12 February 2012

The Fundoshi: Best Supporting Role

Let's continue February's extremely naughty flavorings with some excerpts from a famous piece of gay manga.

Japanese yaoi artist Ayane Yamano published "A Foreign Love Affair" (a.k.a. Ikoku Irokoi Romantan) in 2008, the story of Yakuza heir Ranmaru and Italian ship captain Al. Ranked first in many year-end manga reader's polls, "A Foreign Love Affair" is notable for several glimpses and mentions of fundoshi, as well as one sizzling fundoshi-augmented sex scene.

"A Foreign Love Affair" is notable not only for it's artistic, fine-lined drawings and romantic story, but also for making the Western yaoi market aware of the fundoshi. The fundoshi's profile has been raised quite a bit since, with popular animations like Samurai Jack even depicting it -- not to mention its frequent appearance as an essential article of "fanservice" (the practice of showing popular characters in states of undress, sexual situations, glimpses of underwear, etc. as a way of fulfilling the reader's desire for that character).

Yaoi manga in the U.S. is notable for having a primarily female readership, the theory being that women enjoy gay sex both for the depictions of undressed male forms as well as the lack of sexual threat that homosexual partners pose toward female characters -- and by extension, female readers. It is also thought that female readers value the male-to-male tenderness that is depicted in yaoi, as opposed to the tougher characters and rougher sex depicted in bara manga, which is preferred by gay men.

Reproduced below is an excerpt from the story, as well as a few loose pages that show Ranmaru in his fundoshi and a loose-fitting kimono:


(you can click on the pages to bring them up to readable size)


(and keep in mind that you read each page from right-to-left... )


5 comments:

John said...

Hot use of fundoshi and even the word in print there so it's not just an undisclosed detail. THat's cool. The theme is also cool and what I like about man to man sex. It's a cool way to change sex roles and experience the duality of sex with a woman and then with a man. Both are great. The pain is just a rite of passage. Great post. Thanks. I'm starting my day pretty hard. :)

john said...

Here is a link to a drawing I found online which I like a lot.

http://martegodpopo.deviantart.com/art/Naruto-no-Fundoshi-35868987

Ryan Rokushaku said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ryan Rokushaku said...

I like that one also! I found another one I bet you'll like too: http://yuni.deviantart.com/art/Gabriel-and-Michael-80305480

John said...

Oh, that's awesome!