When Justin Sevakis at Answer Man is asked: I confess that I really like bara manga because of its incredible art style, sexy situations (depending on the subject), and most certainly its appeal to gay male readers such as myself. Sevakis answers: Hey! You’re a gay dude that likes bara manga? I’m a gay dude that likes (some) bara manga! It’s almost like we’re the target demographic or something! Since bara manga is written mostly by gay men for other gay men, it doesn’t have a lot of the same issues that yaoi manga has - namely that the boys don’t act like boys, and that everything is super melodramatic and dripping with angst. There’s still some angst, of course, but from the ones I’ve read, the sex tends to be more on the fun (or, at least, the inconsequential) side.īara manga is also becoming popular among fujoshi who would like to see some guys with more meat on their bones than your typical willowy teenagers that populate most yaoi aimed at them.
There are now bara visual novels, bara illustration collections, and other bara media. But no bara anime.īara is still very niche in Japan. There are no magazines dedicated to it (when it is published it’s in general gay magazines like ADONIS), and most are published as doujinshi.
Most sales are digital, and the content is HEAVILY pirated.