Yaoi is basically manga/anime that focuses on the homosexual exploits of the male characters. It tends to be porn. "Yaoi" itself is an acronym meaning something along the lines of "Plot? What plot?" "Shounen-ai" means "boy's love", and tends to be more romance-based, without on-screen sex. It started as a women's manga movement in the '70s, if I remember correctly, and is still aimed at women and girls. Though both "shounen ai" and "yaoi" are Japanese terms, they are mainly used in the Western world; ironically, "Boys Love" or "BL" is the typical term in Japan.

In yaoi, the characters are divided up as semes and ukes.
Semeru= to invade.
Ukeru= to be attacked.
The seme is basically the one "giving it", while the uke is "getting it". The uke tends to have stereotypically "feminine" characteristics. Some of them are almost indistinguishable from female characters, if it weren't for their genitalia.

Another term useful to know is doujinshi. Doujinshi are fan-made comics based on an anime or manga. A lot of yaoi fans use doujinshi to hook up characters in a pleasing way that would never occur in the series. Also, slash also means to be put two characters (mainly men) together, and can be a noun or a verb. "I slash Hakkai and Gojyo," vs "I like Hakkai and Gojyo slash." It can also be an adjective, as in, "'Saiyuki' is very slashy," meaning that it has great slash potential

The three yaoi always recommended are "Ai no Kusabi", "Boku no SekuHara" ("My Sexual Harassment"), and "Level-C". Others include "Gravitation", "Kizuna", and "FAKE".

"Ai no Kusabi" is about some weird alien planet where the people on top of the hierchy are Blondies, who have sex Pets that they watch, not touch. Blondie Iason picks up mongrel Riki, and falls in love. Angsty ending! It's amusing for me, because Riki's voice actor is Seki Toshihiko, who plays Sanzo in "Saiyuki", plus many, many others. So you can hear Sanzo moan in ecstacy, and it's funny as hell, especially since S.T. was in that phase where he put too much gutteral "eccch!" noises into everything he said.

"Boku no SekuHara" is about a young man in an office who is pimped out to old men to further his company. The most infamous scene is when he goes to the US and is repeatedly raped by a college student from California. The student video records it, so our hero can't tell anyone, or he'll be blackmailed with the tape. So the uke's pimp-master/love-interest from the company comes in and drugs the guy and ties him up. He then proceeds to stick a bottle of whiskey up his ass, which is followed most famously by a corncob. (Is that butter?!) So if you hear someone giggle about "corn", or, adversely, say the word with eyes wide full of horror, you'll know why.

"Level-C" really has no plot. It's about a high school boy (who's subtitled as 19 in the US release) who is forced to pick up an older guy off the streets, who screws him senseless in the kid's posh apartment. That's about it. The kid also has a very gay older brother voiced by Takehito Koyasu, and he's a model. This is infamous for the "glass penis", as censorship laws in Japan don't allow for an erect penis to be shown, so it's made invisible. Cum floats in the air!

"Gravitation" is a manga and a TV series, very rare for Boy's-Love, plus an ealier OAV series. It's about energetic Shindou Shuuichi, the pink-haired leader of a rock band Bad Luck, and his boyfriend Yuki Eiri, a nasty-tempered author with an angsty past. It's very popular with the fangirl type, though some see Shuuichi as a male version of the typical annoying heroine. I've only seen Gravi on the infamous Hong Kong bootleg subs, where not much sense could be made. It was definitely entertaining, though. Besides these two, there are many other characters, who are all in love with each other or something. Nothing smutty happens, but the manga author created her own official doujinshi, Gravitation Remix! Every coupling possible is created. It's pretty filthy, maybe moreso than the average doujinshi

"Kizuna" was the first yaoi I saw, and I don't remember much. I wasn't even a real fan at the time, but I didn't mind it. All I remember is the main character, Ranmaru, going into a night club. He went into the bathroom, looked into the mirror, and said to himself, "Why are there no women here? Could it be... a homo kurabu [homo club]?!" LOLOLOLOL Then an old man tried to rape his unconcious body in a table booth soon after, and later there was a flashback where a guy jumped him in a soccer field. It's like the boy had special pheromones that made everyone want a piece.

Lastly, is "FAKE", which is also out in the US. It's about two New York City cops [cue the Strokes song], Ryo and Dee, who investigate murders. Dee has the hots for Ryo, and lets him know that often. But Ryo is somehow under the illusion that he is possibly straight (hah! wrong genre for that, m' boy) and resists. So we follow their antics through the manga and the single OAV. It's great fun, and has a snazzy theme song.

Now onto the average anime male fan's worst nightmare: fandom yaoi. Many fans complain about people slashing together pretty guys "randomly". I'll tell you this: what you might think of as "random" is horribly obvious to others. Take "Saiyuki", for example. Kazuya Minekura, the manga author, apparently loves BL and has several comics heavily tinted with it (such as "Stigma" and the whole "Wild Adapter" line). So "Saiyuki", especially certain parts, can be quite suggestive. In an old Animerica review, one reviewer said that the guys might be "more than friends". YET! I have run into people who deny that completely. So yes, what may be obvious to someone, you may be completely be dense to. And it's not because slashers are all sick pervert that twists everything and "makes everyone gay" just for the hell of it. (Not to say that people like that don't exist!)

I have two anthologies of "Sailor Moon" doujinshi from when I was in elementary school. They have some lesbianism in it. Did I cry or get upset by seeing my favorite female characters being slashed together? NO. So when you young men see that happen to your fave guys, get the fuck over it and don't look at it. It's all a fantasy and doesn't matter. Your world isn't being rocked by gay porn.

Links

Aestheticism.com, a huge reference center.
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