What is Shounen Ai?
1.
Shounen-ai is an obsolete term. Shounen-ai refers to stories about strong relationships between pubescent or pre-pubescent boys. The stories featured angsty, poetic, platonic or romantic relationships. It is used only to point to shoujo manga written in the 70's and early 80's by authors such as Hagio Moto, Takemiya Keiko, etc. (Titles such as Gymnasium in November, Heart of Thomas, and Song of Wind and Trees.) Shounen-ai is no longer written, ceased to exist as a sub-category of shoujo long ago, and this term has long since fallen into disuse. Later stories with male/male sexual relationships are termed
Shounen-ai is NOT the same term as
The current common usage of shounen-ai in Japan is to refer to adults who like young boys (i.e. pedophiles).
Why are Americans always so misinformed?
2.
Bunneah was half right, but the prepubesent boys genre is refurred to as Syouta (Shota to American fans)
Shounenai, like Tanbi, is no longer written. It was replaced by BL (Boys' Love) which are much more likely to have happy endings & have less drama.
Japanese girls will litteraly roll their eyes at you if they hear you say shounenai ai instead of BL.
3.
A genre for manga and anime, as well as fanfiction. Means 'boy's love'. Tends to be about boy's love but not necessarily about boy's sex and emphasizes the emotions over the sex.
Holly writes mostly shonen ai stories since she's never written a lemon (sex scene).
