Shōnen-ai

"Boys Love" redirects here. For the 2006 Japanese film, see Boys Love (film).

Shōnen-ai (少年愛, "boy-love"(paiderastia)) is a term that is applied to anime or manga that deals with love between young men, especially of the bishōnen (美少年) variety. The genre itself dealt with romanticized but non-sexual relationships between men. The predecessor of shōnen-ai was tanbi (耽美).

Shōnen-ai is less sexually explicit than yaoi, sometimes not at all. Shōnen-ai is very popular in Japan, especially among schoolgirls and housewives. It has also found a strong audience in America and Europe, especially among 18–24 year old heterosexual women and homosexual men.

Terminology

The term shōnen-ai is no longer used in Japan with regard to manga and anime; the wasei-eigo construction Boys Love (ボーイズラブ, Bōizu Rabu, but usually rendered as English, occasionally spelled Boy's Love or Boys' Love, or abbreviated BL) has largely replaced it due to associations of the original term with pederasty (which were not associated into English usage). Ironically, the similar English term "boylove" has the exact meaning Boys Love was coined to avoid.

Shounen-ai began as a shoujo sub-genre in the early 1970s, and early shonen ai, such as Kaze to Ki no Uta, took place in far off locations.

Audience

The majority of readership is young and female, and as such, the stories are mostly drawn by women and marketed to a female audience. Many enthusiasts say they are drawn to the beauty and distance of the characters, as well as the idealistic depictions of male love. Some argue that because shōnen-ai excludes females from the relationship, it is sexually non-threatening to its female audience while still allowing them to identify with its characters. Others would argue that it is perfectly natural for women to be turned on by the idea of love and sex between males.

Shōnen-ai has found a large fanbase in United States. According to Nielsen BookScan, the volumes in the Gravitation manga series alone have sold more than 230,000 combined copies. It is popular worldwide in many languages, and has fan bases in countries where the general population has access to computer technology, drawn-in and living off scanlations, bootleg anime downloads, and pricy black market dōjinshi where commercially released manga and anime are not available.

Shōnen-ai is rather different from comics marketed toward gay men. Though some gay market-oriented comics have been published in Japan, they have always been underground, independent affairs, with small circulation and little coverage.

The term JUNE (pronounced "juh-neh") has also been used in Japan, although only with respect to original works (that is, never to what would in English be called slash fiction), and mainly in reference to what is widely considered the first popular shōnen-ai magazine published; JUNE (ジュネ) magazine (1978-79, 1981-96). This magazine, which reached its height of circulation in the mid-1980s, romanticized and worshiped the binanshi, or beautiful boy, in contrast with today's popular term, bishōnen. Most professionally published shōnen-ai manga has since been published primarily in mainstream girls' magazines.

A thriving market for gay-themed dōjinshi (independent, fan-produced comics) has also grown recently in Japan, revolving primarily around the yearly Comiket. Comiket, a large annual convention featuring multiple convention floors of (primarily amateur) manga and gekiga artists selling their works, has an entire basement floor devoted to shōnen-ai and yaoi.

Shōnen-ai media

Please see the category Category:Shōnen-ai for anime, manga and games that have shōnen-ai as one of their main themes.

See also

• Shota-con
• Shudo
• Yaoi: a term for anime and manga that deal with sexually explicit relationships between men.
• Yuri: a term for anime and manga that deal with romantic relationships between women.

External links

• Japanese Wikipedia: ボーイズラブ (Boys Love)