It is typically created by women for women and is distinct from homoerotic media marketed to gay men, but it does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. It spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works. 'Boys' love' and 'BL' are the generic terms for this kind of media in Japan and much of Asia though the terms are used by some fans and commentators in the West, yaoi remains more generally prevalent in English. The genre originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of shōjo manga, or comics for girls. Several terms were used for the new genre, including shōnen-ai ( 少年愛, lit. The term yaoi emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of dōjinshi ( 同人誌, self-published works) culture as a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi ('no climax, no point, no meaning'), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. AGE SIZE DIFFERENCE GAY HENTAI YAOI ANIME SEX SERIES.
