this post has no meaning

Categories: anime, commentary

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Just like all those people who use “otaku” without knowing what it means (it means, “house”, connotes people who spends a lot of time indoors but recently can also connotate serial murderers), a lot of people using “yaoi” without really knowing what it means. It doesn’t mean pr0n, guy on guy action, or even Bridget. It’s actually an acronym for yama nashi ochi nashi imi nashi which means “no climax no point no meaning”. Which I guess in a roundabout way shows a difference between men and women.

For the most part, men want to be like Keiichi, Taro, etc (go scan for the dozens of Keiichi name variations on sba), so we don’t mind them macking on the ladies in harem/dater-style anime. Men definitely focus on the women in anime… hence why our La Verite conversations seem to revolve around triplets or Mariel in one way or another. Women, though, tend to be more possesive and don’t want that Relena or Hitomi mucking around with their Heero or Allen. They want to see close romantic moments more than pure beefcake with their male leads but don’t want a female involved or even sex. So they manufacture circumstances featuring other male characters but in a way that, well, has yama nashi ochi nashi imi nashi.

Then in the great spirit of the Japanese, the phrase condensed into the abbreviated yaoi. Unfortunately, because that sounds foreign, we Americans tend to think it’s an actual word and associate it with male/male relationships. Yeah, I’m not sure why I’m going on about the etymology of a word of a genre I ignore. I guess this post has no meaning.

One Response to “this post has no meaning”

  1. 6 Aug 2004 at 1:03:52 AM Xistove

    Just like the word Otaku being famous and used for/against people who seem to have way too much anime on the brain, some day this post will be used to make fun of people who make fun of people being otaku using the definition of otaku in your post and making otaku a taboo word that will always spring up the question “Did you know this really means…”

    You have just changed the internet FOREVAR!