ASAKUSA Underground > Fujoshi, rotten girls
If you have ever tried to learn Japanese, you know very well that there are too many homonyms in it. It makes harder to master the language which is hard enough just with kanji characters to memorize.
“Fujoshi” is an old-fashioned Japanese word, which means “girls”. There are many “fu” words with different kanji characters. One of them means “decomposition”. They changed the kanji and created a new word with the same pronunciation.
What does the new “fujoshi” mean?
Fujoshi is a female version of an otaku in a way. It means a girl who adores BL (Boys’ Love, love stories between two boys). The characters are always good-looking, tall, and attractive. They live in a fantasy world, which does not exist in reality, though its authors give familiar and realistic details to the stories’ backgrounds. Mostly they tell their stories in the style of Manga cartoons.
Those girls prefer the beautiful 2-dimentional world to the boring 3-domentional reality. What is realty anyway? We are living in “a floating world - Ukiyo”, aren’t we? Fujoshi girls are as traditional as the big red lantern hanging from Kaminarimon gate.
They also cultivate a peculiar way to look at this world. To them, any relationships are love. There, they always observe which man is passive and which man is active. For example, if they see two football players running after the ball, those rotten fujoshi interpret it as the winning player seducing the losing one. The moment they come up with a satisfying BL interpretation, everything around them gets united. He, she, they, the reality, the fiction, and all become one. The fujoshi girls feel the love in the men going out of the magazine (or reality?) and coming into their body and soul. Nothing is comparable to this joy, they say.
[reference]
www.fujyoshi.jp (Watch out. You need an “y” for this Japanese site.)
Pop Japan Travel (They organize funky Japan tours for fujoshi / yaoi. They have an English site.)
If you are a fujoshi yourself and want to say something, or have found an interesting BL Manga worth translating, please let us know.
ASAKUSA Underground editorship will always appreciate your effort if you correct our poor English.
Fujoshi, rotten girls
If you have ever tried to learn Japanese, you know very well that there are too many homonyms in it. It makes harder to master the language which is hard enough just with kanji characters to memorize.
“Fujoshi” is an old-fashioned Japanese word, which means “girls”. There are many “fu” words with different kanji characters. One of them means “decomposition”. They changed the kanji and created a new word with the same pronunciation.
What does the new “fujoshi” mean?
Fujoshi is a female version of an otaku in a way. It means a girl who adores BL (Boys’ Love, love stories between two boys). The characters are always good-looking, tall, and attractive. They live in a fantasy world, which does not exist in reality, though its authors give familiar and realistic details to the stories’ backgrounds. Mostly they tell their stories in the style of Manga cartoons.
Those girls prefer the beautiful 2-dimentional world to the boring 3-domentional reality. What is realty anyway? We are living in “a floating world - Ukiyo”, aren’t we? Fujoshi girls are as traditional as the big red lantern hanging from Kaminarimon gate.
They also cultivate a peculiar way to look at this world. To them, any relationships are love. There, they always observe which man is passive and which man is active. For example, if they see two football players running after the ball, those rotten fujoshi interpret it as the winning player seducing the losing one. The moment they come up with a satisfying BL interpretation, everything around them gets united. He, she, they, the reality, the fiction, and all become one. The fujoshi girls feel the love in the men going out of the magazine (or reality?) and coming into their body and soul. Nothing is comparable to this joy, they say.
[reference]
www.fujyoshi.jp (Watch out. You need an “y” for this Japanese site.)
Pop Japan Travel (They organize funky Japan tours for fujoshi / yaoi. They have an English site.)
If you are a fujoshi yourself and want to say something, or have found an interesting BL Manga worth translating, please let us know.
ASAKUSA Underground editorship will always appreciate your effort if you correct our poor English.