Yaoi is a fantasy most often created by women for women. Bara is a fantasy created by men for men, or at least that’s how it started but the lines between fantasy for both are as blurred and mixed as the type of people that enjoy the medium itself.
I have male friends that enjoy yaoi and I know other women that like me, enjoy the occasional bara title. For me I think my interest in bara stems from the fact as a child and teenager I became of fan of ‘Professional Wrestling’ which when one thinks about it most likely shaped my tastes to a certain extent. My first introduction to bara was through a scanlation website for yaoi manga I stumbled upon. On this site I came across a title called ‘Miscreant Next Door‘ and it immediately caught my attention because the main character was a wrestling fan. It is a short manga story that tells the story of a man who has a crush on his favorite wrestler and is also scared of his new neighbor next door because he looks like a yakuza thug. In the end it is a very sweet story that I will admit I instantly fell in love with, even though it was a very short story all the characters were engaging and even the more hardcore scenes seem to have a softness to them which I know is not common in most bara, so in a way this title feels like a hybrid between yaoi and bara.
It has the soft emotional melodrama of a yaoi love story with the brute and muscles of a bara ascetic and after reading ‘The Miscreant Next Door’ I found myself wanting more of this fusion style of story.
It would not be until of all things I got a hold of a DVD copy of ‘A Cicada in the Winter’ to add to my growing anime collection that I stumbled upon this fusion within the trailers from Kitty Media that included some manga titled that I saw it, an English yaoi comic by the artist Yayoi Neko titled Incubus and soon I got a hold of the series of books and yes I once again fell in love.
I also found as you can see from the link, Yayoi Neko’s DeviantArt page which included bara fanart of characters like Batman and Joker as well as Sherlock and Watson. The artwork is both soft and sexy with that scruffy ragged edge that seems to be lacking within yaoi work. I can understand this I suppose as most yaoi fans like the effeminate male characteristic of the bishoumen in the stories, but then there others like myself that just enjoy a different taste of things.
Until next time, I am Mistress of Yaoi and I say like what you like and be proud of it!
Yaoi Playground 
Finally, I’m not alone in liking Bara! Not many people talk about Bara, but there are some really great titles out there. This should definitely get more attention in the yaoi community! Thank you for sharing, this was an awesome post. đŸ˜€
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It probably will never get too much attention in the yaoi community, but this is part of the reason why I wanted to give it a small spotlight. I also know that even within the yaoi community I am a bit of an oddball. What can I say if I want to talk about something I will talk about it.
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It’s awesome that you did write about it! I stumbled upon Bara by mistake, but it is still just as enjoyable as “traditional ” yaoi.
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