#About Taruho

[nieves-de-sugui]

A Quick History of BL

As someone who wrote a thesis on this very subject a few years ago, here is the short version of how BL has evolved throughout the years. For the new comers ❤ 

a minute of silence for the original form of this post that tumblr decied to not save right after I saved it

I am going to go with a chronological approach. Unfortunately, I cannot put everything in one post so if there’s any questions about this or that aspect of the history of BL that you want to know and it’s not talked about here, you are welcome to ask me directly :)

Context and influences - Japan in the 60′s

Before the US forced Japan to open its borders to the outside world in the 1800s, homosexual practices were common place between budist monks, samurais and kabuki actors. During the Edo period (1600s to 1800s) there was a very rich amount of poetry, art, books (such as Nanshoku Okagami (The Great Mirror of Male Love) by Ihara Saikaku) and codes of conduct about how to have a good master/aprentice relationship, kinda like the greeks if you know what I mean. However, with the arrival of western influences, in order to become a more “civilized” country, it was all put in the closet. 

Yet, in the 60′s Japan started to pick it up again through literature about young androginous beautiful boys (aka bishounen). On one hand, in 1961, the novel Koibitotachi no Mori (A Lover’s Forest) by Mari Mori was published. It tells the story of a young and beautiful 19 year old worker and a half french half japanese aristocrat, and their tragic romance. On the other hand, Taruho Inagaki wrote Shounen ai no Bigaku (The esthetics of boy-love), an essay on aesthetic eroticism (of which he wrote a lot of). All this was know as Tanbi (lit. aesthetic) literature. It generally refered to literature with implied homosexuality and homoeroticism such as works by Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau, etc. And of course, Mori and Inagaki. 

In chinese tanbi is read as danmei (term used to refer to BL novels in china today, ie: The Untamed it’s all connected friends).

From the birth of Shonen Ai  to Yaoi - 70′s to the late 80′s

Around the beginning of the 70′s, shoujo was being revolutionized by the Year 24 Group, a generation of women manga authors (mangaka) who started to explore new themes. Among them, their interest in tanbi gave birth to a new subgenre: Shounen ai. 

Their most known manga were:

Kaze to Ki no Uta (The Ballad of the Wind and Trees) by Keiko Takemiya, and Toma no Shinzo (The Heart of Thomas) by Moto Hagio

Their stories are characterized by having suffering eurpoean bishounen in boarding schools, living an idealized perfect love (meaning passionate) that, despite the tragic end of one of them, lives forever in the other. 

As this genre starts getting popular, more and more fans of these stories start making their own self published manga, aka doujinshi, of the genre. It is around this time that the term Yaoi is coined. Meaning “YAma nashi, Ochi nashi, Imi nashi” (no climax, no fall, no meaning). Basically PWP fanfiction, for the most part. Doujinshis could be considered an equivalent of fanfiction in manga form.  It is also here that the term Fujoshi (aka Rotten Girl, for liking rotten things) starts being used to refer to women readers of yaoi. 

With this rise in popularity come the start of the commercialization of the genre. Which meant the publication of magazines dedicated solely to yaoi/shonen ai/BL. The most popular yaoi manga magazine at the time was June. The common trait of their stories being the therapeutic power of the love between the mains. The traumatized character would heal throught this newfound love.

Most of the stories at this time happened in the West (Europe or the States) as the exploration of these dark themes intertwined with homosexual romance and homoeroticism still feel safer to explore as a foreign concept. One example would be Banana Fish (1985).

Commercialization and Yaoi Ronso -  90′s 

As more publishing houses pick the genre up, the term Boys Love is used to include every type of manga about homosexuality made for women. 

The increasing amount of BL series sees a changes in its themes: 

the start of the “gay for you” trope where one mantains their heterosexuality despite being in a homsexual relationship, 

the uke/seme dynamic (mirroring hetero realtionships) also relating to physical appearence (one being more feminine, the other being more masculine), 

the use of rape as an act love (sexual violence has always been present but here it becomes a staple),

anal sex as the only type of sex, 

older and more masculine men start to appear 

they now happen in Japan

Good examples of the presence of these themes in manga are Gravitation (1996) or Yatteranneeze (1995).

However in 1992, Masaki Sato (a gay activist/drag queen) wrote a letter in a small scale feminist magazine attacking yaoi and pointing out how it “represented a kind of misappropriation or distortion of gay life that impacted negatively upon Japanese gay men”. The female readers of yaoi responded, defending the genre as a means to escape gender roles and explore sexual themes that was never meant to represent the realities of gay men. This is know as the Yaoi Ronso (Yaoi Debates).

The debate ended with both sides understanding more of each other, with mangakas starting to include queer views in their works. It also started the academic reasearch of BL. 

Yet, it is a debate that has been restarted more than once, as it is still relevant despite the evolution of the genre.

more on this on another post

Globalization and coining of BL - 2000′s 

By the beginning of the 2000s BL is being sold all over the world (like all manga), and has become a stable industry. We could say it has finally become it’s own genre. 

Some of the most well known manga series, to us (in the west), of the time are:

Junjou Romantica 2002 Koi Suru Boukun 2004 Love Pistols 2004 Haru wo Daiteita 1999

all of these have anime adaptations for the curious ones

We also start seeing short anime adaptations or special episodes of the most popular series, with questionable themes, such as: adoptive father x adoptive son  (Papa to Kiss in the Dark 2005), father x son’s friend (Kirepapa 2008), etc... 

However the themes remain more or less the same. Junjou Romantica’s love story starts with a non-con sex scene by the older one (masc, seme) to the younger one (more feminine, uke) addressed years later in the manga btw. Koi Suru Boukun’s love story is triggered by aphrodisiacs and rape. They’re still very present in the stories but slowly going away. A mangaka that represents this era could be Natsume Isaku (Candy Color Paradox 2010).

Change is slow in Japan. Even though the voices of LGBT+ people started to be taken into account in the genre it is not until later that we see it reflect in the mangas themselves. However, we can already see the start of this in Doukyusei (Classmates) (2006) by Asumiko Nakamura. Also Kinou Nani Tabeta? (2007) which is actually part of a more mature genre: Seinen.

It is my personal (subjective) theory that the BL of this era was the one that got popular outside of Japan, which is why we see lots of references to the themes, tropes and dynamics of this time in today’s BL series. 

The LGBTzation of BL and the rise of webtoons - 2010′s to 2020′s

Slowly but surely LGBT characters and themes enter the scene of BL. Existing simultaneously with the previous tropes and themes, we start seeing a shift in these stories. We now see:

characters that identify as gay or some type of queer

discussions about homophobia

more mature themes about life and romance

At the same time as we get the usual love stories with the usual themes, a new trend starts to take over. And we get simultaneously, cute, sometimes questionable but light love stories:

Love Stage 2010 Ashita wa Docchi da! 2011 Kieta Hatsukoi 2019

More profound stories and darker or more complex themes:

Blue Sky Complex 2013  Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai 2011 (mafias) Given 2013 (suicide) Hidamari ga Kikoeru 2013 (deafness)

And others that adress the queer experience in a more mature way (which might actually fall into the Seinen genre)

Itoshi no Nekokke 2010 (slice of life, queer characters) Smells like Green Spirit 2011 (two ways to deal with a homphobic society) Strange 2014 (relationships between men) Shimanami Tasogare 2015 (an LGBT group helps a closeted gay) Old Fashioned Cupcake 2019 (you know this one 😉) Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu 2020 (the end of the world)

As queer stories are explored, BL mangakas and mangakas from other genres start to consider more stories about queer people such as the Josei Genderless Danshi ni Aisaretemasu (My Androgynous Boyfriend) (2018) by Tamekou, or the Shoujo Goukon ni Itarra Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi (The story of when I went to a mixer and there were no women) (2021) by Nana Aokawa. 

Still, we can see two realities live side by side. Doukyuusei gets adapted into an impactful animated movie in 2016, meanwhile Banana Fish gets an anime adaptation that keeps the homoeroticism but not the homosexuality.  

For those who might be interested. Here are some of the authors that represent the first half of this era, where they start to include newer points of view:

Scarlet Beriko, HAYAKAWA Nojiko, KURAHASHI Tomo, OGERETSU Tanaka, Harada, KII Kanna (Stranger by the Sea), etc...

And authors that while keeping classical themes break the stereotypes in a subtle manner:

CTK, ZAKK, Jyanome, Cocomi, Hidebu Takahashi, SUZUMARU Minta, etc...

Mangakas also no longer stick to one genre only. They explore whichever of them they want, from BL to Seinen to others. 

ie: Tamekou, 

or Asumiko Nakamura

The curious case of Webtoons

With the digitalization of mangas, throught Renta and Lehzin, it has become easier (and more expensive) to access these stories. Korea makes and appearence with their webtoons. Through the lack of piracy protections and the majority of them being digital, manhwa (korean webtoons) sees a rise in popularity. Through the digital medium the influencee can be the influencer.

However, like many other East Asian countries they have consumed BL, without hearing about the conversations about BL. So they end up mantaining the older themes and stereotypes that newer BL is trying to leave behind. Therefore, we end up with a mix of old and new, ie:

Killing Stalking 2016 Cherry Blossoms After Winter 2017 Painter of The Night 2019

Additionally, it is also thanks to the easy access to internet that Omegaverse, with its higher dramatic stakes (that parallel hetero dynamics), enters the mangasphere in 2016. It has grown in popularity ever since.

With the Thai BL Boom of 2020, Japan rediscovers its own BL market and starts investing in it more. Which is why we get live action adaptations of BL manga that was popular years ago (Candy Color Paradox was a manga from 2010), the more recent ones (The End of the World With You) or new anime adaptations (Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai in 2020). 

more on this in my japanese live action BL post

What has it become now? is it BL? ML? or Seinen? Or is it all just gay manga?

It is clear that Shoujo manga (with BL, Josei and Seinen) is exploring queer themes such as gender and sexuality more and more. Japan is interested in this conversation, not only in manga (Genderless fashion). Which brings up the current question in BL studies: Does it make sense to keep these categories?

As a response to BL, ML (Male Love), which is made by gay men for gay men, started happening (around the 70s too). And Bara (gay manga porn) in response to Yaoi. However both gay men and women read BL and ML. We also see other themes being explored through BL, such as friendship (in BL Metamorphose), food (in Kinou Nani Tabeta), male relationships of all kinds (in Strange), and different queer views on life and its challenges (in Shimanami Tasogare). More and more what is LGBT and what is BL is merging, the line is blurred. 

Conclusion

BL has been in my life for longer than it hasn't. It is through shoujo and BL that I have come to understand people and romance.

It is flawed, like everything else this life, but it's flourishing in many ways.

The genre feels old and new at the same time. 

We can still find shounen ai/tanbi elements in more modern manga (All About J). Or the gay for you in a new light (Itoshi no Nekkoke). Or more educational manga on queer issues (My Brother’s Husband by Gengoroh Tagame). BL has around 50 years of existence but it is also being born anew in Thailand and Korea. 

BL manga will continue to evolve in acordance to Japanese tastes, as it is still a local market. Hopefully the korean webtoons that get popular will be the more daring ones in their themes. Who knows where it will go from here? The only thing we know for sure is that it will continue to change. Isn't it exciting?

A post on the evolution of live action BL in Japan is coming, to complement this post.  As well as a more detailed explanation of the Yaoi Debates and gay manga.

[takeyourcyanide]

Oxytocin

AO3

Fandom: Soul Eater

Character(s): Franken Stein, Marie Mjolnir, mentions of Taruho Firefly

Word Count: 1 246

Tags: Domestic Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Smoking, Nephrectomy Mention, Taruho Firefly Mention, Jealousy, Marie is jealous of Taruho, this is based on chapter 70, Romance, Implied Relationships, Domestic Bliss, Domestic, Someone made a post asking about whether or lot there were fics based upon chapter 70, Marie’s jealousy and irritation specifically, I don’t remember who but here you go nonetheless

Summary: Marie gets a teensy tiny bit jealous after witnessing Taruho’s flirtatious behavior towards Stein. (This is set shortly after the events of chapter 70.

Notes: As I mentioned in the tags, this was inspired by a Tumblr user’s question of “are there any fics based on Marie’s jealousy in chapter 70,” or something along the lines of that. I decided to take it upon myself to write one, because there doesn’t appear to be many, if any. Also, just as a disclaimer, hormones/chemicals such as oxytocin are much more complicated than just “this is responsible for this.” A concoction, a margarita if you will, of chemicals come together to provide you with those sorts of emotions and experiences and such, but oxytocin has been deemed the “cuddly chemical” (essentially) and the “attachment chemical” for a reason. I put these two in fluffy situations in this fic that would likely aid in the production of oxytocin (if I’m not mistaken), so if you like neuroscience, perhaps you’ll appreciate why I titled it the way I titled it. I could go on about it, but I’ll stop. It’s been awhile since I last researched oxytocin and other hormones, so I’ll stop until I’m refreshed on the topic. Enjoy!

“You’ve been unusually quiet tonight, Marie,” Stein brought what remained of his cigarette to his lips, his teeth just barely resting against the filter as he inhaled deeply, putting what was left of the fire out in his ashtray. “You haven’t even bothered me about.. self-care. Something on your mind?”

Marie sat cross-legged on Stein’s swivel chair with one of the many romance novels (it was her favorite genre; something he’d observed, dissected, and noted when they were only children) in her collection, silently flipping yet another page, whilst her meister diligently cleaned his many surgical tools, organizing his belongings and placing them carefully into the proper drawers and containers and such.

She adjusted the stitched-up lab coat she was wrapped in - encapsulated in, a sort of rush of what she presumed to be the ‘oxytocin’ she’d heard the male rant and rave about (just like any other science-y thing), as she pondered how no one else was so much as allowed to even look at his coat wrongly, how he was never one to share. He’d always lament how anyone else’s hands would dirty and ruin his possessions. Not to mention, he was never the type to lean into domesticity.. or at least didn’t seem to be. That, however, only made the unendingly, incessantly playing scene in her head all the more painful.

“… It’s nothing… You’re just…… you sure are… popular.” She shut her book, tossing it next to his keyboard on his desk, with a pensive, morose sigh. She grabbed handfuls of both sides of his (*his*) coat, bringing one side further over and one side further under the other, effectively shrouding herself in the warmth and the fuzzy, floaty feeling it provided her.

“Huh?” He confusedly whipped his body around, his focus now solely on the hammer. “How so? What do you mean by ‘popular’?”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know..”

“… I’m not pretending.”

Marie rolled her eyes, throwing her body off of his desk chair theatrically, shuffling over to the bemused Stein.

“Taruho - or whatever her name was - sure took a liking to you… She was more than willing to give you one of her kidneys if you so wished..”

“Oh……” He drawled, cranking the screw protruding out from his head, an almost relieved chuckle escaping him. “So, you’re jealous then?”

“Oh, shut up, Franken! I am not!” She slapped his arm, blood rushing instantaneously to her cheeks.

Amused giggles outpoured from Stein, a sadistically fond smirk on his visage. He turned briefly from the woman, scrubbing his scalpels to the point of being shiningly reflective.

“Yeah… You’d be surprised how many people are actually into the whole disheveled, crazed, mad scientist sort of archetype.” He turned himself once more, coming face-to-face with Mjolnir, of whom’s expression was less than pleased. Her eyes had narrowed by a noticeable margin, her brows pinched and furrowed, her arms crossed tautly over her chest, as she pouted. “Evidently, you don’t find that very fascinating, do you?”

“Not at all… for more than one reason.. I don’t like it when people treat you like that’s all you are, I never have.”

“And also because you���re a teensy, tiny bit jealous?”

“… Maybe.”

“Why are you jealous, Marie? You’re the one carrying my next test subject, not her.”

She rolled her eyes once more, tilting her head to the side. “That’s not very comforting… and you seemed so quick to jump at the opportunity to dissect her when she clearly wanted some sort of… sexual or romantic favor in return.. and just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean you can’t just up and leave, or God-forbid you decide to.. perform some abortion experiment on me in my sleep, or something - not saying I think you’d do that, but I’m just naming possibilities, here…”

Franken inched languidly closer to the frantically anxious Marie, placing a cold hand into her hair, pulling her in. Her face became flush with his comfortably rigid chest, melting into the arm enveloping her waist, enfolding her. “I have no intentions of performing some sort of abortion experiment on you. If I see the imprint of its foot once it starts kicking, though, I will have to restrain myself from making an incision or two.”

Marie tittered, closing her eyes and focusing on the fingers masterfully soothing over her scalp, bringing her own arms around him, holding onto the softness of his turtleneck like a vice.

“But all honestly non-jokes aside, I had no intentions whatsoever in indulging that witch. I truly don’t think I would even had to do anything sexual, she seemed so infatuated with me, I could’ve done whatever I pleased, no matter what. Of course I’m going to jump at the opportunity to experiment on someone - especially when I might be able to obtain their written consent and avoid any possible consequences. And I don’t plan on leaving you. You’re fascinating, and both fetal development, and the development of a child interest me greatly. What incentive do I have to leave?”

While his reassurance was awfully clinical and detached in nature, Marie understood well that Stein was someone who expressed his affection and care in strange, unorthodox ways. In Stein Language, “you’re fascinating, what incentive do I have to leave you” is his way of saying “I feel a sort of foreign fondness for you that I can’t quite seem to comprehend, nor label. Is it even fondness? Does it count when it comes from a place of sadism? Is it only sadism? I don’t know. But I know I like you more than most people.” And to Marie, that was all the reassurance she needed.

“I don’t know… I just… hm…”

“You know I don’t hold anyone else like this, right?”

“Yes…” She’d never seen him hold anyone in his life…. other than her, that is.

“Then what do you have to be jealous about? You worry too much. That witch was just as boring and banal as everyone else. I’d jump at the chance to perform a nephrectomy on anyone, Marie. You know this.”

“She’s not even fit to be another test subject?”

“She’s not even fit to be another test subject.”

Stein tugged gently on her hair as to nonverbally ask her to stop hiding her face away, staring down at her expectantly. He gazed into her soul, examining how her wavelength was gradually steadying, gradually relaxing, and how well it was responding to the uncharacteristic amount of affection, causing a surge of curiosity to rush through his veins.

“You worry too much,” he brushed a few strands of blonde hair away from her face, tucking it tenderly behind her flushed ear. “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it, though.”

She shoved him playfully away, the corners of her mouth outstretching into a begrudging smile, though she missed his touch and the comfort it brought her the moment she did as such. “Moment ruined.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty good at that.”

“… But seriously, though,” she began, timidly quieter this time, fiddling with the buttons of his lab coat. “….Uhm… Thank you. I know it was stupid of me, but-“

“No, no, no, it’s fine, Marie. It wasn’t stupid. Personally, I found it to be somewhat cute.”

“Cute?”

“You heard me.”

He took her hands gently in his, lifting her arms and amusedly observing how the clearly oversized sleeves fell immediately down a little past her elbows, mirthfully and adoringly grinning.

“You should wear my coat more often.”

Tear You Apart is how I picture Stein’s expression of any possibly adoring and affectionate (both platonic and romantic, though I hc him as being partial to queerplatonic relationships, and possibly struggling to distinguish between the two because he doesn’t feel them often, and also seems to find difficulty in labeling his emotions altogether, even in the series itself), even sexual feelings towards another, especially since they are canonically foreign experiences for him. Perhaps I’ll create a separate post about this.

[daenystheedreamer]

i thoght the yaoi thing was joke? :(

its /hj. tbc i haaaate most yaoi the majority of it is tasteless voyeuristic erotica which isnt like an evil thing to make but still extremely bad. i think its funny and i mostly read it cos its hilarious. more thoughts under the cut

it's misrepresented and #misunderstood especially by western gay people. its not representation, it's not 'led by queer people', and the difference between 'yaoi' and 'boy's love' is marginal. it's predominantly heterosexual women who enjoy writing drawing reading two (or more..) guys fuck which is fine. yaoi vs bl is often used as both a categorical distinction (yaoi is erotica, bl isn't) and a moral one (yaoi is cringe/homophobic/bad and bl is pure/wholesome/untainted) which is like fundamentally so wrong if you know anything about the genre.

the history is really interesting. It's roots are firmly in shojou manga, as in, explicitly for young women. early works are often taboo-breaking and deal with sexual abuse, incest, etc. an early muse for the genre was bjorn andressen as tadzio in the film 'death in venice' and if you know anything about that film and andressen says A Lot. shonen ai (literally boy love) was originally a term which was pederastic in nature but became the name for the genre. to crib from the wikipedia article cos it summarises it well:

While the term shōnen-ai historically connoted ephebophilia or pederasty, beginning in the 1970s it was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga (girls' manga) featuring romance between bishōnen (lit. "beautiful boys"), a term for androgynous or effeminate male characters. Early shōnen-ai works were inspired by European literature, the writings of Taruho Inagaki, and the Bildungsroman genre Shōnen-ai often features references to literature, history, science, and philosophy; Suzuki describes the genre as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand", with "philosophical and abstract musings" that challenged young readers who were often only able to understand the references and deeper themes as they grew older.

Yaoi, on the other hand:

Coined in the late 1970s by manga artists Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu, yaoi is a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (山[場]なし、落ちなし、意味なし), which translates to "no climax, no point, no meaning".[f] Initially used by artists as a self-deprecating and ironic euphemism, the portmanteau refers to how early yaoi works typically focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development; it is also a subversive reference to the classical Japanese narrative structure of introduction, development, twist, and conclusion

by the way, that [f] note is: "The acronym yamete, oshiri ga itai (やめて お尻が 痛い, "stop, my ass hurts!") is also less commonly used."

Like the term fujoshi, meaning 'rotten girl', is the same it's very silly and self-deprecating. That's so fun! I think the yaoi genre in general is a really interesting phenomena that's rooted so deeply in Japan as a culture. I think it's great that women are able to sincerely enjoy something fun, I think it's great that women were able and continue to have successful careers in writing, and I also think it's mostly bad.

A lot of modern stuff, especially the works getting pumped out of korea by genuinely evil webtoon companies, suffer from the fundamental problems with serialisation. It putters from chapter to chapter and every single one is the same as the other. A lot of Japanese bl/yaoi is in the form of short fiction, about 5-10 chapters, and again there are fundamental problems with this. they often suffer from too much crammed in AND from so little stretched thin.

I also think yes morally or 'representationally' or whatever they are like Pretty cringe. like sorry uke/seme is BAD. sexual assault is not even handled so much as it is kicked around. Women are non-existent at best and horrifically sexist at worst. Also the writing, though ofc i read (often fan-) translated works, just sucks.

You guys don't know how bad it gets. like ok example.... it's hard giving examples cos most of its just boring or bad in a lame way. okay there's this korean rom-com drama webtoon about a boss and his employee and the boss is actually an immortal snake-deity who fell in love with this guy and his employee is the reincarnation of that guy. sounds fine right? well the snake boss has two dicks. So.

[paleunhappydog]

朔太郎オナニスト by 稲垣足穂

大和書房. (1974). 朔太郎オナニスト. In タ���ホフラグメント (First Edition, pp. 55–59).

In TnH Chapter 4, the conversation between Sai and Saku--the one about Sai having sex every night--caught my attention. I was dying to know what actually happened, so I went ahead and bought Inagaki Taruho's Taruho Fragment. So here is the short four-page chapter on Hagiwara Sakutaro and that particular incident according to Inagaki.

Oh dear, I was not ready for this.

Page 57 was omitted because it was an illustration page (some sort of abstract art of space.)

[olderthannetfic]

*Incoherent screaming*

Okay, so... ‘shounen-ai’ means the love of boys, yes—with adult men in the assumed subject position, like many other sex terms in Japanese. It was originally coined by Taruho Inagaki to talk about historical m/m in Japan and to make an analogy to Ancient Greece. Outside of a manga context, it means pederasty.

In a manga context, it’s slightly different:

Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio got dragged to see Les amitiés particulières by their buddy Norie Masuyama, and the Tragic Schoolboys era of shoujo manga was born.

(See this old interview with Hagio.)

'Shounen ai’ was used for a while to refer to these manga like Heart of Thomas that were being written in the 70s: dark, fucked up, #aesthetic, showing signs of too many hours at the arthouse theater and between the covers of a Herman Hesse novel.

By the 80s, both styles and terminology had shifted. ‘June’ (from the name of a magazine) and ‘Tanbi’ (’aestheticism’) were in vogue. ‘Yaoi’ was coined in the late 70s and was used throughout this period to mean something like “PWP”.

In the 90s, ‘BL’ won out as the general market niche term and has held strong ever since.

--

Meanwhile, in English, dumbasses decided that ‘yaoi’ referred to porn (more or less true) but ‘shounen ai’ referred to tasteful art about feelings and not Bad Sex Things... LOL. WTF. Have they read any 70s manga? It’s all chock full of rape and abuse!

The yaoi/shounen-ai distinction is baked into the site design of many weeaboo websites, including plenty of ones that categorize anime and also the fic archive MediaMiner. Thankfully, this stupidass use of the term is finally, finally starting to die out as these websites age and disappear.

[yourmomswallet]

Kabe-don Kiryu

I know this didn’t take place until Yakuza 6, but just suspend your disbelief for a while. I thought this was cute! We all need a cuddle with Kiryu. Also, this is set a while after reader and Kiryu are together.

“Taru-chan?” She steps back, and then further back, eyes wide with confusion while scanning the man. Her bags in her hands threatened to fall off her fingers, unknowingly collecting rainwater.

“Were you hoping for someone else, Arii-chan?”

“B-But, I thought you were leaving for college.” The young girl’s eyes darted to the man’s wet, smiling face, scared to look away in fear of him being a mirage.

“Ah, you should know better. I could never leave without my only true love,” he scolds her playfully, a hand resting gently on her shoulder, thumb massaging her skin through her now translucent shirt.

“Oh, you little- You should be thousands of kilometers away from here by now. I can’t believe you would trick me like this. I’ve loved you for years and then you tell me you’re leaving. I spent days and days arguing with myself about my feelings about you. I tried to convince myself this would be good for me, but y-you! You just... won’t leave!” Bags follow the hands that push Taruho’s chest.

His smile slides down his face with raindrops, eyebrows furrowed. He knows she won’t listen to him in this state. He has to do something quick, or she’ll be gone, out of his life before he can even finish blinking.

SLAM!

Taruho’s left arm forces its way next to Arii’s head, stopping her yelling at him. She blushes when he leans towards her left ear, warm words contrasting the cold water on her skin.

“I’m sorry for what I’ve put you through, but I’m here now. I can’t promise I can fix the past, but I know I have what it takes to stay in your future. I-If you let me…”

He backs up enough to see her face, not red anymore, but eyes filled with tears.

“Now, don’t tell me you’re crying over me. You were just angry!”

“S-Shut up! I-It… It’s just the rain!” Her words are betrayed by the tight embrace she pulls her childhood love into, bags falling onto the ground. Her hands held onto her arms to tighten around his torso, afraid he’d drip down the storm drain with the rain.

Taruho’s surprise morphs into gaiety, and he returns her hug by grasping her tightly in his arms.

“Hmmm. I love you, too, my Arii-chan.”

‘Oh Junta, you kabe-don prince, you,’ you think to yourself while sighing.

The little stuffed cat in your arms is being strangled with your arms, putting him into a headlock. Your uncontrollable smile is hidden in the fairly large stuffed animal. Daryl was a gift from one of your many dates with Kiryu. Just thinking about the handsome man made you warm inside. You could never get enough sappy, sticky romance in your life. A small binge of sappy, romantic dramas on a work night was just what you needed to soothe your after work stress. Happy endings and the perfect one. Ah, true love.

RING RING

And that was yours on the phone.

You situate Daryl on the couch and turn down the television. Shuffling over to the phone was quite the challenge, what with the numerous piles of blankets on your body. You had on a thin shirt that you received from work and pajama shorts. The floor was cold on your bare feet, making you wish you had bought tatami mats. Curse your small budget at the time.

“Hello?”

“It’s me.” His voice is honey, dripping out of the phone to your ear. That could only be one person. Giggling, you answer back.

“Of course it is. How silly of me to not know. What’s up?” You tuck the phone in between your head and shoulder while pulling the blankets around you tighter. You weren’t sure if it was the floor or Kiryu giving you the chills.

“I just wanted to see if you were busy right now. And if I could… come over?”

“Well, if you want to watch some cheesy romantic dramas, come swing by. Just make sure to bring some tissues. I can’t share mine.” You joke around with him, hearing his deep chuckle that never fails to warm your body up. Your fingers end up wrapped in the phone cord, twirling as you smile because of him.

“That sounds fine with me. Just give me a few minutes to get over there. Make sure there are enough blankets for me.”

“Can’t promise anything. Worst case scenario, you’ll have to cuddle up with me. I don’t know how you’ll ever cope with that.” You roll your eyes but can already feel his warm body against yours.

“I’ve done it before. I’m not afraid to do it again.”

“Just get down here so I can cuddle, Ladykiller.”

“Okay. See you then.” You can hear the smile in his voice. You’re sure he could hear yours, too.

You hang up and shuffle to the kitchen after discarding your mountain of blankets on the small sofa that somehow fit both you and the large man at the same time. Taking your time traversing the small space to your kitchen, you reminisce about the multiple dates you’ve gone on with the intimidating man. Cat cafes, arcade raids, and simple homemade dinners, courtesy of yourself. It all made your relationship grow stronger in the time you knew him. Of course, you knew you both were away from each other most of the time because of your jobs, but what could you say? Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

But at the same time, not just the heart. Your need for him grew with the amount of time you spent with and without him. His warm hands always found their way on some part of your body. You never could resist laying your head upon his shoulder or lap. Never too much in public, but when alone, you both couldn’t keep your hands off each other. Physical contact was something you found he always wanted from you. It wasn’t your place to ask about his past, but it was as if he was deprived of reassurance through hand holding and hugs. It made no sense to you, your previous relationships never felt as strong as this one. Perhaps there was a red string between you two, constantly pulling you tighter and tighter together.

By the time you snapped out of your thoughts, the water was boiling over on the small stove. Quickly, you remove the pot to empty the water into the two prepared cups with tea and sugar inside. It wouldn’t be long until he would be at your door. You know Kiryu naturally walks with a long stride, making keeping up with him a small struggle. But it did help when you wanted him over right then and there. He never complained when you asked him to visit for a while after work, even if he was tired. His body felt lighter and more alive when he was in your presence.

You set the cups down onto the bright coasters on the side table. The television catches your eye, a new drama popping up on the screen. A few solid knocks pull you out of the movie’s intro.

Reaching the door, your toes lift your body up to look through the peephole and you see Kiryu looking around, waiting patiently for you to answer the door. Again with the white and orange ensemble. You feel like a teenager again, feet unable to stop moving and hands fidgeting with the door’s lock and knob so as to let him in as quickly as possible.

Kiryu’s head turns at the noise you’re making and he sees expectant eyes looking up at him. You’re balancing on your toes to try to kiss his cheek. He leans down to make your lips meet his face. You laugh with him and open the door a bit more.

“Come on! Get inside! We have true love to find.”

“Haven’t I already found it?”

He knows just how to make you melt.

A small blush appears on your cheeks, making you hurry to usher him inside the door so he can’t have a chance to see your face clearly. He toes his shoes off while watching you lock the door. Taking his suit jacket off, he hangs it on one of the wooden wall hooks. He doesn’t get to comment on your face as your feet sound off that you’re on the way to the kitchen.

Snacks are essential.

“Please, make yourself at home. I forgot to get snacks!”

He looks around the small living space to find your many blankets in a pile on the couch. He never knew why it was so cold in your apartment, but he knew you liked the excuse to always need to cuddle up to him constantly. He didn’t mind, he welcomed you when you reached out for him.

Kiryu sits on the small couch and takes one of the thicker blankets to cover up with. He has no idea what you’ve planned for him, but he feels slightly bad for coming at such short notice. Little did he know, you didn’t mind; in fact, you wish he came over more often. Just having him in your apartment made you feel giddy and fluttery inside. After all these months together, you still weren’t able to get rid of them.

You walk over to the couch and sit the small bag of popcorn on his lap, as well as the remote. You pick up some of the blankets, spread them, and sit down with them on top of your body. Kiryu ends up with your head on his shoulder, his hand reaching down to grab some popcorn.

“Toss one to me!” You open your mouth as wide as possible to ensure popcorn entrance. He picks out a puff. He doesn’t throw it at your open mouth but places it in. You look at him with a “seriously?” look. You could totally catch one.

“What movie did you pick?” He takes another piece of popcorn to eat and one for you, too.

“The one that just popped up looks alright. I haven’t seen it before,” you say between crunches.

“Then this will be a first for both of us.”

The drama ends up keeping you up later than you would have liked. It was quite the tear-jerker. You had your own giant tissue with you, decorated in an orange dress shirt. Kiryu finally wrapped his arm around your burrito like body, blankets and all. Shuffling in your blanket, you wiggle your arms out and readjust to be able to hug his torso.

“It’s getting late, y’know? Do you wanna maybe… stay over?”

He puts his hand on his chin, stroking the smooth skin.

“Hmmmm… I’ll have to think about it.”

Your hand finds his stomach and slaps him lightly.

“You’re an ass.”

“I’m your ass, right?”

“Hmmm... I'll have to think about it.” You mock his voice and hand movements from before.

He laughs and pulls you into his lap. You wiggle about to stand up. As you shake the blankets off your body, you reach to Kiryu and grab his hands. Whether he was being an even bigger ass or you needed to work out a bit more, you weren’t able to lift him off of the couch.

“Come on, get up.” You struggle to speak while trying to pull him up. He seems amused with the situation, a small smile on his face and eyes lighting up at your actions.

Just one tug is all it takes for you to topple upon him. He slips his arms around you as you let out an “oof” sound. You lay there together for a while, listening to each other breathe.

Looking at the clock, you see it’s past 11.

“Okay, now we really have to get up. Bedtime, big guy!”

You both start to fold the blankets up, laying them on the couch in a messy pile. You grab the two mugs of cold, untouched tea and ask him to take the bag of popcorn to the kitchen with you.

Setting the cups on the counter, you wonder if you should pour them out or warm them up later. You’re brought out of your thoughts as two warm arms wrap around your abdomen. Kiryu’s head finds yours to rest upon and you lean back into him, hands finding his. You look up at him to see him smiling at you, eyes shining with adoration.

“My little Ladykiller-chan!” You spin around in his arms, latching onto him. Your face squished into his chest.

‘What firm boobies!’ You blush a little at the thought of his bare chest and giggle.

“I can’t help but be reminded of someone else when you say that...” he trails off and looks into the distance.

You jerk your head away from his chest, but his arms kept you from completely detaching your body from his.

“I hope no one is calling you Ladykiller, too! Otherwise, I’d have to beat them up.”

“Sure you would.”

“Are you saying I’m not strong? Do you wanna go?” Kiryu releases you from his hold as you start to shuffle and bounce around as if you were in a boxing ring, fists in front of your face.

You try to look tough but the ridiculousness of your motions and the look on Kiryu’s face makes you break character. You carry on with your motions and start to jab your fists out towards his body, feet shuffling to move you around his body. Kiryu’s arms raise in a sign of surrender. Unbeknownst to you, he’s slowing walking towards you to back you up into the wall as you carry on with your antics.

“Who’s the tough one now, huh Ladykiller? Hmmm?”

SLAM

Your back hits the wall, and you’re startled by Kiryu smacking his left hand on the wall next to your head. Your forearms come up to cover your face. When you peek through them, you see mischievous eyes and a smirk staring back at you.

‘Oh, shit. I can’t not fuck him!’ You blush comes back ten times worse. Sign you up as scared and horny.

“Nothing to say? I’m surprised.” His right hand cups your cheek, leading you to look at him.

Kiryu and his stupid handsome sparkling grin.

“I- I didn’t- urgh... you can’t-” Your words are cut off by you stuffing your head in his chest, arms holding onto him tight.

“Come on, let’s get to bed. We don’t have to fall asleep just yet.”

[her-bodyguard]

General Information

Name: Taruho Age: 18 - 20 Height: 5'10 Weight: 158 lbs Weapons: a Sword, Bow and Arrow Likes: Lady Shion, Fishing, Archery, Cooking Dislikes: Demons, People who judge

[olderthannetfic]

why is shounen ai a worse term. from what i gathered from my webcomic reading days its like mlm stuff but non explicit? and focused maybe more on the story and the getting together than the sex?

--

Ha ha ha.

Sigh.

...

Okay, what 'shounen ai' actually means is 'pederasty'. You know, like adult men in Ancient Greece or historical Japan having a thing for pubescent youths.

That's why I find it so exceptionally irritating when the kinds of debbie downers who yell at other fans for liking problematic m/m think they're pure for liking "shounen ai" instead of "yaoi".

"MLM stuff" is also inaccurate for this context, IMO, because we're primarily talking about BL, which is m/m content by and for women. The characters may or may not self identify as queer men. I would use "m/m" to talk about this content, but I would not tend to use "mlm".

--

Okay, so, how did we get from perving on teen boys to soft and fluffy webcomics? There is a connection, just not quite the one people told you.

In 1968, Inagaki Taruho published Shounenai no Bigaku. Wikipedia describes this as:

"an essay on 'aesthetic eroticism', where he divides stories into A (anal), V (vaginal), P (penile) and K (clitoral) varieties and 'describe[s] the historical, psychological, and metaphysical ramifications of the love of beautiful boys in an eclectic blend of ideas culled from history, Freudianism, pop psychology, and existentialism.'"

His use of the term 'shounen-ai' was absolutely supposed to be about adolescent boys, and he was influenced both by European and Japanese traditions.

Fast forward a couple of years, and Takemiya Keiko got hold of this book. It influenced her writing of Kaze to ki no Uta, one of the earliest and most influential shoujo manga to include m/m content. She and her bestie Hagio Moto and their associates (the Year 24 Group and Post Year 24 Group) revolutionized comics for girls and produced many m/m works.

Their 70s works were often about beautiful, tragic boys in boarding schools, influenced by such things as the French film version of Les amitiés particulières. This was not a fluffy period. A lot of the m/m is full of suicide, rape, and self-harm. Many endings are tragically beautiful. (Frankly, a lot of shoujo endings for any gender combo were tragically beautiful back then.)

'Shounen-ai' was used back in the 70s to refer to these works. After styles and markets changed, it has continued to be used to refer to works from this period. It has never meant all m/m manga, and it certainly isn't accurate to use it for anything after the 80s. It never connoted the level of explicitness or fluffiness.

Later, m/m Japanese comics for girls were called 'june' (from the name of a magazine) and 'tanbi' ("aestheticism", hence the name of that old English-language website), among other things.

'Yaoi' was coined as a jokey term for crappy work that was PWP instead of the ~deep~ and ~intellectual~ series by the Year 24 Group. It was more of a term for doujinshi and always kind of disparaging. (Don't go around calling someone's pro-published series with a plot "Plot, What Plot?" you know?)

Eventually, the term BL rose to prominence, and this marketing category has been called BL ever since. Porny stuff, romantic stuff, dark stuff, fluffy stuff: it's all BL if it's from a BL magazine.

--

Anyway, unless you actually want to talk about fucking pubescent boys or you're writing about the history of manga, 'shounen ai' is not an accurate term.

It's a worse term because there's a larger gap between Japanese and English-language usage than for 'yaoi' and because kink-hating, radfem koolaid-drinking asshats constantly praise things they see as "shounen ai".