A home for fans of 20th century shoujo, manga and anime aimed at young women.
Shoujo of the Day: From Eroica With Love (Aoike Yasuko)


A home for fans of 20th century shoujo, manga and anime aimed at young women.

A home for fans of 20th century shoujo, manga and anime aimed at young women.
I always thought it was interesting how much this manga crossed over from manga fandom to Western media fandom. A large amount of the fanfic that was written for it was by fans who had never written for another manga or anime fandom before or since. And it's particularly interesting because Eroica's heyday was back when it was still pretty difficult to get your fix of Japanese canon. It wasn't nearly as accessible as stuff is these days.
Anyone have any thoughts about why THIS work in particular had such crossover appeal?
I think, from memory, some people writing in it hadn't actually read the source. This is just an impression, though, and may be muddled because I remember Professionals fandom at the time being full of people who had never seen it. (Like me. Ahem.)
The setup is slash catnip, U guess. Slashy but not consummated... And the spy setup is familiar. And maybe Henry Jenkins helped. Other than that, I have no idea. Eroica is like the polar opposite of the manly buddies that the slash fandom I ran with went for.
Man, this manga takes me way back!
I was obsessed with FEWL when I was in high school. I still remember picking up the manga randomly based on the pretty boy cover and learning Dorian and co were based on Led Zeppelin. I don't exactly miss Dorian's love interest from the first volume, but I do wonder how different it would have been if Caesar had been kept around. (Of course, that would have meant less Iron Klaus and I don't think fandom would have latched on to the manga as tightly then.)
I haven't kept up with all the later issues (is someone still scanlating it?), but I still own my English copies. I was so sad that CMX went under and never reached volume 19.
I didn't know about Led Zeppelin, but OMG it makes sense!!!
I only know it from fandom osmosis, because it was the big manga thing when I was a fannish baby and it made it into Textual Poachers, but it sounds like so much fun, that I am going to hunt it down.
At the time I drifted into Xena fandom and never really came back to the boys, and wasn't really interested in manga until some time later (and fansubbed 4th generation VHS tapes of Wedding Peach.)
I've never heard of Textual Poachers. What was it?
It really is a great manga series if you like heists, comedic hijinks, strong pepperings of BL, and 30+ volumes of pure UST.
I've been watching anime for a longtime, but somehow I've never seen Wedding Peach. I do remember the good ol'day of VHS tapes though. What dark ages!
I sometimes think I've gone to sleep and woken up in anime heaven. Legal simulcasts! DVD and Bluray box sets for less than a VHS with three episodes! High definition and legible, sense-making subtitles! Merchandise everywhere!
I can't commit to 30+ volumes, but I'll certainly give it a go. BL is not so much my thing anymore, but UST of any kind is great.
Textual Poachers was one of the seminal academic works on fandom. The author's wife was an Eroica fan.
It's incredible to think how far we've come with being able to get our mitts on anime & manga. I remember spending so much time in video stores renting one VHS, just to watch a few episodes. Now you can watch the whole series for free on the net without leaving your house. Younger me would have cried from happiness. And failed school.
I must admit, I haven't even read all the manga! I know there are scans floating around, but once CMX dropped FEWL, my participation in fandom waned. I should really get on it as it is very funny.
It's not an actual BL manga, if that helps. Eroica - Dorian Red Gloria - is gay, but most of the manga centers around the action adventure heist plots more than anything else.
Oh, that's interesting. Thanks!
It's not that I object to BL, it's more that I'm into girls in love, or at least plausibly so. :) I will definitely seek it out.
I practically cry from happiness these days! I tend to watch on my phone on sleepless nights, and OMG, I never would have slept at school.
I wish I had some vintage shoujo-ai to tell you about, but the ones I do know have already been covered by the comm in some form :(
The present is a grand place to be!
I feel like I'm learning lots just picking shoujo of the day! My reading list is growing...