About Boys on Boys on Film

We try to provide information about each title we review at the top of each review page. This information is gathered from around the web as well as from the books, DVDs and other materials themselves. Most of this information is self-explanatory. The "Genres" and "Warnings" labels are assigned to the best of our knowledge. Questions or comments? Contact the webmaster.

Genres

Genres give a quick idea of the content of a boys' love story.

• Action: Car chases, gun battles, sword fights and more. Suspenseful or thrilling plots also fall in this category.

• Comedy: Lots of titles have funny moments or elements, but the titles that focus mostly on the comedy belong in this category.

• Drama: Epic, thought-provoking, poetic or just more serious than a comedy, those titles that follow a serious storyline go in this category.

• Explicit: When the sex scenes are very detailed, whether the title is a simple smut-fest or whether it just has a very adult plot, we include this genre. Every person's tastes are different, so if you prefer to avoid -- or if you prefer to look! -- explicit titles, just look for this label.

• Fantasy: Angels and demons, fairies, princes and magic. Fantasy titles have some element of magic and are often set in an alternate world or fairy-tale land. See also "Modern Fantasy."

• High School: The main characters are in high school, or a good portion of the story is set in a high school.

• Historical: The story is set at some time in the past. Any title set before about 1950 will probably be labelled Historical.

• Modern Fantasy: The story is set in the modern day, but contains magical elements mixed in with modern characters and settings.

• Mystery: From detectives to mysterious thieves, if the main characters are trying to solve some kind of strange situation, it's a mystery.

• Office: The Japanese call them "Salarymen": guys in suits and ties in a workplace setting.

• Romance: Many boys' love titles are romantic. When the main story is about falling in love and the characters act romantically, the title falls in this category. This can be somewhat subjective.

• Science Fiction: Space exploration, androids, and the future. Science Fiction is different from Fantasy in that the fantastical elements can be explained by (pseudo-)science.

• Short Stories: This genre applies mostly to manga which contain several different short stories rather than one continuous story divided into chapters.

• Supernatural: Psychic powers, ghosts, unexplained phenomenon - any of these elements earn the Supernatural label.

• Teacher/Student: Whether the student pursues the teacher or the other way around, if the main couple in the story has a teacher/student relationship, it earns this label.

Warnings

Not everyone enjoys the same things in boys' love anime and manga. To help you avoid the elements you might not like, we try to place warnings on the more explicit titles.

• Detailed nudity: Usually, Japanese boys' love does not show fully, realistically rendered penises, testicles and anuses. When a creator breaks with tradition and draws complete, realistic genitals, we add this warning.

• Domination: While one half of a boys' love couple is usually dominant, this warning refers to heavy sexual domination that may include bondage or a master and slave relationship.

• Explicit sex: Sex is shown in full and graphic detail, including full frontal or rear nudity, close-up drawings, detailed genitals and explicitly-depicted intercourse.

• Incest: Sex or sexual feelings occur between members of an immediate family, usually full or half brothers.

• Kink: There are many different kinds of kink, including but not limited to bondage, cross-dressing, sadomasochism and domination/submission.

• Non-consent: Consent can be difficult to determine in boys' love manga due to the Japanese tradition of the uke often saying "No" when he means "Yes." When scenes of rape occur, or when one partner in the sexual relationship clearly does not want it to happen, we use this warning.

Boys on Boys on Film was created in 2002, just as the first flood of yaoi and bishounen anime and manga were starting to make their way into English translation. Many new fans were just learning about yaoi and weren't aware of all the great yaoi anime that were available, either on DVD or in fansub. As a collector of yaoi anime, I decided that a site like this would be a great way to let all yaoi fans know just how much delicious boy-on-boy animation was out there!

After two years and much begging by visitors, I finally started work on a manga section for the site in 2004. The manga review section launched in January 2005 as a resource for yaoi and bishounen manga released in English.

The most recent re-design in August of 2006 added novel and game reviews to the site, as well as expanded our guides and information, in an effort to help out new and old fans alike.

Boys on Boys on Film is a fan site with no sponsorship from any company. The only money made from this site are from our Amazon.com Associate referrals.

All reviews on the site are copyright of their original authors. All other text on the site is copyright of the webmaster and Boys on Boys on Film. Please, always give credit where credit is due.

Thanks

Thanks to River, a dear friend who designed the site layout and logo, and made the site a thousand times more beautiful than I ever could.

Thank you to all of the reviewers on the site for helping the site to grow, and for helping yaoi fans all over the world.

Thank you to all of the U.S. licensing companies who have brought yaoi anime and manga in English to U.S. fans.

Thank you to River, Jada, MeL, Rhain and all the Harem House girls for your support, suggestions, and long-distance user testing in a pinch.

Thanks to April for your support and cementing my agreement to run a manga review site.

And thanks to you, the visitor, for stopping by!