can anyone explain to me why there's stuff tagged as shounen ai/smut?

brilly brilly May 8, 2024 12:40 am

like, i know plenty of people have already pointed out that 'shounen ai' as a category doesn't really exist in japan and is just code for p*dos to talk about their love for little boys
but here in The West a lot of people insist on using it as a distinct category from regular yaoi, and i Thought the premise for that was that so called shounen ai wouldn't have sex in it
so
how come there's stuff tagged as shonen ai And smut? like genuinely i want to know, is there a secret second made-up meaning of shounen ai i'm not aware of?

Responses
    SageTheSeasoning May 8, 2024 12:54 am

    if something is tagged with shounen ai and smut, then it's a love story between two men with sex scenes. if something is just tagged yaoi, then there's sex scenes, but not necessarily any romance

    pyscho.simp May 8, 2024 12:59 am

    don't think theres too much diff but the one who are tagged with both yaoi and shounen ai tend to be bc there may be less sex scenes, and those with just yaoi tend to be heavier on the sex scenes. The ones that are then tagged with like yaoi and smut/mature are very heavy on the sex lol. Apart from that I don't think it's due to anth like the plot or the trope or sth.

    jjk enthusiast May 8, 2024 1:03 am

    well originally the label didn’t separate, the origin is really ill, however westerns have taken it and rebranded it ( or smth i guess kmfoaaa ) and made it to where it is meant to represent things that aren’t included with nsfw, however, it CAN include nsfw. labels r so sillay bc technically yaoi is outdated but people still use it, its just like how yaoi can be a sfw romance too. it genuinely doesn’t matter in the end

    Aise May 8, 2024 1:17 am

    Sometimes on the first season of the stories there were no sex scenes and only in the second season or the side story that they were hence it was tags as both. Especially for KR manhwa where the smut scene are only make after the characters turns into adult and if it start in a highschool settings. From my observation at least

    Gravenshi May 8, 2024 1:21 am

    The word litterally comes from Japan... You think Westerners go ahead messing around with words they bearly understand? The West calls everything "BL".

    jjk enthusiast May 8, 2024 1:22 am
    well originally the label didn’t separate, the origin is really ill, however westerns have taken it and rebranded it ( or smth i guess kmfoaaa ) and made it to where it is meant to represent things that aren�... jjk enthusiast

    god i feel like a complete nerd rn this was my topic in like 2021 on yaoi fujo’s shounen ai etc LMFAAOO i kept getting into arguments w ppl for misusing the term and i had every link to back me up on it but now. no one knows IM SICK

    jjk enthusiast May 8, 2024 1:27 am
    The word litterally comes from Japan... You think Westerners go ahead messing around with words they bearly understand? The West calls everything "BL". Gravenshi

    well yes and yes……….there is a heavy tendency to separate by what has sex and what doesn’t, hence different labels constantly being used to market what’s sfw and what’s nsfw. it’s all BL but there’s absolutely no doubt that the labels are used to categorize things even if it isn’t correct

    brilly brilly May 8, 2024 1:39 am
    The word litterally comes from Japan... You think Westerners go ahead messing around with words they bearly understand? The West calls everything "BL". Gravenshi

    are you kidding lmao
    people constantly misuse japanese terms? like Constantly, you just need to see how many adult action series are tagged as 'shounen' even tho 'shounen' is by definition 'boys series' and there's a separate action tag

    brilly brilly May 8, 2024 1:40 am
    Sometimes on the first season of the stories there were no sex scenes and only in the second season or the side story that they were hence it was tags as both. Especially for KR manhwa where the smut scene are ... Aise

    this is pretty helpful, thanks for the insight!

    Gravenshi May 8, 2024 8:32 pm
    are you kidding lmaopeople constantly misuse japanese terms? like Constantly, you just need to see how many adult action series are tagged as 'shounen' even tho 'shounen' is by definition 'boys series' and ther... brilly brilly

    Who misuse them? The issue with the genre is sometimes conflicted with the magazine or publisher/editor. So, I don't know why you ask me if I'm kidding. I'm not.