Geek girls read into new gender roles with gay guys' manga

Oh no! Otaku are on track to be outnumbered, outdone and out-powered by outspoken otome, opines Josei Jishin (2/7).

Otome have become powerful players in the Japanese market, even setting up their own "hallowed ground" just as the otaku from who these female geeks are derived and now dominate the Akihabara district once best known for its electronics shops.

Female otaku, a term now made redundant by otome, which roughly translates as "maiden," have created "Otome Road," a small alleyway in Tokyo's Higashi Ikebukuro district that is just a stone's throw away from Sunshine 60, a skyscraper occupying the prison where the country's war criminals were incarcerated following the end of World War II.

"A feature of the area is that there are so many bookstores devoted to comics and books filled with stories about homosexual men in a genre called Boy's Love. The Otome Road label came from the May 2004 edition of Pafu, a magazine on the comic business," says Rumiko Okuma, manager of Kei Books Ikebukuro Comic-kan, one of the bookstores on Otome Road.

The rise of the otome can be easily traced. In 2000, Animate, a company famous for producing a magazine of the same name, opened its refurbished Tokyo headquarters to reveal it had set aside considerable space for women comic readers, until then a largely neglected part of the manga otaku market.

Growing number of manga- and comic-related events started catering to women and it became the norm for bookstores to set aside floors or areas devoted to the female otaku. Stores catering exclusively to women also began popping up, especially in the Ikebukuro area, creating an "if you build it, they will come" effect that led to the half-dozen outlets making up Otome Road.

Otome Road's otome are a cross-section of Japanese womanhood, with ages ranging from teenage junior high school girls to housewives in their late 40s.

Otome Road's bookstores also have a varied collection, Josei Jishin says, with the types of manga basically divided into the five main genres of girl's comics, anime, original manga, entertainment and novels. Some of the stores even have special adults only sections where the raunchier rags are stored.

Doshinshi, manga produced by amateur fans, dominate the shelves along Otome Road, with a significant chunk of the comics' stories about more famous cartoons that imitate, parody or develop on characters who are usually household names in Japan.

Nearly all the magazines are covered with a plastic seal that prevents them from being read, which is common when handling manga, but not seen so often with most other reading materials in Japan.

Prices hover at the 1,000-yen mark for brand-new comics, and about 200 yen if bought secondhand.

"I'd say there's less of the visual appeal of manga targeting younger readers, but a feature of the business is the large number of women who find the relationships between the characters enjoyable," Otome Road's Okuma tells Josei Jishin.

"Many of the manga are sort of like sidebar stories for the real characters they're copying. Many of the characters build up a real devoted following, and the most popular characters are nearly always really passive types."

from MAINICHI NEWS.

you know what i want to do now? in case i don't push through with my JET application and if things aren't as peachy with the company as they are so far, i'm going to organize a girls-week-out and drag a bunch of gal pals to raid IKEBUKURO's OTOMEGAI.

i figure if we all bunk in the same budget hotel or ryoukan room, eat for cheap at fastfood joints or izakaya, not make any sudden decisions to go on daytrips to OOSAKA or KYOTO, and stay well within the vicinity of central TOKYO so (we can hoof it to SHINJUKU/YOYOGI and SHIBUYA/HARAJUKU) -- i think we can make it.

the hardest thing to settle would be air fares and hotel accomodations of course, as we have to get discounted plane tickets and reserve cheap rooms well in advance -- especially with the number of girls who might be coming along (in excess of six?). then there's the VISA issue, as the local japan embassy is rather strict, yet the foreign affairs department isn't exactly the most helpful in the world.

but i am not worried, because sooner or later, b01pr0n will prevail~!!!