These male homoerotic stories might be found in the form of manga - the name for Japan's globally known narrative comics - or in the form of “ light novels” - a local label for lowbrow, highly disposable prose fiction,” McLelland and Welker write. “If you walk into a typical bookstore in Japan today, somewhere on the shelves you are likely to find various books depicting romantic and sexual relations between beautiful, stylish male characters.
In the introduction to the 2015 collection Boys' Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan, editors Mark McLelland and James Welker walk readers through this subtype of manga and how it’s commonly defined.
