shounen-ai and shoujo-ai genres [DONE]

[yidaki]

shounen-ai and shoujo-ai genres are needed.
confusing friendly relationships between people of the same sex with sexual encounters between people of the same sex cant be good.
Prince of Tennis and Saiyuki are shounen-ai, but they dont go around licking eachothers ears and whatnot, so they are not yaoi.
Sure, they arent marked as yaoi either, but there are two genres where there are mainly men and mainly women (Sailor Moon and similar series are shoujo-ai for instance)

that reminds me, why is yaoi listed but not yuri?
i have seen lesbian hentais *proud*

yeah, "shounen" and "shoujo" are listed as genres, but thats a different matter. i mean, a shoujo series is most often a shounen-ai series, girls likes to watch guys be intimate with their emotions and stuff like that. and similar the other way, but unfortunately, shoujo-ai are for a mixed targetgroup, both girls and guys watch animes where there are mainly women being friendly to eachother.

i guess i should stop before i confuse myself any further...

[wahaha]

(Didn't watch Saiyuki, but) I think PoT is a bad example. The best I can see there is admiration from a minor male character towards another minor male character. Everything else is far from "ai".

The big question is: How many shoujo-ai and how many shounen-ai-series are there? (Not just series containing such as a sidestory or even parodies.)

[yidaki]

PoT is shounen-ai, no doubt. there's like two relationships between a guy and a girl, between the main character's father and the main character's trainer and between the main character himself and the girl who is interested in him. other then that there are like a hundred different constellations of guys who have feelings for eachother (brothers, trainers, friends, etc), and not only that, they share their feelings, they talk to eachother about problems and issues.

I dont know if there are alot of these series, but I kinda like them.
Here's a few shounen-ai that i can think of without looking for them:
Saiyuki (three series by now)
Weiss Kreuz (some series and some ovas)
Prince of Tennis (a series, potential movie(?))
Angel Sanctuary
Yami no Matsuei
Dear Boys

I cant think of that many shoujo-ai, but I guess Bubblegum Crisis makes a bunch of series, and then Sailor Moon ofcourse, and the Burn Up series, hmm, i dont know, i dont watch too many of these

There's probably more shounen-ai animes then "cars" animes (hehe, not many series in that category )

[Skywalka]

I am pretty confused now.

Could somebody give a definition of shounen-ai and shoujo-ai please or link to it (I can't find the Anime FAQ on the net at the moment).

I don't have an opinion but I just don't want to run around and maybe someday state something about shounen-/shoujo-ai that is wrong.

Thx in advance.

[ninjamask]

shounen-/shoujo-ai: romantic relationship
yaoi/yuri: sexual relationship

[wahaha]

PoT is shounen-ai, no doubt. there's like two relationships between a guy and a girl, between the main character's father and the main character's trainer and between the main character himself and the girl who is interested in him.

That is neither shounen-ai nor shoujo-ai.

Shounen-ai (from shounen: boy, and ai: love), refers to anime or manga that deals with love between teenage boys or young men, especially of the bishounen variety. Shounen-ai is usually thought of as less explicit or sexual than yaoi.

Shounen-ai is very popular in Japan, especially among schoolgirls and housewives, and is often to be found as part of shoujo anime or manga.

The term 'Shounen-ai' is no longer in use in Japan today. One may use 'Boy's Love' (BL) instead.

other then that there are like a hundred different constellations of guys who have feelings for eachother (brothers, trainers, friends, etc), and not only that, they share their feelings, they talk to eachother about problems and issues.

IMO, saying it's shounen/shoujo-ai already at the point were two boys/girls are (good) friends is way to wide.
If you want to draw a line between yaoi/yuri and shounen/shoujo-ai (and it's not even clear that they're not used synonymous in Japanese), I'd at least not set it below "love".
I'd use the following classification:
- Ecchi(/hentai) gay/lesbian relationship/romance -> yaoi/yuri
- Love, strong affection or light romance between boys or girls-> shoujo/shounen-ai

[yidaki]

ai = love (of any kind)
koi = love (of the romantic kind)

brothers love eachother, friends love eachother, lovers love eachother.

but in comparison to yaoi, one doesnt have to be intimate physically to love someone, but in comparison to shounen-ai one doesnt have to feel anything for the person you are physically intimate with either. so there is a clear difference between yaoi and shounen-ai, even though they are most often together if yaoi is present, but alot of the time, shounen-ai can stand alone in an anime

[yidaki]

PoT is shounen-ai, no doubt. there's like two relationships between a guy and a girl, between the main character's father and the main character's trainer and between the main character himself and the girl who is interested in him.

That is neither shounen-ai nor shoujo-ai.

[/quote]those were the only two examples speaking for that it isnt a shounen-ai, compared to all the rest (considering there are only boys in the entire series)
i wasnt saying that two relationships are alot, i was saying they are way too few to say that it isnt a shounen-ai series.

[wahaha]

Err... do you really want every anime with (at least) two boys or girls in it who are good friends marked "shounen-ai" or "shoujo-ai"?
I start to believe this is part of a plan to have Naruto and DB marked gay...

[kidan]

I bet NGE would get this label as well, if you think of 'homo-boy' *ehem* Kaoru. I think this genre is not 'that' useful.

[Skywalka]

I talked to my brother who has already seen PoT up to the last episode made available.

He said that there are enough girls around and that there are in no way only boys. Additionally those boys/guys admire each other and that is the most that happens. There is no "love" between any of them.

Hell I admire wahaha for his patience and skills as a moderator on this forum, that does not mean that I love him. Yidaki my brother said you should really readjust your perception of gay love. I guess you go nuts everytime some guy looks at you funny on the bus

No honestly, shounen-ai is something where at least one male character thinks in really plushy ways about another male character. That's the minimum. I myself don't really think that love is needed for something to be shounen-ai (it should be enough that one guy wants to **** another guy I guess - you know guys, they don't always love everything they want to have sex with) but usually shounen-ai is made for girls who simply want to read about good looking guys falling desperately in love. Something that will never happen in real life and therefor those girls love shounen-ai so much ^_^

Talk about dreamland.

I hope no gal shounen-ai lover read this or I am in for a bad spanking.

(that doesn't mean I am into S&M ^___^)

[Gambit]

Yaoi / Shounen-Ai : Mostly used by anime/manga lovers to tease someone else. Literally yaoi means 'gay sex'. When there isn`t any sex involved, just 'love' or 'attachment' you speak of shounen ai which freely translates as 'love amongst boys'.

http://animereactor.ath.cx/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1010

Well, I guess that explains it quite decently. Shounen-Ai is a gay relationship without sex. And I suppose to mark an anime as Shounen-Ai, the main character has to be involved in that relationship, which would be the case for Gravitation I think - but other than that I can`t think of any other series. Even Angel Sanctuary wouldn`t apply - although the manga does.
Weiss Kreuz (I`ve seen Gluhen) is more a shoujo series than shounen-ai. They are created as perfect, sexy men but afaik none of them really have a relationship with other men (or perhaps 1 of them has, but even that is just slightly mentioned). So no, that one doesn`t even counts as Shounen-Ai, imo.

other then that there are like a hundred different constellations of guys who have feelings for eachother (brothers, trainers, friends, etc), and not only that, they share their feelings, they talk to eachother about problems and issues.

Uh ... talking with your friends about problems is already considered Shounen-Ai? Respecting someone or considering someone a really good friend doesn`t mean they are also in love with each other, y`know.

@wahaha - yaoi/yuri is only used to indicate sexual intercourse and is always explicit in showing the sexual scenes. So you might say that yaoi/yuri is a subgenre of hentai.

[fahrenheit]

you have got quite a discussion running here =P

but anyway just adding my 2 cents,

just like gambit said, the only anime that i can think of that the male character likes men and actively dates them (hmm something like that) is gravitation ova, wich is yaoi, other series like X, although they kiss and lick a lot men and stuff, isn't actually yaoi because the male character likes girls (or also likes girls), so it's more of a atraction to girls watch the anime than anything else (we like lesbian stuff they like gay stuff ) labeling that Shounen-Ai at best.

If you go for yaoi and yuri categories i supose the criteria should be the fact the main character likes and dates (?) actively characters of the same sex (men-men, women-women, men-men-women, women-women-men, for cute bissexual characters ), so i guess it would be a small group.

[ninjamask]

utena is shoujo-ai