BL/Yaoi Dictionary
This page is continuously growing as I learn more about yaoi & BL.
Stay tuned for further updates.
While BL has grown to be a pretty non-shocking hobby to have, I find that there is still a lot to discover as a Westerner. This year (2024), I've taken it upon myself to educate myself on the genre within the Japanese context. Increasingly, I have found that we English-speakers are only scratching the surface of useful vocabulary through which we can fully experience the joys of men explicitly loving each other.
My goal here is to share some vocabulary so you can understand the Japanese side of BL and yaoi. All in good fun and in a way that can hopefully, legitimately help some Japanese study. Will hopefully grow as I learn more.
basics
- Yaoi
- An acronym coming from "ヤマなし、オチなし、意味なし"・YAma-nashi, Ochi-nashi, Imi-nashi. This meaning "no climax, no punchline, no point". I think of it as roughly "porn without plot" but specifically for sexual relationships between men.
These days, I don't really see people using yaoi as a term. BL is more popular. For instance, the section of the bookstore is going to be labeled "BL" not "yaoi".
You might also see it as ヤオイ or 801 (eight can be read as "ya", zero as "Oh", and one as "i"). - BL
- Boys Love. In my mind (and in Japan, from my understanding), BL is the overall category while shonen ai (love between young boys) and yaoi (sexually explicit BL) are sub-genres within that category.
A pretty key point of BL is that it is NOT typically created for a homosexual male audience (although of course those readers exist), but for a distinctly female audience. Most of that audience doesn't seem particularly interested in real gay men but the idea of fantasy gay men. More on this some day... - Fujoshi・腐女子
- Fu・腐 means "rotten" and joshi・女子 means "girl". A girl who is into BL. I get the image of loving something so much it rots your brain like candy to your teeth.
If you are inclined to hide your fujo ways from your community, you might be a namare fujoshi・訛れ腐女子 (Namare meaning "hidden").Notes
Some other sub-types of fujo can be the following (a lot of incoming 腐 puns):
■ Fudanshi・腐男子 = boy version of a fujoshi (danshi・男子 meaning "boy")
■ Fujin・腐人 = pun of 夫人 or "wife" - a married woman who is into BL on the side
■ Fushichou/Phoenix・腐死鳥 = pun of 不死鳥 or "phoenix" - The ultimate, final level of being a fujoshi (self-deprecating)Some other fun puns using "腐”:
■ "o-fuse"・お腐施 (originally charity・お布施 but with 腐, becomes "buying BL stuff for myself to make myself happy")
■ "fukyou"・腐教 (originally evangelizing・布教 but with 腐, becomes "evangelizing my pairing and bl in general to people like a religion")
■ "filter"・腐ィルター (originally filter・フィルター but with 腐, becomes "the filter that makes everything BL" ie "yaoi goggles") - seme・攻め
- The boy who tops. The word せめ means an attack. In a non-explicit context, it could be the character who confesses or initiates the relationship.
- uke・受け
- The boy who bottoms. The word うけ means defense or to receive.
In a non-explicit context, it could be the character who receives the feelings or confession, rather than the confessor. - coupling・
カップリング - The pairing. Shortened to "CP". Couplings are stylized with the character names split with an "x" rather than the "/" of English fandom (eg: NarutoxSasuke). You also see the same name combination abreviations like in English (eg: SasuNaru).
Notes
■ In Japan, the order in which a couple is displayed is indicative of who tops and who bottoms. The first/left character is the seme and the second/right character is the uke. For example, if a doujinshi is labeled "SasukexNaruto", Sasuke will be topping. If it's "NarutoxSasuke", then Naruto is topping. This can be a very contentious area, so tread carefully and speak even more so.
■ FYI, for yuri/lesbian pairings, the top is often referred to as "tachi"・タチ and the bottom as "neko"・ネコ. The same order nomenclature stated above applies. - doujinshi・同人誌
- Self-published printed works. In the west, we tend to think of it as fan comics of existing works, but apparently it includes basically anything self-published, including original content. The "doujin"・同人 part means literally "same person" and refers to groups of people with similar interests (like a fandom for instance). The "shi"・誌 part means "document" like in "zasshi"・雑誌 or "magazine". Personally, I'll likely use "doujin" or "doujinshi" in the Western sense, referring to printed fanworks.
You can buy doujin comics and fiction in person at comic conventions or used at anime secondhand stores in Japan (like Mandarake or Tora no Ana). The organization in these stores is a mess and deserves its own article. My one tip is this: the smaller ones are usually novels or fanfictions. The larger ones are usually comics. You can't open them in store, so be prepared to face some surprises.
sources
- June・ジュネ
- June (pronounced ju-nay, not like the month) is a BL magazine that ran from the late 70s to the 90s and is often credited for putting BL on the map.
Check out my collection of June issues and learn more here: June Scans - Chil-Chil・ちるちる
- Chil-Chil.net is a Japanese-language BL content aggregate, review site and news source. Works are clearly labeled with seme/uke roles, artists, circles, voice actors and tagged with helpful labels such as what kind of sex scene, if any, and general content tags. The often lengthy reviews are taken very seriously and often include notes on the content, drawing style, voice acting, overall impressions, and whether they would recommend it.
The articles section of the site includes news of manga or drama cds releases, live events and concerts, comic conventions, and my favorite: the "Real" section where you can find discussions on "real gay" content like "How do men actually have anal sex?" or "what are the different kinds of male orgasms?". The purpose of those articles seems to be to assist the reader in writing or drawing more BL rather than actual information on the lives of gay people. I would love to translate some of these. - Pixiv
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Pixiv.net is the premier Japanese-language art sharing site. This is the best source (to my knowledge) of BL art without the grim backdrop of a social media site. Pros: you can find most anything. You can often find whole doujins and huge albums of sketches. There's a variety of different art styles. Cons: you can't sort by popularity on the free version, so you are FREQUENTLY assaulted with full uncensored fetisthes if you do something innocent like search for a series with female characters in it. However you can get around this:
Whacha gotta do is find at least ONE decent picture. Try to turn off your brain until you can find at least one. From there, go to the recommended art. That will get you in the right lane for the most part. Also be sure to check the artist's bookmarks to see if they've also found some good art.
character types, tropes, tags etc.
Under Construction
- nonke
- Nonke is a straight person, but specifically said from within the gay community. I feel like there's no immediate English translation (but think of the pope using "frociaggine" and everyone being "hmmm, that's a word only a GAY person would know!"). You could also think of it like "a friend of Dorothy's" or something along those lines. Anyway, if a guy insists he's nonke, it's pretty suspicious.
- gyakukapu・逆カプ
- Referring to the shocking situation where the top and bottom of the pairing is the opposite of what you expect. This happens quite a bit in the doujin/manga world because the books are sealed in plastic at the store. You have to make a judgement on not only the contents but the pairing based solely on the vibe of the cover.
These days, you see stores and creators utilize at least some basic tags on the back cover or packaging to indicate pairing, who tops/bottoms and other general tags like "gore" or whatever. - supadari・スパダリ
- Shortened from "super darling". A "high spec" guy. Strong stats in looks, social status, personality, income, etc.
other useful words
- Namamono・ナマモノ/nmmn
- RPS (Real People Shipping). Examples might include musicians, actors, youtubers, seiyu etc. While considered a bit of a thing-you-should-hide in Japan same as in the west, I remember being pretty shocked at the HUGE amount of Arashi and SMAP doujins when I first when to the Ikebukuro Mandarake.
Further, I would like to point out that Murakami Maki, the artist and creator of Gravitation, got her start with B'z doujins. She also made extremely explicit doujins of her Gravitation guys. - Danshoku・男色
- Danshoku is a kind of historical phrase referring to a homosexual relationship between two men. Dan・男 is man and shoku・色, which a Japanese-learner might recognize as "color" but, in this case, has a sexual nuance like in iroke・色気 (sexual attraction) or iromachi・色町 (red light district). You can see a lot of historical examples of danshoku. I consider it like the pederasty situations in ancient Greece: more a relationship between an adult man and an adolescent and not aligned with what modern people consider a "gay relationship" per se.
- kikumon・菊門
- Euphemism for the anus and anal sex. Kiku・菊 is chrysanthemum and chrysanthemum is a euphemism for the anus. I imagine that might be due to a visual similarity. And mon・もん is "gate" and, funnily enough, a counter for cannons. I have a pretty fantastic visual of a cannon slamming into a chryanthemum. But, in truth, I think "chrysanthemum gate" proably aligns more effectivelty with butthole.
Notes on Chrysanthemum Symbolism
Chrysanthemum or 菊 as a euphemism for the anus goes back to the Edo period, where I gather having gay intercourse was somewhat of a fad due to kabuki etc. Apparently there were different quality levels of 'kikumon' as if it's like.. different qualities of beef or something. Of course, chrysanthemums are symbolic to Japan in other, non-erotic ways; namely, symbolizing long life and good health. There is a chrysanthemum festival held every ninth of September where people drink chrysanthemum tea, etc for longevity. Fujos have co-opted this holiday as a bonus yaoi day (anal sex day?).
Regardless, I'm happy that BL gets a flower in the same way that yuri does. I propose that pride parades should have floats with lilies and chrysanthemums.
Some sources: