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snarpThis is a semi-autobiographical manga about a BL manga artist, who is totally not Yoshinaga Fumi, and 1) her obsession with food, 2) her habit of sexually harassing men, and 3) her peculiar fashion sense. Mainly the food, though. Probably 80% of the manga is Not-Yoshinaga-Fumi going to restaurants in Tokyo with her friends and discussing the food with them. The remaining 20% is bickering.
The bickering is very funny, as one would expect from Yoshinaga Fumi, and I feel confident in recommending the manga on these grounds. But still, it really is mostly a Tokyo restaurant guide. For some people this may be interesting in itself, but for me, I think I'd need to be in Tokyo and financially in a position to go to these restaurants.
Yoshinaga draws herself alternately as "frumpy" with bad skin and frizzy hair, and "slutty" with too-heavy makeup, glaring fashion sense, and (judging by the translation, since I haven't read the original) a masculine speech style. She also writes herself as being morbidly obsessed with the idea that she's too old to get married, but also too neurotic to follow through on a relationship. These are all pretty standard negative stereotypes of Japanese women, and their presence here makes me kind of sad. Can't you be self-deprecating in ways that don't reinforce the patriarchy, Yoshinaga Fumi? The man is keeping you down! Saute him with garlic and ginger, or something. You possess the tools.
(I don't know why I can't adopt a standard order for writing Japanese names on this blog. I think my brain just had some of them fed in surname-first and some given-name-first, and they always have to come back out the same way.)
The bickering is very funny, as one would expect from Yoshinaga Fumi, and I feel confident in recommending the manga on these grounds. But still, it really is mostly a Tokyo restaurant guide. For some people this may be interesting in itself, but for me, I think I'd need to be in Tokyo and financially in a position to go to these restaurants.
Yoshinaga draws herself alternately as "frumpy" with bad skin and frizzy hair, and "slutty" with too-heavy makeup, glaring fashion sense, and (judging by the translation, since I haven't read the original) a masculine speech style. She also writes herself as being morbidly obsessed with the idea that she's too old to get married, but also too neurotic to follow through on a relationship. These are all pretty standard negative stereotypes of Japanese women, and their presence here makes me kind of sad. Can't you be self-deprecating in ways that don't reinforce the patriarchy, Yoshinaga Fumi? The man is keeping you down! Saute him with garlic and ginger, or something. You possess the tools.
(I don't know why I can't adopt a standard order for writing Japanese names on this blog. I think my brain just had some of them fed in surname-first and some given-name-first, and they always have to come back out the same way.)
