It needs even more qualifiers: Only some communities of western fans used the terms that way. Even in the US, starting when gay manga first started being translated, safe-for-work BL with no sex at all was always called yaoi.
I have read some yaoi and/or shonen-ai mangas out of curiosity and honestly if there is an interesting plot I don't mind it too much but is not my cup of tea
So this reminds me of a YouTube account who posts BL and Bromance on various anime. She had made a post about something similar about this as well. I can’t find the post, I feel like she deleted her account so yeah.
I might have said this before here, but I consider BL as an umbrella term for all manga/anime/novels showing a relationship between 2 men. So technically both shounen-ai and Yaoi are BL. As for which out of the two I like more, it changes depending on my mood. As a true fujo, I love all forms of BL! (as long as it isn’t non con ofc)
i am actually pretty curious Shounen ai and yaoi is Japanese term, right? How about the Korean, Chinese, Thailand version? Is there any seniors here can give me light?
i understand the urge to ignore this kind of thing, it's like potato potato (diff accent thingy, hope you get it) i also have some things that i tend to ignore since they are somewhat similar but my pride as fujoshi can't help it... it you say you are fujoshi/fudanshi and take BL as your sun and air (this make us sound like plants LOLOLOL, life and death?) then you should know!!!! those are the basics, the tip of iceberg, water surface, etc but i also didn't go wreck havoc, i will just correct them since these type of things tend to confuse general people
lmao me too. the only difference is the smut range to me. yaoi and shonen-ai's both bl (gheyyyyy) but yaoi can go the smut fest route, shonen-ai's usually just teasing/softcore stuff/no pr0ns. I LIKE EM ALL