Honestly idk if anybody will see this but I’m just here to explain it.
BL is the official name of the category. BL are works that feature the love between boys whether smut or fluff. Smut means stories with sex scenes and fluff means stories without sex scenes or implied sex scenes. The works can be straight up smut or a long story with an intricate plot; they’re all considered BL.
Here’s the part where most people get confused.
Yaoi and Shounen Ai are outdated terms. Yaoi was originally a term used in Japan to categorize doujinshi. They were basically stories that weren’t original and only contained smut. The meaning behind Yaoi is Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (ヤマなし、オチなし、意味なし?) "No climax, no point, no meaning".
Many mangakas didn’t like that and how the word described their works. BL mangakas like to refer to their works as BL.
Shounen Ai literally translates to “loving young boys” and is often viewed as a bad word in Japan. Yes on this website it means stories without smut but in reality the word itself refers to pedophilia. Some might be confused because Shotcan is also pedophilia. But both terms are considered just as bad in Japan.
I’m sure that most people want their BL works to be referred to as BL. It doesn’t matter if there’s smut or not. You can just refer it to a smutty BL or a fluffy BL.
This is pretty common in Japan. However because the west has westernized the terms so much, ppl get confused. Westerners took the terms and did whatever they wanted with it and now that it’s been popularized, many people don’t understand that the words are actually very outdated.
So if you’ve read this far, congrats! You learned something new today :)
