The most talked about winner of this year’s Shogakukan Manga Awards was Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga, whose film adaptation at the end of last year was largely successful. The story takes place in the Edo period at the historical Ooku (the residence of wives and mistresses of the Shogun), except for the roles of men and women have been reversed. In other words, the Shogun is a woman, and is surrounded by handsome samurais. Such scenario, called the “if” genre, have been seen in numerous novels. Although seemingly the story is a feminist depiction of women rising to power in society, I don’t believe this to be true.
Ooku actually targets the increasing population of ‘fujoshi’ women, whose fantasy involves being surrounded by beautiful men and throwing demands at them. The concept isn’t so ambitious. But thanks to her talent, Yoshinaga has created the kind of realism in the drama that readers have been unable to resist.
A fujoshi (‘fu’ means rotten, and ‘joshi’ means girl) is a play on words with another Japanese word of the same sound, meaning “woman” or “lady.” The term describes a woman whose passions are manga and anime, but unlike the ‘normal’ otaku, their fantasies are vile and always sexual. Accepting that their sexual fantasies are utterly inappropriate, they call themselves “rotten girl.”
Most shojo (girls’) mangas are romantic. A girl who reads such comics will relate themselves to the main characters of the mangas, fantasizing that one day, like the fictional prima donna, fate will take her to Mr. Right where an extraordinary romance awaits. But as the reader grows up, the gap between reality and fantasy becomes larger and larger. She realizes that such man does not exist. Even if he did, there is no way he would behave exactly the way she wants him to. With this realization, the girl decides to stay inside the comforting world of manga and anime, where she’s protected from getting hurt. Unable to get out, her fantasy grows bigger and bigger, her age older and older. She eventually creates a world that is so far off from reality that she is trapped. She is the Ooku reader.
But isn’t Ooku for young girls? Isn’t it a little too juvenile for a grown woman’s liking? No. In fact, shojo manga readers span from ten to fifty-year-olds. Whatever their age, the Japanese do not stop reading manga. This is a nation where most of the population grew up reading manga and watching anime, and there is a growing trend of mangas that allow readers to escape reality and find comfort in the two-dimensional world of fantasy.
Without digressing too much, the readership of shonen manga is also becoming older. Perhaps surprisingly, 40% of those who read shonen manga is actually women.
Currently, keitai (cell phone) manga, where readers can read manga on their cell phone screens, is extremely popular. The most successful of the kind is undoubtedly BL or ‘Boys Love,’ targeted at fujoshi. As opposed to the conventional male-female romance, Boys Love illustrates romance between men – not any men that is, but “beautiful” men. The readers, I must emphasize, are not gay. In fact they are straight women. The appeal is that since the men are so unattainable, it is the furthest thing from reality. Hence it is completely harmless to fantasize about them, and they can go as far as they like. Does that sound rotten to you?
The Boys Love boom in Japan is currently at its peak. From manga to anime and novels, the genre is a massive hit, and no one really cares who the author or creator is, as long as it’s quality BL. As most fujoshi have careers, they are happy to spend. “Seize the fujoshi” have become the motto in the Japanese publishing industry.
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