Underage Sex and Romance in Japanese Homoerotic Manga and Anime
| Date | 01 June 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0964663909103623 |
| Published date | 01 June 2009 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
UNDERAGE SEX AND
ROMANCE IN JAPANESE
HOMOEROTIC MANGA
AND ANIME
ALEARDO ZANGHELLINI
Macquarie University, Australia
ABSTRACT
This article discusses a genre of Japanese cartoons and comics known as yaoi or BL
(‘Boys Love’) and produced by female artists for essentially female audiences. The
subject matter of yaoi/BL works is romantic and sexual relationships between males.
Often these works depict homoerotic relationships involving underage people, and
as such they are liable to being censored on the basis of legal provisions restricting
the circulation and consumption of ‘child pornography’ as defined in some western
countries. After identifying the reasons for the social and legal acceptability of
yaoi/BL in Japan, the article discusses its vulnerability to censorship in Australia and
Canada. It then goes on to examine the distinctive features of the yaoi/BL genre and
its value as a form of speech, particularly in light of the fundamental questions it raises
in relation to our self-conception as sexual beings. Lastly, after arguing that the harm-
fulness of yaoi/BL is very much open to debate, the article concludes by casting doubt
on the desirability of restricting the circulation of yaoi/BL material.
KEY WORDS
anime; BL; censorship; child pornography; manga; same-sex relationships;
shounen-ai; yaoi
INTRODUCTION
YAOI IS a Japanese genre of anime (cartoons), manga (comics), dojinshi
(self-published manga), videogames, and fan art (artwork by the fan
base of manga, anime, etc.), much of which is available online. It is
SOCIAL &LEGAL STUDIES © The Author(s), 2009
Reprints and Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
0964 6639, Vol. 18(2), 159–177
DOI: 10.1177/0964663909103623
an acronym for the Japanese ‘Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi’ which roughly
translates as ‘No build-up, no foreclosure, and no meaning’ (Kinsella, 1998:
301). The acronym has also generated a backronym:1‘Yamete! Oshiri ga itai!’,
whose English translation ‘Stop! My ass hurts!’ (McLelland, 2006/2007)
provides an inkling of yaoi’s subject matter.
Yaoi is related to BL (‘Boys Love’, also known as shounen-ai): the two
distinctive features of these genres is that they focus on love between males
and that they are created by female artists for a predominantly female audience
(the standard explanation for this being that ‘in the context . . . of restrictions
on behavior and development that women experience . . . young female fans
feel more able to imagine and depict idealized strong free characters if they
are male’ (Kinsella, 1998: 302; see also McLelland, 2005)). Indeed, anecdotal
evidence suggests that yaoi/BL is not particularly popular among, and is
sometimes positively disliked by, Japanese gay men, who feel that it provides
distorted representations of male same-sex relationships (McLelland, 2000).
‘Yaoi’ and ‘BL’ are sometimes used interchangeably by western audiences
to designate a single genre, but a distinction can be drawn, among other
things, on the basis that the former tends to be more sexually explicit. Taken
together, yaoi and BL cover not only man–man, but also boy–boy, and man–
boy love. Indeed, the prevalence of underage characters in yaoi/BL work,
coupled with its erotic and even sexually explicit subject matter, makes
yaoi/BL work a possible (and indeed obvious) target for censorship in some
western countries.
This article starts with a socio-legal discussion explaining how the genre
came to be largely focused on underage characters and why this has not, on
the whole, resulted in censorship in Japan. It goes on to outline, and expose
some of the shortcomings of, the laws of Australia and Canada that could be
used to curtail the availability of yaoi/BL work. After clarifying the stylistic
and narrative conventions of the genre, the article concludes by elaborating
on the value of yaoi/BL work, rasing questions about the appropriateness of
limiting its availability.
YAOI/BL IN JAPAN
In a socio-legal discussion of yaoi/BL, two questions are likely to come to
the fore, at least for many western readers. First, why the prevalence of
underage characters? And second, given that this prevalence is coupled with
erotic or sexually explicit content, how does yaoi/BL manage to escape legal
proscription in Japan?
Japan does have its own obscenity laws: in particular, Article 175 of the
Criminal Code criminalizes the sale and distribution of obscene material.
Like many western legal systems, Japan also has a constitutional provision
protecting freedom of expression: according to Article 21 of the Constitution,
‘No censorship shall be maintained’ (Beer, 1984: 336). The basic principles
for resolving the tension between protecting free speech and curbing the
160 SOCIAL & LEGAL STUDIES 18(2)
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