G-men is a Japanese gay lifestyle brand, and formerly a monthly magazine.
Rachel Thorn is a cultural anthropologist and a faculty member at the Kyoto Seika University's Faculty of Global Culture in Japan.
Gengoroh Tagame is a pseudonymous Japanese manga artist. Regarded as the most influential creator in the gay manga genre, he has produced over 20 books in four languages over the course of his nearly four decade-long career. Tagame began contributing manga and prose fiction to Japanese gay men's magazines in the 1980s, after making his debut as a manga artist in the yaoi manga magazine June while in high school. As a student he studied graphic design at Tama Art University, and worked as a commercial graphic designer and art director to support his career as a manga artist. His manga series The Toyed Man, originally serialized in the gay men's magazine Badi from 1992 to 1993, enjoyed breakout success after it was published as a book in 1994. After co-founding the gay men's magazine G-men in 1995, Tagame began working as a gay manga artist full-time.
Kuso Miso Technique is a Japanese gay manga one-shot written and illustrated by Junichi Yamakawa. It was originally published in 1987 in Bara-Komi, a manga supplement of the gay men's magazine Barazoku. The manga depicts a sexual encounter between two men in a public restroom that is complicated by the need of one of the men to relieve himself. Published in Bara-Komi to relative obscurity, Kuso Miso Technique gained notoriety as an Internet meme in the early 2000s after scanned copies of the manga were posted on Japanese imageboards and online forums.
Erotic comics are adult comics which focus substantially on nudity and sexual activity, either for their own sake or as a major story element. As such they are usually not permitted to be sold to legal minors. Like other genres of comics, they can consist of single panels, short comic strips, comic books, or graphic novels/albums. Although never a mainstream genre, they have existed as a niche alongside – but usually separate from – other genres of comics.
Sadao Hasegawa was a Japanese graphic artist known for creating homoerotic fetish art. His works are noted for their extensive detail, elaborate fantasy settings, and for their juxtaposition of elements from Japanese, Balinese, Thai, Tibetan Buddhist, African, and Indian art. While Hasegawa focused primarily on depictions of muscular male physique, he often incorporated extreme sexual themes in his works, including bondage and sadomasochism. His art is noted for strong mystical and spiritual overtones.
Bara is a colloquialism for a genre of Japanese art and media known within Japan as gay manga (ゲイ漫画) or gei komi. The genre focuses on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience. Bara can vary in visual style and plot, but typically features masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair, akin to bear or bodybuilding culture. While bara is typically pornographic, the genre has also depicted romantic and autobiographical subject material, as it acknowledges the varied reactions to homosexuality in modern Japan.
Anne Ishii is a writer, editor, translator, and producer based in Philadelphia. Anne is the host of WHYY's Movers & Makers, and the Executive Director of Philadelphia’s Asian Arts Initiative, an arts non-profit.
My Brother's Husband is a manga series by Gengoroh Tagame. Serialized in Monthly Action from 2014 to 2017, and adapted into a live-action television drama by NHK in 2018, the series follows the relationship between single father Yaichi, his daughter Kana, and Mike Flanagan, the Canadian husband of Yaichi's estranged and recently deceased twin brother.
Graham Kolbeins is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, and fashion designer.
Massive Goods is a fashion brand and manga publisher. The company works with LGBTQ and feminist comic artists in Japan, particularly gay manga (bara) artists, to create products featuring their artwork, and English-language translations of their works.
Jiraiya is a pseudonymous Japanese gay manga artist and illustrator. He is noted for his homoerotic, hyperreal drawings of gachimuchi men, and for his use of digital illustration in his artwork.
Sanshi Funayama was a Japanese homoerotic fetish artist. Funayama, along with Go Mishima, Tatsuji Okawa, and Go Hirano, is regarded by artist and historian Gengoroh Tagame as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan.
Tatsuji Okawa was a Japanese homoerotic fetish artist. Tatsuji, along with Go Mishima, Sanshi Funayama, and Go Hirano, is regarded by artist and historian Gengoroh Tagame as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan.
Go Hirano (平野剛) was a Japanese homoerotic fetish artist. Hirano, along with Go Mishima, Sanshi Funayama, and Tatsuji Okawa, is regarded by artist and historian Gengoroh Tagame as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan.
Queer Japan is a 2019 documentary film directed, edited, and co-written by Graham Kolbeins. The documentary profiles a range of individuals in Japan who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ). Queer Japan is produced by Hiromi Iida with Anne Ishii, written by Ishii and Kolbeins, and features an original score composed by Geotic.
Our Colors is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gengoroh Tagame. It was serialized in Futabasha's Monthly Action magazine from March 2018 to May 2020 and collected into three tankōbon volumes. Our Colors is Tagame's second manga for general audiences, following his 2014 series My Brother's Husband. The series follows Sora Itoda, a closeted second-year high school student, who is alienated by the homophobia of his peers and the pressures of needing to pass as straight. One day, Sora meets an older man who runs a cafe, and learns that the man is also gay. The series follows the intergenerational friendship that forms between Sora and the man, and the mentorship the man provides Sora on the problems he is facing.
Takeshi Matsu is a Japanese gay manga artist.
Gai Mizuki, also known as Rycanthropy, is a Japanese gay manga artist and dōjin soft producer.
