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

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LiveJournal as a location achieves to project an image <strong>of</strong> private sphere as<br />

well as semi-private interaction to such a degree that it allowed me to form<br />

connections to a few people <strong>who</strong>m I do not know in real life.<br />

Kira is a very close personal friend, <strong>who</strong>m I met at college in general,<br />

and subsequently club meetings in particular. During a very active period<br />

online, Kira has fashioned a reputation by translating a Japanese manga (or<br />

<strong>com</strong>ic) called Tokyo Babylon (1991) into English via Spanish; she provided<br />

the first English translation <strong>of</strong> this manga online. In our, mostly <strong>of</strong>fline,<br />

interactions, she had told me <strong>of</strong> this, but I never quite fully grasped the full<br />

concept <strong>of</strong> her fame, perhaps because, nominally, she is not active enough<br />

online in order to be a BNF. However, during a brief resurgence <strong>of</strong> interest in<br />

CLAMP the female mangaka (<strong>com</strong>ic creator) consortium that created,<br />

amongst others, Tokyo Babylon, I came across a fan blog (another form <strong>of</strong><br />

online diary). One <strong>of</strong> Kira’s fanfics was re<strong>com</strong>mended there, as well as her<br />

non-fictional essays. This well-known person was my real life friend?<br />

At that period <strong>of</strong> time, I still assumed that it would be very difficult to<br />

form close connections online. Though that belief has passed since, as I my<br />

friends have told me how many screen names on their Instant Messenger<br />

Buddy list are <strong>of</strong> people <strong>who</strong>m they only know online, it has only been very<br />

recent that I have accepted that at face value exactly: One does not have to<br />

meet another face-to-face in order to form a connection. In fact, the online<br />

connection to another individual may very well be stronger, and more genuine,<br />

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