Back at Otakon when the Tokyo Pop rep said that they were in talks with bookstores to see if they could market an English translation of the Remixes, I was at first ecstatic. I prefer hard copy and while the Japanese versions are nice, I wouldn't mind having English companions to go with them. It'd be cool to just walk into a Borders and pick up a few. Convenient, right?

Then I thought about it.

I dunno if the U.S. could handle something like this. Let's face it, we're a nation of prudes and I personally think the reason yaoi is even beginning to flourish here is because nobody really understands what it is yet. It's big in fangirl world, but the rest of the nation is pretty clueless about it. And because no one knows how graphic it can be, starting us off with Remix versions just might be the foot in the door that closes hardcore retail yaoi for us. Think about it. When you go to a con or talk to a fangirl online about yaoi, chances are they're with friends of the same age--and that age is pretty young in a lot of cases. Not saying that they're not mature enough to handle it but what would your parents think if they saw you reading something as explicit as a three way with Tohma and Tatsuha and Eiri? I only saw a very few parents at the con and even fewer at the Murakami Q n A. (naturally I sat next to one father who talked on his cellphone the entire time!) But I'm willing to bet half these parents, including Dad there, have no idea what their kids are reading. If you live in this country then you know, it only takes one vocal parent to go WHAT THE HELL IS THAT? to little Susie or little Amy who's reading Megamix Panda and that's all she wrote. Suddenly CNN is doing an expose about how these things are selling at Borders right next to Harry Potter and there are activists and keep our children safe patrols and Borders and every other retail outlet backs down with its tail between its legs and pulls copies from the shelves.

I would much rather see TP or other companies sell these things online but we know that TP is a mass marketer and won't bring stuff here unless they can pimp the hell out of it.

Being of legal age, I can buy whatever I want, but I'm not so sure I want the convenience of buying English Remixes at Barnes and Noble whilst I have a latte and run the risk of having yaoi exposed and smacked down here. I mean..how could we possibly explain it? Have you ever tried explaining yaoi to someone not in the know or into anime. You can't do it. Not well anyway and I sincerely doubt CNN is going to buy that "Well, this is cool in Japan" for more than six seconds.

What are your thoughts on this? Will bringing explicit versions of English translated yaoi slow or kill the budding industry in this country? Will it go underground and hide on websites or will the publicity it's bound to get keep it forever in scanlation territory?

Big Daddy.