The story seems like a clean straight forward stroy,,,

BUt I see people come up with yaoi pairings...

Where do people get these ideas from???

I don't personally think it's a bad thing.

That's exactly why FF.net is so desperately dissapointing in finding some good stories. There's something fangirls should understand: by making two characters yaoi when they're not, they doomed them into loosing themselves in the mass. They're not the characters we know from the manga, they're someones totally different. Violation of a character is a bigger and more serious thing than some people believe.

The mangaka had a plan in creating her characters. She wants to show reality from different angles. Each one characters views it differently (Allen's and Kanda's points are the polar opposite, for example) and that's why they have PERSONALITIES. If every bishounen (cute boy) was yaoi, then that's becoming one with the mass, the faceless "I want"s of the fangirls. (Please note I'm saying 'fangirls because that's the majority of the people of this way of thinking. Not that fanboys can be better...)

All yaoi are bishounen, sure. All the bishounen are not yaoi.

Very few teenage fans understand this, and it applies mostly in the immature writers/readers. ESPECIALLY girls. Considering that D.Gray-man is 13+, it was only expectable for something like this to happen.

Please note that I believe that everyone can write what they believe. But, there are some limits. Not by me, nor you, but from the mangaka herself. There's a REASON why she didn't make this story yaoi. If some want to write boy/boy love, they can use Gravitation, or anything that has yaoi as cannon. Butchering characters is rude.

And no, I'm not a homophobe. I like yaoi and enjoy reading them and watching them, ONLY when it's cannon. Gravitation and FAKE are from my fav mangas.

*sweat-drop*

That, and we can be converted. People say yaoi makes bad stories, but in fact the fic that turned me into reading yaoi was a serial killer story. Plenty of plot, suspense, horror, and best of all, the author knew what she was doing. Excellent grammer and no typos. That story alone turned me into a yaoi fan.

Besides, yaoi stays more true to the story then annoying Mary Sues or other suthor-inserted perfect female characters

Pairings are fanon

Relationships are canon

Issa.. (It's all good...)

I agree with you 100% on those Mary Sues and author-inserted characters though. I'll read yaoi over them for sure. Original characters, if there, should only be used as background characters or as a threat to the potential relationship between two canon characters.

I've seen that this thread is about dead, but I wanna get my point across anyway.

Saying that people who write shounen-ai (please have the courtesy to use the right term; yaoi is sex between two men, shounen-ai, romance) are butchering the characters is utterly rude, period. At least have the decency to include non-canon het pairings in this "butchering" if you are going to claim writing non-canon destroys a character. The significant thing about D.Gray-Man is that there is no canon pairing. Lenalee and Allen have not confessed their undying love, nor has anyone else. For all we know, Allen wearing a near dress and Kanda's questionable sweater choice are subtle hints at their sexual preference. This is what interpretation is for, and if a series is left so open, fans are free to do what they will.

I write shounen-ai by comparing two characters' personalities, not because they look good together. If I believe two characters could work out a relationship, I grow fond of it, and can write it without destroying who they are. No desecration involved. That's the point of fanfiction, isn't it? Fan speculation and writing because it's fun and you want to express yourself. Not everyone has to conform to canon pairings. I can enjoy D.Gray-Man without enjoying the official pairings, thanks. If Hoshino was so offended by people coupling some of the characters together, they could request no fanfiction be written about the series, and fanfiction would ban it being written here.

Claiming that by taking two characters with the potential to work well together, despite being of the same sex is "butchering" their character is both ridiculous and offensive. I think long and hard about a pairing before I like it, and I always find ways to make it work before I dedicate myself to it. Maybe people who view characters flatly wouldn't understand it, but I enjoy dissecting a character completely to gain a better understanding, and seeing who fits best with who.

Do I claim my couples to be canon? No. I'm not gonna try to trick myself, but as long as they work without changing around any personalities (which, believe it or not, I take into account) I'm happy. This hurts no one, so people shouldn't be so rude about it, and use words with such heavy connotation (Butchering? Come on; that's a harsh, intense word that doesn't work here at all. It doesn't take a cleaver to put to guys or two girls together, only a proper understanding of what they're like and if they'll work well with one another).

I'm a few years too late so I apologize if you don't wish for any more feedback. But, though I agree "slashing" a character that clearly has romantic feelings for a female character deviates from his intended character it's never entirely OOC if one knows how to play it right...regarding that there is always those "gay moments" heterosexual men go through especially in the middle ages (you're just not going to see them talk openly about it. Women and young, indoctrinated men especially tend to be ignorant of this fact). For example, a fanfic topic about a one night thing in drunken stupor; or the character later in life opens his mind to other experiences whether he ends up accepting and enjoying them or goes back to being completely straight is purely speculation and up to the writer to depict it.

The male characters in D. Gray Man aren't exactly decidedly tied down or have any decisive romantic interests so it leaves a wider range of possibilities, and I'm not just talking about yaoi. As long as they act like they would within the spectrum of their personalities and beliefs, you can explore these characters by introducing them to circumstance that the anime/book/game etc. hasn't.

As a writer and literary critic and a historian I'm aware of the importance, the joy, and the discoveries made in character exploration even before this site or the Internet existed.

With that said, I have seen well played yaoi--they are just VERY few a far between so I'm sure yaoi critics never find them and I find it a lack of "decency" in the literary world to criticize something without proper research. In the real world one such a critic would be discredited and eventually shrugged off. As a historian I can also tell you its been going on since ancient times all over the world, it just died down when Christianity took over the mind of most western culture and later eastern. Now it's beginning to surface again since the seventies. I'm not just talking about homoerotic and homoromantic literature but the "slashing" of already known male characters.Greek playwrights have done this.

Sadly young teenage girls that don't listen to their English teachers or read any good, mind-expanding books do not try to delve into the characters or care to reason their interpretations of them and just do what they want with their personalities, like making them "cute and uke" (seen it done with Harry Potter, Allen Walker, Yagami Raito, etc) in order to please their fantasies; and these fics make up most of the anime and video-game fandoms giving yaoi a bad name.

Likewise I've also seen "mature" people who aren't very knowledgeable in the literary department try their hands at "intelligent" critique, or down right flaming, without fully understanding the depth of the character, of which is never displayed in the game or anime, not understanding that there is more to both fictional characters as well as real people that a single story cannot convey hence character exploration and analysis, and seem to think that these anime characters are OOC in every little thing they do in a fic that they don't seem to do in the limited circumstances they are subjected to in the original story line. Likewise, anime and games and manga cannot clearly convey the depth of emotions and thoughts of a character unlike written fiction. It makes them two-dimensional and unrealistic. Not that by "slashing" them one accomplishes this but my point is that it is ignorant and unwise to generalize when there are indeed better characterizations in yaoi stories than hetero-paired fics. It's just that yaoi critics are not interested in searching enough to find them. One of the reasons for fanfiction is character exploration as well as self-pleasing and escapism, and yaoi is not entirely amiss under any of these reasons.

Also, the latest of anime has tapped into the desires of it greater audience, young fanboys and girls, and despite "hetero leanings" they leave homosexual puns and implications in jest. It's all about sales, and admittedly westerners complain about yaoi fanfiction more than the Japanese.

During one of the D Gray Man "omakes" Kanda is in a hot spring when Allen suddenly pops out of the water and surprises him. When Kanda asks him what he is doing there Allen mischievously replies "Fanservice?" Kanda gets bashful and retorts what the hell he means by that and Allen shrugs it off smugly. After which Lavi surfaces and says "THIS is fanservice" and a "think bubble" comes from both Lavi and Allen where Miranda and Lenalee are together in a hot spring.

EVERY animator and manga artist knows that their aim is to sell to the largest consumer group and that is why you see A LOT of male and female homosexual implications, jokes, innuendos and such for the fanboys and girls, but by keeping them mostly heterosexual they can aim at BOTH. That "omake" was teasing both groups of its fans. The boys who dream about their favorite female characters together as well as the yaoi fangirls.

This analysist made a GREAT point. Here's the link if you are interested.

http://blogs.arts.unimelb.edu.au/refractory/2006/12/04/why-are-japanese-girls%E2%80%99-comics-full-of-boys-bonking1-mark-mclelland/

Now I wrap up with these words. As one that does this for life you will see an abundance of "yaoi" and "yuri" implications on most anime and manga as "fanservice" because that's what the majority of the consumers in Japan want.

Facts are facts. Most people that criticize yaoi and yuri fanfiction and doujinshi, you will note if you further your studies on this subject, are WESTERNERS. You won't see the majority of Japanese men and women who are not into yaoi criticize this in itself...just if it's badly written.

Greece, learn without biased views before arrogantly spouting your criticism. Educate yourself. Most Japanese manga and anime aim at fangirls and fanboys that dream of their favorite characters as homosexual, so unless its an actual romantic-based story between a man and a woman, you will see yaoi and yuri implications in recent anime. Facts are facts either take them or comfort you enraged ignorant prejudices by shouting to the high heavens its an insult to canon (laughs). You could always get a job at an actual manga/anime production company in Japan and see the horrible truth for yourself.

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