Lectures on Yaoi Anime

I've been doing some lectures on yaoi anime in recent months, and here are some of the titles I have to select from, provided that I'm working in an over-18 situation:

SAMPLES OF “BOY-BOY” ANIME AND MANGA FROM KITTY MEDIA

by Lyn Jensen

While shelf-browsing DVDs recently I found several manga—Japanese paperback graphic novels published by Kitty Media, including Dog Style and Skyscrapers of Oz and Crimson Spell—labeled “Boy-Boy” and packaged like DVDs. I discovered Kitty Media (part of Media Blasters) is marketing some of their yaoi (male-male romance) manga with a promotional DVD for yaoi anime (Japanese animation) tucked inside.

Purchase one and on that promotional DVD you’ll find brief but sexually explicit video previews for:

• Embracing Love: Cherished Spring about a romance between two of Tokyo’s hottest actors and their on-going relationship struggles, their every move watched by the public and the press.
• My Sexual Harassment depicting the rise of a young executive who prostitutes himself to his corporate superiors. It's notorious for a scene with an ear of corn.  The critic Charles Solomon once described it in the Los Angeles Times with, “the feeble plot is there just to provide a link to the animated sex scenes.”  Years ago DMI/DMP announced their intention to publish the manga and/or novel version, but nothing happened.
• Kizuna is the animated version of a very popular breakthrough manga series begun by Kazuma Kodaka in the nineties, in which two half-brothers, sons of a yakuza boss, compete for the attentions of a handsome young athlete--a kendo swordsman, for those familiar with Japanese fencing terminology.
• Level C is an erotic romantic comedy between a teenage male model and a handsome young executive, with the connotation being that “Level C” is the top of the corporate (and romantic) ladder.
• Sensitive Pornograph features two stories, one about men who draw erotic comics, and the other about a pet-sitter who finds a different kind of pet.
• No Money concerns the trafficking of a young biracial male sex slave to a man who may or may not be all business.
• Legend of the Blue Wolves combines eye-popping homerotica with more typical plot lines commonly found in mainsteam anime, so be prepared for graphic sex intermingling with sci-fi martial arts battles over the fate of the world and even the universe.  Interestingly, I hear that this is one example of yaoi that was created at least party by a man.
•  The DVD concludes with previews for Kitty Media yaoi manga including Scandalous Seiryu University, Incubus, Family and Dog Style.
• As for the packaged manga, Skyscrapers is a complete story, the others are beginnings of series. All titles contained within these promo packages are recommended for adults only, and are hard to find in stores. If you find anything of further interest, I hope you'll recommend it to me for my lecture series.  If you can't attend a lecture or can't wait for one, shop online or request that your favorite DVD retailer make a special order.