Shounen-Ai/BL Manga/Anime

[Ascherit]

Discuss your favorite Shounen-Ai/Boys' Love manga/anime in this thread. This is a serious thread so no trolling please.

I'm currently reading this: Manga Fox: Seven Days Manga Series

Art & plot = <3

Seven Days
Tachibana Benio



From Vices and Devices:

Bright and early one Monday morning, Shino Yuzuru asks Seryou Touji out on a lark when they run into each other at the school gate. Seryou, who's immensely popular, has the odd habit of going out with anyone who asks him out first at the beginning of the week, then promptly dumping them at the end of it. "Anyone" apparently includes male upperclassmen like Shino, and as a boyfriend, Seryou is perfect--unfailingly thoughtful and kind. Shino, obviously, has no intention of being in a serious relationship with Seryou. It's not like it's actually love or anything like that. ...Right?

I also used to like Loveless but for some reason the story just fell out of my interests. :/

ALSO, WHO COULD FORGET HETALIA: Manga Fox: Axis Powers Hetalia Manga Series

USxUK oh ho ho.

And everything by Yuki Kaori is delicious.

So yeah, discuss about your favorites here so I can possibly look for something new to read. I go for a combination of good art & plot.

[PedroRomero]

lol now now i dunno if i would count hetalia as BL. i think it's like PoT where it's not BL but there are a lot of possibilities. i think we shouldn't count series that are extremely slashable in that then... then again that rules out the princess princess manga then. considering how that isn't BL. oh and it rules out tactics. orz xD

i haven't read any series like that in a long time and i can't think of one off the top of my head that i enjoyed exceedingly. i don't mean this as bashing but as an observation of the genre. boys love didn't appeal to my sensibilities because some of the males were portayed as so exceedingly feminine (not in looks sometimes but certainly in personality) that i often found myself thinking "he might as well be a female. the only reason he's not female is so they can make this BL series")

oh i just thought of one. La Esperanca.

i really really enjoyed this series and it made me really attached to the cahracters. like i said before a lot of series have the feel of "oh ppl will read this bl crap so let's put out lots of low quality stuff with handsome art". a lot of the times la esperanca's art bothered me (the manga-ka's proportions got on my nerves) but the story is great. the plot can be considered done but i think the character brought new life to a tried formula.

it takes place in a sort of made up south american country (could be europe but i had the feeling everyone was Hispanic or Brazillian inspired for some reason xD) and has a lot of religious over tones since the boys go to a religious school. basically there's a really really good kid who everyone likes and looks up to and OMG there's a bad kid that the good kid just can't help but get close to.

and i am a sucker for religious undertones

[Ascherit]

Lol, I guess it's not exactly BL, but it's so slashable. D: LIKE KUROSHITSUJI. ;_;

Oooh, La Esperanza looks pretty interesting. I'll check it out later tomorrow. I like the 'opposites-attract' themes too.

[Catharsis]

My favorite shounen-ai manga:

Summary: Set in a soulless neo-Seoul ruled by young punks and pleasure seekers, an amoral teenager named Dai is the living embodiment of the city's beauty and cruelty.

As the leader of the vicious Furies gang, Dai seduces everyone who lays eyes on him, only to blind them to his own barbaric nature. When an honest schoolboy named Jaehee rescues a beautiful girl from being mugged by the Furies, he can't possibly realize how this brief encounter will plunge him into a downward spiral of unbridled passion and unfathomable pain.

From his brutal gang initiation to an unspeakable act committed against his girlfriend, Jaehee wavers uncomfortably between revulsion and fascination. And in Dai he finds a tender, caring friend one moment and a heartless sociopath the next, awakening strange and unhealthy desires in Jaehee that he could never before have imagined.

DL Volumes: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] // complete

[BeanMarine]

English Title: The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese
Mangaka: Setona Mizushiro

Summary: Kyouichi's indecisive character has led him to repeatedly commit the foolish mistake of adultery. One day, Imagase, a college classmate he hasn't seen since graduation, shows up as the private detective hired by his wife to investigate his infidelity. Imagase, however, proposes a deal. He won't tell Kyouichi's wife about his affairs, but, for compensation, he makes an unbelievable demand: "I want your body in exchange..."

An adult love story about two men and agonizing longing...
~by PresenceDear

The summary honestly doesn't do this manga justice. It's a very emotional plot that deals with men being men. The one thing that I absolutely love about this manga (aside from the angst), is that the characters' emotions are never thrown right at you. Rather, they hide beneath the detailed backgrounds or are carefully woven in the balloons of text.

And if you liked the first one, you should definitely hit up the sequel... or anything by Setona Mizushiro ^o^

[PedroRomero]

lol i haven't actually read any new BL series since starting university (i'm a senior now so it's been some years). So you suggestions are all quite new to me. Maybe I'll give the genre another chance.

in other news: i just thought of another of my favorite BL manga from back in HS. I really liked it. Instead of La Esperanca which was more emotionally charged with comedy bits thrown in, this one is comedy with emotionally charged bits being weaved in.

Dear Gentle Papa

It's NOT incest! xD

Haruhiko has just been confided by his friend, Kyotarou, that he is seeing someone. That "significant other," turns out to be Nao, a young elementary school boy. Nao's mother died when he was younger and the only person taking care of him is his dad, Hirofumi. Scared that Hirofumi might find out about their relationship, Kyotarou asks Haruhiko to tag along on their outings to disguise the relationship from Hirofumi. Haruhiko reluctantly agrees but what he hadn't expected was to develop feelings for Nao's father.

that was a series i really followed. This was the only work by this manga-ka that I actually liked. And i liked it a lot.

[Tamiki]

I really am enjoying reading "Loveless". a Shounen-Ai mangu

[Veloze]

I'm currently watching Kampfer. It has some shoujo-ai and quite a lot of fanservice (for me at least). ;D

[Ascherit]

Necroing this thread back to life because of the new few BL animus coming out amidst the waves of boobs and shoujo and more boobs

Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi (Romance/Comedy)

Originally Posted by Summary

Onodera Ritsu has just transferred from his father's publishing company to Marukawa Shoten. Assigned to the shoujo manga division, he crosses path with the person he'd least expected to meet. Takano Masamune is the editor-in-chief of the division Ritsu's been assigned to, and the two seem get off on the wrong foot right from the very start when Takano unexpectedly kisses him. However, there is more to than what meets the eye: Takano is actually Saga, Ritsu's senpai and high school love-- whom Ritsu had thought to have played him for a fool by taking his affections for granted when he confessed and summarily dumped him.

Trailer


If you liked Junjou Romantica, you'll probably like this too (same animation quality). The OVA is out (not the series) and I thought it was cute. Most of the explicit parts that were in the manga aren't in the OVA so at best it's R-15. It's not incredibly amazing or anything, but if you like shounen-ai it's a nice break from the rest of the spring season. I'm definitely looking forward to the series, though.

Another BL OVA coming out this month is Sex Pistols 2 (laugh at the name all you want, but the title has no relation to the plot except maybe the sex part)...I am incredibly hyped for it, no kidding. Q___________________________Q Saw the first OVA and became in love with it...I'm a sucker for opposites attracting D:

[Gaap]

Besides Loveless (waiting for Tokyopop to release Vol. 9+) that i'm currently collecting, i'm not heavy on the BL. (Since I oddly like female charas more or girl-love *cough*)

But I do have a few that I enjoy, though they're one-shots. (And bought them in flesh manga books too!)

- Almost Crying by Mako Takahashi (bought it from discount)
- Lost Boys by Kaname Itsuki (I love fairy tale spin-offs)

Then there's the Gravitation anime. (I got the entire series on DVDs.)

Not sure if I count Hetalia as a BL-themed series, since originally it's meant to parody WWII. Not heavy on it even though I love to mimic Italy's "PASTA~" voice. =w=;;

[Wen]

I have to say one of my favorite BLs that I've read is Sakura Gari.

Sakura Gari is gorgeous Taishou Era romantic story, ten years in the making. It centers around the 17 year old Tagami Masataka as he is aiming to find his place in life. While attempting to start prep school as a rounin he encounters Saiki Souma, the son of a distinguished noble of the Saiki Koushyaku family and becomes part of the Saiki household .

It seems as though this will be the story of Tagami's life, taking us through both him growing up physically and emotionally. Be aware that there is sexual and yaoi (boy x boy) content within this story. The first chapter is only getting us started...

-- Manga Updates

The scans aren't super high quality, but they're readable. But I really did enjoy the story and the psychological aspects of it. While there's plenty of sexy time (hoho), I think it's balanced quite evenly with the plot/character development. And oh, the art is simply gorgeous. /o/

[Ascherit]

I really liked Gravitation, it was one of the few anime that I would go and rewatch...except my main site for streaming BL took it down because of licensing and such ;_;

I'm fine with some shoujo-ai too -- in fact I'm currently keeping tabs on Shitsurakuen and Renai Idenshi XX, but I'm not a big fan of heavy shoujo-ai/yuri

@Wen

Sounds interesting, I'll definitely take a look at it~

Also as a side note some authors I highly recommend are Yoneda Kou (LOVE HER), Miyamoto Kano, Suzuki Tsuta, Takanaga Hinako, Nekota Yonezou (to some degree), Sakuragi Yaya, Yamane Ayano (really smutty stuff though), and Kyuugou

and if that's not enough here's a chart I found on /cm/ for recs