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This chapter discusses the works of manga artist Yoshinaga Fumi, whose narratives are an endlessly interpretable relationship that provides a window on gender and sexuality. It argues that Yoshinaga is a “master chef” of manga who prepares wonderful dishes for a diverse range of textual consumers and connoisseurs. Working within the Boys Love (BL) and related genres for both commercial and dōjinshi publications, Yoshinaga depicts food, gender, and sexuality in order to affirm and celebrate desires and gratification, while at the same time presenting acute critiques of the kinds of consumption that involve or nurture discrimination against, and subjugation of, one group of people by another. The chapter highlights three of Yoshinaga's popular series produced at different times in her career, with differing degrees and methods of adopting or transforming BL conventions: The Moon and the Sandals (Tsuki to sandaru), Hana oto (Flower sound), and Antique Bakery (Seiyō kottō yōgashiten).

This chapter addresses cultural responses to Boys Love (BL) texts, including both manga and light novels, in the context of broader conservative critiques of manga, anime, and related popular culture. It points out how manga have often been targeted by moral campaigners due to its content. Since the late 1980s, following on from a moral panic occasioned by the serial killing of four infant girls by avid manga collector Miyazaki Tsutomu, manga and anime content has increasingly been governed by a code of industry self-regulation, but this does not apply to the self-published dōjinshi scene, which includes many BL writers. The chapter discusses two recent incidents: the 2008 furor over the large number of BL titles available for loan in a library district in Osaka, and the 2010 debate in Tokyo over the “Non-Existent Youth” Bill aimed at using zoning laws to restrict the sale of erotic and pornographic manga.

Play has often been associated with creativity that generates innovation because it allows an alleged “relaxation of rules.” Chapter five looks at the relationships among creativity, innovation, knowledge and rules in the Japanese contemporary play culture. It explores three common patterns of creativity in youth culture’s games: selection and combination, the production of simulacra and remediation, and intertextuality and parody. In all the games described in this chapter, creativity is negotiated with experience, knowledge, and familiarity with existing play forms; most of the time it is expressed through repetition, alternation, and development of known possibilities, rather than in innovation. The chapter concludes by arguing that the reason play is associated with creativity is not because of a “relaxation of rules,” but because play legitimizes and invites creativity, unlike other cultural spheres that demand conformity. Moreover, although creativity in its rigorous sense of generating innovation is rare in the games described in this chapter, players feel that they are partaking of a creative activity and are thus appreciated. In other words, in evaluating creativity in play and in general, we should also at how the notion of creativity is culturally structured.

Chapter 2 shifts focus to underground writing communities that borrow from popular culture to influence canonicity. Roh compares American fan fiction and dojinshi to illustrate how a favorable or unfavorable infrastructure and legal climate detracts from or encourages fledgling creativity. Roh argues that a generous legal policy—rather than a protective one—may be of greater overall benefit. For example, the disparate reactions of American and Japanese content owners to amateur fiction illustrate how different policies affect industry development. Japanese publishers tacitly sanction dojinshi authors, which has resulted in a vibrant subindustry acting as free advertising for borrowed works. In contrast, their American counterparts generally disapprove of fan fiction, which limits the growth potential for both parties. The importance lies not with which party prevails but with the dialogic relationship that compels engagement and adaptation.

The introduction reconsiders the relationship between canonical and subcultural voices relegated to the periphery in cultural studies, and articulates the need for considering how infrastructure--in the form of legal policy and network distribution--slows or accelerates the rate of cultural change.