Shonen-ai
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Shōnen-ai (少年愛 from 少年 shōnen young man + 愛 ai love) is an outdated term that refers to anime or manga that deals with love between young men, especially of the bishōnen variety. In its infancy, the genre originally dealt with very strong but non-sexual relationships between young men. Nowadays, it has come to refer to real life pedophilia. The predecessor of shōnen-ai was Tanbi.
Shōnen-ai is usually less sexually explicit than yaoi, and the characters involved in shōnen-ai are generally of a much younger age. Shōnen-ai is very popular in Japan, especially among schoolgirls and housewives, and is often 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 and homosexual men.
The term shōnen-ai is not used as often in Japan anymore; 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 displaced it, due to associations of the original term with pederasty or pedophilia (which were not borrowed into English usage). (Oddly enough, the similar English term "boylove" has the exact meaning Boys Love was coined to avoid.)
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--after all, lesbian erotica is incredibly popular with the heterosexual male audience.
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 United States, Gravitation alone has grossed $9 million in profits and is the best-selling comic book/manga series in the United States in twenty years.
Shōnen-ai is rather different from comics marketed toward gay men. The relationships depicted are between boys, often as young as fourteen, twelve or even ten years old. 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 shōnen-ai published, JUNE Magazine. This magazine, reaching its height of circulation in the mid-1980s, romanticized and worshipped 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. According to many bi/trilingual Juke-ka, there is no english word for the actual deffinition of June.
Examples
Some series that include shōnen-ai elements of various degrees include:- Demon Diary
- FAKE
- Gravitation
- Earthian
- Loveless
- Mirage of Blaze
- Seikimatsu Darling
- Gakuen Heaven
- Off*beat
- Suki na Mono wa Suki Dakara Shōganai! (also abbreviated as Sukisho/Sukisyo)
- Yami no Matsuei/Descendants of Darkness
- Eerie Queerie!
- Kaze to Ki no Uta/Song of the Wind and Trees
- Pataliro!
- Eroica Yori Ai wo Komette
See also
External links
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