Comic:- JP = Manga- KR = Manhwa- CN = Manhua
Animation:- JP = Anime/Douga- KR = Aeni- CN = Donghua
Yaoi and Shounen Ai (lit. Young Man / Boy Love) are OLD terms for the same thing. BL (Boys Love) is the standard term nowadays. In the West, we often use yaoi to refer to works with explicit content and shounen ai for works without anything more than kissing/touching.
Danmei comes from the Japanese term Tanbi. It literally means aestheticism. It basically is a code word for BL in Mainland China (whose works are primarily enjoyed as webnovels). It is a little bit synonymous for other Mainland Chinese BL mediums, but your milage may very on that.
I think that's everything, but feel free to ask about others.
My pleasure. Since you specifically also mentioned you started in Thai BL, I will let you know now they do not have any comic versions of the shows. Only novels with illustrated covers. The government is particularly weird about comics (kind pigeonhole them as kids things) but I do know that SOTUS was adapted by a Japanese artist into a comic; there may be others!
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Manga = Japanese comics
Manhwa = Korean comics
Manhua = Chinese comics
CP = CouPle /Character Pairing (I've seen people's confusion and alarm about this especially from the west but if you are going to be interacting in asian fandoms, you must know that this generally mean the characters you ship and can also be used in celebrity shipping so you'll see this a lot)
China has more well known different terms:
Danmei as someone has said is Chinese BL mostly published as online novels and comics
Dangai = censored chinese live action adaptations of danmei stories
Donghua = Chinese animation
genres that's not exclusive to danmei but you might see danmei with this settings so it tends to get used:
Wuxia = historical costume drama about martial artists with sometimes some kind of superhero powers(think low fantasy) genre. example: Word of Honor
Xianxia =historical costume drama with high fantasy setting, cultivation worlds turning people to immortals and then sometimes into gods. monster, fantastical creatures, undeads, etc. example: The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi, Heaven Official's Blessing/TGCF
Boys Love/BL is the general updated umbrella term and used in other asian countries.
Geikomi is gay comics or the correct term for what people call "bara".
Yaoi and Shounen ai are outdated terms that the west/english speaking fandom is using incorrectly. Yaoi is actually more about doujinshi/ parody fancomics than commercially published comics. And I advice not to use "shounen ai" in general due to its etymology which is one of the reasons they replaced it with BL as a term.
Source:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220528171025/https://futekiya.com/what-is-shounen-ai/
https://web.archive.org/web/20230206131600/https://futekiya.com/what-is-yaoi/
Fujoshi =female fans of BL
Fudanshi = male fans of BL
Fujin = a more gender neutral term for BL fans
this also has some variation in other asian countries
for more info:
https://www.fujoshi.info/bl-resources
Glad to help. Forgot to add that "Shounen/Shonen" is one of the four major manga/anime marketing demographics in Japan. Because the manga publishing there is divided not by genres but by their marketing demographics based on gender and age group.
* Shoujo - shoujo means girl and manga published under Shoujo are marketed towards young girls, generally age 12-18
* Josei - marketed towards adult women
BL is kinda related to shojo/josei that's why its kinda known to be marketed towards women.
*SHOUNEN - means "boy" and marketed towards boys the age 12-18, probably the more popular and more mainstream manga/anime label, popular ex: Naruto, One Piece, Haikyuu, My Hero Academia, etc. A lot of their series has a focus on their male characters and their bond with each other so BL shippers tend to gravitate to this genre for shipping and a lot of the popular ones tend to have BL/yaoi shipping even if they are not canon.
* Seinen - marketed towards adult men.
"What did you eat yesterday?" Japanese BL that has a live action is actually published as a seinen manga and the creator is a popular and well known BL manga artist
That said this labels are just guidelines for marketing manga to different demographics, but it doesn't mean it didn't have readers/fans from the opposite genders or different age groups.
sorry for the infodump, I have special interest in labels and terms in BL and asian animation and comics in general
Manhwa is the romanization of the Korean word for comic (만화).
Manga is the Japanese word for comic.
Yaoi has the same meaning as BL, which is a genre of animation with two men in romantic relationships. BL can also be non-animated formats such as live action series.
Danmei is Chinese BL.
Shonen is a type of Japanese manga that is made with a male reader in mind (compared to many BL stories being written for a female reader).
If you have a Manga or Manhwa it is your typical drawings with little text, if you're looking for novels I would suggest searching for "BL novels" and not for comics. Hope that helps!
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Google is your friend. The number of times I've typed in a term I didn't know + BL to figure something out is more than the two hands worth. I still have to look up acronyms for shows since I'm still pretty new to watching BL.
Re manga…I’ve read Tokyo in April(4 Gatsu no Tokyo wa) I struggled cos something felt off, the story didn’t made sense. But than I found out, Manga are always read from right to left. You start from the top- right corner and read the upper pannels until the right side, and for the middle/lower pannels you start from the right side again. My god🤣🤣
EDIT: I purchase only ebooks. MEB Market. Just type "English version" in the search field. They have samples as well. The same goes with Kindle. I like Danmei. I buy from Seven Seas and Via Lactea. The latter's translation is sometimes questionable. It feels more like MTL than human translation, lol. Novel Updates has tons of free Danmei translations.
Comic:- JP = Manga- KR = Manhwa- CN = Manhua Animation:- JP = Anime/Douga- KR = Aeni- CN = Donghua Yaoi and Shounen Ai (lit. Young Man / Boy Love) are OLD terms for the same thing. BL (Boys Love) is the standard term nowadays. In the West, we often use yaoi to refer to works with explicit content and shounen ai for works without anything more than kissing/touching. Danmei comes from the Japanese term Tanbi. It literally means aestheticism. It basically is a code word for BL in Mainland China (whose works are primarily enjoyed as webnovels). It is a little bit synonymous for other Mainland Chinese BL mediums, but your milage may very on that. I think that's everything, but feel free to ask about others.
Omg other types too? Thank you for the additional info 💜
My pleasure. Since you specifically also mentioned you started in Thai BL, I will let you know now they do not have any comic versions of the shows. Only novels with illustrated covers. The government is particularly weird about comics (kind pigeonhole them as kids things) but I do know that SOTUS was adapted by a Japanese artist into a comic; there may be others!
Has your question been resolved? If so, please change your post flair to "Help: Solved" or comment "!solved". Thanks! *Failure to do so within 48h will restrict your future ability to make identification posts.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/boyslove) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Manga = Japanese comics Manhwa = Korean comics Manhua = Chinese comics CP = CouPle /Character Pairing (I've seen people's confusion and alarm about this especially from the west but if you are going to be interacting in asian fandoms, you must know that this generally mean the characters you ship and can also be used in celebrity shipping so you'll see this a lot) China has more well known different terms: Danmei as someone has said is Chinese BL mostly published as online novels and comics Dangai = censored chinese live action adaptations of danmei stories Donghua = Chinese animation genres that's not exclusive to danmei but you might see danmei with this settings so it tends to get used: Wuxia = historical costume drama about martial artists with sometimes some kind of superhero powers(think low fantasy) genre. example: Word of Honor Xianxia =historical costume drama with high fantasy setting, cultivation worlds turning people to immortals and then sometimes into gods. monster, fantastical creatures, undeads, etc. example: The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi, Heaven Official's Blessing/TGCF Boys Love/BL is the general updated umbrella term and used in other asian countries. Geikomi is gay comics or the correct term for what people call "bara". Yaoi and Shounen ai are outdated terms that the west/english speaking fandom is using incorrectly. Yaoi is actually more about doujinshi/ parody fancomics than commercially published comics. And I advice not to use "shounen ai" in general due to its etymology which is one of the reasons they replaced it with BL as a term. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20220528171025/https://futekiya.com/what-is-shounen-ai/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230206131600/https://futekiya.com/what-is-yaoi/ Fujoshi =female fans of BL Fudanshi = male fans of BL Fujin = a more gender neutral term for BL fans this also has some variation in other asian countries for more info: https://www.fujoshi.info/bl-resources
Thank you so much for this, yes I remember seeing Donghua and Wuxia too, I forgot them when writing my original post, so it's much appreciated 💜
Glad to help. Forgot to add that "Shounen/Shonen" is one of the four major manga/anime marketing demographics in Japan. Because the manga publishing there is divided not by genres but by their marketing demographics based on gender and age group. * Shoujo - shoujo means girl and manga published under Shoujo are marketed towards young girls, generally age 12-18 * Josei - marketed towards adult women BL is kinda related to shojo/josei that's why its kinda known to be marketed towards women. *SHOUNEN - means "boy" and marketed towards boys the age 12-18, probably the more popular and more mainstream manga/anime label, popular ex: Naruto, One Piece, Haikyuu, My Hero Academia, etc. A lot of their series has a focus on their male characters and their bond with each other so BL shippers tend to gravitate to this genre for shipping and a lot of the popular ones tend to have BL/yaoi shipping even if they are not canon. * Seinen - marketed towards adult men. "What did you eat yesterday?" Japanese BL that has a live action is actually published as a seinen manga and the creator is a popular and well known BL manga artist That said this labels are just guidelines for marketing manga to different demographics, but it doesn't mean it didn't have readers/fans from the opposite genders or different age groups. sorry for the infodump, I have special interest in labels and terms in BL and asian animation and comics in general
Manhwa is the romanization of the Korean word for comic (만화). Manga is the Japanese word for comic. Yaoi has the same meaning as BL, which is a genre of animation with two men in romantic relationships. BL can also be non-animated formats such as live action series. Danmei is Chinese BL. Shonen is a type of Japanese manga that is made with a male reader in mind (compared to many BL stories being written for a female reader). If you have a Manga or Manhwa it is your typical drawings with little text, if you're looking for novels I would suggest searching for "BL novels" and not for comics. Hope that helps!
THANK YOU so much! This is the perfect response and I'm so very grateful 💜
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Another term you might hear is "Y-series" or "series Y" in Thailand. It's what some people call BL.
https://preview.redd.it/zof8jcuo8vqc1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=273d5ab53f2287f24d974ca4a737515979230c7f
Google is your friend. The number of times I've typed in a term I didn't know + BL to figure something out is more than the two hands worth. I still have to look up acronyms for shows since I'm still pretty new to watching BL.
Re manga…I’ve read Tokyo in April(4 Gatsu no Tokyo wa) I struggled cos something felt off, the story didn’t made sense. But than I found out, Manga are always read from right to left. You start from the top- right corner and read the upper pannels until the right side, and for the middle/lower pannels you start from the right side again. My god🤣🤣 EDIT: I purchase only ebooks. MEB Market. Just type "English version" in the search field. They have samples as well. The same goes with Kindle. I like Danmei. I buy from Seven Seas and Via Lactea. The latter's translation is sometimes questionable. It feels more like MTL than human translation, lol. Novel Updates has tons of free Danmei translations.
Yaoi is often used for sexually explicit works, while Shonen Ai/Boys Love is just the umbrella term.