I'm reasonably happy with the deputy service, but shipping costs deter me from buying any more Esca doujinshi unless it's absolutely stunning ._. (Browsing through auctions is always fun, though.) It's sad that so many things are relatively inaccessible because I live in the wrong country. Many doujinshi are also either rare or expensive on auctions, because of their limited production and quality. But the worst thing is that I'd really prefer to buy them from the authors, instead of giving the profits to a third party. I wonder if any of them would be interested in an e-book sort of thing. I'd totally buy it.
There was the 8th Escalation (Escaflowne doujinshi festival) last month. LOVE&PEACE's blog entry has pictures of the prizes she won from the scratch lottery (scroll down to 2006.10.25). She did a special 10 year celebration doujinshi called 10 Year Love and is taking orders right now *sigh* Minato made better clothing for Van and Merle; too bad I already wrote ch2.
I've been struggling over whether or not I should talk about "mature" doujinshi here, but finding "Momentary Breeze, Eternal Moment" was as exciting as finding a great Esca fanfic on ff. It illustrates the relationship between Van and Folken in an interesting way that I never quite thought about before, and it can stand alone very well without the erotica. So I will talk about its rendition of character development and storyline:
The main idea of MBEM lies in the fundamental juxtaposition between the brothers' relationship in Van's childhood and "now," as Esca already set up.
5 years old Van finds Folken at the gardens, asking if Folken is becoming king. Folken says yes, he will probably become king, and asks if Van would dislike him if he kills a dragon. Van says no, because he likes his brother. This scene was especially great because during the conversation, Folken reties the bow on Van's shirt :3
In the "now," although he is constantly reminded of Fanelia and Balgus, Van finds himself unable to resist Folken or hate him, because he so desires their past relationship, of being close to Folken. When Van has a chance to kill Folken in his sleep, he is unable to do it. Folken wakes up, asks if Van still hates him. Van replies, no, he wants Folken to live. He cannot forget the time they've spent together.
Of course, the set up is changed to cast Van into the feminine role. His change is not only physical (more complex hair, feminine facial features, less body definition), but also emotional (attachment to the past, longing for love, hard decision to kill Folken). But the emotional depth to the story was well done and the art beautiful, and it really wasn't very yaoi except for a few pages. I had always viewed yaoi as "ew" since there are so many bad examples, but after reading MBEM I found a new level of appreciation for it. Or maybe I just like feminine boys.
2 comments:
Yeah, prices can get pretty high. But your right... it is fun to browse. And sometimes you do find something special enough to shell out some hard-earned greens for.
I'm gonna check out the Love & Peace blog when I have more time. Isn't it amazing how so many people in the US just don't give a lot of time to artistic outlets like fanfics or doujinshi? Over here its thought that anything animated is really only for kids or people who never " grew up." At least, that's how most people I know think.
I guess that makes me, in their eyes, an immature, nerdy, weird artist person... but that's okay. I know better. :)
I suppose it's because manga/anime selection in Japan is much larger, and the cultural influence is more prevalent. Many manga that are more adult-orientated (City Hunter, etc.) are not as wide-spread here.
Sigh, I already want to buy some more Esca doujinshi ._,
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