Yaoi Generation, a new publisher specializing in yaoi manga, has announced its first North American release, the five-volume Breath manga by Chifumi Ochi.  Published by Kaiousha in 2003, Breath is a story of love that gradually develops between a confident, handsome college student and a socially awkward and confused businessman. 

Yaoi Generation plans to publish the first volume of Breath in December.  Yaoi manga, a shojo subgenre, consists of love stories between male characters created largely by female artists and writers for a female audience.  Because of their homoerotic themes and sometimes explicit content (most yaoi titles are age-rated 18+, though some are 16+) many bookstores and comic shops do not carry yaoi manga.  Still the number of yaoi releases continues to grow and the North American market appears to be expanding, though not perhaps as fast as the number of new yaoi titles.  The highly competitive conditions in the yaoi market have already produced some casualties among publishers, most notably Iris Print (see “Iris Print Wilts”).