Yaoi — Japanese comics featuring romance and/or sex between men — is currently one of the most popular genres of manga in the U.S. Non-fans are often baffled by the popularity of yaoi with female readers, especially teenage girls. But fans love yaoi as romance, as drama, and as fantasy fodder. Whence comes this girly fascination with male homoeroticism? Our own Shaenon K. Garrity has been holding forth on the subject all week. Monday, she took us on a tour of the history of yaoi; Tuesday, she investigated the appeal of the genre itself; yesterday, she looked at the sexual contents of some of the books. Today, a recommended reading list … after the break!

All of these titles are available in licensed English translation.

A, A’
Moto Hagio
Sexual Content: Mild

Currently out of print, this is one of the few manga available in English from the great 1970s shojo creator Moto Hagio. A,A’ (pronounced “A, A Prime”) is a trilogy of science-fiction stories set in the same futuristic universe. The central character, a young telekinetic named Mori, falls in love with a girl of the genetically-engineered “Unicorn” race. Years later, Mori meets and falls for another Unicorn — but this one is a man. Hagio uses their relationship to explore gender-bending, emotional repression, and what it means to fall in love.

From Eroica with Love
Yasuko Aoike
Sexual Content: Mild

For over three decades, NATO officer Major Klaus von Eberbach has pursued flamboyant art thief Earl Dorian Red Gloria, a.k.a. Eroica, through the pages of Aoike’s gloriously silly manga. Half globetrotting thriller, half campy sex comedy — albeit with little to no actual sex — Eroica is unique among manga. Eroica, with his huge head of blond curls, is based physically on Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, a testament to the brief period in the 1970s when manga had a countercultural rock-and-roll sensibility.

Banana Fish
Akimi Yoshida
Sexual Content: Moderate

Eiji, a Japanese reporter sent to New York for a story on street crime, becomes entangled in the messy life of Ash, a young gang leader and former rent boy whose pretty face conceals a brilliant strategic mind. Ash is searching for the meaning of his brother’s final words, “banana fish,” which lead him not to the Salinger story but into a web of criminal intrigue. Along the way, Ash and Eiji develop a relationship that still has fans weeping twenty years later. Drawn in a gritty, unromantic style, Banana Fish is far from a typical yaoi, but it remains one of the most beloved manga in Japan.

Earthian
Yun Kouga
Sexual Content: Mild

Two male angels are stationed on Earth to observe humanity: one is charged with tallying “pluses,” the other “minuses,” and the results will determine whether the angelic race allows humans to live or die. In the process, they fall in love, which is forbidden for their kind. Modern readers may find Earthian agonizingly slow and downbeat, but this introspective supernatural love story is one of the classics of 1980s shonen-ai. Kouga’s current series Loveless, set in a world where people are born with catlike ears and tails that disappear when they lose their virginity, is another popular BL manga.

Tokyo Babylon
CLAMP
Sexual Content: Moderate

CLAMP, a five-woman manga artist collective, started out as a doujinshi circle. Their early 1990s hit Tokyo Babylon is one of many series featuring characters from the team’s doujinshi. Teenage yin-yang magician Subaru Sumeragi teams up with flirtatious gay veterinarian Seishira Sakurazuka to exorcise Tokyo ghosts. Their episodic adventures start as tongue-in-cheek romps but gradually grow darker and darker, until the end of the series dissolves into brutal violence and tragedy. Subaru and SeishirÅ reappear in CLAMP’s lengthy, unfinished manga X/1999. Other BL-themed CLAMP manga include RG Veda, Wish,and Legal Drug.

Gravitation
Maki Murakami
Sexual Content: Moderate

Shuichi, lead singer for the band Bad Luck, tries to make it as a rock star while pursuing Yuki, a romance novelist who treats Shuichi and his love songs with contempt. Although Gravitation contains racy material aplenty (including a rape and abuse storyline in volume 4 that may disturb some readers), it gets sillier as it continues, eventually becoming a mix of homoeroticism and slapstick comedy. It is without a doubt the only BL manga in which a giant flying robot panda attacks New York City.

Antique Bakery
Fumi Yoshinaga
Sexual Content: Moderate

Alternately dramatic, touching, and hilarious, this story of the all-male staff of a small patisserie established Fumi Yoshinaga as one of the top talents in contemporary manga. Tachibana, the sardonic owner, hates sweets, which begs the question of why he chose to open a patisserie (the answer is complicated). Ono, the head patissier, is both a brilliant baker and a “gay of demonic charm” who can instantly seduce any man — except Tachibana, the only man immune to his powers. Not a formula romance, Antique Bakery features intelligent, adult characters trading witty dialogue — and it’s inarguably sexy.

Gerard & Jacques
Fumi Yoshinaga
Sexual Content: Explicit

Much more explicit than the PG-13 Antique Bakery, Gerard & Jacques showcases Yoshinaga’s darker and dirtier side. Set during the French Revolution, it follows the relationship between a wealthy writer (of Revolution-themed lesbian porn) and an impoverished young nobleman who becomes his servant. There’s a lot of humor (Gerard on Robespierre: “That cherry boy would cream his pants in an instant if he read my novel!”), but also dark and harrowing sexual elements, including prostitution, rape, and underage sex. Other recommended Yoshinaga yaoi include the short-story collections Don’t Say Anymore Darling and Garden Dreams, both of which include non-yaoi stories as well.

Shout Out Loud!
Satosumi Takaguchi
Sexual Content: Moderate

Yaoi fans love anime, so why not set a yaoi in the anime industry itself? Shino, a boyish voice actor, finds himself voicing steamy sex scenes with other hot male voice talent, and it’s only a matter of time before the acting goes Method. Meanwhile, Shino’s teenage son Nakaya struggles with his own sexuality and is grossed out to discover that his dad doesn’t just work on innocent children’s cartoons. Takaguchi’s work enlivens typical yaoi scenarios with above-average writing, character development, and wit. Her other titles include Can’t Win Without You(previously published as High School Nights), and Thirsty For Love, a collaboration with prolific yaoi artist Yukine Honami.

Only The Ring Finger Knows
Satoru Kannagi
Sexual Content: Explicit

High-school classmates Wataru and Kazuki discover they share matching rings, indicating that they’re destined to be together — even though Kazuki is a cool, aloof type whose popularity with the girls, including Wataru’s own sister, gets on Wataru’s nerves. Well-plotted, with solid artwork, this is one of the most popular yaoi titles in the U.S. and a good introduction to the genre.

Embracing Love
Youka Nitta
Sexual Content: Explicit

Another fangirl fantasy scenario: two male porn stars fall in love on set, then try to make it as legitimate actors while the media eats up their scandalous relationship. From this brazenly silly premise comes a potboiler replete with crossdressers, stalkers, traumatized mutes, disapproving conservative parents, and, thankfully, a lighthearted perspective on all the melodrama. The relationship that develops between actors Iwaki and Katou is sexy, improbable, and seldom dull — everything pornography should be. Nitta’s Casino Lily, set in the world of high-stakes gambling, is similarly entertaining.

You Will Fall in Love
Hinako Takanaga
Sexual Content: Explicit

Takanaga’s work is standard yaoi done well: her characters are well developed, her art beautiful, her romance steamy. You Will Fall in Love involves a love triangle between archery students, a setting that allows her to lavish attention on costumes and equipment as well as the characters’ handsome, tormented faces. The sequel, You Will Drown in Love, is also nicely executed. Takanaga’s Love Round!!, a romantic comedy about two boxers who fall in love at the gym, is another solid one-volume yaoi. Her Little Butterfly is a slow-paced but well-written series about the relationship that develops between two classmates, one of whom comes from an abusive home.

Laugh Under The Sun
Yugi Yamada
Sexual Content: Explicit

Once an aspiring boxer, Sohei has become an unemployed layabout sharing an apartment with two high-school friends, graphic designer Naoki and freelance writer Chika, both of whom are openly gay. While Sohei puts off admitting his attraction to one of his roommates, he works on reviving his boxing career. Beneath the sex, this is a nicely-observed, unusually realistic story about a group of bohemian twentysomethings putting their lives together.

The Dawn of Love
Kazuho Hirokawa
Sexual Content: Explicit

Scruffy law student Matsunaga beds his hot classmate Takane, only to find that Takane only sees him as one of countless “sex friends.” It’s not as angsty as it might be, since Matsunaga is sleeping with another guy too, but Matsunaga decides that he’s serious about Takane and sets out to win his heart. Unlike most yaoi heroes, the characters act like semi-plausible young gay men, working through various levels of commitment while figuring out their feelings. The sex scenes are plentiful.

Clan of the Nakagamis
Homerun Ken
Sexual Content: Moderate

This yaoi parody plays with many of the clichés of the genre, including shota, incest, and seme/uke stereotypes. Tokio, a 25-year-old math teacher who looks like a teenage boy, falls for Haruka, a teenage student who looks like an adult. Their efforts at romance are constantly interrupted by Tokio’s weirdly overprotective family, the Nakagami Clan, which seems to consist entirely of eccentric but attractive men with an unhealthy interest in Tokio’s love life.

Red Blinds the Foolish
Est Em
Sexual Content: Explicit

In the title story in this short-story collection, Rafita, a rising young bullfighter, falls in love with Mauro, a butcher who prepares the bulls Rafita kills. Rafita’s sexual obsession inspires dark fantasies blending Mauro with images of a bull. One of the best new yaoi artists of the last few years, Est Em has a bold, sensual art style, with strong black-and-white contrasts, arrestingly different from most yaoi. Her collection Seduce Me After the Show is also recommended.

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