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Your favourite Boys Love mangas?
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I'm relatively new to manga and I want to make a list of good BL mangas Soni can find them and read them. I've gotten into many BL webcomics over the past few months.
I read a digital English version of Fuck Diem (even though it's originally in Italian it's not an actual manga) on I think it was Tapas and loved it.
What are your fav BL mangas?
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Does Kyo Kara MAOH! count? I’m never very clear on genre definitions, but I think it counts. It’s pretty good. I don’t actually read much BL, and wouldn’t have picked this one up if it weren’t for my best friend recommending it.
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Picking a favorite can be tough, and a lot of my favorites were either never fully released in english or discontinued.
One of my favorites, the license was saved and was re-published by SuBLime. (Good place too look for BL manga btw)
Seven Days (SuBLime's rescue)
Rabbit Man, Tiger Man (June Manga, last volume never released in english despite it being licensed.)
Gravitation (best BL/Music series from 15+ years ago, I still enjoy it.)
Given (I've only read the sample off amazon then ordered the first 2 volumes, which i'm waiting for. So far what I've read I really enjoyed and will probably replace Gravitation in my favorite BL/Music list)
FAKE (older series, no longer in print some volumes are harder to find)
FINDER
Only The Ring Finger Knows (1 manga volume, 5 light novels. I am missing volume 4, which is now so expensive because it's out of print. =A=)
Our Everlasting (Licensed by JUNE not sure if there are copies floating around)
Love Stage (It's a cute series, I recommend)
10 CountCheck out SuBLime's website. They are the to go place for BL Manga. Check out the series they have! They're rescuing old titles and licensing new ones.
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Sweet Revolution (my introduction to BL manga - and still my favorite)
Black Sun (awesome art and character designs)
Isle of Forbidden Love
Cigarette Kisses
Sky Link
Hybrid Child -
Usually I don‘t read much BL, but I could recommend Castehate.
@newmodelno15 @EmpactWB @Demonskid @Jan-Suzukawa @Lily-Garden I know it‘s a little bit weird that I ask, but how did you guys got into reading BL manga? Personally I‘m only interested, if the story is good and the art style to my taste (so far I’ve only found one I liked).
💖Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn - then be a unicorn!💖
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I don't read a lot of BL, it generally not being to my taste in aesthetics (either narratively or visually), but there one series that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone wanting to read more BL: Our Dining Table by Mita Ori
It's super sweet and wholesome love story of two people who meet due to a chance encounter and bond over the shared experiences of cooking and eating together. It's very short, only a single volume, but it's well crafted and I found it a nice change of place to the longer form romances I usually read. If you're looking to read more BL I would give this one a try since you don't have to commit yourself to a long multiple volume series and it's you could easily slip into between reading any of the other things on your reading list.
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@Liber-Monstrorum Its not something I’m all that into, honestly. I’ve read a few things that were recommended by friends of mine, and they were okay, but it’s not a genre I’ll go out of my way to find.
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@EmpactWB I feel the same way
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@Liber-Monstrorum personally I only read BL if I've heard good things about the story and like the art style. I try to stay away from romance stories with nonconsensual elements but unfortunately that's not only a problem in BL but in yuri and shojo as well; that is just something we romance readers have to deal with in the current manga environment (I do like a good stealing a kiss scene though if it's done with style and taste). My taste in aesthetics, which prefers cute over handsome, means that I do not seek out most BL purely for aesthetical reasons. Since I tend seek out romance manga with cute characters, I have not yet found a lot BL that suits my taste (and if anyone has any suggestions or recommendations I'm always all ears).
I (as you may have guessed from my profile picture and username) have a great love of yuri manga. It tends to be more in line with my cute-loving aesthetical taste and always gives me something to squee over 😊
So I naturally gravitate towards yuri over BL, which as I write this I realize might be kind of an odd thing to write in a BL recommendation thread, but since you asked how I got it reading BL I feel that I should admit that I never really got into it in the first place 😁“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.” ― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky
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@Lily-Garden Well, to your first point I can‘t really say anything, since I mostly feel the same. But like you said, that‘s a problem we nearly have in any romance story, so if I would only read based on this, I probably would have missed a lot.
I more or less prefer handsome over cute, but I definitely wouldn’t reject reading manga with a cute art style. Regarding BL manga I would recommend you the one I mentioned above (although it won’t match your aesthetic preferences), it is so far the only one which didn’t completely disgust me.😆 If you are looking for something with a cute art style, I could recommend you the manga of The Legend of Sun Knight. It’s not a BL manga, but is drawn in a sparkly shoujo style and has subtle BL hints (but only veeerrryyy subtle). At some time they even released a BL game, although I can’t remember, if it was an official game, or something made by fans.🤔
Although I’m not really into GL, I would love it, if you could recommend me some with a good story and pretty art style.😁💖Always be yourself, unless you can be a unicorn - then be a unicorn!💖
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@Liber-Monstrorum
I was quite sheltered growing up, I guess one could say. Single parent home, where my mother fought (still does) depression and slept a lot. By myself most of the time as I grew up. I don't remember, 'HOW' I found my first anime other than it was an accident. It was the first time I was exposed to MxM relationship. I became fascinated by something so.. "forbidden" and so "Dirty." I've grown up since then, it's no longer one of those curious young teens "Oooh they're doing the naughty!" and more of "That is a beautiful relationship" or "Damn, just dump him already!" type of person now.I cringe at my past self when I think of the reason I bought the FAKE manga backwards... =w=, I finally finished my FAKE collection so now I can actually READ the story.. I was such a little pervy fujoshi back then. XD
I read GL stuff too, but I'm more picky with those. Favorites being Strawberry Panic and Bloom into You.
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@Liber-Monstrorum I would be more than happy to give you some yuri recommendations. Let's see, looks over at bookshelf, Bloom into to You is a great slow-burn romance that is rather nuanced, if you want to try a series that a bit older, Girl Friends and Secret of the Princess both by Milk Morinaga are both short and sweet, Secret is just one volume and Girl Friends is two omnibus volumes. I would also recommend the Kase-san and... series which starts with Kase-san and Morning Glories, I like this series because not only is it cute but the two people actually communicate with each other, have you ever been reading a romance manga and some misunderstanding happens and you just want to shake the couple and yell "WHY DON'T YOU JUST TALK ABOUT IT!", that does not happen in Kase-san and... as far as I've seen. If you're looking for a series with great art though, you should check out Goodbye, My Rose Garden, it's set in Victorian England and it scrupulously researched and historically accurately, which makes not only beautiful but a lot more tragic than my other recommendations since, unlike other yuri series, it does not shy away from the oppression felt by gay people, especially during the time period it is set in. It only has one volume out at present but I look forward to it with Anticipation! I would also suggest you check out Eclair which is an anthology series, as it offers looks of different art styles and stories, I'm sure you'll find one to your liking.
There is one more series I would recommend, though it does not fit neatly into the categories of either BL or yuri, Love Me for Who I Am (Fukakai na Boku no Subete o). This series features a variety of queer relationships and touches various queer themes in a thoughtful way, in a very cute art-style; also the main couple includes a super adorable nonbinary person.
“There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.” ― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky
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@Lily-Garden Okay, thank you! I will look into them.😊
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If you're looking for recommendations, Umibe no Étranger is pretty good (and has an anime movie coming later this year), it has an ongoing sequel Harukaze no Étranger.
Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Eng title I Hear The Sunspot) is also nice and is licensed in english with 4 volumes out so far. -
@Liber-Monstrorum How did I get into reading BL manga? Pull up a chair - this will take a while to answer. ;-)
Seriously, I'm much older than most people on this site, so I actually began with reading slash fan fiction when I was younger. Slash (named for the slash in K/S, or Kirk/Spock Star Trek fan fiction) was the precursor to m/m romance in the U.S. After being a slash fan, and before I started reading and writing m/m romance, I got into yaoi and BL anime/manga when I became an anime fan in 2005.
I agree with you that BL manga is best when there's a strong story and beautiful art, especially if the character designs are beautiful. I think the strongest story I've ever read in BL manga is Shungiku Nakamura's Hybrid Child. It's moving and haunting - very powerful.
