“Yowie!”: The Stateside appeal of boy-meets-boy YAOI comics

A few weeks ago over 1,500 fans of Japanese comics and animation gathered in San Mateo, California. This wasn’t the typical assembly of otaku, however, and the works that they came together to celebrate were not your standard illustration fare.

This was YAOI-Con, a gathering for fans of comics that deal specifically with male-male romance stories.

But YAOI-Con isn’t your typical gay comics event. Some would even argue that YAOI, which originated in Japan as comics aimed at female readers, shouldn’t even be considered gay despite the same-sex themes and growing popularity among gay male readers in the States and abroad.

Having grown from the Japanese comics industry’s desire to cater to a growing female fan base, YAOI is a complicated topic at best, and downright confusing to many. Even the term YAOI (usually pronounced “yowie” here in the States) itself, used to describe these boy-meets-boy comics, doesn’t have a clear source. One theory is that YAOI is an abbreviation for a Japanese catchphrase that translates into “No peak, no point, no problem” (meaning, “no story, just the good parts”). But a common joke is that YAOI refers to a phrase that translates as “Stop! My ass hurts!”

YAOI isn’t even the only term used to describe these comics. “Boys’ Love” (or BL) is also popular, while shounen-ai (Japanese for boys’ love) and Juné are also used to describe the genre. There have been attempts to give the various terms specific, differentiated meanings (YAOI has been used to specify more sexually explicit comics, with BL referring to the more innocent romances), but no taxonomy has been consistently used long enough to become fully established.

While YAOI stories vary greatly by genre (spanning quirky comedy, action, science fiction, fantasy and period stories), tales of high school love are most common. Characters usually follow the bishounen (beautiful boy) aesthetic of tall, slender and pretty men – a sharp contrast to the muscled hunks that Americans are accustomed to seeing as the sexually idealized male. As androgynous men are popular with YAOI audiences, it’s not uncommon for one of the romantic partners to be a feminine-looking young man.