Mangas and animes, with their various examples of gender-bending friendliness (and awful stereotypes), can sometimes be your best resort in a book or dvd store. You know, one of those days when you’d like a romantic comedy, and it’d be kinda nice if the story was about (in my case) two girls and their happy endings.

Having to read up on gender-bending in adopted online identities lately, I stumbled upon this interesting manga called 1/2 Ouji manga. This manga is written by Yu Wo, and illustrated by Choi Hong Chong.

It’s 2100 AD — Feng Lan is a 19 year old college girl, living in T City. Her twin brother introduces her to the game Second Life. Rather like our own Second Life, users can construct their own identities in this game. The difference lies in this: the game is immersive, one enters the virtual reality, and injuries  received from the game translate into real pain.

Those familiar with Hunter X Hunter may compare this with Greed Island.

OH, SNAP! Hehe.

Feng Lan is furious at her brother for declaring that being female gives her an unfair advantage in the game. I presume this may mean in 2100AD, Second Life is catered for, and dominated by, straight, hormonal males. At the very least, it is certain that the game allows females to level up easier.

Feng Lan decides to play the game as a man. This makes her the first transgendered character in the game.

I have only begun reading the manga, I cannot say if Feng Lan is actually transgendered — though based on the circumstantial beginnings, I am inclined to think not. She also seems much  more interested in getting into her own pants.

I’m not that far along in the manga yet — from what I understand, Feng Lan’s supposed to evolve into a blood-thirsty warrior. I’m still at the part where in Second Life, he’s a lust-inducing man, getting favours thrown his way because of how beautiful he looks.

Yeap. That’s a picture of Feng Lan as “Prince”. Certainly a more interesting character than Legolas, for me. I like my fictional elves to be evil.

If you’re sold on the idea of giving it a try, Manga Fox has scanlations of 1/2 Ouji manga. The link to yonder first chapter is here. If you like what you see, head on over to your favourite manga shop and pick up a copy.

As for me; my two favourite gender-bending manga comics growing up were Ranma 1/2, and F. Compo. What’s yours?

I have to say that my exposure to lesbian fiction is limited to a little over a dozen lesbian authors. But two shinning stars that pop up in my all time favorite list are – Jeanette Winterson and Sarah Waters (maybe it is something about the dreary British weather that brings the best out of lesbian fiction?).  Where reading Winterson’s works is like thumbing through a shopping mall’s plastic poster portfolio of cheap Disney knockoffs prints and finding Picasso’s original artwork, reading Sarah Waters’ works is like finding a full-blown oasis complete with lesbian egrets while stumbling through a dry hot desert. To that effect, this review is on her first published book – Tipping the Velvet. To date, Sarah Waters has written four books: Affinity(Affinity is the first book I re-read immediately after finishing because the twist in the book was that jarring and unexpected), NightWatch, Fingersmith. I believe three of them having been made to feature films – Affinity(2008), Fingersmith(2005), Tipping the Velvet (2002).  I have to admit with Tipping the Velvet, I watched the movie first before reading the novel.  The movies was so good I felt like I didn’t need to read the novel. But, I finally caved in and purchased the novel after reading all her other novels. I have to say I was not disappointed with my meager investment.  

Her writing vividly brings out characters, their emotions and their environment. Tipping the Velvet follows Nan King, a young protagonist through her journey of self-discover. Her relationships with Kitty, Diana and Florie is written in such lush detail, I feel like writing a letter of complaint to the producers of the movie for not depicting Nan for the drool-inducing butch that she was in the book.  While there are many memorable moments in the book, my favorite is when Diana related a story of the beggar and djinn to Nan the morning after their first liason. The djinn/Diana gave the beggar/Nan the choice of living in ordinary comfort for 70 years or live in pleasure for 500 days. Guess which the beggar and Nan picked? I have to admit even now, I run the same question through my head sometimes when making life decisions.  

I don’t want to give a way too much of the storyline as I strongly recommend you run to the store right now to buy all of Sarah Waters’ books. If you can only buy one book because you are such a cheapskate, get Tipping the Velvet if you like some eroticism in your lesbian fiction or Affinity if you want to get a good twist in your reading. 

One Whispering Night

“Where do you stay? I want to meet you and see what you look like…”

We met in my car under the shadow of the midnight moon.
His face looking at mine for the first time. And I loved it
how his smile was shining brighter than the moon’s light.
The moon was watching us, but I was watching him more closely.

His gentle gestures of planned lust were obvious.
We chatted in the car, the winds suddenly made their way home,
and we were left all alone
to mingle and bond and share our first moments together in peace.

He shared his milestones in life; I shared mine.
His face kept looking straight but his eyes focused on me
and I knew cupid was working hard that night,
because my heart felt that arrow shoot right through my flesh.
I knew it was love.

It was on this Whispering Night
that magic became reality and reality felt like magic,

Two guys in a car, in an enclosed space
that would have been perfect to turn his gentle gestures to lustful ones.
But we both acted cool and curious about each other,
as smiles and glances were exchanged for the next few hours,
no touch, nothing physical – not yet.
Maybe never.

Until finally it came, the moment to say goodbye,
because it was already 4a.m. and the sun was fighting to come out.

It wasn’t just the sun fighting to come out, but our hearts
were bursting into flames and we knew
that if we wanted to touch, it should happen soon.
But gentle it must be.

“It’s late”, we said. Hinting either to end our meet,
or get on with the kissing.
And touching.

Neither wanted to leave, but both of us knew it was just the beginning
and little did we know that the best was yet to come.
It was lust at first, but it turned into love,
and the night ended with a kiss, a long one, a gentle one.
And of course some touching.

Maybe a bit more than just ‘some’.

And that’s how two boys fell in love -
one dark sky and one bright moon
one kiss
all in one Whispering Night.

Haruki Murakami has written 13 books since his debut as an author in 1985.  ‘The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle’, the Yomiuri Literary Prize winner book sealed Murakami’s place among other great Japanese authors such as Yukio Mishima and Kenzaburo Oe or his Franz Kafka award-winning ‘Kafka on the Shore’ are some samples of his works.

In Sputnik Sweetheart, following Sumire’s journey of realizing, agonizing and suffering with her love for Miu, a much older women with a past, rewards the reader with a lesbian-themed twists and paradoxical plots unique to Murakami.  Throw-in an incidental a gay male couple along the Jack Kerouac obsessions and skinny-dipping in the clear waters of a secluded Greek island, the LGBT reader finds an almost irresistible book.

First of all, let’s set the expectations, the lesbian relationship is not the primary focus of the book nor does the book have a satisfyingly tangible ending for any of the potential couples (or for the book for that matter).

However, unlike the typical tease of Banana Yoshimoto’s books where the reader is left wondering if the protaganist and her close female friend are ever going to be lovers, Murakami’s Sumire declares from the onset of her encounter with Miu that she “must be in love with this woman.. no mistake about it. Ice is cold, roses are red. I am in love”.

Through humor, what  Sputnik Sweeheart reader will not want to think of “cucumbers in a fridge on  a summer afternoon” next time he/she feels sexual desire for another person?, and through utter relevant irreverence “Miu’s mind went blank. I’m right here [stuck in a Ferris wheel gondola], looking at my room with binoculars. And in that room is me..”, Sputnik Sweetheart makes the reader realize that the journey the reader undertakes following the plot that brought K, Sumire and Miu together is more important than bringing a K and Sumire or Sumire and Miu relationship into fruition.  Through Murakami’s skilled navigation, the reader cannot help but winch in pity for both Sumire and K in turns.

With the brief preface on Laika, the first dog and living being launched into space by the Russian satellite Sputnik II, Miu’s explanation of the term ‘Sputnik’ to mean ‘Traveling Companion’, the line uttered by Miu, “that we were wonderful traveling companions but in the end no more than lonely lumps of metal in their own orbits”, the reader becomes the a companion detective alongside K in putting the pieces of plot together to determine the moral of the story. Just as Sumire reached to a conclusion at the end, the reader too will realize that relationships are journeys best taken together.

‘Confessions of the Mask’ by Yukio Mishima is a must read for the discriminate LGBT reader as well.