It’s important to note that bara is more of a term used by foreigners to help categorize gay manga and is rarely used by Japanese people. In the 1960s to 1970s, the term bara was reappropriated by Japan's gay media: the movie Funeral Parade of Roses ( Bara no Soretsu) became a landmark of Japanese queer cinema in 1969, and the word bara was further popularized in the first commercialized gay magazine, Barazoku (Rose Tribe), created by a straight man named Ito Bungaku in 1971.Īlthough bara is seen in a positive light now, gay manga artists, such as Gengoroh Tagame, refuse to describe their work as bara due to its controversial history. Bara means “rose” in Japanese and it was originally a derogatory term for the English word, "pansy," which was directed towards gay men. However, bara has a dark etymological history. What makes bara different from yaoi and shounen-ai is that these stories are created by gay manga artists ( mangaka) for a gay male audience and have a unique art style where male characters are “hairy and muscular,” contrasting from the “pretty boy” physique in BL manga. ![]() Bara is a sub-genre in Japan's gei manga (gay manga) world.
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