, also known by its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it from the equivalent genre of homoerotic media created by and for gay men, though BL does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. BL spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works.
Though depictions of homosexuality in Japanese media have a history dating to ancient times, contemporary BL traces its origins to male–male romance manga that emerged in the 1970s, and which formed a new subgenre of shōjo manga (comics for girls). Several terms were used for this genre, including , , and . The term ( ; ) emerged as a name for the genre in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of (self-published works) culture as a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi ("no climax, no point, no meaning"), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. "Boys' love" was later adopted by Japanese publications in the 1990s as an umbrella term for male–male romance media marketed to women.
Concepts and themes associated with BL include androgynous men known as bishōnen; diminished female characters; narratives that emphasize homosociality and de-emphasize sociocultural homophobia; and depictions of rape. A commonly recurring characteristic of BL is the practice of pairing characters in relationships according to the roles of seme, the sexual top or active pursuer, and uke, the sexual bottom or passive pursued. BL has a robust global presence, having spread since the 1990s through international licensing and distribution, as well as through unlicensed circulation of works by BL fans online. BL works, culture, and fandom have been studied and discussed by scholars and journalists worldwide.
Etymology and terminology
Multiple terms exist to describe Japanese and Japanese-influenced male–male romance fiction as a genre. In a 2015 survey of professional Japanese male–male romance fiction writers by Kazuko Suzuki, five primary subgenres were identified:
While the term shōnen-ai historically connoted ephebophilia or pederasty, beginning in the 1970s it was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga (girls' manga) featuring romance between bishōnen ( "beautiful boys"), a term for androgynous or effeminate male characters. Early shōnen-ai works were inspired by European literature, the writings of Taruho Inagaki, and the Bildungsroman genre. Shōnen-ai often features references to literature, history, science, and philosophy; Suzuki describes the genre as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand", with "philosophical and abstract musings" that challenged young readers who were often only able to understand the references and deeper themes as they grew older.
as a term and concept predates male–male romance manga that emerged in the 1970s, having originated to describe erotic highbrow literary fiction by authors such as Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Yasunari Kawabata. By the 1980s, magazines aimed at fans were using the term to describe fiction by both amateur and professional writers published in those magazines, as well as to designate literature with themes of homoeroticism and implied homosexuality by authors such as Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, and Mishima. in this context is primarily used to describe prose fiction, but has also been used for manga and visual art.
Derived from the eponymous male–male romance manga magazine first published in 1978, the term was originally used to describe works that resembled the art style of manga published in that magazine. It has also been used to describe amateur works depicting male homosexuality that are original creations and not derivative works. By the 1990s, the term had largely fallen out of use in favor of "boys' love"; it has been suggested that publishers wishing to get a foothold in the June market coined "boys' love" to disassociate the genre from the publisher of June.
Coined in the late 1970s by manga artists Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu, yaoi is a portmanteau of , which translates to "no climax, no point, no meaning". The term originated as a self-deprecating and ironic euphemism for male-male romance (self-published works) that focus on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development. The term is additionally a subversive reference to the classical Japanese narrative structure of introduction, development, twist, and conclusion.
Typically written as the acronym , or alternately as "boy's love" or "boys love", the term is a wasei-eigo construction derived from the literal English translation of shōnen-ai. First used in 1991 by the magazine Image in an effort to collect these disparate genres under a single term, the term became widely popularized in 1994 after being used by the magazine . "BL" is the common term used to describe male–male romance media marketed to women in Japan and much of Asia, though its usage in the West is inconsistent.
Despite attempts by researchers to codify differences between these subgenres, in practice these terms are used interchangeably. Kazumi Nagaike and Tomoko Aoyama note that while BL and are the most common generic terms for this kind of media, they specifically avoid attempts at defining subgenres, noting that the differences between them are ill-defined and that even when differentiated, the subgenres "remain thematically intertwined."
In Suzuki's investigation of these subgenres, she notes that "there is no appropriate and convenient Japanese shorthand term to embrace all subgenres of male–male love fiction by and for women." has been used as an umbrella term in the West for Japanese-influenced comics with male–male relationships, and was preferentially used by American manga publishers for works of this kind due to the belief that the term "boys' love" carries the implication of pedophilia. In Japan, is used to denote dōjinshi and works that focus on sex scenes. In all usages, and boys' love excludes gay manga (bara), a genre which also depicts gay male sexual relationships, but is written for and mostly by gay men.
In the West, the term shōnen-ai is sometimes used to describe titles that focus on romance over explicit sexual content, while yaoi is used to describe titles that primarily feature sexually explicit themes and subject material. Yaoi can also be used by Western fans as a label for anime or manga-based slash fiction. The Japanese use of yaoi to denote only works with explicit scenes sometimes clashes with the Western use of the word to describe the genre as a whole, creating confusion between Japanese and Western audiences.
History Before 1970: The origins of shōnen-ai
Homosexuality and androgyny have a history in Japan dating to ancient times, as seen in practices such as and . The country shifted away from a tolerance of homosexuality amid Westernization during the Meiji Era (1868–1912), and moved towards hostile social attitudes towards homosexuality and the implementation of anti-sodomy laws.
In the face of this legal and cultural shift, artists who depicted male homosexuality in their work typically did so through subtext. Illustrations by in the shōnen manga (boys' comics) magazine Nihon Shōnen formed the foundation of what would become the aesthetic of bishōnen: boys and young men, often in homosocial or homoerotic contexts, who are defined by their "ambivalent passivity, fragility, ephemerality, and softness." The 1961 novel A Lovers' Forest by tanbi writer Mari Mori, which follows the relationship between a professor and his younger male lover, is regarded as an influential precursor to the shōnen-ai genre. Mori's works were influenced by European literature, particularly Gothic literature, and laid the foundation for many of the common tropes of shōnen-ai, , and BL: Western exoticism, educated and wealthy characters, significant age differences among couples, and fanciful or even surreal settings.
In manga, the concept of emerged in the late 1950s, which sought to use manga to tell serious and grounded stories aimed at adult audiences. Gekiga inspired the creation of manga that depicted realistic human relationships, and opened the way for manga that explored human sexuality in a non-pornographic context. Hideko Mizuno's 1969 shōjo manga (girls' comics) series Fire! (1969–1971), which eroticized its male protagonists and depicted male homosexuality in American rock and roll culture, is noted as an influential work in this regard.
1970s and 1980s: From shōnen-ai to yaoi
Contemporary Japanese homoerotic romance manga originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of shōjo manga. The decade saw the arrival of a new generation of shōjo manga artists, most notable among them the Year 24 Group. The Year 24 Group contributed significantly to the development of the shōjo manga, introducing a greater diversity of themes and subject material to the genre that drew inspiration from Japanese and European literature, cinema, and history. Members of the group, including Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio, created works that depicted male homosexuality: In The Sunroom (1970) by Takemiya is considered the first work of the genre that would become known as shōnen-ai, followed by Hagio's The November Gymnasium (1971).
Takemiya, Hagio, Toshie Kihara, Ryoko Yamagishi, and Kaoru Kurimoto were among the most significant shōnen-ai artists of this era; notable works include The Heart of Thomas (1974–1975) by Hagio and Kaze to Ki no Uta (1976–1984) by Takemiya. Works by these artists typically featured tragic romances between androgynous bishōnen in historic European settings. Though these works were nominally aimed at an audience of adolescent girls and young women, they also attracted adult gay and lesbian readers. During this same period, the first gay manga magazines were published: Barazoku, the first commercially circulated gay men's magazine in Japan, was published in 1971, and served as a major influence on Takemiya and the development of shōnen-ai.
The (self-published works) subculture emerged contemporaneously in the 1970s (see Media below), and in 1975, the first Comiket was held as a gathering of amateur artists who produce . The term yaoi, initially used by some creators of male–male romance to describe their creations ironically, emerged to describe amateur works that were influenced by and gay manga.Matsui, Midori. (1993) "Little girls were little boys: Displaced Femininity in the representation of homosexuality in Japanese girls' comics," in Gunew, S. and Yeatman, A. (eds.) Feminism and The Politics of Difference, pp. 177–196. Halifax: Fernwood Publishing. Early yaoi produced for Comiket were typically derivative works, with glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen as popular subjects as a result of the influence of Fire!; yaoi were also more sexually explicit than shōnen-ai.