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About Ai no Kusabi Martina does a better job of describing this stuff over at her page, but here I go ^^. Ai no Kusabi started out as an ongoing novel, which was released in the magazine June, starting with volume 22 (December, 1986) to volume 27 (October, 1987). It was the published as a hardcover book in 1990. Later came the Ai no Kusabi radio drama. I keep hearing there's more than one, but I only know about the 20 track Dark Erogenous. I don't now when it was aired, but I do have the original DJ openings and endings to each show. And at the end of the last track, we have an announcement for... The Ai no Kusabi anime! Originally you had to order it through the magazine, June, or so I heard. There are two episodes, each about an hour long. Lovely lovely stuff. The anime was subtitled by the Lupin Gang fansubbers, with very helpful notes. And just within the last few years, Ai no Kusabi was released again, this time on DVD. The DVD is region free, but without subtitles. There is also, apparently, another novel, entitled "Midnight Illusion," which talks about Riki's time in the slums with Guy, prior to meeting Iason. I have yet to learn anything of what it's about other than that ^^. Chronologically, the story of Ai no Kusabi goes like this: 1. Riki lives in the slums with Guy and the rest of Bison (Midnight Illusion) 2. Riki is saved from some Midas thugs by Iason (first scene of the anime, recounted in the novel through flashbacks) 3. Riki leaves the slums, and spends three years as Iason's Pet (the full three years takes up the radio drama - the novel starts after Riki has been a Pet for a little less than the three years, and recounts the events before that through flashbacks. We get brief flashbacks of this time during the anime as well) 4. Riki returns to the slums for a year, and the rest of the story plays out until Dana Bahn (told in the anime and novel). What does ai no kusabi mean? This, as I've seen, is a matter of some contention, as the title has been translated several different ways. I've seen, "Wedge," "Love's Wedge," and "Wedge of Interval." First of all, "Love's Wedge," is a mistranslation. The Japanese word for "interval," or "space," is ai, but ai is also well known by anime fans as also being the word for "love." But if you look at the kanji making up the title, you can see it's not meant to be "love." Now, "Wedge" and "Wedge of Interval" are both technically correct, but they're a little misleading. The concept behind the title of Ai no Kusabi, if you listen to Katze's remarks during the anime, is that "Love is a wedge, filling a gap between two people." Typically, the word "wedge" in English implies keeping two things apart, but in Japanese it is just the opposite--the wedge is bridging gap between two things that should have been separate. Thus the notion of illicit love. So really, a more appropriate title, English-wise, would be "Bridge," instead of "Wedge." But that's...still not exactly right ^^. And so! Though I usually just refer to Ai no Kusabi by its Japanese title, I think the most accurate translation would be, "A Wedge Between." Iason and Riki's love is against their society, against their own better sense, but it fills the gap between them and connects them to each other. And that's Ai no Kusabi. ^o^ |