Home-Grown Boys' Love from Yaoi Press

This story originally appeared in PW Comics Week on June 6, 2006 Sign up now!

by Chris Arrant, PW Comics Week -- Publishers Weekly, 6/6/2006

As manga continues to grow in popularity in the U.S., so does the category's many trends and subgenres. And one of the fastest-growing manga subgenres is yaoi, also referred to as boys' love—a very popular category in Japan that offers stories about impossibly beautiful men in love with other men. Created mostly by women manga-kas (artist/writers) for a female audience, yaoi has been popular in Japan since at least the 1970s and is fast gaining a foothold among female American manga fans.

In a still-developing U.S. yaoi market that is dominated by licensed Japanese titles, there's an American publisher specializing in producing original material. Founded in 2004, Las Vegas's Yaoi Press specializes in original English-language yaoi; that is, manga that has not been licensed, imported and reprinted from Asia, as is standard for manga in the U.S. market. Contemporary yaoi has a reputation for erotic content, and so far most of Yaoi Press's material is labeled for "mature readers"—readers 16 and above—but the publisher plans to publish yaoi titles aimed at younger teens as well.

In its first releases, Kingdom of Selfish Love and Pinned, Yaoi Press shows an awareness of the standards of Japanese yaoi without being beholden to them. "I have a passion for this genre and I saw that there was currently no large publisher of original English-language yaoi," says Yaoi founder and managing editor Yamila Abraham. "I saw very talented people producing manga outside of Japan and Korea with no venue for their work."

"The yaoi genre is one of the fastest growing in the manga industry and Yaoi Press is at the forefront," says Bill Schanes, Diamond Distributors' v-p of purchasing. Yaoi Press has released 12 books so far; the most popular title is 2005's Saihôshi the Guardian by the Spanish studio Kôsen, a medieval tale centered on a prince who becomes enamored with his military escort and attempts to win his affections. The first print run sold out in little over a month and a followup volume is scheduled for the fall.

Coming in July is Stallion. While not directly inspired by the movie Brokeback Mountain, the book, like the film, is a western story of a homosexual relationship. Stallion tells two men, a cowboy and a Native American, united by their hatred of a third. Their kindred bond turns into romance while they pursue revenge.

While there has been some discussion among yaoi fans and publishers about the similarities between yaoi and Brokeback Mountain, there is a distinct difference. The crux of Brokeback Mountain was the characters' acceptance of their sexuality. But the stories in yaoi generally focus on the romantic relationship between the central characters to the exclusion of any societal issues or cultural stigmas that could also be pertinent to their relationship. The readership of yaoi is primarily women and young women, both in Japan and America. "The audience is women aged 16 to 50," says Abraham. "Most readers are women in their early 20s."

As manga continues to permeate American culture, so does yaoi. In addition to Yaoi Press, there are some 10 other publishers regularly releasing yaoi and yaoi-related titles, among them Viz, Tokyopop, Digital Manga and Central Park Media's Be Beautiful imprint. More than 60 yaoi anime titles are available on DVD in the U.S. and two videogames have also been released. With a big annual convention, YaoiCon, and programming at nearly all major anime and manga conventions, yaoi looks to be a vibrant and enduring addition to the wider American market for manga and comics.

"I remember not too many years ago when all the yaoi books available in English could be counted on one hand," says Abraham. "I'm thrilled to see that there are so many new books available to yaoi fans."