- Compiled by Jeanne Johnson
Welcome, newbie
So here you are, with an interest in m/m of the Japanese variety. Maybe you're panting for more leads- what to read, what to look at, what's hot, what's not. Maybe you're confused by the plethora of yaoi manga in the Cybershoppe. Maybe you're bewildered by the many many couplings in the many many anime series that are reflected in the Fanfic Archive. Maybe you want some guides to good yaoi manga - or at any rate hot yaoi manga. Maybe you want to look at some of these anime guys you've been reading about. What's Hiei like when he's at home? (Hint: he's not Kurama's perennial rape victim.) Are there really indications of incest and rape in Ranma? (Answer: not a hope.) Are Kouji and Izumi really that weird about each other? (Answer: yes, in spades.)
Where to begin?
We'd suggest beginning with the yaoi FAQ, that will give you the basic terminology and introduce you to some of the basic series which have inspired Japanese and western yaoi.
After that, there's this, compiled by the AMLa members. Faves and raves among the manga and anime. The fans of pure sex-for-the-sake-of-sex are rather underrepresented, in this Editor's humble opinion. That may be because people take for granted those two sources of pure (well, not pure, but you know what I mean) yaoi: BeBoy Gold (a quarterly magazine) and BeBoy Zips (story anthologies).¡@ Both publications carry 'yomikiri' (one-shot manga stories) while BeBoy Gold also has installments of continuing series; and together they provide as concentrated a dosage of humping, pumping, and legs in the air as anyone is likely to need. After getting their rocks off with BeBoy Gold, people can go back to the more refined pleasures of the delicate UST (unresolved sexual tension) in Kouga Yun's Earthian, or to the possibility of sex happening between two supposedly straight adolescent killers in Gundam Wing.
For the un-Japanesed, note that there are few English translations of the manga available. Sorry, it goes with the territory. On a happier note, even the Japanese literate are wont to avoid the text and just look at the pretty pictures. Anime has better luck, thanks almost wholly to the efforts of fansubbers.
For help with the anime, there are web sources. The Anime Web Turnpike is one of the basic ones. Look under "links" section of this site to go there, if you don't have that site bookmarked. The turnpike covers a zillion series: it takes time to scroll through the alphabetized lists to the ones you want, but it's worth it. For a faster look-through, go to the Shoujo Anime Guide (also linked to this webpage) which takes you to susano-oh's webpage, where many anime series are listed and summarized alphabetically by Vincent Ho and a staff of devoted fans. Unfortunately the list is now a few years out of date, so more recent releases aren't listed.
Info on manga isn't as centralized, especially yaoi manga. But there's a large overlap between manga and anime which can help fill the gap. Most anime series are based on a manga; and with a few exceptions (Ai no Kusabi, Arislan Senki) so are the OVAs (Original video anime.) Anime webpages on, say, Earthian, will tell you pretty much all you need to know about the manga as well. For other, unaimated manga (e.g. Yumi Kaori's Angel Sanctuary), try searching on the title- or use the very informative links from our own homepage.
Series with a * next to them have been reviewed on our own Animanga Shelf or have its own informational section in the manga link. ¡@ Additional inputs for this list will be updated as they come.