An Overview of the Commercial Publication of Japanese Boys Love (BL) Manga in Poland

Abstract

An Overview of the Commercial Publication of Japanese Boys Love (BL) Manga in Poland Agata Włodarczyk (bio) When discussing the history of manga publishing in Poland, it is important to note that after World War II the country was governed by the communist party (PZPR)1 and until 1989 remained under the influence of the USSR; both conditions heavily affected the publishing market in general. During that time comic books were not regarded as a legitimate medium, and access to foreign comic books was highly restricted.2 The situation changed with the dramatic political shift in 1989, paving the way for manga to appear in mainstream book markets beginning in the second half of the 1990s, with the establishment of Japonica Polonica Fantastica (JPF) in 1996, soon followed by Waneko in 1999. Manga and anime culture in Poland grew not from an already established comics culture, but from a culture based around gamers as well as young teenagers watching anime on TV. It was apparent to these publishers that, rather than classic titles, these potential manga consumers would want to read currently popular works, manga usually known through anime broadcast on local TV, or those that fans accessed online. While JPF and Waneko began to respond to the perceived interest of this nascent fandom, they did not publish boys love (BL) manga, either by conscious choice or ignorance, creating a situation in which fans knew of the genre by accessing it online, often on scanlation sites or by purchasing foreign language editions, but were unable to buy a Polish language copy. As a result, for a long time CLAMP's X, first published in Poland in 2000,3 was regarded by fans as BL (or, more correctly, as "yaoi," an older Japanese label that still is a dominant umbrella term used among Polish fans). This was not because X was actually BL, but because the manga, by a collective association with works that sometimes include same-sex couples, was as close as fans could get to it in a commercially published work in Polish. Although an exact date is impossible to pinpoint, BL fandom itself started forming in Poland around 1998, when many female fans began discussing a possible romantic relationship between two of Sailor Moon's antagonists, [End Page 167] Zoisite and Kunzite—who are presented in the Polish version of the anime as brothers—during offline meetings, on online forums, Yahoo mailing lists, and on mIRC (chat client) channels. In 2001, a specifically BL-related webpage was created by a Japanese language student,4 with its author often organizing BL-themed meetings in Warsaw. In 2003 and 2004 the group organized Aicon, Poland's first yaoi-themed convention, involving around 350 participants each time. One of the more interesting aspects of BL fandom in Poland from its coalescence at the end of the 1990s is the fact that many of its members have enjoyed the reading and writing of slash fanfiction. Nowadays "slash" and "yaoi" are generally used synonymously by fans about male-male love relationships in any media and any form.5 The slowly growing visibility and activity of Polish BL fans since the late 1990s evidences a demand for this kind of work. In response, the tiny shortlived publisher Saisha was established and in 2003 published the first volume of Higuri You's BL manga Cutlass (Katorasu) as its first title, followed that same year by Rieko Yoshihara's light novel At no kusabi (The space between).6 Both gave fans hope that they would be able to see more of their favorite BL works translated into Polish. Saisha managed to publish one more manga, this time including explicit sex scenes, Takashima Kazusa's Wild Rock in 2005.7 However, the poor quality of the translation and editing of Ai no kusabi, combined with the complicated and restrictive purchase process, whereby fans were required to provide proof that they were of legal age to read a comic with sexual content when ordering either of the publisher's two manga by mail, seems to have brought about Saisha's downfall. While the existing manga publisher Studio JG revived the commercial publication of BL in Poland several...