As the creator of Dream In Pink, Shinju-chan, prepares to open up the site to other artists, she reflects on the entire world of Transformer Yaoi:

Contrary to what some people might believe, Transformers yaoi is NOT a new concept. I actually read and shared TF slash back in the mid-1980's while the original series was still yet on the air. The only reason why it seems so ‘fresh’ now is due to the fact we have the internet which offers far more greater exposure than localized fan groups swapping ideas and the mail-order fanzines of old. We also didn’t refer to it ‘yaoi’ back then either. As a matter of fact, I don’t believe we dubbed it anything at all —-other than robots being very gay.

Still, in all of slash-dom, there is no other show I can think of that seems to rival all the ‘taboo’ that surrounds Transformers related slash. If it’s not the irregular homophobic fans you’ll encounter who’ll argue that you are —quote— ‘Raping my childhood!’ and ‘How dare you do such a thing!’, you also have the other side of the fan community that are in fact into TF slashing, but have totally different ideas and separate opinions as to how those sexual acts are performed by giant mechs... Some fans feel that ‘sex’ among the robots is purely mechanical in it’s nature; attaching cables, buttons, and pushing keys. Some slash fans enjoy adding a more human-like element by having phalluses and such. Still yet, there’s another part of the Trans-slashdom who appreciate the ‘Transformers human’ concept that depict the robots in a human form (Such as based on the G1 Season 3 episode of ‘Only Human’) engaged in sexual acts. That part of the community has another fraction to it all of it’s very own that include Transformers involved in sexual acts with human beings! The majority of this concept seems to have it’s roots laid thick in Japan where the Transformer/Human idea is a very prevalent one. The KISS Alternators product line for instance.

Shinju is more of a classicist, however; her strip Confessions has a very simple plot: Optimus Prime beats Megatron in battle... and then rapes him. Apparently, the seemingly morally-upright leader of the Autobots really was more than meets the eye, after all.

[Dream In Pink]

I feel like most yaoi art is fantasy-oriented. Is your work more oriented towards fantasy or science fiction?

A lot of my art is ambiguous as to whether it's fantasy or sci-fi, but I think I gravitate more towards fantasy. Lately I've been doing more steampunk themed art, which I guess falls more into the sci-fi category... So the scifi vs. fantasy might even be around 50-50 at this point. I've often tried to break out of the scifi/fantasy niche and just draw something completely mundane, but I can't seem to manage it.

How big is the yaoi audience in the U.S. now? Is it as big as it is in Japan?

I won't claim to be an expert on the yaoi market. I'm pretty sure the Japanese yaoi market still far surpasses the American created/produced yaoi scene. They've just been doing it longer, and most of our popular yaoi media is imported from Japan. I think many of the bigger publishing houses are not so quick to pick up yaoi as they have been to dive into general audience manga, so that keeps the market small. It's difficult for the small presses to to make it in the business, and that's where most of our American yaoi is coming from - small presses, independant publishers, and self-publishing.

When did you get involved in yaoi art?

I discovered rather early in my teenage years that having two guys together is just hot, so when I first found yaoi on the internet (it is for porn, after all) it was like coming home. I didn't join the yaoi art scene until much later, circa 2004, but it really only coincided with graduating from college and suddenly having more time on my hands. Moving to San Francisco helped also, because that gave me my first chance to attend Yaoi-Con and meet the community in person. Having a group to share the artwork with just gave me more reasons to draw yaoi-themed art.