Despite the name, the characters don’t actually have to be boys in high school or college.
It’s commonly understood that “boys' love” as a genre - encompassing not only manga, but TV and movie adaptations and originals, too - does what the label suggests: explore relationships between male characters at different stages of their lives. In fact, it's quite possible that the bookstore will have one section for manga and a separate section somewhere else for light novels, all depicting male male romance.” “If the store you’re wandering around is large enough, you might find these texts occupying an entire shelf, floor-to-ceiling, or even multiple shelves. These male homoerotic stories might be found in the form of manga - the name for Japan's globally known narrative comics - or in the form of “ light novels” - a local label for lowbrow, highly disposable prose fiction,” McLelland and Welker write. “If you walk into a typical bookstore in Japan today, somewhere on the shelves you are likely to find various books depicting romantic and sexual relations between beautiful, stylish male characters.
In the introduction to the 2015 collection Boys' Love Manga and Beyond: History, Culture, and Community in Japan, editors Mark McLelland and James Welker walk readers through this subtype of manga and how it’s commonly defined.
