Something I know WAY too much about. I’ve been into YAOI (what it’s called here in the States. “Boy’s love” is what it is called in Japan) since 1998 and have been reading a ton about this. Might even do a paper on it someday.
Anyway, YAOI is an acronym for “yama-nashi, omi-nashi, imi-nashi.” That’s “no peak, no point, no meaning”. (Some people say it stands for “Yamate! Oshiri ga itai!” or “Stop! My butt hurts!” But they are joking. :P) It is written for and marketed to women, not gay males. There are manga out there for gay males and they are very different than Yaoi manga. Yaoi tends to feature bishounen (beautiful males) and be full of angst.
If you are a fan, I highly recommend http://yaoicon.com/ in San Francisco (where else?). I worked for Aestheticism.com there last year and had loads of fun.
As for Fantasy, I can’t think of any anime that are fantasy and don’t take place in modern or future-istic times. Tons of manga though. My fiancée and I are doing scanlations of one of You Higuri-sensei’s doujinshi that’s based on her series “Seimaden”. She draws tons of beautiful manga that features a lot of male/male relationships.
Kaze to Ki no Uta is a great classic that I think everyone should watch.
If there are any questions, I will be happy to answer them. ^___^
J? Jae? Homeboy Jae? He’s being put on the block again next year? This is Shiki…
On that note, I was the (for lack of a better term) official con mascot for Y-con, and I’m no yaoi fan myself; but it’s an extremely interesting genre in it’s evolution and current social implications, and worth looking into, even if just for the academic aspects.
In Mahou Tsukai Tai! (the US dub is AKA Magic User’s Club), one of the five main characters is flamingly gay, and the main male character has one episode of bisexual panic.
In CardCaptor Sakura (not the execrable chopped-up dubbed version), there are a number of same-sex crushes and a few more rather ambiguous ones.
In both of the above, interestingly, the main characters are all mages, and there is a sort of general queerness about their sexuality - a mage is primarily attracted to the mgical power in another mage, rather than their gender, appearance, or even (in CCS) their age.
