About Us


	WHY JCFA IS HERE


Japanese comics, manga , began to creep into western awareness sometime in the early 1990s. The exact date would be impossible to pinpoint. Were Europeans, north Americans, or Australians responsible for this early recognition? Each group has its own claims.

	At that early date, the manga were difficult to come by. Visitors to Japan could return with them to their native country, if their customs officials allowed the books into the country. And frequently they didn’t and still don’t.

		Only two Japanese websites, Books-Rose and Barazoku, were even remotely friendly to selling and shipping overseas. Again, customs restrictions raised barriers to import in many countries.

But, once the trickle began, the flood could not be stopped. Whether in their original language or in unauthorized translations, the comics began to appear in various mail list groups and on Use-Net. In most cases, presenters and viewers had little clue about how to handle the material they were posting. BDSM themes were common and apparently popular in what we call here, ADULT MANGA, for want of a better term. They were homoerotic comics in story format, 16 to 32


pages usually, or in single page format. These were homoerotic comics, drawn and authored by adult male homo artists for an adult homo audience. By the end of the century, the supply and the demand had erupted. A Japanese website, Rainbow-Shoppers, went aggressively after the foreign market with an English website that accepted credit cards.

	The non-Japanese audience responded just as aggressively. Besides short story manga, novel length and multi-volume novels began to appear. The non-Japanese audience couldn’t get enough. Of course, we and others were involved in this lightening fast, sweeping growth and transition. But that is not the whole story. We are only entering the 21st century and have yet to mention the other audience that was swept up into the cult of the Japanese comic otaku.

		YAOI -- THE OTHER SHOE

In virtually the same time frame, early 1990s to 2000, another manga phenomenon was
exploding on the scene, with fireworks. It was another type of manga portraying homo love. But the audience was, and is, pre-teen and teen Japanese girls. The manga characters were boys, not men. The sexual explicitness ranged from no-show to show-it-all. The manga were authored by Japanese women, in their 20s and 30s usually. Their teen female audience was voracious. So were many western females visiting Japan who brought back to the west illustrated stories of beautiful young boys, bishonen, in love and making love with each other. The western interest in YAOI grew in a virtually identical upward line as did the

adult homo manga mentioned earlier. But they were totally separate phenomenon. YAOI attracted non-Japanese females in their 20s and 30s primarily. YAOI, by the way, is an acronym meaning “no climax, no plot, no meaning.” Adult homo men, including Japanese, usually cringe at being identified as YAOI fans.

Now, this is a postage stamp summation that in no way pretends to exhaust all the intricacies and permutations of these two phenomena. They are separate and remain so up to this moment, December 2006.

Look at the pictures at the top of this page and then at the two darling boys in the pictures to the left and below right. You will see the difference between what we are designating as “adult” homo manga and YAOI.

Forbear that both adult homo comics and YAOI each have many other different, usually erroneous, names also, depending on who is doing the talking. On this site, we present both adult and YAOI. We enjoy them both. We would like you to enjoy them both also.

<---Sometimes YAOI will include both adults and bondage, making it difficult to determine whether it’s “adult” or “YAOI.” Only the tankubon, the magazine from which the story comes, can determine the audience for which the comic is intended.

We hope this brief learning experience did not befuddle you. But the intent of JCFA is to present the truth. NOT garbled and confused misinformation.


	WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW

Since 2000? That’s a book length tale. YAOI is now appearing in English from several publishers in north America. Adult homo manga have appeared in French. English translations from both Japanese and French are also common. The target audiences, however, remain distinct. Yet the explicit sex presentation in adult homo manga and YAOI have become virtually indistinguishable. Despite this fantastic growth of both genres, most fan sites I know of treat these two Japanese imports as “porn.” Most sites simply dump oodles and oodles of scans without explanation, or help of any kind in understanding what one is viewing. And definitely no help in understanding the culture from which these two fascinating comic segments are evolving.

We hope you enjoy your visits to our unique web site.

Jeunes, your host and site administrator.

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