4

The difference between Shonen'ai and Yaoi as already been asked.

However, I encountered a few more terminologies concerning anime and mangas referring to masculine homosexuality :

  • Shōnen'ai
  • JUNE
  • Yaoi
  • Boys' love

What are the main differences between those genres?

Community
  • 1
Ikaros
  • 4,851
  • 6
  • 34
  • 61
  • 1
    Boy's Love is, like Girl's Love in Shoujo Ai/Yuri, just another way to describe Shounen Ai/Yaoi.....though i have never seen the term JUNE before – Memor-X Dec 25 '15 at 00:31
  • @Makoto why is this a duplicate? – giraffesyo Jan 18 '17 at 17:34
  • @MichaelMcQuade: The duplicate has answers which cover most (if not all) of this terminology. The fact that a magazine name came up does make the answer *below* more relevant, but by and large I still believe this to be answered well by the existing question. – Makoto Jan 18 '17 at 17:37

2 Answers2

7

Shounen-Ai Literally translated means boys love. However, in these type of series, it usually represents an innocent, non sexual nature of homosexuality. Ex- 7-Ghosts.

(Taken from wikipedia)

The term shōnen-ai (boy love) originally connoted ephebophilia or pederasty in Japan, but from the early 1970s to the late 1980s, was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga, primarily produced by the Year 24 Group of women authors, about beautiful boys in love. Characteristics of shōnen-ai include exoticism, often taking place in Europe, and idealism. Jeffrey Angles particularly notes Moto Hagio's The Heart of Thomas (1974) and Keiko Takemiya's Kaze to Ki no Uta (1976-1984) as being groundbreaking, noting their portrayal of intense friendship between males, including jealousy and desire.

June- This name actually comes from a specific manga magazine and it cannot be said as a genre or demographic per se.

(From Wikipedia)

A manga or text story with male homosexual themes for women written in an aesthetic (耽美 tanbi) style, named for the Juné magazine.

Yaoi

Yaoi (/ˈjaʊi/, Japanese: [ja.o.i]), also known as Boys' Love (BL), is a Japanese genre of fictional media focusing on romantic or sexual relationships between male characters, typically aimed at a female audience and usually created by female authors. Although yaoi is typically aimed at a female audience, the genre also attracts some male readers; however, manga aimed at a gay male audience (bara) is considered a separate genre.

Boys Love

Yaoi and Boys-Love are basically the same thing and can be used interchangeably

Prada
  • 838
  • 6
  • 18
1

Shonen-ai (shonen = boy, ai = love), so it's boy's love. Yaoi is mostly just the physical side of the relationship between male characters.

June is the earliest yaoi (BL) magazine. BL means boy x boy relationships.

Aki Tanaka
  • 12,592
  • 8
  • 51
  • 107
Leo Gray
  • 21
  • 1