Guide for Yaoi Beginnners: Subtle introduction to Boy’s Love for different tastes

Whether you want to smoothly introduce a friend to the boy’s love genre or find an outstanding story to just test the waters, it’s better to start in the lower level. I don’t think many would appreciate the shock that a series like, for example, Finder might pose for a beginner. Honestly, I almost gave up on that story forever, but after some time I actually enjoyed it a lot.

The first step into BL is the fan-service for girls; Melinda Beasi has described these girl fantasies very well with a group of  popular titles. Now, if you want to turn the heat just a bit up there are several options that offer a lot more than fan-service. The following titles are just about to cross the line towards shounen-ai. Let’s start with the first list.

35 Days of BL Manga! – Day 32: a BL manga that’s the best of the best in your favorite sub-genre

I’m probably on the same line as Fuuko (creator of this wonderful meme), although I had a bit of indecision, because I also love psychological BLs, but I wanted to include Yoshinaga Fumi in this list. She is a genius after all. Now, I could have picked Ichigenme, but that’s not actually my favorite BL work from her. Neither is Jerard and Jacques, although they are both great. My favorite one is Antique Bakery. Wait, this is not a BL right?, it is just a shoujo/slice of life that happens to feature a gay character in it. Well, that’s true unless you count the doujinshi made by the same author…

Words are my best weapon – Ze Vol.1 Review

ZE 1
是 1
Shimizu Yuki.
2004 – Shinshokan . 2009 – 801 Media.
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Supernatural, Yaoi.
Buy: USA , Rent it,
Rating: 18+

If Fruits Baskets was done as a yaoi manga, it might look something like this… Raizou has recently moved into a strange mansion upon the death of his last living relative. Given room and board in exchange for taking over the household chores for the half dozen residents, Raizou slowly comes to realize that the house is hiding some pretty dark secrets. Are his houseguests more than what they appear? And will his attraction to the lord and master Kon prove hazardous to his health? (from 801 Media)

Give me a week to fall in love – Seven Days Vol.1 Review

Seven Days: Monday-Thursday
セブンデイズ Monday-Thursday
Tachibana Venio, Takarai Rihito.
2007 – Taiyo Tosho. 2010 – Juné.
Genre: Drama, Shounen ai
Buy: USA , Rent it
Rating: 16+

It is rumored that Touji Seryou, one of the more popular boys at school, would go out with anyone who asks him out on a Monday morning. But on this particular Monday morning, the first person he meets at the school gate is no other than Yuzuru Shino, Seryou’s sempai at the archery club. On a whim, and well-aware of Seryou’s reputation, Shino asks Seryou to go out with him. Thinking that it will be treated as a joke, they’re both guys after all, imagine Shino’s surprise when Seryou takes him up on the offer! There is a catch, though. While Seryou does go out with the first girl who asks him out on a Monday morning, the other side of the coin is – by the end of the week, he will break up with that person. In essence, Seryou is a lover with a one-week expiration date. But will Shino prove to be the exception to that rule? (from Juné)

Manga Moments: Yaoi Explained

I felt tempted to call this post Why Yoshinaga Fumi rocks so much or One reason to go read Flower of Life NOW!, but I’m think yaoi explained pretty much covers the amazingly good concept this mangaka defined here. I’m sure there are tons of explanations around about why women like boy’s love and of course with detailed reasons for every existing rule in the genre. I think Matt Thorn covered all this very well in Girls And Women Getting Out Of Hand: The Pleasure And Politics Of Japan’s Amateur Comics Community. But a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, in this case, a few manga pages are worth a thousand words.

35 Days of BL manga-Day 31: least favorite overused BL manga plot device

This might sound very specific but it’s actually a formula: super rich and good-looking man sweeps a young and naive one from his feet, not in a good sense. The naive guy is usually a new employee or just a kindhearted one that’s very clumsy/shy and admires the self-assured boss, who is usually a jackass, if not a seemingly nice person until he decides he has to rape the other just because he thinks he has the right to. Oh, and don’t forget the part where the victim falls in love with this piece of work without even putting out a fight, even after seeing his idol get worse and worse in his eyes. I guess the use of the word love justifies it all. Right now I can remember a title that represents this perfectly, but I’m reading The Lonely Egotist and after the first chapter it seems to be going that way…I hope I didn’t predict it right.

35 Days of BL manga-Day 30: favorite overused BL manga plot device

Hana wa Saku ka

Enemies that actually love each other is probably my favorite overused setting. Also, the unsuspected love interest from someone that seems to be just a mere friend. But the first one is the best for me, like in Shiranai Kao, where the two main characters seem to be unable to stand each other but are actually hiding some feelings. Hana wa Sakuka has a similar feeling to it, they couldn’t stand each other but something develops slowly. It seems Hidaka Shouko has a way with these stories. Now if only this beauty were licensed…

35 Days of BL manga-Day 29: a BL manga that best covered your own personal kinks

Personal kinks? Might sound weird but if I have to consider it my personal kink is seeing the character’s fetishes, especially if those are nicely portrayed, take for example Don’t Stay Gold (drap 05/08) and the prequel Tadayoedo Shizumazu, Saredo Naki mo Sezu (HertZ #32); the scar fetish and the SM one were really sexy here, mostly because of the beautiful way they were presented. Then you have something like that story from Black Winged Love about a masochist’s frustrated love; it’s just words we are talking about here but that character certainly needed more spotlight, because that was the most realistic way I have seen it portrayed.

Anyways, onto more specific kinks, at least lately, I might have a thing about fragile looking characters that are actually the most fearsome ones. The peak of this presentation it’s the drag-queen who tops the though-looking partner. Not like I have seen a lot of these so Candied Lemon Peel, from Yamashita Tomoko’s Touch me Again will be my queen here.

35 Days of BL manga-Day 28: a BL manga you read that was just plain weird

For a moment there I was thinking about Poison Cherry Drive (even if I love Motoni Modoru, that was too much weirdness for me) but wait a minute, there was an even weirder manga, by Yamato Nase, that involved…

Can't believe there are 3 vol... plus extras and drama CD...

Talking penises. Yep. There is no need to explain how weird Chintsubu is, amazingly it’s quite entertaining and completely hilarious of course. The story is about these four students that got some sort of spell on them so that their chinkos got personalities of their own…that happened to be from the other guy. The rest are the incredibly awkward and funny situations they find themselves in while living with their love interests in their pants. Got nothing more to say about this, still makes me laugh.

Nitta Youka’s Kiss Ariki and my regrets

For a while I’ve been interested in the new efforts that Libre Publishing is making to bring manga to the English speaking community. You might already know that they created a branch called Animate U.S.A that handles this publications and, for now, they seem to be publishing only for the Kindle. There are already a number of old titles available on Amazon, and also other nice and shiny additions like Nitta Youka’s new works. These mangas are being published chapter by chapter, which is great, because the foreign readers can get their hands faster in the issues that are published on Japaneses magazines. On the other hand, the price is around 5$ each one, which is really bad.

It's good to see Nitta working again

Oh well, it’s Nitta Youka! let’s try it out. And so I went and bought Kiss Ariki chapter one. Honestly, the chapter itself was pretty nice, two yakuza’s sons get secluded in a solitary island in order to protect themselves from an upcoming underworld war. Tohru has a very though personality and isn’t really happy about having to spend so much time alone with Mutsumi when he could be helping his father. Mutsumi on the other hand is a very smart man that doesn’t want to get involved in the yakuza world, but he seems to be oddly interested in Tohru. Not exactly an impressive plot, but I quite enjoy the art-style and this mangaka is creating some interesting characters again.