film Centre (currently the National Film Archive). On this site, 64 works from 1917 to 1942 have been digitalised, including the oldest domestic anime film 'Namakura Gakana／Hanawa Hekonai Meitou no Maki' (なまくら刀／塙凹内名刀之巻) (1917), as well as one of Kimura's existing works that can be viewed.
Little progress has been made in understanding Kimura's postwar trail. What is worthy of special mention are the credits where 'Illustrator: Kimura Hakusan' were found in recent years among the Magic Lantern works produced by 'Okuda Shoikai' (奥田商会), a magic lantern maker. Okuda Shoikai (Formerly Acme Shoukai Tokyo Branch Okuda Shoukai) is said to be the place where Hashiguchi Hisashi, Kimura's mentor, changed jobs, so that may be where they're connected. Here, Kimura worked on many 'Acme Slide' series from 1945~1955 (Showa 20~30). Among them, 'Zenkouji Engi Nyoze Hime' (善光寺縁起 如是姫), which was based on a Buddhist setsuwa*, is an extremely gorgeous work that uses 52 frames in all natural colours. Topless beauties are also depicted throughout the work, and you can see Kimura's passion for depicting women throughout his life.
Setsuwa (Wiki)
In this way, his many years of investigative research and promotional work have borne fruit, and though the viewing environment for early anime works has improved; nevertheless, many mysteries still remain about Kimura Hakusan. This is pretty much all the information known about Kimura Hakusan.
I'm jumping topics, but I would like to share a few words about 'Creation Theory' (創作論). Creation means creating new works, but I believe the imitation of previous works is essential for this purpose. However, in a period where there aren't any previous works, all the more a period where ero was forbidden, Kimura created ero-anime from zero. This may always be the case for the progenitors of any field, but we cannot show anything but respect for his courage and talent to step beyond the line. Kimura's initial urge of 'wanting to create this kind of thing' gave birth to a legendary work filled with intense passion, and that passion has not waned even after nearly a century has passed. Even though no one can view his work, his legend continues to be passed down to this day, not only because of his insight, but also because of his boldness in challenging an expression of the unknown, this extraordinary passion, reminisce of Henry Darger, attracts people regardless if they agree or disagree. As a result, though he was banished from the anime world and was unable to make a name for himself, surely he took joy as an anonymous creator, distancing himself from a desire for fame, dedicating his life to drawing beauties? That's what I believe.
The Legend and its Aftermath
The aforementioned Mouri Yaku says the following about the splendour of 'Suzumi-Bune'.
"The richness on the screen, filling each frame with so much detail, was astounding enough to dazzle the eye, at least at the time. Well, for him to have completed such a large amount of difficult work on his own, his almost inhuman passion and perseverance alone is a wonder."
"I don't know any of the specifics about the production process, or even the name of the creator himself, other than what I learned from the editor that he was a mangaka who was once widely known among some folks. I have no idea what sort of person he was. However, as for what appears on the screen, his technique in the Ukiyo-e school conveys a level of skill that cannot be considered a simple hobby. I believe it may be a misrepresentation to call him a mangaka."
"When put into the projector, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, but it rotates at 26 frames per second, making it about 1560 frames per minute. Meaning there was a massive amount of images on the screen, ranging from 15,000 to 20,000. The creator took on this challenge alone, brush in hand. I heard it took him three years to complete the painting. Even if he drew every day, 365 days a year, 1095 days over three years, that would average 10 to 15 paintings per day. 〔……〕 It's astounding passion."
Mouri's review reaches the level of lavish praise. However, this praise did not always work as a plus for 'Suzumi-Bune'. At times, this praise turns into noise, an obstacle for discerning the true value of the work. The fact no one has ever seen it has led to misunderstandings and exaggerations.
For example, the following legends are related to 'Suzumi-Bune':
●Tezuka Osamu's father treasured it.
●Immediately after the war, Walt Disney saw the evidence at the Metropolitan Police Department and lavishly praised the work, asking to purchase it for 10 million yen.
●In 1945, the 35mm version went missing after the occupation army took it and previewed it, but the 16mm version was sold overseas as 'Utamaro Anime' (ウタマロ・アニメ).
●After being brought back to America by the occupation army, it was returned to Japan after peace was made, and it's being preserved by certain people related to it (apparently).
In conclusion, these are all baseless rumours. Even when compared to the contents of this article, such rumours are truly irrelevant, but when literature surveys were done, most of the discourse regarding 'Suzumi-Bune' were based on such hearsay and speculation. At any rate, I doubt we'll ever get a meaningful answer. In fact, so long as we cannot view this work, these legends will continue to live a life of their own, and what's worse, these legends themselves have become almost the main subject. The more I learn about these legends, the more I personally cannot help but remember the words of the former guitarist of 'Gaseneta' (ガセネタ), Hamano Jun (浜野純). He said, "It's easy for the underground to become a legend", and "Even though we're legends, I doubt there's more than 30 people who have actually seen Gaseneta". I feel something similar in the legend of 'Suzumi-Bune' as well. It doesn't matter whether these legends are based on fact or not. This is because uncertainty stimulates people's curiosity and creativity to bring more meaning than truth. Because of this, we'll probably never know the full story of 'Suzumi-Bune'. There's no longer anyone on this earth who has seen 'Suzumi-Bune'.
Our story was supposed to end nicely here, but now that the impossible has actually happened, that's no longer possible. This is because, about seven years ago, the 35mm version of Suzumi-Bune, which was confiscated nearly a century ago, was donated to the Film Centre (Currently: National Film Archive). The great discovery of this century hasn't been officially announced by the National Film Archive, and hasn't been covered by any media, so this short magazine article will be the first to report on it.
Escaping the pressure of the prewar, the great fires during the war, and the chaos of the postwar, why has this phantasmic film appeared now? The questions are endless. However, in any case, the editorial department asked the archives if they could somehow show us 'Suzumi-Bune', which has returned like a ghost in modern times.
But what was waiting was...... (To Be Continued Next Time.)
©2024 Mushizuka Mushizou/Labyrinth'24 Hiho-Shinsha (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
As long as this copyright notice is retained, copyrighted portions of Mushizuka may be freely reproduced and redistributed in whole or in part. Additionally, modifications, redistribution, second-hand distribution, and second-hand use for commercial purposes are permitted, provided this copyright notice is maintained and any modified parts are clearly indicated.
While I did translate Kera's interview, this is the first time I translated an original written work by Kera (he does have a summary of his research, but that thing is super long). Kera hasn't told me what happened after his editorial department asked the archive to show them this ero-anime, so I'm also looking forward to the second part.
Kera also asked me to translate the MGM100 Catalogue, since that has obscure information related to Aniwa Jun not available anywhere, but it's 18k characters long, which puts it in the same league as that Azuma Hideo long interview. This is going to be a major project, so I'm going to be busy with that, maybe taking breaks to translate other things and maybe the second part to the above article.
Spanish Video on Suzumi-Bune (Spanish>English):
This video isn't as thorough in its research as Kera's article.
It was the first message by an English-speaker posted in this thread who has read a Japanese book and knows about Aoyama Masaaki, so I was going to ask him some questions. I don't know whether he deleted it himself, or if he posted something (an image?) that caused his post to be deleted.
If you're still here, are you certain Maenaka Koushi (前中行至) is a mangaka? As far as I'm aware, she's a light novel writer, who wrote for magazines like 'Shousetsu Junior' (小説ジュニア).dannyphantom said:
Also, if you own Takatsuki Yasushi's (高月 靖 ) book 'ロリコン - 日本の少女嗜好者たちとその世界', which doujinshi creator(s) did he interview? Despite it being cited by even Patrick W. Galbraith in Moe Manifesto, I still don't own that book; everyone wants to sell it for 2,000~3000 JPY second-hand when I know it went as cheap as 500 JPY used.
Hiromi's Trip by Maenaka Koushi
Insane someone would take so much time to write a dozen paragraph summary of their research, and then delete it.
Wish I understood what happened.
@Hexasheep93
... There's something funny about you reading everything from the one book I've owned for over a decade and always skimmed through myself... Translating those two chapters was the first time I forced myself to read the chapter titles and author names.But you do own that sort of nice sweater. Right? Right?
Look it up on Sad Panda. There's some issues there, and I do recommend browsing them to get an idea what constituted Lolicon back then.
Coincidentally, the first bishoujo/lolicon comic in the very first issue of Lemon People is one called 'Lolicon Syndrome' by Uchiyama Aki, and it's a fucking catgirl manga. Aniwa Jun wasn't kidding about Comiket being taken over by a horde of nyan-nyan catgirls. Lolicon, Bishoujo, Moe, whatever it's called, it's fucking catgirls all the way down.
Someone who, in his words, should be castrated for messing with real girls.
I don't know about 2024 because Kimi Rito, an older researcher who is friends with Kera, commented on the decline of normal ero-manga as Moe usurped its dominant position in the last couple decades, but most comic media in Japan uses a wide variety of art styles; gekiga was getting so popular that even Tezuka Osamu was converting to it. It's just hardly any of it is translated or localised into English. Like Ishii Takashi is a pretty big name in seinen manga, and his 'Angel Guts' serial hasn't been translated despite it being adapted into films.
Anthologies (アンソロジー)?
... I'm going to do a Who's Who article in the future regarding Manga Burikko's mangaka.
Manga Burikko was a minor magazine, and female mangaka have an advantage over men when it comes to that sort of thing. Kagami Akira literally worked himself to death trying to get his foot into the majors accepting any job that came his way, but a woman with the support of her parents or boyfriend/husband can more easily do consistent doujinshi work or work in a minor magazine that doesn't pay well.
This is just coincidence, but Kera asked me to translate an article about 'Hentai' he wrote for the May issue of Eiga Hiho (Official Twitter), a film buff magazine. The article is about Japan's first ero-anime, though Kera believes the information in his article is completely unknown in the English-speaking world, so he wants to let you know you're free to help make this more widely known.
I had to check to see what information for this exists in English, and while it is indeed barren, there's a couple sites that mention it, and even some that link to its Japanese wikipedia page (Wiki), which Kera heavily contributed towards. Though, this article goes beyond what Kera was allowed to add to the Japanese wikipedia, and also introduces an important cliffhanger. Basically, every Japanese citizen, and you guys, reading this small article get to be the first to know something VERY IMPORTANT before anyone in the mass media.
Source:『映画秘宝』2024年5月号
Origin of 'Hentai'! The Hunt for the Phantasmic Anime 'Suzumi-Bune'!
(Part One)
(Part One)
By Mushizuka Mushizou (虫塚虫蔵) (Labyrinth'24)
What is 'Hentai'?
Appearing like a comet during the dawning era of Bishoujo Anime, making the world aware of the existence of ero-anime, 'Cream Lemon' Volume 1 'Be My Baby' (1984/08/Fairy Dust) OVA Jacket.
The progenitor of ero-anime, 'Lolita Anime Ⅲ: Koneko-chan no Iru Mise' (1984/07/Wonder Kids) Flyer.
Two-dimensional ero (ero-anime, ero-manga, eroge, etc.) is popular all around the world. In particular, Japan's ero-anime is known as 'Hentai', and 'Hentai' has been the most searched word for 3 consecutive years on Pornhub, the world's largest porno-site, and as of 2024, Wikipedia's 'Hentai' page has individual articles in 58 languages, not counting the Japanese version, making it akin to a cultural invasion.
Its popularity is supported by what we call 'anime art'. Anime art is an abstraction of a human's external charm, that is to say its healthy and symmetrical beauty, brought to its maximum potential. Its beautiful, simple outline is, with or without eroticism, highly sexual. In that sense, 'Hentai' can be said to be the 'final destination of sexual expression' that's accepted throughout the world. 'Hentai' is like a collective unconscious, surpassing language barriers and penetrating beyond them, the true Cool Japan resulting from humanity's common wisdom, or perhaps it should be spoken of as a symbol of Japan's underground pop culture.
Hence why our country holds the name of 'Hentai Kingdom', but what exactly was the origin of Japan's first ero-anime, so-to-speak, its 'Hentai'?
Those who know, know. It's known by the name 'Suzumi-Bune' (すヾみ舟).
What's the First Domestic Ero-Anime 'Suzumi-Bune'?
A frame from 'Suzumi-Bune' reproduced in the manga 'Obiya Kagyou' (オビ屋稼業) (Art: Kougo Tsuguo [向後つぐお]; Story: Azuma Shirou [東史朗]; Shobunkan). Due to its mystique and topicality, 'Suzumi-Bune' has been passed down as a powerful source of inspiration.
Japan's first ero-anime 'Suzumi-Bune' is an illegal porno film, also known as a Blue Film (ブルーフィルム).
It's said an enigmatic animator, who lived in Koishikawa Tokyo, poured his heart and soul into creating this work over a three-year period in a studio he set up in the basement of his home. It was originally planned to be made into two volumes, but when the first volume was completed, it was confiscated by the authorities, but later, prints that were reduced to 16mm circulated the underground mainly before the war (incidentally, Hasegawa Takuya [長谷川卓也], known for his masterpiece 'Itoshi no Blue Film' [いとしのブルーフィルム)], said he watched 'Suzumi-Bune' after the war, but it's uncertain in what form it was screened).
It's said to have been produced around 1932 (Showa 7), but the exact date is uncertain. Some even say it's 1929 (Showa 4), 1930 (Showa 5), or 1937 (Showa 12). In any case, at the time Suzumi-Bune was produced, kissing and hugging were prohibited in movies, and even the slightest ero-depictions were not permitted.
In particular, 'Suzumi-Bune' was considered the 'greatest masterpiece of Blue Film' along with 'Kaze Tachinu' (風立ちぬ) and 'Yuzukko' (柚子っ娘) produced after the war by the film group 'Tosa no Kurosawa' (土佐のクロサワ), but before and during the war, its existence was never spoken about publicly. Its very existence was illegal and its nature as a private work made it difficult to turn into a discourse. The turning point was an article in the 1952 July issue (volume 27) of the monthly sexology magazine 'Ningen Tankyuu' (人間探求) (Daiichi Publishing), which was launched by Takahashi Tetsu (高橋鐵) and others after the war. In this issue, the painter Mouri Yaku (毛利厄九) contributed a review of 'Suzumi-Bune', which became the source of information for later books. It's thanks to this appreciation record this work has not been lost to history and is still talked about to this day.
Monthly Magazine 'Ningen Tankyuu' (Daiichi Publishing) 1952 July issue and its table of contents.
As there's practically no mention of what shape or form the film Mouri saw was screened, this remains unclear. All that is known is he watched it before 1937, and it was on 16mm film that was in very poor condition. Additionally, the condition of the projection equipment was so poor, it was impossible to determine what school or style the art belonged to, but nevertheless, he says its skeleton was conveyed with a tone that was rare for the Ukiyo-e style after the Meiji period. However, by this point, around 15 years had passed since the creator of Suzumi-Bune left the anime world, and around 20 years had passed since the film was confiscated by the authorities, and Mouri himself said, "Anyways, that was a long time ago", signifying the details were missing from his memory. Whereas, as it happens, it's thanks to the editor of 'Ningen Tankyuu' who asked a special film (Blue Film) company for the synopsis of 'Suzumi-Bune, and managed to write down an appreciation record, he said, "The separated parts came together all at once, and my memory of the whole became very clear".
Shall I go ahead and tentatively write its synopsis?
The story begins on a summer night by the banks of the Sumida River. Fireworks are rising up into the night sky, and small boats are passing by looking for Suzumi (涼; cool air). Meanwhile, the two heroines appear by the shore. One was an Ojou-san-type woman, and the other was an elderly wet nurse. Just then, a young handsome man approaches on a Choki-bune (a small roofless boat with a long, narrow bow).
The wet nurse immediately mediates the relationship between the two, and the young woman, although shy, entrusts her body to the man on the boat. It seemed an Ukiyo-e-ish exaggerated expression was boldly used here, and it was very much a breathtakingly excellent work. In the climax scene, a boatman with a cigarette in his mouth performs comedy relief by falling into the river saying, "I can't bear to watch this", which eases tension to elicit laughter. Shortly after, a light rain begins to drizzle and the man and woman board a Yakata-bune (houseboat) to avoid the rain and resume their act.
Meanwhile, the boatman, who had come out of the river, was feeling dizzy by the river's edge. Then he coincidentally encounters the wet nurse who was waiting for the young woman. The lustful boatman tries to flash his penis at the wet nurse, but she presses the boatman's genitals with her folded umbrella. When his erection subsides, the wet nurse takes advantage of that and hurries to the two lovers. The screen switches to inside the boat again. The wet nurse cuts a hole in the shoji screen to see what the man and woman were doing, but the boatman from earlier also follows her. And the two couples plunge into a love affair. The storm-like climax of female bodies were depicted over and over, again and again, and it was described to be the perfect climax for a finale. The last scene ends with a comb (櫛) rolling around. According to Mouri, the story went something like this. I'm certain I'm not the only one who can visualise the overwhelming sight filling the screen through imagination alone.
Based on the above, Mouri said the following about the value of 'Suzumi-Bune'. "This work is without kin in its generation and without a successor anywhere in the world even to this day. And though it's unknown how many prints remain or where, supposing any have survived, it can be stated it truly deserves the same level of cultural protection as an important work of art...". I believe you, reading this far, can roughly agree.
The Most Mysterious Animator 'Kimura Hakusan'
'Nonkinatousan Ryuuguu Mairi' (ノンキナトウサン 竜宮参り) (1925)
Beauties greet Nontou at Ryuuguu Castle.
'Kiken Chochiku Shiobara Tasuke' (勤倹貯蓄 塩原多助) (1925)
A young lady depicted in poster-beauty-style.
A scene from the earliest domestically produced shadow art anime 'Kanimanji Engi' (蟹満寺縁起) (1924, Director=Okuda Hidehiko[奥田秀彦]+Uchida Tomu[内田吐夢]+Kimura Hakusan[木村白山]). Oofuji Noburou (大藤信郎) was inspired by this work and produced 'Kujira' (鯨) in 1927. In 1953, a remake version was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, where it received lavish praise from Picasso.
In the 1952 July issue of the aforementioned 'Ningen Tankyuu', an interview article with someone in the Blue Film business 'Man Who Projects Secret Movies' (秘密映画を映す男) was also included. Towards the end of the interview, the interviewer asks, "What about ero-anime?", and the interviewee answers, "Such works are expensive and not worth it" before quickly adding, "Kimura Hakusan's 'Suzumi-Bune'". According to the interviewee, he said he obtained the 35mm film of 'Suzumi-Bune' from a friend's bookstore, but when he was arrested in another case, the film was confiscated by the police, and the film was taken away to the central government office without ever being screened. During the interview, there was an anecdote he was slapped on the head by the police inspector, who later became Sunamachi's police chief, saying, "Creating so many works that haven't once been released into the world, you're most unlucky!". In fact, there's no evidence other than this testimony to attribute the creator of 'Suzumi-Bune' to 'Kimura Hakusan' (木村白山), but for the time being, I shall proceed with the assumption Kimura is the creator of 'Suzumi-Bune'.
What sort of person is Kimura Hazusan, the progenitor of ero-anime, and how did he create 'Suzumi-Bune'? Unfortunately, there are no comprehensive records regarding Kimura, but when compared to his remaining works and achievements, he's an artist with many mysteries; it's no exaggeration to say he is the 'most mysterious animator'. There are no records of his birth or career, nor any statements or portraits of him, except for his name and works, only fragmentary records remain. It is not even clear how to read his name, and some have even pointed out the possibility it's a shared penname between a 'Kimura' and a 'Hakusan', making it a 'trade name' rather than a personal name.
His works use rather unique styles. He uses a wide variety of painting styles, from manga to gekiga, from shadow art to live-action, and even though his works are deformed, they have a strange freshness that's eye-catching. In addition, among manga-style characters, they coexist with gekiga-style characters and poster-style beauties, creating a nonsense-gag-style. Furthermore, the richly shaded backgrounds give the worlds of his work a profound feeling, it is not hard to imagine 'Suzumi-Bune' was also a very glossy work in both the depiction of its characters and its backgrounds.
Below is a summary of his currently known history:
●Year of Death: Unknown. The reading of his name is 'Hakusan' (ハクサン).
●When he was young, he worked as an artist painting movie theatre signboards and backgrounds for exhibitions.
●He received technical guidance from Hashiguchi Hisashi (橋口壽) (a mysterious figure whose work history, and year of birth and death are unknown) of Kitayama Eiga Seisakujo.
●Made his anime debut in 1924 (Taisho 13) with 'Akagaki Genzou: Tokuri no Wakare' (赤垣源蔵徳利の別れ).
●At Asahi Cinema, he worked with Uchida Tomu (内田吐夢) and Okuda Hidehiko (奥田秀彦) to create some of the earliest shadow art anime in Japan.
●He was also commissioned to create an anime of the yonkoma manga 'Nonkinatousan' (ノンキナトウサン) by Asou Yutaka (麻生豊) and films for the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture (文部省).
●Around 1932 (Showa 7), he was arrested for Japan's first ero-anime, Suzumi-Bune, he self-produced.
●In 1938 (Showa 13), he left the anime world after creating 'Arawashi' (荒鷲) for Satousen Film Productions (佐藤線映画製作所).
●During the war, he worked as an illustrator for picture albums to raise fighting spirit such as 'Koua no Hikari: Seisenbidan' (興亜の光: 聖戦美談) and 'Daitoua Kessen Gashuu' (大東亜決戦画集)
●He's found to be credited as 'Illustrator: Kimura Hakusan' in postwar Magic Lantern (幻燈機) works.
As a side note, much of the materials related to the early days of anime were scattered during the chaotic period before the war, during the war, and the postwar, and has only been passed down in fragments. So, while there's an aspect where these mysteries being many cannot be helped, in recent years, research has progressed and the details are gradually becoming clearer. In 2017, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of domestic animation, the website 'Japanese Animation Film Classics' (日本アニメーション映画クラシックス) was launched under the initiative of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo's Film Centre (currently the National Film Archive). On this site, 64 works from 1917 to 1942 have been digitalised, including the oldest domestic anime film 'Namakura Gakana／Hanawa Hekonai Meitou no Maki' (なまくら刀／塙凹内名刀之巻) (1917), as well as one of Kimura's existing works that can be viewed.
Little progress has been made in understanding Kimura's postwar trail. What is worthy of special mention are the credits where 'Illustrator: Kimura Hakusan' were found in recent years among the Magic Lantern works produced by 'Okuda Shoikai' (奥田商会), a magic lantern maker. Okuda Shoikai (Formerly Acme Shoukai Tokyo Branch Okuda Shoukai) is said to be the place where Hashiguchi Hisashi, Kimura's mentor, changed jobs, so that may be where they're connected. Here, Kimura worked on many 'Acme Slide' series from 1945~1955 (Showa 20~30). Among them, 'Zenkouji Engi Nyoze Hime' (善光寺縁起 如是姫), which was based on a Buddhist setsuwa*, is an extremely gorgeous work that uses 52 frames in all natural colours. Topless beauties are also depicted throughout the work, and you can see Kimura's passion for depicting women throughout his life.
Setsuwa (Wiki)
In this way, his many years of investigative research and promotional work have borne fruit, and though the viewing environment for early anime works has improved; nevertheless, many mysteries still remain about Kimura Hakusan. This is pretty much all the information known about Kimura Hakusan.
I'm jumping topics, but I would like to share a few words about 'Creation Theory' (創作論). Creation means creating new works, but I believe the imitation of previous works is essential for this purpose. However, in a period where there aren't any previous works, all the more a period where ero was forbidden, Kimura created ero-anime from zero. This may always be the case for the progenitors of any field, but we cannot show anything but respect for his courage and talent to step beyond the line. Kimura's initial urge of 'wanting to create this kind of thing' gave birth to a legendary work filled with intense passion, and that passion has not waned even after nearly a century has passed. Even though no one can view his work, his legend continues to be passed down to this day, not only because of his insight, but also because of his boldness in challenging an expression of the unknown, this extraordinary passion, reminisce of Henry Darger, attracts people regardless if they agree or disagree. As a result, though he was banished from the anime world and was unable to make a name for himself, surely he took joy as an anonymous creator, distancing himself from a desire for fame, dedicating his life to drawing beauties? That's what I believe.
The Legend and its Aftermath
The aforementioned Mouri Yaku says the following about the splendour of 'Suzumi-Bune'.
"The richness on the screen, filling each frame with so much detail, was astounding enough to dazzle the eye, at least at the time. Well, for him to have completed such a large amount of difficult work on his own, his almost inhuman passion and perseverance alone is a wonder."
"I don't know any of the specifics about the production process, or even the name of the creator himself, other than what I learned from the editor that he was a mangaka who was once widely known among some folks. I have no idea what sort of person he was. However, as for what appears on the screen, his technique in the Ukiyo-e school conveys a level of skill that cannot be considered a simple hobby. I believe it may be a misrepresentation to call him a mangaka."
"When put into the projector, it only takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, but it rotates at 26 frames per second, making it about 1560 frames per minute. Meaning there was a massive amount of images on the screen, ranging from 15,000 to 20,000. The creator took on this challenge alone, brush in hand. I heard it took him three years to complete the painting. Even if he drew every day, 365 days a year, 1095 days over three years, that would average 10 to 15 paintings per day. 〔……〕 It's astounding passion."
Mouri's review reaches the level of lavish praise. However, this praise did not always work as a plus for 'Suzumi-Bune'. At times, this praise turns into noise, an obstacle for discerning the true value of the work. The fact no one has ever seen it has led to misunderstandings and exaggerations.
For example, the following legends are related to 'Suzumi-Bune':
●Tezuka Osamu's father treasured it.
●Immediately after the war, Walt Disney saw the evidence at the Metropolitan Police Department and lavishly praised the work, asking to purchase it for 10 million yen.
●In 1945, the 35mm version went missing after the occupation army took it and previewed it, but the 16mm version was sold overseas as 'Utamaro Anime' (ウタマロ・アニメ).
●After being brought back to America by the occupation army, it was returned to Japan after peace was made, and it's being preserved by certain people related to it (apparently).
In conclusion, these are all baseless rumours. Even when compared to the contents of this article, such rumours are truly irrelevant, but when literature surveys were done, most of the discourse regarding 'Suzumi-Bune' were based on such hearsay and speculation. At any rate, I doubt we'll ever get a meaningful answer. In fact, so long as we cannot view this work, these legends will continue to live a life of their own, and what's worse, these legends themselves have become almost the main subject. The more I learn about these legends, the more I personally cannot help but remember the words of the former guitarist of 'Gaseneta' (ガセネタ), Hamano Jun (浜野純). He said, "It's easy for the underground to become a legend", and "Even though we're legends, I doubt there's more than 30 people who have actually seen Gaseneta". I feel something similar in the legend of 'Suzumi-Bune' as well. It doesn't matter whether these legends are based on fact or not. This is because uncertainty stimulates people's curiosity and creativity to bring more meaning than truth. Because of this, we'll probably never know the full story of 'Suzumi-Bune'. There's no longer anyone on this earth who has seen 'Suzumi-Bune'.
Our story was supposed to end nicely here, but now that the impossible has actually happened, that's no longer possible. This is because, about seven years ago, the 35mm version of Suzumi-Bune, which was confiscated nearly a century ago, was donated to the Film Centre (Currently: National Film Archive). The great discovery of this century hasn't been officially announced by the National Film Archive, and hasn't been covered by any media, so this short magazine article will be the first to report on it.
Escaping the pressure of the prewar, the great fires during the war, and the chaos of the postwar, why has this phantasmic film appeared now? The questions are endless. However, in any case, the editorial department asked the archives if they could somehow show us 'Suzumi-Bune', which has returned like a ghost in modern times.
But what was waiting was...... (To Be Continued Next Time.)
©2024 Mushizuka Mushizou/Labyrinth'24 Hiho-Shinsha (CC-BY-SA 4.0)
As long as this copyright notice is retained, copyrighted portions of Mushizuka may be freely reproduced and redistributed in whole or in part. Additionally, modifications, redistribution, second-hand distribution, and second-hand use for commercial purposes are permitted, provided this copyright notice is maintained and any modified parts are clearly indicated.
While I did translate Kera's interview, this is the first time I translated an original written work by Kera (he does have a summary of his research, but that thing is super long). Kera hasn't told me what happened after his editorial department asked the archive to show them this ero-anime, so I'm also looking forward to the second part.
Kera also asked me to translate the MGM100 Catalogue, since that has obscure information related to Aniwa Jun not available anywhere, but it's 18k characters long, which puts it in the same league as that Azuma Hideo long interview. This is going to be a major project, so I'm going to be busy with that, maybe taking breaks to translate other things and maybe the second part to the above article.
Spanish Video on Suzumi-Bune (Spanish>English):
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I actually did know a little about the history of hentai or ero-anime I guess would be correct name. Mostly from the early 80s.
-Suzume bune
Geez, so the first ero anime is from before ww2? Thats crazy. I imagine it must have been quite the experience back then
Also if you don't mind me ranting a bit it hugely frustrates me that the so-called progressives nowadays seem to be adopting similar views about sex and sexuality as did the fascist regimes of old.
-kimura hakusan
I guess considering his situation is not surprising that the guy would make an effort to leave as little of his identity as possible. Also yeah his styles seem pretty unique and varied almost completely different from even the first manga and anime.
Also it seems hentai artist nowadays seem to keep on his tradition on having as little about info themselves out in the open
So later on he moved on to make those old timey pin up projectors? Thats pretty cool I wonder if one can find those nowadays.
-theory of creation
It is indeed very rare when something truly original comes up and as time goes on its becoming even rarer, it makes me wonder if we'll ever reach a point where we don't have any new ideas.
And yeah huge respect for people willing to go outside the norm and to challenge what this is specially true in the world of art.
-the legend and its aftermath
Honestly when that much effort is put into something, you know its a labour of love.
I would not be surprised if the disney rumour turned out to be true, that said I have a hard time thinking of a reason for Walt disney to be on Japan pre or post war.
The whole people prasing something they have never seen is not Unique to underground works. Like every film buff will tell you how citizen kane is one of the greatest piecese of cinema ever and yet very few of them may have actually watched it.
This has to be first time I've seen an interview/magazine article end on a cliffhanger lol.
- comments before the article
As a matter of fact I do have some nice comfy sweaters. I like wearing them in winter.
"Someone who, in his words, should be castrated for messing with real girls."
Damn, so it was the latter. I guess it can be helped given that is a colloquialism and not an official word, but I still find it concerning that a word could either refer to an otaku that is fan of a niche type of fiction or to a child molester
-female mangakas having an easier time
So females have an easier time getting into the industry as they are not expected to be the bread winners of the family while men dont as the field is not guaranteed to make money and they are expected to provide for the family.
I guess that also explains why most male mangakas/artists are single usually living in a small space.
And yeah I would be interested in a who's who of mangakas.
-anthologies
I guess the first that spring to mind is "comic LO", would that count as an anthology?
Nice translation, and nice on Kera for sharing this with us.
-Suzume bune
Geez, so the first ero anime is from before ww2? Thats crazy. I imagine it must have been quite the experience back then
Also if you don't mind me ranting a bit it hugely frustrates me that the so-called progressives nowadays seem to be adopting similar views about sex and sexuality as did the fascist regimes of old.
-kimura hakusan
I guess considering his situation is not surprising that the guy would make an effort to leave as little of his identity as possible. Also yeah his styles seem pretty unique and varied almost completely different from even the first manga and anime.
Also it seems hentai artist nowadays seem to keep on his tradition on having as little about info themselves out in the open
So later on he moved on to make those old timey pin up projectors? Thats pretty cool I wonder if one can find those nowadays.
-theory of creation
It is indeed very rare when something truly original comes up and as time goes on its becoming even rarer, it makes me wonder if we'll ever reach a point where we don't have any new ideas.
And yeah huge respect for people willing to go outside the norm and to challenge what this is specially true in the world of art.
-the legend and its aftermath
Honestly when that much effort is put into something, you know its a labour of love.
I would not be surprised if the disney rumour turned out to be true, that said I have a hard time thinking of a reason for Walt disney to be on Japan pre or post war.
The whole people prasing something they have never seen is not Unique to underground works. Like every film buff will tell you how citizen kane is one of the greatest piecese of cinema ever and yet very few of them may have actually watched it.
This has to be first time I've seen an interview/magazine article end on a cliffhanger lol.
- comments before the article
As a matter of fact I do have some nice comfy sweaters. I like wearing them in winter.
"Someone who, in his words, should be castrated for messing with real girls."
Damn, so it was the latter. I guess it can be helped given that is a colloquialism and not an official word, but I still find it concerning that a word could either refer to an otaku that is fan of a niche type of fiction or to a child molester
-female mangakas having an easier time
So females have an easier time getting into the industry as they are not expected to be the bread winners of the family while men dont as the field is not guaranteed to make money and they are expected to provide for the family.
I guess that also explains why most male mangakas/artists are single usually living in a small space.
And yeah I would be interested in a who's who of mangakas.
-anthologies
I guess the first that spring to mind is "comic LO", would that count as an anthology?
Nice translation, and nice on Kera for sharing this with us.
Kera reposted my translation of his article here:
note.com
(Please share this link with anyone you know that has an interest in 'hentai'.)
Graduation (2005/03/18) (Link):
"(Side note - I was later telling a female Japanese friend of mine about this and the snuzzlebunnies incident. She laughed and said "But you were happy, right?" ....NO I WAS NOT HAPPY! I'm not a Japanese man, I don't have lolicon. ...Lolicon being shorthand for "lolita complex", the name given to the far too common Japanese male phenomenon of loving jr high/high school girls. ...I told you the men in this country weren't right.)" (The author of this article seems to be pretty famous in Japan; a South Korean mangaka incorporated him and his family into his manga, I need to go through my books so I can find this again.)
You later mentioned Comic LO, and I believe their slogan is 'YES, Lolita. NO, Touch'. Which is basically how these Lolicon teachers should behave. In this thread, there's often talk about a separation between Lolicon and Degenerates/Perverts with Hirukogami Ken pretending to be a Lolicon degenerate with his proto-Otaku character, but outside of the character, he's strongly against people who 'touch' like Roman Polanski. But regardless, if you read Japanese, you'll see headlines like 'Chinese Lolicon Teacher Rapes 5 Students and is Swiftly Given Death Penalty'.
Coincidentally, on Kera's note page, he has an article with all the entries of his 'dream diary' (Link) that also includes his original art, and one of them is 'The Cat Girl and the Lolicon Teacher'.
「A cat disguised as a girl uses a time machine without permission on a school trip, so the Lolicon teacher (Contemporary Japanese Language Teacher) uses that as an excuse to assault her, saying, "What do you think will happen if you caused a time paradox? Eh?" The cat girl scratches the teacher, and transforms into a cat to run away, but she wound up being shot to death by the teacher. Bright red blood was flowing.」(Kinda surprised how many of Kera's dreams involve guns.)
I've been mostly focusing on artists in this thread because that's what I'm personally interested in, but when it comes to Otaku, there's Anime Otaku and Idol Otaku with the latter being more numerous with the bigger industry that often sinks its tentacles into the manga and anime industries. Most of manga and anime culture is shaped and influenced by the idol industry, and that includes Lolicon. You can look up the Japanese name of any idol, and there's a good chance the word 'loli' (ロリ) is attributed to her at some point in her career. It's why 'Moe' became a word to act as a substitute for how Lolicon was used by the manga fandom in the 1980s. Instead of saying 猫耳コン (Nekomimicon; Cat Ear Complex), you can say '猫耳萌え' (Nekomimi-Moe) and it would be understood you were talking about illustrations featuring anime characters with cat ears. But because the idol industry cannot leave well enough alone, Moe has been kidnapped by them, and degenerated into being a synonym for 'cute'.
Since there's no response from dannyphantom, I'm pondering whether I should repost his full message. I've been largely avoiding idols, lolita video, and that sort of thing, and his post was sort of a summary on that (if he stuck around, I was going to ask him if he wanted to translate some articles I didn't feel like doing about those subjects).
Labyrinth Members (Image Source: 'Comic Market Genesis' [コミックマーケット創世記]:
Harada Teruo (原田央男):
1st Comiket Representative.
Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米澤嘉博):
2nd Comiket Representative.
Aniwa Jun (亜庭じゅん):
Founder of MGM and the one who wrote most of the articles in Labyrinth's 'Manga Critique' (漫画新批評大系).
Takamiya Seika (高宮成河):
Close friends of the above three, though not closely involved in the managment of Comiket. Originally worked with Aniwa Jun at Manga Journal (漫画ジャーナル) before joining Labyrinth, writing for Labyrinth's 'Manga Critique' (漫画新批評大系). He's responsible for editing and compiling Aniwa Jun's writing, and also doing the original work for their wikipedia page, so much of what is known about Labyrinth is thanks to him.
Despite this, I could not find a single English mention for Takamiya Seika, which is disappointing. Comiket is well-known outside Japan, but it seems no one has bothered to do a thorough and accurate history of its earliest members in English (I wouldn't be surprised if this thread is the first time a full article by Aniwa Jun and Harada Teruo has been translated into English). Takamiya Seika was also present during the Gekiga Roundtable talk with Kawamoto Kouji and Takatori Ei translated earlier in this thread.
In any case, the following mentions Lolicon, but it's more accurate to say this is Comiket and Aniwa Jun's history. Yonezawa Yoshihiro is deeply entwined in Lolicon History, but Aniwa Jun shares a lot in common with Kobayashi Yoshinori regarding Lolicon.
Source: 『MGM100カタログ』（2013年1月27日 MGM、迷宮'13、自費出版）
Illustration: Konami* (粉味)
※Circle Name for the artist Chiba Konami (ちば こなみ)
We present to you a recording of Aniwa Jun's (亜庭じゅん) speech during the review meeting at Comic Market 17. Comiket17 was held in April of 1981, and the next Comiket18 was held in August of the same year. Immediately after Comiket18 ended, the Comiket Preparations Committee faced a coup d'état (schism). Aniwa Jun completed the 4th event since MGM began August of the previous year at this time, and was preparing to hold the 5th event in May.
From 1979 when Comiket's first representative, Harada Teruo (原田央男), resigned, Comiket was in a period of turmoil until 1981 when the new representative, Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米澤嘉博), moved the venue to Harumi, and starting MGM was one answer to that chaos by Aniwa Jun. For MGM to be celebrating its 100th anniversary, looking back on Aniwa Jun's words amidst the turmoil back then is also looking back on the dreams MGM held during its beginnings. These words were said over 30 years ago, but MGM has lived with them for many years.
Just before Comiket17 was held, its representative, Yonezawa Yoshihiro, went missing and couldn't be contacted on the day of the event. Due to the absence of its representative, another representative was hastily appointed to hold the event. Although Aniwa Jun had no plans to participate, he was abducted by one of the Preparations Committee staff and ended up participating. Seats for the review meeting were also prepared next to the Preparations Committee.
The review meeting back then consisted of two parts. Due to concerns about the management of the Preparations Committee that had surfaced as a result of the deteriorating and expansion of Comiket becoming more noticeable each time it's held, a 'Comiket Think Tank' was formed by volunteers from participating Circles, appealing with a sense of impending doom to Comiket. During Comiket17, some members of the Preparations Committee attended and a discussion was held with them in a room at the venue, and the review session was held afterwards. Due to Yonezawa Yoshihiro's absence, the review meeting took the form of a free talk instead of the usual Q&A between the Preparations Committee and participants. The host was a member of the 'Comiket Think Tank'. They spent about two hours talking about 'regulations' for the ever-increasing number of participants, about the Preparations Committee and Circles, and about the topic 'What is Comiket?'; however, partly due to Yonezawa's absence, Aniwa Jun naturally assumed the role of taking over the discussion and speaking. This is an excerpt of what Aniwa Jun said on that day.
《The talk began with how to deal with the chaos at the venue due to the increase in the number of participants. After the Preparations Committee and participants took turns talking about their understanding of the current situation, the problems, and the ways to improve upon them, the participants made various suggestions to the management, and the following is the answer from the Preparations Committee that deciding on such matters itself is regulation, and once this happens, regulations will increase one after another.》
Aniwa:
Please listen to my opinion as someone who has been involved with Comiket from the inside for a long time rather than my opinion as one part of the Preparations Committee. ――If anything, the most desirable situation for Comiket would be for what the participants mentioned to happen voluntarily from the Circles themselves, rather than the Circles being regulated. So, the regulatory issues are simply, err, right now, they're actually technical issues, like the problem with the number of people, the problem with space, or the problem with security, and so on, but well, this is being discussed here, but speaking more broadly, for example, err, the problem that was brought up by the 'Comiket Think Tank' when ○○-kun, who's acting as host now, gave his talk, the problem involving anime Circles selling products such as envelopes and stationery using characters, or things like posters and dolls, which obviously violate copyright. We're caught in quite a conundrum. Well, some are in the clear about releasing such things, but most in reality, if they're accused (of copyright infringement), they would be held responsible. If something like that were to become a problem within Comiket, in a sense, it would be a huge blow to the fan activities Comiket has fostered with those Circles. In other words, there's a possibility the rights holders may seize control of, even regulate, fan clubs based on their commercial interests. There's also problem with original work Circles. While most release original works because they enjoy it, some of those sell well. For example, Cybele sells well. So they create Lolicon-type things for the purpose of them selling well, err, well, mumumu, but that (ero because it sells well) is going to lead to the rug being pulled out from under us. This may be an old-fashioned sentiment, but to put it bluntly, I believe it's a corruption of the proper attitude for original work creation. Broadly speaking, the regulation problems are a matter of how seriously the Circles that participate in Comiket take their doujinshi and Circle activities, so if things don't go too far, it'll remain a simple technical problem. Technical problems can be solved technically if there's enough space, enough money, and enough manpower, but in the end, each Circle needs to think about what they need to do for Comiket on their own volition. I don't believe there'll be a final solution if we don't get these points correct, no matter how far we go. On the other hand, if there's a solid consensus among the Circles, I believe many of these problems will be solved, no matter how complicated. So, the most dangerous ones are the problems that are biggest traps I mentioned earlier. Meaning, those who stay here are good people, and those who return home are bad people, this statement, to put it bluntly, is an excuse. Against ourselves――. Well then, you may have stayed at the review meetings every time, but what did you do when you stayed at the review meetings? I know I'm rattling on, but have you made any efforts for the Preparations Committee? I would like people to reconsider what Comiket means to them, including these issues.
Well, this is what I think.
《His response to a question from the Preparations Committee staff who asked us to think about what the participant should do if Comiket could not be held due to our own mismanagement, such as not being able to bring desks to the site.》
Aniwa:
(Taking the microphone while saying 'I don't think so, that's not good'.) As a single participants, I shall respond to what you just said. Regardless of whether there are desks or not, I encourage the Preparations Committee to work in an orderly fashion, and encourage other Circles to do likewise. That's the only way. If we stop, then it will confuse the regular participants that we stopped, and I don't think there's any point in having the regular participating Circles do something like that (without desks). So, let's return the topic back to the extreme point made earlier. Meaning, these opinions that came from the Preparations Committee that Comiket should just get bigger and bigger, or that the people who are currently doing Comiket is because they love doing it. This matches the current state of the Preparations Committee, and it's also half-true when you compare it with the current state of Comiket. However, as someone who has been involved with Comiket since the very beginning, Comiket, according to its 1st to 8th reports, there hasn't been a direct filing of such a thing in the Comiket Reports. What I mean specifically are the Doujinshi's original manga, some new kind of manga being born based on that. That was the starting point of Comiket. That sort of thing's a very big aspect for Comiket. A problem in communication, I'm certain. There's also the issue of buying and selling. However, when we first thought up Comiket, our simplest and most fundamental motive was――well, there was an incident (refusing individuals to participate at a manga convention), and it's like you cannot buy doujinshi (by denying a manga convention). Well, it's a bit bad. We wanted to buy doujinshi, we wanted to sell them, or we wanted to sell the doujinshi we created. So we created that sort of place. That's simply how we came up with the idea. However, what was behind it was doujinshi, so let's switch the topic to manga doujinshi. I assumed something similar could be found in fan club magazines, but as far as manga doujinshi is concerned, its greatest communication isn't a quick chat on the spot, it's not something like shaking each other's hands and being glad we could become friends. I believe the best way to communicate is to convey the emotions the work itself possesses. So, buying and selling itself becomes communication. Comiket was at first that sort of place. And contrary to my expectations, or should I say it was a bit of an understatement, the communication in other areas, in other words, how many friends there were――we didn't know anything about each other, but well, manga fans can be a bit narrow-minded, so I'm happy we made a place where we didn't have to feel so narrow-minded. That tacit understanding between friends has become something of a major element to Comiket. At the same time, manga doujinshi doesn't necessarily need to be about original work, there's anime, there's fan club magazines, and there's many other kinds, so it expanded into a great big Circle. However, among them, I haven't been able to see the progress I had hoped for in terms of original manga. Its progress was very shallow. The progress itself may have been slow, but there was something failing in that area. So, that part, so to speak, err, the most basic part of it has shaken my way of thinking about Comiket. Well, as you know, the representative of Comiket has changed along the way. There's some things related to that (the reason for the change), but――I don't feel comfortable discussing them in detail, but I guess that's not good? However, Harada, who was the former representative until around 1979-1980, continued to emphasise manga unique to doujinshi in every Comiket Report, and by the end, he sort of gave up on doujinshi manga and withdrew from Comiket. So, one more thing, the Comiket friends and groups I mentioned earlier is proof the excitement of having a lot of people, or the excitement of having a lot of friends, can turn things into a festival. (I) opened a small market (MGM) that focuses on original manga. This is very empty. It's a world that makes you go 'is that it?'. The kind of Comiket-like environment or enthusiasm couldn't have been created there. I think there's something else. Although this may sound self-congratulatory. However, it's just what Comiket has, and it seems like it melts everything, well, it's a very great power of communication, but I don't know how sincere that communication actually is, although I have my doubts about it, it's true I didn't have the power to create that great sense of camaraderie. In other words, the dilemma Comiket's currently facing is, for one, the numbers to secure Comiket being fun, I believe how to overcome that part will probably be the greatest problem for the Preparations Committee as well as for the participants. So, right or wrong, the current situation is that we don't know what we should do to be honest, and on the other hand, what I would like to ask is, from each and every one of you attending Comiket, what do you think about the state of Comiket?
《In response to the words of taking the opinions from this review meeting home and thinking about them in bed. Everyone has different opinions, so one cannot draw any conclusions here.》
Aniwa:
(Stealing the host's microphone.) If you want to think about them when you get home, then you should think about them now! Well, everyone thinks differently, but even if you go home and think about them all by yourself, what do you hope to achieve by that? The biggest problem——is what we're going to be hashing out here today, you know? Supposing he or they go home and think about it in bed, they'll come to their own conclusion, right?
However, 3 months after that, when they attend the Summer Comiket's review meeting, the conclusion they thought about will have already gone the way of the ghost. The progress that has been discussed here will also have gone the way of the ghost. So, we'll have to start over and they'll have to think about it in bed again. We've been doing this over and over again. This time, the Comiket Preparations Committee tentatively set up a 'Comiket Think Tank', right? To do that, we had to make arrangements with the Preparations Committee. That sort of situation happened, you see, and it makes me seriously question how much they actually thought about what we discussed in their futon. Even in this sort of place, for example, there's a part where everyone wants to be a good kid. Though, it won't come out individually. So, if I say everything's all well and good, I would get a fair amount of applause. However, even looking at the applause I've received till now, it's dampening the mood. We can't just end this in a cool way by saying stuff like we exchanged opinions. I believe a discussion under such conditions would be truly fruitless. The problem is how do we continue to bring awareness to that which has festered so much, and how to reflect it in the management of Comiket and the Preparations Committee, or to put it another way, pull it into the consciousness of the people here? In order to achieve this, what should the humans here do, or where should they look for an opportunity to take action? If we don't talk about these things in concrete terms, I believe this sort of discussion will continue to be a repeat of abstract opinions. So, for example, in my case, I believe I'm even more disappointed than him (someone who said earlier he was disappointed in Comiket). My fundamental way of thinking is that, to put it bluntly, the person who said that buying and selling is 'that' (their purpose), and what he said to him (someone who said such people do not fit the purpose of Comiket) is if that were true, why don't you just make a doujinshi that will make me want to buy it. He responded to that. He said he's going to make a doujinshi you couldn't help but want to buy. I believe that conflict is the fundamental power of Comiket. So, if it weren't for that, I also wouldn't come to Comiket, but I believe Comiket still has the power I just mentioned. That's why I'm participating, but I believe I wouldn't hesitate to abandon it if it weren't for that. That's what Comiket means to me. ——Well, others may think differently. So, what I want to say is that it would be better to include things like that and think about what you want to do about it. I still believe what's been going on at this point was an argument that'll get us nowhere, but that's the way things are.
《At this point, the host announced they're already over time and concluded the review session.》
I heard there was a tape of Aniwa Jun's 'speech' at the Comiket review meeting, so in the summer of 2011, six months after his death, I attended a training camp to think about the future of MGM at the Kawasaki Civic Plaza. At the time, I was editing a collection of Aniwa Jun's posthumous manuscripts (Aniwa Jun Complete Works [亜庭じゅん大全]), and I was collecting all sorts of things Aniwa Jun left behind. I requested a search for the tape, hoping to include it in a collection of his posthumous manuscripts, but it didn't make it into the publication; it wasn't until December of 2012 I received word of its discovery. The published collection of his posthumous manuscripts includes Comiket Reports from back then that were published in the MGM newspaper, but the raw tape had a real sense of urgency due to his actual voice, which is different from the one that was transcribed later into text.
Aniwa Jun (亜庭じゅん), Harada Teruo (原田央男), and Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米澤嘉博), these three formed the group called 'Labyrinth' (迷宮), and Comic Market was started in 1975 as a result of criticism towards manga conventions. Harada Teruo, who served as the representative of Comiket, struggled to hold each event while trying to create a model for Comiket, which began in a period where its future was uncertain, but resigned as representative in the summer of 1979. The matters surrounding this period are detailed in 'Comic Market Genesis' (コミックマーケット創世記) published by Harada. I'll talk about my impressions later.
I don't wish to be formal, so from now on, I'll be using their nicknames, Aniwa Jun is 'Anijun' (あにじゅん), and Yonezawa Yoshihiro will be 'Yoneyan' (米やん). The first Comiket with Yoneyan as the new representative was held in the winter of 1979, and Anijun started working on MGM the following summer of 1980. At first, it wasn't MGM, it was called 'Manga Mini Market' (まんが・ミニ・マーケット), but well, let's just call it MGM.
For a half year, one year after Harada resigned as representative, during this six-month gap between Comikets, Anijun decided to start working on MGM.
The reason Yoneyan was the second representative was because there were no other suitable humans, but Yonewan, who received the role, did not necessarily welcome it. Harada's resignation was sudden, and it was clear from those watching, he took the role in a state of chaos. When he became the second representative, Comiket was in a state where it had a mountain of problems.
When Comiket started, most manga doujinshi were nothing but original doujinshi, so presuming Comiket was an original manga doujinshi exhibition and sale event was so natural, one didn't have to think about it, but as time went on, elements other than original works, such as anime fan clubs and cosplay, started to become more prominent, and eventually Lolicon doujinshi, which can hardly be called original works, became popular, and people, calling themselves security guards, began to protest around the Preparations Committee. In addition, the confusion at the venue due to the increase in the number of participating Circles and participants had become impossible to ignore, and the limits of the traditional methods of the management were becoming apparent.
There were two problems. The first was considering what to do about Comiket, which was degenerating into a place for 'play'. The second was what to do about its management, which was on the verge of bankruptcy because it could no longer keep up with the increase in numbers. Comiket wasn't started to create a place for play.
Play wasn't something to be denied, but it should've only served in nothing greater than a sub position. There was a growing fear the entirety of Comiket would be dominated by 'play with manga', and at the same time, there was a growing feeling that this was somehow bad. There was an urgent need to confirm its direction and reorganise the system, but Yoneyan didn't take any measures.
At this moment, Comic Market could neither move forward nor retreat; it was in a state where the event would continue to be held while stagnating, and there was a fear the ship would eventually sink.
That said, perhaps we should sympathise with Yoneyan at this time. Yoneyan's position was similar to that of a young, second generation president who has taken over a company whose production sites are full of defective products and whose costs were constantly rising. Furthermore, he didn't become the second representative because he desired it. However, sympathise with him as you may, the young, second generation president was the managing director right until he took over the company, and was appointed after knowing all of its circumstances, so he was also in a position where he had to take half the responsibility for the current situation, so he had no grounds to grumble and complain, but rather I believe he still had a responsibility to quickly direct a policy.
He probably had a personality not to take action until the very last minute, but what tied Yoneyan's hands must've been the 12th Comiket that supported the event he also served as a key staff member. Comiket began as a protest against the exclusion of specific individuals from manga conventions, and the unwritten rule that was born from that was the organiser could not arbitrarily exclude any individuals or groups. This was established based on the recognition Labyrinth, which was the actual organiser, was just one of the participating Circles, and had no arbitrary authority other than to reflect the consensus of the Circles, and the 'Preparations Committee', whose sole purpose was to hold 'meetings', was so vague and transparent that it was quite difficult to decide on anything.
Although it was known from the beginning there could be no such thing as a consensus among Circles, he at least maintained that cause by showing he was willing to work in that direction. For this reason, preparatory meetings, extended meetings, and review meetings played an important role at Comiket. All participants were equal, and in a free place of amateurs to make friends, it's precisely because it's that sort of place that new manga was born. There, even ordinary readers could become active collaborators in original works.
Some could call it childish idealism or high-sounding talk, but without holding such idealism, who would prefer to do something that just wastes time, nerves, and effort? In fact, this idealism also motivated us to continue holding Comiket in the early days, and even if some call it childish, our partner was manga, so of course it was childish, but we didn't feel that way about it; we were mostly fine and actually felt honoured. We all shared an awareness we were doing something like that. I believe there was a sense of excitement as the number of participants continued to increase each time, as there was now a place where adult realism could be challenged by childish idealism.
However, before we realised it, our childish idealism was forced to face the reality we created for ourselves. In that place, Yoneyan and Comiket just stood still, unable to take the next step. Participating Circles, noticing things were not going as well as they were, began to form a 'Comiket Think Tank'. Although he knew he needed to show his determination to take the next step, he only hesitated and did nothing. I also believe that inside Yoneyan, he might've been desperately trying to relive the 12th Harada Comiket in the Comiket he would represent. This may sound harsh to the Yoneyan back then, but at least within the Preparations Committee, they should've shared a sense of crisis and unified their wills, but even in that area, Yoneyan failed. If I were to use Aniwa Jun's words, 'Yonezawa was throwing half-hearted pitches'. This seemingly irresponsible attitude of Yoneyan eventually led to the coup d'état. From the perspective of the coup d'état faction, Yoneyan may have been seen as a dictator who could not make decisions.
On the other hand, Anijun, who was the managing director, made a clear decision. His goal was to cut down the unprofitable aspects, which had grown too large due to customer demands, and return to regular business. He downsized and formed a separate venture. If I dare say it, that was MGM. Of all the members of Labyrinth, Anijun spoke about his ideals the most, but it was Anijun who spoke about how to turn his ideals into a reality.
Many of those who know Anijun often talk about him being an idealist, but few talk about his side as a realist. It appears to me when MGM began that Anijun's realist side was most strong. Anijun's MGM was a return to the roots of when they first began Comiket. The problem with Comiket's management boils down to allowing it to expand in size.
Once he abandoned anime fans and cosplay among other things, and specialised in original doujinshi, most of the problems that arose from expansion of scale were solved. It also served as a return to the original purpose of creating new manga unique to doujinshi. At least, even if Comiket were to go bankrupt, if an original doujinshi exhibition and sale event continued, that part alone should have been salvageable. It was a straightforward and reasonable method for Anijun to take back then, and Yoneyan understood MGM's intentions.
"Yoneyan said MGM was an insurance policy for Comiket!" After Yoneyan's death, I heard this from a bell as Yoneyan's words.
The 1st MGM began by inviting original work Circles that gathered at Comiket to participate. It was established as a place for calm creation rather than a boisterous festival, and he planned to hold the event about five times a year with the aim of making it a normal place actively collaborating with local exhibition and sale events.
At first, the concept of an original doujinshi exhibition and sale event seemed strange, and some said it was a 'exhibition and sale event no one attended', but gradually, the number of participating Circles increased, and now it boasts itself a place where high-quality doujinshi gather in a high density with some Circles only participating at MGM. JET PROPOST, the sponsor Circle of Nagoya's Comica (コミカ), wrote on their participating Circle cut, "Our books won't be sold anywhere other than MGM".
At its peak, the venue was overflowing with Circles, and the event was held five or six times a year.
Anijun turned MGM's sponsorship into Labyrinth, eliminating the ambiguous existence of the Preparations Committee. It answered the question for what purpose was MGM held.
Rather than relying on the wavering and vague consensus of Circles, MGM opened its doors to the dream and possibilities of an exhibition and sale event that Yoneyan and the three of them saw during the Harada Comiket period, and the word Labyrinth was used to represent the group's vision rather than the group's name. At this moment, MGM and exhibition and sale events were not held by an organisation or group, or even a representative, but by a dream. And Anijun himself continued to refer to himself as 'MGM staff', maintaining his stance he was also one of the collaborators in realising their dream. This also may be another kind of childish idealism.
I'm running out of paper. So I'll wrap things up.
The Comiket coup d'état was nothing more than an internal conflict caused by the indecisive attitude of Yoneyan, who did not directly confront the dissatisfaction that had surfaced within the Preparations Committee. As a result, he cut off his former friends in a manner close to a purge, which will definitely remain as a blemish on the history of Comiket. However, ironically, this incident was a blessing in disguise for Comiket. By moving the venue to Harumi, Yoneyan was forced to make a choice due to the uproar, and finally gained the resolve to continue holding Comiket.
From the reorganisation of the Preparations Committee and the organiser serving a management function independent from Circles, what they created could be called a 'philosophy'. There's a phrase 'There are no customers at Comiket', but to me, it sounds like words for the management cloaked in ideology. And under the slogan of 'freedom of expression', fan play and original works were treated as equals, and at last the responsibility for the fact original works end up being play for the venue rested on the 'freedom' of the participants. Yoneyan himself, including the word 'Comiket Representative', did not differentiate between his dual roles as representative of the Preparations Committee and representative of Comiket as a whole, and ended up using his position wisely.
What Yoneyan decided to undertake in Harumi was for the purpose of holding Comiket on top of accepting all who wish to participate, and he was responsible for only that. And the rest was to be shelved to allow things to take their course. The course Yoneyan took here was to abandon the childish idealism of that 12th Comiket, which he half-intentionally made vague. He used the veil of idealism on the surface while placing realism at its core. Even if we understood the route, whose sole purpose was to hold an event, was Yoneyan's choice for the survival of Comiket, Anijun became a strong critic of the indecency of this trick. Yoneyan kept silent.
The reason Yoneyan decided to shelve everything besides holding an event was because what was set as the purpose of Comiket to create new manga unique to doujinshi, MGM which specialised in that, might have taken over.
Thanks to MGM, he couldn't ignore the degeneration of Comiket into a boisterous festival where you could freely join in fan play. In the words of Yoneyan's 'insurance', Comiket used MGM as a psychological alibi back then, and to me, I believe he also thought of it as a complement. If that's the case, it may be better to describe it as Yoneyan's selfish and one-sided 'unspoken deal'.
The Comiket representative transfer, the beginning of MGM, the coup d'état, the moving to Harumi, during the two hectic years from 1979 to 1981, he faced the reality he had created for himself, and once again, the underlying questions were 'What is a doujinshi exhibition and sale event?' and 'Why am I opening an exhibition and sale event?'.
Harada Teruo resigned as representative because he was unable to decide his position between these two questions, which were becoming increasingly distant.
Anijun forcibly brought together the two questions that were trying to split, and tried to return to their roots when they began an exhibition and sale event.
By shelving both questions and not thinking about them, Yoneyan was barely able to keep the event going.
I don't feel like questioning the validity of the answers these three parties have given now, but I believe it was a way for each of them to take responsibility for what they have 'started' together.
Regardless of their different routes, Anijun and Yoneyan continued in their choices until the end. It must've been a way of tying themselves down.
From the Harada Comiket, the two exhibition and sale events that branched continued to be held for about a quarter of a century with many twists and turns. And this would continue until they both passed away. Yoneyan passed away on October 1st of 2006, and six months later, MGM97 would be Anijun's final MGM. The two exhibition and sale events were held for exactly the same period of time, as if they agreed upon it. On January 21st, 2011, Anijun also passed away.
After Anijun's death, I heard from a bell as Yoneyan said, "Even if I don't believe in anything else, I'll believe in MGM". I faintly felt Yoneyan's loneliness. And I considered what Yoneyan believed in MGM.
Amidst the noise of Comiket, what Yoneyan believed in were his Labyrinth days and when they began an exhibition and sale event, the time he spent staying up all night talking to Anijun, Harada Teruo, and the others, what he lost in order to maintain Comiket, perhaps it was the 'childish idealism' Anijun continued to defend to his death with MGM.
Anijun and Yoneyan, despite going in different directions, were cleaning up the aftermath of the dream they shared. That's what I feel.
(Addendum: After writing this manuscript, the recordings of the MGM5, MGM7, and Comiket19 review meetings were discovered. I thought it might've been possible to reconstruct 'those days' in a different form by combining them with the Comiket17 review meeting recorded here, but I ran out of time and had no choice but to give up. My honest impression after listening to those recordings was that Anijun and Yoneyan were young back then, but so was the exhibition and sale event. Whether I wanted to or not, I felt many of the comments from the participants about doujinshi could be described as naive and without regrets. This may be something that has already been lost now that doujinshi exhibition and sale events are no longer something special. 'Those days' were a special time that can never be repeated. I believe doujinshi exhibition and sale events needed to go through that special time.)
Do (Manga) doujin use manga as an intermediary and form relationships with other 'like-minded kin'? In other words, not just simple manga fanciers, but those who accept human relationships formed through manga.
Living for more than 30 (40?) years until his untimely death, defining himself as 'doujin', Aniwa Jun (Real Name: Matsuda Shigeki [松田茂樹]) was not a man who was very adept at socialising, but he was passionate about finding meaning in doujin activities while connecting with people through manga. In the early days of his involvement with manga doujin, he was involved in the activities and displayed his talent by writing reviews that he could work on by himself, but when 'Comic Market', the manga doujin exhibition and sale event established by the critique group 'Labyrinth' which he joined as a comrade, eventually started to go astray, he established 'MGM (Manga Gallery Market)' which he described as an 'original doujinshi exhibition and sale event'. Since then, he launched various projects at MGM, such as 'For Ladys' and 'A Long Long Story' among others, inspiring participants and exploring the development of worlds and new works through original manga doujin.
However, ironically, due to the proliferation and success of the manga doujinshi exhibition and sale events started by Labyrinth's 'Comic Market', MGM drowned in this situation without fully demonstrating its own originality. Nevertheless, Aniwa Jun continued to host MGM, but his stance shifted from exploring the potential of manga to securing a space for regular participating Circles who enjoyed MGM. I'm sure he wasn't unwilling to put himself in the position he found himself in at his beloved MGM, but if he continued doujin only to mutually seek warmth, he would've had no choice but to shut down his activities. This must've been something Aniwa Jun, who aimed for a 'movement' to encourage others for that purpose and execute it, found difficult to accept. Even if there were no victories for his movement at that point, he may have continued with MGM simply as proof he would not admit defeat.
That said, the purpose of this article is not to provide a sloppy interpretation of the trajectory of Aniwa Jun's life. Why did a man, with enough talent to make a living as a professional critic focused on manga, continue to maintain his position as a 'doujin', which has become synonymous with amateurs, until the bitter end in addition to his real job?
As someone who once shared activities in 'Labyrinth' with him, I would like to rethink what is manga doujin after my bereavement.
Despite calling it manga doujin, Aniwa Jun continued to be particular about 'original doujin', although they are grouped under the same term 'doujin', they are the exact opposite of fans (fanciers) such as cosplayers and fan-artists, who identify themselves as fans and try to immerse themselves in another's work. In contrast to those satisfied with being the recipients of things based on a work, original doujin create their own works.
However, contrary to the positive nuance the word 'original work' conveys, it's not easy to actually create and continue to create (mostly story) manga in the position of an amateur. 'Manga' is something everyone has drawn in a notebook at least once in their elementary school days, but because the individual needs to be responsible for everything (characters, objects, backgrounds, dialogue), from the idea and composition of the story to the writing of the panel art, the amount of work involved requires an extraordinary amount of energy to draw in earnest. Of course, the amount of work required varies greatly from person to person depending on the length of the story, drawing style, drawing speed, and so on. So, I'm only speaking in general terms here, but even if it's considered a hobby, working on and completing a work of several to a dozen pages (or more) is a high hurdle to incorporate into daily life.
What's more, just because manga is like that doesn't mean it was like that from the beginning. It wasn't until the Taisho period that the expression 'story manga' (originating from the West) took hold in Japan, and works from that time consisted mostly of short stories and simple illustrations, the gap between this and modern manga is like the gap between the mud and the clouds. The manga we know today is the result of postwar mangaka, including Tezuka Osamu (手塚治虫), but broadly speaking, their works, which were widely distributed as products, shaped the style and image of today's 'elaborate and diligently drawn' manga. The manga drawn by doujins are basically modelled after those commercial works, and artists and readers say 'if you don't draw something similar to that, it won't be recognised as manga', the assumption on both sides raises the hurdle for manga creation. And with this hurdle that has been raised to be as high as possible, it can be said there is a clear distinction between doujin (amateurs) and professionals when it comes to artists (I will not dwell on the fact that currently, the distinction between pro and doujin has become blurred).
In other words, only those, who can spend the enormous amount of effort and time required to write and draw a work in their 'everyday lives', are qualified to become professionals as they are capable of writing and drawing 'long-length' and 'serialised' works. There are many other conditions to become a professional, but the basic premise is that 'you must sacrifice time from other aspects of your life' to draw manga. If manga is your 'job', that's only natural, but instead, the work is required to become a 'product', they're also required to follow the guidance of an editor to improve their marketability. If a conflict occurs between the artist and editor at this time, the so-called 'cruel story of a mangaka' may begin, but if I were to say this is good or bad, it would deviate from the thread of my story, so I'll go ahead and put it aside here.
What's important is to draw manga on a daily basis, this means that works that greatly determine the image of 'manga' are created by professional artists who have bet their lives on them, for manga that maintains the level as a 'product' and is mass-produced (although there are many commercial works that do not), what sort of originality do non-professional doujin works possess?
Doujin who have real jobs, such as students and salarymen, are naturally unable to spend a large amount of effort and time drawing works in their 'everyday lives'. In other words, there's no way original doujin can compete with professionals from the beginning in terms of the 'quantity' of the manuscripts they produce. Furthermore, compared to professional artists who bet their lives drawing their works, it's inevitable they would be less motivated to complete them.
If you'll forgive my digression, doujin artists (including fan creations), mainly from the university generation, have appeared and vanished one after the other, what supports the activities of doujinshi exhibition and sale events are students who have the extra time that makes it possible to draw a large 'quantity' of manuscripts, and it's because they possess youth as a substitute for spirit. In the extreme, any original doujin can take on the challenge of drawing a full-fledged manga, but only during their university years. However, most of these are transient, and it's said the momentary momentum of them appearing one after another is a major factor in turning Comiket into a festival.
Let's return to the topic.
So, back then, most original doujin were in the professional artist reserve army, and if they weren't prepared to risk their lives, manga wasn't something they continued drawing after they graduated from high school or university. If they were to continue drawing, even if they join a doujin, they would have no choice but to immerse themselves in the solitary work in an isolated Circle (of course, that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions).
So in this period, those who want to draw manga seriously have no choice but to aim to become professional artists. To that extent, the work becomes a commercial work (entertainment), and in contrast, the uniqueness of doujin work was never questioned. No, before even that, there was no place for original doujin itself besides amateurs who are 'less than' professional.
However, with the advent of magazines such as 'COM', whose purpose was to explore the possibilities of manga, manga came to be seen not only as entertainment, but also as a means of self-expression, readers began to voice the idea doujin works should pursue their own unique possibilities. From their point of view, original doujin are those who purely pursue the possibilities of manga, regardless of whether or not it has commercial value.
Doujinshi are things created to pursue such purposes, apart from becoming a professional artist, the trend of continuing to be involved in manga creation as a doujin began around this time. 'Comic Market' was also created as a place to support such original doujin, and in its early days, it tried to maintain this attitude while accepting fan clubs and derivative work Circles.
After the birth of Comiket, the environment surrounding original doujin changed completely due to the spread of doujinshi exhibition and sale events. Apart from the system of publishers and distributors that connect artists and readers, exhibition and sale events (and doujinshi specialty stores) have come to connect creators and recipients, creating a cycle in which it's common for original doujin to become artists (rather than professionals or amateurs).
However, amidst the success of the doujin exhibition and sale events, from fan clubs to derivative work Circles, where even cosplayers flock to the event, it's a fact original doujin remain in the minority; the scheme of 'Labyrinth', who planned the creation of a doujinshi exhibition and sale event, overlooked its most important aspect.
The reason was the high hurdle of work creation I mentioned earlier, if you model it after manga that has been built up into a product, of course there's no way a doujin, who is less than a professional in quality of work and spirit, will be able to draw anything better than that (although this is not to say there aren't exceptions).
So, it's logical original doujin Circles have not increased as much as was desired (few doujin challenged original works), and speaking of works, original doujin departed from the genres that commercial works show with dramatic volume and were able to distinguish themselves from professional artists by publishing small works, such as essay comics, short stories, and illustration collections.
Fan clubs and derivative work Circles, made up of fans of commercial works, like cosplayers, can be said to have filled in the gaps in the genres of works they developed, and original doujin came to function as amateur artists who complemented publishers.
While not much, original doujin, who were aiming to break away from the 'manga industry' where publishers are at the top, firmly integrated into the industry.
Even in 'Comic Market', though it appeared by setting up 'business booths', we've been incorporated into the 'business world', the fact most participating Circles are made up of derivative work Circles and fan clubs means they have become part of the industry, and 'Comitia' (コミティア), which claims to be an exhibition and sale event for 'independent productions' rather than 'original works', is also looking for a way to survive by integrating with the industry, such as by incorporating a dispatched editorial department. Of course, I'm not blaming them as they are one part of doujinshi exhibition and sale events.
As far as original doujin go, no matter how hard they try, them being unable to stand up against an industry dominated by publishers stems from the uniqueness in the expression of 'manga' (though it's a commercial work), which actually has a high hurdle to complete, so they're doing other things such as essay comics that can be drawn with one hand (of course, there are excellent works as well) while stirring a cup of tea with the other to avoid this, so the question becomes is it possible for doujin to do anything other than that?
However, since professional artists dedicate their 'daily lives' to manga, so unless you are able to maintain your real job and other daily activities while still drawing works that aren't drawn by professionals (or are equal to or better than professionals), there's no point in being an original doujin. I believe Aniwa Jun viewed original doujin in this way, encouraging them to execute this by hosting MGM and speaking to them himself. 'Show us in the form of your work' a world that can only be depicted in original doujin.
However, due to the high hurdles faced in the expression of what is called manga, these attempts lost momentum over the years. He died without being able to establish a method that could compete with the spirit and production quantity of professional artists. He eventually began serialising 'Let Us Improve Through Everyone!!' (みんなでうまくなろうやんけ!!) in the 'MGM Newspaper' published by MGM. When the organiser of the exhibition and sale event himself has no choice but to instruct the original doujin participants in how to create stories, how desperate must he have been to be cornered to that extent?
Nevertheless, by holding MGM events over and over, Aniwa Jun incorporated doujinshi exhibition and sale events into his 'everyday life' and was able to see it through to the end. Rather than dedicating his daily life to manga, he made his existence akin to manga and made it compatible with his everyday life. It is true if you dedicate your everyday life to manga and become a professional artist, you may not be able to follow in the footsteps of doujin artists, but there is a way to develop worlds and new works while following the 'quantity' and spirit of doujin, right? It can be said he continued to be a doujin who faced manga on equal footing, looking for a way to do so while other doujin chose the path of derivative works to follow the work they loved rather than pursue the difficulties of original work.
And as I wrote at the very beginning, doujin are those who put themselves in 'human relationships that are connected through manga'. Drawing manga is a solitary task, but through doujin, it's possible to connect with those who likewise create. Even so, the purpose is not to connect, but to walk together and move forward together. What is the meaning and real charm in doujin besides sharing such a forward-looking gaze? On the contrary, they can connect only by looking forward; if they stay where they were and become afraid of change, they would likely be acquaintances rather than doujin.
Original doujin are people who can consciously share the work of drawing manga, which normally cannot be shared. The sense of camaraderie professional artists share with each other is naturally different. That's why I believe even I wanted to be in a doujin, and I'm sure Aniwa Jun was the same, or had feelings close to such. Facing forward with doujin in 'everyday life', aiming for a new world of manga that can be seen by walking, we still cannot stop walking.
Illustration: Sangatsukan (三月館) (Wiki)
Circle Name of the illustrator Saegusa Jun (さえぐさ じゅん).
Next up will be 3 short interviews with Gotou Kasumi, Kazuna Kei, and Nakajima Fumio by an artist called Ohyo back in 2022. Out of these 3, I think Kazuna Kei has had the most profound influence on early western anime fans, since he's the one who did the character designs and art for the Cream Lemon anime titles that were localised into English back in the 1980s. Kazuna has been on the internet for as long as I can remember, and I've always found him to be an incredibly interesting artist with interesting stories (if Elon Musk deletes Kazuna Kei's twitter account, that would be the gravest of travesties for researchers).
Origin of 'Hentai'! The Hunt for the Phantasmic Anime 'Suzumi-Bune'!(Part1)｜虫塚虫蔵
Source:『映画秘宝』2024年5月号 By Mushizuka Mushizou (虫塚虫蔵) Appearing like a comet during the dawning era of Bishoujo Anime, making the world aware of the existence of ero-anime, 'Cream Lemon' Volume 1 'Be My Baby' (1984/08/Fairy Dust) OVA Jacket.The progenitor of ero-anime, 'Lolita Anime Ⅲ: Koneko-chan
note.com
That's good to hear; didn't want to have my mental image of you ruined.
When someone is talking about a Lolicon teacher, they're not talking about a guy sitting at his desk reading manga with the words '3DPG' (3D Pig Disgusting) tattooed to his forehead. The common sentiment is that all Japanese men are terminally ill with Lolicon, and that doubly goes for male teachers.
Graduation (2005/03/18) (Link):
"(Side note - I was later telling a female Japanese friend of mine about this and the snuzzlebunnies incident. She laughed and said "But you were happy, right?" ....NO I WAS NOT HAPPY! I'm not a Japanese man, I don't have lolicon. ...Lolicon being shorthand for "lolita complex", the name given to the far too common Japanese male phenomenon of loving jr high/high school girls. ...I told you the men in this country weren't right.)" (The author of this article seems to be pretty famous in Japan; a South Korean mangaka incorporated him and his family into his manga, I need to go through my books so I can find this again.)
You later mentioned Comic LO, and I believe their slogan is 'YES, Lolita. NO, Touch'. Which is basically how these Lolicon teachers should behave. In this thread, there's often talk about a separation between Lolicon and Degenerates/Perverts with Hirukogami Ken pretending to be a Lolicon degenerate with his proto-Otaku character, but outside of the character, he's strongly against people who 'touch' like Roman Polanski. But regardless, if you read Japanese, you'll see headlines like 'Chinese Lolicon Teacher Rapes 5 Students and is Swiftly Given Death Penalty'.
Coincidentally, on Kera's note page, he has an article with all the entries of his 'dream diary' (Link) that also includes his original art, and one of them is 'The Cat Girl and the Lolicon Teacher'.
「A cat disguised as a girl uses a time machine without permission on a school trip, so the Lolicon teacher (Contemporary Japanese Language Teacher) uses that as an excuse to assault her, saying, "What do you think will happen if you caused a time paradox? Eh?" The cat girl scratches the teacher, and transforms into a cat to run away, but she wound up being shot to death by the teacher. Bright red blood was flowing.」(Kinda surprised how many of Kera's dreams involve guns.)
I've been mostly focusing on artists in this thread because that's what I'm personally interested in, but when it comes to Otaku, there's Anime Otaku and Idol Otaku with the latter being more numerous with the bigger industry that often sinks its tentacles into the manga and anime industries. Most of manga and anime culture is shaped and influenced by the idol industry, and that includes Lolicon. You can look up the Japanese name of any idol, and there's a good chance the word 'loli' (ロリ) is attributed to her at some point in her career. It's why 'Moe' became a word to act as a substitute for how Lolicon was used by the manga fandom in the 1980s. Instead of saying 猫耳コン (Nekomimicon; Cat Ear Complex), you can say '猫耳萌え' (Nekomimi-Moe) and it would be understood you were talking about illustrations featuring anime characters with cat ears. But because the idol industry cannot leave well enough alone, Moe has been kidnapped by them, and degenerated into being a synonym for 'cute'.
Since there's no response from dannyphantom, I'm pondering whether I should repost his full message. I've been largely avoiding idols, lolita video, and that sort of thing, and his post was sort of a summary on that (if he stuck around, I was going to ask him if he wanted to translate some articles I didn't feel like doing about those subjects).
I don't think it does, Comic LO is part of the long lineage of Lolicon Comic magazines (Lolicon Manga Wiki) following 'Comic Rin', which I'm more familiar with since Rin had artists like Lee and Nekogen; I don't know anyone who draws for LO, so I never bothered with it. But Akaneshoten, its publisher, has other magazines like 'Girls for M', which is supposedly a supplementary magazine to Comic LO with artists I am familiar with like Matanonki▼ (またのんき▼) (he favourited one of my Pixiv illustrations of his character).
Labyrinth Members (Image Source: 'Comic Market Genesis' [コミックマーケット創世記]:
Harada Teruo (原田央男):
1st Comiket Representative.
Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米澤嘉博):
2nd Comiket Representative.
Aniwa Jun (亜庭じゅん):
Founder of MGM and the one who wrote most of the articles in Labyrinth's 'Manga Critique' (漫画新批評大系).
Takamiya Seika (高宮成河):
Close friends of the above three, though not closely involved in the managment of Comiket. Originally worked with Aniwa Jun at Manga Journal (漫画ジャーナル) before joining Labyrinth, writing for Labyrinth's 'Manga Critique' (漫画新批評大系). He's responsible for editing and compiling Aniwa Jun's writing, and also doing the original work for their wikipedia page, so much of what is known about Labyrinth is thanks to him.
Despite this, I could not find a single English mention for Takamiya Seika, which is disappointing. Comiket is well-known outside Japan, but it seems no one has bothered to do a thorough and accurate history of its earliest members in English (I wouldn't be surprised if this thread is the first time a full article by Aniwa Jun and Harada Teruo has been translated into English). Takamiya Seika was also present during the Gekiga Roundtable talk with Kawamoto Kouji and Takatori Ei translated earlier in this thread.
In any case, the following mentions Lolicon, but it's more accurate to say this is Comiket and Aniwa Jun's history. Yonezawa Yoshihiro is deeply entwined in Lolicon History, but Aniwa Jun shares a lot in common with Kobayashi Yoshinori regarding Lolicon.
Source: 『MGM100カタログ』（2013年1月27日 MGM、迷宮'13、自費出版）
Illustration: Konami* (粉味)
※Circle Name for the artist Chiba Konami (ちば こなみ)
Aniwa Jun's Speech
1981 Spring Comic Market 17 Review Meeting
1981 Spring Comic Market 17 Review Meeting
We present to you a recording of Aniwa Jun's (亜庭じゅん) speech during the review meeting at Comic Market 17. Comiket17 was held in April of 1981, and the next Comiket18 was held in August of the same year. Immediately after Comiket18 ended, the Comiket Preparations Committee faced a coup d'état (schism). Aniwa Jun completed the 4th event since MGM began August of the previous year at this time, and was preparing to hold the 5th event in May.
From 1979 when Comiket's first representative, Harada Teruo (原田央男), resigned, Comiket was in a period of turmoil until 1981 when the new representative, Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米澤嘉博), moved the venue to Harumi, and starting MGM was one answer to that chaos by Aniwa Jun. For MGM to be celebrating its 100th anniversary, looking back on Aniwa Jun's words amidst the turmoil back then is also looking back on the dreams MGM held during its beginnings. These words were said over 30 years ago, but MGM has lived with them for many years.
Just before Comiket17 was held, its representative, Yonezawa Yoshihiro, went missing and couldn't be contacted on the day of the event. Due to the absence of its representative, another representative was hastily appointed to hold the event. Although Aniwa Jun had no plans to participate, he was abducted by one of the Preparations Committee staff and ended up participating. Seats for the review meeting were also prepared next to the Preparations Committee.
The review meeting back then consisted of two parts. Due to concerns about the management of the Preparations Committee that had surfaced as a result of the deteriorating and expansion of Comiket becoming more noticeable each time it's held, a 'Comiket Think Tank' was formed by volunteers from participating Circles, appealing with a sense of impending doom to Comiket. During Comiket17, some members of the Preparations Committee attended and a discussion was held with them in a room at the venue, and the review session was held afterwards. Due to Yonezawa Yoshihiro's absence, the review meeting took the form of a free talk instead of the usual Q&A between the Preparations Committee and participants. The host was a member of the 'Comiket Think Tank'. They spent about two hours talking about 'regulations' for the ever-increasing number of participants, about the Preparations Committee and Circles, and about the topic 'What is Comiket?'; however, partly due to Yonezawa's absence, Aniwa Jun naturally assumed the role of taking over the discussion and speaking. This is an excerpt of what Aniwa Jun said on that day.
《The talk began with how to deal with the chaos at the venue due to the increase in the number of participants. After the Preparations Committee and participants took turns talking about their understanding of the current situation, the problems, and the ways to improve upon them, the participants made various suggestions to the management, and the following is the answer from the Preparations Committee that deciding on such matters itself is regulation, and once this happens, regulations will increase one after another.》
Aniwa:
Please listen to my opinion as someone who has been involved with Comiket from the inside for a long time rather than my opinion as one part of the Preparations Committee. ――If anything, the most desirable situation for Comiket would be for what the participants mentioned to happen voluntarily from the Circles themselves, rather than the Circles being regulated. So, the regulatory issues are simply, err, right now, they're actually technical issues, like the problem with the number of people, the problem with space, or the problem with security, and so on, but well, this is being discussed here, but speaking more broadly, for example, err, the problem that was brought up by the 'Comiket Think Tank' when ○○-kun, who's acting as host now, gave his talk, the problem involving anime Circles selling products such as envelopes and stationery using characters, or things like posters and dolls, which obviously violate copyright. We're caught in quite a conundrum. Well, some are in the clear about releasing such things, but most in reality, if they're accused (of copyright infringement), they would be held responsible. If something like that were to become a problem within Comiket, in a sense, it would be a huge blow to the fan activities Comiket has fostered with those Circles. In other words, there's a possibility the rights holders may seize control of, even regulate, fan clubs based on their commercial interests. There's also problem with original work Circles. While most release original works because they enjoy it, some of those sell well. For example, Cybele sells well. So they create Lolicon-type things for the purpose of them selling well, err, well, mumumu, but that (ero because it sells well) is going to lead to the rug being pulled out from under us. This may be an old-fashioned sentiment, but to put it bluntly, I believe it's a corruption of the proper attitude for original work creation. Broadly speaking, the regulation problems are a matter of how seriously the Circles that participate in Comiket take their doujinshi and Circle activities, so if things don't go too far, it'll remain a simple technical problem. Technical problems can be solved technically if there's enough space, enough money, and enough manpower, but in the end, each Circle needs to think about what they need to do for Comiket on their own volition. I don't believe there'll be a final solution if we don't get these points correct, no matter how far we go. On the other hand, if there's a solid consensus among the Circles, I believe many of these problems will be solved, no matter how complicated. So, the most dangerous ones are the problems that are biggest traps I mentioned earlier. Meaning, those who stay here are good people, and those who return home are bad people, this statement, to put it bluntly, is an excuse. Against ourselves――. Well then, you may have stayed at the review meetings every time, but what did you do when you stayed at the review meetings? I know I'm rattling on, but have you made any efforts for the Preparations Committee? I would like people to reconsider what Comiket means to them, including these issues.
Well, this is what I think.
《His response to a question from the Preparations Committee staff who asked us to think about what the participant should do if Comiket could not be held due to our own mismanagement, such as not being able to bring desks to the site.》
Aniwa:
(Taking the microphone while saying 'I don't think so, that's not good'.) As a single participants, I shall respond to what you just said. Regardless of whether there are desks or not, I encourage the Preparations Committee to work in an orderly fashion, and encourage other Circles to do likewise. That's the only way. If we stop, then it will confuse the regular participants that we stopped, and I don't think there's any point in having the regular participating Circles do something like that (without desks). So, let's return the topic back to the extreme point made earlier. Meaning, these opinions that came from the Preparations Committee that Comiket should just get bigger and bigger, or that the people who are currently doing Comiket is because they love doing it. This matches the current state of the Preparations Committee, and it's also half-true when you compare it with the current state of Comiket. However, as someone who has been involved with Comiket since the very beginning, Comiket, according to its 1st to 8th reports, there hasn't been a direct filing of such a thing in the Comiket Reports. What I mean specifically are the Doujinshi's original manga, some new kind of manga being born based on that. That was the starting point of Comiket. That sort of thing's a very big aspect for Comiket. A problem in communication, I'm certain. There's also the issue of buying and selling. However, when we first thought up Comiket, our simplest and most fundamental motive was――well, there was an incident (refusing individuals to participate at a manga convention), and it's like you cannot buy doujinshi (by denying a manga convention). Well, it's a bit bad. We wanted to buy doujinshi, we wanted to sell them, or we wanted to sell the doujinshi we created. So we created that sort of place. That's simply how we came up with the idea. However, what was behind it was doujinshi, so let's switch the topic to manga doujinshi. I assumed something similar could be found in fan club magazines, but as far as manga doujinshi is concerned, its greatest communication isn't a quick chat on the spot, it's not something like shaking each other's hands and being glad we could become friends. I believe the best way to communicate is to convey the emotions the work itself possesses. So, buying and selling itself becomes communication. Comiket was at first that sort of place. And contrary to my expectations, or should I say it was a bit of an understatement, the communication in other areas, in other words, how many friends there were――we didn't know anything about each other, but well, manga fans can be a bit narrow-minded, so I'm happy we made a place where we didn't have to feel so narrow-minded. That tacit understanding between friends has become something of a major element to Comiket. At the same time, manga doujinshi doesn't necessarily need to be about original work, there's anime, there's fan club magazines, and there's many other kinds, so it expanded into a great big Circle. However, among them, I haven't been able to see the progress I had hoped for in terms of original manga. Its progress was very shallow. The progress itself may have been slow, but there was something failing in that area. So, that part, so to speak, err, the most basic part of it has shaken my way of thinking about Comiket. Well, as you know, the representative of Comiket has changed along the way. There's some things related to that (the reason for the change), but――I don't feel comfortable discussing them in detail, but I guess that's not good? However, Harada, who was the former representative until around 1979-1980, continued to emphasise manga unique to doujinshi in every Comiket Report, and by the end, he sort of gave up on doujinshi manga and withdrew from Comiket. So, one more thing, the Comiket friends and groups I mentioned earlier is proof the excitement of having a lot of people, or the excitement of having a lot of friends, can turn things into a festival. (I) opened a small market (MGM) that focuses on original manga. This is very empty. It's a world that makes you go 'is that it?'. The kind of Comiket-like environment or enthusiasm couldn't have been created there. I think there's something else. Although this may sound self-congratulatory. However, it's just what Comiket has, and it seems like it melts everything, well, it's a very great power of communication, but I don't know how sincere that communication actually is, although I have my doubts about it, it's true I didn't have the power to create that great sense of camaraderie. In other words, the dilemma Comiket's currently facing is, for one, the numbers to secure Comiket being fun, I believe how to overcome that part will probably be the greatest problem for the Preparations Committee as well as for the participants. So, right or wrong, the current situation is that we don't know what we should do to be honest, and on the other hand, what I would like to ask is, from each and every one of you attending Comiket, what do you think about the state of Comiket?
《In response to the words of taking the opinions from this review meeting home and thinking about them in bed. Everyone has different opinions, so one cannot draw any conclusions here.》
Aniwa:
(Stealing the host's microphone.) If you want to think about them when you get home, then you should think about them now! Well, everyone thinks differently, but even if you go home and think about them all by yourself, what do you hope to achieve by that? The biggest problem——is what we're going to be hashing out here today, you know? Supposing he or they go home and think about it in bed, they'll come to their own conclusion, right?
However, 3 months after that, when they attend the Summer Comiket's review meeting, the conclusion they thought about will have already gone the way of the ghost. The progress that has been discussed here will also have gone the way of the ghost. So, we'll have to start over and they'll have to think about it in bed again. We've been doing this over and over again. This time, the Comiket Preparations Committee tentatively set up a 'Comiket Think Tank', right? To do that, we had to make arrangements with the Preparations Committee. That sort of situation happened, you see, and it makes me seriously question how much they actually thought about what we discussed in their futon. Even in this sort of place, for example, there's a part where everyone wants to be a good kid. Though, it won't come out individually. So, if I say everything's all well and good, I would get a fair amount of applause. However, even looking at the applause I've received till now, it's dampening the mood. We can't just end this in a cool way by saying stuff like we exchanged opinions. I believe a discussion under such conditions would be truly fruitless. The problem is how do we continue to bring awareness to that which has festered so much, and how to reflect it in the management of Comiket and the Preparations Committee, or to put it another way, pull it into the consciousness of the people here? In order to achieve this, what should the humans here do, or where should they look for an opportunity to take action? If we don't talk about these things in concrete terms, I believe this sort of discussion will continue to be a repeat of abstract opinions. So, for example, in my case, I believe I'm even more disappointed than him (someone who said earlier he was disappointed in Comiket). My fundamental way of thinking is that, to put it bluntly, the person who said that buying and selling is 'that' (their purpose), and what he said to him (someone who said such people do not fit the purpose of Comiket) is if that were true, why don't you just make a doujinshi that will make me want to buy it. He responded to that. He said he's going to make a doujinshi you couldn't help but want to buy. I believe that conflict is the fundamental power of Comiket. So, if it weren't for that, I also wouldn't come to Comiket, but I believe Comiket still has the power I just mentioned. That's why I'm participating, but I believe I wouldn't hesitate to abandon it if it weren't for that. That's what Comiket means to me. ——Well, others may think differently. So, what I want to say is that it would be better to include things like that and think about what you want to do about it. I still believe what's been going on at this point was an argument that'll get us nowhere, but that's the way things are.
《At this point, the host announced they're already over time and concluded the review session.》
My Impressions of... Back Then (Takamiya Seika [高宮成河])
I heard there was a tape of Aniwa Jun's 'speech' at the Comiket review meeting, so in the summer of 2011, six months after his death, I attended a training camp to think about the future of MGM at the Kawasaki Civic Plaza. At the time, I was editing a collection of Aniwa Jun's posthumous manuscripts (Aniwa Jun Complete Works [亜庭じゅん大全]), and I was collecting all sorts of things Aniwa Jun left behind. I requested a search for the tape, hoping to include it in a collection of his posthumous manuscripts, but it didn't make it into the publication; it wasn't until December of 2012 I received word of its discovery. The published collection of his posthumous manuscripts includes Comiket Reports from back then that were published in the MGM newspaper, but the raw tape had a real sense of urgency due to his actual voice, which is different from the one that was transcribed later into text.
Aniwa Jun (亜庭じゅん), Harada Teruo (原田央男), and Yonezawa Yoshihiro (米澤嘉博), these three formed the group called 'Labyrinth' (迷宮), and Comic Market was started in 1975 as a result of criticism towards manga conventions. Harada Teruo, who served as the representative of Comiket, struggled to hold each event while trying to create a model for Comiket, which began in a period where its future was uncertain, but resigned as representative in the summer of 1979. The matters surrounding this period are detailed in 'Comic Market Genesis' (コミックマーケット創世記) published by Harada. I'll talk about my impressions later.
I don't wish to be formal, so from now on, I'll be using their nicknames, Aniwa Jun is 'Anijun' (あにじゅん), and Yonezawa Yoshihiro will be 'Yoneyan' (米やん). The first Comiket with Yoneyan as the new representative was held in the winter of 1979, and Anijun started working on MGM the following summer of 1980. At first, it wasn't MGM, it was called 'Manga Mini Market' (まんが・ミニ・マーケット), but well, let's just call it MGM.
For a half year, one year after Harada resigned as representative, during this six-month gap between Comikets, Anijun decided to start working on MGM.
The reason Yoneyan was the second representative was because there were no other suitable humans, but Yonewan, who received the role, did not necessarily welcome it. Harada's resignation was sudden, and it was clear from those watching, he took the role in a state of chaos. When he became the second representative, Comiket was in a state where it had a mountain of problems.
When Comiket started, most manga doujinshi were nothing but original doujinshi, so presuming Comiket was an original manga doujinshi exhibition and sale event was so natural, one didn't have to think about it, but as time went on, elements other than original works, such as anime fan clubs and cosplay, started to become more prominent, and eventually Lolicon doujinshi, which can hardly be called original works, became popular, and people, calling themselves security guards, began to protest around the Preparations Committee. In addition, the confusion at the venue due to the increase in the number of participating Circles and participants had become impossible to ignore, and the limits of the traditional methods of the management were becoming apparent.
There were two problems. The first was considering what to do about Comiket, which was degenerating into a place for 'play'. The second was what to do about its management, which was on the verge of bankruptcy because it could no longer keep up with the increase in numbers. Comiket wasn't started to create a place for play.
Play wasn't something to be denied, but it should've only served in nothing greater than a sub position. There was a growing fear the entirety of Comiket would be dominated by 'play with manga', and at the same time, there was a growing feeling that this was somehow bad. There was an urgent need to confirm its direction and reorganise the system, but Yoneyan didn't take any measures.
At this moment, Comic Market could neither move forward nor retreat; it was in a state where the event would continue to be held while stagnating, and there was a fear the ship would eventually sink.
That said, perhaps we should sympathise with Yoneyan at this time. Yoneyan's position was similar to that of a young, second generation president who has taken over a company whose production sites are full of defective products and whose costs were constantly rising. Furthermore, he didn't become the second representative because he desired it. However, sympathise with him as you may, the young, second generation president was the managing director right until he took over the company, and was appointed after knowing all of its circumstances, so he was also in a position where he had to take half the responsibility for the current situation, so he had no grounds to grumble and complain, but rather I believe he still had a responsibility to quickly direct a policy.
He probably had a personality not to take action until the very last minute, but what tied Yoneyan's hands must've been the 12th Comiket that supported the event he also served as a key staff member. Comiket began as a protest against the exclusion of specific individuals from manga conventions, and the unwritten rule that was born from that was the organiser could not arbitrarily exclude any individuals or groups. This was established based on the recognition Labyrinth, which was the actual organiser, was just one of the participating Circles, and had no arbitrary authority other than to reflect the consensus of the Circles, and the 'Preparations Committee', whose sole purpose was to hold 'meetings', was so vague and transparent that it was quite difficult to decide on anything.
Although it was known from the beginning there could be no such thing as a consensus among Circles, he at least maintained that cause by showing he was willing to work in that direction. For this reason, preparatory meetings, extended meetings, and review meetings played an important role at Comiket. All participants were equal, and in a free place of amateurs to make friends, it's precisely because it's that sort of place that new manga was born. There, even ordinary readers could become active collaborators in original works.
Some could call it childish idealism or high-sounding talk, but without holding such idealism, who would prefer to do something that just wastes time, nerves, and effort? In fact, this idealism also motivated us to continue holding Comiket in the early days, and even if some call it childish, our partner was manga, so of course it was childish, but we didn't feel that way about it; we were mostly fine and actually felt honoured. We all shared an awareness we were doing something like that. I believe there was a sense of excitement as the number of participants continued to increase each time, as there was now a place where adult realism could be challenged by childish idealism.
However, before we realised it, our childish idealism was forced to face the reality we created for ourselves. In that place, Yoneyan and Comiket just stood still, unable to take the next step. Participating Circles, noticing things were not going as well as they were, began to form a 'Comiket Think Tank'. Although he knew he needed to show his determination to take the next step, he only hesitated and did nothing. I also believe that inside Yoneyan, he might've been desperately trying to relive the 12th Harada Comiket in the Comiket he would represent. This may sound harsh to the Yoneyan back then, but at least within the Preparations Committee, they should've shared a sense of crisis and unified their wills, but even in that area, Yoneyan failed. If I were to use Aniwa Jun's words, 'Yonezawa was throwing half-hearted pitches'. This seemingly irresponsible attitude of Yoneyan eventually led to the coup d'état. From the perspective of the coup d'état faction, Yoneyan may have been seen as a dictator who could not make decisions.
On the other hand, Anijun, who was the managing director, made a clear decision. His goal was to cut down the unprofitable aspects, which had grown too large due to customer demands, and return to regular business. He downsized and formed a separate venture. If I dare say it, that was MGM. Of all the members of Labyrinth, Anijun spoke about his ideals the most, but it was Anijun who spoke about how to turn his ideals into a reality.
Many of those who know Anijun often talk about him being an idealist, but few talk about his side as a realist. It appears to me when MGM began that Anijun's realist side was most strong. Anijun's MGM was a return to the roots of when they first began Comiket. The problem with Comiket's management boils down to allowing it to expand in size.
Once he abandoned anime fans and cosplay among other things, and specialised in original doujinshi, most of the problems that arose from expansion of scale were solved. It also served as a return to the original purpose of creating new manga unique to doujinshi. At least, even if Comiket were to go bankrupt, if an original doujinshi exhibition and sale event continued, that part alone should have been salvageable. It was a straightforward and reasonable method for Anijun to take back then, and Yoneyan understood MGM's intentions.
"Yoneyan said MGM was an insurance policy for Comiket!" After Yoneyan's death, I heard this from a bell as Yoneyan's words.
The 1st MGM began by inviting original work Circles that gathered at Comiket to participate. It was established as a place for calm creation rather than a boisterous festival, and he planned to hold the event about five times a year with the aim of making it a normal place actively collaborating with local exhibition and sale events.
At first, the concept of an original doujinshi exhibition and sale event seemed strange, and some said it was a 'exhibition and sale event no one attended', but gradually, the number of participating Circles increased, and now it boasts itself a place where high-quality doujinshi gather in a high density with some Circles only participating at MGM. JET PROPOST, the sponsor Circle of Nagoya's Comica (コミカ), wrote on their participating Circle cut, "Our books won't be sold anywhere other than MGM".
At its peak, the venue was overflowing with Circles, and the event was held five or six times a year.
Anijun turned MGM's sponsorship into Labyrinth, eliminating the ambiguous existence of the Preparations Committee. It answered the question for what purpose was MGM held.
Rather than relying on the wavering and vague consensus of Circles, MGM opened its doors to the dream and possibilities of an exhibition and sale event that Yoneyan and the three of them saw during the Harada Comiket period, and the word Labyrinth was used to represent the group's vision rather than the group's name. At this moment, MGM and exhibition and sale events were not held by an organisation or group, or even a representative, but by a dream. And Anijun himself continued to refer to himself as 'MGM staff', maintaining his stance he was also one of the collaborators in realising their dream. This also may be another kind of childish idealism.
I'm running out of paper. So I'll wrap things up.
The Comiket coup d'état was nothing more than an internal conflict caused by the indecisive attitude of Yoneyan, who did not directly confront the dissatisfaction that had surfaced within the Preparations Committee. As a result, he cut off his former friends in a manner close to a purge, which will definitely remain as a blemish on the history of Comiket. However, ironically, this incident was a blessing in disguise for Comiket. By moving the venue to Harumi, Yoneyan was forced to make a choice due to the uproar, and finally gained the resolve to continue holding Comiket.
From the reorganisation of the Preparations Committee and the organiser serving a management function independent from Circles, what they created could be called a 'philosophy'. There's a phrase 'There are no customers at Comiket', but to me, it sounds like words for the management cloaked in ideology. And under the slogan of 'freedom of expression', fan play and original works were treated as equals, and at last the responsibility for the fact original works end up being play for the venue rested on the 'freedom' of the participants. Yoneyan himself, including the word 'Comiket Representative', did not differentiate between his dual roles as representative of the Preparations Committee and representative of Comiket as a whole, and ended up using his position wisely.
What Yoneyan decided to undertake in Harumi was for the purpose of holding Comiket on top of accepting all who wish to participate, and he was responsible for only that. And the rest was to be shelved to allow things to take their course. The course Yoneyan took here was to abandon the childish idealism of that 12th Comiket, which he half-intentionally made vague. He used the veil of idealism on the surface while placing realism at its core. Even if we understood the route, whose sole purpose was to hold an event, was Yoneyan's choice for the survival of Comiket, Anijun became a strong critic of the indecency of this trick. Yoneyan kept silent.
The reason Yoneyan decided to shelve everything besides holding an event was because what was set as the purpose of Comiket to create new manga unique to doujinshi, MGM which specialised in that, might have taken over.
Thanks to MGM, he couldn't ignore the degeneration of Comiket into a boisterous festival where you could freely join in fan play. In the words of Yoneyan's 'insurance', Comiket used MGM as a psychological alibi back then, and to me, I believe he also thought of it as a complement. If that's the case, it may be better to describe it as Yoneyan's selfish and one-sided 'unspoken deal'.
The Comiket representative transfer, the beginning of MGM, the coup d'état, the moving to Harumi, during the two hectic years from 1979 to 1981, he faced the reality he had created for himself, and once again, the underlying questions were 'What is a doujinshi exhibition and sale event?' and 'Why am I opening an exhibition and sale event?'.
Harada Teruo resigned as representative because he was unable to decide his position between these two questions, which were becoming increasingly distant.
Anijun forcibly brought together the two questions that were trying to split, and tried to return to their roots when they began an exhibition and sale event.
By shelving both questions and not thinking about them, Yoneyan was barely able to keep the event going.
I don't feel like questioning the validity of the answers these three parties have given now, but I believe it was a way for each of them to take responsibility for what they have 'started' together.
Regardless of their different routes, Anijun and Yoneyan continued in their choices until the end. It must've been a way of tying themselves down.
From the Harada Comiket, the two exhibition and sale events that branched continued to be held for about a quarter of a century with many twists and turns. And this would continue until they both passed away. Yoneyan passed away on October 1st of 2006, and six months later, MGM97 would be Anijun's final MGM. The two exhibition and sale events were held for exactly the same period of time, as if they agreed upon it. On January 21st, 2011, Anijun also passed away.
After Anijun's death, I heard from a bell as Yoneyan said, "Even if I don't believe in anything else, I'll believe in MGM". I faintly felt Yoneyan's loneliness. And I considered what Yoneyan believed in MGM.
Amidst the noise of Comiket, what Yoneyan believed in were his Labyrinth days and when they began an exhibition and sale event, the time he spent staying up all night talking to Anijun, Harada Teruo, and the others, what he lost in order to maintain Comiket, perhaps it was the 'childish idealism' Anijun continued to defend to his death with MGM.
Anijun and Yoneyan, despite going in different directions, were cleaning up the aftermath of the dream they shared. That's what I feel.
(Addendum: After writing this manuscript, the recordings of the MGM5, MGM7, and Comiket19 review meetings were discovered. I thought it might've been possible to reconstruct 'those days' in a different form by combining them with the Comiket17 review meeting recorded here, but I ran out of time and had no choice but to give up. My honest impression after listening to those recordings was that Anijun and Yoneyan were young back then, but so was the exhibition and sale event. Whether I wanted to or not, I felt many of the comments from the participants about doujinshi could be described as naive and without regrets. This may be something that has already been lost now that doujinshi exhibition and sale events are no longer something special. 'Those days' were a special time that can never be repeated. I believe doujinshi exhibition and sale events needed to go through that special time.)
Manga Doujinshi Activities and 'Everyday Life' (Harada Teruo)
Do (Manga) doujin use manga as an intermediary and form relationships with other 'like-minded kin'? In other words, not just simple manga fanciers, but those who accept human relationships formed through manga.
Living for more than 30 (40?) years until his untimely death, defining himself as 'doujin', Aniwa Jun (Real Name: Matsuda Shigeki [松田茂樹]) was not a man who was very adept at socialising, but he was passionate about finding meaning in doujin activities while connecting with people through manga. In the early days of his involvement with manga doujin, he was involved in the activities and displayed his talent by writing reviews that he could work on by himself, but when 'Comic Market', the manga doujin exhibition and sale event established by the critique group 'Labyrinth' which he joined as a comrade, eventually started to go astray, he established 'MGM (Manga Gallery Market)' which he described as an 'original doujinshi exhibition and sale event'. Since then, he launched various projects at MGM, such as 'For Ladys' and 'A Long Long Story' among others, inspiring participants and exploring the development of worlds and new works through original manga doujin.
However, ironically, due to the proliferation and success of the manga doujinshi exhibition and sale events started by Labyrinth's 'Comic Market', MGM drowned in this situation without fully demonstrating its own originality. Nevertheless, Aniwa Jun continued to host MGM, but his stance shifted from exploring the potential of manga to securing a space for regular participating Circles who enjoyed MGM. I'm sure he wasn't unwilling to put himself in the position he found himself in at his beloved MGM, but if he continued doujin only to mutually seek warmth, he would've had no choice but to shut down his activities. This must've been something Aniwa Jun, who aimed for a 'movement' to encourage others for that purpose and execute it, found difficult to accept. Even if there were no victories for his movement at that point, he may have continued with MGM simply as proof he would not admit defeat.
That said, the purpose of this article is not to provide a sloppy interpretation of the trajectory of Aniwa Jun's life. Why did a man, with enough talent to make a living as a professional critic focused on manga, continue to maintain his position as a 'doujin', which has become synonymous with amateurs, until the bitter end in addition to his real job?
As someone who once shared activities in 'Labyrinth' with him, I would like to rethink what is manga doujin after my bereavement.
Despite calling it manga doujin, Aniwa Jun continued to be particular about 'original doujin', although they are grouped under the same term 'doujin', they are the exact opposite of fans (fanciers) such as cosplayers and fan-artists, who identify themselves as fans and try to immerse themselves in another's work. In contrast to those satisfied with being the recipients of things based on a work, original doujin create their own works.
However, contrary to the positive nuance the word 'original work' conveys, it's not easy to actually create and continue to create (mostly story) manga in the position of an amateur. 'Manga' is something everyone has drawn in a notebook at least once in their elementary school days, but because the individual needs to be responsible for everything (characters, objects, backgrounds, dialogue), from the idea and composition of the story to the writing of the panel art, the amount of work involved requires an extraordinary amount of energy to draw in earnest. Of course, the amount of work required varies greatly from person to person depending on the length of the story, drawing style, drawing speed, and so on. So, I'm only speaking in general terms here, but even if it's considered a hobby, working on and completing a work of several to a dozen pages (or more) is a high hurdle to incorporate into daily life.
What's more, just because manga is like that doesn't mean it was like that from the beginning. It wasn't until the Taisho period that the expression 'story manga' (originating from the West) took hold in Japan, and works from that time consisted mostly of short stories and simple illustrations, the gap between this and modern manga is like the gap between the mud and the clouds. The manga we know today is the result of postwar mangaka, including Tezuka Osamu (手塚治虫), but broadly speaking, their works, which were widely distributed as products, shaped the style and image of today's 'elaborate and diligently drawn' manga. The manga drawn by doujins are basically modelled after those commercial works, and artists and readers say 'if you don't draw something similar to that, it won't be recognised as manga', the assumption on both sides raises the hurdle for manga creation. And with this hurdle that has been raised to be as high as possible, it can be said there is a clear distinction between doujin (amateurs) and professionals when it comes to artists (I will not dwell on the fact that currently, the distinction between pro and doujin has become blurred).
In other words, only those, who can spend the enormous amount of effort and time required to write and draw a work in their 'everyday lives', are qualified to become professionals as they are capable of writing and drawing 'long-length' and 'serialised' works. There are many other conditions to become a professional, but the basic premise is that 'you must sacrifice time from other aspects of your life' to draw manga. If manga is your 'job', that's only natural, but instead, the work is required to become a 'product', they're also required to follow the guidance of an editor to improve their marketability. If a conflict occurs between the artist and editor at this time, the so-called 'cruel story of a mangaka' may begin, but if I were to say this is good or bad, it would deviate from the thread of my story, so I'll go ahead and put it aside here.
What's important is to draw manga on a daily basis, this means that works that greatly determine the image of 'manga' are created by professional artists who have bet their lives on them, for manga that maintains the level as a 'product' and is mass-produced (although there are many commercial works that do not), what sort of originality do non-professional doujin works possess?
Doujin who have real jobs, such as students and salarymen, are naturally unable to spend a large amount of effort and time drawing works in their 'everyday lives'. In other words, there's no way original doujin can compete with professionals from the beginning in terms of the 'quantity' of the manuscripts they produce. Furthermore, compared to professional artists who bet their lives drawing their works, it's inevitable they would be less motivated to complete them.
If you'll forgive my digression, doujin artists (including fan creations), mainly from the university generation, have appeared and vanished one after the other, what supports the activities of doujinshi exhibition and sale events are students who have the extra time that makes it possible to draw a large 'quantity' of manuscripts, and it's because they possess youth as a substitute for spirit. In the extreme, any original doujin can take on the challenge of drawing a full-fledged manga, but only during their university years. However, most of these are transient, and it's said the momentary momentum of them appearing one after another is a major factor in turning Comiket into a festival.
Let's return to the topic.
So, back then, most original doujin were in the professional artist reserve army, and if they weren't prepared to risk their lives, manga wasn't something they continued drawing after they graduated from high school or university. If they were to continue drawing, even if they join a doujin, they would have no choice but to immerse themselves in the solitary work in an isolated Circle (of course, that doesn't mean there aren't exceptions).
So in this period, those who want to draw manga seriously have no choice but to aim to become professional artists. To that extent, the work becomes a commercial work (entertainment), and in contrast, the uniqueness of doujin work was never questioned. No, before even that, there was no place for original doujin itself besides amateurs who are 'less than' professional.
However, with the advent of magazines such as 'COM', whose purpose was to explore the possibilities of manga, manga came to be seen not only as entertainment, but also as a means of self-expression, readers began to voice the idea doujin works should pursue their own unique possibilities. From their point of view, original doujin are those who purely pursue the possibilities of manga, regardless of whether or not it has commercial value.
Doujinshi are things created to pursue such purposes, apart from becoming a professional artist, the trend of continuing to be involved in manga creation as a doujin began around this time. 'Comic Market' was also created as a place to support such original doujin, and in its early days, it tried to maintain this attitude while accepting fan clubs and derivative work Circles.
After the birth of Comiket, the environment surrounding original doujin changed completely due to the spread of doujinshi exhibition and sale events. Apart from the system of publishers and distributors that connect artists and readers, exhibition and sale events (and doujinshi specialty stores) have come to connect creators and recipients, creating a cycle in which it's common for original doujin to become artists (rather than professionals or amateurs).
However, amidst the success of the doujin exhibition and sale events, from fan clubs to derivative work Circles, where even cosplayers flock to the event, it's a fact original doujin remain in the minority; the scheme of 'Labyrinth', who planned the creation of a doujinshi exhibition and sale event, overlooked its most important aspect.
The reason was the high hurdle of work creation I mentioned earlier, if you model it after manga that has been built up into a product, of course there's no way a doujin, who is less than a professional in quality of work and spirit, will be able to draw anything better than that (although this is not to say there aren't exceptions).
So, it's logical original doujin Circles have not increased as much as was desired (few doujin challenged original works), and speaking of works, original doujin departed from the genres that commercial works show with dramatic volume and were able to distinguish themselves from professional artists by publishing small works, such as essay comics, short stories, and illustration collections.
Fan clubs and derivative work Circles, made up of fans of commercial works, like cosplayers, can be said to have filled in the gaps in the genres of works they developed, and original doujin came to function as amateur artists who complemented publishers.
While not much, original doujin, who were aiming to break away from the 'manga industry' where publishers are at the top, firmly integrated into the industry.
Even in 'Comic Market', though it appeared by setting up 'business booths', we've been incorporated into the 'business world', the fact most participating Circles are made up of derivative work Circles and fan clubs means they have become part of the industry, and 'Comitia' (コミティア), which claims to be an exhibition and sale event for 'independent productions' rather than 'original works', is also looking for a way to survive by integrating with the industry, such as by incorporating a dispatched editorial department. Of course, I'm not blaming them as they are one part of doujinshi exhibition and sale events.
As far as original doujin go, no matter how hard they try, them being unable to stand up against an industry dominated by publishers stems from the uniqueness in the expression of 'manga' (though it's a commercial work), which actually has a high hurdle to complete, so they're doing other things such as essay comics that can be drawn with one hand (of course, there are excellent works as well) while stirring a cup of tea with the other to avoid this, so the question becomes is it possible for doujin to do anything other than that?
However, since professional artists dedicate their 'daily lives' to manga, so unless you are able to maintain your real job and other daily activities while still drawing works that aren't drawn by professionals (or are equal to or better than professionals), there's no point in being an original doujin. I believe Aniwa Jun viewed original doujin in this way, encouraging them to execute this by hosting MGM and speaking to them himself. 'Show us in the form of your work' a world that can only be depicted in original doujin.
However, due to the high hurdles faced in the expression of what is called manga, these attempts lost momentum over the years. He died without being able to establish a method that could compete with the spirit and production quantity of professional artists. He eventually began serialising 'Let Us Improve Through Everyone!!' (みんなでうまくなろうやんけ!!) in the 'MGM Newspaper' published by MGM. When the organiser of the exhibition and sale event himself has no choice but to instruct the original doujin participants in how to create stories, how desperate must he have been to be cornered to that extent?
Nevertheless, by holding MGM events over and over, Aniwa Jun incorporated doujinshi exhibition and sale events into his 'everyday life' and was able to see it through to the end. Rather than dedicating his daily life to manga, he made his existence akin to manga and made it compatible with his everyday life. It is true if you dedicate your everyday life to manga and become a professional artist, you may not be able to follow in the footsteps of doujin artists, but there is a way to develop worlds and new works while following the 'quantity' and spirit of doujin, right? It can be said he continued to be a doujin who faced manga on equal footing, looking for a way to do so while other doujin chose the path of derivative works to follow the work they loved rather than pursue the difficulties of original work.
And as I wrote at the very beginning, doujin are those who put themselves in 'human relationships that are connected through manga'. Drawing manga is a solitary task, but through doujin, it's possible to connect with those who likewise create. Even so, the purpose is not to connect, but to walk together and move forward together. What is the meaning and real charm in doujin besides sharing such a forward-looking gaze? On the contrary, they can connect only by looking forward; if they stay where they were and become afraid of change, they would likely be acquaintances rather than doujin.
Original doujin are people who can consciously share the work of drawing manga, which normally cannot be shared. The sense of camaraderie professional artists share with each other is naturally different. That's why I believe even I wanted to be in a doujin, and I'm sure Aniwa Jun was the same, or had feelings close to such. Facing forward with doujin in 'everyday life', aiming for a new world of manga that can be seen by walking, we still cannot stop walking.
Illustration: Sangatsukan (三月館) (Wiki)
Circle Name of the illustrator Saegusa Jun (さえぐさ じゅん).
Next up will be 3 short interviews with Gotou Kasumi, Kazuna Kei, and Nakajima Fumio by an artist called Ohyo back in 2022. Out of these 3, I think Kazuna Kei has had the most profound influence on early western anime fans, since he's the one who did the character designs and art for the Cream Lemon anime titles that were localised into English back in the 1980s. Kazuna has been on the internet for as long as I can remember, and I've always found him to be an incredibly interesting artist with interesting stories (if Elon Musk deletes Kazuna Kei's twitter account, that would be the gravest of travesties for researchers).