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oiranStealth fandom: Ai no Kusabi: So I watched my gay cartoon porn (yeah, I know it has a genre name [yaoi], but I can pronounce "gay cartoon porn" so I'm sticking with it for the time being) and most of it was boring and dumb. I don't have the option of getting YnM eps from the person I got these files from, unfortunately. Anyway, three stupid movies and one actually pretty good one: Ai no Kusabi. The rest of this will be spoilery for the movie, so read at your own peril. I don't think that even telling the entire story gives much away in terms of fanfic potential, but still--proceed at your own risk.
It's the story of an apparently mostly-male planet at some point far in the future. There is a city of the elite, Tanagura, with a suburb, Midas, and a slum, Ceres. Tanagura is regulated and run by a computer called Jupiter. The elite are genetically engineered superior beings (who may or may not also be androids--that wasn't clear), and the caste system is organized by hair color. The darkest hair is at the bottom, lightest at the top. The light-haired elite are called "blondies" by everyone. In addition to these elite, there are "citizens" who are regular humans who are registered in some way. The slums are full of "rats," who are not citizens and apparently are not registered as people in any way.
The elite are sterile, and for some reason this has led to sexual contact being taboo. However, the blondies do keep "pets" who are humans who perform sexually for their enjoyment. Apparently, blondies don't mess around with one another, and they definitely are not supposed to touch their pets. The blondies also have "furniture," i.e., eunnuchs who serve as petkeepers.
The story opens with a "mongrel" called Riki being attacked by a bunch of street punks claiming to be Elite guards. He's about to be killed, but is saved, somewhat inexplicably, by Iason, a blondie who just so happens to be in charge of the syndicate that runs Tanagura and is a special favorite of the computer, Jupiter. The differences between the castes are visually very apparent. Iason is really, really large--at least a foot taller than Riki--has long, flowing silver hair, and wears typical anime samurai-negligee type outfits, whereas the Riki and the rest of the slum dwellers all wear Levi's (with the stitching on the back pockets!).
We flash forward to Riki returning to the slum after three years away in a scene where he kicks the shit out of a bunch of cops chasing mongrels on hover-bikes. The mongrels are old friends of his, of course. Guy, his old "pairing partner" (which stands in for boyfriend, and, like a few other phrases to do with sexual relationships and behavior, is spoken in English, so it must have been a trendy thing back in 1997 when this was made) is thrilled to see him return. His gang, Bison, has been doing pretty much nothing while he's been gone, as there's really nothing to do. They're mongrels and there's no way out of the slum, and there's no real way to get ahead in the slum. The gang, of course, have no idea where Riki has been and he doesn't go out of his way to tell them. There's a new kid, Killie, who's an obvious ass from the very beginning and challenges Riki just for the hell of it. We also meet an old piece of Iason's "furniture," a guy called Katze with auburn hair and a mysterious scar, who knows some sort of secret about Tanagura and thus is allowed to operate a black market business fairly openly.
As it turns out, Iason wants Riki back and will go to extremes to get him to come back. It ends up with Killie in Iason's employ (via Katze) and the rest of the Bison gang in jail. Iason and Riki have it out. Riki says, "Well, you let me go, so what was the deal with that?" Iason has some kind of if-you-love-something-set-it-free philosophy he would have done well to let Riki in on. Iason lets the gang go free and Riki has his "pet ring" put back on. Although we're not told what that is, you kind of get the idea...
Iason's obsession with Riki is causing him problems in his job. Jupiter warns him to give Riki up. His best friend Raoul (hot, at least for a cartoon guy, btw) tells him to give Riki up. Apparently, people are gossiping about how scandalous it is that Iason is holding onto a pet for so long (usually they're around for a year or so and then thrown away, basically), and there are even rumors that he fucks Riki (which are true), and all of these are things that could fuck with Tanagura's economy if they were widely known and believed.
Iason's love for Riki is genuine, but it tends toward the love of an owner for a possession. Riki's feelings are less clear. Guy "saves" him from Tanagura and they have a rather frank discussion. Guy wants Riki back, but Riki hesitates, saying that Guy can't possibly understand. He finally admits that he's been fucked by Iason for these past few years, and he doesn't exactly say that he hated it. He also strips and shows Guy his pet ring, and though we don't see it, apparently it pierces him in some way. This pisses Guy off, and he both punches Riki out and decides to kill Iason.
The thing ends with Riki castrated in order to get the ring off, Guy blowing up an underground hideout with himself and Iason inside, Iason's legs getting blown off, and Riki dragging Guy to safety before going back in to be with Iason as the building collapses. Riki and Iason have this really lovely conversation where they sort of rib each other before they light a last cigarette (Riki lighting his off of Iason's, and them referring to it as their last deep kiss [in English, again]) before Riki curls up under Iason's arm and they die.
Katze cries manfully when he realizes what has happened.
In typical Japanese movie style, we have Guy, who lost an arm in the explosion, wandering around wistfully in the rubble musing about...oh hell, I don't really know. It's Japanese, for chrissakes! It's obtuse!
Obviously, I'm leaving a lot out. There are a bunch of subtleties that I don't feel like describing in detail, but even though on the one hand this was kind of crap, it was much better in terms of character development and plot than I expected. The porn was 1) not very porny and 2) not gratuitous, considering it's a story about a master/slave relationship. Also, the art is exceedingly pretty:
Those are both of Iason and Riki.
And...that's Guy with Riki, and Katze.
I found these images at Alex's Ai no Kusabi.
But now I'm in love with Iason. He's a real bastard and so fucked up. And he has all this long silver hair and he's super-pale and seven feet tall and he is completely delusional.
I'm looking for good fic, but a search is revealing crap fic only, unfortunately.
There are some invisi-penis sex scenes that could be hotter, but they also don't suck. I had forgotten how the startling shifts in tone and volume in anime voice acting tends to throw me out of the mood of a piece, i.e., crazy outbursts where just emphasis would work fine--at least for a U.S. audience. Even though this appears to be a digital transfer of a fan dub and is thus fairly pixelated, the art is still quite pretty. Despite the futuristic setting, there aren't too many robot outfits and flying cars, though they're certainly present. Like most anime I've seen, the party/restaurant/bar scenes look like something out of a early 70s B movie (something starring Joan Collins, perhaps), which annoys me. The odd tendency for character heads to deform in motion that bothers me in a lot of anime is not present here in a distracting degree.
If anyone is interested in seeing this, I'd be happy to share the file, as was done for me. BUT: You've got to get a PAID account at www.streamload.com. If you plan on downloading them (which is what I did), the files that comprise this vid take up just over 1G, so you have to actually purchase 2G worth of download (which includes 6G of storage)...which comes out to $9.90. If you want to try to watch them online (I have no idea how this works), you could probably just buy 1G. Interservice transfers are free between Streamload accounts. Anyway, if you're interested, let me know what your account name is and I'll send the files. OR you could just send a streamload email requesting it to my account there, which is "velvetglove"
I have a bunch of things to beta/read, a couple stories I'm working on, and still website stuff for many, many people, so of course it makes sense for me to yammer on about anime and do memes. I really liked this Friday Five, though, even if it is Saturday:
1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
There used to be a restaurant right next to a house I lived in that had vintage toasters on all the tables and you'd buy bread and then you'd make yourself some toast. That's about my cooking level, and I think a toast emporium would probably get me 15 minutes of kitsch fame, at any rate.
2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Comic books, artist-made books, art books, music, DVDs, sex toys, dolls and flowers. Also, I'd have a really big, shiny espresso machine and I'd make people very muddy coffee.
3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
Sex-drenched fantasy. Why are there so many fade-to-black pro fics? It's moronic. I have this idea I'd love to be a successful author writing stories that happen to contain very explicit porn. Fanfic has spoiled me completely.
4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?
Creative writing, bookbinding (in which I need some more lessons myself), collage, and how to drive like a normal person.
5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
I'd like to do torchy cover versions of some favorites. Radiohead songs. Lady Stardust, which is apparently my obsession song for the year. Iggy Pop's Some Weird Sin as filtered through my song stylings. Things like that. And since apparently I'll never learn to play piano, maybe I can get Tori Amos to help out.
It's the story of an apparently mostly-male planet at some point far in the future. There is a city of the elite, Tanagura, with a suburb, Midas, and a slum, Ceres. Tanagura is regulated and run by a computer called Jupiter. The elite are genetically engineered superior beings (who may or may not also be androids--that wasn't clear), and the caste system is organized by hair color. The darkest hair is at the bottom, lightest at the top. The light-haired elite are called "blondies" by everyone. In addition to these elite, there are "citizens" who are regular humans who are registered in some way. The slums are full of "rats," who are not citizens and apparently are not registered as people in any way.
The elite are sterile, and for some reason this has led to sexual contact being taboo. However, the blondies do keep "pets" who are humans who perform sexually for their enjoyment. Apparently, blondies don't mess around with one another, and they definitely are not supposed to touch their pets. The blondies also have "furniture," i.e., eunnuchs who serve as petkeepers.
The story opens with a "mongrel" called Riki being attacked by a bunch of street punks claiming to be Elite guards. He's about to be killed, but is saved, somewhat inexplicably, by Iason, a blondie who just so happens to be in charge of the syndicate that runs Tanagura and is a special favorite of the computer, Jupiter. The differences between the castes are visually very apparent. Iason is really, really large--at least a foot taller than Riki--has long, flowing silver hair, and wears typical anime samurai-negligee type outfits, whereas the Riki and the rest of the slum dwellers all wear Levi's (with the stitching on the back pockets!).
We flash forward to Riki returning to the slum after three years away in a scene where he kicks the shit out of a bunch of cops chasing mongrels on hover-bikes. The mongrels are old friends of his, of course. Guy, his old "pairing partner" (which stands in for boyfriend, and, like a few other phrases to do with sexual relationships and behavior, is spoken in English, so it must have been a trendy thing back in 1997 when this was made) is thrilled to see him return. His gang, Bison, has been doing pretty much nothing while he's been gone, as there's really nothing to do. They're mongrels and there's no way out of the slum, and there's no real way to get ahead in the slum. The gang, of course, have no idea where Riki has been and he doesn't go out of his way to tell them. There's a new kid, Killie, who's an obvious ass from the very beginning and challenges Riki just for the hell of it. We also meet an old piece of Iason's "furniture," a guy called Katze with auburn hair and a mysterious scar, who knows some sort of secret about Tanagura and thus is allowed to operate a black market business fairly openly.
As it turns out, Iason wants Riki back and will go to extremes to get him to come back. It ends up with Killie in Iason's employ (via Katze) and the rest of the Bison gang in jail. Iason and Riki have it out. Riki says, "Well, you let me go, so what was the deal with that?" Iason has some kind of if-you-love-something-set-it-free philosophy he would have done well to let Riki in on. Iason lets the gang go free and Riki has his "pet ring" put back on. Although we're not told what that is, you kind of get the idea...
Iason's obsession with Riki is causing him problems in his job. Jupiter warns him to give Riki up. His best friend Raoul (hot, at least for a cartoon guy, btw) tells him to give Riki up. Apparently, people are gossiping about how scandalous it is that Iason is holding onto a pet for so long (usually they're around for a year or so and then thrown away, basically), and there are even rumors that he fucks Riki (which are true), and all of these are things that could fuck with Tanagura's economy if they were widely known and believed.
Iason's love for Riki is genuine, but it tends toward the love of an owner for a possession. Riki's feelings are less clear. Guy "saves" him from Tanagura and they have a rather frank discussion. Guy wants Riki back, but Riki hesitates, saying that Guy can't possibly understand. He finally admits that he's been fucked by Iason for these past few years, and he doesn't exactly say that he hated it. He also strips and shows Guy his pet ring, and though we don't see it, apparently it pierces him in some way. This pisses Guy off, and he both punches Riki out and decides to kill Iason.
The thing ends with Riki castrated in order to get the ring off, Guy blowing up an underground hideout with himself and Iason inside, Iason's legs getting blown off, and Riki dragging Guy to safety before going back in to be with Iason as the building collapses. Riki and Iason have this really lovely conversation where they sort of rib each other before they light a last cigarette (Riki lighting his off of Iason's, and them referring to it as their last deep kiss [in English, again]) before Riki curls up under Iason's arm and they die.
Katze cries manfully when he realizes what has happened.
In typical Japanese movie style, we have Guy, who lost an arm in the explosion, wandering around wistfully in the rubble musing about...oh hell, I don't really know. It's Japanese, for chrissakes! It's obtuse!
Obviously, I'm leaving a lot out. There are a bunch of subtleties that I don't feel like describing in detail, but even though on the one hand this was kind of crap, it was much better in terms of character development and plot than I expected. The porn was 1) not very porny and 2) not gratuitous, considering it's a story about a master/slave relationship. Also, the art is exceedingly pretty:
Those are both of Iason and Riki.
And...that's Guy with Riki, and Katze.
I found these images at Alex's Ai no Kusabi.
But now I'm in love with Iason. He's a real bastard and so fucked up. And he has all this long silver hair and he's super-pale and seven feet tall and he is completely delusional.
I'm looking for good fic, but a search is revealing crap fic only, unfortunately.
There are some invisi-penis sex scenes that could be hotter, but they also don't suck. I had forgotten how the startling shifts in tone and volume in anime voice acting tends to throw me out of the mood of a piece, i.e., crazy outbursts where just emphasis would work fine--at least for a U.S. audience. Even though this appears to be a digital transfer of a fan dub and is thus fairly pixelated, the art is still quite pretty. Despite the futuristic setting, there aren't too many robot outfits and flying cars, though they're certainly present. Like most anime I've seen, the party/restaurant/bar scenes look like something out of a early 70s B movie (something starring Joan Collins, perhaps), which annoys me. The odd tendency for character heads to deform in motion that bothers me in a lot of anime is not present here in a distracting degree.
If anyone is interested in seeing this, I'd be happy to share the file, as was done for me. BUT: You've got to get a PAID account at www.streamload.com. If you plan on downloading them (which is what I did), the files that comprise this vid take up just over 1G, so you have to actually purchase 2G worth of download (which includes 6G of storage)...which comes out to $9.90. If you want to try to watch them online (I have no idea how this works), you could probably just buy 1G. Interservice transfers are free between Streamload accounts. Anyway, if you're interested, let me know what your account name is and I'll send the files. OR you could just send a streamload email requesting it to my account there, which is "velvetglove"
I have a bunch of things to beta/read, a couple stories I'm working on, and still website stuff for many, many people, so of course it makes sense for me to yammer on about anime and do memes. I really liked this Friday Five, though, even if it is Saturday:
1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
There used to be a restaurant right next to a house I lived in that had vintage toasters on all the tables and you'd buy bread and then you'd make yourself some toast. That's about my cooking level, and I think a toast emporium would probably get me 15 minutes of kitsch fame, at any rate.
2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Comic books, artist-made books, art books, music, DVDs, sex toys, dolls and flowers. Also, I'd have a really big, shiny espresso machine and I'd make people very muddy coffee.
3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
Sex-drenched fantasy. Why are there so many fade-to-black pro fics? It's moronic. I have this idea I'd love to be a successful author writing stories that happen to contain very explicit porn. Fanfic has spoiled me completely.
4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?
Creative writing, bookbinding (in which I need some more lessons myself), collage, and how to drive like a normal person.
5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
I'd like to do torchy cover versions of some favorites. Radiohead songs. Lady Stardust, which is apparently my obsession song for the year. Iggy Pop's Some Weird Sin as filtered through my song stylings. Things like that. And since apparently I'll never learn to play piano, maybe I can get Tori Amos to help out.
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 03:03 pm (UTC)I'd be very grateful if you could send them my way! My Streamload account name is "nepthys".
I don't have the option of getting YnM eps from the person I got these files from, unfortunately.
If you're able to download via Bittorrent, www.boxtorrents.com has a torrent of YnM eps under "series". If that's not an option, I could always give transfer via Streamload a try. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 03:09 pm (UTC)If you have YnM available to send via streamload, I'd like to try that. I've never had luck with the bittorrent downloads. If not, though, I still have quite a bit of YnM manga to get through, so I'll survive ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 08:28 pm (UTC)I'll try to dig up the links:
Umbilical (http://kekkai.org/sarahq/umbilical.html) by SarahQ.
There's a Ai no Kusabi archive at Shounen Ai (http://shounen-ai.cjb.net/), which has some good stuff. Check out Kim Gasper's fiction.
Katze no Miko's Ai no Kusabi Hall site (http://www.phenixsol.com/Miko/ANK/) is a good place for info, but not so good on fic.
Becca Abbot (http://becca.slashcity.net/index2.html) has written two long Ai no Kusabi stories that were published in MAS-Zine, one of which is now online. The story is "Wasteland," and unfortunately the Riki/Iason relationship is secondary. The second story was published in MAS-Zine #3 (http://www.mas-zine.com/en/maszine3.htm), and isn't online yet.
Hope this helps!
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 09:53 pm (UTC)Would you be interested in a beta on this when I'm done? Or if you're not comfortable doing it, can you recommend anyone who would know the characters?
no subject
Date: 2004-03-20 10:46 pm (UTC)I don't think I'd be a good beta. You might want to ask Juxian Tang (http://www.geocities.com/juxian1972/). She's written Ai no Kusabi and from what I understand she's heavily involved in the Russian translation side of the fandom.
It's such a small fandom that people get attracted to it in spurts. People see the movie, search for the fic, find only a tiny bit of fic (most of it crap), and then lose interest. I think part of the problem is the rareness of the film. It's hard to get a copy, and if you buy from the legitimate publisher it runs in the hundreds of dollars. So if you're looking for a beta the best bet would probably be to contact people that have written stories that aren't crap. ;-)