Big news! I've translated Tokyo Grand Guignol's play WALPURGIS in its entirety, and
@misopichopo
has graciously posted it on her TGG blog, with photos and more! The play is really wild, so please check it out if you're interested! (photos from JUNE)
@meganroseruiz
Eugh. Agree that I wish we could find the original artists-- I'm getting Yoshitomo Nara vibes from the softness/head shapes, but the eye shapes in the last 2 pics look really familiar, and I can't place where I've seen them... Loathe these kinds of ppl
@Kekeflipnote
In the Japanese version of the scene she says「それにじつはアタイ…体はオトコのコだけどココロはカワイイオンナのコなの」 "I have a boy's body, but the heart of a cute girl" (they also made beldam/majoline's admonishment to her in boggly woods less rude)
@htGOIW
This is coming from someone who lives in the US, but it's interesting-- compared to Japanese media and its female fans, I almost never see anyone talking about female viewers enjoying this sort of thing, whether it's sexy girls or sexy boys etc..
@htGOIW
I was reading a reader submission in JUNE, and the author talked about her experience with Tokyo Grand Guignol and how she loved the catharsis of seeing these sexy boys, and seeing Miharu Koshi's characters implode their systems of cruelty. Interesting stuff
I'll be translating short essays by Ameya (when I'm not so heat exhausted) and Keiko will be posting them. So please keep an eye out, and check out the rest of her blog in the meantime, it's got loads of great info.
By 'wild' I mean Lost Boys meets Rocky Horror meets Einstürzende Neubauten, and it's *really fucking funny*. I know a lot of English speakers are interested in TGG, but since there's so little material available in English I hope this can give people a direct taste of it
im not really big on trigger warnings or super detailed tagging+dead dove is too vague i just like using 'high impact sex. high impact violence. high impact sexual violence'
hits the sweet spot
top5 favorite albums of all time (so far)
Yes- 90125
Siouxsie and the Banshees- Join Hands
The Damned- Machine Gun Etiquette
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult- Confessions of a Knife...
Isao Tomita- Snowflakes are Dancing
@htGOIW
I think there might be a bias with eng speaking viewers that "enjoying these depictions is male gaze, enjoyment is reserved for men". so enjoyment is seen as dangerous in a way and something to be avoided. it's always seemed a bit strange to me
@buttbagzzz
@regularaugust
nah the majority of the fanart by eng fans i see gives him tons of body hair so i think most people are suffering shotacon-in-denial syndrome with him
@caitlinkoi_art
I'm certain there was some Yoshitomo Nara in there too, but I feel like there's this one artist who drew eye shapes similar to some of the images, and who they are is eluding me.... Grrrr
one thing i've learned from experience is that triggers are actually weirdly specific and often completely innocuous so. honestly just going 'things could get fucked up' or 'contains irresponsible headcanoning' is best, if you trust your audience knows what they want
of doing Mercuro once I'm finished/can find a physical copy for cross referencing, but since ONLY YOU is so rare, I'd jump at the possibility to translate the Galatia script (since i think the one on keiko-san's blog is incomplete/from an audio recording.) If you ever--
@TheEyeOdyssey
Hello! Sorry this is sudden, but I'm currently working on a translation of TGG'S Walpurgis from my copy of the magazine it ran in, and I saw on your blog you have a copy of ONLY YOU, which has the script for Galatia Teito Monogatari. I've been thinking--
completely serious when i say that learning about the lost qsh asmr broke my brain. in that moment i WISHED that i could, in real life, relinquish all my human rights to have gmilf dictator david bowie hand-feed me spaghetti
@KawaiiMess
@misopichopo
I certainly do! This was just a photo collection from the Jan. 1987 issue, but the script itself was in Shousetsu June Feb and April 1987.
"i hate this thing so i'm going to make it mine instead and make it actually good" is such a weird attitude i've seen, for me the point of derivative works has always been "this shit rules and i want MORE OF IT"
@nipplegrasper
Okay I have very good news: I have a nearly complete collection of the magazine and I am DOWN for this although it might take a very long time to comb through them all
once saw someone was making a vn with extremely specific warnings for every single *scene* and had a skip scene feature for each one. it was like, slice of life, not even r18. dude just relax
edmond loves doing his whole sinbad schtick and baking alice b. toklas brownies for everyone
one day oberon comes in because merlin stole his slippers etc. and eats them all as revenge
happy times. very comedy
"validity" is conditional by nature. there's always something that could render you "invalid". superficial at best and pernicious at worst
*understanding* doesn't have any value judgments attached to it, it simply is
@nipplegrasper
The bad news is that since it's also a general info magazine for "Fun Things For Aesthetic Gals To Check Out" you might also get stuff like Police Academy 3 on the list
Of course high level fujos can see the yaoi in any of this, soooo
the blogger who posted the script has the most interesting info, since she was actually there and knows stuff that's easy to miss, like the punk band one of the actors was in, and subtle nods to another actor being a fan of neubauten+said band's connection to--
ive honestly experienced a lot of pain and guilt and frustration and anger for mmm. being isolated and in a net environment where ppl approach things in overly binaristic terms or otherwise try to put nb people in a monolithic theythem box. for so long i always felt--
i've spent a good deal of time mulling over how to write stories and make art that's "meaningful" and has layers and lots to pick apart etc
but i've come to realize how so much of good art has to on some level speak for itself and resist that kind of cut and dry analysis
@ashashio
I understand, even up till recently seeing this one thing i used to like or anything remotely related would make my heart race and fill me with terror c_c It's getting better, and the feeling of relief knowing it doesn't hurt as much is great
its exhausting to think about this stuff bc most ppl only seem to do it in bad faith and not a "hey maybe acknowledging that there are different ways of writing about genderqueerness is a good idea actually"
i actually had a dream one night
there was a game series called lieutenant oscars case files and in one chapter he went to get info from a jazz pianist he liked and was made to smoke weed and started hallucinating but it was just oregano
i really dislike infantilization of/ppl acting all patronizing and objectify-y with regards to any feminine gnc characters so, i think we need to let their qualities shine through as human as any other character. and they also need to be threatening
there are a LOT of footnotes i had to put in for walpurgis. tokyo goth clubs! concise explanations of the word "okama"! old soft drink commercials! ameya getting the title of "american gothic" wrong!
i think riyo deserves more appreciation for throwing so many of his goofy ass fetishes(?) (rope bondage? characters being covered in lotion?) into LWM but the manga is so absurd that it comes off as hilarious rather than uncomfortable or weird
@KennyLauderdal3
I have the first 3 issues of gekkan halloween, that's 80s but it might be a good place to start? If you need any of that I'd be willing to help
i somehow bumbled my way into doing the apparently? very first english translation of a chuya nakahara poem that was quoted in the play. it's a lovely poem so i hope i didn't butcher it too much.
his sense of self is strong enough and he has no reason to deny his love and admiration for fujiko
embracing the fujiko within/without vs getting consumed by someone else's image of fujiko because you just couldn't reconcile the conflicting aspects of yourself
okay tbh if you get like 10 shots of tequila in me i will probably start thinking puffy botched plastic surgery washed up glam rocker serial killer nic cage is "moé"
and that's why it's so much more substantial, even if it's really difficult. if you're at least willing to put in the effort to wrap your head around something, that shows you're actually serious and not doing it to save face
anyway i hope this feels a little liberating. i don't wanna be scared of jerks. i wanna be open that i'm uncomfortable with self loathing memes. i love everyone (who isn't a horrid gremlin) and i wanna love myself too
What’s the most “crazy” or “evilish” part of your family lore?
I’ll start:
A relatively close relative of mine was in the second limo with Korean dictator Chun during the Rangoon bombing.
@GENCZILLA
for now i think we have to get by by telling ourselves to just create for the people who do care, because there'll always be *someone* who cares, but on a larger scale it's a really depressing and i can only hope the tide changes someday
actually mostly just lupin shit at least for now. i like when the series has the vibe of lots of other shit going on in the world, outside the main circle of the protagonists. mid 20th cen was cuh-razy times so you can basically do anything
genuinely so pumped and refreshed after finishing walpurgis. like this could be the start to something great. it's a genuinely important piece of work by a secretly very influential group and i feel so happy that i can maybe bring it to a wider audience as soon as it gets a home
why doesn't anyone talk about lupin (despite knowing oscar's true identity) perving on him in a way that seems a little too real to be an act and then jumping through a rosebush while carrying him (in contrast to lilies used in the preceding scene)
thinking a bit more on it, a lot of eng otakus' strategy seems to be insisting "yeah, i'm cringe! i'm super cringe!" which is still, y'know. operating on the assumption that these things -are- cringe. just saying "this rules! i like it!" without any irony is healthier imo
mweh oscar getting forcefemmed as having femininity pushed onto him as something demeaning and degrading and self-annihilating right as he had the opportunity to embrace it as part of his strength
vs goemon getting fujikofied and immediately rolling with it because
fwiw i say 'moe' a lot and there isn't an ounce of irony in it, just because it's a word that captures the essence of a lot of feelings i have on a lot of things.
i think also ppl still have a deep internalized fear of being labeled 'cringe weeaboos' despite everything