is a
colloquialism for a genre of Japanese art and media known within Japan as or . The genre focuses on male
same-sex love
Homoeroticism 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 "homose ...
, 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
Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses ...
culture. While ''bara'' is typically pornographic, the genre has also depicted
romantic and
autobiographical
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
subject material, as it acknowledges the varied reactions to
homosexuality in modern Japan.
The use of ''bara'' as an umbrella term to describe gay Japanese comic art is largely a non-Japanese phenomenon, and its use is not universally accepted by creators of gay manga. In non-Japanese contexts, ''bara'' is used to describe a wide breadth of Japanese and Japanese-inspired gay erotic media, including illustrations published in early Japanese gay men's magazines, western
fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...
, and
gay pornography
Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; it at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornogr ...
featuring human actors. ''Bara'' is distinct from ''
yaoi
''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the '' wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created ...
'', a genre of Japanese media focusing on homoerotic relationships between male characters that historically has been created by and for women.
Etymology
The term , which translates literally to "
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
" in Japanese, has historically been used in Japan as a
pejorative
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...
for gay men, roughly equivalent to the English language term "
pansy
The garden pansy (''Viola'' × ''wittrockiana'') is a type of large-flowered hybrid plant cultivated as a garden flower. It is derived by hybridization from several species in the section ''Melanium'' ("the pansies") of the genus ''Viola'', ...
".
Beginning in the 1960s, the term was
reappropriated
In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change (i.e. ...
by Japanese gay media: notably with the 1961 anthology , a collection of semi-nude photographs of gay writer
Yukio Mishima
, born , was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, nationalist, and founder of the , an unarmed civilian militia. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century. He was considered fo ...
by photographer
Eikoh Hosoe, and later with in 1971, the first commercially produced gay magazine in Asia.
''Bara-eiga'' ("rose film") was additionally used in the 1980s to describe
gay cinema.
By the late 1980s, as
LGBT political movements in Japan began to form, the term fell out of use,
with becoming the preferred nomenclature for people who experience same-sex attraction. The term was revived as a pejorative in the late 1990s concurrent with the rise of internet
message boards
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporar ...
and
chat rooms
The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...
, where heterosexual administrators designated the gay sections of their websites as "bara boards" or "bara chat".
The term was subsequently adopted by non-Japanese users of these websites, who believed that ''bara'' was the proper designation for the images and artwork being posted on these forums.
Since the 2000s, ''bara'' has been used by this non-Japanese audience as an umbrella term to describe a wide variety of Japanese and non-Japanese gay media featuring masculine men, including western
fan art
Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers t ...
,
gay pornography
Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; it at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornogr ...
,
furry artwork, and numerous other categories.
This
misappropriation
In law, misappropriation is the unauthorized use of another's name, likeness, identity, property, discoveries, inventions, etc without that person's permission, resulting in harm to that person.
Another use of the word refers to intentional a ...
of ''bara'' by a non-Japanese audience has been controversial among creators of gay manga, many of whom have expressed discomfort or confusion over the term being used to describe their work.
Artist and historian
Gengoroh Tagame has described ''bara'' as "a very negative word that comes with bad connotations", though he later clarified that the term is "convenient for talking about art that is linked by characters that are muscle-y, huge, and hairy", and that his objection was the term's use to describe gay manga creators.
Artist Kumada Poohsuke has stated that while he does not find the term offensive, he does not describe his work as ''bara'' because he associates the term with ''Barazoku'', which featured ''
bishōnen
(; also transliterated ) is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man of androgynous beauty. This word originated from the Tang dynas ...
''-style artwork rather than artwork of masculine men.
History
Context: Homosexuality in Japanese visual art
Representations of
homosexuality in Japanese visual art have a history and context dating to the
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...
, as seen in and ''
shunga
is a type of Japanese erotic art typically executed as a kind of ukiyo-e, often in woodblock print format. While rare, there are also extant erotic painted handscrolls which predate ukiyo-e. Translated literally, the Japanese word ''shunga' ...
'' (erotic
woodblock prints originating in the
Edo period
The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characte ...
). While these works ostensibly depict male-male sexual relations, artist and historian
Gengoroh Tagame questions whether the historic practices of
sodomy
Sodomy () or buggery (British English) is generally anal or oral sex between people, or sexual activity between a person and a non-human animal ( bestiality), but it may also mean any non- procreative sexual activity. Originally, the term ''sod ...
and
pederasty
Pederasty or paederasty ( or ) is a sexual relationship between an adult man and a pubescent or adolescent boy. The term ''pederasty'' is primarily used to refer to historical practices of certain cultures, particularly ancient Greece and an ...
represented in these works can be considered analogous to modern conceptions of gay identity, and thus part of the artistic tradition to which contemporary gay erotic Japanese art belongs. Tagame instead considers ''
musha-e'' (warrior's pictures) to be a more direct forerunner to art styles common in gay manga: in contrast to pederastic ''shunga'', both gay manga and ''musha-e'' portray masculine men with developed muscles and thick body hair, often in cruel or violent scenarios.
1960s: Early erotic magazines
While erotic artwork was a major component of the earliest gay Japanese periodicals, notably the 1952 private circulation magazine , contemporary gay erotic art as medium in Japan traces its origins to the
fetish magazine
A fetish magazine is a type of magazine originating in the late 1940s which is devoted to sexual fetishism. The content is generally aimed at being erotic rather than pornographic.
The most well-known early examples are ''Bizarre'' (1946-1959) p ...
. Published from 1960 to 1974, ''Fuzokukitan'' included gay content alongside straight and
lesbian content, as well as articles on homosexuality. Early gay erotic artists
Tatsuji Okawa,
Sanshi Funayama,
Go Mishima and
Go Hirano
was a Japanese homoerotic fetish artist. Hirano, along with Go Mishima, Sanshi Funayama, and Tatsuji Okawa, is regarded by artist and historian Gengoroh Tagame as a central figure in the first wave of contemporary gay artists in Japan.
Biog ...
made their debuts in the magazine, alongside unauthorized reproductions of illustrations by gay Western artists such as
George Quaintance
George Quaintance (June 3, 1902 – November 8, 1957) was an American artist, famous for his "idealized, strongly homoerotic" depictions of men in mid-20th-century physique magazines.[Tom of Finland
Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized homoerotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential ...]
. ''Bara'', the first Japanese magazine aimed specifically at a gay male audience, was published in 1964 as a members only, small circulation magazine.
Gay erotic art of this period typically depicts what Tagame describes as "darkly spiritual male beauty", emphasizing a sense of sorrow and
sentimentalism. Men from "the traditional
homosocial
In sociology, homosociality means same-sex relationships that are not of a romantic or sexual nature, such as friendship, mentorship, or others. Researchers who use the concept mainly do so to explain how men uphold men's dominance in society.
...
world of Japan", such as
samurai
were the hereditary military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan from the late 12th century until their abolition in 1876. They were the well-paid retainers of the '' daimyo'' (the great feudal landholders). They h ...
and ''
yakuza
, also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the ter ...
'', appear frequently as subjects. The homoerotic photography of
Tamotsu Yatō
was a Japanese photographer and occasional actor responsible for pioneering Japanese homoerotic photography and creating iconic black-and-white images of the Japanese male.
Biography
Yato was born in Nishinomiya in 1928 as Tamotsu Takeda. He w ...
and
Kuro Haga served as a significant influence on the initial wave of gay artists that emerged in the 1960s, with very little Western influence seen in these early works.
1970s and 1980s: Genre commercialization
Erotic magazines aimed specifically at a gay male audience proliferated in the 1970s – first ''
Barazoku
was Japan's first commercially circulated gay men's magazine. It began publication in July 1971 by Daini Shobō's owner's son and editor , although before that, there had been ''Adonis'' and ''Apollo'', its extra issue, around 1960 serving as a ...
'' in 1971, followed by and in 1974 – leading to the decline of general fetish magazines like ''Fuzokukitan''. These new magazines featured gay manga as part of their editorial material; notable early serializations include by Yamaguchi Masaji () in ''Barazoku'', and ''Tough Guy'' () and ''Make Up'' (メイクアップ) by Kaidō Jin () in ''Adon''. The commercial success of these magazines resulted in the creation of
spin off publications that focused on photography and illustrations: ''Barazoku'' launched , while ''Sabu'' launched and ''Sabu Special''. Most notable was among these spin-offs was ''Barakomi'' (), a 1986 supplemental issue of ''Barazoku'' that was the first magazine to publish gay manga exclusively.
By the 1980s, gay
lifestyle magazine
Lifestyle journalism is the field of journalism that provides news and opinion, often in an entertaining tone, regarding goods and services used by consumers in their everyday life. Lifestyle journalism covers travel, fashion, fitness, leisure, fo ...
s that published articles on
gay culture
Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may also dually identify as gay, and a number of young gay men also identify as queer. Historically, gay men have been referred to by a number of different terms, including '' ...
alongside erotic material had grown in popularity: was launched by photographer Ken Tōgō, ''MLMW'' launched as a lifestyle spinoff of ''Adon'', and ''
Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
'' launched as a lifestyle magazine in 1982 before later shifting to content focused on
fat fetishism
Fat fetishism is a sexual attraction directed towards overweight or obese people due primarily to their weight and size.
A variety of fat fetishism is ''feed(er)ism'' or ''gaining'', where sexual gratification is obtained not from the fat itself ...
. Most publishers folded their spin-off and supplemental publications by the end of the decade, though gay magazines continued to publish gay artwork and manga.
The artists that emerged during this period, notably
Sadao Hasegawa
was a Japanese graphic artist known for creating homoerotic fetish art. His works are noted for their extensive detail, elaborate fantasy settings, and for their juxtaposition of elements from Japanese, Balinese, Thai, Tibetan Buddhist, Afric ...
,
Ben Kimura,
Rune Naito, and
George Takeuchi
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...
, varied widely in style and subject material. Nonetheless, their artwork was united by a tone that was generally less sorrowful than that of the artists that emerged in the 1960s, a trend Tagame attributes to the gradual decline in the belief that homosexuality was shameful or abnormal. Their work was also more overtly influenced by American and European gay culture in its subject material, with sportsmen,
jock strap
A jockstrap, also a jock (male), jill (female), strap, cup, groin guard, pelvic protector (female), supporter, or athletic supporter, is an undergarment for protecting the testes and penis or vulva during contact sports or other vigorous physic ...
s, and
leather garments appearing more frequently than ''yakuza'' and samurai. Tagame attributes this shift to the increased access of American
gay pornography
Gay pornography is the representation of sexual activity between males. Its primary goal is sexual arousal in its audience. Softcore gay pornography also exists; it at one time constituted the genre, and may be produced as beefcake pornogr ...
for use as reference material and inspiration, and the growth in popularity of
sports manga
is a genre of Japanese manga and anime that focuses on stories involving sports and other athletic and competitive pursuits. Though Japanese animated works depicting sports were released as early as the 1920s, sports manga did not emerge as a di ...
, which emphasized themes of athleticism and manliness.
1990s: ''G-men'' and aesthetic changes
The trend towards lifestyle-focused publishing continued into the 1990s, with the founding of the magazines ''
Badi'' ("Buddy") in 1994 and ''
G-men'' in 1995. Both of these magazines included editorial coverage of
gay pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...
,
club culture
Clubbing (also known as club culture, related to raving) is the activity of visiting and gathering socially at nightclubs (discotheques, discos or just clubs) and festivals. That includes socializing, listening to music, dancing, drinking alcohol ...
, and
HIV
The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immune ...
/
AIDS-related topics alongside gay manga and other erotic content. ''G-men'' was co-founded by Gengoroh Tagame, who made his debut as a gay manga artist in 1987 writing manga for ''Sabu'', and who would emerge as the most influential creator in the medium.
''G-men'' was part of a concerted effort by Tagame to "change the status quo of gay magazines"
away from the aesthetic of ''
bishōnen
(; also transliterated ) is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man of androgynous beauty. This word originated from the Tang dynas ...
'' – delicate and androgynous boys and young men that were popular in gay media at the time – and towards the depictions of masculine men that gay manga is now associated with.
The "
bear-type" aesthetic pioneered by Tagame's manga in ''G-men'' is credited with provoking a major stylistic shift in
Shinjuku Ni-chōme, the
gay neighborhood of Tokyo. Following the publication of ''G-men'', the "slender and slick" clean-shaven style popular among gay men was replaced with "stubble, beards and moustaches
..extremely short became the most common hair style and the broad muscular body, soon to evolve to chubby and outright fat, became highly fashionable."
Manga culture significantly influenced gay erotic artwork during this period, and gay manga occupied a central place in the editorial material of both ''Badi'' and ''G-men''. ''G-men'' in particular served an as incubator for up-and-coming gay manga talent, launching the careers of artists such as
Jiraiya
Jiraiya (自来也 or 児雷也, literally "Young Thunder"), originally known as Ogata Shuma Hiroyuki (尾形周馬寛行), is the toad-riding protagonist of the Japanese folk tale Katakiuchi Kidan Jiraiya Monogatari (報仇奇談自来也説話, " ...
. The magazine also encouraged steady readership by publishing serialized stories, which encouraged purchase of every issue. Conversely, ''Adon'' removed pornographic material from the magazine entirely; the move was unsuccessful and the magazine folded in 1996.
2000s – present: The decline of magazines and the rise of "''bara''"
Gay magazines declined significantly in popularity by the early 2000s, as the
personal advertisement sections that drove sales for many of these magazines were supplanted by
telephone personals and later
online dating. Nearly all of the major gay magazines folded in the subsequent two decades: ''Sabu'' in 2001, ''Barazoku'' in 2004,
''G-men'' in 2016,
and ''Badi'' in 2019.
, only ''Samson'' remains active. As magazines declined, new types of gay art emerged from contexts entirely separate from gay magazines. Pamphlets and flyers for gay events and education campaigns in Japan began to feature
vector artwork
Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...
that, while not overtly pornographic, drew on gay manga in style and form.
Art exhibition
An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhi ...
s also became as an area of expression, as new venues and spaces emerged that welcomed the display of gay erotic artwork. With a lack of viable major print alternatives, many gay manga artists began to self-publish their works as ''
dōjinshi
, also romanized as ', is the Japanese term for self-published print works, such as magazines, manga, and novels. Part of a wider category of '' doujin'' (self-published) works, ''doujinshi'' are often derivative of existing works and created ...
'' (self-published comics). Gay manga artists like
Gai Mizuki emerged as prolific creators of ''dōjinshi'', creating
slash-inspired
derivative works
In copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major copyrightable elements of an original, previously created first work (the underlying work). The derivative work becomes a second, separate work independent in fo ...
based on media properties such as ''
Attack on Titan'' and ''
Fate Zero''.
Beginning in the 2000s, gay manga began to attract an international audience through the circulation of
pirated
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
and
scanlated artwork on the internet. A scanlation of ''
Kuso Miso Technique
is a Japanese one-shot manga written and illustrated by Junichi Yamakawa. It was first published in 1987 in , a manga supplement of the gay magazine . The short story is a famous meme on the Internet (especially on Japanese Internet forum ...
'', a 1987 one-shot by originally published in ''Bara-Komi'', became infamous during this period as an
internet meme.
''Bara'' emerged among this international audience as a term to distinguish gay erotic art created by gay men for a gay male audience from ''
yaoi
''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the '' wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created ...
'', or gay erotic art created by and for women (see
Comparison to yaoi below). The circulation of these works online led to the formation of an international ''bara''
fandom
A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...
, and the emergence of non-Japanese gay erotic artists who began to draw in a "''bara'' style" that was influenced by Japanese erotic art. This period also saw the rise in popularity of ''kemono'' (, "beastmen", or
anthropomorphic characters analogous to the Western
furry subculture) as subjects in gay manga, a trend Tagame attributes to appearances by this type of character in video games and anime.
Concepts and themes
Gay manga is typically categorized based on the
body shape
Human body shape is a complex phenomenon with sophisticated detail and function. The general shape or figure of a person is defined mainly by the molding of skeletal structures, as well as the distribution of muscles and fat. Skeletal structure ...
of the characters depicted; common designations include , , , and .
While the rise of
comic anthologies has promoted longer, serialized stories, most gay manga stories are
one-shots.
BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
and non-consensual sex are common themes in gay manga,
as well as stories based on relationships structured around age, status, or power dynamics. Often, the older or more senior character uses the younger or subordinate character for sexual purposes, though some gay manga stories subvert this dynamic and show a younger, physically smaller, often
white-collar man as the dominant sexual partner to an older, larger, often
blue-collar
A blue-collar worker is a working class person who performs manual labor. Blue-collar work may involve skilled or unskilled labor. The type of work may involving manufacturing, warehousing, mining, excavation, electricity generation and powe ...
man.
As with ''
yaoi
''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the '' wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created ...
'', the
bottom
Bottom may refer to:
Anatomy and sex
* Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or dominant
* Bottom (sex), a term used by gay couples and BDSM
* Buttocks or bottom, part of th ...
in gay manga is often depicted as shy, reluctant, or unsure of his sexuality. Consequently, much of the
criticism of ''yaoi'' – misogyny, a focus on rape, the absence of a Western-style gay identity – is similarly levied against gay manga.
The majority of gay manga stories are pornographic, often focusing on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development. Though some gay manga stories include realistic depictions of gay male lives – addressing subject material such as
coming out,
gay pride
LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...
, and
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
– sex and sexuality is frequently the primary focus. Nonetheless, some gay manga stories explore
romantic,
autobiographical
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
, and
drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...
tic subject material,
and eschew depictions of sex entirely. A notable example of non-erotic gay manga is ''
My Brother's Husband
is a manga series by Gengoroh Tagame. Serialized in '' Monthly Action'' from 2014 to 2017, and adapted into a live-action television drama by NHK in 2018, the series follows the relationship between single father Yaichi, his daughter Kana, a ...
'', the first all-ages manga by Gengoroh Tagame, which focuses on themes of
homophobia, cultural difference, and family.
Media
Japanese publishing
Until the early 2000s, gay manga was published exclusively in gay general interest magazines. These magazines typically published 8 to 24 page
one-shots (standalone single chapter stories), although some magazines, notably ''G-men'', published serialized stories. Several attempts were made at creating publications dedicated exclusively to gay manga prior to the 2000s, notably ''Bara-Komi'' in 1986 and ''P-Nuts'' in 1996, though none were commercially successful.
In 2002,
boys' love
''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the ''wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created b ...
(BL) publisher Kosai Comics () released the manga anthology , a quarterly anthology featuring what the publisher termed "muscle BL" aimed at a crossover audience of ''yaoi'' and gay manga readers (see
Crossover with ''yaoi'' below). Many of the contributors to ''Kinniku-Otoko'' began their manga careers as ''dōjinshi'' creators, and most were women; over time ''Kinniku-Otoko'' came to include gay male artists, notably gay manga artist
Takeshi Matsu, who made his debut as an erotic artist in the anthology.
In 2004, ''G-men'' parent company Furukawa Shobu published a pair of manga anthologies aimed at gay men, ''Bakudan'' (published quarterly) and ''Gekidan'' (published bimonthly). Individual titles from these anthologies were collected into ''tankōbon'' under the Bakudan Comics imprint.
In 2006, boys' love publisher Aqua Comics (an imprint of ) began publishing the manga anthologies ''Nikutai Ha'' (''Muscle Aqua''), ''Oaks'', and ''G's Comics''. When collected into ''tankōbon'', these manga are issued under the same imprint as Aqua's mainstream ''yaoi'' books, and bear the same
trade dress
Trade dress is the characteristics of the visual appearance of a product or its packaging (or even the design of a building) that signify the source of the product to consumers. Trade dress is an aspect of trademark law, which is a form of intelle ...
.
Since the release of ''The Dangerous Games of Dr. Makumakuran'' by Takeshi Matsu in 2015, no additional gay manga titles have been published by Aqua.
Foreign publishing
Many Japanese publishers and creators of gay manga actively seek foreign readers,
though in lieu of official licensed translations, gay manga is often
pirated
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
and
scanlated into English.
In 2008,
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
publisher La Cúpula published an anthology of works by Jiraiya,
and manga by Gengoroh Tagame in 2010.
In 2011, the
Mexican gay magazine ''Anal Magazine'' published drawings by Gengoroh Tagame in its second issue. Works by Gengoroh Tagame have additionally been translated into French by H&O éditions.
The first gay manga to receive an officially-licensed English-language translation was ''Standing Ovations'', a one-shot by Gengoroh Tagame published in the American
erotic comics
Erotic comics are adult comics which focus substantially on nudity and sexual activity, either for their own sake or as a major story element. As such they are usually not permitted to be sold to legal minors. Like other genres of comics, they ca ...
anthology ''Thickness'' (2011–2012).
In 2012,
Digital Manga
Digital Manga is a California-based publishing company that licenses and releases Japanese manga, anime, and related merchandise in the English language.
Digital Manga also owns and operates eManga, a digital publishing site for manga and l ...
published an English-language translation of Reibun Ike's ''Hide and Seek'', a men's love series originally published by Aqua Comics.
In 2013,
PictureBox
PictureBox was an art, music, photography, and comics publishing company based in Brooklyn, New York directed by Dan Nadel. PictureBox published its own books and packages books and concepts for museums and galleries. The company began in 2002 ...
published ''The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame: Master of Gay Erotic Manga'', the first book-length work of gay manga to be published in English.
That same year,
Massive Goods was founded by
Anne Ishii and
Graham Kolbeins
Graham Kolbeins is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, and fashion designer.
Background
Kolbeins' documentary films have focused on themes of LGBTQ art and activism, including the web series ''Rad Queers'' and the documentary short film ''The House of ...
, two of the editors of ''The Passion of Gengoroh Tagame'', which creates English-language translations of gay manga and products featuring the works of gay manga artists.
In December 2014,
Fantagraphics
Fantagraphics (previously Fantagraphics Books) is an American publisher of alternative comics, classic comic strip anthologies, manga, magazines, graphic novels, and the erotic Eros Comix imprint.
History
Founding
Fantagraphics was founde ...
and Massive published ''
Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It'', the first English-language anthology of gay manga.
Co-edited by Ishii, Kolbeins, and
Chip Kidd
Charles Kidd (born 1964) is an American graphic designer known for book covers.
Early childhood
Born in Shillington in Berks County, Pennsylvania, Kidd grew up being fascinated and heavily inspired by American popular culture. Comic books ...
, ''Massive'' was nominated for an
Eisner Award for
Best Anthology.
From 2014 to 2016, German book publishing house
Bruno Gmünder Verlag published works by Tagame, Takeshi Matsu, and Mentaiko Itto in English under their "Bruno Gmünder Gay Manga" imprint.
[
]
Other media
In contrast to hentai and ''yaoi
''Yaoi'' (; ja, やおい ), also known by the '' wasei-eigo'' construction and its abbreviation , is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created ...
'', which are regularly adapted from manga to original video animations (OVAs) and ongoing animated series, there have been no anime
is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...
adaptations of gay manga. This can be owed to the significant financial costs associated with producing animation relative to the niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
audience of gay manga, as well as the absence of gay manga magazines
This is a list of manga magazines or published in Japan. The majority of manga magazines are categorized into one of five demographics, which correspond to the age and gender of their readership:
* '' Kodomo'' – aimed at young children.
* '' ...
producing serialized content that would lend itself to episodic adaptation. Despite this, the increased presence of objectified masculine bodies as fan service in anime beginning in the 2010s has been cited as an example of gay manga's influence on mainstream anime, as in series such as ''All Out!!
''All Out!!'' (stylized as ''ALL OUT!!'') is a Japanese manga series written by Shiori Amase. It was serialized in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Morning Two'' from November 2012 to February 2020, with its chapter collected in ...
'', '' Free!'', and ''Golden Kamuy
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Satoru Noda. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Young Jump'' from August 2014 to April 2022, with its chapters collected in thirty-one ''tankōbon'' volumes. The s ...
''.
Comparison to ''yaoi''
Distinction from ''yaoi''
is an additional manga genre that focuses on gay male romance and sex. The genre is a distinct category from gay manga, having originated in the 1970s as an offshoot of ''shōjo'' manga that was inspired by ''Barazoku'' and European cinema. ''Yaoi'' has historically been created primarily by women for a primarily female audience, and typically features ''bishōnen
(; also transliterated ) is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth (boy)" and describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man of androgynous beauty. This word originated from the Tang dynas ...
'' who often do not self-identify as gay or bisexual. The genre is often framed as a form of escapist fiction, depicting sex that is free of the patriarchal trappings of heterosexual pornography; ''yaoi'' can therefore be understood as a primarily feminist phenomenon, whereas gay manga is an expression of gay male identity. Gay manga does not aim to recreate heteronormative gender roles, as ''yaoi'' does with ''seme'' and ''uke'' dynamics.
Crossover with ''yaoi''
The early 2000s saw a degree of overlap between ''yaoi'' and gay manga in BDSM
BDSM is a variety of often erotic practices or roleplaying involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics. Given the wide range of practices, some of which may be engaged ...
-themed publications. The ''yaoi'' BDSM anthology magazine had several male contributors, while several female ''yaoi'' authors have contributed stories to BDSM-themed gay manga anthologies or special issues, occasionally under male pen names. Concurrently, several ''yaoi'' publishers commissioned works featuring masculine men, aimed at appealing to an audience of both gay manga and ''yaoi'' readers (see Japanese publishing above). Gengoroh Tagame argues that these crossover publications represent the movement of ''yaoi'' away from aestheticism
Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be pro ...
and towards the commercialization of male-male sexuality for a female market.
The late 2010s and onwards have seen the increasing popularity of masculine men in ''yaoi'', with growing emphasis on stories featuring larger and more muscular bodies, older characters, and ''seme'' and ''uke'' characters of physically comparable sizes. A 2017 survey by ''yaoi'' publisher Juné Manga found that while over 80% of their readership previously preferred ''bishōnen'' body types exclusively, 65% now enjoy both ''bishōnen'' and muscular body types. Critics and commentators have noted that this shift in preferences among ''yaoi'' readers, and subsequent creation of works that feature characteristics of both ''yaoi'' and gay manga, represents a blurring of the distinctions between the genres; anthropologist Thomas Baudinette notes in his fieldwork that gay men in Japan "saw no need to sharply disassociate BL from ''gei komi'' when discussing their consumption of 'gay media'."
See also
*
*
*
* Billy Herrington, American pornographic film actor and subject of the "Gachimuchi Pants Wrestling" internet meme
* LGBT themes in comics
In comics, LGBT themes are a relatively new concept, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes and characters were historically omitted from the content of comic books and their comic strip predecessors due to anti-gay censorship ...
* Pornography in Japan
Pornography in Japan has unique characteristics that readily distinguish it from western pornography. Pornographic films are known as "adult videos" (AV) in Japan, so Japanese adult videos are "JAV", referring to the Japanese pornographic f ...
References
Citations
General and cited references
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bara (Genre)
Anime and manga genres
Anime and manga terminology
Bear (gay culture)
Gay art
Gay male erotica
Gay male pornographic comics
Gay masculinity
Hentai
Japanese sex terms
LGBT slang
LGBT in anime and manga
LGBT terminology
Male homosexuality
Seinen manga