SCREAM!!!
But come on, it’s not like I couldn’t find the Ai no Kusabi OAVs online (I KNOW) and not link them fucking everywhere. Ai no Kusabi started out as a freaky-ass yaoi novel and then was translated into an equally freaky-ass and tres 80s yaoi OAV pairing, wherein, folks, I’m not making this up, society is stratified by hair color and people keep other people of lesser hair colors as sex slaves and toys. By which I mean, the Blondies (yes, that’s what they’re actually called) reign supreme. D: <– note my distress face. It makes sweet love to my :D delight face: D:<3 :D
Why, you might ask, is this such a big deal?
Because for years, it was near-impossible to find the OAVs. They weren’t made mass market available in the U.S. — newcomers to the yaoi/bl/shounen-ai genre, you don’t know how good you have it — and nobody translated them into English (as far as I know, and I would know, I looked). It’s scifi sex fantasy/tragedy at its finest, and yes, there are chains and questionable consent, but like I said in my Welcome to YAOI! posts, that’s par for the course in this business.
Oh, and maybe some visuals will help move along your interest:
Initially I considered writing up a story summary and giving you the names of the characters and/or plot but I realized that most anybody who would care about those has already scrolled up and down over these images and gone right back up to watch the OAV live action and I don’t need to waste my time. HOWEVER — those of you who are still around, should definitely check out this business, which is an awesome amazing music video for Ai no Kusabi set to — wait for it — Leann Rimes, “Can’t Fight the Moonlight.” I’m just saying, don’t be frightened; I love it so hard my lady parts hurt.
(AMV.org, by the way, is worth signing up for, tons and tons of amazing vids. Like this one, Ninja of the Night, for Naruto, which, wow, if you haven’t seen, go fix that NOW)
Happy viewing!
And for those who might have missed it, I posted Arc pt 2/? over the weekend. Go forth, tell me you love me.
um. hi!
So i’m kind of a lurker… but i actually went to comment on Arc (because, really, my love knows no bounds.. and i’m kind of stalking you) before you mentioned it in this post.
Only the thing is - and i don’t know if it’s just me - but it tells me comments are disabled when i try.
So, let me just say here, for the record, that you are the only writer for whom i will willingly read funky anime/manga/yaoi based fic which i know nothing about. You’re just that good.
Thanks!
Ai no Kusabi caused me pain in my soul (and made me sob like a little girl) when I watched it a few years ago; I don’t think I can bring myself to see it again. All the gay bits are fabulous in an “early yaoi conventions” kind of way, but it the rest of it huuuuurts. The only way I can approach that series is by reading redemption-esque fic in which THE END is generally hand-waved away. Alternately: anything I can find with Raul and/or Katze. Truly a tragedy worthy of olde Bill.
also: Was anyone else completely weirded out by the clothes the blondies wear?
Oh WOW I haven’t seen Ai no Kusabi in a long time… about ten years actually. (lol) Kids these days! In my day, we had to walk uphill, both ways, in the snow, just to get our anime!
Have you seen Mirage of Blaze? It’s another excellent based-on-a-novel (technically, insanely long series of novels) BL series that was more recently made into OAV series. It combines Japanese history, reincarnation, and supernatural powers. It also has several of the same voice actors who give equally excellent performances (albeit less porn related).
*jaw drops* That…I…guh!
Boo, I can’t watch the series now or any time soon! alsdkjalskjda Must.Find.The.Novel.Right.Now!
Oh wow, I watched that…ages ago. Probably it was in a .ram format. With no subtitles, possibly I was scrolling through a transcript in notepad next to it. Needless to say ti took me about 3 rewatchings to figure out what’s going on ^^; No one today gets to complain about ANYTHING, they can download episodes in a single file, and it’s not a .asf that you have to put together.
Oh, Ai no Kusabi. Somehow, a tape of the fansub of it got into my university’s club library and was there for a long, long time, until the club’s ex-secretary absconded with it a couple years ago. Considering the ending, we didn’t try to hard to get it back. I mean, agh. I enjoyed watching it with a large group of friend until near the end, at which point we were all, “Did that guy really–? No. NO. I thought they were FRIENDS. Seriously? Aghagh,” and we considered the very end to be a bit of mercy, really.
Nabah. I’m tottering, sitting but tottering. Om..off to..watch. na..ugh. It’s like, It’s like, Harry Potter on porn and au and good and sailormoon (my mad love for darien and all anime men).
I…om…just finished it. Speechless, thrilled, that was everything I was waiting for in a canon. And then the ending betrayed me- just. I need to go lie down and grieve. Where can I get more like that. Exactly like that. Did the creators of that do anything else? And thank you for sharing it. I feel like my life in fandom is complete- that gave me everything I’ve wanted in a show: the hot relationship, the love from Iason, complexity of each character, let’s not even talk about the sex which was…whatajkjl, and the eye glances- the widening and…so good. I was so hoping it was a fifteen part series.