The term yaoi emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of dōjinshi ( 同人誌, self-published works) culture as a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi ('no climax, no point, no meaning'), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. 'aesthete' or 'aesthetic'), and June ( ジュネ, ). Several terms were used for the new genre, including shōnen-ai ( 少年愛, lit. The genre originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of shōjo manga, or comics for girls. While ' yaoi' is commonly used in the west as an umbrella term for Japanese-influenced media with male-male relationships, 'boys' love' and 'BL' are the generic terms for this kind of media in Japan and much of Asia.

Yaoi spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works.

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 yaoi does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. Yaoi ( / ˈ j aʊ i/ YOW-ee Japanese: やおい ), also known as boys' love ( ボーイズラブ, bōizu rabu) and its abbreviation BL ( ビーエル, bīeru), is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. The svelte, semi- androgynous physical features of the characters are typical of bishōnen (literally 'beautiful boys') common in yaoi media.

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