MTV News writes about the popularity of manga with special emphasis on yaoi. Be Beautiful publisher Masumi O’Donnell explains that women find yaoi appealing because it combines romantic stories with beautiful men. Artist Youka Nitta comments that in Japan, older women prefer less explicit, more romantic stories, while the younger women are just the opposite, adding, “And the women [readers] are often not doing so well with their husbands.” And Tokyopop’s Lillian Diaz-Przybl explains why these books are more appealing than, say, a Harlequin Romance:
“As a woman you’re automatically intended to associate with the female character in that situation,” she said. “Even in things that I would consider feminist and good examples for women you don’t always really associate with that character. That might not necessarily be who you want to be. Boys-love manga totally flips that on its head.”
The article spends a brief moment on the possiblity of backlash, but Tokyopop CEO Stuart Levy doesn’t seem to be too worried:
“We’re just trying to represent all kinds of storytelling, all kinds of people out there, all kinds of lifestyles,” said Levy. “In fact, we’re going to do Christian manga too. We have a feeling if you’re reading one you’re probably not going to be reading the other.”
MTV has a video to accompany the article, but it won’t run on a Mac, so I’m not even going to diginify it with a link.
[…] Anyway, the article now posted over at the MTV News page comes complete with a video in the overdrive section (which unlike Brigid who cannot play it on a Mac, I can’t play it because I’m in the UK!). It is a fairly solid affair and really you cannot go wrong on these opening articles nowadays (I hope!), but once you get passed the introduction Totilo turns to look at Yaoi and OEL which is a little more tricky but with some excellent comments from people makes the whole thing work really well. The part I loved best was Youka Nitta explaining her readership back in Japan, in Japan, there was a divide between the expectations of her older and younger readers. “She has more younger fans who want harder, more explicit material,” her translator said. “And the older they get the more romance they want. And the women [readers] are often not doing so well with their husbands.” […]