I'm the new kid on the block when it comes to reading Yaoi. I can't really recall what made me start reading it a second time. The first time I read yaoi was about a year and a half ago, and my attempt was not successful. As a matter of fact I purchased the manga and was so disappointed I contemplated heading back to the bookstore to get my money back. (A thing I have never done before, and didn't end up doing then). So the yaoi manga got tucked in amongst Stephen King's and Laurell K Hamiliton's collections. I dusted off my hands and called it a bust. Yaoi manga wasn't for me. The manga I had chosen was so sweet it gave me a headache and the sex did not deliver. IMHO. I'm all ruined from writing erotica, so I like my stuff explicit.
Anyway, only about three weeks ago I decided to try it again. I can't recall what made me start reading. I just know I ran across this fantastic site with a promising storyline and I started reading my eyes out. Scantalations made it possible for me to devour yaoi to my hearts content. I made sure to purchase some of my favorite reads if they were available on Amazon because I feel it's important to support your favorite artists.
I've learned quite a lot about Japanese culture while reading yaoi manga. Terms like bishie, uke, seme; distinguishing honorifics for your elders, superiors, strangers, and family members. I've picked up a few Japanese words along the way, and thanks to the way mangas are drawn I've developed the habit of reading from left to right, even when I'm not reading manga.
Now, if you have never read yaoi or adult manga(non-yaoi manga), period, you should know two things straight off the bat. You have to be able to get past the fact that some of these ukes and semes will not be 18yrs or older, and even those who are professed twenty-somethings still sometimes look like kids. It is the nature of the genre.I believe that you are not considered an adult in Japan until you are twenty, so even if the main characters are eighteen, technically, in Japan, they are still teenagers.
Secondly, if the idea of noncon and dubious consent squicks you out than yaoi probably is not for you. Now, that is not to say yaoi readers support noncon and dc, but we have the ability to see it as the fiction (in some people's case, the fantasy) that it is. It helps that these are drawings and not real folks.
Well, if you can accept those two (society taboos) then I think you can get down to the business of enjoying yaoi, like I did.
Fair warning: It is highly addictive, and may be the cause of a delinquent muse. :p
