Shonen-ai
shōnen young man + 愛 ai love) refers to anime or manga that deals with love between young men, especially of the bishonen variety.
Shōnen-ai is usually less explicit or sexual than yaoi. Usually the characters involved in shōnen-ai are of a much younger age than those in yaoi. Shōnen-ai is very popular in Japan, especially among schoolgirls and housewives, and is often to be found as part of shōjo anime or manga. It has also found a strong audience in America, especially among 18-24 year old heterosexual women.
Ironically, the term shōnen-ai is not used as often in Japan; the wasei-eigo construction Boys Love (ボーイズラブ boīzu rabu but usually rendered as English, occasionally spelled Boy's Love or Boys' Love, or abbreviated BL) has largely displaced it, due to associations of the original term with pederasty or pedophilia (which were not borrowed into English usage). (This is doubly ironic, since the similar English term boylove has the exact meaning Boys Love was coined to avoid.) The Japanese BambooWeb link on the side of this page links to boīzu rabu rather than to shōnen-ai.
The appeal of shōnen-ai is somewhat hard to decipher, and harder to understand. The far majority of readership is young and female, and as such, the stories are drawn by and market to a female audience. Morbid curiousity about taboo subjects may account for some of the interest, though many enthusiasts say they are drawn to the beauty and distance of the characters, as well as the idealistic depiction of male love. Most readers/viewers are likely exposed to a particular series through their peers or friends and begin to empathize with the characters and/or develop a fascination with homosexual relationships, especially those fans who are of a creative mind and enjoy watching how different people function in different situations. The scope of the fanbase shōnen-ai has found in the United States is large. In the U.S., Gravitation alone has grossed $9 million in profits and is the best-selling (and most difficult to obtain) comic book/manga series in America in twenty years.
Shonen-ai must be differentiated from actual homosexual-market comics; the relationships depicted are between boys, often as young as fourteen, twelve or even ten years old, and are often completely psychologically impossible. The dynamics depicted are unrealistic - the goal of shonen-ai is the perpetuation of fantasy, not an actual taste of the homosexual life. 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 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 shonen-ai published,
Spoiler warning:
Plot or ending details follow.
Some series that include shōnen-ai elements of various degrees include:
See also
