Rose-colored romance. Yaoi vs. reality.

Introduction

There is often a base of reality when it comes to fictional works. While yaoi started out as fan renditions of popular male characters, it has grown into a substantial phenomenon with a passionate fanbase. When reading or watching yaoi or boy's love it can be easy to forget that unfortunately modern Japan isn't quite so accepting as in these stories. We aim to explain exactly what yaoi is, why people are interested in it and how homosexuality is portrayed in the typical yaoi media compared to real life. For our quantitative angle we made use of a large dataset containing data from 17.000+ anime and compare the genre of Yaoi with others when it comes to ratings, watch-counts, etc. Then we try to link our findings with potential reasons from the socio-cultural side of Japanese society. Let's start with the basics.

What is Yaoi?

Yaoi is originally an acronym for "yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi" meaning: "no climax, no point, no meaning", referring to (amateur) works that focussed primarily on sex and often had a non-existent plot. Here (popular) male characters would be depicted in sexual scenarios. Yaoi evolved over time to include more plot and character interactions besides sexual intercourse, though the big(gest) selling point is still the homoerotic scenes.

The difference with Boy's Love

Boy's Love in contrast to yaoi puts emphasis on different aspects of homoerotic relationships e.g. unrequited love, heartbreak, expressing love in cute and attentive ways, etc. While there may be scenes of intimacy, they are less graphic and sometimes implied instead of shown.

However both Yaoi and Boy's Love are used interchangeably by many.

Boy's love was later adopted by Japanese publications in the 1990's as an umbrella term for male-male romance media marketed to women.

Yaoi and BL (Boy's Love) is typically created by women for women. This is vastly different from Bara which is a genre marketed to gay men and often made by gay male mangaka. While Bara has a lot of variety, a common feature of the characters is masculinity akin to bear and/or bodybuilding culture. This is in stark contrast to BL where the men have semi-androgynous features, typical of bishonen which means 'beautiful boys'.

Structure of a BL relationship

As mentioned before, the features of the main characters tend to be androgynous but even then there is a clear distinction between lovers. This tends to be according to the roles of the 'seme' and 'uke'. The 'seme' 「攻め coming from the verb 攻める meaning 'to attack'」is often taller, older, with more stereotypical masculine features and demeanor. He tends to be more confident, physically powerful and protective over the 'uke'. This character will usually take the initiative in interactions both sexual and not, acting as a 'pursuer'.

The 'uke' 「受けcoming from 受ける meaning 'to receive'」by contrast is generally smaller, more feminine, physically weaker than the seme being the one 'pursued'.

Of course not all works adhere to these rigid tropes. Switching roles can keep the relationship and story fresh and some authors will give the 'seme' a passive role when it comes to sex while others portray the 'uke' as the aggressor in the relationship.

Many Yaoi/ BL stories are homosocial, depicting same-sex relationships in a non-romantic or sexual nature (friendship, mentorship, etc.) This gives men freedom to grow closer and work towards shared goals. Often after overcoming obstacles the relationship does evolve into a romantic endeavor. 

Yaoi/ BL works tend to view Japanese society as more accepting of LGBTQ+ people than they are in reality and even if gay male characters tend to be empowered in their stories, the genre only seldomly addresses the reality of homophobia both socially and culturally. This depiction may also contribute to why a lot of fans consider Yaoi to be escapist fiction.

Why do people read Yaoi?

We've mentioned that most of the Yaoi/ BL readers are female so why do they sometimes prefer it to regular romance?

A few women have commented that when reading male/ female romance they find it harder to detach themselves from the female character. Some say they can't help but think about things like unwanted pregnancy which can make reading rather uncomfortable. With two men it's easier to let go of such worries and let the events unfold 'from a distance'. Another reason is because in a lot of heterosexual love stories the female characters are often one-dimensional or stereotypical (problematic). Some may therefore read yaoi as a way of rejecting gender binarism or resisting conservative patriarchal/ parental views about sex and gender. Reasons can vary from person to person and can be influenced by culture, legal differences by country. 

In short there are a few key reasons:

• female-oriented genre: Catering to female narrative preferences.

• Escapism: A motive to escape daily life and worries.

• Art and aesthetics: Reading for its distinctive styles.

• Entertainment: Seeking relaxation and entertainment.

• Arousal: The desire for sexually arousing content.

• Support and/or rejection: Supporting LGBTQ+ creators/ media and/or rejecting heterosexual norms.

In the following table many more reasons and the importance to said reason (in %) are given from a (small) sample of people that answered an online poll.

Numbers Concerning Yaoi

Introduction to Quantitative Research

For our quantitative research we decided to make use of a database we found containing several spreadsheets in the form of a zip-file. The content is a collection of MyAnimeList data from over 300.000 users, and more than 17.000 anime, including information such as ratings, genres, members, and watch counts.

For those unfamiliar with MyAnimeList: It is a website where you can create your own list of anime (as well as manga) for whichever purpose. For every anime you add to your list, you can customize several things. You can not only rate the anime on a score from 1 to 10 and favorite the ones you like most, but even share your watch-status and whether you have re-watched it and how many times. In short, it's a powerful database that can become a useful tool if needed. On MyAnimeList, the amount of members of an anime is merely determined by the number of people who have that anime on their own list, whereas favorites is the number of people that have that anime indicated as one of their favorites, of which you can only have a few at a time.

Though the dataset we found is from 2020, and does not precisely match the current information that can be found on the MyAnimeList website, we still find it recent enough to be relevant, with numbers large enough to still be representative of current-day anime viewers. Thus, we used this as a base in our own comparative research between Yaoi and other anime genres by extracting and gathering the necessary data. Our findings were as follows:

Comparing Prevalence of Hetero- and Homosexually Themed Genres

The table above shows us the percentage of anime in the dataset belonging to each genre, as well as the average, highest, and lowest ratings within each genre. Important to note is that each anime is not exclusively one genre, and it's possible that an anime is, for example, both a Romance and an Ecchi anime. For the sake of our topic, however, we've decided to make sure that there is a clear distinction between hetero- and homosexual anime, and excluded Yaoi, Yuri, Shounen-Ai, and Shoujo-Ai from our numbers in the Romantic, Hentai, and Ecchi genres.

From the table, we can see that the more explicit genres are nearly as common as romantic anime. However, similarly themed anime showcasing homoerotic relationships remain rather infrequent. Notably, we can see no discernible difference in ratings between anime depicting homosexual and/or homoromantic relationships, and the much more heteronormative genres. This has led us to believe that anime surrounding topics such as homosexuality are not seen as inherently worse because of the elements they portray. Despite this, there seems to be a disproportion in quantity, with Shounen-Ai, Shoujo-Ai, Yuri, and Yaoi only adding up to a meager 1.44% of all of the anime in the dataset. But what does this say about the fanbase of these anime? Ratings and scores don't determine the popularity or success of an anime, so we decided to look into it. For the rest of this part of our research, we decided to focus on the numbers of the most popular and common homosexual-themed genre, Boy's Love or Shounen-Ai.

Discerning popularity of anime depicting homoromantic

relationships

The graph below shows us the ranking in popularity of the 20 most popular Boy's Love/Shouen-Ai anime, as well as the rating they were given by the hundreds of thousands of users in the dataset. Though not all of them received a high score, all but one are in the top 2000 most popular anime, with the last one ranking 2039th, just below the 2000 mark. The most popular Boy's Love anime is Given, ranking 561st in popularity. Put into perspective, that's roughly the same popularity as the second season of 3-gatsu no Lion, the 10th highest-rated anime in the dataset with a rating of 9, which is "only" ranked 545th in popularity.

Final Comparison and Concluding Thoughts on Quantitative Research

Seeing this might leave the impression that Boy's Love is indeed not so unpopular, and while this might be true to a certain extent, it's important to consider that it's not even 1% of the top 2000 anime that fall into this genre, while the number is significantly larger for Romance, with 567 anime (excluding Shounen- and Shoujo-Ai) ranking in the top 2000. Even when comparing absolutes, the numbers show a significant difference, as can be seen in the following graphs:

The two graphs above place the total number of members and favorites of the most popular Romance and Shounen-Ai anime side by side. It's clear that the numbers of even the most popular Shounen-Ai anime can't even begin to compare to those of Romance, with the largest numbers in each graph being not even 300.000 and over 2.000.000 respectively.

That being said, while the numbers show an evident disproportion between the two genres, it's clear that still a couple hundred thousand people seem to enjoy Boy's Love, an amount that we would argue is too high to simply ignore. But do these portrayals compare to the lives of homosexuals in reality? As mentioned in the structure of a Yaoi relationship, many stories are set in a progressive version of Japan where homosexuality is more easily accepted. Things like the fear of coming out are often barely touched on, similarly friends and family not accepting such relationships is usually glossed over if mentioned at all unless the plot is driven by this point. And the topic of laws, politics, etc. is (almost) never referenced in manga or anime. Despite this, we can attempt to derive a conclusion from the things that are mentioned as well as the real-world discourse concerning homosexuality in Japan through articles, studies and personal experiences.

How is homosexuality viewed in Japan?

Japan's relationship with sexuality in general

Japan seems to be a place where anything related to sexuality is a taboo. It isn't something that you can casually bring up which isn't surprising for a country where public displays of affection are a strange phenomenon (even if not entirely non-existent). When purchasing objects relating to self-pleasure or sexual intercourse it is often behind a curtain in a smaller, separate area. When buying erotic literature, the clerk will wrap the cover in a brown paper so other people can't see what the person is reading. (Even if this makes it clear it is something 'inappropriate'.)

All this is in stark contrast with the approx. 38.000 love hotels (as of 2005) that are available in Japan. Some with more erotic options like BDSM facilities and others looking like a simple hotel room.

Factors influencing differing views on LGBTQ+

The PEW Global Attitudes Project 2013 reported that 54% of Japanese believe that homosexuality should be accepted by society, ranking Japan among the most accepting Asian countries in terms of attitudes toward homosexuality.

Age and gender

In PEW's survey, younger generations of Japanese respondents were consistently more inclined to embrace the idea of acceptance than older generations. Moreover, statistics demonstrated gender as another significant factor in attitude formation, whereby 47% of Japanese men expressed acceptance toward homosexuality compared to 61% of women.

Group mentality

Japanese people are generally taught from a young age to always be considerate of others and never inconvenience them or stand out from the norm. A recent example is masks. While even the government has acknowledged the wearing of a mask is no longer a necessity, most Japanese people will still wear one in public because of the fear of standing out or being looked at or even judged. Personal opinions from quite a few people were along the lines of not wanting to wear it anymore but they would rather fit in with everyone else.

Family values

The older patriarchal view of a family was a man as the breadwinner and head of the household along with a mother that would provide care for the children and keep the house in order. This way of a traditional family is deeply ingrained in Confucianism teachings which seem to still have a hold over the older generations in some ways. Elders continue this way of thinking through what values they instill in their children. What's different in the younger generations is that they are quicker to question what is said to them compared to previous generations.

Politics

It's well known that the prime minister, Fumio Kishida's party, the LDP, is a political party that advocates for more conservative family values. Considering this we realize it's quite self-explanatory why same sex marriage isn't allowed. While being together with someone of the same sex isn't illegal, couples will not experience the same benefits are a married (heterosexual) couple. This view is quite opposite of what the majority of the government stands for. Kishida experienced some backlash following the statement: "I don't think disallowing same-sex couples to marry is unjust discrimination by the state." This reaction isn't unexpected considering the number of people that believe homosexuality should be accepted as mentioned in the PEW Global Attitudes Project 2013 that we referenced before. Kishida is clearly not an avid supporter of anything relating to progress concerning LGBTQ+ rights. He did fire the executive secretary Masayoshi Arai for discriminating comments he made on Feb 3^rd^ 2023 according to the Asahi Shinbun but we believe this is only to suppress potential outrage of the public. The duality of the government is detrimental to the acceptance of queer people in Japanese society.

Kop 1:Conclusion

While it isn't illegal to be in a relationship with someone of the same sex, it isn't encouraged either. Queer couples will have to make peace with the fact they aren't allowed to adopt children or even receive the same treatment as a heterosexual couple like the right to marry, receive certain loans or healthcare options. With the LDP being the most influential party in the government as well as being highly conservative, it seems unlikely that same-sex marriage or even just same-sex couples will be accepted as a normal part of society anytime soon. A few developments such as Tokyo establishing certificates for same-sex couples does allow them to gain some of the benefits of a heterosexual couple. In 2021 the Sapporo District Court said Japan's definition of marriage, which excludes same-sex couples, violates the constitution's guarantee of equality. As reality isn't as idealistic as portrayed in many yaoi/ BL media, it isn't surprising that many people both LGBTQ+ and not, use it as a means of escapism, entertainment, showing support through consuming things that deviate from the heteronormative narrative, etc. While it still remains a niche genre, the fanbase seems to grow steadily as well as curiosity for Yaoi/BL in general. This might lead to a more mainstream acceptance of this type of romance/ relationships like heteronormative romance in tv-programs, novels, etc.

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