Purity The Post-Yaoi Anthology
Various Authors/Artists
Publisher: Originally a Kickstarter project
Pages: 180
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Blurb:
For all those yaoi enthusiasts who don't know what this anthology is about and its purpose, take a look at what is on the Purity website: "Purity is a black & white erotic anthology of sequential and pin-up works by artists stylistically inspired by yaoi manga." The main reason this was set up is due to the love each writer and artist had for the yaoi genre and the need they had to get something less mainstream published and put out into the world. The yaoi genre has influenced and touched so many people, and there are plenty who have worked on this original kickstarter project into its finality.
Review:
Purity is a two-person idea of creating their own anthology. A.A. Green and Ann Notation had the drive and ambition to create something different that already had a readership as there are loads of avid yaoi readers out there ready to soak up new works by what we can call new artists.
As we have no doubt noticed over the years, a few independent yaoi publishers have come and gone, but none have stuck around for long enough to read their well established catalogue of material. Such as Yaoi Press, NET COMICS and Seishin Ink have stuck around and we have plenty of material from them in most genres, especially Yaoi Press's Yamila Abraham's new yaoi novels. Purity is interested in both those who want to occasionally read their yaoi, and more so those who want to read it a lot! They want to see what new readers think of their work, and there is no greater chance than this where several stories are on offer from new writers who want to give readers their best yaoi fiction in their own genres.
Purity is a black and white anthology of yaoi sequential art and sensual pin-up art from some of the most interesting names to have come into yaoi art; AE Green, Aero Zero, Nero O'Reilly, Lucid, reapersun, blankd, Loren D and DCS to name a few. All these artists and more have been influenced by yaoi from way back when such as the YaoiCon site was in its infancy and the fan works we saw were yaoi fiction or manga based around characters from popular Japanese manga, anime and video games. I too have been inspired by the yaoi I have read in the past and at the moment I am still interested in the genre and read without prejudice, and hope others do. What can be better than after reading yaoi, to create some of your own and get others to read it?
There has since been a paperback copy of the anthology released, but this is purely the review for the pdf copy I got sent through.
As for the artists, I didn't know any of them, but then that is the point of the anthology. It's an introduction to new artists who will hopefully be well-known later. The stories are about a lot of different creatures who spring up in yaoi all the time and I guess this is their way of also paying a great homage to some of the most famous yaoi artists around today. These stories do deal with the less nice aspects of romance and life; with self-harm references and a bit of blood (mainly from the vampires in Lucid's Type B) but for those who have read yaoi before, this will be pretty normal in the realms of seme and uke land. I am sure many will no doubt know some of these artists, and I hope to familiarise myself with them later at some point through DeviantArt or other sites where I like to get my yaoi fix. Readers will find something that will appeal to them whether they like tentacles, fur, teeth, vampires or the myriad characters in these short yaoi offerings. I appreciated several as they appealed to my interest in horror and fantasy creatures. Even anthology organiser AE Green show us her creativity by giving us Sugar Sandwich, while Blankd's Clear Recent is a comical one that keeps the fun element of yaoi right up there and Ocicatasy & Wensleydale's My Two Boyfriends has a slightly Cthulhu element to it that doffs its cap to the Japanese preoccupation with tentacle sex. There are others I would like to mention, but I don't want to give too much away as they are really good with the various genres of horror, fantasy and serious ones that could make you cry - if you read them enough.
Summary:
It's about time something new in the yaoi genre came out, and here it is - get your teeth into it now and hope for more of the same like I am.
As we have no doubt noticed over the years, a few independent yaoi publishers have come and gone, but none have stuck around for long enough to read their well established catalogue of material. Such as Yaoi Press, NET COMICS and Seishin Ink have stuck around and we have plenty of material from them in most genres, especially Yaoi Press's Yamila Abraham's new yaoi novels. Purity is interested in both those who want to occasionally read their yaoi, and more so those who want to read it a lot! They want to see what new readers think of their work, and there is no greater chance than this where several stories are on offer from new writers who want to give readers their best yaoi fiction in their own genres.
Purity is a black and white anthology of yaoi sequential art and sensual pin-up art from some of the most interesting names to have come into yaoi art; AE Green, Aero Zero, Nero O'Reilly, Lucid, reapersun, blankd, Loren D and DCS to name a few. All these artists and more have been influenced by yaoi from way back when such as the YaoiCon site was in its infancy and the fan works we saw were yaoi fiction or manga based around characters from popular Japanese manga, anime and video games. I too have been inspired by the yaoi I have read in the past and at the moment I am still interested in the genre and read without prejudice, and hope others do. What can be better than after reading yaoi, to create some of your own and get others to read it?
There has since been a paperback copy of the anthology released, but this is purely the review for the pdf copy I got sent through.
As for the artists, I didn't know any of them, but then that is the point of the anthology. It's an introduction to new artists who will hopefully be well-known later. The stories are about a lot of different creatures who spring up in yaoi all the time and I guess this is their way of also paying a great homage to some of the most famous yaoi artists around today. These stories do deal with the less nice aspects of romance and life; with self-harm references and a bit of blood (mainly from the vampires in Lucid's Type B) but for those who have read yaoi before, this will be pretty normal in the realms of seme and uke land. I am sure many will no doubt know some of these artists, and I hope to familiarise myself with them later at some point through DeviantArt or other sites where I like to get my yaoi fix. Readers will find something that will appeal to them whether they like tentacles, fur, teeth, vampires or the myriad characters in these short yaoi offerings. I appreciated several as they appealed to my interest in horror and fantasy creatures. Even anthology organiser AE Green show us her creativity by giving us Sugar Sandwich, while Blankd's Clear Recent is a comical one that keeps the fun element of yaoi right up there and Ocicatasy & Wensleydale's My Two Boyfriends has a slightly Cthulhu element to it that doffs its cap to the Japanese preoccupation with tentacle sex. There are others I would like to mention, but I don't want to give too much away as they are really good with the various genres of horror, fantasy and serious ones that could make you cry - if you read them enough.
Summary:
It's about time something new in the yaoi genre came out, and here it is - get your teeth into it now and hope for more of the same like I am.
