Hello again...
  Looks like I stirred up quite a bit of reaction with my post.  To
recap:

>   It certainly does NOT mean me!  On my last trip to Chicago's Yaohan
> (about 6 hr from here), I picked up a copy of AMS color manga #3, a
> Japanese gun magazine (appropriately entitled "GUN"), and a copy of
> Ribbon.  The lady at the counter bagged the whole works without
> comment, but I did get some VERY strange looks from some of the other
> customers, especially the college student behind me in line.  O.K., so
> I like reading gun magazines and little girls manga; you have a
> problem with that?
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^                                   ^^^^^^^^^^

  This line is so cliche from the American "Tough Guy" movie genre that
I thought it wouldn't need a smiley or other statement modifier.
Anyway, on to the followups:

Schmitty-sama (kittygirls@aol.com) wrote:

>Paul Doi thought I was somewhat serious when I said shojo manga is For
>Girls Only. I can assure him I was joking---8-P     

  So was I ^_^;;

>Anyway, I shop at 
>the same Yaohan in Chicago, a quick 90 minute trip from home in 
>Milwaukee. I go down there on business at least once a month.  

  Lucky!  Like I said, it's a 6-hour drive for me, so I usually try to
spend the weekend when I go.  Makes kind of an expensive trip ($60 hotel
room, $40 gas, plus what I spend at Yaohan (~$150/trip)).  Oh well, it
only occurs every 6 months or so...

>They're 
>used to me there, buying all the girls manga I can get my hands on. I 
>subscribe to NAKAYOSHI and once a month, there I am in my suit & tie 
>to pick up my monthly dose of cuteness.  

  The counter staff seems quite "unshockable".  No doubt they've seen
all types of people buying all sorts of things.  It was the fellow
customers that thought I was pretty strange.

>They probably think I'm totally insane. 

  Sanity is vastly overrated.

>Also, one of the girls that works there is selling me her 
>collection of FUSHIGI YUUGI. And of course, I buy all my AMG and TAIHO 
>SHICHAUZO there as well.

  I haven't purchased any Taiho Shichauzo yet, other than AnimEigo's
hybrid LD, but I did buy all the issues of AMG that I was missing 2
trips ago (quick way of spending $80).  I liked the Fushigi Yuugi anime,
but not enough to start searching out the manga.  I have other things I
need to get first, like the rest of Tenchi TV, PSME, etc., etc.

Then Kenji Shimizu wrote:

> ...You know, in Japan (at least in Tokyo) you see many people reading
>manga, but I've never seen a grown-man reading a "Sho-jo Manga"
>(translated as "little/young girls manga"). But then again, I've noticed
>that people who's really into manga (including older man and women) tend
>to show some interest in these things. My guess is, there's just too
>many mangas being published here, at a cheap price, so maybe that's why we
>don't pay much attention to shojo manga.

  "Otaku are not like other people"  Tanaka, Otaku no Video
  Too many people here idolize the characters in Otaku no Video.  Myself
included.  It isn't healthy to live on $0.19 ramen so you can buy an LD
box set, but it's gotta be done! ;)

> (I guess it's different NOW in the States huh?)

  Perhaps.  There is increased interest since a dubbed Sailor Moon has
been released here, but there are other hard-core shoujo fans here.  One
group in Detroit called KASHA (KAwaii SHoujo Anonymous) has one of the
biggest shoujo anime and manga collections I've seen.  How serious are
they? 

  (Scene: living room plastered with anime posters, shelves lined with 
  anime and manga (predominately shoujo).  Eight otaku avidly watch
  Akazukin Cha-Cha on the TV)

  KASHA fan: (dreamy voice) Cha-Cha is so HOT...

  (rest of room turns and gives shocked stares to the guilty party)

  KASHA fan: (stammering) ...A-After the transformation sequence!

Back to the letter:

>>   Perhaps I need to get out more often...

> I think so too. Also, try reading other Japanese comic-books and
>comic-magazinese (Manga). You might run into some new interesting stuff.

  I do read other stuff (AMG, UY, MI, Gunsmith Cats, Sunday Afternoon),
but it is hard to get here in Iowa, and rather expensive.  You are
right, Kenji; this is an expensive hobby.

Well, back to the normally scheduled AMG postings...

Paul Doi
pauldoi@iastate.edu