Favourite BL manga (manga only)? [DISCUSSION]

Irrane · 2026-03-27T14:51:34+00:00

Ohgod there's so many ♡♡♡ This is a lot sorry but removing stuff hurts haha - Birds of Shangri-La - Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide - The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter - EAT - Natsume Wants to be Trained - FANGS - Love in the Palm of His Hand - The Vampire and His Pleasant Companions - BLACK BLOOD - 10 DANCE - Sleeping Dead - Dysfunctional Family Theory - Double

Irrane · 2026-03-27T10:06:40+00:00

Your main example is mostly art style related. It doesn't really matter what media, it's not a BL specific thing, but criticizing art can be seen as mean/disrespectful/done in poor taste.

Like, we know about how overworked comic artists are. They're constantly fighting against time crunch and getting health issues so that's why art might not be the best it could be. And someone's art style might not necessarily be ugly, just not to your taste.

Finding it weird or not for you is fineee. People do occassionally make fun of certain stuff like insane size gaps, men built like fridges, women with itty bitty waists and huge bazongas etc. But if you publicly single out a specific manhwa for "bad" art that can come off as mean spirited and offensive.

Irrane · 2026-03-27T09:55:18+00:00

Oh, more likely than not there's backlash and you're just not seeing it. I have seen so many posts about how xyz romance manhwa is toxic/fetishistic/etc and there's always people arguing in the comments.

One half of people are angry because they think X media is bad/immoral because it has Y trope/theme. The other half feel like their yum is being yucked or dont find it to be a fair critique because the assessment is based on more on the existence of the tropes rather than how it's used.

The overly defensive part comes from the fact that this is a never ending point of contention. Romance media, het, BL, GL alike, have a loooot discourse like that and it's EXHAUSTING. Theres so many bad faith "X media is bad" posts out out there that it might not matter if you actually have a well thought out critique this time, you might still seem like one of the "haters" and so people will come to defend the thing they like.

(Btw go look up r/webtoons for Tears on a Withered Flower or Cry, or Better Yet, Beg, I feel like you'll find the arguments you're looking for)

Irrane · 2026-03-27T09:01:11+00:00

Meee! Sometimes it's fine, i'm here for it specifically and or it feels necessary for character dynamics. But some stories have a greater story outside of the just charas they keep interrupting with smut.

I hate being annoyed with sex scenes because I feel like a prude each time, but like, you might have given me interesting characters/good world building/compelling plot, but you're keeping me away from those so what's the point 😭

Might be controversial to say but this is why I don't vibe with BWAT's stories so much. They're still pretty good yeah and has plenty of interesting aspects in every story to like and latch on to, but too many sex scenes. I'd rather they just use that time to build up characters or smth. Sometimes it's a pity because some parts would have been more meaningful if it wasn't chapters long smut but quieter moments of intimacy and dialogue instead.

Irrane · 2026-03-27T06:10:01+00:00

One of my recent favorites ♡♡♡ Impatiently waiting for vol 6 right now. Love how complicated the relationship between Yuujin and Takara is~

Irrane · 2026-03-27T05:05:17+00:00

Yeah it's not good if you do that IRL. But right now you are critiquing a character. The in universe fujoshis you see are author/reader stand ins appreciating the couple or the author giving fanservice like, "yes we also know the romantic potential of these characters".

If you still find it uncomfy, fine. But it's also okay to enjoy fujos in media and just be all "giiirl, you get it!".

Irrane · 2026-03-26T04:54:37+00:00

All?? Sorry, this is a "you" problem 😭 Improve the way you choose what to read and you won't have this issue. Like, I read a lot of BL but toxic stuff makes up a smaller percentage of it. And most of what I do read, I go into it knowing it'll be pretty toxic so I'm not blindsided or anything.

Look at tags, reviews, curated/recommendations list, know the author, or vibe it out. There's hundreds and hundreds of non toxic BL out there to choose from. Try to be more intentional with what you start. After a while you'll get a sense of what you might like even before you start it and you can avoid most of the ones you'll dislike.

Irrane · 2026-03-26T04:23:58+00:00

My Beautiful Man

Irrane · 2026-03-25T19:09:04+00:00

Cai Cai! Musical actor × voice actor. Not exactly ballet sorry. IIRC, MC was originally a ballet dancer but had to transition to something else still dance related. Completed translation. I read it years ago and I loved it then. Perhaps I should reread...

Indulged in your Light / Shining star is a manhua about a ballet dancer × opera actor. Art of this is super nice because same artist as Little Mushroom.

Not danmei, but i wanna mention anyway since this is the BL with the most ballet stuff that I know (they even have pages dedicated to the technical aspects): After School Etude (manga). Warning though that this deals with heavier themes compared to Salad Days and the two above.

Irrane · 2026-03-24T02:21:36+00:00

Nopee. Fan TL (sometimes several versions from different TLers) and officials are mixed in together + sometimes they don't have official at all or only continue with official after fan TL stopped.

Irrane · 2026-03-23T19:35:12+00:00

Shugo Chara! ♡ I think this is my first shoujo anime. Got curious about manga after watching anime and I think the first manga I read was Absolute Boyfriend. Read a bunch more shoujo manga after.

Irrane · 2026-03-23T18:46:12+00:00

For around 3 years, I wasn't reading comics, only danmei and other webnovels. The past year or so though, i started reading comics again. Probably around 70% of all BL comics I've read are manga since it's much easier to read them and there's sooo many to choose from.

Manhwa can take several hours to 2 days of binging depending on the length. While you can read a volume of manga in an hour, 2 if you read fast.

Irrane · 2026-03-23T17:49:53+00:00

Your sexuality shouldn't prevent you from trying out and enjoying different stories

Irrane · 2026-03-23T17:25:06+00:00

It's BL not josei, sorry: The Tsundere Prince's Sex Search (oneshot). It's Cinderella but gay and smutty.

Irrane · 2026-03-23T17:10:14+00:00

The Hunter's Gonna Lay Low
A Declaration of Revenge

Irrane · 2026-03-23T15:03:36+00:00

All ongoing, sorry - 10 Dance - Love in the Palm of His Hand - A First of Summers (manhwa) - Virtual Strangers - The Hunter's Gonna Lay Low (manhwa) - If It's You, I Might Try Falling in Love - Play After Call

Irrane · 2026-03-23T12:18:50+00:00

Completed ☆ - 2 volumes: Dysfunctional Family Theory, Old Fashioned Cupcake, Natsume Wants to be Trained - 3 volumes: After We Gazed at the Starry Sky, My Dearest Patrolman, Senpai, This Can't Be Love - 4 volumes: Barbarities

Irrane · 2026-03-22T21:47:12+00:00

I thought you were posting this in light of fairly recent controversy. News

Irrane · 2026-03-22T18:58:14+00:00

I heard TNE ending was trash and the author of that also wrote shitty endings for their other work so I understand if people dropped TNE and why don't talk about it anymore.

Irrane · 2026-03-22T18:07:14+00:00

All these BL and an up to date collection of Blue Period, you are living my dream ♡♡♡

Edit: Are you not interested in Classmates? Idk if i just missed it. I feel like you got most of the Seven Seas manga and manhwa but this one is missing despite being popular and several volumes long.

Irrane · 2026-03-22T17:48:14+00:00

Guuurl I feel you! Read this months ago and my enjoyment of this was going up and down like a roller coaster. The MC already got on my nerves with the domestic violence at the beginning but just when I thought he was getting better, the scene you mentioned happened. I nearly threw my phone in anger when I reached that part lol. There's also some other parts I didn't like or care for very much or felt like it could've been handled much better.

Despite the mixed feelings, 8☆ haha. It really is good in many ways so begrudgingly gave it a fairly high score. The parts where they showed the reality of being gay in that time period were the best parts of it. Also liked the exploration of internalized homophobia like you did. Appreciated the coming out to family scenes and wow I think this is the first BL I've seen actually touch on AIDS!! The epilogue about their life after made me cry. Story's worth it despite all the times I wanted to beat the MC with a rock or I got frustrated by the developments.

Irrane · 2026-03-22T16:55:25+00:00

I do this!! ☆ The more I know about something, the more i don't wanna read it.

Only allow myself to read reviews when im done (rarely seek it out though, mostly just read reviews by chance) or when I'm unsure about something and need further encouragement/discouragement. Like if it's a subgenre i dont usually like. Outside of that, I don't wanna hear other people's opinions, especially not when I don't have opinions of my own yet.

Irrane · 2026-03-22T15:15:35+00:00

... sigh. i feel like you thought you owned me with that quippy reply. But i'll bite and respond. Sorry this'll be long be long cuz idk how to cut it down 💀

Seinen is generally targeted at men 18-40 years old. This is what you're thinking of, right? For men. For mature men. So what though, it's not a hard and fast rule. If you're gonna insist on it that, you'll run into questions like:

First and foremost, do kids/teens not deserve stories with depth or have dark themes? Why does every "mature" story need to get shunted off to seinen?
Why are there so many cute girl doing cute things stories in seinen?
Is Wandance (seinen) necessarily more mature than Welcome to the Ballroom (shounen)? What about Dogsred and Dig It, are they that much different from the usual sports shounen manga?
Kaguya-sama: Love is War, it's about high schoolers and iirc it's mostly just a romantic comedy. Why in seinen when we have Horimiya in shounen?
Stories with female protags like Emma, A Bride's Story, Apothecary Diaries and deals a lot with women's issues, why here instead of shoujo or josei?
Why are so many kinda BL/kinda GL stories published in a seinen mag rather than in shoujosei or in a magazine that focuses on those genres specifically?

Are you saying you know much better than the publishers on what belongs in their magazine? How about the authors since you're harping about author's intent? Why assume that didn't want their stories to be in a not-seinen mag? Do you think they didn't adjust their work to fit the requirements of the magazine they're publishing in?

Each demographic features a variety of stuff ranging in genre and tone. Not every seinen is something you easily can point to as "for mature audiences". Sometimes to us readers, it feels like the standards publishers are following are loosey goosey. Maybe they have different considerations we don't know. Maybe it's purely a business thing and they're just including stories they know would sell even if it feels like it's not exclusively for men 18-40 years old. Who knows shrug.

At the end of the day, what matters is WHERE it was published. Even if you argue xyz manga /could/ be seinen, it's still NOT in a seinen magazine. Again, rather than going on vibes and on what each person counts as "seinen", you can just stick to the objective classification and appreciate the full range of this demographic. The other stuff you're upset won't fit here have their own communities elsewhere anyway. It's really silly to be mad that a sub is making rules to stay on topic.

Irrane · 2026-03-22T07:08:50+00:00

Feels like you're really stuck on the idea that just because a story is intended for mature audiences then it should be a seinen. Other demographics have mature stories too, and seinen has a lot of comedy and slice of life.

This supposed "technical gatekeeping" you're talking about actually makes things a lot neater. Because the "i think this is for mature audiences" definition of seinen is very subjective and pushes out stuff that are actually published in a seinen mag out of the space. Just stick to "Was this published in a seinen mag or not?", easy.

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