I'm here for the gay (the LGBTQ+ anime/manga discussion thread)

[g3data]

I absolutely agree! But ... When it comes to sex in bl/gl anime, I feel like it really depends on how it's portrayed. In majority of cases, it just doesn't belong to the characters. It rather belongs to the audience and that makes it cheap. I don't know if I put this idea in an intelligible way, but it's an issue I have with most of the anime sex in general. It is rarely displayed as a form of perfectly normal human interaction, and instead it's just there to please the fans. Anyway, I feel like we are maybe just too open-minded for the main-stream production. :D

Well generally speaking, sex in anime that goes beyond showing handholding in bed after the fact is saved for hentai, in which laying it all out in way that pleases the audience is the whole point. TV anime can't really do "tasteful" sex (that isn't heavily obscured through shadows, angles or metaphors), and whenever they can, tastefulness is far from what's intended to begin with.

 

[Starletka]

I was looking for the pink fluff censorship scene in Love Stage!! to add, but I found something better instead:

 

[BrainBlow]

Lean into it harder, Arcane!

Though I expect that like with anything else they will hold themselves back because Chinabucks.

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I do not think I have a bigger pet peeve than when I watch a BL/GL etc and someone in the reviews is like... "this isn't just a typical LESBIAN/GAY story.... this is ABOUT FRIENDSHIP and LOVE and not just SEX and therefore it isnt GAY..." people are so fucking stupid. when m/f romance is sexless people understand that yes. romance stories can just be about FEELINGS, but when bl or gl doesn't have sex people are like WOW universal friendship story this ain't gay. rather than examining the fact they think gay relationships are defined purely by sex, which is their own problem

There is a tendency regarding most romance to have people getting into relationships that are built on basically nothing except sex, so I guess for some people it almost seems mind-blowing to see a relationship based on other things.

 

[Akishima]

Having embarrassingly binged 110 chapters of the bl manhua Black Lotus over the past two days, I think I can safely say that it doesn't really add anything to the gay discussion- swap out the ukes for girls and the story would still work fine for the most part. But if you want to read what's basically a gay version of a shoujo richboy romance melodrama, this is it. Props for it actually having a plot beyond the romance and also for discussing abuse and trauma seriously and not normalizing it. I suppose if anything, that is the biggest takeaway- normalized abuse is so common in bl. There's also enough couples for just about everybody's preference and a nice sub-plot revolving around music. However, how it manages to be only shonen-ai with all adult characters is ridiculous. Can't believe it's still ongoing, and sadly, I'm probably gonna keep reading out of a morbid curiosity to see what drama the author cooks up next.

 

[howtoprocrastinate]

Having embarrassingly binged 110 chapters of the bl manhua Black Lotus over the past two days, I think I can safely say that it doesn't really add anything to the gay discussion- swap out the ukes for girls and the story would still work fine for the most part. But if you want to read what's basically a gay version of a shoujo richboy romance melodrama, this is it. Props for it actually having a plot beyond the romance and also for discussing abuse and trauma seriously and not normalizing it. I suppose if anything, that is the biggest takeaway- normalized abuse is so common in bl. There's also enough couples for just about everybody's preference and a nice sub-plot revolving around music. However, how it manages to be only shonen-ai with all adult characters is ridiculous. Can't believe it's still ongoing, and sadly, I'm probably gonna keep reading out of a morbid curiosity to see what drama the author cooks up next.

Sometimes I think I have a decent taste and then I remember I'm still following the storyline of this manhua. Definitely not the most interesting BL I've read, but I still read to see how it will end

 

[Akishima]

Sometimes I think I have a decent taste and then I remember I'm still following the storyline of this manhua. Definitely not the most interesting BL I've read, but I still read to see how it will end

You know, the most entertaining thing about it is how much the author made the main seme and his boyfriend so hateable that literally all the chapter comments are just "hope they die horribly and the main uke never gets back together with him!" Like, I'm afraid the author is going to go the redemption route, and after what utter scum they've made both of them, I just don't see how they can do it without an asspull that negates any of the positives that have come out of the whole thing. So yeah, gotta see how it ends too.

 

[Claptrap]

I feel like you're all convincing me to read Black Lotus

 

[Gens]

I've been snooping around for more trans masc stories and I picked up Magical Boy recently. It's pretty nice and does a good job I think of addressing transgender issues through the magical girl genre constraints. It's an interesting way to frame a transgender story because the magical girl genre has always had queer undertones to me and about reclaiming power through femininity. This entirely flips that on it's head with gender expectations. I've seen magical boy content before, but it's usually done as merely a joke or parody to put a guy in a frilly dress than examine anything in any serious capacity.

Sakura-chan to Amane-kun also seemed pretty promising and cute even though there isn't like a lot of chapters out, about two closeted transgender kids dating which trans people dating each other is something I really don't believe I've seen before in this medium. Gave me slight wandering son vibes.

 

[Max4444]

I've been snooping around for more trans masc stories and I picked up Magical Boy recently. It's pretty nice and does a good job I think of addressing transgender issues through the magical girl genre constraints. It's an interesting way to frame a transgender story because the magical girl genre has always had queer undertones to me and about reclaiming power through femininity. This entirely flips that on it's head with gender expectations. I've seen magical boy content before, but it's usually done as merely a joke or parody to put a guy in a frilly dress than examine anything in any serious capacity.

Do you know a place to read Magical Boy? I've been wanting to read it because I'm also a trans boy named Max lol.

 

[Gens]

Do you know a place to read Magical Boy? I've been wanting to read it because I'm also a trans boy named Max lol.

You can read it on the Tapas website, but bear in mind that it's not free, and it's locked behind a pay wall.

 

[Claptrap]

I've been snooping around for more trans masc stories and I picked up Magical Boy recently. It's pretty nice and does a good job I think of addressing transgender issues through the magical girl genre constraints. It's an interesting way to frame a transgender story because the magical girl genre has always had queer undertones to me and about reclaiming power through femininity. This entirely flips that on it's head with gender expectations. I've seen magical boy content before, but it's usually done as merely a joke or parody to put a guy in a frilly dress than examine anything in any serious capacity.

Sakura-chan to Amane-kun also seemed pretty promising and cute even though there isn't like a lot of chapters out, about two closeted transgender kids dating which trans people dating each other is something I really don't believe I've seen before in this medium. Gave me slight wandering son vibes.

I remember reading Sakura-chan to Amane-kun's first few chapters back when they just started coming out, about, a year ago? maybe a bit more? and it was interesting... does remind me of Hourou Musuko. I think even the character designs have a bit of a similar vibe.

And interesting, I'd never heard before about Magical Boy... honestly, it does have an interesting framing, because it's something I've wondered about before with magical girl stories. Magical girl stories ARE about reclaiming femininity and framing it as something powerful, but contextually, when people are in positions where they've been forced to adhere to roles I always wonder how that Feels... because it sounds like a nightmare! (or a dream: one person's nightmare is another person's dream, and I think 'magical girl' stories ring very powerfully for stories about trans women)

 

[daisicles]

Y'all. I think I might have found the magical yuri I've been searching for with adult characters who look like adults and non-cutesy art.

Seven Seas just announced that they licensed SHWD, which is based on a doujinshi - which, conveniently enough, was already licensed in English and has a nice preview available here. SEXY BUFF WOMEN. LIFTING WEIGHTS. BEING BIG AND BUFF. If the new version looks anything at all like the original, I am sold.

 

[Gens]

Y'all. I think I might have found the magical yuri I've been searching for with adult characters who look like adults and non-cutesy art.

Seven Seas just announced that they licensed SHWD, which is based on a doujinshi - which, conveniently enough, was already licensed in English and has a nice preview available here. SEXY BUFF WOMEN. LIFTING WEIGHTS. BEING BIG AND BUFF. If the new version looks anything at all like the original, I am sold.

INJECT THIS INTO MY VEEIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNSSSSSS.

 

[randomredneck]

Y'all. I think I might have found the magical yuri I've been searching for with adult characters who look like adults and non-cutesy art.

Seven Seas just announced that they licensed SHWD, which is based on a doujinshi - which, conveniently enough, was already licensed in English and has a nice preview available here. SEXY BUFF WOMEN. LIFTING WEIGHTS. BEING BIG AND BUFF. If the new version looks anything at all like the original, I am sold.

WANT.

 

[Gens]

Took a shot at this today:
https://www.anime-planet.com/manga/getting-to-know-grace

This is actually a pretty great girl's love story with a dark psychological bend that I crave for more of, interesting complicated character dynamics and some tasty period piece melodrama overall with a lot of twists and turns. I love manipulative characters doing morally dubious actions. The art and character designs are also beautiful. Remember kids, be gay, do crime.

 

[Claptrap]

man, SHWD and Getting to Know Grace both look more like the kind of GL I'd like to see, in slightly different ways

fascinating, interested in both. going to try to read them both

 

[Starletka]

Throwback to this wholesome part in Paradise Kiss:

Spoiler

 

[daisicles]

Throwback to this wholesome part in Paradise Kiss:

Spoiler

Isabella spinoff when??

 

[Akishima]

Checked out Mo Ri Shu Guang (Dawn of the World) yesterday, and wound up binging all 20 episodes last night. It's barely shonen-ai, but it was a lot of fun. Lots of killer action. Darn China and their censorship- I get the feeling the story might have gone more places if not for that.

 

[Akishima]

Watched Yes, No or Maybe, and it was really touching and lovely up until the point the one guy said no but the other was like that means, yes, right? Man, that trope needs to die.