#LetsTalkAboutIt
Topic 1.2
> Novel major genres or commonly used genres in DANMEI
Alright, trigger warning... These are based on what I constantly read and doesn't affect the entire danmei collections.
Since I'm reading more danmei then I will focus on this topic.
First, what is Danmei? My rough umderstanding of it is its the entire collection of chinese novels with BL or male and male relationship. It can roughly be divided into two parts-- the censored ones and the NSFW.
Some of the novel recommendation sites use these two genres even though its japanese -- shounen ai and yaoi. Now, lets differentiate the two of them.
SHOUNEN AI means boy's love or bromance. Its a lovestory between two males. It sometimes focus on pure romance, fluff and slice of life.
Meanwhile, YAOI also means the same but contains the hardcore parts, mostly trigger warnings like NSFW, uncensored scenes which of course focuses on sex. Because the censorship in China for BL is extremely high, some authors write censored scenes to describe the act like "bullets fired from the gun" [TEIO] or "the hungry fire beast slowly attacks his opponent who was weakly breathing underneath him" [IANSTB] or literally time skips the scene. Its pretty normal for shounen ai tagged novels. Yaoi can also be divided into some sub-genre or what I call sub-themes. Themes are mostly the plots axis. For example, adult, mature or smut. These can also be found on some genres but are obviously under yaoi. For me, I sometimes based a yaoi novel's content through these sub-themes. For example, only yaoi was in the genre, its either the uncensored scenes were written but not too much to actually cause the readers to practically say "wow, this is intense!". But, the scenes were present but the level would be pure fluff and romance or what we can call normal bed scene. Now, if yaoi-smut-adult-mature were present, or either 2 or more of these is in the genre, that changes everything. For example, trigger warnings like rape, gore, beastiality, harem, incest, BDSM, etc will mostly be found. I am basically basing this on my own experience...so it doesn't mean that genres only containing yaoi even shounen ai won't have bed scenes. I even encounter, a lot of times actually, shounen ai and yaoi in one novel. Its confusing since it contains two different meanings but maybe shounen ai is used by some to describe romance or bromance and yaoi is for the bed scene. To know more about these genres, you can use Google and research about it or find some detailed articles or explanations about it, especially if you are new to the world of BL.
Next up, unlimited flow, quick transmigration or world hopping, transmigration, rebirth, reincarnation, system, instances, survival, horror and apocalypse.
Alright, you may ask me-- why am I talking about a lot of genres and themes at the same time? Because these genres mostly overlaps.
We will first talk about UNLIMITED FLOW. Well, I got confused with this at first. I thought its QT or quick transmigrations but the details were different. UF is focused on instances like games of survival and gaining points to survive or horror instances that provides a lot of golden eggs for the MC. For example, the MC is sick and dying in the real world but still wants to live, he may be bound to a system where he will solve crimes, experience horror movies or plots to gain points and add years to his life. But of course, it is a life and death situation. I like these kinds of themes because the MCs were mostly smart and powerful though sometimes weak and needs the MLs halo.
QT or world hopping focuses on multiple worlds were the MCs soul is placed. Mostly, the plot starts where the MC died or comatosed and his soul will be bound to the system and he will experience different worlds, different lives, different identities to gain points and even return to the real world and gain a second life. Most MCs in these kinds of novels are strong, independent and smart. The plot varies on what the system is focused on. Some are not allowed to be out of character and must follow the plotline, while some had the power to go against the world's protagonists. This makes the entire novel more exciting and meaningful because the MC and the ML will live different lives in different worlds. Its like a multiple of one shot novels in one novel with one couple.
Now, rebirth and reincarnation, I don't have to broadly explain this since its basically obvious what the plot implies, its either for the MC to take revenge or change his fate. But mostly, these stories differ with the sub-themes. For example, rebirth in the modern times, rebirth in the apocalypse, rebirth in the cultivation world or historical times, etc. Now these stories are of course amazing since the MC will have more chances of changing his life because of his golden finger which is the world's future.
Then here comes normal transmigration, either transmigrating into a novel or in another world and living a new life. Mostly, these plots will have 80-90% of the MCs real face and name, some will be a different identity. But of course, these stories are naturally good though it became mainstream and cliche, so it all depends on the author's writing skills.
And of course, some horror genres will have instances, survival and unlimited flow as its sub-themes.
Now, the difference between horror and supernatural. Some says its basically the same but I think its 70-80% different. Supernatural indeed focuses on foreign entities or things we cannot see, and these ones are a basic plot for horror novels. But some horror overlaps not just the supernatural genre but also the psychological and suspense genres. So its not that weird if you see these genres at the same time in some novels.
Well, the basic core for BL novels is romance so it can be a happy ending, an open ending or a tragedy. I don't normally focus on angst ang character abuse, I will talk about this on another topic. I am more of a fluff person. But-- more details on the next topic.
I guess that's mostly what I see in BL novels. Of course there's comedy, drama, fantasy and many more common genres you know.
Thanks for reading this. And if you have more to share, feel free to comment your thoughts.
See you on the next topic. ฅ'ω'ฅ
