Shousetsu Bang*Bang Summer Special 2007 Review*

[brigdh]

bb_shousetsu, to quote their userinfo, is "a webzine for original boy's love oneshot stories, intended as an online, English-language text equivalent of one of those All Yomikiri Bimonthly Summer Special 100 Extra Pages!! manga phonebooks where every story is about the torrid romance of an ordinary schoolboy and his soccer club captain - or a teenaged yakuza boss and his faithful lieutenant - or the prince of an exotic desert country and the emerald-eyed winged bishounen he rescues from the sawtoothed sand monsters of G'or, self-contained in 30 pages and heartwarmingly predictable. Our editorial policy is to dispense with meaning and literary merit and concentrate on cracked-out inconsequential fun."

However! Every summer they have a special issue featuring yuri (female/female) stories instead of yaoi (male/male) stories, which is pretty much the best thing ever. Why is there no regular yuri webzine? Maybe I should start one. Maybe I should create extra hours in the day first. Maybe I should just beg someone else to run it and enjoy the free, effortless stories.

Anyway, as I've said, the theme of the summer issue is yuri. You can read all of the stories (and appreciate the art which comes with the illustrated ones) here. I particularly recommend:

The Archive by Kagamino Kage. A very interesting urban fantasy with a main character who has a fascinating relationship to reality. This feels more like a novel than a short story, but in a good way, like there's a lot left to explore that you'd like to read. There's also some lovely images in here, which is always a plus.
The Heart Eater's Children by Usagi Anami. When I was 13 or so, I was obsessed with the Drizzt Do'Urden books; I read them until I had them memorized. Which clearly explains why I fond this story of a twisted, dark relationship in a Dark Elf society to be a good read. I like the way gender roles work themselves out here, too; there's quite a different twist on things like using a strap-on.
The Passion of Saints Tryphaena and Tryphosa by Shukyou. My favorite story of the issue. It uses the style and format of early Christian writings, and it does it really, really well, even in the sex scenes. It could be just blasphemous fun, but this story strikes me as something much more lovely.
Masks and Stockings by Torino Koji. I liked the story a lot because it has a transgendered person as the main character, and that's not the focus of the story. It's there, it effects some relationships, but so often a story with such a character comes off as a Very Special Episode, but instead 'Masks and Stockings' manages to let Alex be a real, three-dimensional person, and tell a normal story about first relationships. That made me happy.
Fire by Tsukizubon Saruko. The basic plot of this story is: a fighter pursues Fire across a desert. But wow. There is so much more going on here, about passion and love and obsession, and the writing is just absolutely gorgeous. Well worth the read.

My only criticism with this issue? Needs more sex scenes! Heh. The next issue will be out in October, and will probably have a theme of 'Horror'. However, signups have not yet started; I'll let you all know when the post goes up, or you can join bb_shousetsu yourself.

*Yeah, yeah, eventually I'll get around to posting something other than reviews of webzines, but that time is not right now.

Comments

[cellophane_ria.livejournal.com]

It's very refreshing to see a review in your flist! I like it. And I think you should start that yuri webzine! If you like it? I'm sure it can be done without eating all your time. ^^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like it! I'm never sure how many people actually read these posts.

I would think it would be possible, but I'm wary about starting big projects right now, since I'm not sure how much free time to estimate for myself in the fall, because I'll be starting TA'ing. At the least I should wait and see if I'll be wanting to kill myself already with the work overload. Heh.

[aluragayle.livejournal.com]

Ooooh... these definitely look interesting! =D Thanks for the recs! ♥

And I would totally love a yuri webzine, too. >.> Now... about that 'more hours in the day' thing... ^.^

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

No worries! I hope you enjoy the stories.

Hee. We will have to find someone to tempt into running it.

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

...Hm. A yuri webzine.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Now, see, that's the sort of thoughtful expression that makes me think you are just the person to run it! *looks tempting*

[ladysisyphus.livejournal.com]

>_>

...no promises.

[parallactic.livejournal.com]

This isn't a yuri webzine, but have you heard of daily_yuri? They post pieces of yuri manga, comics, and sometimes art. It's like scans_daily, only focused on yuri.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I had not heard of that! I knew about yaoi_daily, but not this one. Thank you so much for the link!

[keelieinblack.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank god someone besides me remembers Drizzt Do'Urden. When I was a gloomy teenager I used to swear that if I ever got a cat I'd name it Guenhwyvar. (Thankfully I think I've grown out of that idea, though I still make jokes about not killing spiders so I can avoid the wrath of Lloth.)

Yuri webzine needs to exist, definitely. Girls just don't get enough love in fandom.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad you remember him too! I adored those books. (Though reading the wikipedia page to make sure I'd spelled his name right makes me feel a bit embarrassed to admit it.)

I agree! Though most of my favorite characters in fandom- either to read or to write- happen to be male, if we're talking about random, original one-shots, I'd much prefer yuri to yaoi.

[pukingtoreador.livejournal.com]

I've been wondering why there is no girl-love bang bang myself. If you did it that would be awesome! I've got a few gl ideas myself but it discouraging to only be about to submit one a year.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Cool! It's good to know that other people would be interested too, if it does happen.

[childofatlantis.livejournal.com]

are they planning to move off LJ at all, do you know?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

petronia (who runs the zine) has made backups of everything, but doesn't plan to move unless the zine's deleted. She's trying to take a stand against LJ's policy (and, of course, bb_shousetsu is probably not in LJ's spotlight anyway).