What is Yaoi?
Yaoi is a Japanese publishing genre that encompasses manga, novels and short stories, produced by female artists and writers for the enjoyment of female readers. It is a fantasy form which focuses on the romantic, emotional, and above all, sexual relationships of guys together. The word yaoi is derived from the first syllables of each word in the expression, yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi, which means "no peak, no point, no meaning,? and originally referred to self-published fan comics (doujinshi). Yaoi is similar to the American genre of slash (m/m pairings based on popular television series, movies or books), but typically with more of a visual aspect.
Boy's Love (BL) is the usual term used by the Japanese publishing industry to categorize works focusing on male/male relationships marketed at women. Many Westerners use yaoi as a catchall term to indicate any story that includes a male/male relationship and is linked to Japan, be it commercial manga, anime, games, game-based slash fiction, English-language fan fiction, fan art, etc., just as BL is used as an umbrella term in Japan. In Japan the term yaoi typically refers to just doujinshi and sex scenes. Referring to a commercial work as yaoi, or to a shoujo (girls') or BL manga artist as a yaoi artist may be considered offensive. mrgreen
Community Member