Post originally by Michael Hopcroft at 2004-04-17 01:10:18
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I hope you got your terms right. "yaoi" is a term used to describe manga, anime, and fanfiction which features explicit sex between male characters. ("Yuri" is the lesiban equivalent.) HeartQuest 9both editions) does refer to "shonen-ai" and "shoujo-ai", stories about same-sex relationship that don't follow the characters in the bedroom.

To provide a clear example of the distinction, "Fake" is, i understand 9not having seen it, a "Yaoi" series, while the Touya-Yukito subplot if "Card Captor Sakura" is an example of a "shonen-ai" story.

I am continually running into your owmen at SF convention who insisit that, for example, the entire male cast of "Gundam Wing" is gay. Which i don't understand completely, since I thought that part of the point of making a character desirable in a story was so that the audience would fantasize about the characters interacting with THEM.

For the record, I am a great believer in canon couples when it comes to writing and reading anime fanfiction. For example, I can;t imagine a story about "Slayers" in which Lina is involved with anyone other than Gourry working. The one exception si that I've read some really good E+T (Eriol/Tomoyo) fanfics in CCS fandom, but usually those stories take a great deal of trouble to explain how such a thing could come about 9and most CCS fans I know abhor Kaho with a passoion reserved for most fallen dictators).