Why are yaoi and shounen-ai manga so popular?

Like the title says, why are yaoi/shounen-ai manga popular, at least more than yuri/shoujo ai? I'm a guy and I can't bring myself to read them, but that's because of my preferences. So what do you guys think?

Edited by AvarN, 25 April 2012 - 06:36 AM.

Smexy bishie boys doing it is hawt.

I think you're concentrating too much on the physical images of what happens in a yaoi manga, unless you read hardcore, there actually aren't that many sex scenes at all (in general). BL is famous for fluffy romance, it has even more than shoujo imo.

The lighter ones are like shoujo, but without half the stereotypes. The hardcore ones are the best tho <3

Because they're evil.

what kishuke said =9 Male bodies are generally a fasinating piece of art admire back in the day.

But in a serious manner, I think most yuri are mostly associated with adult related mangas from what I've read. The depiction of females relationship in those are gear towards male instinctual fantasy of dominating them both rather than actually understanding the intimate thoughts =\ . There are some fluffy yuri out there just some what rare.
You have better chances of yuri for doujin such as touhou (all female except maybe 2 males and the author) which are nice and fluffy.
We are just probably not looking in the right places for them, after all, it is the secret garden.

I am a guy
I can bring my self to read shoujo
I can't read Yaoi. I just can't

You don't include otome game in your question?

because they aren't
people who read it are a very specific type of person
and those people just post more on anime forums + are louder in their defense of it

I've read shonen-ai, I'm a hetero guy and I think I understand the appeal. It's pretty much ecchi for girls.
Good fuckin luck finding a good one though. I waded through shit for a month and found nothing really worth reading

Its mostly due to the overbearing assumption in japanese culture that homosexuality in general is childish, so it follows that you get the equivalent of To-Love-ru for girls but nothing beyond that

If you want to write a serious romantic drama between two or more men, your options in manga are limited to historical or seinen. Shonen-ai and Yaoi aren't allowed to be good in Japan because the people who read it just want the sex appeal

That's where the impression of Yaoi and Shonen-ai being popular comes from. They aren't actually that popular at all. They're kind of the most gimped genres with the least potential

They're not really that popular. I'd say Yuri and shoujo-ai far surpasses it in popularity, at least in the anime industry. Not that it matters since the majority of either have crap stories. They're just read for the sexy.

But in a serious manner, I think most yuri are mostly associated with adult related mangas from what I've read. The depiction of females relationship in those are gear towards male instinctual fantasy of dominating them both rather than actually understanding the intimate thoughts =\ . There are some fluffy yuri out there just some what rare.
You have better chances of yuri for doujin such as touhou (all female except maybe 2 males and the author) which are nice and fluffy.
We are just probably not looking in the right places for them, after all, it is the secret garden.

It's actually the opposite (there is a lot more serious yuri than wanking material in terms of percentages of total fluff/wank at least) but that doesn't really contradict your points on why which do make sense
what doesn't make sense is why you're posting this in a yaoi thread, yuri is really really different

Keep in mind that I'm mentally blocking futanari from my calculations since that's specifically for the guys. Lesbians don't usually want to see dicks. Kind of defeats the point.

Edited by foxyeisenhower, 25 April 2012 - 09:11 AM.

yaoi exists for the fluffy romance
there are more than enough of good stories, but they'll usually never be anything more than either fluffy romance or angsty emo stories
the h type is usually only found in doujinshi, since most readers want their yaoi for the fluff and cuteness and some times angst, but never for the genitals

i know straight guys who read yaoi for the stories
some good yaoi mangaka would be yamada yugi, matoh sanami, zaoh taishi, yoshinaga fumi
they always have good stories, and don't always care too much about seme/uke stereotypes
tateno makoto isn't bad either, i was once recommended to read her work "yellow" by a straight guy

murakami maki is good too. wrote this cute shounen-ai "gravitation", and then some really hardcore djs for the few fans who want that side of the story too

Girls read Yaoi and Guys read Yuri,It's mostly just natural because somoene just like to see two people of the opposite sex of themself have fluffy relations and other various things.

Of course there are people who likes the same gender as themselves who read Yaoi and Yuri manga too. <----Sorry for the bad explanation.

Edited by GxC, 25 April 2012 - 03:12 PM.

Keep in mind that I'm mentally blocking futanari from my calculations since that's specifically for the guys. Lesbians don't usually want to see dicks. Kind of defeats the point.

just wanted to mention that some lesbians like to read bara manga
those dicks beat most futa

It's actually the opposite (there is a lot more serious yuri than wanking material in terms of percentages of total fluff/wank at least) but that doesn't really contradict your points on why which do make sense
what doesn't make sense is why you're posting this in a yaoi thread, yuri is really really different

Keep in mind that I'm mentally blocking futanari from my calculations since that's specifically for the guys. Lesbians don't usually want to see dicks. Kind of defeats the point.

To answer your question as to why I compare yaoi to yuri is because the orginal poster mentioned it.

Like the title says, why are yaoi/shounen-ai manga popular, at least more than yuri/shoujo ai? I'm a guy and I can't bring myself to read them, but that's because of my preferences. So what do you guys think?

As I have stated earler, I probably wasn't looking in the right places for good yuri to read upon.
My opinion on yuri & shoujo ai vs yaoi & shounen ai will always be biased to how much I've read and my preference.
I do read shoujo ai and yuri, mostly doujin material, there was only one orginal yuri that stood out for me.
I guess foxy has high standards or a different set of requirements for yaoi and shounen ai compare to me.
I don't believe most yaoi or shounen ai are jank since I did read quite a few good one like taka said.

@taka: I would agree that h type yaoi are mostly found in doujin and not a full out series, but I wouldn't say only since I haven't read all of them yet.
I should mention that terminology yaoi or yuri basically must contain some sexual themes. Where as shounen ai and shoujo ai are simply light romance between same gender. For the nothing more than angst and fluff comment, I guess if you are talking about pure romantic works of yaoi/yuri/shounen or shoujo ai, then they won't contain any other elements. I've read a few that contains more than that but yaoi wasn't the main story here. Some couples just feel like they happen to be the same gender orz.

Finally, I'm not a very good judge at popularity but I do think a partial reason is simply exposure. =\

@taka: I would agree that h type yaoi are mostly found in doujin and not a full out series, but I wouldn't say only since I haven't read all of them yet.
I should mention that terminology yaoi or yuri basically must contain some sexual themes. Where as shounen ai and shoujo ai are simply light romance between same gender. For the nothing more than angst and fluff comment, I guess if you are talking about pure romantic works of yaoi/yuri/shounen or shoujo ai, then they won't contain any other elements. I've read a few that contains more than that but yaoi wasn't the main story here. Some couples just feel like they happen to be the same gender orz.

well... i said "usually"
it's true that yaoi usually contains some sexual themes. but you can even find bara yaoi that's purely fluffy romance without more than a kiss, if that much.
what i meant by "h type" is pwp, in contrast to a story with more things happening than just the sex. and of course more genitals shown. lots of yaoi suffers from that invisible penis syndrome

well... i said "usually"
it's true that yaoi usually contains some sexual themes. but you can even find bara yaoi that's purely fluffy romance without more than a kiss, if that much.
what i meant by "h type" is pwp, in contrast to a story with more things happening than just the sex. and of course more genitals shown. lots of yaoi suffers from that invisible penis syndrome

Ah sorry for the blunder, I must have somehow missed it. bow bow*
My mind always seem to put bara on a catagory of its own when techinially it is yaoi/shounen ai ( like Ghilbi compare to other anime movies.)
Btw, mind recommending a few bara manga in the yaoi thread sometime?
hahaha the invisible gun eh? XD XD

That`s obviously cause Shounen Ai is waaay more lovely than normal romance ones.( i prefer trap shounen ai, the boy is cuter than most girls.)
When you read a Shounen Ai where they focus on love, you`ll see what i mean.
Also, for yaoi, the thing is that the graphic scenes are well-made, making it sexy as hell.

Graphic scenes are better in bara imo
I'll post links when i get back to mt laptop

Girls read Yaoi and Guys read Yuri,It's mostly just natural because somoene just like to see two people of the opposite sex of themself have fluffy relations and other various things.

Of course there are people who likes the same gender as themselves who read Yaoi and Yuri manga too. <----Sorry for the bad explanation.

You are generalising far too much, if you're perverted enough to read one, then why not the other?

And trust me, you do not read hardcore yaoi for the relationships ;D

And trust me, you do not read hardcore yaoi for the relationships ;D

are you really sure about that? cause i often read hentai for the romance...

are you really sure about that? cause i often read hentai for the romance...

Same with me. In fact, i only read hentai/doujin which have romance in it.(Vanilla. Most are NaPaTa`s works.)
No Romance-No Reading.

are you really sure about that? cause i often read hentai for the romance...

ditto. That's the only thing that made me hooked up in such.