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Yaoi

Yaoi (やおい ), also known as boys' love (ボーイズ ラブ) and its abbreviation BL (ビーエル), is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for women and is thus distinct from bara (gay manga), a genre of homoerotic media marketed to gay men, though yaoi does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. Yaoi spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works. While "yaoi" is commonly used in the west as an umbrella term for Japanese-influenced media with male-male relationships, "boys' love" and "BL" are the generic terms for this kind of media in Japan and much of Asia.

The genre originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of shōjo manga, or comics for girls. Several terms were used for the new genre, including shōnen-ai (少年愛), tanbi (耽美), and June (ジュネ). The term yaoi emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the context of dōjinshi (同人誌) culture as a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi ("no climax, no point, no meaning"), where it was used in a self-deprecating manner to refer to amateur fan works that focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development, and that often parodied mainstream manga and anime by depicting male characters from popular series in sexual scenarios. "Boys' love" was later adopted by Japanese publications in the 1990s as an umbrella term for male-male romance media marketed to women.

Concepts and themes associated with yaoi include androgynous men known as bishōnen; diminished female characters; narratives that emphasize homosociality and de-emphasize socio-cultural homophobia; and depictions of rape. A defining characteristic of yaoi is the practice of pairing characters in relationships according to the roles of seme, the sexual top or active pursuer, and uke, the sexual bottom or passive pursued. Yaoi has a robust global presence, having spread since the 1990s through international licensing and distribution, as well as through unlicensed circulation of works by yaoi fans online. Yaoi works, culture, and fandom have been studied and discussed by scholars and journalists worldwide.

Etymology and terminology
Multiple terms exist to describe Japanese and Japanese-influenced male-male romance fiction as a genre. In a 2015 survey of professional Japanese male-male romance fiction writers by Kazuko Suzuki, five primary subgenres were identified:

 * (少年愛)
 * While the term shōnen-ai historically connoted ephebophilia or pederasty, beginning in the 1970s it was used to describe a new genre of shōjo manga (girls' manga) featuring romance between bishōnen (lit. "beautiful boys"), a term for androgynous or effeminate male characters. Early shōnen-ai works were inspired by European literature, the writings of Taruho Inagaki, and the Bildungsroman genre. Shōnen-ai often features references to literature, history, science, and philosophy; Suzuki describes the genre as being "pedantic" and "difficult to understand", with "philosophical and abstract musings" that challenged young readers who were often only able to understand the references and deeper themes as they grew older.

 * Tanbi (耽美)
 * Tanbi as a term and concept predates male-male romance manga that emerged in the 1970s, having originated to describe erotic highbrow literary fiction by authors such as Yukio Mishima, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, and Yasunari Kawabata. By the 1980s, magazines aimed at shōnen-ai fans were using the term to describe fiction by both amateur and professional writers published in those magazines, as well as to designate literature with themes of homoeroticism and implied homosexuality by authors such as Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau, Tatsuhiko Shibusawa, and Mishima. Tanbi in this context is primarily used to describe prose fiction, but has also been used for manga and visual art.

 * June (ジュネ)
 * Derived from the eponymous male-male romance manga magazine first published in 1978, the term was originally used to describe works that resembled the art style of manga published in that magazine. It has also been used to describe amateur works depicting male homosexuality that are original creations and not derivative works. By the 1990s, the term had largely fallen out of use in favor of "boys' love"; it has been suggested that publishers wishing to get a foothold in the June market coined "boys' love" to disassociate the genre from the publisher of June.

 * Yaoi (やおい)
 * Coined in the late 1970s by manga artists Yasuko Sakata and Akiko Hatsu, yaoi is a portmanteau of yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (山[場]なし、落ちなし、意味なし), which translates to "no climax, no point, no meaning". Initially used by artists as a self-deprecating and ironic euphemism, the portmanteau refers to how early yaoi works typically focused on sex to the exclusion of plot and character development; it is also a subversive reference to the classical Japanese narrative structure of introduction, development, twist, and conclusion.

 * Boys' love (ボーイズ ラブ)
 * Typically written as the acronym BL (ビーエル), or alternately as "boy's love" or "boys love", the term is a wasei-eigo construction derived from the literal English translation of shōnen-ai. First used in 1991 by the magazine Image in an effort to collect these disparate genres under a single term, the term became widely popularized in 1994 after being used by the magazine Puff (magazine). "BL" is the common term used to describe male-male romance media marketed to women in Japan and much of Asia, though its usage in the West is inconsistent.

Despite attempts by researchers to codify differences between these subgenres, in practice these terms are used interchangeably. Kazumi Nagaike and Tomoko Aoyama note that while BL and yaoi are the most common generic terms for this kind of media, they specifically avoid attempts at defining subgenres, noting that the differences between them are ill-defined and that even when differentiated, the subgenres "remain thematically intertwined."

In Suzuki's investigation of these subgenres, she notes that "there is no appropriate and convenient Japanese shorthand term to embrace all subgenres of male-male love fiction by and for women." While yaoi has become an umbrella term in the West for Japanese-influenced comics with male-male relationships, and it is the term preferentially used by American manga publishers for works of this kind, Japan uses the term yaoi to denote dōjinshi and works that focus on sex scenes. In both usages, yaoi and boys' love excludes gay manga (bara), a genre which also depicts gay male sexual relationships, but is written for and mostly by gay men. In the West, the term shōnen-ai is sometimes used to describe titles that focus on romance over explicit sexual content, while yaoi is used to describe titles that primarily feature sexually explicit themes and subject material. Yaoi can also be used by Western fans as a label for anime or manga-based slash fiction. The Japanese use of yaoi to denote only works with explicit scenes sometimes clashes with the Western use of the word to describe the genre as a whole, creating confusion between Japanese and Western audiences.

Before 1970: The origins of shōnen-ai
Homosexuality and androgyny have a history in Japan dating to ancient times, as seen in practices such as shudō (衆道) and kagema (陰間). The country shifted away from a tolerance of homosexuality amid Westernization during the Meiji Era (1868-1912), and moved towards hostile social attitudes towards homosexuality and the implementation of anti-sodomy laws.

In the face of this legal and cultural shift, artists who depicted male homosexuality in their work typically did so through subtext. Illustrations by Kashō Takabatake in the shōnen manga (boys' comics) magazine Nihon Shōnen formed the foundation of what would become the aesthetic of bishōnen: boys and young men, often in homosocial or homoerotic contexts, who are defined by their "ambivalent passivity, fragility, ephemerality, and softness." The 1961 novel A Lovers' Forest by tanbi writer Mari Mori, which follows the relationship between a professor and his younger male lover, is regarded as an influential precursor to the shōnen-ai genre. Mori's works were influenced by European literature, particularly Gothic literature, and laid the foundation for many of the common tropes of shōnen-ai and yaoi: western exoticism, educated and wealthy characters, significant age differences among couples, and fanciful or even surreal settings.

In manga, the concept of gekiga (劇画) emerged in the late 1950s, which sought to use manga to tell serious and grounded stories aimed at adult audiences. Gekiga inspired the creation of manga that depicted realistic human relationships, and opened the way for manga that explored human sexuality in a non-pornographic context. Hideko Mizuno's 1969 shōjo manga (girls' comics) series Fire! (1969–1971), which eroticized its male protagonists and depicted male homosexuality in American rock and roll culture, is noted as an influential work in this regard.

1970s and 1980s: From shōnen-ai to yaoi
Contemporary Japanese homoerotic romance manga originated in the 1970s as a subgenre of shōjo manga. The decade saw the arrival of a new generation of shōjo manga artists, most notable among them the Year 24 Group. The Year 24 Group contributed significantly to the development of the shōjo manga, introducing a greater diversity of themes and subject material to the genre that drew inspiration from by Japanese and European literature, cinema, and history. Members of the group, including Keiko Takemiya and Moto Hagio, created works that depicted male homosexuality: In The Sunroom (1970) by Takemiya is considered the first work of the genre that would become known as shōnen-ai, followed by Hagio's The November Gymnasium (1971).

Takemiya, Hagio, Toshie Kihara, Ryoko Yamagishi, and Kaoru Kurimoto were among the most significant shōnen-ai artists of this era; notable works include The Heart of Thomas (1974–1975) by Hagio and Kaze to Ki no Uta (1976-1984) by Takemiya. Works by these artists typically featured tragic romances between androgynous bishōnen in historic European settings. Though these works were nominally aimed at an audience of adolescent girls and young women, they also attracted adult gay and lesbian readers. During this same period, the first gay manga magazines were published: Barazoku, the first commercially circulated gay men's magazine in Japan, was published in 1971, and served as a major influence on Takemiya and the development of shōnen-ai.

The dōjinshi (self-published works) subculture emerged contemporaneously in the 1970s (see Media below), and in 1975, the first Comiket was held as a gathering of amateur artists who produce dōjinshi. The term yaoi, initially used by some creators of male-male romance dōjinshi to describe their creations ironically, emerged to describe amateur works that were influenced by shōnen-ai and gay manga. Early yaoi dōjinshi produced for Comiket were typically derivative works, with glam rock artists such as David Bowie and Queen as popular subjects as a result of the influence of Fire!; yaoi dōjinshi were also more sexually explicit than shōnen-ai.

In reaction to the success of shōnen-ai and early yaoi, publishers sought to exploit the market by creating magazines devoted to the genre. Young female illustrators cemented themselves in the manga industry by publishing yaoi works, with this genre later becoming "a transnational subculture." Publishing house Magazine Magazine, which published the gay manga magazine Sabu (magazine), launched the magazine June in 1978, while Minori Shobo launched Allan in 1980. Both magazines initially specialized in shōnen-ai, which Magazine Magazine described as "halfway between tanbi literature and pornography," and also published articles on homosexuality, literary fiction, illustrations, and amateur yaoi works. The success of June was such that the term June-mono or more simply June began to compete with the term shōnen-ai to describe works depicting male homosexuality.

By the late 1980s, the popularity of professionally published shōnen-ai was declining, and yaoi published as dōjinshi was becoming more popular. Mainstream shōnen manga with Japanese settings such as Captain Tsubasa became popular source material for derivative works by yaoi creators, and the genre increasingly depicted Japanese settings over western settings. Works influenced by shōnen-ai in the 1980s began to depict older protagonists and adopted a realist style in both plot and artwork, as typified by manga such as Banana Fish (1985–1994) by Akimi Yoshida and Tomoi (1986) by Wakuni Akisato. The 1980s also saw the proliferation of yaoi into anime, drama CDs, and light novels; the 1982 anime adaptation of Patalliro! was the first television anime to depict shōnen-ai themes, while Kaze to Ki no Uta and Earthian were adapted into anime in the original video animation (home video) format in 1987 and 1989, respectively.

1990s: Mainstream popularity and yaoi ronsō
The growing popularity of yaoi attracted the attention of manga magazine editors, many of whom recruited yaoi dōjinshi authors to their publications; Zetsuai 1989 (1989–1991) by Minami Ozaki, a yaoi series published in the shōjo magazine Margaret, was originally a Captain Tsubasa dōjinshi created by Ozaki that she adapted into an original work. By 1990, seven Japanese publishers included yaoi content in their offerings, which kickstarted the commercial publishing market of the genre. Between 1990 and 1995, thirty magazines devoted to yaoi were established: Magazine Be × Boy, founded in 1993, became one of the most influential yaoi manga magazines of this era. The manga in these magazines were influenced by realist stories like Banana Fish, and moved away from the shōnen-ai standards of the 1970s and 1980s. Shōnen-ai works that were published during this period were typically comedies rather than melodramas, such as Gravitation (1996–2002) by Maki Murakami. Consequently, yaoi and "boys' love" (BL) came to be the most popular terms to describe works depicting male-male romance, eclipsing shōnen-ai and June.

An increasing proportion of shōjo manga in the 1990s began to integrate yaoi elements into their plots. The manga artist group Clamp, which itself began as a group creating yaoi dōjinshi, published multiple works containing yaoi elements during this period, such as RG Veda (1990–1995), Tokyo Babylon (1991–1994), and Cardcaptor Sakura (1996–2000). When these works were released in North America, they were among the first yaoi-influenced media to be encountered by Western audiences. BL gained popularity in mainland China in the late 1990s; the country subsequently outlawed the publishing and distribution of BL works.

The mid-1990s saw the so-called "yaoi debate" or yaoi ronsō (や お い 論争), a debate held primarily in a series of essays published in the feminist magazine Choisir from 1992 to 1997. In an open letter, Japanese gay writer Masaki Satō criticized the genre as homophobic for not depicting gay men accurately, and called fans of yaoi "disgusting women" who "have a perverse interest in sexual intercourse between men." A years-long debate ensued, with yaoi fans and artists contending that yaoi is entertainment for women that does not seek to be a realistic depiction of homosexuality, and instead serves as a refuge from the misogyny of Japanese society. The scholarly debate that the yaoi ronsō engendered led to the formation of the field of "BL studies", which focus on the study of BL and the relationship between women and BL. It additionally impacted creators of yaoi: author Chiyo Kurihara abandoned yaoi to focus on heterosexual pornography as a result of the yaoi ronsō, while Hisako Takamatsu took into account the arguments of the genre's critics to create works more accommodating of a gay audience.

2000s–present: Globalization of yaoi and BL
The economic crisis caused by the Lost Decade came to affect the manga industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but did not particularly impact the yaoi market; on the contrary, yaoi magazines continued to proliferate during this period, and sales of yaoi media increased. In 2004, Otome Road in Ikebukuro emerged as a major cultural destination for yaoi fandom, with multiple stores dedicated to shōjo and yaoi goods. The 2000s also saw an increase in male readers of yaoi, with a 2008 bookstore survey finding that between 25 and 30 percent of yaoi readers were male.

The 2000s saw significant growth of yaoi in international markets, beginning with the founding of the American anime convention Yaoi-Con in 2001. The first officially-licensed English-language translations of yaoi manga were published in the North American market in 2003 (see Media below); the market expanded rapidly before contracting in 2008 as a result of the global financial crisis of 2007–2008, but continued to grow slowly in the following years. South Korea saw the development of BL in the form of manhwa, notably Martin and John (2006) by Park Hee-jung and Crush on You (2006) by Lee Kyung-ha.

The 2010s and 2020s saw an increase in the popularity of yaoi-influenced media in China and Thailand in the form of web novels, live-action films, and live-action television dramas (see Media below). Though "boys' love" and "BL" have become the generic terms for this material across Asia, in Thailand, BL dramas are sometimes referred to as "Y" or "Y series" as a shorthand for yaoi. Thai Series Y explicitly adapts the content of Japanese BL to the Thai local context and in recent years has become increasingly popular with fans around the world who often view Thai BL as separate to its Japanese antecedents. Thai BL also deliberately borrows from K-pop celebrity culture in the development of its own style of idols known as khu jin (imaginary couples) who are designed to be paired together by Thai BL's predominantly female fans. For cultural anthropologist Thomas Baudinette, BL series produced in Thailand represent the next stage in the historic development of yaoi, which is increasingly becoming "dislocated" from Japan among international fans' understanding of the genre.

While yaoi fandom in China traces back to the late 1990s as danmei (the Mandarin reading of the Japanese term tanbi), state regulations in China made it difficult for danmei writers to publish their works online, with a 2009 ordinance by the National Publishing Administration of China banning most danmei online fiction. In 2015, laws prohibiting depictions of same-sex relationships in television and film were implemented in China. The growth in streaming service providers in the 2010s is regarded as a driving force behind the production of BL dramas across Asia, as online distribution provides a platform for media containing non heterosexual material, which is frequently not permitted on broadcast television.

Bishōnen
The protagonists of yaoi are often bishōnen (美少年), "highly idealised" boys and young men who blend both masculine and feminine qualities. Bishōnen as a concept can be found disparately throughout East Asia, but its specific aesthetic manifestation in 1970s shōjo manga (and subsequently in yaoi manga) drew influence from popular culture of the era, including glam rock artists such as David Bowie, actor Björn Andrésen's portrayal of Thaddeus in the 1971 film adaptation of Death in Venice, and kabuki onnagata Bandō Tamasaburō. Though bishōnen are not exclusive to yaoi, the androgyny of bishōnen is often exploited to explore notions of sexuality and gender in yaoi works.

The late 2010s saw the increasing popularity of masculine men in yaoi that are reminiscent of the body types typical in gay manga, with growing emphasis on stories featuring muscular bodies and older characters. A 2017 survey by yaoi publisher Juné Manga found that while over 80% of their readership previously preferred bishōnen body types exclusively, 65% now enjoy both bishōnen and muscular body types. Critics and commentators have noted that this shift in preferences among yaoi readers, and subsequent creation of works that feature characteristics of both yaoi and gay manga, represents a blurring of the distinctions between the genres; anthropologist Thomas Baudinette notes in his fieldwork that gay men in Japan "saw no need to sharply disassociate BL from [gay manga] when discussing their consumption of 'gay media'."

Seme and uke
The two participants in a yaoi relationship (and to a lesser extent in yuri) are often referred to as seme (攻め) and uke (受け). These terms originated in martial arts, and were later appropriated as Japanese LGBT slang to refer to the insertive and receptive partners in anal sex. Aleardo Zanghellini suggests that the martial arts terms have special significance to a Japanese audience, as an archetype of the gay male relationship in Japan includes same-sex love between samurai and their companions. He suggests that the samurai archetype is responsible for age differences and hierarchical variations in power of some relationships portrayed in yaoi and boys' love.

The seme is often depicted as restrained, physically powerful, and protective; he is generally older and taller, with a stronger chin, shorter hair, smaller eyes, and a more stereotypically masculine and "macho" demeanour than the uke. The seme usually pursues the uke, who often has softer, androgynous, feminine features with bigger eyes and a smaller build, and is often physically weaker than the seme. The roles of seme and uke can alternatively be established by who is dominant in the relationship; a character can take the uke role even if he is not presented as feminine, simply by being juxtaposed against and pursued by a more dominant and masculine character. Anal sex is ubiquitous in yaoi, and is typically rendered explicitly and not merely implied; Zanghellini notes that illustrations of anal sex almost always position the characters to face each other rather than "doggy style", and that the uke rarely fellates the seme, but instead receives the sexual and romantic attentions of the seme.

Though McLelland notes that authors are typically "interested in exploring, not repudiating" the dynamics between the seme and uke, not all works adhere to seme and uke tropes. The possibility of switching roles is often a source of playful teasing and sexual excitement for the characters, indicating an interest among many genre authors in exploring the performative nature of the roles. Riba (リバ), a shorthand for "reversible" (リバーシブル), is used to describe couples where the seme and uke roles are not strictly defined. Occasionally, authors will forego the stylisations of the seme and uke to portray both lovers as "equally attractive handsome men", or will subvert expectations of dominance by depicting the active pursuer in the relationship as taking the passive role during sex. In other cases, the uke is presented as more sexually aggressive than the seme; in these instances, the roles are sometimes referred to as osoi uke (襲い受け) and hetare seme (ヘタレ攻め).

Diminished female characters
Female characters often have minor roles in yaoi, or are absent altogether. Suzuki notes that mothers in particular are often portrayed in a negative light; she suggests this is because the character and reader alike are seeking to substitute the absence of unconditional maternal love with the "forbidden" all-consuming love presented in yaoi. In yaoi dōjinshi parodies based on existing works that include female characters, the female's role is typically either minimized or the character is killed off. Yukari Fujimoto noted that when shōnen manga is used as inspiration for yaoi, that "it seems that yaoi readings and likeable female characters are mutually exclusive." Nariko Enomoto, a yaoi author, argues that women are typically not depicted in yaoi as their presence adds an element of realism that distracts from the fantasy narrative.

Since the late 2000s, women have appeared more frequently in yaoi works as supporting characters. Lunsing notes that early shōnen-ai and yaoi were often regarded as misogynistic, with the diminished role of female characters cited as evidence of the internalized misogyny of the genre's largely female readership. He suggests that the decline of these misogynistic representations over time is evidence that female yaoi readers "overcame this hate, possibly thanks to their involvement with yaoi."

Gay equality
Yaoi stories are often strongly homosocial, giving men freedom to bond and pursue shared goals together (as in dojinshi adaptations of shōnen manga), or to rival each other (as in Embracing Love). This spiritual bond and equal partnership is depicted as overcoming the male-female gender hierarchy. As is typical in romance fiction, couples depicted in yaoi stories often must overcome obstacles that are emotional or psychological rather than physical. Akiko Mizoguchi notes that while early yaoi stories depicted homosexuality as a source of shame to heighten dramatic tension in this regard, beginning in the mid-2000s the genre began to depict gay identity with greater sensitivity and nuance, with series such as Brilliant Blue featuring stories of coming out and the characters' gradual acceptance within the wider community. Yaoi typically depicts Japanese society as more accepting of LGBT people than it is in reality, which Mizoguchi contends is a form of activism among yaoi authors. Some longer-form stories such as Fake and Kizuna: Bonds of Love have the couple form a family unit, depicting them cohabiting and adopting children. It is also possible that they marry and have children, as in Omegaverse publications. Fujimoto cites Ossan's Love (2016–2018) and other BL television dramas that emerged in the 2010s as a "'missing link' to bridge the gap between BL fiction and gay people," arguing that when BL narratives are presented using human actors, it produces a "subconscious change in the perception of viewers" towards acceptance of homosexuality.

Although gay male characters are empowered in yaoi, the genre rarely addresses the reality of socio-cultural homophobia. According to Hisako Miyoshi, vice editor-in-chief for Libre Publishing, while earlier yaoi focused "more on the homosexual way of life from a realistic perspective", over time the genre has become less realistic and more comedic, and the stories are "simply for entertainment". Yaoi manga often have fantastical, historical or futuristic settings, and many fans consider the genre to be escapist fiction. Homophobia, when it is presented as an issue at all, is used as a plot device to heighten drama, or to show the purity of the leads' love. Rachel Thorn has suggested that as yaoi is primarily a romance genre, its readers may be turned off by political themes such as homophobia. Yaoi author Makoto Tateno expressed scepticism that realistic depictions of gay men's lives would become common in yaoi "because girls like fiction more than realism". Alan Williams argues that the lack of a gay identity in yaoi is due to yaoi being postmodern, stating that "a common utterance in the genre—when a character claims that he is 'not gay, but just in love with a man'—has both homophobic (or modern) temporal undertones but also non-identitarian (postmodern) ones." In 2019, BL manga magazine editors have stated that stories where a man is concerned about coming out as gay have become uncommon and the trope can be seen as outdated if used as a source of conflict between the characters.

Rape
Rape fantasy is a theme commonly associated with yaoi. Anal sex is understood as a means of expressing commitment to a partner, and in yaoi, the "apparent violence" of rape is transformed into a "measure of passion". Rape scenes in yaoi are rarely presented as crimes with an assaulter and a victim: scenes where a seme rapes an uke are not depicted as symptomatic of the violent desires of the seme, but rather as evidence of the uncontrollable attraction felt by the seme towards the uke. Such scenes are often a plot device used to make the uke see the seme as more than just a good friend, and typically result in the uke falling in love with the seme.

While Japanese society often shuns or looks down upon women who are raped in reality, the yaoi genre depicts men who are raped as still "imbued with innocence" and are typically still loved by their rapists after the act, a trope that may have originated with Kaze to Ki no Uta. Kristy Valenti of The Comics Journal notes that rape narratives typically focus on how "irresistible" the uke is and how the seme "cannot control himself" in his presence, thus absolving the seme of responsibility for his rape of the uke. She notes this is likely why the narrative climax of many yaoi stories depicts the seme recognizing, and taking responsibility for, his sexual desires. Where the uke is raped by a third party, the relationship is shown to be emotionally supportive. Conversely, some yaoi stories such as Under Grand Hotel subvert the rape fantasy trope entirely by presenting rape as a negative and traumatic act.

A 2012 survey of English-language yaoi fans found that just 15 percent of respondents reported that the presence of rape in yaoi media made them uncomfortable, as the majority of respondents could distinguish between the "fantasy, genre-driven rape" of yaoi and rape as a crime in reality. This "surprisingly high tolerance" for depictions of rape is contextualized by a content analysis, which found that just 13 percent of all original Japanese yaoi available commercially in English contains depictions of rape. These findings are argued as "possibly belying the perception that rape is almost ubiquitous in BL/yaoi."

Tragedy
Tragic narratives that focused on the suffering of the protagonists were popular early June stories, particularly stories that ended in one or both members of the central couple dying from suicide. By the mid-1990s, happy endings were more common; when tragic endings are shown, the cause is typically not an interpersonal conflict between the couple, but "the cruel and intrusive demands of an uncompromising outside world". Thorn theorizes that depictions of tragedy and abuse in yaoi exist to allow the audience "to come to terms in some way with their own experiences of abuse."

Subgenres and related genres
Bara (薔薇), also known as gay manga (ゲイ漫画) or gei komi (ゲイコミ) is a genre focused on male same-sex love, as created primarily by gay men for a gay male audience. Gay manga typically focuses on masculine men with varying degrees of muscle, body fat, and body hair, in contrast to the androgynous bishōnen of yaoi. Graham Kolbeins writes in Massive: Gay Erotic Manga and the Men Who Make It that while yaoi can be understood as a primarily feminist phenomenon, in that it depicts sex that is free of the patriarchal trappings of heterosexual pornography, gay manga is primarily an expression of gay male identity. The early 2000s saw a degree of overlap between yaoi and gay manga in BDSM-themed publications: the yaoi BDSM anthology magazine Zettai Reido (絶対零度) had several male contributors, while several female yaoi authors have contributed stories to BDSM-themed gay manga anthologies or special issues, occasionally under male pen names.

Shotacon (ショタコン) is a genre that depicts prepubescent or pubescent boys in a romantic or pornographic context. Originating as an offshoot of yaoi in the early 1980s, the subgenre was later adopted by male readers and became influenced by lolicon (works depicting prepubescent or pubescent girls); the conflation of shotacon in its contemporary usage with yaoi is thus not universally accepted, as the genre constitutes material that marketed to both male and female audiences.

Omegaverse is a male-male romance subgenre that originated from the American series Supernatural and in the 2010s became a subgenre of both commercial and non-commercial yaoi. Stories in the genre are premised on societies wherein humans are divided into a dominance hierarchy of dominant "alphas", neutral "betas", and submissive "omegas". These terms are derived from those used in ethology to describe social hierarchies in animals.

The "dom/sub universe" subgenre emerged in 2017 and gained popularity in 2021. The subgenre uses BDSM elements and also draws influences from Omegaverse, particularly the use of a caste system.

Media
In 2003, 3.8% of weekly Japanese manga magazines were dedicated exclusively to BL. Notable ongoing and defunct magazines include Magazine Be × Boy, June, Craft, Chara, Dear+, Opera, Ciel (magazine), and Gush. Several of these magazines were established as companion publications to shōjo manga magazines, as they include material considered too explicit for an all-ages audience; Ciel was established as a companion to Monthly Asuka, while Dear+ was established as a companion to Wings. A 2008 assessment estimated that the Japanese commercial BL market grossed approximately ¥12 billion annually, with novel sales generating ¥250 million per month, manga generating ¥400 million per month, CDs generating ¥180 million per month, and video games generating ¥160 million per month. A 2010 report estimated that the Japanese BL market was worth approximately ¥21.3 billion in both 2009 and 2010. In 2019, editors from Lynx, Magazine Be × Boy, and On BLUE have stated that, with the growth of BL artists in Taiwan and South Korea, they have recruited and published several of their works in Japan with expectations that the BL manga industry will diversify.

Fan works (dōjinshi)

The dōjinshi (同人誌) (i.e., self-published fan works) subculture emerged contemporaneously with yaoi subculture and Western fan fiction culture in the 1970s. Characteristic similarities of fan works in both Japan and the West include non-adherence to a standard narrative structures and a particular popularity of science fiction themes. Early yaoi dōjinshi were amateur publications that were not controlled by media restrictions, were typically derivative works based on existing manga and anime, and were often written by teenagers for an adolescent audience. Several legitimate manga artists produce or produced dōjinshi: the manga artist group Clamp began as an amateur dōjinshi circle creating yaoi works based on Saint Seiya, while Kodaka Kazuma and Fumi Yoshinaga have produced dōjinshi concurrently with professionally-published works. Many publishing companies review yaoi dōjinshi to recruit talented amateurs; this practice has led to careers in mainstream manga for Youka Nitta, Shungiku Nakamura, and others.

Typically, yaoi dōjinshi feature male-male pairings from non-romantic manga and anime. Much of the material derives from male-oriented shōnen and seinen works, which contain close male-male friendships perceived by fans to imply elements of homoeroticism, such as with Captain Tsubasa and Saint Seiya, two titles which popularized yaoi in the 1980s. Weekly Shonen Jump is known to have a large female readership who engage in yaoi readings; publishers of shōnen manga may create "homoerotic-themed" merchandise as fan service to their BL fans. Yaoi fans may ship any male-male pairing, sometimes pairing off a favourite character, or create a story about two original male characters and incorporate established characters into the story. Any male character may become the subject of a yaoi dōjinshi, including characters from non-manga titles such as Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings, video games such as Final Fantasy, or real people such as actors and politicians. Amateur authors may also create characters out of personifications of abstract concepts (as in the personification of countries in Hetalia: Axis Powers) or complementary objects like salt and pepper. In Japan, the labeling of yaoi dōjinshi is typically composed of the two lead characters' names, separated by a multiplication sign, with the seme being first and the uke being second.

Outside of Japan, the 2000 broadcast of Mobile Suit Gundam Wing in North America on Cartoon Network is noted as crucial to the development of Western yaoi fan works, particularly fan fiction. As yaoi fan fiction is often compared to the Western fan practice of slash, it is important to understand the subtle differences between them. Levi notes that "the youthful teen look that so easily translates into androgyny in boys' love manga, and allows for so many layered interpretations of sex and gender, is much harder for slash writers to achieve."

English-language publishing
The first officially-licensed English-language translations of yaoi manga were published in the North American market in 2003; by 2006, there were roughly 130 English-translated yaoi works commercially available, and by 2007, over 10 publishers in North America published yaoi. Notable current English-language publishers of yaoi include Viz Media under their SuBLime imprint, Digital Manga Publishing under their 801 Media and Juné imprints, Media Blasters under their Kitty Media imprint, Seven Seas Entertainment, and Tokyopop. Notable defunct English-language publishers of yaoi include Central Park Media under their Be Beautiful imprint, Broccoli under their Boysenberry imprint, and Aurora Publishing under their Deux Press imprint.

Among the 135 yaoi manga published in North America between 2003 and 2006, 14% were rated for readers aged 13 years or over, 39% were rated for readers aged 15 or older, and 47% were rated for readers age 18 and up. Restrictions among American booksellers often led publishers to label books conservatively, often rating books originally intended for a mid-teen readership as 18+ and distributing them in shrinkwrap. Diamond Comic Distributors valued the sales of yaoi manga in the United States at approximately US$6 million in 2007.

Marketing was significant in the transnational travel of yaoi from Japan to the United States, and led to yaoi to attract a following of LGBT fans in the United States. The 1994 original video animation adaptation of Kizuna: Bonds of Love was distributed by Ariztical Entertainment, which specializes in LGBT cinema and marketed the title as "the first gay male anime to be released on DVD in the US." The film was reviewed in the American LGBT magazine The Advocate, which compared the film to gay art house cinema.

A large portion of Western fans choose to pirate yaoi material because they are unable or unwilling to obtain it through sanctioned methods. Scanlations and other fan translation efforts of both commercially published Japanese works and amateur dojinshi are common.

Original English-language yaoi
When yaoi initially gained popularity in the United States in the early 2000s, several American artists began creating original English-language manga for female readers featuring male-male couples referred to as "American yaoi". The first known commercially published original English-language yaoi comic is Sexual Espionage #1 by Daria McGrain, published by Sin Factory in May 2002. As international artists began creating yaoi works, the term "American yaoi" fell out of use and was replaced by terms like "original English language yaoi", "global yaoi", and "global BL". The majority of publishers creating original English-language yaoi manga are now defunct, including Yaoi Press, DramaQueen, and Iris Print. Digital Manga Publishing last published original English-language yaoi manga in 2012; outside of the United States, German publisher Carlsen Manga also published original yaoi works.

Audio dramas

Yaoi audio dramas, occasionally referred to as "drama CDs", "sound dramas", or "BLCDs", are recorded voice performances of male-male romance scenarios performed by primarily male voice actors. They are typically adaptations of original yaoi manga and novels. The first yaoi audio dramas were released in the 1980s, beginning with Tsuzumigafuchi in 1988, which was published as a "June cassette". With the introduction of CDs, yaoi audio dramas continued to proliferate, peaking at 289 total yaoi CDs released in 2008, which dropped to 108 CDs in 2013.

Japan
While Japanese BL manga has been adapted into live action films and television dramas since the early 2000s, these works were marketed towards a niche audience of BL fans rather than towards a general audience. When these works were adapted for a general audience, same-sex romance elements were typically downplayed or removed entirely, as in the live-action television adaption of Antique Bakery that aired on Fuji TV in 2001. The development of Japanese live-action television dramas that focus on BL and same-sex romance themes explicitly was spurred by the critical and commercial success of the TV Asahi television drama Ossan's Love (2016), which features an all-male love triangle as its central plot conceit. While Ossan's Love is an original series, it influenced the creation of live-action BL works adapted from manga that are marketed towards mass audiences; notable examples include the television dramas Pornographer (manga) (2018) on Fuji TV, What Did You Eat Yesterday? (2019) on TV Tokyo, Cherry Magic (2020) on TV Tokyo, and the live-action film adaptation of The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (2020).

In 2022, Kadokawa Corporation employee Kaoru Azuma established Tunku, Kadokawa's label for publishing live-action BL drama series, partnering with MBS TV to create the programming block Drama Shower. The label was created to promote Japanese BL dramas based on existing BL novels and manga due to the growing popularity of BL caused by Ossan's Love. While creating Tunku, Azuma stated that she noticed that prejudice against boys' love has dwindled, and that many people have seemed to accept the genre as "normal."

Thailand
The Thai romantic drama film Love of Siam (2007), which features a gay male romance storyline, found unexpected mainstream success upon its release and grossed over TH฿40 million at the box office. This was followed by Love Sick: The Series (2014–2015), the first Thai television series to feature two gay characters as the lead roles. Cultural anthropologist Thomas Baudinette argues that Love Sick: The Series represented a "watershed moment" in the depiction of queer romance in Thai media, exploring how the series adapted tropes from Japanese BL to create a new genre of media. While Japanese BL manga attracted an audience in Thailand as early as the 1990s, the success of Love of Siam and Love Sick kick-started the production of domestic BL dramas: between 2014 and 2020, 57 television series in the BL genre were produced and released in Thailand. Beginning in 2020, Thai BL dramas gained international recognition after the release of 2gether: The Series, which attracted widespread acclaim for its family-friendly themes, lighthearted plot, and positive depictions of gay men.

Major producers of Thai BL include GMMTV, a subsidiary of GMM Grammy, which has produced 2gether, A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021), SOTUS: The Series (2016–2017), Dark Blue Kiss (2019), and Theory of Love (2019); and Line Corporation, which produces BL dramas in Thailand for distribution on its Line TV platform. The genre has seen some backlash from conservative elements in Thai society: in 2020, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission introduced new guidelines around material containing "sexually explicit or suggestive" scenes, while public broadcaster MCOT cancelled the BL series Love by Chance in 2018. Thai BL dramas are noted as having gained popularity in Indonesia, where LGBT representation in domestic television is less common; as well as in the Philippines, where many fans view BL as an originally Thai form of popular culture. The coming-of-age BL series, I Told Sunset About You (2020) was awarded by the Seoul International Drama Awards as the International Drama of the Year in 2021. The BL series, Bad Buddy (2021) won the Best LBGTQ+ Programme in the 2022 ContentAsia Awards. It has been suggested that BL dramas could become a source of Thai cultural soft power in Southeast Asia and beyond.

China
There are no specific censorship policies in China concerning depictions of LGBT subject material in media; nevertheless, Variety reports that such material is "deemed sensitive and is inconsistently but regularly removed" from distribution. Addicted (2016), the first Chinese BL web series, accumulated 10 million views before being pulled from the streaming platform iQiyi. In reaction to state censorship, Chinese BL works typically depict male-male romance as homoerotic subtext: the web novel Guardian (2012) depicted a romance between its two lead male characters, though when it was adapted into a television drama on the streaming platform Youku in 2018, the relationship was rendered as a close, homoerotic friendship. The 2015 BL xianxia novel Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation was adapted into an animated series in 2018 and a live-action series in 2019, both of which similarly revise the nature of the relationship between the lead male characters. Consequently, fans of both Guardian and The Untamed discussed the series' male homoerotic content under the hashtag "socialist brotherhood" or "socialist bromance" to avoid detection from state censors.

Other countries
In South Korea, the web series Where Your Eyes Linger launched as the first domestically-produced BL series in 2020. The BL genre didn't receive much traction in the country until 2022, when the series Semantic Error achieved a major domestic success and became a social phenomenon in South Korea. The unexpected success of the series introduced the BL genre to the mainstream South Korean audience, which subsequently resulted in a rising production of South Korean BL dramas and films.

In Taiwan, the BL anthology series HIStory premiered in 2017. In the Philippines, BL television dramas gained popularity through the broadcast of foreign BL dramas such as 2gether and Where Your Eyes Linger. This spurred the creation of domestically-produced BL dramas, such as Gameboys (2020), Hello Stranger (2020), and Oh, Mando! (2020); the 2020 film The Boy Foretold by the Stars billed itself as "the first Filipino BL movie".

Video games
Boys' love and yaoi video games typically consist of visual novels or eroge oriented around male-male couples. The first yaoi game to receive an officially-licensed English-language release was Enzai: Falsely Accused, published by JAST USA in 2006. That same year, the company published Absolute Obedience, while Hirameki International licensed Animamundi; the later game, although already nonexplicit, was censored for US release to achieve a "mature" rather than "adults only" ESRB rating, removing some of both the sexual and the violent content. Compared to yaoi manga, fewer yaoi games have been officially translated into English; the lack of interest by publishers in licensing further titles has been attributed to widespread copyright infringement of both licensed and unlicensed games.

Demography
Suzuki notes that "demographic analyses of BL media are underdeveloped and thus much needed in yaoi/BL studies," but acknowledges that "the overwhelming majority of BL readers are women." 80% of the yaoi audience is female, while the membership of Yaoi-Con, a now-defunct American yaoi convention, was 85% female. It is usually assumed that all female fans are heterosexual, but in Japan there is a presence of lesbian manga authors and lesbian, bisexual or questioning female readers. A 2008 survey of English-speaking readers of yaoi indicated that 50-60% of female readers self-identify as heterosexual.

Although the genre is marketed to and consumed primarily by girls and women, there is a gay, bisexual, and heterosexual male readership as well. A 2007 survey of yaoi readers among patrons of a United States library found about one quarter of respondents were male; two online surveys found approximately ten percent of the broader English-speaking yaoi readership were male. Lunsing suggests that younger Japanese gay men who are offended by "pornographic" content in gay men's magazines may prefer to read yaoi instead. Some gay men, however, are put off by the feminine art style or unrealistic depictions of LGBT culture in Japan and instead prefer gay manga, which some perceive to be more realistic. Lunsing notes that some of the yaoi narrative elements criticized by homosexual men, such as rape fantasies, misogyny, and characters' non-identification as gay, are also present in gay manga.

In the mid-1990s, estimates of the size of the Japanese yaoi fandom ranged from 100,000 to 500,000 people. By April 2005, a search for non-Japanese websites resulted in 785,000 English, 49,000 Spanish, 22,400 Korean, 11,900 Italian, and 6,900 Chinese sites. In January 2007, there were approximately five million hits for yaoi.

Female fans of yaoi are often referred to as fujoshi (腐女子), a derogatory insult that was later reappropriated as a self-descriptive term. The male equivalent is fudanshi (腐男子) or fukei (腐兄), both of which are puns of similar construction to fujoshi.

Audience motivation
Yaoi has received considerable critical attention, especially after translations of yaoi became commercially available outside Japan in the 21st century. In Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics, the 1983 book by Frederik L. Schodt that was the first substantial English-language work on manga, Schodt observes that portrayals of gay male relationships had used and further developed bisexual themes already extant in shōjo manga to appeal to their female audience. Japanese critics have viewed boys' love as a genre that permits their audience to avoid adult female sexuality by distancing sex from their own bodies, as well as to create fluidity in perceptions of gender and sexuality and rejects "socially mandated" gender roles as a "first step toward feminism". Kazuko Suzuki, for example, believes that the audience's aversion to or contempt for masculine heterosexism is something which has consciously emerged as a result of the genre's popularity.

Mizoguchi, writing in 2003, feels that BL is a "female-gendered space", as the writers, readers, artists and most of the editors of BL are female. BL has been compared to romance novels by English-speaking librarians. In 2004, Paul Gravett summarized the dominant theories for the popularity of yaoi with a female audience: that Japanese women were disillusioned or bored with classic male-female relationships in fiction, that the bishōnen populating the genre were a backlash against male sex fantasies of a feminized ideal of adolescent girls, that the genre offered a safe space for sexual fantasies with the free choice of identification figure in the relationship, and the boys of yaoi are interpreted by female readers as girls, thus making the stories expressions of readers' same-sex fantasies.

Other commentators have suggested that more radical gender-political issues underlie yaoi. Parallels have been noted in the popularity of lesbianism in pornography, and yaoi has been called a form of "female fetishism". While early approaches to the popularity of the genre often referred to the role of women in patriarchal Japanese society, to which the genre offers a resistance and escape, this approach has been rejected by others who note that yaoi and yaoi-like media became popular outside of Japan in other social circumstances, such as slash fiction in the west. Against this background, theories emphasizing pleasure gained support: yaoi could be compared to pornography or even considered a specifically female form of pornography, appealing to desires for eroticism, voyeurism, or a desire to push against established gender roles. Mariko Ōhara, a science fiction writer, has said that she wrote yaoi Kirk/Spock fiction as a teen because she could not enjoy "conventional pornography, which had been made for men", and that she had found a "limitless freedom" in yaoi, much like in science fiction.

In 1998, Shihomi Sakakibara asserted that yaoi fans, including himself, were gay transgender men. Sandra Buckley believes that bishōnen narratives champion "the imagined potentialities of alternative [gender] differentiations", while James Welker described the bishōnen character as "queer", commenting that manga critic Akiko Mizoguchi saw shōnen-ai as playing a role in how she herself had become a lesbian. Dru Pagliassotti sees this and the yaoi ronsō as indicating that for Japanese gay and lesbian readers, BL is not as far removed from reality as heterosexual female readers like to claim. Welker has also written that boys' love titles liberate the female audience "not just from patriarchy, but from gender dualism and heteronormativity".

Criticism
Some gay and lesbian commentators have criticized how gay identity is portrayed in BL, most notably in the yaoi ronsō or "yaoi debate" of 1992–1997 (see History above). A trope of yaoi that has attracted criticism is male protagonists who do not identify as gay, but are rather simply in love with each other, with Comiket co-founder Yoshihiro Yonezawa once describing yaoi dōjinshi as akin to "girls playing with dolls". This is said to heighten the theme of all-conquering love, but is also condemned as a means of avoiding acknowledgement of homophobia. Criticism of the stereotypically feminine behaviour of the uke has also been prominent.

Much of the criticism of yaoi originally rendered in the Japanese yaoi debate has similarly been voiced in the English-language fandom. Rachel Thorn has suggested that yaoi and slash fiction fans are discontented with "the standards of femininity to which they are expected to adhere and a social environment that does not validate or sympathize with that discontent".

Legal issues
Yaoi has been the subject of disputes on legal and moral grounds. Mark McLelland suggests that BL may become "a major battlefront for proponents and detractors of 'gender free' policies in employment, education and elsewhere", while yaoi artist Youka Nitta has said that "even in Japan, reading boys' love isn't something that parents encourage." In Thailand, the sale of unauthorized reproductions of shōnen-ai manga to teenagers in 2001 led to media coverage and a moral panic. In 2006, an email campaign pressuring the Sakai City Central Library to remove BL works from circulation attracted national media attention, and promoted a debate over removal of BL works constituted a form of discrimination. In 2010, the Osaka Prefectural Government included boys' love manga among with other books deemed potentially "harmful to minors" due to its sexual content, which resulted in several magazines prohibited from being sold to people under 18 years of age.

Anhui TV reported that in China, at least 20 young female authors writing danmei novels on an online novel website were arrested in 2014. In 2018, the pseudonymous Chinese BL novel author Tianyi was sentenced to $10 1/2$ years in prison under laws prohibiting the production of "obscene material for profit." Hu, Ge and Wang summarise the trajectory of consorship over danmei from 2004 to the present, and suggest that the Chinese party-state has endeavoured to boost a discourse as regard danmei hatred in particular since 2021 as exemplifed in the ban of danmei-adapted web dramas and media representation of male effeminacy in September 2021. Zanghellini notes that due to the "characteristics of the yaoi/BL genre" of showing characters who are often underage engaging in romantic and sexual situations, child pornography laws in Australia and Canada "may lend themselves to targeting yaoi/BL work". He notes that in the UK, cartoons are exempt from child pornography laws unless they are used for child grooming.

title: Yaoi


text:
Lecythidales

Lecythidales is a botanical name at the rank of order. The name was used by the Cronquist system for an order placed in subclass Dilleniidae. This order included only the family Lecythidaceae, which family now (in the APG II system) is placed in the order Ericales.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Lecythidales


text:
Il Capitano

Il Capitano (lit. 'The Captain') is one of the four stock characters of commedia dell'arte. He most likely was never a "Captain", but rather appropriated the name for himself.

Several types of Capitano exist. Deriving from the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, the first famous type of Capitano, best represented by the local "Capitan Spaventa", was ambitious and boastful but also a dreamer with positive connotations. The other type of Capitano was a braggart and a swaggerer able to maintain his claims only by benefit of the fact that none of the locals knows him. He is usually a Spaniard, most likely inspired by the boisterous Iberic caudillos who told tall tales of their exploits either in the conquest of the Americas or in the wars with the Muslims. "Capitano matamoros" best represents this type of Capitano.

Il Capitano often talks at length about made-up conquests of both the militaristic and the carnal variety in an attempt to impress others, but often ends up impressing only himself. He gets easily carried away in his tales and doesn't realise when those around him don't buy his act. He would be the first to run away from any and all battles, and he has trouble talking to and being around men. He is also extremely opportunistic and greedy. If hired by Pantalone to protect his daughter from her many suitors, Capitano would set up a bidding war for his services or aid between the suitors and Pantalone while wooing her himself. If he is hired to fight the Turks, he will bluster about fighting them to his last drop of blood, but when the Turks seem to be winning, he will join them. When they are driven off, he will change sides again and boast about his loyalty and bravery.

Role
"I think of him as a peacock who has moulted all but one of his tail feathers, but does not know it", notes author John Rudlin. In this case, his cowardice is usually overcome by the fury of his passion, which he makes every effort to demonstrate. Typically, however, his cowardice is such that when one of the characters orders him to do something, he often steps down out of fear, but is able to make up an excuse that ensures the other characters still see him as a brave and fierce individual. Columbina sometimes uses him to make Arlecchino jealous, much to Capitano's bewilderment and fright.

Origin
The origin of Capitano comes from 2 literary sources: Plautus's miles gloriosus and Terence's Eunuchus. The first famous Captain, Capitano Spavento, appeared in Francesco Andreini's Bravure di Capitan Spaventa ("The Boast of the Terrifying Captain").

Lazzi

 * 1) Whenever Capitano sees the audience, he stops to be admired.
 * 2) Capitano gloats to Arlecchino (Harlequin) about his expertise with the ladies and then proceeds to demonstrate on Arlecchino how he would make love to a woman.
 * 3) He wakes up to find he is not the only one in the room. There is someone crouching in the corner. He shakes his fist at the person, the person shakes their fist back at the same time. It turns out the person in the room is just Capitano's reflection in a full-length mirror.
 * 4) When frightened, he often screams in a high and womanly falsetto, or else faints.

Stance
He stands in a high posture, occupying as much space as possible, with a straight back and his chest pushed forward.

Plot function
To be exposed or 'de-masked'. He exists to be stripped of his excessive confidence and shown in a moment of panic and humility.

Famous actors

 * Francesco Andreini
 * Antonio Fava

Mask
His mask is described as having "a long nose, often unambiguously phallic". The nose for Captain Spavento's mask is fairly large, but it lengthens with Matamoros, and becomes absolutely gargantuan for Coccodrillo. Originally, the color of the mask was probably flesh tone, now it can be many flamboyant colors such as bright pink, yellow and light blue. The mask often has a strong mustache and brow lines that can be black or have a purple/blue tone.

UNmasked Capitano: II Cavaliere (The Lover Capitano).

Costume
Military-esque uniform (a satire on the period). 1500s: feathered helmet or hat (mom panache), exaggerated garters, extraordinarily long sword and a plethora of ruffles. 1600s: coat, breeches, and he would mostly have a musket instead of a sword. In one famous scenario, the Captain makes up a lie regarding the reason for his lack of an undershirt by claiming that it got that way because "I used to be an exceedingly fierce and violent man, and when I was made angry the hair which covers my body in goodly quantity stood on end and so riddled my shirt with holes that you would have taken it for a sieve." The real reason is that he has become too poor to afford one. Sometimes he wears it with a helmet or a bicorne or tricorne hat with a huge plume. Spanish characters often wear an exaggerated large neck-ruff.

He is usually always wearing his trademarked sword. If he were to ever work up enough nerve to draw it, it is usually too long to draw easily or too heavy or wobbly to wield properly. Even if he cut somebody with it, he would faint at the very sight of the blood.

Noms de guerre
Il Capitano usually has a properly showy name for himself, preferably several lines long and followed by many made-up titles and lists of relations.

Some names are fierce-sounding, like "Escobombardon" ("Fired out of a cannon"), "Rodomonte" ("Mountain-crumbler"), "Sangre y Fuego" (Spanish: "Blood and Fire"), "Spaccamonti" ("Mountain splitter"), "Spezzaferro" ("Iron-breaker"), or "Terremoto" ("Earthquake"). Some names are ironic, like: "Bellavista" ("Beautiful view", a vain but ugly man) or "Fracasso"/"Fracassa" (the correct masculine version and an invented feminine version for "Fracas", "Skirmish" or "Big noise").

Some are dismissive, like "Cerimonia" ("Ceremony", all proper manners and rigid, slavish devotion to pointless details), "Coccodrillo" ("Crocodile", because he preys on others), "Fanfarone" ("Trumpeter" or "Loudmouth"), "Giangurgulo" ("John the Glutton"), "Grillo" ("Grasshopper", because he is small and 'hops' sides), "Malagamba" ("Lame leg"), "Squaquara" ("Little Shi"), "Papirotonda" ("Round letter", a complaint signed by mutinous soldiers or sailors in a circle around the main text so the ringleaders or originators cannot be discerned), "Tagliacantoni" ("Small-sized"), and "Zerbino" ("Doormat"). He is also prone to awarding himself ridiculous titles like "Capitan Spavento della Vall'Inferna" ("Captain Fear, (Lord) of Hell's Valley"; the name of Vall'Inferna also sounds similar to "Va' all'Inferno!", "[When you die] Go to Hell!", an Italian-language imprecation), "Salvador de los Vírgenes Borrachos" (Spanish: "Savior of Drunken Virgins"), or "Sieur de Fracasse et Brise-tout" (French: "Lord of 'Knock it down' and 'Break everything'").

Variants
The French coined characters like Boudoufle (Norman French for "Puffed up with hurt pride"), Taille-bras (either "Limb-Cutter" or "Arm's Length"), and Engoulevent (either "Night-bird" or "Big-mouth"). England has the Irish dramatist George Farquhar's play The Recruiting Officer. Major Bloodnok of the Goon Show bears some resemblance to Il Capitano and shares many of his traits, such as lust, greed and cowardice. In modern theater, the character miles gloriosus (Latin for "Famous or Boastful Soldier") from A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is an obvious form of the character, though modeled from the earlier Roman plays.

Types
1. Captain Spaventa ("fear")

2. Rinoceronte ("rhino")

3. Fracassa ("uproar")

4. Spezzafer ("iron splitter")

5. Cocodrillo ("crocodile") – "a crocodile who never bites, he is all fanfare easily deflated," according to Rudlin.

6. Matamoros (Spanish for "Killer of Moors") – the original Spanish mercenary – was created by Francesco Andreini. He is powerfully built and very lavishly dressed. The clothes of his servants were supposedly made from the turbans of his victims. Has a hedgehog on his coat of arms, the result of his exploits at the battle of Trebizonde, where he claims to have fought his way into the tent of the Sultan himself. He then dragged him through the camp with one hand while fighting off the entire enemy army with the other hand. Afterwards, there were so many arrows stuck in him by the time he fought free that he resembled a hedgehog.

7. Scaramouche – Scaramuccia (Italian), or Scaramouche (French) ("skirmish") was a reinvention of the character by Tiberio Fiorilli. He is more of a man of action than he is a braggart and is clever, brave, and quick-witted rather than ignorant, cowardly and foolish. He is also a good singer and musician, and is usually depicted with a lute or guitar. Although quite a heartbreaker, he is usually indirectly or unobtrusively helpful to the innamorati.
 * In the Punch and Judy shows, Scaramouche is depicted by a puppet with a detachable head or an extendable neck. The former is for the Capitano incarnation, who seeks to fight all the other characters and the latter is for a singing puppet.
 * Cyrano de Bergerac, a play by Edmond Rostand, is the most popular variant on Scaramouche. It portrays the historical figure as a violent, easily angered braggart who is sensitive about slurs on his considerable courage, his rural Gascon heritage, or his ugly face (which is identical to the features of the Scaramouche mask). He nobly helps his friend, a handsome but naïve and foolish youth, woo Roxane whom they both love.
 * An unnamed soldier in a short play by Miguel de Cervantes called The Vigilant Sentinel matched this character to the letter. In the play he waits, bespectacled and wearing ragged clothes, desperately trying to frighten away any rival suitors from the house of the girl he wishes to marry.
 * Baron Munchausen is another take on Scaramouche. He is usually depicted as an elderly man in an anachronistic 18th century uniform, powdered wig with queue, a beak-like and prominent nose, curling moustaches and goatee beard, and glasses. He uses his wits, his amazing luck and superhuman skills, and his gift of blather and blarney to defeat his enemies. He is also unusual in that he is handicapped by infirmities but is superhuman when he compensates for them. Without his glasses, he is blind as a bat; with them, he can see clearer and farther than a man with perfect vision. He has a lame leg, but when he carries his cane, he is capable of running faster and jumping higher and farther than an athlete.

8. Fanfarone – pretends to be Spanish, but is actually just a Zanni.

General references

 * John Rudlin, Commedia dell'arte: An Actor's Handbook. ISBN 0-415-04770-6.
 * Pierre Louis Duchartre, The Italian Comedy.
 * Pierre Louis Duchartre, The Italian Comedy.

title: Il Capitano


text:
Technical drawing

Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed.

Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. To make the drawings easier to understand, people use familiar symbols, perspectives, units of measurement, notation systems, visual styles, and page layout. Together, such conventions constitute a visual language and help to ensure that the drawing is unambiguous and relatively easy to understand. Many of the symbols and principles of technical drawing are codified in an international standard called ISO 128.

The need for precise communication in the preparation of a functional document distinguishes technical drawing from the expressive drawing of the visual arts. Artistic drawings are subjectively interpreted; their meanings are multiply determined. Technical drawings are understood to have one intended meaning.

A drafter, draftsperson, or draughtsman is a person who makes a drawing (technical or expressive). A professional drafter who makes technical drawings is sometimes called a drafting technician.

Sketching

A sketch is a quickly executed, freehand drawing that is usually not intended as a finished work. In general, sketching is a quick way to record an idea for later use. Architect's sketches primarily serve as a way to try out different ideas and establish a composition before a more finished work, especially when the finished work is expensive and time-consuming.

Architectural sketches, for example, are a kind of diagram. These sketches, like metaphors, are used by architects as a means of communication in aiding design collaboration. This tool helps architects to abstract attributes of hypothetical provisional design solutions and summarize their complex patterns, thereby enhancing the design process.

Manual or by instrument
The basic drafting procedure is to place a piece of paper (or other material) on a smooth surface with right-angle corners and straight sides—typically a drawing board. A sliding straightedge known as a T-square is then placed on one of the sides, allowing it to be slid across the side of the table, and over the surface of the paper.

"Parallel lines" can be drawn by moving the T-square and running a pencil or technical pen along the T-square's edge. The T-square is used to hold other devices such as set squares or triangles. In this case, the drafter places one or more triangles of known angles on the T-square — which is itself at right angles to the edge of the table — and can then draw lines at any chosen angle to others on the page. Modern drafting tables are equipped with a drafting machine that is supported on both sides of the table to slide over a large piece of paper. Because it is secured on both sides, lines drawn along the edge are guaranteed to be parallel.

The drafter uses several technical drawing tools to draw curves and circles. Primary among these are the compasses, used for drawing arcs and circles, and the French curve, for drawing curves. A spline is a rubber coated articulated metal that can be manually bent to most curves.

Drafting templates assist the drafter with creating recurring objects in a drawing without having to reproduce the object from scratch every time. This is especially useful when using common symbols; i.e. in the context of stagecraft, a lighting designer will draw from the USITT standard library of lighting fixture symbols to indicate the position of a common fixture across multiple positions. Templates are sold commercially by a number of vendors, usually customized to a specific task, but it is also not uncommon for a drafter to create his own templates.

This basic drafting system requires an accurate table and constant attention to the positioning of the tools. A common error is to allow the triangles to push the top of the T-square down slightly, thereby throwing off all angles. Even tasks as simple as drawing two angled lines meeting at a point require a number of moves of the T-square and triangles, and in general, drafting can be a time-consuming process.

A solution to these problems was the introduction of the mechanical "drafting machine", an application of the pantograph (sometimes referred to incorrectly as a "pentagraph" in these situations) which allowed the drafter to have an accurate right angle at any point on the page quickly. These machines often included the ability to change the angle, hence removing the need for the triangles.

In addition to the mastery of the mechanics of drawing lines, arcs and circles (and text) onto a piece of paper—with respect to the detailing of physical objects—the drafting effort requires a thorough understanding of geometry, trigonometry and spatial comprehension, and in all cases demands precision and accuracy, and attention to detail of high order.

Although drafting is sometimes accomplished by a project engineer, architect, or shop personnel (such as a machinist), skilled drafters (and/or designers) usually accomplish the task, and are always in demand to some degree.

Computer aided design
Today, the mechanics of the drafting task have largely been automated and accelerated through the use of computer-aided design systems (CAD).

There are two types of computer-aided design systems used for the production of technical drawings: two dimensions ("2D") and three dimensions ("3D"). 2D CAD systems such as AutoCAD or MicroStation replace the paper drawing discipline. The lines, circles, arcs, and curves are created within the software. It is down to the technical drawing skill of the user to produce the drawing. There is still much scope for error in the drawing when producing first and third angle orthographic projections, auxiliary projections and cross-section views. A 2D CAD system is merely an electronic drawing board. Its greatest strength over direct to paper technical drawing is in the making of revisions. Whereas in a conventional hand drawn technical drawing, if a mistake is found, or a modification is required, a new drawing must be made from scratch, the 2D CAD system allows a copy of the original to be modified, saving considerable time. 2D CAD systems can be used to create plans for large projects such as buildings and aircraft but provide no way to check the various components will fit together.

A 3D CAD system (such as KeyCreator, Autodesk Inventor, or SolidWorks) first produces the geometry of the part; the technical drawing comes from user defined views of that geometry. Any orthographic, projected or sectioned view is created by the software. There is no scope for error in the production of these views. The main scope for error comes in setting the parameter of first or third angle projection and displaying the relevant symbol on the technical drawing. 3D CAD allows individual parts to be assembled together to represent the final product. Buildings, aircraft, ships, and cars are modelled, assembled, and checked in 3D before technical drawings are released for manufacture.

Both 2D and 3D CAD systems can be used to produce technical drawings for any discipline. The various disciplines (electrical, electronic, pneumatic, hydraulic, etc.) have industry recognized symbols to represent common components.

BS and ISO produce standards to show recommended practices but it is up to individuals to produce the drawings to a standard. There is no definitive standard for layout or style. The only standard across engineering workshop drawings is in the creation of orthographic projections and cross-section views.

In representing complex, three-dimensional objects in two-dimensional drawings, the objects can be described by at least one view plus material thickness note, 2, 3 or as many views and sections that are required to show all features of object.

Architecture

The art and design that goes into making buildings is known as architecture. To communicate all aspects of the shape or design, detail drawings are used. In this field, the term plan is often used when referring to the full section view of these drawings as viewed from three feet above finished floor to show the locations of doorways, windows, stairwells, etc. Architectural drawings describe and document an architect's design.

Engineering
Engineering can be a very broad term. It stems from the Latin ingenerare, meaning "to create". Because this could apply to everything that humans create, it is given a narrower definition in the context of technical drawing. Engineering drawings generally deal with mechanical engineered items, such as manufactured parts and equipment.

Engineering drawings are usually created in accordance with standardized conventions for layout, nomenclature, interpretation, appearance (such as typefaces and line styles), size, etc.

Its purpose is to accurately and unambiguously capture all the geometric features of a product or a component. The end goal of an engineering drawing is to convey all the required information that will allow a manufacturer to produce that component.

Software engineering
Software engineering practitioners make use of diagrams for designing software. Formal standards and modelling languages such as Unified Modelling Language (UML) exist but most diagramming happens using informal ad hoc diagrams that illustrate a conceptual model.

Practitioners reported that diagramming helped with analysing requirements, design, refactoring, documentation, onboarding, communication with stake holders. Diagrams are often transient or redrawn as required. Redrawn diagrams can act as a form of shared understanding in a team.

Technical illustration

Technical illustration is the use of illustration to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be component technical drawings or diagrams. The aim of technical illustration is "to generate expressive images that effectively convey certain information via the visual channel to the human observer".

The main purpose of technical illustration is to describe or explain these items to a more or less nontechnical audience. The visual image should be accurate in terms of dimensions and proportions, and should provide "an overall impression of what an object is or does, to enhance the viewer's interest and understanding".

According to Viola (2005), "illustrative techniques are often designed in a way that even a person with no technical understanding clearly understands the piece of art. The use of varying line widths to emphasize mass, proximity, and scale helped to make a simple line drawing more understandable to the lay person. Cross hatching, stippling, and other low abstraction techniques gave greater depth and dimension to the subject matter".

Cutaway drawing

A cutaway drawing is a technical illustration, in which part of the surface of a three-dimensional model is removed in order to show some of the model's interior in relation to its exterior.

The purpose of a cutaway drawing is to "allow the viewer to have a look into an otherwise solid opaque object. Instead of letting the inner object shine through the surrounding surface, parts of outside object are simply removed. This produces a visual appearance as if someone had cutout a piece of the object or sliced it into parts. Cutaway illustrations avoid ambiguities with respect to spatial ordering, provide a sharp contrast between foreground and background objects, and facilitate a good understanding of spatial ordering".

Types
The two types of technical drawings are based on graphical projection. This is used to create an image of a three-dimensional object onto a two-dimensional surface.

Two-dimensional representation
Two-dimensional representation uses orthographic projection to create an image where only two of the three dimensions of the object are seen.

Three-dimensional representation
In a three-dimensional representation, also referred to as a pictorial, all three dimensions of an object are visible.

Multiview
Multiview is a type of orthographic projection. There are two conventions for using multiview, first-angle and third-angle. In both cases, the front or main side of the object is the same. First-angle is drawing the object sides based on where they land. Example, looking at the front side, rotate the object 90 degrees to the right. What is seen will be drawn to the right of the front side. Third-angle is drawing the object sides based on where they are. Example, looking at the front side, rotate the object 90 degrees to the right. What is seen is actually the left side of the object and will be drawn to the left of the front side.

Section
While multiview relates to external surfaces of an object, section views show an imaginary plane cut through an object. This is often useful to show voids in an object.

Auxiliary
Auxiliary views utilize an additional projection plane other than the common planes in a multiview. Since the features of an object need to show the true shape and size of the object, the projection plane must be parallel to the object surface. Therefore, any surface that is not in line with the three major axis needs its own projection plane to show the features correctly.

Pattern
Patterns, sometimes called developments, show the size and shape of a flat piece of material needed for later bending or folding into a three-dimensional shape.

Exploded

An exploded-view drawing is a technical drawing of an object that shows the relationship or order of assembly of the various parts. It shows the components of an object slightly separated by distance or suspended in surrounding space in the case of a three-dimensional exploded diagram. An object is represented as if there had been a small controlled explosion emanating from the middle of the object, causing the object's parts to be separated relative distances away from their original locations.

An exploded view drawing (EVD) can show the intended assembly of mechanical or other parts. In mechanical systems, the component closest to the center is usually assembled first or is the main part inside which the other parts are assembled. The EVD can also help to represent the disassembly of parts, where those on the outside are normally removed first.

Basic drafting paper sizes
There have been many standard sizes of paper at different times and in different countries, but today most of the world uses the international standard (A4 and its siblings). North America uses its own sizes.

Patent drawing

The applicant for a patent will be required by law to furnish a drawing of the invention if or when the nature of the case requires a drawing to understand the invention with the job. This drawing must be filed with the application. This includes practically all inventions except compositions of matter or processes, but a drawing may also be useful in the case of many processes.

The drawing must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims and is required by the patent office rules to be in a particular form. The Office specifies the size of the sheet on which the drawing is made, the type of paper, the margins, and other details relating to the making of the drawing. The reason for specifying the standards in detail is that the drawings are printed and published in a uniform style when the patent issues and the drawings must also be such that they can be readily understood by persons using the patent descriptions.

Working drawings for production
Working drawings are the set of technical drawings used during the manufacturing phase of a product. In architecture, these include civil drawings, architectural drawings, structural drawings, mechanical systems drawings, electrical drawings, and plumbing drawings.

Assembly drawings
Assembly drawings show how different parts go together, identify those parts by number, and have a parts list, often referred to as a bill of materials. In a technical service manual, this type of drawing may be referred to as an exploded view drawing or diagram. These parts may be used in engineering.

As-fitted drawings
Also called As-Built drawings or As-made drawings. As-fitted drawings represent a record of the completed works, literally 'as fitted'. These are based upon the working drawings and updated to reflect any changes or alterations undertaken during construction or manufacture.

title: Technical drawing


text:
Olybrius

Anicius Olybrius (died 2 November 472) was Roman emperor from July 472 until his death later that same year; his rule as augustus in the western Roman Empire was not recognised as legitimate by the ruling augustus in the eastern Roman Empire, Leo I ((r. 457 – 474)). He was in reality a puppet ruler raised to power by Ricimer, the magister militum of Germanic descent, and was mainly interested in religion, while the actual power was held by Ricimer and his nephew Gundobad.

Family and early career
Olybrius was born in Rome, in the ancient and powerful gens Anicia, of Italian descent.

According to the consensus of historians, he was related to the consul Anicius Hermogenianus Olybrius, whose wife and cousin, Anicia Juliana, had the same name that Olybrius gave to his own daughter. Other historians consider this questionable, as "Juliana" was a common name in the gens Anicia, and because Hermogenianus seems to have begotten only one daughter, who took chastity vows. Other possible fathers have therefore been proposed: either Anicius Probus (suggested by Settipani) or, according to some clues, Petronius Maximus.

Olybrius married Placidia, younger daughter of western augustus Valentinian III ((r. 425 – 455)) and his wife Licinia Eudoxia, thus creating a bond between a member of the senatorial aristocracy and the conjoined Valentinianic–Theodosian dynasties. The year of their wedding is not recorded, although the historian Priscus implies it took place before the Vandals under Gaiseric's sack of Rome (June 2–16, 455). Oost has pointed out that in his chronicle Hydatius wrote Placidia was unmarried as of 455.

Steven Muhlberger points out that many of the events in the chronicle of Hydatius are based on hearsay, that problems with his chronology "resulted from delays and distortions in the best information to which he had access," and thus the evidence from Hydatius is not as decisive as Oost believed. Regardless, the powerful magister militum Aetius had forced Valentinian to betroth Placidia to his own son Gaudentius, so Olybrius could not have married her before Aetius' death.

Aetius' death came 21 September 454, when the Emperor Valentinian provoked a quarrel with him that ended with the Emperor killing Aetius with his own sword. The following year, Valentinian was killed by some soldiers who had served under Aetius, probably instigated by the patricius Petronius Maximus, who succeeded to the throne. Petronius, who was a high-ranking imperial officer and a member of a family belonging to the senatorial aristocracy, married the augusta Licinia Eudoxia, widow of Valentinian. He also elevated his own son Palladius to the rank of caesar and had him marry Eudocia, elder daughter of Valentinian.

According to those historians who believe that Olybrius was Petronius' son, it was in 455 that Olybrius married Placidia, between 17 April, when Petronius was acclaimed augustus, and 31 May, when he died; this would explain the marriage between Olybrius and Valentinian's younger daughter as a move to secure Petronius' legitimacy as emperor.

Another possibility is that Olybrius and Placidia were engaged in 455, and only after Gaiseric freed her from his possession in the early 460s were they at last married. Oost mentions this possibility in his book Galla Placidia Augusta. The surviving evidence is not sufficient to allow us to decide between these alternatives.

Twice candidate for the throne
The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, took advantage of the confusion and weakness of the Western Empire in the wake of Valentinian's turbulent succession, moving into Italy and sacking Rome in June 455. Before returning to Africa, the Vandals took Licinia Eudoxia and her two daughters as hostages. According to the 6th-century historian John Malalas, Olybrius was in Constantinople at the time. On the other hand, the 6th-century chronicler Evagrius Scholasticus writes that Olybrius had fled Rome on the approach of Gaiseric's army.

During his residence in the Eastern capital, Olybrius expressed his interest in religious matters. He met Daniel the Stylite, who, according to Christian tradition, prophesied the liberation of Licinia Eudoxia. In the meantime, the Western Empire went through a rapid succession of Emperors. After Petronius, the Gallic-Roman senator Avitus was proclaimed Emperor by the Visigoth king Theodoric II and ruled for two years; he was deposed by Majorian, who ruled for four years before being killed by his general Ricimer in 461.

Gaiseric supported Olybrius to assume the vacant Western throne because Gaiseric's son Huneric and Olybrius had married the two daughters of Valentinian III, and with Olybrius on the throne, Gaiseric could exert great influence on the Western Empire. Therefore, Gaiseric freed Licinia Eudoxia (fulfilling Daniel's prophesy) and her daughter Placidia (Olybrius' wife), but he did not cease his raids on Italy's coasts. His project failed, however, as Ricimer, who had become the Magister militum of the West, chose Libius Severus as new Emperor (461–465). Placidia was now free, however, joining her husband at Constantinople, where they had a daughter, Anicia Juliana, in 462.

Olybrius was nearly chosen for the Western throne again in 465, after Libius Severus died. Gaiseric was again his major supporter, but the Eastern Emperor Leo I chose the noble Procopius Anthemius. Olybrius' association with Gaiseric did not harm his career, however, as the Eastern court chose him for the high honour of the consulate in 464.

Rise to the throne
Sources agree that Olybrius rose to the western throne thanks to the western magister militum Ricimer. They differ over the timing and order of the events leading to his ascent.

In the version provided by John Malalas, and championed by J. B. Bury, Olybrius was sent to Italy in 472 by Leo I, ostensibly to mediate between Ricimer and Anthemius, who was besieged by Ricimer in Rome. Once he had accomplished this, Olybrius would then continue to Carthage and offer a peace treaty to Gaiseric. Leo suspected that Olybrius favored the Vandal king, however, and would secretly take his side and betray the suspicious Emperor. Leo had Olybrius followed by another envoy bearing a letter for Anthemius stating:
 * I have removed Aspar and Ardaburius from this world, so that no one who might oppose me would survive. But you also must kill your son-in-law Ricimer, lest there be anyone who might betray you. Moreover, I also have sent the patrician Olybrius to you; I wish you to kill him, so that you might reign, ruling rather than serving others.

Ricimer had placed a guard at Ostia who found the secret letter. Ricimer showed the document to Olybrius, which convinced Olybrius to accept the purple. From Ricimer's point of view, Olybrius was a good candidate, as a member of the Roman senatorial aristocracy and because of his marriage to Placidia; his marriage to her makes him the last emperor of the conjoined Valentinianic–Theodosian dynasties to rule in the west. Ricimer had Anthemius killed and Olybrius acclaimed Emperor (11 July 472).

The competing version of events does not mention the secret letter. Instead, after arriving in Rome, Olybrius was proclaimed emperor several months before Anthemius' death, in April or May 472. Ricimer then besieged the part of Rome where Anthemius was for several months until the lawful Emperor was abandoned by his partisans, captured in a church, and put to death by Gundobad, Ricimer's nephew. This version implies that Olybrius was secretly supported by the Emperor Leo, which explains why Leo sent him there. Three sources – Theophanes, the Paschal Chronicle, and Paullus Diaconus – support this version. Edward Gibbon accepts this implication as fact, although none of the three sources explicitly state that Leo supported Olybrius. What other reason could there be, Bury asks, then answers his own rhetorical question: "the facts that Anthemius was Leo's chosen candidate, his filius, and that Olybrius was the friend of his foe Genseric, are a strong counter-argument."

Reign and death
The reign of Olybrius was short and uneventful. Soon after the death of Anthemius, Ricimer also died, on 9 or 19 August; his nephew Gundobad was elevated to magister militum in his place. Very little is known of Olybrius' policy; in his Vita Epifanius, Ennodius describes him as a pious man who acted accordingly. As evidence, he had minted a new series of gold coins bearing a cross and the new legend SALVS MVNDI ("Welfare of the World") instead of the usual SALVS REIPVBLICAE ("Welfare of the State"). It is also noteworthy that Olybrius is depicted on his coins without helm and spear, common symbols on his predecessors' coinage, suggesting he had little interest in military matters.

Olybrius had a palace in the Tenth region of Constantinople at one end of the Mese, the main street, along the Constantinianae. Olybrius also restored, at his own expense, the nearby church of Saint Euphemia in Chalcedon, a famous church that had been chosen by the augusta Pulcheria ((r. 414 – 453)), sister of Theodosius II ((r. 402 – 450)), for the Council of Chalcedon in 451. This choice was a sign of the bond between Olybrius, a Roman senator, with the imperial Theodosian dynasty.

Olybrius died of dropsy after only seven months of rule, most likely on 2 November.

Olybrius in culture
In 1707, Apostolo Zeno and Pietro Pariati wrote a libretto entitled Flavio Anicio Olibrio. The story told in the opera is quite different from the real one, despite the fact that Zeno claimed to use several historical sources (Evagrius Scholasticus l.2.c.7, Procopius of Caesarea, Historia Vandalorum, l.1, Paul the Deacon, vi): Ricimer captures Rome, frees his sister Teodolinda and enslaves Placidia, daughter of Valentinian III; a little later, Olybrius frees Rome and Placidia, and marries her.

The libretto was written for a dramma per musica in three acts by Francesco Gasparini, performed that same year in the Teatro San Cassiano in Venice, but the same libretto was put to music also by Nicola Porpora (1711, in Naples, as Il trionfo di Flavio Anicio Olibrio),

title: Olybrius