Collections of Short Stories & Oneshots (that are actually worth your time)

Not a romance, but an intergenerational character study about a gay semi-closeted divorcee and his son. Well-realized and genuine in its feelings - it's optimistic, but also realistic. Very beautiful.

Sweet oneshots mostly about high school students. While the stories are distinct, the art is very samey. Nothing objectionable, with a few highlights (the titular cello-themed story was definitely one) - all gently moving in their own ways.

A delightful compilation. Definitely recommended if you want an odd assortment of interesting shorts. While not every one hits it out of the park and on the whole it lacks the intensity and poignancy that distinguish the best one-shot collections, each story is fresh, surprising, and varied, and that is enough for me. It helps that the art is really nice.

Altogether, this collection is a delightfully varied feast with writing that ranges from sharp, sexy comedy to poignant and mature drama effortlessly. A perfectly balanced selection of stories dealing with subject matter that isn't tackled very often with intelligent execution and thoroughly satisfactory conclusions.

This is a (very) short short that isn't really BL, since it's just a send-up of harem tropes and not a proper love story. I thought it was very funny, well worth checking out if you're familiar with these tropes and want a quick dose of genre humor. It may be weird to rate it at five stars, but what it was designed to do it did well, and its parody skewered aspects of anime/manga that drive me crazy. Not the usual kind of manga on this list, but still fun.

Four damn-near perfect stories, all of which are well-written, spacio-temporally nuanced, and melancholic. I was blown away by this collection of tales, all of which are distinct from one another and, as is usual for this mangaka, beautifully bound up with historical details that lend weight to her exquisitely written, realistic stories. Recommended if you long for intelligent, sophisticated BL that is delectably bittersweet.

Interconnected shorts about politicians & their lovers illustrated in a distinctive, expressive style. The stories remain politically & ethically agnostic, even as many of the characters are morally compromised hypocrites. Not your typical genre fare and will be offputting to some, but if you're looking for refreshingly mature, understated BL that refrains from moralizing give this a shot.

An exceedingly short story with a folkloric, horror element. For it's brief duration, it has a great setting and payoff (it's described as smut but it's really not, although it does have explicit material). A perfectly satisfying short manga if you're in the mood for something sweet and spooky.

I am cheating a little by placing this in the oneshot category since it has a sequel, but it is perfectly self-contained and satisfying on its own. What makes this story so beautiful is how much it conveys in so few pages, choosing to eschew a typical BL happy ending for a different kind of happy ending. I recommend reading this if you want a portrait of a man living a lonely, closeted life who forms a genuine human connection.

Exquisitely illustrated, mature shorts that respect the reader's intelligence. The visual storytelling and the spare, carefully chosen dialogue work in concert to give shape to the lives of the characters with complex inner lives. This mangaka is one of the finest BL writers, an author who is completely unconstrained by the rigid formula of the genre and makes stories that are for anyone who loves subtlety and nuance, anyone who is willing to read a manga that doesn't hold their hand.