Read banana fish!! Similar dark themes and undertones and its an anime/manga with real gay rep that doesn’t fetishize the characters, moreover they have LOTS of poc rep!!
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/raion_gotoki_no_kuni_kara/
This one is pretty wholesome and cute! but sadly it's incomplete tho
O M G literally i reread this after rambling about this topic of dark skinned characters not being regualr character with normal backgrounds unless they're supernatural/royalty or got some extraordinary background lol
Ok so bare with me, I have only read the first volume and so I still need to read the rest. I just want to get some things off my chest before I continue on
I have to get this off my chest as a black person. This is the only yaoi I’ve read that has a main character as a black person. I do like that he’s not overly dramatized as a black character with ridiculous drawn lips and wild hair. He just looks like a black guy, I do love his dreads. But it does suck that he’s in prison, can’t have my cake and eat it too. Most other yaoi/BL I’ve read that have dark characters are typically not human (a demon or animalistic character) or some made up ethnicity (like in Mother’s Spirit- DON’T get me wrong, I absolutely ADORED Mother’s Spirit) or are just actually tanned (most of the time it’s a girl that just tans really well), so if anyone knows of any other yaoi/BL that has a black main character, I’d love to know of more!!
First off vol. 1 is a rollercoaster of just E V E R Y T H I N G
I’ve read BL that did have homophobic slurs and insults, it of course added to the characters pain and development. It allowed the reader to understand his surroundings. But I don’t think I’ve read a yaoi that said f*g so many times before. I get that it’s a prison manga, I’ve only ever read one other prison one, but I got out of it quickly (it just got boring and confusing for me) so I guess I’m not used to the amount of blatant homophobia (even though it was definitely true that Sword was just a bisexual homophobic guy, he just didn’t want to admit he was bisexual...?) also this is my first time ever reading a manga that had the N word in it. And it wasn’t even like the way black people say it to each other. That white guy legit said it with an -er. My eyes were like (⊙…⊙ )...like he legit said N*gger.
Also I immaturely giggled at the chapter titled ‘Sexual Chocolate’
I was also confused at the term ‘yellow cab’ I got it’s racist undertones by the word ‘yellow’ but I was like, why cab? It wasn’t until that guy talking to Sword was all something about liking ‘yellow cab’s backseat’ and when I understood that one, I felt bad for laughing cause that was so fucked up.
As for the story I was kinda confused. It was confusing but still on the same page at the same time. I think I got it now at the end of vol. 1. I do feel bad for Norman though. Unlike that kook from earlier, Norman actually seem to have it more together mentally and emotionally (not so sure about now though) and he was a writer ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ , I guess I’ll find out as I read more how his character develops I guess.