After translating Waho Konoma's "Alice the Little Squirrel" one-shot from the second issue of the legendary doujin magazine Cybele and referring to Patrick W. Galbraith's book Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan in my corresponding blog post, I decided that manga history geeks like myself would probably be more interested to read something from the inaugural issue of Cybele. Of course, Hideo Azuma's contribution to that volume was a natural choice.
First published under the pseudonym 'Leonardo da Hideo' and later reprinted under another pseudonym, 'Leonard da Chinpo', "Little Red Riding Hood in Wonderland" debuted in Cybele at Comiket 11 on April 8, 1979. In 2015, the story was included in the collection Wonder Azuma Hideo Land.
In the first chapter of his book, Galbraith highlights this story specifically as emblematic of the Lolicon Boom that Cybele ushered into otaku culture at that time. He draws a parallel between boys love manga, which was at that point the dominant genre at Comiket, with lolicon through this story because it eliminates male characters and emphasizes exploration of gender and sexuality without the intervention of a 'heroic male inserter'; Galbraith cites Azuma's desire to "erase himself" from the work in much the same way that many boys love manga 'erased' female bodies from romance narratives in order for its creators and audience to engage in gender and sexuality play while unburdened by the restrictions that gender normativity imposes. Here, Azuma is able to transgress what was then considered an 'unspeakable' taboo; acknowledging the 'kawaii ero' or 'cute eroticism' in shoujo manga or in the works of Osamu Tezuka.
If I haven't yet made it clear enough, I thoroughly recommend Galbraith's book to anyone interested in gender and sexuality studies within manga. But to get to the one-shot itself--it's a Little Red Riding Hood parody featuring strictly bishoujo and funny animals. Yes, once again, this is furry shit. But this yiff is of legendary stature. Even if you're not really into funny animals, perhaps you'll appreciate that this work is essential in tracing the roots of contemporary eromanga.
I should also mention that this piece is packed to the brim with wordplay and innuendo due to its extensive use of hiragana which could be translated in multiple ways dependent upon the kanji chosen. In multiple places I took liberties in an effort to compensate for what would be lost in translation, and at other points I included notes to describe the wordplay present in the Japanese. I'm satisfied with the translation as a happy medium between the literal and the localized, but this should be taken into consideration when reading.
Enjoy!
P.S.
A few of the notes I left in the early pages had to be written in such a small font size that some readers may have difficulty reading them, so I'll include them here:
(p. 1) - Here, Azuma is mocking the manga series Nippen no Miko-chan (1972-1984) written by Seika Nakayama (under the pseudonym Reiko Yabuki). The series was created to advertise a correspondence course in calligraphy.
(p. 1) - The pseudonym Azuma assumes here ('Amarashii') means 'ridiculous'.
(p. 2) - This is, of course, another pseudonym for Hideo Azuma. The second time this story was published, it was under the name 'Leonard da Chinpo'. 'Chinpo' is a word often used by children to mean 'penis'.
