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Story featuring great characters with a fun dynamic in a refreshingly blue-collar setting, exploring themes themes of learning to take responsibility & dealing w/insecurity. Can be really funny at times, making up for the fact that it at times certain character traits disappear once they have served their purpose in the plot.
Recommended if you're in the mood for a slightly flawed story that nevertheless has a nice balance of funny, serious, & sweet.
A well-realized story that deals squarely with the difficulty of a ten year age gap in a relationship. The foibles of its characters are delightfully real: Kamikura struggles to find his own path while undergoing a gradual realization that he is sexually attracted to Handa, while Handa has to learn how to ask for things in a relationship. An unexpected gem, and recommended if you want something realistic yet very sweet without overblown angst.
A well-crafted, self-contained mystery and drama rolled up into one with perfectly balanced plot, pacing, and themes. The story is refreshingly free of BL cliche, and while it never crosses the line into being disturbing, there is realism that make this a more somber read. I do highly recommend this to any BL aficionados who are looking for a mature story that touches on serious issues but remains a compelling romance - especially recommended to fans who like the detective genre.
A manga that deals w/psychological issues w/out becoming too dark, a story about the power of being accepted for who you are. There are no bad guys, and Haruhi's broken relationship w/his family & his twin brother are not presented as anything that is anyone's fault. Recommended as a sweet but still somber story about a kid who learns to get outside his own head through the power of another person's care.
An erotic reimagining of little red riding hood that is so much better than it has any right to be, with an absurd premise & (mostly) soft-core pornographic tone. At the same time, it is moving, has some good worldbuilding, and has more of a queer sensibility than a lot of BL. It's a difficult manga to categorize. Recommended if you're in the mood for a rollicking sex-comedy-fairtytale adventure story.
About the lives of two brothers who form their own family unit after their parents split, one forced to adopt a parental role. This story is both profoundly sweet and a little more grounded than the usual BL: highly recommended if you what what may be considered fundamentally fluff with some grounding in the social stigma of being in a homosexual relationship. Also completely lacks even a hint of incest, thank god.
It's mature in its sensibilities, poignant in places, and, on the whole, is just a damn good read as romance that eschews genre cliches to tell a moving story about love that is spurned, matures, and then comes to a beautiful fruition. I recommend this to anyone who wants a more emotionally grounded and exquisitely paced love story.
A story about the challenge of navigating a sex friends relationship as a baby gay with someone for whom one might have feelings. It captures the insecurity and uncertainty that accompanies moving from just sleeping with someone to wanting to be more. This story is all the better for being so pared down - it even manages avoid several noxious genre tropes. Recommended if you want a sweet story about transitioning from sex friends to lovers that has just enough emotionalrealism to be compelling.
A spinoff but can be read as a standalone. The love story works well, focusing on how a naive and youthful romance is weighed down by the world that one's parents have made. Both our mains are nuanced and interesting characters in their own right. Recommended if you want a love story that remains romantic but features a more world-weary relationship complicated by a lot of yakuza politics.
A solid love story with a high school setting that is absurd even by genre standards, featuring an unexpectedly healthy relationship. Ai's past sexual trauma is treated sensitively, and a lot of the story is dedicated to showing how he comes to see Nagato as someone he could love. I recommend this story in spite of its daffy premise, since it is a rare case in which sexual consent and mutual caring are emphasized.
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