, also known by the wasei-eigo construction , is a Japanese technical term for a genre of art and fictional media that focuses on male same-sex love usually created by gay men for a gay audience. The bara genre began in the 1950s - was launched in 1952 - with fetish magazines featuring gay art and content. Besides bara manga, also called , and illustration, a number of bara erotic games exist, as well as novels and memoirs. Bara is mostly a Japanese phenomenon, with limited western exposure through manga scanlations and online homoerotic art communities. While bara faces difficulties finding western publishers, it has been described as "the next big porn wave coming out of Japan".