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renegadefolkheroI am in love with this HARADA manga, which is a comedy yaoi about two Totally Straight guys who love anal so much they decide to start dicking down as fuck buddies while constantly arguing over who gets to bottom. It is most definitely not for everyone, it's a trigger minefield like most of HARADAs books, but it is very Real in a way I deeply appreciate and I enjoy the way HARADA writes male characters.
I like it so much, I read all the fan translations, I buy ("rent" "forever") the digital on Renta! (which is unfortunately censored), and I also purchase the official translated books from Kuma (which are uncensored, thank you Lord) as they trickle out. Kuma is always pushing the preorder dates back, so the third volume is now currently set to June 25.
The fan translations and Renta! translations are fairly similar, and the Renta! translation is a real pleasure to read. The official Kuma translation is unfortunately kinda eh. The dialogue doesn't flow as well, there are typos, and sometimes jokes are missed. But in the most recent volume (2), the Kuma version makes a translation change that is driving me slightly insane.
The setup is Kasuya and Kuzuya decide to write down all their fantasies and draw them out of a hat to act out, and it's a funny bit where they draw things like "big sister", "degradation," "glory hole," etc. and quickly figure out how none of these are actually sexy. (Basically, the perfect gag for an erotica writer.) At one point, Kuzuya draws one that's a little different...
"Growing mutual feelings." He didn't write that. He's not sure if Kasuya put it there or if God (the sentient statue in Kuzuya's front yard, just roll with me here) is messing around with them. In the next panel, they draw a slip with "Gore", which God CERTAINLY put in there to troll them.
At the end of the chapter, as they collapse exhausted on the floor, the growing mutual feels slip drifts to the ground between them. The fan translation is similar. Kuzuya draws "Tender Feelings" and the same slip falls to the ground. HARADA is very good at balancing the ambiguity of the characters' true feelings and I loved this scene.
BUT IN THE KUMA VERSION, so help me god... There are two different slips! Kazuya draws the slip "True Love" and has his WTF moment and at the end a slip with "Real Love" falls to the ground. Two slips! Which means it's possible Kasuya wrote one, and Kuzuya wrote the other. And it changes the vibe! The perfect balancing act has now been tipped! The Kuma translation does other stuff in this chapter differently, too. Instead of drawing a slip with "gore," which ties into an earlier chapter where the guys are totally squicked out by a guro enthusiast, they draw the word "ryona" which 1) I had to look up, 2) isn't as funny because it doesn't have continuty of gore/guro.
So now I'm like, fuck. I'm pretty sure Renta! and the fans have it right, but I guess the only way to be sure is to look at the raw scans and I couldn't find any.
Now that I'm quibbling over yaoi translations I guess I'm officially a freak. A rotten yaoi psycho. What do they call it? Fujoshi. Fine! I think a fujoshi is supposed to be a straight girl but whatever! I love it when totally straight dudes have totally not-gay anal and cocksucking marathons, it is one of my absolute favorite tropes (in eroticlandia we call this 'straight-to-gay'). This readership is allegedly pretty biphobic, so I like to have a "straight" guy figure out he's "gay" after 10392243 boner scenes, then rock his world again when someone finally points out he still eats pussy like a champ so he's technically bisexual, lmao. They already gave me money and got off, so win-win in my book. My goal is to single-handedly eradicate biphobia wish me luck.
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Date: 2024-05-06 10:57 am (UTC)