Young men in love
After capturing a deranged bomber, a pair of New York City police detectives share a passionate kiss. A group of teenage girls agree that "one of the seven strangest things" about their high school is that the handsome soccer star and his inseparable pal don't have girlfriends. Two half brothers, the sons of a yakuza boss, compete for the affection of a former kendo champion.
Welcome to the curious world of yaoi: manga (graphic novels), doujinshi (amateur comics), animated films and prose depicting romances between beautiful young men -- created by women and aimed at female audiences. The phenomenon originated in Japan in the late '70s but is gradually catching on in the U.S.
* The Anime Expo taking place this weekend in Anaheim will offer a panel on yaoi fandom -- and plenty of related merchandise; the annual Yaoi-Con will be held in San Francisco at the end of October.
* Translations of yaoi manga regularly appear at the top of the BookScan rankings of graphic novels, and the new imprint "Be Beautiful" ("Romantic graphic novels by women -- for women") launches in August with two yaoi titles.
* EBay and the big Japanese auction sites Mandarake and Rinkya list hundreds of yaoi items.
"It's definitely growing in the U.S. When we ask fans what type of titles they're interested in having us bring over, yaoi titles are always at the top of the list," says Jake Forbes, an editor at Los Angeles-based publisher and distributor Tokyopop. "We knew there'd be demand, but we didn't realize how widespread it would be until we put out the mangas 'Fake' and 'Gravitation.' 'Robotech' got a lot of people into anime back in the '80s; these titles have made it into a huge underground phenomenon."
"The term 'yaoi' comes from the phrase 'YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi' -- no climax, no punch line, no meaning," explains Frederik Schodt, the author of "Dreamland Japan: Writings on Modern Manga." "It was originally applied to doujinshi by women artists who had a playful approach to storytelling. Many of their comics featured young males falling in love with each other."
Gender-bending entertainments have been popular in Japan for centuries. In Kabuki, female characters are portrayed by onagata, male actors who specialize in feminine roles. The Takarazuka Revue mounts elaborate spectacles with young women playing all the parts, and the women who star in male roles boast huge fan clubs.
