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Manga is one of the most rapidly growing sections of the publishing industry
Manga is one of the most rapidly growing sections of the publishing industry
in the United States. Of particular interest to this research are those subsets
of adult-oriented manga that deal with same-sex romance and/or sexual relations.
This study is intended as a first step in systematically describing and understanding
boy’s love manga readers and fan participation in the United States.
Fans have a general idea of who’s reading boy’s love, and why,
but this study will help provide a clearer, less anecdotally based description
of the community. It addresses the following research questions:
(1) What are boy’s love manga readers like, in terms of gender and other
factors?
(2) Why do readers enjoy boy’s love manga?
(3) What role does the fan community play for boy’s love manga readers?
(4) To what extent do boy’s love manga readers contribute to the genre
themselves, and how and why?
For the purposes of this research, the following terms will be used: boy’s
love, seme, uke, yuri, yaoi, shounen-ai, shoujo-ai, hentai, doujinshi, slash,
romance, erotica, and pornography. The all-encompassing term “boy’s
love” will be used for any work dealing with male/male amorous relationships,
whether primarily romantic or sexual.