Bara (genre)is a colloquialism for a genre of Japanese art and media known within Japan as gay manga or ゲイコミ. The genre focuses on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience. Bara can vary in visual style and plot, but typically features masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair, akin to bear or bodybuilding culture. While bara is typically pornographic, the genre has also depicted romantic and autobiographical subject material, as it acknowledges the varied reactions to homosexuality in modern Japan.
YaoiYaoi (ˈjaʊi ; やおい jaꜜo.i), also known as boys' love and its abbreviation BL, is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for women and is thus distinct from bara (gay manga), a genre of homoerotic media marketed to gay men, though does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works.
Slash fictionSlash fiction (also known as "m/m slash" or slashfic) is a genre of fan fiction that focuses on romantic or sexual relationships between fictional characters of the same sex. While the term "slash" originally referred only to stories in which male characters are involved in an explicit sexual relationship as a primary plot element, it is now also used to refer to any fan story containing a romantic pairing between same-sex characters.
HomoeroticismHomoeroticism is sexual attraction between members of the same sex, either male–male or female–female. The concept differs from the concept of homosexuality: it refers specifically to the desire itself, which can be temporary, whereas "homosexuality" implies a more permanent state of identity or sexual orientation. It has been depicted or manifested throughout the history of the visual arts and literature and can also be found in performative forms; from theatre to the theatricality of uniformed movements (e.
Lesbian eroticaLesbian erotica deals with depictions in the visual arts of lesbianism, which is the expression of female-on-female sexuality. Lesbianism has been a theme in erotic art since at least the time of ancient Rome, and many regard depictions of lesbianism (as for sexuality in general) to be erotic. For much of the history of cinema and television, lesbianism was considered taboo, though since the 1960s it has increasingly become a genre in its own right.
Josei mangaJosei manga, also known as ladies' comics and its abbreviation redikomi , is an editorial category of Japanese comics that emerged in the 1980s. In a strict sense, josei refers to manga marketed to an audience of adult women, contrasting shōjo manga, which is marketed to an audience of girls and young adult women. In practice, the distinction between shōjo and josei is often tenuous; while the two were initially divergent categories, many manga works exhibit narrative and stylistic traits associated with both shōjo and josei manga.
Pornography in JapanIn Japan, pornography has unique characteristics that readily distinguish it from western pornography. Pornographic films are known as "adult videos" (AV) in Japan, so Japanese adult videos (JAV) refers to the Japanese pornographic film industry. Animated films are referred to as hentai in English, but in Japan the terms "adult anime" and "erotic animation" (or ero anime) are used. In addition to pornographic videos and magazines featuring live actors, there are now categories of pornographic manga and anime (i.
Homosexuality in JapanRecords of men who have sex with men in Japan date back to ancient times. Western scholars have identified these as evidence of homosexuality in Japan. Though these relations had existed in Japan for millennia, they became most apparent to scholars during the Tokugawa (or Edo) period. Historical practices identified by scholars as homosexual include 衆道, 若衆道 and 男色. The Japanese term 男色 is the Japanese reading of the same characters in Chinese, which literally mean "male colors".
HentaiHentai is a term that refers to pornographic anime and manga. A loanword from Japanese, the original term ( ) does not describe a genre of media, but rather an abnormal sexual desire or act, as an abbreviation of 変態性欲, and is also used to refer to persons who hold or do such desires and acts, often translated to English as "pervert". In addition to anime and manga, hentai works exist in a variety of media, including artwork and video games (commonly known as eroge).
Fan serviceFan service, fanservice or service cut, is material in a work of fiction or in a fictional series that is intentionally added to please the audience, often sexual in nature, such as nudity. The term originated in Japanese in the anime and manga fandom, but has been used in other languages and media. It is about "servicing" the fan – giving the fans "exactly what they want". Fan service can also refer (by means of text, symbol, image, sound) to other stories that contain visual elements.
