What IS yaoi???

Yaoi is a particular, purely Japanese genre of manga (and some anime) for girls. The word "yaoi" itself is an acronym from "YAma nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi" - "no culminaton (peak), no meaning, no conclusion". Originally, it was a somewhat demeaning term used by fans, but by now, it has a widened scientic meaning.

Generally, "yaoi" are manga and anime describing intimate relations between guys. A more exact and inambiguous term - "shounen ai" - "youth love". To understand why this meta-genre appeared at all, and why it has become fairly popular, it is necessary to look at the history of Japanese culture and manga.

Unlike the Christian European culture, homosexualism in Japanese culture was never thought-of as wrong. On the contrary, some texts on bushido stated that it more befits a samurai to have relations with another samurai, rather than wih women, closeness to whom may distract a warrior from strictly carrying out his duties. Additionaly, Japanese aesthetics have it that a beatiful man is an "effeminate" one - attractive, cultured, not anyhow a muscled ruffian. Exactly such were the heroes of the classical Japanese epics (i.e. the Tale of Genji), and exactly them tried to imitate the educated youth. This happened because these epics were created not by men, as was the case in Europe, but by women, who give their love objects their own traits.

After the Meiji Restoration (1867-1878 ), Japanese life sharply changed. A strong censorship on the European manner was introduced. But the concepts of the purity of homosexual relations, the censorship could not change.

When, thanks to Tezuka Osamo, after the Second World War there began the development of manga, female "manga-ka" (manga artists) who did not want to write like, and about the same things, as male manga-ka, quickly appeared. They were interested in more "female" themes - love trianges, drama, tragedy. But that very same Japanese culture was very strict regarding the role of the young woman in intimate relations. She could should show initiative, but could only apathetically react to male affections. This did not allow free range to authors' fantasies. Therefore, the concept of the "girl-guy" was developed. First for Tezuka himself or for Ikeda Ryoko in the "Rose of Versailles" (Berasaiyu no Bara, 1972), it was a young girl dressed as a guy. Later, there appeared an even more radical solution - a guy who carries himself in intimate relations as a young girl would. The creators of this variant were Hagio Moto in the manga "Heart of Thomas" (Tooma no Shinzou 1972) and Takemiya Keiko in the manga "The Song of Wind and Trees" (Kaze to Ki no Uta (1974).

It is important to note that this was truly "female" manga: drawn by women for young women. Japanese homosexuals usually view yaoi fairly negatively. However, with Japanese women it finds consistent success. By the way, usually youi does not show hentai. It is implied, but not directly shown.

Eventually, in addition to professional manga of such type, there appeared non-professional ones, which, actually, was first called "yaoi". Generally, non-professional yaoi is manga about well-known pretty guys - characters from popular manga and anime series for guys, but told from the viewpoint of homosexual relationships. It became known as "yaoi" only because, unlike manga for guys, "yaoi" less frequently observes the classical concepts of the construction of a literary work. The first series off of which there appeared a lot of yaoi manga was the anime "Mobile Suit Gundam" (Kido Senshi Gundam (1979-1980). Some of the further series from the Gundam era were created with manga of such type in mind, making the guy protagonists more and more pretty.

With time, yaoi themes began to seep through into more traditional in terms of sexual orientation series. Thus, characters and scenes of this type are contained in the series "Fushigi Yuugi" and "Marmalade Boy". Unfortunately, purely yaoi anime are very rare, and mainly, they are one-shot OVA's ("Fake", "Kaze to Ki no Uta").

Regardless of the fact that contemporary Japan has become significantly more liberal over the last 20 years, and that yaoi no longer carries a "revolutionary" meaning, it lives, and continues to conquer by its beauty, unusual-ness, aestheticism and dramatism, new female (and even some male) fans not only in Japan, but in the whole world.

NOTE: This information did not all come from me. I remember seeing this information somewhere, (And have forgotten the site) and would rather not be a plagiarist (sp?). So, if you know the site in which this information originated from, please note me and I'll link back to it as soon as possible. Thankyou <3