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

[randomredneck]

Sounds canon enough for me.

 

[Akishima]

My mother was reading the news and commenting in horror at all the gay people in politics and I'm sitting less than six feet away reading a stack of boys' love manga. The irony is hilarious.

I wound up finishing the first volume of Toritan, and it was pretty cute. After my initial chagrin at the species of bird being incorrect in the first chapter, I wound up enjoying it, so can recommend. Especially if you like animals and a cute first-love sort of story between young adults.

 

[spookesam]

Yuri!!! doesn't have a LGBT tag? Huh

Anyway, first post and I am here for the gay. All the gay.

It doesnt even show a clear kiss between those guys, no wonder it doesnt have that tag

 

[daisicles]

Kodansha announced a license for Boys Run the Riot - teenage trans boy gets into street fashion, written by a mangaka who's apparently openly trans. That was a quick license, it just started this year in Japan afaict. I'm a bit curious about it, how the story will go, though I dunno how interested I am in the street fashion stuff myself.

 

[Akishima]

Almost done with the first volume of Does the Flower Blossom? which I bought on a whim from an RS going out of print list, and found to my horror that the second volume is also out of print and woefully expensive. It came out in 2018, so I guess this means Digital Manga Publishing titles don't stay in print long. Or maybe this title just didn't do well, as it's a very, very, slow burn romance to the point that you can almost say the first volume is basically just a story about an unlikely friendship blossoming between a college student and a salaryman.

I'm loving the slow burn friendship, but not really digging the huge age-gap here- I guess maybe they think no one will read a story about two older men falling in love, but in the real world, people can fall in love at any point in their lives. Now I suddenly want an adorable romance between two guys in their 50s or 60s. I'll take 30's or 40's too- just, lose the age gap, ya know? The idea of romancing someone 20 years younger than you feels borderline criminal when they're a teenager and you're in your 30's. Japan's ageism is really disturbing.

 

[daisicles]

Almost done with the first volume of Does the Flower Blossom? which I bought on a whim from an RS going out of print list, and found to my horror that the second volume is also out of print and woefully expensive. It came out in 2018, so I guess this means Digital Manga Publishing titles don't stay in print long.

It's very difficult to keep titles in print when you have to dig through the office couch cushions for spare change to pay the printers. It's a shame, though, because I'm a fan of Shoko Hidaka's work but I'm definitely not masochistic enough to pick up yet another series that I'll never even get to finish because the English publisher is incompetent.

And age gap romance is, I'm pretty sure, Hidaka's thing. Blue Morning has it, big time, and the other work I have by her has it to a lesser extent too. I find it really interesting in Blue Morning because of how the power dynamics work there, but that series has quite a few dodgy elements going on.

 

[Akishima]

It's very difficult to keep titles in print when you have to dig through the office couch cushions for spare change to pay the printers. It's a shame, though, because I'm a fan of Shoko Hidaka's work but I'm definitely not masochistic enough to pick up yet another series that I'll never even get to finish because the English publisher is incompetent.

And age gap romance is, I'm pretty sure, Hidaka's thing. Blue Morning has it, big time, and the other work I have by her has it to a lesser extent too. I find it really interesting in Blue Morning because of how the power dynamics work there, but that series has quite a few dodgy elements going on.

Yeah, I have the first volume of Blue Morning, but to be honest I probably won't pick up any more just because I hate unhealthy relationships, and it doesn't strike me as a happy story. Artwork is lovely though. Does the Flower Blossom is much more my thing.

 

[Starletka]

Every time I see a new BL added on the database, I simultaneously get happy (yay, new gay) and sad (the BL list is growing in size and variety yet again, while the GL list is forever stale in both)

 

[kawoshinisconfirmed]

Junjou Romantica. That's all I have to say to this matter

 

[Starletka]

Junjou Romantica. That's all I have to say to this matter

As in good or bad?

 

[bwoop]

Junjou Romantica. That's all I have to say to this matter

This was the first technical marked BL I had ever watched.

(Yuri!!! On Ice would be my first if it was marked as BL)

 

[Claptrap]

Gravitation was my first... Honestly even though JR has a lot of issues it was a better entry anime when it came out than anything that came before.

Nowadays we have even better entry anime. I'd say Given is best introductory BL as it stands, or Doukyuusei.

 

[daisicles]

I'd say Given is best introductory BL as it stands, or Doukyuusei.

Given would definitely be the best intro bl these days, I think, at least on the mass appeal front.

otoh, since I finally got to watch the first Twittering Birds movie today, I kinda want to vote for that one as best intro bl anime if you just want to chuck people straight into the deep end while still having a coherent story. (Yarichin, ofc, is the one if you don't feel the need for pesky things like "plot" and "character development" in your introduction.)

 

[Gens]

otoh, since I finally got to watch the first Twittering Birds movie today, I kinda want to vote for that one as best intro bl anime if you just want to chuck people straight into the deep end while still having a coherent story.

I did like twittering birds a lot when I watched it, but I think the sexual content might be a barrier as an entry title for some people even though I'd love to see more S and M relationships being explored in anime.

As for me, what really paved the way for the first BL title I really actually enjoyed a lot was Love Stage after a lot of lukewarm feelings. It does have questionable dubcon but damn, if it isn't a lot of fun still. This decade in particular was a very good decade for shounen-ai/yaoi honestly so you have a good sense things are progressing in the right direction.

While GL I feel like............has kind of just stagnated and been same-y for years in anime. It just doesn't really seem like much progress has been made in terms of the cliches and tropes that keep getting recycled. The lesbian high peak was basically Utena and just nothing has really matched it since.

 

[Starletka]

Meanwhile my eyes were first opened to the BL world with the pretend twincest in Ouran, and I just remember being so bewildered

 

[Claptrap]

 

[Gens]

Best confession:

 

[Starletka]

Best confession:

Sources, people, sources

 

[Claptrap]

@Starletka
Both images are from the story Boy Meets Maria

Quite enjoyed it

 

[daisicles]

I did like twittering birds a lot when I watched it, but I think the sexual content might be a barrier as an entry title for some people even though I'd love to see more S and M relationships being explored in anime.

Oh, definitely. There's a lot of stuff in there, not just the sexual content by itself, that makes it the kind of story that I really wouldn't rec to just anyone, plus I suspect the movie works better if you know the manga already, so it's absolutely not one that I would really use as an intro title.

But that's not gonna stop me from wanting to just throw people right into it for shits and giggles! I was sitting there watching with my headphones in going "jesus, fujoshi in Japan are stronger than me, I would've absolutely died watching this in a cinema".