Shōnen-ai

Illustration that shows two young people kissing. The shōnen-ai tends to represent a less explicit relationship than the Yaoi.

Shōnen-ai (少年愛, lit. boy love ^?) is a Japanese term used to denote a genre of manga and anime that has as its main theme romantic relationships between two male individuals.

Etymology

The term shōnen-ai comes from Japanese, specifically from the union of the words shōnen (少年) which means boy and ai (愛), which translates as love. The term bishōnen ai (美少年愛) is often applied to shōnen-ai because this genre is based on bishōnen, the artistic representation of attractive young males in manga. In turn, Bishōnen ai comes from the word bishōnen (美少年, lit. "beautiful boy").

History

Since the consolidation of shōjo (manga aimed at a female adolescent audience) between the 1960s and 1970s, a new market appeared in manga that addressed homosexual relationships, known as yaoi. Shōnen-ai is usually considered a subgenre of shōjo because it was initially developed for female audiences by addressing more sentimental and less sexual themes than yaoi. The term originally referred to love between adolescents of a harmless and innocent nature.

Shōnen-ai, like Bishōnen-ai, are subgenres of shōjo manga, aimed at young girls. Despite his conception of shōjo, it is no longer considered as such for decades, it is regularly more associated with yaoi and other subgenres of it such as shotacon.

Features

Shōnen-ai regularly features homosexual relationships between two teenagers, although it can feature other combinations such as a grown man and a teenager, or two adults. It is characterized by only exhibiting minimal verbal and bodily displays of affection, that is, they do not reach the sexual level, focusing more on romantic and innocent themes.

This genre, like many others, uses the bishōnen technique to make it more attractive to female audiences. He usually represents the characters as innocent and ignorant young people on sentimental issues and sexual issues. The kemonomimi is a very common element in these stories.

As mentioned above, shōnen-ai and bishōnen-ai differ from yaoi in that they show less explicit relationships. But while the shōnen-ai story focuses on the relationship between the main characters, the bishōnen-ai puts the homosexual theme in the background. Like shōjo-ai, shōnen-ai focuses mainly on the emotions of the characters, often generating dramatic relationships, although this is not always the case.

Demographics

Shōnen-ai is expected to attract a mostly female audience. Many fans argue that this is due to the beauty of the characters, as well as the depictions of love. Some argue that because shōnen-ai excludes women from relationships, it is sexually threatening to female audiences, while others argue that it is perfectly natural for women to be attracted to the idea of love and sexual relations. between men.

The genre has found a large following in the United States. According to Nielsen BookScan, the volumes of the Gravitation manga series have sold more than 230,000 copies. It is popular all over the world and in many languages, it also has fans in countries where the population has access to the Internet, where pirated copies of both manga and anime are distributed.

A thriving market for gay-themed dôjinshi has recently grown in Japan, mainly due to Comiket, a large annual convention that brings together many fans and artists.

Manga magazines that include shōnen-ai romance manga are Gekkan Asuka (from Kadokawa Shoten) and Wings (from Shinshokan). These magazines are aimed at a female adolescent audience.