Although shonen-ai manga is not as popular in Japan as it used to be, yaoi, its wickedly sexy successor genre, is alive and kicking here in the States. Americans have adopted both the term yaoi and shonen-ai—which translates as "boy's love"—to describe a different type of shojo (or girl's) manga that focuses on romantic relationships between two men.
Shonen-ai, an older, umbrella term used widely in Japan, refers to stories filled with beautiful boys drawn in the trademark shojo style—fabulous flyaway hair, delicate facial features and slim bodies. Add to that description layered personalities, jealousy and intricate plots and you have a formula for what young women (16—25) apparently want—men falling in love with, well, men.
Despite the homoerotic emphasis, shonen-ai—a term used to describe chaste and innocent boy love—and its more graphically sexual companion, yaoi, are a hit with the ladies. With manga publishers (as well as traditional houses like Del Rey) scrambling to publish more shojo for a suddenly comics-hungry female audience, yaoi and shonen-ai manga are moving up the sales charts.
Most publishers began releasing yaoi last summer. Some of the major yaoi manga players include Tokyopop, whose 2002 shonen-ai release, Fake by Sanami Matoh, continues to be a bestseller. Fake is a seven-volume manga series about two New York City cops whose romantic interest in one another escalates in each book. Manga houses like Digital Manga, Central Park Media and Broccoli Books are releasing yaoi and related titles. And even a family-friendly manga house like Viz is taking a careful look at the genre. said Viz editor Pancha Diaz, "Viz always takes into account what is popular and what type of titles the fans are looking for."
Descendants of Darkness, from Viz, has sold 10,000 copies since its release a few months ago. Digital Manga's popular Only the Ring Finger Knows by Satoru Kannagi and Hotaru Odagiriis is in its third printing, with more than 12,000 copies sold. DM titles like Desire (6,000 copies sold since September) and Passion Vol. 1(9,000 copies since November) are selling well, too. New York City—based Central Park Media, which publishes edgier manga, claims to having kicked off the "legitimate" yaoi market in August 2004 with the release of Kizuna by Kazuma Kodaka, which features explicit sexual imagery.
So why would women want to read a story about a romantic relationship between two men? For starters, it's classic shojo fare: fantasy and falling in love. But yaoi takes them both to the next level. "It's a male-male relationship catering to female fantasy," according to Digital Manga yaoi expert and consultant Jody Heard. "The men are always attractive. But there are always questions about the relationship, usually 'Does he love me?' " Heard said the combination of angst and soap-opera drama, combined with a certain amount of intelligence, makes for a complex, unique story line.
In Digital Manga's Only the Ring Finger Knows, two high schoolers argue incessantly while a romantic undercurrent feeds their fire. Slightly effeminate, erring on the androgynous side, the teens make angst look good. "It's untouchable love, with some fluff and humor," said Isaac Lew, director of sales and new business development at California—based Digital Manga. "There's a cloud-nine factor," Lew said.
On a more complex level, Tokyopop editor Lillian Diaz-Przybyl noted that "yaoi breaks lots of cultural stereotypes about what relationships are supposed to be. Women are expected to play or serve a certain role. A yaoi reader doesn't have to associate with a female character. You choose which one you identify with."
While yaoi is often thought of as homoerotica, most editors acknowledge the shortcomings of yaoi in portraying real gay relationships with any accuracy. Diaz-Przybyl acknowledges that genuine gay themes are often glossed over, since yaoi is written by straight women, while Heard said her gay friends look it over with "polite curiosity." Overall, yaoi is marketed here as manga by women for women, as it is in Japan.
CPM has jumped into the yaoi market with an imprint called Be Beautiful, publishing six books since last August. Despite cutbacks in some of its manga list, the house plans to publish eight to 10 Be Beautiful titles in 2005. The imprint could also be called "Be Bold," so readers should expect mature content. CPM's Kizuna, Selfish Love by Naduki Koujima and Golden Cain by You Asagiri and Ikoi Hiroe, all have Explicit Content warnings and even boilerplate certifying that all fictional characters are over 19.
But not all yaoi is this racy. Yami no Matsuei's Descendants of Darknessis described by Viz editor Diaz as being a tamer strain of yaoi manga. "The relationships are very sweet and loving, caring," she said. Most editors are quick to point out that the focus is not on sex, but on the courtship and developing relationship between two young men. Often, the narrative consists of angst-laden scenarios that repeat themselves, only to culminate in a kiss that consummates the bond. And for most readers and most editors, that's enough.
