Animerica Volume 11, no. 9/September 2003. Upcoming issue with an overview of the Bishonen ideal, "The Seduction of Beauty" by me. ^___^ Includes information not found on this site.

July 23rd--

Added some info to the "Where to Find Them" List. Added a number of links to the weird and cool links section, and a link to The Yaoi Shrine (who have kindly offered to help with the yaoi info section of this site).

THE SANDMAN DEATH MANGA, PEOPLE. GO FIND IT! (Why wasn't this in the manga section of any of the mainstream stores that stock shelves of Sandman and Tokyo Pop books?)

Jill Thompson's "Death: At Death's Door" manga from the DC Comics Sandman universe. Shojo, Lolita-goth and a wickedly fun retelling (from Death's viewpoint, of course) of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman: Season of Mists". Jill is a wonderful, whimsical artist and one of the few western female sequential artists whose work gets decent exposure... and has a knack for seamlessly encorporating Japanese conventions into comics. In two words: kakoi, kawaii.

July 10th-- Weird links and news section added.

July 8th-- "Manga: Japanese Picture Stories Aren't Underground Anymore" article by Mason Adams in The Roanoke Times. Cool information, several brief interviews, a snippet of my bishonen art, and some sweet images (no images on the virtual version, sorry). If you're curious, you can find it here: http://www.roanoke.com/roatimes/news/story151989.html

Plans

We intend to expand this page and provide an 800x600 mirror site by late August/early September! Bookmark this page and check for updates! For now the yaoi page remains a simple explanation for those unfamiliar with manga, and as a clarification for those who perceive homosexuality in every aspect and portrayal of bishonen, and well-meaning fans who have come to use the slang term for a very specific genre as synonmyous with homosexuality in and outside of Japanese culture. If you bash us for a straightforward scholarly analysis, you're waaaaaaaaaaay off keel. (And if you think I'm anti-gay or anti-yaoi... you haven't gone through this site).

When the site expansions are completed, we intend to include a tutorial on identifying bishonen vs handsome/cute guys, thorough links page, and galleries as a further art, literary, and cultural analysis of the ideal.

When this site is completed the next project will be bishoujo, examining the Japanese ideal of female beauty. The third extension, bishojo-nen, is the strange realm of crossed-gender roles and idealization in Japanese culture; from fictional examples like Utena Tenjou of Revolutionary Girl Utena and Fushigi Yuugi's Nuriko, to real-life female samurai who lived as male warlords, kabuki theatre with its specialized feminine roles (both on and off stage) and a persistent admiration of transvestite males (as demonstrated by the J-rock transvestite god, Mana, whose entire persona is female and remains virtually unknown as a male beneath the makeup and clothes).

Purpose

I'm a student and freelancer of many things-- illustration, writing, fiction and design. In case you're interested, this site is the inception of a magazine article/book project, born of a lifelong interest in art, psychology, beauty ideals and Japanese culture and created in reaction to the overwhelming amount of cultural misinformation I've discovered in reference to this ideal, both on the web and in popular conceptions. It's also a topic of interest for my future graduate dissertations.

If you'd like to see any of this is print, we could use the support!

Use of materials on this site

Don't upload from my server, please. These images were obtained from scans or official websites and do not belong to me. When possible, I have endeavored to gain permission for their use, and adhere to the specific use rights granted by most companiese for journalism and review purposes. However, If you quote me, please be considerate and give me credit with a link back to this page. Thank you.


Our webring

I shall be adding a links page shortly. If you're an artist or writer who produces work encompassing the ideal, or have a page along similar lines, and you'd like some promotion, please feel free to join the bishonen altar webring as a de facto link. Thanks.

Special Thanks To

Rachel Collier (for lovely banners, research, creative input and editorial advice), Michael Link for educating me in the land of J-rock and providing clarity on the sexuality of certain characters and all things Gundam and SNK, Adam Christopher Roach for understanding my purpose and believing in me, Meagan O'Gorman (for cheering), Haley Younce for sharing the addiction, to Mason Adams of the Roanoke Times for his interview and interest and Roanime-- The Roanoke Virginia Anime Club for their assistance and support. Very special thanks to... Anita, Osheen, and Fang. For mentoring me, backing me and believing in me... and just doing what you do. ^_^

Resources

Useful background on Japanese culture and bishonen which contributed to this site can be found in the Anime Companion by Gilles Poitras-- an all-around fun book; Geisha, a beautiful photo essay by Jody Cob; various issues of Animerica and the (now defunct?) British magazine Manga Max; when possible, the English Introductions to Yoshitaka Amano's artbooks particularly Kan Oke (the ultra-rare original Vampire Hunter D artbook released in Europe and Japan) and archives at the official website amanosworld.com; the movies of director Akira Kurasawa such as Dreams and Ran, and Lady Murasaki Shikibu's Tale of Genji.

A good contrast in Western literary, stage and film archetypes is 45 Master Characters: Mythic Models for Creating Original Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt. (If you are familiar with the Tarot deck, Hellenic and Egyptian mythology, you will recognize many of these archetypes.)

Weird and Cool Bishonen-related links

bishonen.co.jp -- What could be better than bishonen? What could be better than fine alcohol? Bishonen brand sake! Weird but true. Japanese brewery site.

http://board.cgiworld.net/list.cgi?id=bishonen -- the best I can make out is that this is a Korean, idol rocker centered board.

Bishonen -- the movie! http://www.dianying.com/cgi-bin/titleen.cgi?msn1998 I kid you not. I haven't seen this, but the link will give you a review. It's Chinese.

Antinous portraits-- http://www.belfalas.de/antinous/antinous.htm-- Antineus was a real life bishonen upon whom the western canon of beauty is based! (A little more info can be found in the origins section here). Virtual museum of sculpture and info.

The Takarazuka Revue-- http:/shoujo.tripod.com/takara.htm -- information on the all-female Takarazuka theater troupes in Japan.

The Vampire Hunter D Archives http://www.altvampyres.net/vhd/. A truly useful site for EVERYTHING Vampire Hunter D. It's the encyclopedia of D.

Ikuniweb-- http://www.jrt.co.jp/yos/ikuniweb/toppage.htm-- the official website of the director of Utena.