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Yaoi/Shounen AI

Tavi March 24, 2015 11:23 am

Ok so I think I'm confusing myself. Yaoi and Shounen AI are both obviously boy love manga. I've always thought the difference between them was that Shounen Ai manga do not have sex shown between partners. While Yaoi does contain sexual scenes.

Now I'm told it just has to do with the age of the partners? Was I completely off my rocker on this? I keep seeing the Top 5 Shounen Ai being manga that I wouldn't consider Shounen Ai at all. So I want to make sure I'm not crazy. lol

Responses
    Anonymous March 24, 2015 11:33 am

    I think it's about the sex too, not age.Except for 'Kare no Shousou to Koi ni Tsuite', all others in the top 5 list don't have explicit sex scenes, so I think if they removed the 'shounen'ai' tag in 'Kare no Shousou to Koi ni Tsuite', it should be fine.

    Miina March 24, 2015 11:41 am

    Uhh no, like you said before shounen-ai is very light bl love while yaoi is more sexual.

    Anonymous March 24, 2015 12:50 pm

    it is mostly like that .shounen ai doesnt show sex explicitly while in yaoi the sex is shown completely

    Usako March 24, 2015 2:41 pm

    I have seen some stories go for several volumes before the characters actually have sex, so it doesn't "earn" it's yaoi rating until later. This can be confusing when both tags are listed, I'm sure.

    エル March 24, 2015 2:44 pm

    Well I think shounen ai focuses more on the bond/ romance between the boys without too much sexual implications, it's pure romance. While yaoi offers romance with heavy sexual content... sometimes it also offers no romance and just pure sex sex and sex

    Rittie March 24, 2015 2:52 pm

    Well if it's like two older men, it's bara.

    If its an older man and a younger man (but 18++) it should be yaoi

    And anything beneath is shota.

    Of course, the site doesn't have specific tags like that so everything that contains BL is "shounen-ai" or "yaoi" or both :)

    Hope I helped ^_^

    Usako March 24, 2015 3:57 pm
    Well if it's like two older men, it's bara.If its an older man and a younger man (but 18++) it should be yaoiAnd anything beneath is shota.Of course, the site doesn't have specific tags like that so everything ... Rittie

    I always thought BARA was beefy/muscly guys, age had nothing to do with that genre.

    Rittie March 24, 2015 4:37 pm

    Yeah but those are typically older men O.o How many 14-15 boys are like that for example?

    Anonymous March 24, 2015 7:07 pm

    I'll never understand this shounen ai / yaoi thing.

    Tavi March 25, 2015 4:37 am

    The one time wikipedia fails me! Ok so it looks like most of us think its the sexual side of things though so at least I'm not completely insane. Oh and kinda funny aside I always though the difference between Yaoi and Bara was that Yaoi was written for a mostly female audience and Bara was written for a male audience!

    Tavi March 25, 2015 4:40 am

    But from the responses I don't think anyone will mind if I submit reports asking them to delete the Shounen Ai tag from series that contain explicit sex?

    Tavi March 25, 2015 4:41 am
    But from the responses I don't think anyone will mind if I submit reports asking them to delete the Shounen Ai tag from series that contain explicit sex? Tavi

    Oh and by tag I mean the genre itself on the page, not the personal tags that people put on themselves!