boys’ love

boys’ love (bl) is the common term used by the publishing industry to categorize works focusing on male/male relationships marketed at women. historically these works were referred to as june, but most commercial works are now called bl. it is used as an umbrella term for:

-both commercial and amateur works
-works with no s-x
-works with s-x
-doujinshi about adolescents with little or no s-x
-works in all types of media – manga, anime, novels, games, and drama cds
-characters of all ages (not limited to ‘boys’)
-related terms such as yaoi, shounen ai, tanbi, june, and original june

while early fans of bl were probably fans of doujinshi, most j-panese fans on the net these days appear to be fans of commercial bl work – there are over a hundred such works published every month, more than two-thirds of them novels and the rest manga. bl novels are immensely popular – the number of novels published each month outnumbers pmanga] tankoubon by about 2 to 1.
gravitation is a great example of bl.
commonly just bl is the replacement for shounenai. americans seem to have difficulty telling the difference, so here it is.

sa: the men are always effeminate both in appearence & personality, gay men didn’t like it much, & unhappy endings were common. contrary to perhaps even my own previous postings, this art is not completely dead, some shounenai slips through the press. if it’s new & fots this description, it’s still shounenai.

bl: these days the men are more masculine both in looks & tude, gay men like it too, it’s usually less dramatic, more s-xual, & tends to end happily.
shounenai: ibu no musukotachi, kaze to ki no uta, & anything else from the 70s & early 80s.

boyslove: ai no kusabi, bnsh, gravitation, fake, ja-dou, psycho blast.

border line: anything that lived through both periods. for example, patalirro, zetsuai, & eroica are still being written & have made distinct changes to fit the times.
mixed with man love, creates nambla
man-boys’ love