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Forum - View topicNEWS: Article on Yaoi Explosion
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The Xenos
 Posts: 1519 Location: Boston |
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Not my cup of tea, but I find it.. I dunno.. good? that more explicit and pornographic yaoi is finding it's way to publishers in America.
Now I always nit pick about non-pornographic 'yaoi' not being called shonen-ai. I do wish they would call the stuff like Gravitation and non-explicit stuff shonen-ai and leave the title yaoi for the explicit stuff. Though I must comment the publishers that seem to have done a decent job and properly separating the more explicit 18+ stuff. I hate censorship, but I also want publishers to keep pornographic material away from underaged readers and give parents warning. I keep saying that manga, and in particular yaoi titles, have the potential for becoming the next Grand Theft Auto in US politics. If Jack Thompson or a number of conservatives got wind their daughters were into this stuff, can you imagine the uproar? Gay marrage is a national hot button issue. Senators are up in arms over sex in Grand Theft Auto and video game ratings. I don't know if it will happen, but I keep saying yaoi has the potential to be a political bonfire. The kindling and fuel is already there. (Then again, it seems Jack has gotten himself in trouble as a lawyer, so hopefully his loudspeaker days are numbered.) Now, I admit I wonder about my own interests. I can only hope some of the.. questionable stuff I like can find a market. In particular, I'd like to see more Tamaoki Benkyo works in America despite his questionable content. His Tokyo Akazukin (Red Hood) has some really disturbing stuff, due to appahrent age of sexualized characters and gore. Though he's already gotten his Blood the Last Vampire 2002 (out from Viz) and Sex Philes (out from Eros Comix in comic format). Also, I'd like to see some of Oh Great!'s more hentai work. I bought the Japanese copy of his Naked Star at a con. Then agian, we can't even get an uncensored version of Tenjo Tenge in America. (&*#$in' CMX.) |
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Wolverine Princess
 Posts: 1100 |
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Why? Shonen-ai is an outdated term that refers exclusively to shotakon manga in Japan. If you really want to nit-pick about correctly labeling the stuff, you should be calling it BL or Boys Love. |
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AyumiHamasaki
Posts: 219 |
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I think we should adapt the Japanese style and call the romantic stuff simply "BL" and yaoi for the more explicit ones.
And this is kind of off topic but sort of related to the yaoi explosion but LOVELESS, with only two volumes released, is currently the 5th best selling manga property in the US for 2006, beating the likes of Death Note, Bleach, Negima, Tsubasa etc. http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/9478.html |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
 Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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I get the feeling that there are very localized definitions and usage of BL/boy's love, yaoi, and shounen-ai around the English-speaking anime/manga community. In another forum (whose members are based much closer to where I live), I once brought up how BL could be a more generic label referring to relationships between men regardless of the age of the men or the level of explicitness. However the resident yaoi expert on that site adamantly corrected me and pointed out that BL should ONLY be used when referring to the more explicit stuff and more specifically when one of boys in the relationship is underage or very underage
oh btw Wolverineprincess I love your new avatar! 
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Mohawk52
 Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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Ooooh, I can see the headlines now when the first "soccer mom" finds one of these in their daughter, or son's, bedroom, especially a "mom" from the Christian Right.
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Wolverine Princess
Posts: 1100 |
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I think she probably confused the word BL with shonen-ai, since that statement fits perfectly with what shonen-ai is. Her definition is incorrect; "Boy's Love" is used for all media with male-on-male relationships intended for a female audience. (A piece of evidence to support this that immediately popped into my mind is that dating simulations/visual novels of this genre are called "BL games" regardless of the age of the characters involved. You can find more info on that subject here.) Heh, this discussion reminds me of something a friend of mine once said:
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Mohawk52
Posts: 8202 Location: England, UK |
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jsyxx
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Not really going to matter after all those senators are thrown out of office after the mid-term elections. 
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technomike
Posts: 26 |
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Boy’s Love is the direct English translation of shonen-ai and it’s very confusing mainly to Westerners. New fans to this genre often confuse the marketing term with the actual meaning. Just as the “obsolete” marketing term Shonen-Ai, Boy’s Love/BL or (boizu rabu) is a marketed term and is also made-in-Japan English to get away from the old shonen-ai/boys love name due to pedophilia implications. Again, since it has the same meaning, using both words interchangeably doesn't matter. In addition, this site’s lexicon definition of SA is boy (s) love as well as Wiki. Personally, I think there should be another term because it has a negative association. |
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Wolverine Princess
Posts: 1100 |
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Gravitation really outsells Naruto and Fruits Basket?  Without a citation, I’m inclined to think that that’s just a fangirl’s fabrication. Does anyone have a link to confirm this?
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technomike
Posts: 26 |
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1) Wiki is a open encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Thus, you take it as a grain of salt, of course, but the terminology is accurate. 2) Never believe in sales numbers since companies never release that information, it's only speculation. However, I wasn't speaking about the audience, since I'm coming from a cultural perspective. My point is that many sites like Anime News Network & Wiki use the old definitions. They're just examples... but in the these two cases, they're correct. |
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P€|\||§_|\/|ast@
Posts: 3498 Location: IN your nightmares |
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Well taking it with a grain of salt doesn't mean there's not valuable insightful information to gain. I wouldn't dispute the statement that the word shounen-ai has become obsolete in everyday Japanese usage because it gives greater implications of pedophilic tendencies and therefore has a negative effect on using the word as a marketing label.
The pseudo-English constuction "Boizu Rabu" has replaced it but the situation in North America is entirely different. It's kind of similar to how "anime" in Japan does not mean the same thing as "anime" in the West. We say "Boy's Love" and "anime" as English words which they are (because we speak words that are familiar to us). Both of these words refer to Japanese terminology derived from English but have slightly different meanings. I think shounen-ai should continued to be used because it has less of a negative connotation to English speakers since most English speakers don't know what shounen or ai means (even those that are anime fans). But anyone can derive any number of derogatory meanings from "boy's love", and "yaoi" is such a well-known catch word that is becoming more a label for a certain sub-population of the fandom than the content itself. |
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technomike
Posts: 26 |
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Wiki is notorious for its inaccuracies because anyone can make changes, yet many take it as the absolute truth without doing extensive research. Well, being Japanese American I am aware of this, but this isn’t true for many fans. Many Westerners use these terms as if it were Japan. For example, Shonen-ai instead of the new wasei-eigo phrase “Boy’s love”. If this were Japan, it wouldn’t be the same; but it isn’t, thus the definitions are the same. That’s why I said this site’s lexicon and wiki definitions are correct. Many use the shonen-ai term, especially old-school fans because they see the reinvented one as just an English translation. I concur that shonen ai should be used more often. Of course anyone can make any negative meaning from ‘boy’s love or any other word,” but in North America those words can invite heavy criticism back to Japan. In my opinion, it’s too closely connected to that pedophile group, and it takes only one incident. |
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Saturn
 Posts: 513 |
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When I was living in Japan I made the mistake of saying "shounen ai" in a BL-exclusive manga shop and got some pretty strange looks.
However, the thing all the kids are doing now is writing it "801" (hence the title of Digital Manga's hardcore division) which is still read "yaoi". It's still just the hardcore stuff though, and falls under the BL umbrella and is not categorized differently in a store or anything. But I agree, westerners should call it "shounen ai" or "yaoi" if they want, because that makes it equivalent to the wasei-eigo terms the Japanese come up with. And it does, for the time being, provide a little bit of protection from outsiders (shounen ai especially, since you can buy t-shirts at the mall now that say "I <3 yaoi" )
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