Broken Frontier

So, what is shounen-ai and why would I devote an entire article on a Japanese sub-genre which has a relatively small presence in the Western manga scene?

To answer any of these questions in an intelligent manner, we first need to look at the bigger picture. Whilst manga sales have declined in Japan, it still holds a substantial sway over the whole publishing world, with manga books and magazines contributing a massive one third of all books sold in Japan.

Whilst there is a common perception in the Western market that manga has a set visual characteristic and delivery, there is a depth and breadth to the market that is just as rich in styles and topics as the American comics world; from the big companies to the small, self-published affairs.

The most common manga to be translated into English for the mass market has been for a long time shonen manga. High adventure tales set in apocalyptic worlds like Akira, to the plethora of trading-card manga like Pokemon or Card Captor Sakura, whose target audience were teenage boys. Just dig out an old Manga Entertainment video and watch the extremely cheesy adverts with the emphasis on the all-action, all-beat-em-up, high-octane thrill nature of the titles they produced. Even a cursory glance at the titles on offer in those early days said it all, Fist of The North Star, The Guyver, and Dominion Tank Police.

As the market matured and developed, the desire for manga and anime with more substance was the ever increasing quest of the manga fan, sadly not provided by the then limited producers of translated materials. There were the occasional gems that eclipsed the rest but these were few and far between. Since those early days, the industry has come along in leaps and bounds, with the relative newcomer of Toykopop leading the way into new territory with their bold market strategies and an introduction of titles that were not the norm.

Just as shonen is manga with a target audience of boys, shojo’s target audience is girls. This is Manga and anime that features strong female leads or situations that would be more attractive to a female reader, with the emphasis on relationships, whether born from romance or just a strong friendship, such as the hugely successful Sailormoon. That is not to say that all shojo manga is romantic or wishy-washy, far from it and as with most classifications of genres, the lines can blur and be stories enjoyed by both sexes. What is interesting to note is that the majority of the creators are female and shojo sells just as well in Japan as shonen.

Ok, so now we know the difference between shonen and shojo. What is shounen-ai and where does it fit in? Literally translated from the Japanese, shounen-ai is a sub-genre of shojo manga meaning Boy’s Love. Stories written about relationships between men, both in a romantic sense, and in a day-to-day sense; it is a genre aimed at women by women creators. Virtually all shounen-ai artists are women, exploring themes of forbidden passions and impossible situations; the primary thrust of these stories is the complexities of the interrelation and kinship between the two protagonists.

Fake by Sanami Matoh, was the first shounen-ai title to be released by Tokyopop, which has just recently concluded in its seventh volume, rapidly followed by Gravitation. Considering it is their first foray into shounen-ai, they have enjoyed moderate success and they are not alone, with A18 Publishing announcing the creation of an imprint called Be Beautiful, which will bring further shounen-ai and yaoi titles to the west. Yaoi has a more complex affiliation with shounen-ai. Whilst it is common in the West for shounen-ai to be the more gentle approach and yaoi the explicit version, the divisions in Japan are not quite so black and white. Yaoi was originally a doujinshi movement, on a variation of the Boy’s Love theme and as with most doujinshi, featured popular characters from manga and anime, such as the Final Fantasy men. As it grew in popularity, the larger firms took notice of the success of these smaller mangaka and now Biblos is the largest publisher of shounen-ai and yaoi titles in Japan , where you can walk into the equivalent of a supermarket or newsagents and pick shounen-ai titles up off the shelves.

Should we all be running scared for the hills, or is there something worth exploring here? Taking a case in point, let’s take a closer look at Fake. Fake is a story of two New York cops who are partnered together and as their friendship flowers throughout the issues, so do their feelings for each other. Dee is the confident, smart and predatory guy given the job of looking after Ryo, his new partner, after raising the ire of the police chief once too often. Ryo is a soft-spoken straight and narrow kind of guy, who is naively unaware of Dee ’s more than obvious advances. Joining the fray are two strays, which Ryo in his kind-hearted way takes under his wing; Bikky, a rough and ready kid from the streets and Carol, a young pickpocket turned around by Ryo.

Interwoven amongst the everyday police stories that is the main framework of the book are the stolen moments of romance between Ryo and Dee, who has his eye on Ryo from the word go. Madcap humour from Carol and Bikky, who always seem on hand to thwart Dee’s advances, mean that Dee never seems to get his ‘moment’ alone with Ryo but in the background, Ryo is discovering feelings within himself that he wasn’t expecting and certainly isn’t sure of how to deal with.

As with most shounen-ai, Dee and Ryo are two impossibly beautiful men caught in this delicate dance of manners and emotions that the writer sweeps you up into and teases you along with the occasional splash of elegantly arranged flowers in the background. Unlike most heterosexual romance novels, you can quite often find a much more balanced approach to the bond between the two main characters, although not all shounen-ai is like this, of course there are exceptions, bringing diversity to a field that flourishes. Fake certainly benefits from one of these equal relationships and there is a lot of humour to lighten the mood on some of the more serious aspects of the topic.

One of the great things that amused me when reading Fake was the fact that all the other police officers in Dee ’s precinct were perfectly fine with Dee ’s sexual persuasion. Somehow I can’t see that being the case in a real New York precinct. The simple acceptance of things as they are, with no such implications of aberrant behaviour or deviancy, as can be ascribed to such relationships by people who don’t approve, whether because of their religious convictions or just by their nature disliking same sex relationships. This of course would not be the sort of book they would read but for those willing to have a more unique slice of Japanese culture, and enjoy a romance story without the soppy element, shounen-ai is a great read, and a lot of fun.

- Immelda Alty