Yaoi Now Prime Time Material?
So there’s been a lot of buzz around work this week over this show called, “The Book of Daniel” that premiered Friday night on NBC. You see, it’s a show about a priest addicted to painkillers with an alcoholic wife, gay son, and drug-dealing daughter. As if that isn’t enough, this priest would also have personal conversations with the man himself, Jesus. Before this show even aired, some conservative group went ape-shit over it. They had set out an email campaign attempting to kill the show. One of the targets of this crusade was a chairperson of the corporation I work for. I’m not sure if we sponsor the show or not, but my IT department had to go through the hassle of filtering out every single one of the 50,000 emails we received. (-_-)
So, being the left-wing liberal I am, I did what any decent Christen would. I TiVo’ed that shit and enjoyed watching it. It’s actually is a very good show, and I recommend it to anyone. It’s not anti-religious, it just shows that real life has its major hardships that everyone must endure. And at the same time, is also doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s those ignorant people sending those angry emails that are given the religion a bad name, not this show!
But enough of my ranting on such a subject on this blog. Here’s the real reason why you anime fans will find this show interesting.
Why exactly was the daughter selling dope? Well, it turns out that she needs the money to buy computer equipment. She creates her own Japanese-styled web comics.
“Whoa, you do manga?!?”
“Manga? What is that? Some kind of marijuana?”
But not only does she do manga, her comic is a yaoi story based on her gay brother!
This is unbelievable! A prime-time show on NBC that uses anime, manga, and of all things yaoi as a plot device. What are everyone’s thoughts on this? When did anime become so big that they even talk about yaoi now?
Dang! I already wanted to watch this, but now that I’ve heard this, I’m definitely going to give it a shot, even if it’s just for the “wtf” experience.
Comment by Ariadne — January 8, 2006 @ 2:45 am
I’m sorry NBC. Webcomic != manga, even if it features a sad girl in snow.
Comment by jason — January 8, 2006 @ 8:21 pm
Doesn’t linking manga to drug dealing give it a bad name?!! It’s bad enough that many people think anime is a form of porn!! I don’t see anything to be happy about in this story (>_>)
Comment by Mohammad — January 8, 2006 @ 9:25 pm
Don’t worry, Mohammad, this show actually makes manga look very positive. It is the “good thing that she has going for her.” The priest father becomes very fascinated with it, and proudly shows off her talent to the rest of the family. He also strongly encourages his daughter to continue with it, but by getting a part-time job instead of dope dealing.
Comment by Scott — January 8, 2006 @ 9:33 pm
I agree with Mohammed. This will only further those Christian conservatists that anime is the spawn of Satan. Damn NBC.
Not like this is gonna have any effect, though. I don’t think we need to worry.
Comment by Alex — January 9, 2006 @ 4:53 pm
Yaoi is never mentioned and the girl’s “manga” doesn’t look anything like traditional manga.
Comment by Sabrina — January 10, 2006 @ 1:23 pm
Sabrina is right. They never mention it by name, but “people in the know” will quickly catch on that it is yaoi they’re talking about. And in my opinion, there’s no definite “manga style”, every artist has his or her own unique style. This character’s art is clearly influenced by Japanese artists, as noted by the falling tree leaves referencing the clichéd falling cherry blossoms.
This isn’t an anime convention, this is NBC. Cut them a break, it was a good attempt.
Comment by Scott — January 10, 2006 @ 5:29 pm
NBC has been fairly decent at picking up on little sub-culture things recently. Scrubs has some pretty good examples. Anyway, yaoi being even obscurely referenced on a major network is a good step, but until Gravitation is aired on a US network, yaoi still has a long ways to go
Comment by ramsey — January 13, 2006 @ 3:56 am