While writing my MA thesis on gender in manga, I was sure I would have to include 'bishounen' somewhere. Bishounen are what everything's about in shoujo and BL, bishounen are everywhere! But when taking a look at the definition most researchers give, I wondered if there aren't two types of 'bishies'.

Because, the definition I find in various sources talks about these androgynous pretty boys, who might as well be flat-chested girls (have you taken a look in their pants?), and are considered a 'third gender' by many (including Ian Buruma who talks about bishounen in many aspects of Japanese culture). True true, bishounen can be pretty girly, and pretty, with big eyes and looking good in dresses. But these are not the only bishounen, I mean, girls are good at finding their favourite main character in almost all kind of series, even those in a drawing style which is very un-bishounen-like, such as Dragon Ball or One Piece. So what do we do with the handsome, cool characters that are so popular? Are they still bishounen? Or what about the really good looking but mena guys that appear in many shoujo manga these days, they're obviously very manly in what they do. Or even the male characters in many, many popular shounen series, they're popular with girls, they're good looking and really cool, too! But they may not be as androgynously 'pretty' as the typical bishounen... So what do we do now?

There definitely is this kind of girly-pretty-boy idea as the ideal bishounen, so maybe there's a scale of bishounen-ness. The manlier, the less bishounen. If the bishounen rate drops, the hotness rate goes up? But that would be subjective, because some girls might prefer girly men and think of them as hot. But anyway, without furder ado, I made clear what's in my mind, and when I find a definite answer, I might write something again. :)

Hime gyaru, hime kei, princess style, a relatively new trend in J-fashion





It is quite well-known that Japanese young people are into all kinds of fashion, from sexy bling-loving girls to cute, innocent acting lolita girls. One of these recent Harajuku-Shinjuku trends is the Hime style, where girls dress up in dresses full of frills, ribbons, lace, rose corsages, flower prints and all that is cute and 'princess' like. Pink is their favourite colour, but white and touches of gold are also popular. As for accesoires, tiara's, small crowns and big bows decorated with pearls and gemstones are must haves. Their hair must be bleached, long and curly or wavy, styled in ways that must take hours to say the least.

Some claim that the style spawned off Sofia Coppola's movie 'Marie Antoinette', or, more likely, the costumes in that movie. Although they share some lace, ribbons and bows, you cannot truly say that the costumes in the movie and on Meiji Street are that much alike.
I would not say that without some pictures to show what I mean...
This is a screenshot from the movie, while this girl is wearing a 'hime' dress, by Jesus Diamante, the biggest brand of hime clothing and accessoires.

If you have half an hour to spare, I would suggest you also watch this video, which was shown on Japanese tv in 2007. It takes you into the life of three hime gyaru, one of them being a young mother, another one driving trucks and working at constructions sites by day.

Which indeed suggests one important thing: money. Just like in the lolita style, it costs you a small fortune to buy a complete outfit as a hime girl, with dresses priced between 300-500€ So in order to be able to follow this style, girls need to have a part-time job while still in school, but even when they start living on their own, and want to decorate their room according to their clothingstyle, money is a big issue.

Here's another video, with English narrator, although they could have looked for a better one. She talks about going through a 'princess phase' (one which most girls have when they're 5-10 years old) and 'princes' or 'knights in 'shining armor'. Which reminds me that there is no equivalent for males yet, or is there? (Gothic) lolita has 'Elegant Arisctocrat' as it has been called, jpunk is nearly genderless, but where are the princes? I guess you might find some, though probably they are doing cosplay.

The style has also a magazine, 'koakuma ageha' entirely devoted to hime-kei. Like most fashion magazines, it's filled with pictures, includes trends, tips on make up and making accesoires, things like reviews of french restaurants and recipes,... The cover features one or more models wearing a complete hime outfit and is disturbingly sparkly. Or at least this one is. Side note, I do wonder why they named it 'little devil butterfly', although 'koakuma' usually refers to cute and devilish, it's still got a tad of evil inside, while hime girls are mainly elegant-cute. Princess like. Not very devilish, I should think.

And last thing for me to say, referring back to the entry title, some hime dresses look very much like those of sweet lolita (aka the pink and white lolita dresses), but to note one difference: the hime gyaru are allowed to show a little more skin. In theory, maybe not always in practice, lolita dresses should be long enough, and not show any cleavage, while hime dresses are more open, or can be shorter. The skirts are also less wide and poofed up by petticoats. Oh and also, hime wear high thin heels, loli's are more into platform... though not too high.

For more pictures
-> Tokyo New Tribe Don't forget to click on the pictures to see a bigger one and close ups.
-> Jesus Diamante The brand's official website.

More information
-> This article accompanies the English video, and gives about the same information.
-> gal_handbook for info, tips and tricks on all gyaru styles.
-> himegyaru LJ's own hime gyaru community~

Well, that's that! See you later!

Without the internet, manga and anime would never have become this popular outside of Japan. Although, when I was young and the internet not widely used, Japanese animation was already everywhere - sometimes clear, as in the French version of Sailor Moon on TV, sometimes hidden, as I discovered that many cartoons were animated in Japan - even the Dutch Alfred J. Kwak or Boes. (Come to think of it, I'm not sure Boes is Dutch, but oh well.)

Now, the number of manga published here (meaning, in Dutch, as English manga has been available for a longer time in webshops and also comic book stores) is also increasing - finally. I even discovered an advertisement for Bleach in a newspaper that's distributed all over the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Maybe we're going to catch up on our neighbours, Germany and France, which is certainly a good thing.

The existence of anime and manga has spawned quite some academic works, on a variety of subjects. A lot is written about Miyazaki's films, or about postmodernism and Akira, or on pokemon and globalisation, and more recently on the famous 'boy's love', fanfics & doujinshi and fansubs on the internet.

If you're wondering, you can view a pretty long list of publications here. Not everything is directly accessible though, a problem that you often encounter with academic publications, and if you have to buy them, they are impossibly expensive.

Below, I will post some more interesting websites concerning manga and anime.

animeresearch.com" as quoted from their homepage : "AnimeResearch.com is your starting point for academic research about anime, manga and other aspects of Japanese popular culture. In addition to original content, you will find links to articles and news reports that can be found on the web, as well as an extensive bibliography of books, journals and articles that are potential sources for academic or journalistic writing."

Matt Thorn has a blog and a set of articles on various subjects. Sometimes more serious than others, but certainly full of interesting pieces to read.

mangablog.net, for when you need or want to know what's happening. Links out to where the details are to be found.

This time I bring you some info on an anime series I've just watched - I really liked it, and that's why I want to recommend it to all of you!



Info:
Original title: Darker than Black - 黒の契約者 (Kuro no Keiyakusha, or ‘the black contractor’)
Episodes: 25
Year: 2007
Studio: Bones
Openings: Howling (Abingdon Boys School), Kakusei Heroism~the Hero without a Nam (Antic Cafe)
Endings: Tsukiakari (Rie Fu), Dreams (High & Mighty Color)

( Story, review & links under the cut )

The Encyclopedia of Japanese Pop Culture
by Mark Schilling, 1997.



( under this cut )

I've been wanting to post this earlier, but it took more time than I'd thought, but finally it's here! My first post about traditional Japanese music. Now why am I suddenly doing this? I was in the library's cd section and remembered they had a collection of Japanese music, and since I am curious and was looking for relaxing music, I wanted to try out some. And thus, here goes:

Koto & shamisen info and music are( under this cut )

My personal conlusion from this little excursion is that I probably like more instruments together better, as well as more modern approaches and uses of the instruments. So I'll be looking into ensembles as well. You can surely expect more about traditional music ^-^

So, maybe I should write an introduction to this journal, because - after all - this isn't your average journal. foam_club is ownded by kinlyu, and its purpose is to be the place to post things about Japan. Which may vary from information, links to cool websites, reviews & uploads, articles, translations...

There is no certainty to the update/post frequency of this journal, but I will do my best to add something weekly. After all, Japan is my main point of interest, so spending some more time on it isn't bad at all! ^-^

What can you really expect? Probably not much about sumo, go, games and the like, but more about popmusic, visual kei, j-drama. Also things typical about j-popculture, like manga, anime, karaoke, kawaii stuff, fashion...
Anything I come across during my wanderings on the internet that strike me as really interesting, reviews of books by Japanese authors, non-fiction works on Japan, articles written by myself or people I know - if they let me use them ;)

So this whole journal will pretty much be a random gathering of Japan's fun & facts!

Or so I aspire! ^-^

An utterly random first post! Apparantly foam_club opens on this jpop-note because I've been watching quite a few episodes of this show lately. It's kinda addicting, and very different from usual talkshows. (though I admit I don't watch TV often XD)

Cartoon KAT-TUN is (obviously?)hosted by KAT-TUN, one of the boybands in Johnny's Entertainment. There are 6 members in the band, and only one guest in the actual 'talking' part of the show. This often results in a funny chaotic mix of comments, critics and questions. Not only will you learn things about the guest, but also about the hosts (another rare feature in 'normal' western talkshows? :D)
Horikita Maki is a young actress who steadily gained fame and is now one of the major actresses in Japan. She acted in various dramas and feature films before, and will be acting in the movie 'Tokyo Shounen' in 2008.

//introduction over//
These episodes were subbed by NewS'FS and originally taken from nomanymore

Cartoon KAT-TUN with Horikita Maki - first episode (aired 31-10-2007)
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002
003

Cartoon KAT-TUN with Horikita Maki - cooking special (aired 07-11-2007)
001
002
003
004

Use HJsplit to join these parts together :)