i think the people who read shounen really would be turned off the Anime or manga no matter how good if it had Shounen Ai don't you think? because i think if naruto had Shounen ai between naruto and saskue ( i think that's how you spell it ? ah who cares ) Some people would just change Anime . another Example is between Luffy and Zoro ( ugh that would be gross ) people would be turned off watching/reading it. One thing I've been thinking while writing this is that if you don't like gay love in general like your against gay people i don't understand this but i need to find out the answer or i'll go insane.

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Yup, pretty sure they wouldn't read or watch it but that's assuming there really is shounen-ai. Those examples you gave fall under subtext. I take shounen-ai as being explicit, like a kiss or cuddling or whatever. XD

But see, I read both and I would be turned off too. The shounenish shounen-ais I've read have all made the characters really girly-looking.I read my shounen to get my shounen fix, and my shounen-ai to get my shounen-ai. If I wanted the best of both worlds I'd read djs or webcomics.

I can't even think of a good example of a real shounen with some real shounen-ai that is also good in quality.

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I wouldn't mind to see shounen-ai inside of a "shounenish" story, a example of anime like that was NO.6, I remember reading in the MAL forums that a lot of people dropped it after But I don't really think NO.6 falls under "shounen-ai" either, but only seeing two protagonists doing that made some people dislike the anime... Since it is probably like BaeSooky said, "I read my shounen to get my shounen fix, and my shounen-ai to get my shounen-ai." So if you read a story that you don't even imagine two people being a couple, kissing etc, because it is out of character and only works good in djs (that somehow take the shounen feeling away), many would dislike reading shounen-ai scenes, even though they are okay with "gay love" in real life. There is also those who are totally against it too, be it fiction or real life, and would drop the manga/anime.

I think it is totally normal to be against a couple in a shounen manga and be okay with shounen-ai etc. It is like when I read yaoi manga, if I don't like where the story is going and don't want to see they together as a couple, it isn't because I'm against gay couples, but because I don't like that two characters as a couple. Same goes for those who don't like Luffy and Zoro, like you said, because you just don't like to see them as a couple. We have the same situation in both genres (shounen and yaoi), so I don't think it is homophobic to be against the idea of certain characters having a homosexual relationship in a shounen manga.

I don't know if I answered your question or just blabbed lots of non-related stuff.

TL;DR: there are those who are totally against "gay love" in real life of fiction, but also those who wouldn't like to see two characters from the same sex being lovey-dovey in shounen manga because it is out of character, "they don't have chemistry" or simply because it would lead the story to a unpleasant way.

I think this sums the whole thing up pretty well.

To expand on it, I wouldn't particularly like to see shounen-ai in a shounen manga because it'll add an additional factor to the story that I feel doesn't really fit. Like if you're baking a chocolate cake and add in... pepper. The taste will be off, and honestly kinda weird. How shounen-ai is received depends more on where and how it is portrayed rather than whether the reader likes actually likes shounen-ai or not.

A prime example would be the 2013 anime K. I love the setting, art, characters and the entire set up in whole... but the "almost shounen-ai but not shounen-ai of two guys staring at each other" scenes made me cringe. It was absolutely awkward. I felt like the creators were trying too hard with the fanservice, you know? It's something that doesn't contribute at all to the actual story, it's just... there. That said, it didn't turn me off the anime (looking forward to the movie *grins*), but then again I have the convenient ability to ignore things I don't like. XD Kinda just skipped over those scenes and half erased them from my memory. I have seen many complaints around the net about it though.

So for me it would be the context. If the shounen-ai actually was tied into the plot and with good consistent development from the start, I would be okay with it. But if its just out of nowhere and serves no purpose, I would definitely say that the series would be better without it.

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Despise it. I read shounen not to find shounen-ai
People can freely express it in doujin, but please don't put shounen-ai in a title with shounen genre...
I truly do not hope to see shounen-ai there...

Well... I don't think there's 'shounen-ai' in real Naruto's manga...
maybe the term is... bromance?
haha I read in a funny site, there's a post that more or less stated this:
"You're not real friend till people think you're gay"

15: Meisetsu Kougyou Koukou Rugby-Bu
this title is shounen. But IMO the fanservice is too... harsh... for a shounen reader that's searching for shounen... If it's being put in shoujo or josei, maybe it'll be popular, but to put it in shounen... hnggg... I think the problem is the some scenes are represented in a very shounen-ai context...

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I read shounen for shounen, and I read shounen-ai for shounen-ai. I both like them and I don't mind a shounen-ai scene in a shounen series. A good series is still a good series for me, it doesn't matter too me what happens. Well, some things are a taboo for me, like seks with children is a big no for me. So, I dislike shota and lolicon.

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I ain´t the biggest fan of the way (most) Japanese writers treat non-heterosexual characters or the topic in general and Shounen is indeed the demographic most likely NOT to feature male love (pornographic lesbians though ). Such elements also tend to be written out / strongly reduced in adaptations. The genre search only gave me a short list of crap and the decent Mabataki no Aida (the online-reader is flooded with Shounen manga but i don´t know who was targeted here).
Demographics aren´t genres in the end so i woudln´t write off the Shounen + Ai combo just yet. The entire industry and Japanese society would need to change first though...

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