Everyone talks about yuri bait because it is so much more prevalent in anime, but just because the girls and all the subtext that lewd hand-holding and playful pecks on the cheek create get more of the focus doesn’t mean the other end of the queer gender equality spectrum doesn’t happen at all in anime.
Yaoi bait anime is definitely a lot more rare, but because shounen ai and yaoi don’t have quite the same murky definition as yuri does, it is a lot easier to spot when the creators are trying for it.
Yaoi Bait Anime
Elegant Yokai Apartment Life
Of all the places you expected to find some really strong yaoi bait, it probably wasn’t in an anime about a guy trying to come to terms with the fact that his new cheap apartment building is home to a whole bunch of yokai, which he is deathly afraid of.
Curiously enough, he meets a girl that can defend him against more aggressive, malicious, or just socially inept yokai, which is usually what would serve as a sort of romantic meet-cute, but instead, Elegant Yokai Apartment Life—frequently throughout the series—focuses its romantic baiting more on the main character and his relationship with his male best friend.
This is certainly no boy’s love series, nor is it even a romance, but the way his relationship is depicted with both his best friend and many other men in the dorms is the very definition of yaoi bait.
Karneval
There is a decent attempt in boy’s love to create gay stories that appeal to gay men and not just fujoshi audiences, but Karneval is not that. Karneval is, in fact, an attempt to create a yaoi-coded story to bring in female audiences to a fantasy action mystery story about a special organization that deals with terrible monsters that the police can’t handle.
The yaoi bait is a bit more subtle in Karneval. In fact, to spot it, you’d have to be decently familiar with common yaoi tropes. However, for those that can see the subtle yaoi in the relationships, you can be sure that was added to, at the time, draw in those passionate fujoshi shippers without ever giving them satisfaction.
Kiss Him, Not Me
Not only does Kiss Him, Not Me carry a somewhat unhealthy message that the female main character was only worthy of affection from a reverse harem of men after dropping a bunch of weight suddenly, but it is also some of the most unashamed yaoi bait for fujoshis.
In fact, yaoi baiting is pretty much its hook.
As Kiss Him, Not Me follows a fujoshi who frequently shipped her male friends together, and continues to ship them even after they all start pursuing her romantically, it is peak bait. However, the series does eventually begin to transform into a straight romance as it goes on, leaving its yaoi sensibilities further and further behind.
Bang Brave Bang Bravern
I can accredit Bravern to being the mecha anime that made me have the stunning revelation that a goodly chunk of mecha anime is actually stuffed with homoeroticism. Bravern accomplished this by turning up the dial of homoeroticism from “subtle” to “slapping you right in the face, “ but, you know, in a good way.
Kyo Kara Maoh
While Kyo Kara Maoh is gladly welcomed as the sole gay isekai about two men that isn’t actually just a hentai, but it isn’t quite right to say Kyo Kara Maoh is shounen ai. It is from an age where anime had to be gay in a “saying it without saying it” kind of way, like how Dear Brother had yuri, but only with femme and masc pairings and no one is gay at the end.
So of course Kyo Kara Maoh is very obviously gay, but no one is ever going to say it and it is covered in a heteronormitive cozy blanket of comedy.
Anyway, this early isekai series features a boy literally flushed into another world through a toilet while being bullied, and then does typical isekai things. In this case, he is told he will become the next demon king due to his Asian looks. He then gets magic, endears himself to demons, and gets a fiancee—who is a beautiful man. In fact, everyone is a beautiful man. The series has a decently large cast, and you can count the women in that cast on one hand.
Black Butler
Similar to how Inuyasha brought female and male fans together by blending together fun action and cute romance, Black Butler brought male and female fans together by combining demon sacrifice-levels of dark action with a not subtle amount of yaoi bait between the male leads.
While Black Butler is about a boy who sold his soul to a demon for his help to reap bloody vengeance, the demon who has dibs on his soul took a liking to him as a person. So, in between the shounen action, you get a character dynamic between the a boy and his demon that is akin to a sultry and sinister vampire yearning to drink a virginal young lamb dry.
The bait is out there, and the Black Butler shippers have taken it.
07 Ghost
There has long been the black and white opinion in the anime industry that girls like romance and boys like action. However, sometimes, you get a series that tried to cross those lines. They wanted to be the next Sailor Moon that appealed to girls with action or Inuyasha that appealed to boys with romance. However, if you are trying to make a male action anime appeal to girls, you need to add in romance. 07 Ghost is an anime of action and intrigue that also has the most alluring romantic chemistry between its male leads.
The series has all the dynamics of seme/uke relationships, but everyone keeps their pants on – with shirts optional.
07 Ghost and its story of an amnesiac with a special birthright and an even more special power trying to not be slaughtered by a corrupt military didn’t succeed much as an action anime since the sultry character relationship dynamics became more compelling than the action.
Devils and Realist
You know how there are dozens of shoujo anime, usually visual novel adaptations, about a bland heroine who is that special someone that can do a special something and then a reverse harem of handsome boys that want to use that power show up and invade her life?
Devils and Realsit is exactly that, but with a male protagonist.
In Devils and Realist, the main character, devoted to science and reality, is ransacking his family estate after they have gone bankrupt to find money to fund his education. He accidentally summons a demon and learns that he is the elector that is the only one capable of choosing a temporary successor for Lucifer, who is in a deep slumber. So now, he is besieged by a series of demons—each more ridiculously handsome than the last—who all want his favor.
Free
Free is a sports anime that is playing a game of gay chicken with itself.
It does everything short of locking lips and clear communication in order to portray young men with intimate feelings for each other. While also loaded with female fan service in the form of shiny, near-naked competitive swimmers in speedoes, Free also wants you to know that these boys have complex issues with each other that just so happen to match up into perfect, shippable pairings.
Do you have more anime recommendations that are subtly—or not-so-subtly—yaoi bait? Let fans know in the comments section below.
