Acronym for ‘yama-nashi , ochi-nashi , imi-nashi,’ translated to ‘no climax, no
plot, no meaning.’
Originally assigned as a self-derogatory term to amateur m/m doujinshi in the 1980s, not because of their pornographic nature but because of their
poor storytelling techniques.
Term was dropped after the 1991 Japanese economic
boom, as more publishing companies began professionally producing m/m fiction. They wanted to move away from the ‘amateur pornographic’ nature of yaoi, so they adopted the genre name BL (
boy’s love)
yaoi is an outdated term. However it’s sometimes used in Japanese doujinshi sites, and some japanese use it as a complete misnomer for BL (the genre as a whole). it does NOT
mean ‘fetishy explicit BL.’ there is no such genre in
Japan. What publishing company in their right
mind would make that a genre in the first place?
