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Yaoi and Hentai in the news
- By Phyl Good
- Published 02/29/2008
- Anime and Manga
- Unrated
Phyl Good
View all articles by Phyl Good
If you’re interested in yaoi and related anime, there are several interesting developments in the news right now.
Right Stuf, Inc., a producer and promoter of anime, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the business by launching a new online "boutique" called YaoiAnime.com, that will promote products geared specifically toward the yaoi sub-genre.
Although there are some variations in definition throughout the anime and manga industry, "yaoi" is defined on the new website as "a catch-all term for Japanese anime, manga, and related media that deal with male/male relationships that are made by women, for women." The site promises to feature "Yaoi, Boys Love, and Shonen-ai" products (the latter two terms often meaning pretty much the same thing). What is common among the various shades of meaning is that these stories feature sexual love between males.
According to Right Stuf President and CEO, Shawne Kleckner, his company received a very positive response when it originally began featuring the yaoi sub-genre. Therefore, it only made sense to give it a site all its own, to serve the fans and, above all, to make their browsing and shopping fun. Nozomi Entertainment, Right Stuf’s production division, says its mission focuses on "what fans want." And clearly, the fans want this.
As of March 1, you’ll be able to obtain banners and links promoting the new yaoi boutique by clicking on the "link to us" section on RightStuf.com. You can also email pr@rightstuf.com.
In another somewhat related realm, things are slightly less rosy, and although this doesn’t exclusively involve Right Stuf, Inc., they are one of the companies affected.
Hentai anime and manga involve sexual fantasy with a somewhat more negative connotation, being more outright pornographic, and involving either heterosexual or homosexual encounters as well as a whole range of fetishes. Because it has such a wide range, assessing any work’s "obscenity" can become tricky at times.
Just recently, the Canada Border Services Agency released a list of anime and manga that it refused to allow entry into the country because, according to its judgment, the material violated Canada’s Criminal Code Subsection 163(8). This regulation reads: "For the purposes of this Act, any publication a [ital] dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, or of sex and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence, shall be deemed to be obscene."
Because of that regulation, the Border Services did not permit importation of such anime titles as Right Stuf’s re-release of the NuTech Digital titles, Cool Devices and Words Worth. In addition, volumes of several manga were prohibited, published by Eros Comix, NuTech, and Japanime, among others.
The entire list of admitted and prohibited materials can be found in this Quarterly List published by Canada Border Services Agency, covering October to December 2007. (Start at page 8 for the listing.) So for the less fraught yaoi sub-genre, both Canadians and Americans will be able to enjoy a wide selection, now made even easier by Right Stuf’s new YaoiAnime.com boutique site. But for the touchier hentai genre, Canadians’ options are currently a bit more limited at the moment.
Right Stuf, Inc., a producer and promoter of anime, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the business by launching a new online "boutique" called YaoiAnime.com, that will promote products geared specifically toward the yaoi sub-genre.
Although there are some variations in definition throughout the anime and manga industry, "yaoi" is defined on the new website as "a catch-all term for Japanese anime, manga, and related media that deal with male/male relationships that are made by women, for women." The site promises to feature "Yaoi, Boys Love, and Shonen-ai" products (the latter two terms often meaning pretty much the same thing). What is common among the various shades of meaning is that these stories feature sexual love between males.
According to Right Stuf President and CEO, Shawne Kleckner, his company received a very positive response when it originally began featuring the yaoi sub-genre. Therefore, it only made sense to give it a site all its own, to serve the fans and, above all, to make their browsing and shopping fun. Nozomi Entertainment, Right Stuf’s production division, says its mission focuses on "what fans want." And clearly, the fans want this.
As of March 1, you’ll be able to obtain banners and links promoting the new yaoi boutique by clicking on the "link to us" section on RightStuf.com. You can also email pr@rightstuf.com.
In another somewhat related realm, things are slightly less rosy, and although this doesn’t exclusively involve Right Stuf, Inc., they are one of the companies affected.
Hentai anime and manga involve sexual fantasy with a somewhat more negative connotation, being more outright pornographic, and involving either heterosexual or homosexual encounters as well as a whole range of fetishes. Because it has such a wide range, assessing any work’s "obscenity" can become tricky at times.
Just recently, the Canada Border Services Agency released a list of anime and manga that it refused to allow entry into the country because, according to its judgment, the material violated Canada’s Criminal Code Subsection 163(8). This regulation reads: "For the purposes of this Act, any publication a [ital] dominant characteristic of which is the undue exploitation of sex, or of sex and any one or more of the following subjects, namely, crime, horror, cruelty and violence, shall be deemed to be obscene."
Because of that regulation, the Border Services did not permit importation of such anime titles as Right Stuf’s re-release of the NuTech Digital titles, Cool Devices and Words Worth. In addition, volumes of several manga were prohibited, published by Eros Comix, NuTech, and Japanime, among others.
The entire list of admitted and prohibited materials can be found in this Quarterly List published by Canada Border Services Agency, covering October to December 2007. (Start at page 8 for the listing.) So for the less fraught yaoi sub-genre, both Canadians and Americans will be able to enjoy a wide selection, now made even easier by Right Stuf’s new YaoiAnime.com boutique site. But for the touchier hentai genre, Canadians’ options are currently a bit more limited at the moment.