Merge Shounen-ai and Yaoi into Boys Love (Shoujo-ai and Yuri to Girls Love)

If it helps:
From the comic I wrote on the topic because I've run into so many people who don't understand these things that I had to actually make an educational comic on the topic.

 

And no, I dont think there is a need to change anything.
For one, every other website already use shounen ai and yaoi saperately.
Bakaupdates, bakatsuki, and every other websites.
Theyre already too wellknown in the otaku english comunity.
Changing things will just makes it awkward for the new users who is already used to these genres. For when they want to search for that specific genres.
If there is nothing broken, why fix it?

 

The entire point of this thread is that it's broken, and that's why we're trying to fix it. Context!! BL on NU is a mess! It doesn't work here the same way as Manga Updates etc. See previous posts for context.

 

Wow! This is really well done!

 

How does it differ for danmei?

 

Anyways, I feel like I should be saying something because I'm actually translating a Shounen Ai right now. Originally, I've been secretly hoping that I'd be able to attract more non-BL reading people into reading Lord and Dragon, because it's quite light on the shounen ai and is mostly just fluffy moe that could be a really light intro for beginners to the genre. ...it's probably a hopeless assumption though.........

Anyhow, if yaoi and shounen ai got merged, I get the impression that non-BL reading people would be even less likely to get their toes wet into the mega combined genre.... but I'm probably just imagining a non-existent fictional demographic of almost-BL reading people in the first place...

I can totally understand the frustration that everyone has about people not being able to distinguish between the two. As an active translator who watches NU/NUF, I'm usually able to manage the tags/genres on my own project fairly well, but it must totally be a hassle for the mods and everyone else to clean up all the time, so I'm on board with merging them too for practical reasons!

Is there a "pure/innocent romance" （纯爱） tag/genre on NU at all? That may end up being what I gravitate to if the genres are combined, because that's what my shounen ai novel is tagged with in the first place on jjwxc.

 

Well yess.
If Im fine with light yaoi or shounen ai.. and then I search this new boy's love genre and everything hardcore just pops up along with my search, I will just paint them all with the same paint and exclude them all.. since even without the R18 tag, there wont be any guarenty that it wont be something hardcore.. it doesnt have to have sex scene for it to be hardcore either.

 

Thank you!

There's "Cute Story", which is useful to a degree.

See, this is the problem that's currently happening. Everyone's mislabeling shounen ai as yaoi, or mislabeling yaoi as shounen ai, or most commonly, labeling any kind of gay romance as both yaoi and shounen ai. Lesbian novels are just as bad, every single one gets labeled yuri. I've long since given up trusting the tags on NU. They're useless because they're so misused.

Now see, if we got a BL tag, all you'd need to do is search "yes BL no Mature" and you're all good. Everyone knows what Mature means, so everyone would label correctly. It's the same search process for you except this time it actually works.

 

Not everyone will know they need to exclude mature.
if its a huge search, everything mature will get excluded with it.. which people wont do mostly.
I know theres many that exclude yaoi out of the batt for their novel search.. and with this new BL genre, everything shounen ai will get excluded along with it.
Its not about finding, its more about excluding.
I think the saperation works just fine..
Do you have any problem when you search for these "gay" novels or when you want to find em with the current genres? I dont think so..
If anything, this will only serve just to group everything light into everything heavy and have people exclude em all togather..

 

The shoujo ai/yuri distinction has all but disappeared in the western yuri/GL community, and I'm less involved in BL but it seems to me that it's been fading there as well for the past 10 years. Databases like mangaupdates are probably the only reason the distinction still exists, and it exists there out of tradition more than actual usefulness.

I don't see any value in preserving a fading tradition purely for the sake of tradition (that includes "it will take time for people to adapt to the change"), it's best to let the old usage die, it serves no practical purpose now.

 

I don't understand. Have you read this thread? I think we're arguing over completely different things. There are so many issues that renders the current two tags useless. I don't know how to explain in more ways than already said the context of the situation. All I can say is read the thread.

Correct! I wasn't quite sure how to express the specifics of all the terms in the limited space. I guess indie is a good word for it. Indie/fan comics? Or just indie? Can indie comics also be fan comics? I'll look into changing it tomorrow.

 

Hmm. That's kinda why I went with "fan comics", since technically "fan" can refer to "BL fan" or "action adventure fan" or such, using "fan" to imply that they are still slightly more of a consumer than a creator at the moment, though I didn't know if that'd be pushing how much I could imply in one word. Should I keep as is, or go with "Indie/fan comic"?

 

Please do make the change!

*wants to make replies to some posts*
*Remy-chan already addressed them*

Yeah, there isn't much of a reason to keep the distinction.

 

WTF? Wuxia is a subset of Martial arts. Ranma 1/2 is Martial Arts - but not Wuxia in the slightest.

 

Disagree.

Shounen ai and Yaoi are two different genres. You might as well merge Josei and Shoujo.

~ Edit:

I read all the arguments but I still think that the definitions are solid. Just people are improperly using the genres. The novels just need to be cleaned up.

I still use the Shounen Ai search when I want something lighter and fluffier.

Fewer genres = Fewer choices = Worse Reader experience

In fact, I was just reading something and the Chinese have a lot of specific tags that are so funny yet at the same time totally usable. Like the "face-slapping" tag. I used it to find face-slapping stories...