Fujoshi Rumi: What are those fangirls thinking?

Have you ever met a Hard-Core Yaoi Fangirl (HCYF) and been utterly baffled by what makes her tick (or tick you off)?  Fujoshi Rumi will not exactly explain the deeper psychological reasons for HCYF behavior, but it will give you some insight into exactly what HCYFs are thinking. 

Fujoshi Rumi is about a HCYF and the normal boy who gets a crush on her.  (Fujoshi is basically the term adopted by Japanese HCYFs.)  Trials and tribulations ensue as he tries to win the heart of a girl whose mind is busy trying to pair up the attractive young men around her so that they more closely match her inner, yaoi-fed fantasies.  It's pretty accurate from an outsider's perspective, and my HCYF friend told me it was embarrassingly accurate.

This manga kind of baffled me when it came out.  It was, hands down, one of the most consistently funny send-ups of otaku culture I've encountered, with just the right mix of embarrassing awkwardness and honesty.  It was highly educational and entertaining.  I liked it, but something was bothering me: I was having a hard time pinning down its intended audience.

The premise made me think it was part self-love letter for HCYFs and part education manual for those (males and females) who didn't understand what makes HCYFs tick. 

The art itself made me think it had to be aimed at guys. Though a lot of the plot is driven by perceived "yaoi" antics, the guys were decidedly sketchy.  You could tell that the art part of the show was all about the girls.  On occassion, the artist would do something nearly bishonen (usually during a particularly awkward moment easily interpretable as live shonen-ai), but the girls looked fabulous in every frame.  I decided it must be seinen. 

The thing is, the intended audience doesn't really matter here.  Anyone who is intrigued or even slightly interested and possibly also anyone just vaguely annoyed by HCYFs might really enjoy this story.  It lets you get into the heads of people you don't understand, to see life from other, very different points of view. 

Whether you still conclude that HCYFs are all particularly nutso or simply another form of "otaku," you'll learn (possibly more than you wanted to know) about how their minds work, and that can't be all bad, right?