So What is This About?

Boys' love (BL) is the common term used by the publishing industry to categorize works focusing on male/male relationships marketed at women. Historically these works were referred to as June, but most commercial works are now called BL. The change in terminology was probably due to the negative connotations of the term yaoi and the association with a specific publication of the term June. BL is an extension of shoujo and Lady's categories, but is considered a separate category. The BL category is very broad. It is an umbrella term that includes

• both commercial and amateur works
• works with no sex
• works with sex
• doujinshi about adolescents with little or no sex
• works in all types of media - manga, anime, novels, games, and drama CDs
• characters of all ages (not limited to 'boys')
• related terms such as yaoi, shounen-ai, tanbi, June, and original June

However, it does not include gay publications. Some Westerners object to the definition of the category as being written for women. The target market is determined by advertising and is primarily women, although there are publications, such as Zettai Reido, which have multiple target audiences. That does not mean that men don't read BL, merely that the audience the advertisers, editors, and authors have in mind is women.

What is yaoi?

(ya-oh-ee) A Japanese acronym for "yama-nashi, ochi-nashi, imi-nashi", which means "no climax, no point, no meaning". Yaoi originally refers to doujinshi focusing on sexual relationships between men drawn for women. Now the term 'yaoi' is used for the genre that features romantic love between males.

BL vs. yaoi for professionally published material

Commercially published manga, anime, and novels that fit the yaoi genre are often referred to as "yaoi" in America but as "Boys' Love" or "BL"(the English words, shortened to the acronym "BL") in Japan. This is how the Japanese publishing community distinguishes the current professionally published works from both the doujinshi and the older "shonen ai" genre, which is no longer created or marketed in Japan. Some people who know yaoi insist that the term be restricted to material originally published by Japanese publishers who specialize in yaoi. Until recently the Japanese publisher Biblos, and their Be X Boy magazine, was considered the major source of professionally published Japanese yaoi. However, the company's recent bankruptcy (due to the failure of their non-yaoi ventures) means that Biblos' competitors will be taking up a larger share of the professional yaoi and BL manga market. In recent years, several popular Japanese yaoi or BL works have been commercially translated and imported to English-speaking countries by companies such as TokyoPop, Be Beautiful, and Digital Manga Publishing (DMP). In Japan at present all homosexual-themed manga (written mostly by and aimed at females) is generally referred to as BL or Boys' Love. This is the way Japanese publishers list the genre for Japanese markets, and the way the anime are described by the voice actors who play the roles. However, professional Japanese artists themselves often use the term "yaoi" at least when writing or speaking in English or to English-speaking audiences. Kodaka Kazuma, for example, who has been described as being to yaoi what the Sex Pistols are to punk, calls her work yaoi, and is careful to distinguish her work as being yaoi, not gay. Whether a narrow or broad definition is applied, yaoi is usually of a more sexually explicit nature than the now-obsolete shōnen-ai. Little is known about Shounen-ai's predecesor Tanbi. In this context, the three terms are often compared to American slash.