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 25: A non-BL series that you wish was BL

What can I say? It had to be Banana Fish. There are a lot of implications in this story and some might say this is shounen-ai…but seriously, it is not. I wish it were, with all my heart. Most of the times I don’t feel like pairing random characters around if I’m not reading/watching BL. Sometimes it happens because…well, there are a lot of hints around (yes Saraiya Goyou, I’m talking about you).

I never wished more for a manga to become BL as I did with this one. There is a certain detail here that doesn’t let us imagine it could happen at all unless the story changed. Oh well, at least I can keep my IchixMasa fantasies alive…

Summary:

Nature made Ash Lynx beautiful; nurture made him a cold ruthless killer. A runaway brought up as the adopted heir and sex toy of “Papa” Dino Golzine, Ash, now at the rebellious age of seventeen, forsakes the kingdom held out by the devil who raised him. But the hideous secret that drove Ash’s older brother mad in Vietnam has suddenly fallen into Papa’s insatiably ambitious hands–and it’s exactly the wrong time for Eiji Okamura, a pure-hearted young photographer from Japan, to make Ash Lynx’s acquaintance… (Viz)