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Minekura & Her Yaoi
Saiyuki & Yaoi
Hakkai & Gojyo Proof
Wild Adapted Yaoi

 

Opening Comment ;
Ok, Hello, this is my thoughts about Minekura and her approach to the whole Yaoi thing, and the confusion that seems to hang around her work with most fans, Me included I guess :P
Also my thought about the Yaoi content in Saiyuki...
Anyhow... I hope you like what I have to say and if you have anything to add, then please just drop me an e-mail!

Minekura & Her Yaoi?

To put it politely, Minekura seems to like fucking with our heads on this matter.

On one hand she draws two guys in surprisingly compromising positions (See 'Executive Committee') and then in the next breath is explaining it away in something totally feasible and completely innocent.

As far as I know I don't think she does anything that could be considered 'Full Blown' yaoi, ('Wild Adapter' contain some M/M action of what little I have seen but not with both the main chara.)... I think she likes to be as sadistic to us as she is to her chara, constantly showing us tantalising images then making us feel like dirty old Ladies when it's something totally innocent and our eyes were throwing our brains into the gutter, when what we are looking at should have wings and a halo!
But that almost sounds like I'm complaining, and truly how ever much I would like the lines draw, it's more fun and exiting (in my opinion) to keep us guessing... after all you don't see many interesting hypothetical websites given over to the quandary of if 'Kazuma Kodaka' or 'Youka Nitta' chara are screwing like rabbits, cause if you don't see an invisible todger within 5 pages you know something's wrong.

Look at the sites and discussion groups you can find dealing with the trivial fact of 'Who's doing Who' in Gundam Wing this week *shivers* and we KNOW nothing going on in it that isn't innocent as the day you were conceived...
Let's face it... Most people who are going to be reading this are women, and being women we don't WANT to see it ALL, all of the time, right? ya the full blow stuff is fine, but we live for intrigue and gossip (and don't argue me on this one! I hate it but cant help doing it >_<) we like to be kept guessing and wondering, we like to watch the whole deluded doings stretch out... It's sadistic, it's almost masochistic, but we luv it!... and that's what Minekura is playing on... how better to get a bigger fan base when all your fans are madly scribbling or typing away, then building websites to tell everyone else which chara are doing who and what they think...From somewhere in Wild Adapter... Dont ask where it was a pilfered pick... Kubota Makoto and someone else???
I read somewhere that Minekura liked her fan base... Being a fellow (if crappy and sold out) artist, I know all to well that having people admire your work enough to want emulate it, is the best (and worst) thing in the world... and Fans are her bread and butter, without fans then she wouldn't get published, so what better way to keep us all coming back and begging for more when there is always that slight promise of "What if?"...

 

<= This is the only image I've ever found of two guys kissing. Kubota Makoto and Sanada from 'Wild Adapter'... But saying that, this is exchange of chewing gum or something??? damn it, even this isn't porn >_<

 

Saiyuki & Yaoi???

 

Opening comment; I once thought that the whole yaoi thing in Saiyuki was nothing more than fan made, but nope, there is oodles of proof that this is not the case... This series is packed full of little innuendos of any kind... 

 

The guys reaction to anything Sexual... kind of...

 
Sanzo... Anyone trying to flirt with him to down right molestation, always get's the same reaction, a gun or sandal in the face with swearing backing it up... Me, I think Sanzo is 'A' sexual... After all the one time we see Sanzo truly loos it is when he's captured and molested by a Sand demoness before he practically kicks her to death, even Hakkai is surprised by his viciousness. But then again he could just be fed up of people telling him how 'Pretty' he is then trying to put their hands down his pants.
Amendment: in Saiyuki Reload Manga, we finally find out why he's so touchy when confronted with sex, after all, if the first person you kill was the guy trying to rap you, it would fuck anyone up!

 
Goku... humm Goku doesn't seem to do well with the opposite sex, they are either his enemy (talking about Lirin though she's more like a sister) and then the one girl he does find, Sanzo has to kill her and her sisters... but I think Goku just might be a little too young mentally to be thinking of such things as sex... Though his naïveté has nothing to hold him back when yelling at Gojyo.

 
Gojyo... oww you might think this one is easy, but the only woman you ever see him kiss is Bosatu and then it was by force from someone we aren't entirely sure on what sex it is. He also has a thing of trying to flirt with Sanzo, or making comments that just sound like he's saying "I'm not gay, honest... but I'll do you cause your just to pretty". Thou lets face it, he's a flirt and anything is game.

 
Hakkai... ok so he had the love of his life and lost her, but who's to say he's straight? after all she was before he met Gojyo, and all those longing looks he casts his friends way, and the way he's always the first to Gojyo's side when ever his friend is injured... apart from that he seems to make friends with women easy enough, I just don't think he would do them... Even when he met a girl who looked like Kanan he let her go easy enough. Hakkai doesn't really seem to have any sex drive >_<.

 

Pairings (Yaoi orientated only)

 
Hakkai x Gojyo : This is my favourite pair, (even though Gojyo flirts with Sanzo, that's just to piss him off). There are oodles of proofs that these two care for each other a little more than they do anyone else. it could also have something to do with their past selves... I don't care what anyone say's these two have the most obvious "Thing" going on between them.
The evidence is riddled thought the Manga and Anime cannon, they may say something different, but the body language is always there..
Also I think this is the artist personal preference, especially when it comes to Hakkai. it was lost somewhere in the middle of the manga, but she put it back in Reload, much to this fan's delight!

 
Tenpo x Kenren ; These two's relationship is even commented on by others, granted the other soon get's thumped in the mush, but that's only fair they did just have Kenren beaten up... Even though I only know what little I've seen of these two, I recon something is going on, something that could last 500 years and who knows how many incarnations.

 
Sanzo x Goku : This I will only see as a platonic relationship. As Sanzo and Hakkai sometimes comment. they think of Goku as Sanzo's 'pet'. Something to be fed, watered and generally put up with cause it wont go away.

Goku loves Sanzo that's obvious, he would follow him to the ends of the earth, and Sanzo does like Goku in his own stoic way, a bit like a faithful pet.
In the fan's eyes though? this pairing is always going to be no-brainer, these two were set up to be joined at the hip, no matter what incarnation of the story 'Journey to the west' your reading.

 
Goku x Nataku : Even thought they were kids when they first met, I think there could be possibilities :P pfft, who am I kidding, these two should be screwing like bunnies it Nataku wasn't so fucked in the head :P

 
Konzen x Goku : Again, Goku is only a young kid when he comes to stay with Konzen, and Konzen basically treats him like his son. Konzen is a little more patient with the younger more innocent Goku. this is a total no no for me unless it's innocent :P

 
Kougaiji x Dokugakuji : Another platonic relationship, or maybe not. I'm sure Dokugakuji would do Kougaiji if he asked and battered his eyes.

 
Zenon x Shien : Homura's two henchmen are defiantly doing it, but I guess we will never know ^_^;

 

Fan Pairings

 
As always, when fans get hold of a manga and start writing fiction they seem to get lost as to who should be doing who and head off in to the worlds of their own dragging countless numbers of poor ignorant with them... Well I'm more of a traditionalist, I like sticking with the chara that look like they are more likely to be together. I think different fan pairings are ok, but it's when they flood out the "obvious" pairings that it starts to irk me, and imagine others to.


Fan Pairing's that make no sense! (well to me anyways ^_^)


Gojyo x Sanzo : Ok, so Gojyo flirts with Sanzo, but he knows Sanzo hates it and he only does it when he really wants to yank Sanzo's chain, and ok, he's also throws his arm around Sanzo but again this, I'm sure, is a gesture to do nothing more than irk the monk. It's kinda toooo obvious for me.


Sanzo x Hakkai and Konzen x Tenpo : humm when ever I think of this couple I cant help but think of two divorcees or widows getting together with a kid each, not the most popular couple though.

 
Homura x Goku : this one in feasible... but only if you haven't seen the last episode of season 2 :P

 
Gojyo x Goku : all I will say to this is... Noooooooooooo! to much like incest or something.

 
Guys x Girls : Who cares, they are either on the bad side or pushing up daisies from 6 feet under... simple really ;P

 

Proof about Hakkai & Gojyo

Ok so Gojyo is known to be a Ladies man, chatting up anything in a skirt, but do you ever actually see him leave with anyone?... There is one episode where he does go off looking for a one night stand, and just bitches about every girl he see's... I'm not saying that he didn't once sleep with anything that he wanted but that was all before he stumbled upon Hakkai. Also if I'm gonna go deep then all the crap with his foster mother surly fucked him up enough to want nothing to do with the female of any species.
And ok, so Hakkai was in love with Kanan enough to kill a hell of a lot of people and Youkia, and then become one himself, that kind of thing is enough to leave mental scars on anyone... but again he was in love with Kanan before he met Gojyo. And then once he was reborn as Hakkai he chose to live with Gojyo in his little one bedroom hut, claiming that someone needed to know when to take the rubbish out? now why does that just sound sooo un-straight to me?

General Proofs

When Bosatu grabbed Gojyo and kissed him to get his blood to help Sanzo, I just love the look on Hakkai's face as he holds an unconscious Goku, kind of a shocked unhappy expression. mind you he is just watching his friend getting snogged unwillingly by a god.

When Gojyo learns of Cho Gonou's death he cuts all his hair off... I think they have some other reason for it in the manga but cutting ones hair off is also a sign of mourning... now I cant imagine Gojyo doing it for just anyone especially with what it means to him. And then soon as he finds out Gonou is now Hakkai and very much alive he grow's it back again with a feeling he's doing it for Hakkai.
"Some people don't like this theory, but I do!"

When Chin Lisou is trying to brake Hakkai, his first target is Gojyo, and after Sanzo shoots Gojyo and Hakkai saves his life he passes out. Ok so he hasn't had much sleep but still the stress of seeing someone you care about deeply will have that effect on anyone. 

Same episode when Hakkai has a nightmare and wanders off, Gojyo is fast to follow. complaining that he managed to get so close without Hakkai noticing. 

Gojyo is the one who brakes him out of his thoughts when ever they stray to the past,

When Gojyo is hurt Hakkai usual looses his cool a little.

When ever Hakkai runs off when everyone's asleep, there is always some evidence that Gojyo is close by and waiting for him, if he doesn't just follow him.

Their first meeting...

Gojyo is walking home from a night playing cards (his livelihood) and musing about his live and how stale and boring it is, he stumbles upon a very bloody and very damp (it's raining) Gonou/Hakkai. At first the thinks him dead until he touches him. Gonou looks up at him and smiles and Gojyo say's to himself something like "It felt like..." (like what? owww the possibilities.)

Now Gojyo then spends money on a complete stranger getting a doctor out to him, and letting him sleep in his bed until he finally regains consciousness...

When Hakkai is confessing to Gojyo about what happened and the love he felt for Kanan he said that ", you know the expression 'spine tingling?'. In her moment of danger... I knew nothing , felt nothing, and just continued playing with my students. Why didn't I sense something and run home then?" then Gojyo goes on to say that he doesn't know things like that cause he has nothing special.

Gojyo finds instant likening for Hakkai when Hakkai finally tells him that he's leaving and tells him about him self. Hakkai confesses that Gojyo's red hair and eyes reminded him of blood and that the only thing that kept him in this reality when he tried to hide from what he had done, in other words Gojyo kept him in his permanent guilt trip. But Gojyo also thinks the same, he hates his hair and eyes because it also reminds him of blood, but keeps his hair long to hide the scare his foster mother gave him the night she tried to kill him. basically blood reminds them of the love they couldn't have or keep.
Anyhow after Sanzo and Goku meet them and Hakkai runs off, he get's stood on then threatened by one of the demons he's killed brother. meanwhile Gojyo *who's following Sanzo and Goku* suddenly stops and looks back, when asked what's wrong he just say's it's nothing and that it must have been his imagination... ya right, he got that spine tingling sensation cause his *coughs* friend was just about to get his head caved in *grins*

Gojyo has a spat at Sanzo asking him what will happen to Gonou when they take him in, cause he REALLY doesn't want Gonou to die, infact that he WONT let him die... humm this for a guy he didn't know the name to a few hours previous?

Gojyo once refers to his friends as saying "I did get close to this hard-living blond bombshell (Sanzo)... This little kid who's a bit light in the grey matter department (Goku)... and this emotionally unstable dish who's on the skids (Hakkai)."

When Gojyo finally realizes that there are more things that are red other than blood, he's walking past a apple stand and picked out a red apple, when he does Hakkai is stood besides him... the meeting of friends? me thinks not, bit to emotional to be a friends reunion if you ask me!

When we see them again, Gojyo is wearing a bandana to hide that fact he had all his hair cut of (in mourning) and seems a little embarrassed by the fact. Then when Sanzo ask's the newly named Hakkai what he's doing now, Hakkai replies that "I've decided to live at Gojyo's place," ( note the translation says nothing like "Gojyo's letting me live with him", or anything else that implies Gojyo knows anything about this arrangement or has any say in it :P...) then he says "He never remembers what day to take the trash out.!" I mean like how gay dose that sound? and also that he's rather worried *implying Gojyo*... then they just look at Gojyo and Goku arguing and then Sanzo comments "Even worse than an ape, huh?"

 

Wild Adapted Yaoi

This is not involving Araiso, cause that would fry my brain as well as anyone who reads this ^_^

Wild Adapter isn't really a Yaoi as such, not even Shonen ai, there is nothing graphic, nothing is said out right that Kubota and Tokito might be doing it together, but then again nothing is said that they aren't.

The 2nd volume of the manga basically comes in a  years after Kubota finds Tokito at the end of Vol 1, and it's almost like we missed something. There relationship (what ever that is) has already been set down and we missed it, what happened in that year we just don't know, but their friendship is solid and nothing will separate these two that obvious.

Kubota is blasé to just about everything, he kills without thinking twice and has no feelings about it what so ever, but if Tokito's involved he looses his cool in a BIG way, especially if someone is stupid enough to hurt what is HIS and he all but pisses on Tokito. Tokito is the only person he seems to really react too and get physical with.

Tokito on the other hand is still a bit of a mystery, though his affection for Kubota is plain, to the point of jealousy. He trusts Kabuto implicitly, and about the only one that he really lets close to him, he even calls Kubota, Kubo-Chan.

The pick on the right is from the latest instalment of WA vol 3... It looks riskay, but it's not >_<... Yet again Minekura teases us with tantalising images then explains them away without a thought... IT'S ANNOYING!

More when I get round to writing it ^_^

  

Well that's it for now... I'll sort out any hiccups in continuity later... just I have a few more pages to finish off :P
I hope you enjoyed my ranting... that's if you got this far ^_^ Thanks...

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