sha + gojyo
(words)

gojyo. popular, attractive gojyo, with his cigarettes and condoms tossed around the room. gojyo. i wish i could be gojyo. my alter ego is gojyo. picture hakkai's fingers in gojyo's lips, gojyo. hip, skinny, semi naked, loud, lonely, insecure gojyo.

let me talk. just a little.

i like gojyo. i admit i did not always like him. fall 2000, large japanese store in manhattan, asahiya. japanese magazine. i first met gojyo. reaction: yuck. i really disliked the whole idea of saiyuki. too popular and the newest coca cola in the anime world. all the girls went gaga over saiyuki, and the four mega cutie boys. me, myself, i don't like that sort of vibe. so, i despised all things saiyuki and specially gojyo and his i'm-so-super-cool face.
 

warning: these kind of characters win you over. so, i find myself won over, collecting volume after volume of the manga, and waiting for the instalments in
g fantasy. pretty much in love with the character of gojyo. other wise, there would be no shrine and you'd be someplace else, no? i am sure that, if we look closely, he's not the most wonderful of people. yet, he's the most wonderful character, in my eyes, in saiyuki. articulate enough.
 

he smokes. not a second when he's not smoking and when the cigarette hangs on his lip like a weed or a middle finger. personally, i know if i knew him for real i'd never ever wish to be near him. he must really have a strong smell. i picture he must smell like my old biology professor, padovani, who smoked three or more cigarettes in one hour conferences, and whose tests were permeated with cigarette smell. however, anyone who knows me or has read my other shrines, knows i am a sucker for smoking. yes, second hand smoke hurts people and i've seen the inside of lungs all perforated with smoke's disease. yet, i still find smoking cool. the act of smoking. so does practically all the rest of the world. i'm not inventing the wheel or the tv here. why do i like gojyo's smoking habit? i don't know. gives him a nonchalant look, a 'despise the world' atmospheric characterization, a 'tragically lost and senseless' feeling. when i try to cross examine this character, i realize his smoking can be a mechanism used to cope. cope with the tragedies he's lived in his past, that is. need an example here. the broadway play i went to last sunday starring the legendary alan cumming: design for living. the characters kept lighting up whenever they felt pressure or felt as if they had come face to face with reality or with a problem too big for them. escape. calm. serenity. the quieting down of the mess inside the head. perhaps smoking does these things to gojyo.
 

condoms in his apartment. blatant reference to sex, causal sex. sex with who? good question. hakkai? he's the other person in the room. however, i am not a foolish person with a closed mind. i know yaoi is not the only undercurrent in this story. sex with females, too. gojyo, like another favorite character of mine, yohji from weiß kreuz, is a lady killer. seems i run into those too often. lady killer. he plays poker, lights up, spreads his legs, girls stroke him, ladies kiss him, women follow him. you know. lady kill. gojyo is smooth and open about sex and about sensuality and this is a bit embarrassing, but also a bit alluring. in a private way. i certainly never ever like to spend too much time in this subject in public. cut short now. personal philosophy.
 
 
 
 

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