YAOI - MAN ON MAN ACTION AT ITS BEST

Yaoi - Man on Man action at its best!
Article by Sandra Scholes


Ever wondered what the manga novels on the shelves of popular book retailers with colourful cartoon style covers and even more colourful titles were about?
You need not worry, the wait is over if you have never encountered them before. The days are gone of traditional Japanese manga, a more sophisticated genre has emerged over the past few years and taken most of the world by storm.

These are Japan's answer to the comics most guys grew up with when all they knew were the US publishers, but the difference is these are written by women and aimed at a female audience who admire the idea of two men in love. They range from soft core, semi nudity, to hard core, full nudity and sexual scenes leaving nothing to the imagination. Not that any yaoi manga enthusiast would want to!

Although it is the 18-25 year old age group that read this type of manga, a lot of men the same age are interested in taking in the stories on offer as they say more about young gay male relationships than more gritty and realistic gay fiction novels. The stories within these manga books concentrate more on the development of the characters and the relationship side of it as opposed to the more raw sexual side prevalent in many mainstream novels.

The themes can be explicit, or relatively tame and have certain rules writers go by for the two different paired males as two men known as seme and uke or dominant and passive, the seme is brash, small-eyed, older, does all the talking and asking out, chain-smokes and stresses out all the time, and initiates sex, while the passive is angelic looking, young with large, watery eyes, is nice in his nature, fun loving and kind who moans a considerable amount during rampant sex in varying positions.

The stories range from the exotic to what could be termed ordinary life, which revolves around school boys in a dorm, kids at University, the wild-west, ancient Japan and the middle-ages. The exotic can refer to the locations, as many fans of manga (otaku) enjoy this type of reading material as it can introduce them to new and interesting things.

Fans of this genre in its early days read manga called doujinshi, which were written by fans of the culture for fans alike and normally were made from home without any payment as it was done for the pure enjoyment of other people seeing their work.

So when did it all start? Thirty years ago doujinshi artists created manga based on existing themes from their culture, but with new perspectives using two teenagers, both guys both excessively slender and beautiful set in impossible circumstances they had to work out as a couple.

The earlier manga were also based on existing manga that were popular at the time and featured mecha pilots and computer game characters getting up close and personal.

To spice up the ordinary, these doujinshi would create love between two of their favourite characters, and have them in steamy, shirt-ripping relationships where it was not uncommon for them to be panting, and drooling over each other in the most satisfying way.

It was much later when yaoi became professionally published by companies such as DMP, Netcomics, Blu and 801 media to name a few. These publishers have authors and artists who have established themselves from the ranks of fan artist to pro.

The look of yaoi has a mingle of differences, nudity which is a large part of the genre, is tackled both in western and Japanese manga, though the Japanese have the genital area smudged out or replaced by a curve from around the stomach down to where the penis would be. This single curve is favoured by the Japanese as they have a dislike of showing the male genitalia in any form, either soft or erect, be it in manga, anime or standard film. Though in some western manga, the penis is all too clearly there in all its glory. The way they are drawn differs slightly in every manga, but one thing is certain. The characters will be portrayed as boys or young men who are drawn to resemble those guys who could not truly exist in real-life, and therefore unobtainable, becoming of interest to many.

Yaoi and shonen-ai manga are enjoyed by those who like the styles and cannot get enough of that material. Books of interest to anyone who is not familiar with the genre, recommended reading will be; Black Knight, Winter Demon, Stallion, Gakuen Heaven and Boy Princess.

But there is much more than this, so have fun exploring that load of books most of us never thought possible.