. The latter is definitely the smartest retelling. If you are not familiar with it,
Kacha-Kacha Mountain |
tells the story of a civet cat terrorizing an old man, which eventually leads him to kill and cook the man’s wife, and fed him soup made from her meat, à la Juniper |
. The old man took care of the civet cat with the help of a rabbit, and eventually put him on a boat full of dry mud and drowned him. (And help secure his death by paddling his oars wisely over the tanuki’s head.) In Kobayashi’s version, the tanuki is not evil, but unlucky, and he befriends the old woman, whom he The old woman was found in her bathtub. She asked him to make her soup, and he came up with the brilliant idea of using her bath water as the base, thus creating a very different “old lady’s soup”. The old man didn’t understand, the rabbit came in, but instead of killing the civet cat, he made the civet cat his own in a completely different way. It’s easily the most vulgar story, but it’s also the best parody, right down to the references to the original punishment and the dry mud boat. |
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Similarly, |
Ice Queen  chapters that follow are very close to Andersen’s original, with the notable exception that Gerda is Kay’s over-eager suitor…let’s say hands. When a gender-reversed Snow Queen implants his ice cubes in Kai’s eyes and heart, Gerda sets out to get him back, befriending Bandit Boy (originally Bandit Girl) and Spring Prince (ss) along the way. The bandit boy scene leads Gerda to acquire animals to help him become the Snow Queen, and if you’ve read the original, Kobayashi’s approach to detail is both over-the-top and hilarious. |
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The main problem with the fly in the ointment is that hardly any sex is consensual. The closest we got was The Little Matchboy , otherwise this is a very funny parody of Andersen’s original tearjerker. Instead of freezing to death on a street corner thanks to his rogue father, Match Boy uses his matches and tricks to lure men into the hotel, give them a shower, and run off with a wallet. He met his adversary in the end client, who took very seriously what he thought Matchboy had to offer. The sex scene between Kay and Gerda is also somewhat obscure; Kay is possessed by shards of mirror glass inside him, so Gerda himself uses sex to save him, but the title story is undoubtedly the least desirable in the volume, the red-bound wolf , and then hunters exploit the situation. It’s not a moment without it – “Grandma, why do you have a dick?” It’s a nice addition to Red’s usual barrage of questions – but even if you’re a fan of broken fairy tales, if noncon isn’t your romantic trope , which might not work for you. |
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The art is nice and the sexuality is not very obvious – we only have a penis silhouette, if the witch and the ice queen Seemingly similar, their roles in their respective stories are nearly identical. (Assuming the witch doesn’t want to devour Hansel.) The main sexual focus is the nipples, and that’s where Kobayashi devotes most of his artistic attention. Really a lot |
a lot |
details in each story. Pages are generally easier to read and translations are better than some Kobunsha 100/ Media do of BL offerings, which is always a plus.
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whatever you want to call it, this roll is broken BL205 Fairy tales are fun. It’s definitely not perfect, and its main problem is definitely disagreeing, but if that doesn’t bother you in your novel, it’s an interesting moment.
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