Is everyone here, even the anon, a secret fujoshi/fudanshi? Because I am. I'm hardcore and...

I'm the same as you ,I started reading yaoi about 4 years ago and there was a time when I was naive enough to think at least my older sister will be fine with it since we were close so I wanted to tell my her but we were watching this movie and there was this gay guy and she commented about how gays are abnormal and I was kinda shocked by her reaction I didn't think she would think that so I kept it a secret 'till today , but I really like yaoi so I don't care about their opinion .( I read yaoi everyday too )

Same! But only a few people know that I'm like this. Not even my current friends. I'm planning to bring this a secret from my parents down to my grave. I don't think it's going to work well once they know.

Have you read Onward! Maiden Road? It's not exactly yaoi but it features a fujoshi's fantasies. Haha

I haven't read that. But I'll try it out!

I´m in a similar situation. I´ve been a hardcore fujoshi for years, but haven´t actually told anyone. My family and friends only now that I´m kind of an otaku, but since there don´t care for manga/anime, they have no idea what I´m actually reading.
My best friend kinda knows, but the stuff I showed here was pretty vanilla, mostly shonen-ai.
I actually told my brother, when we watched southpark..the TweekxCraig episode. That just caught me off guard and I couldn´t hold back!

I think I got into yaoi about a year ago and it all started with mere curiosity. I had watched the Anthony Bordain episode on CNN about Japan and they briefly discussed the popularity of it among hetero Japanese girls. I didn't think much of it, I mean I had always watched anime, but had never really cared to venture into the ero side of it all. I got more into romance themed manga after reading the Kare Kano manga, and continued to watch more romcom shoujo.

But after awhile shoujo becomes too repetitive with plot. I would look at top 10's for shoujo and I had already read all of them. Then I saw the same creator (YouTube's MistyxChronexua I think) made a top 10 yaoi anime. I watch Sekaii ichi Hatsukoi first, then I watched Juniou Romatica. I had stopped there for a long time.

I then returned to reading and watching shoujo shows, but I felt they lacked something, I had kinda gotten sick of reading 100+ chapters or watch 15+ episodes for two characters to realize "huh, we both like each other." I looked at the Junjou Romantica manga, and was shocked at first. I though they would visualize the sex scenes like they had in the anime. I grew accustomed slowly, and started going through certain manga websites most popular yaoi manga. Now it's one of my favorite genres.

I don't think anyone in my family knows about it, or my friends. Some of my friends are into anime (but like mainstream normal stuff like Ghibli) so we sometimes joke about it. However, I now sort of see nothing wrong with what I'm doing. I'm human and instead of watching porn or hentai (which is 99.9% of the time targeted towards men and makes me really uncomfortable) I read a genre directed towards me. ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

Lastly, I think yaoi has a lot to offer as a genre in general. Though they focus on the more sexual elements of a relationship, they dive into the psychological elements of them as well in ways that I don't think hetero shoujo, josei and smut manga can. For example, my favorite mangaka is Nakamura Asumiko. Her works go from fluff, to the most fucked up things I have ever read. Yet, her stories always have a bittersweet undertone to them I can't find anywhere else.

Sorry I wrote so much I feel like I've held onto these thoughts for a while and haven't had anyone to tell them too. Word vomit bleh.(●￣(ｴ)￣●)

Everyone has their own story. Yours is interesting, tbh. I truly think that yes, some shoujo does take too long and too much dragging just for the main characters to say they "like" each other. Although yaoi is basically about sex and they basically fall in love in the first chapter, I actually find myself enjoying that more than all the dragging. I guess it's just easier to get it over with instead of having, like you said, 100+ chapters just to have them say I like you. Sure there's a lot of drama somewhere in the middle and it's all good for certain people who like that, but to me, it gets boring. (Ex: kimi ni todoke. I got so bored watching the anime, I can't even imagine even reading the manga which is full of black and white and even more dull than the full colored anime. No offense to people who love it though, I just think it's boring). Granted, there are some shoujo manga with that same concept and plot that I do love a lot, but I only read shoujo sometimes so I wouldn't know what's good or what's bad about a shoujo. People from the outside probably see us as sex craved girls only reading yaoi for the sex, but nah, I enjoy a good plot with it. If the plot is bad, the sex is also bad. Just my thoughts lol and I agree, there's definitely more to a yaoi story than the sexual contents.

lol Kimi ni Todoke. Yeah I watched the anime and it's funny at times, but the focus was innocent love of youth or something along those lines (I mean they don't even kiss at the end of the anime). I think shows like that are refreshing after reading something intense, like Harada (like a palette cleanser you know?). I still rank Kare Kano as my favorite anime and manga however, despite being a shoujo/josei. It's really cheesy, but still had something nostalgic about it, and is somehow really relatable. Maybe it's because everything that happens in the anime is something I wouldn't expect from a show like that. I recommend it, it's made by gainax, they same studio that made Neon Genesis Evangelion. Josei is an interesting genre that I would recommend exploring if you have the time. Josei is like the quinceañera of shoujo manga, because it's target audience is adult women. It explores more of the adult elements of relationships (like sex). I mean some famous anime/manga fall under this like Nana and Paradise Kiss. However if you're into yaoi for the guy part, josei may not be your thing. I think yaoi is interesting for me because I have two cute guys to cheer for instead of one.

Some other recommendations I have (some are popular so you might have read them already) are..

http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/smells_like_green_spirit/
I read this one more recently and I don't think it's over yet, but it's updated to point where one of the archs are done. You might have read it because it is fairly popular. I just like some of the yaoi's where they have an actual gay character, it's refreshing. Also the title references Nirvana I think which is cute.

http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/crystal_palace/
Crystal palace is pretty unique, I haven't read any other yaoi with a setting like this. It does explore incest though so if you're not okay with that, I would probably leave it only bookshelf for another time.

http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_inheritance_of_aroma/
Okay this is really popular as well so you've probably read it, but if you haven't you should definitely read it. I mention Nakamura Asumiko earlier for her works being fucked up, and this one is one of them. It explores incest as well so be cautious. ( I recommend all Asumiko works btw Doukyussei and its spin offs are fluffy and have a recently well done anime movie that I would recommend you check out)


http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/nirameba_koi/
cutecutecute

thank you for the recommendation! I've read one of the 4 and have two on my want to read list. I'll check the first one out.