I have to admit, I like yaoi novels better than manga. What??? you say? Yep, I do. Maybe that has something to do with why I write yaoi and m/m romance novels instead of drawing comic panels (which I think takes way more talent than I have). Although my eyes certainly appreciate the man candy action of a good yaoi manga, I find they’re too dang short. I like quite a bit more meat (pun intended) in my stories. More back story, more character development, more man loving and certainly more plot development.
Now I know some of you might want to flame me right now, but hear me out. Yaoi manga definitely have their place and yes, I do enjoy them. I just like to read a book with little or no pictures more than reading panels. For some reason, my imagination flies when I read a novel and not so much with a comic. I’m always trying to figure out which way, left or right, up or down, I’m supposed to be reading the darn thing. Okay, maybe I’m just a spaz. But the other thing is the limitations of manga – you just can’t fit as much in as you can with a book. You see this in film all the time. If they actually put everything from the Lord of the Rings books into the movies, they’d each be 5 hours long and we’d probably have 20 of them.
There are a few manga/webcomics I can’t live without – Starfighter being the main one. I mean, who doesn’t like that? Hot headed, evil dark hero(?) paired with innocent blond hero who needs hard, passionate sex… I wonder sometimes what that would look like in a novel form or if it would even work. If that’s the case, I wonder if the medium drives the plots in found yaoi novels versus yaoi manga? Can they be interchanged?
What do you prefer and why?
Oh, that’s tough. I totally agree with you on the short and the lack of plot development. I get confused, sometimes, wondering what I missed. Yaoi novels (the kind translated from Japanese) are oh so odd and wonderful in their own way, too.
But then, I am an artist, too. I love the pretty pictures. I love picking the tender moments out of the drawings, reading in the images what isn’t in the text. Like Wild Adapter that I’m reading right now. the looks on the hero’s face is where all the yaoi action happens, not in the text. and that lets me imagine just what is going on in his head, and what he wants to be going on in his bed…it can be a little bit my story, that way, and still the story that it is.
I’m with you all the way. I love the novels more than manga, although I started out with manga.
My imagination carries me up, up, and away! Maybe that says more about me than I should admit.
I do think in many cases the manga could be turned in to a novel easily. The Finder series( Don’t yell at me about the art because they always include illustrations), Ze, Kizuna, Sex Pistols, even Starfighter would be some I believe would make the transition easily. Basically, these are deep stories that could be made deeper by novelization.
I own every Japanese yaoi published here to date. I’ve read them all more than once and will read them all again. I only wish there were more.
Oh. I believe that I prefer a hot yaoi novel over a yaoi manga.
I began with manga, I still read manga but I am very much addicted to my imagination. I like to visualize what is happening. The odd thing about that unlike a hetro novel, I’m not imagining myself as the character or geting irritated at the heroin. I simply get to love it as is.
And just putting this out there … I notice that in yaoi manga, there is always the “invisible sparkly pink unicorn” (read: penis) that some guy has his lips pursed over or toungue extended towards…. and it does NOT exist on the page. LOL. There are just the drawn sparkles around the invisible penis; I mean unicorn. Hmm…. neither unicorn or penis exist in the manga it seems. The only exception thus far that i have seen in yaoi manga or anime is Sensistive Pornograph. :/
I’d love to see the yaoi manga ‘Junjou Romantica’ done in novel form & in English. The story is so much, it seems it would do great as a novel. I’d say perhaps even a live action movie…. starring Gackt as Usagi…. but ummm….yeah…
Oh, you definitely got me at the Gackt as Usagi thing *drools*:) Jaime, you made me remember why I love manga and anime to begin with – the beautiful artwork. And yes, Lisa, the sparkles sort of bug me, too. I like it graphic, LOL. Gives a whole new meaning to “graphic novel” doesn’t it?
Regards,
Christie