Ashura

I don't have much time to spend surfing these days, so when I do find a site I feel warrants a closer look, I need to be able to find my way around it quickly and easily. I also need to feel welcome, or I give up and try looking elsewhere.
       Every now and again I check out the yaoi sites on the 'net. (I've found they frequently generate extraordinarily fine artwork, and often demonstrate a high degree of creative and literary talent...) I found these particular pages by following a link from Planet Pluto (interesting in its own right!), and found myself immediately captivated by the sheer open enthusiasm of the site.

Ashura is, in her own words, "an amateur artist (and hopeful mangaka!)". While I'm not an expert, I'd say her work shows a lot of promise. But what really impressed me was her willingness to share both her successes AND her "failures" - and, even more significantly, how she achieved both.
       There really aren't that many people prepared to share both the good and bad - most only want others to see them at their best. It's refreshing and encouraging to find someone prepared to leave themselves open to criticism in an attempt to help others avoid their own mistakes!

There's such a wonderfully friendly and approachable feel to Ashura's site. It a little like being welcomed into a new friend's house: it's very easy to feel comfortable and at home here in an amazingly short space of time. Ashura's own enthusiasm and desire to communicate is the main cause, of course, but she's also made the site easy to navigate and very attractive to look at, avoiding those irritatingly flash (and slow-loading) effects beloved of so many webmasters, in favour of a more simplistic and far more user-friendly approach (which is not to say less sophisticated, by any means. Her use of the 'font face' and 'font colour' html codes, and the appropriate use of thumbnails, is extremely appealing!)
       Ashura's own unique character is an hermaphrodite called Onyx (and yes, he really does have both male and female sex organs...). It's somewhat tricky subject matter at best: somehow, most people feel more comfortable with the idea of homosexuality - male or female - or transexuality. The notion of someone who is really both male and female can be unsettling, not to mention challenging - but at the very least allows for an intriguing exploration into the accepted mores of human behaviour and sexual orientation. This is gender-melding rather than gender-bending!
       Ashura has now produced her first manga starring Onyx, and I'm waiting - with eager anticipation - for my copy to arrive...