I have been reading a lot about slash lately.  Of course, after these often heavily personal and often over simplified treatsies I have to go and read a nice PWP or something to get my brain working again, but I have found them very interesting.  One thing I have noticed however is a lack in discussions of slash in anime and manga. I know, I know; this is the sub-culture of a sub-culture so what do I really expect?  Still, it’s interesting to compare what has been written about slash in the larger Anglo-American fandoms (such as Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings and the archetypal Star Trek) and my own experiences in anime and manga fandoms.

  I see my affliation with slash in three phases.  My experiences of slash and animanga began many years ago in the depths of the Gundam Wing fandom.  Known to many as the Depths Of Hell, this fandom was scary.  Fans battled viciously over everything and anything and within this setting I got my first taste of shipping wars, flames, online personalities and hard-core man on man porn involving cartoon characters.  I loved every second of it.

  After a particularly violent argument I decided to leave the fandom and found new and much less angsty pastures in the wilderness with but a few diversions into Western slash fiction, mostly in the Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter fandoms.  

  It was not until many years on when I moved to Japan, however, that I discovered the bewildering possibilities of slash in animanga fandoms.  And here I find myself now, completely obsessed with two ships in completely obscure fandoms, contemplating the differences that define slash in those Anglo-American fandoms and in the animanga fandoms I have so come to love.

  In this little essay, I am not really concerned about the how’s or why’s of slashing.  As other authors have argued more eloquently than I ever could, “slash has become so diverse that it easily thwarts anyone trying to find one generalizing principle”(1).  What I am concerned about is the fact that many of the “explanations” given by commentators on Anglo-Amerian slash writing do not always work for animaga fandoms.

Relationships I.  Canon and Culture

And it all begins with relationships.  When I watch Stargate SG-1 or Star Trek, or read Lord of the Rings or Sherlock Holmes I wonder just how much of what I perceive as slashiness is really there.  Am I just seeing things, or did the authors put it there on purpose?  And here-in lies what I believe is the biggest difference between Anglo-American and animanga fandoms.  Fan-service.  Let us take some of my ships as pertinent, if somewhat obscure, examples. 

  GetBackers is the tale of two men who work together as retrieval agents.  If you are anything of a slash fan, you see the possibilities already.  They are best friends as well as compatriots.  They spend all of their time together.  They know when the other is in trouble.  And yes, this could be just close male friendship as the slash-haters espound, but for the fact that I KNOW the authors of this long-running series are two straight men who are fans of Yaoi.  So, when they have Ginji telling Ban he loves him or when they include canon male-male kissing, I KNOW they are thinking about me and the legions of slash-obsessed fans like me who are lapping this stuff up like the depraved fangirls we are.  I can just SEE them chuckling evilly as they have Ban grind out that god-awful classic line to Ginji; “The S in GetBackers means we are never alone”.  Yes, they know exactly what they are writing.  But they are just teasing me, because GetBackers remains a manga very much aimed at boys, male-kissing and all. (It was only a plot device after all.) 

  Tactics is of another kind altogether.  Though published in a supposedly shonen magazine, Tactics feels very much like it is aimed at a female audience.  And the authors are two women who draw doujinshi for their own characters. So, there can be no denying what these authors are thinking about when they have Haruka say that Kantarou is “special”.  For both of these manga, I won’t even go into the anime because they up the gay-ante million fold.

  Conversely, although some TV series and books have some obvious (or not so obvious) added man-love, I do not think the majority do.  Harry Potter is a prime example here.  And much of this, I think, can be explained by considering the encompassing cultures of each.

  I once had a conversation with a friend about how I thought more girls would be into slash if they were as exposed to it as Japanese girls were.  My friend agreed, with the proviso; “But in the West we have the problem of Christianity.”  Oh happy day!  I can blame Christianity for the lack of male-male porn written by women in the West!  But there is some truth here.  Homosexuality is not something to be reviled in Japan.  Indeed, there is a tradition that same sex male relationships are infact superior to male-female relationships (2).  Though this is not all about the porn.  Strong male friendship is not something which is “unmanly” (3), but is very evident amongst boys and young men.  Holding hands, hugs, and even kissing your male friends is not uncommon. I see it everyday at work.  Male friendship in Japan is eulogized in literature and film to a much greater degree than I have seen in the West.  So what is my argument here?  Well, that more often than not, there is more of a basis for slash in animanga fandoms than in Anglo-American based fandoms.  Not that this makes one or the other more valid, or that many animanga fans even realize this.  However, I will come back to discussing the fans themselves later.        

Relationships II. Gender and Gender-roles

  Despite my comments about homosexuality in Japan, we should not take this too far.  The relationship between reality and fiction/ideology is a tenuous one and we should not confuse the politics of homosexuality in Japan with Yaoi, boys love in anime and manga, and fanfiction.  My argument here is merely that Japanese culture makes these relationships more acceptable to a larger audience.  But let us also not confuse relationships in reality with relationships as represented in these media.  This is especially true when one looks at specifically Yaoi anime and manga, doujinshi and Japanese fan fiction.

  Yaoi media in Japan is, without a doubt, generally a very unrealistic image of homosexual relationships.  Everyone who has ever read or seen it will know of the stereotyped, crying “ukes” and the forceful, domineering “semes”.  So, where is the equality in the relationship many writers comment are a big draw of slash?  Even in non-specifically Yaoi literature, there is usually a clear uke and seme.  In GetBackers, Ban’s personality clearly marks him out as seme, with blond, touchy-feely Ginji his uke.  Tactics is even more obvious. Light haired, small Kantarou is clear uke to Haruka’s tall, dark and broody character.  Authors even make fun out of and play with these conventions.  The authors of GetBackers made Ginji the taller of the pair; a characteristic usually reserved for the seme.  And Kantarou? Well, he’s about as manipulative a character as they come. 

  This strong definition of what could be seen as “male” and “female” roles is prevelant in doujinshi and Japanese fan fiction also, making it a joyous rarity when one comes across a pairing of equality.  This is a complaint many Western fans of the genre have; that characters are often over-feminised so that pairings clearly have a defined male and female element.  I can even find parallels in heterosexual real person pornography and Yaoi media concerning the role of the “female” during sex.  (S)he is usually crying or at least being the most vocal of the pair, and is often passive during the act.  Yes, I have watched Japanese porn.  It’s not what I’d call exciting.   

The Fandoms I. Demographics and Size     

(1) “Fan/Tastic Voyage: A journey into the wide wild world of slash fiction”, by Noy Thrupkaew in Bitch #20