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Girls who like Boys who like Boys – Ethnography of ... - Yuuyami.com

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historical members <strong>of</strong> the shinsengumi, a group <strong>of</strong> warriors employed by the<br />

bakufu (essentially a military government) to patrol Kyoto as a semi-police<br />

group, and standing in opposition to the Emperor and his supporters. Having<br />

swallowed down the episodes, and astonished that all characters <strong>of</strong> the anime<br />

were, in fact, portrayals <strong>of</strong> real members <strong>of</strong> the shinsengumi, I ended up<br />

researching the background <strong>of</strong> the shinsengumi intensively online for a couple<br />

<strong>of</strong> weeks. Admittedly, I did not look for fanfiction in the fandom, but this is<br />

because to some degree I do not expect good quality fanfiction for such a new<br />

series in the English-speaking fandom, and to another degree because I have<br />

limited my reading <strong>of</strong> fanfiction as this project progressed; partly not wishing<br />

to over-analyze all my movements in fandom, I have mainly continued to read<br />

fanfics in fandoms I am very familiar with. Partly, I have grown weary as my<br />

fannish and academic modes <strong>of</strong> identity mingled, as they had been <strong>com</strong>pletely<br />

detached until I began to consider fandom as a subject area for this project.<br />

I see similar spurts in other fans, sometimes indirectly in fanfic<br />

reviews posted on their LiveJournals, sometimes directly, talking on AIM.<br />

When Eiko and I banter about the Harry Potter character Draco Malfoy and<br />

his addiction to caffeine (referring to the portrayal <strong>of</strong> Draco Malfoy by a<br />

popular fanfiction writer called Maya), or when she sends me very “slashy”<br />

pictures over Instant Messenger, I know that she is online searching out things.<br />

I may not be with her while she is looking for sites, but I participate to a<br />

certain degree, as we share some <strong>of</strong> the same fandoms. When Yuri sends me<br />

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