What is Shonen-Ai?
Shounen-Ai is a term that is applied to anime or manga that deals with love between young men. Especially of the bishonen variety. The genre itself dealt with romanticized but non-sexual relationships between men. The predecessor of shōnen-ai was tanbi. Shōnen-ai is less sexually explicit than yaoi, sometimes not at all. Shōnen-ai is very popular in Japan, especially among schoolgirls and housewives. It has also found a strong audience in America and Europe, especially among 14–24 year old heterosexual women and homosexual men. The term shōnen-ai is no longer used in Japan with regard to manga and anime; the wasei-eigo construction Boys Love (but usually rendered as English, occasionally spelled Boy's Love or Boys' Love, or abbreviated BL) has largely replaced it due to associations of the original term with pederasty (which were not associated into English usage). Ironically, the similar English term "boylove" has the exact meaning Boys Love was coined to avoid.
