I'd like to chat with an older reader. By older I mean, being there when Bl was a more niche genre, eg: Zetsuai, Ai no Kusabi, Junjo Romantica, Sakura Gari, etc.
this was my era of introduction to BLs lolllll
Here if you need! I used to be pretty active in forums around 2008～ (+ scanlation teams were more prominent). (●'◡'●)ﾉ
Do you also feel how the change of Bl from underground to mainstream has affected the style, plot, character conplexity etc? I kept reading it for years only out of habit and it hit me that it's not me maturing that made me find them less interesting, it's the Bls that changed. Do you have a comunity with more "vintage" taste, have you adapted or found "solace" in other niche genre?
Your name is sooo familiar. In which ways have you observed the shift in Bls overtime?
I feel like there's good and bad aspects to the transition of BL from a more lesser known genre to it being mainstream. I think it was a popular genre, people just didn't talk about it online except on faceless pages lol. The only exposure to BL that I had was from manga. I remember the first BL manga I had physically bought from a used bookstore was a manga called "Skyscrapers of Oz." FAKE bySanami Matoh was another one I really enjoyed. I mostly had read online at that point and never really knew anyone else who had enjoyed the genre.
I collect older out of print BL/Yaoi manga now cuz it feels really nostalgic seeing them on my shelf. It's an expensive hobby but it gives me something to look forward to when scouring the internet to find them lol.
The biggest difference from then and now, for me, is the sources of BL. I feel like the forefront of BL seems to be Korean Manhwa. I don't see as many people talking about manga, which is interesting and kinda sucks but you can definitely find people who still like them a lot. I think maybe people like the full color scrollable part of it. I've talked about it on my page before but I feel like a lot of newer Manhwa have a very stiff style that you can really see in the hands. Someone mentioned to me that it was mostly because they use 3D models and draw over them to make the creation of chapters quicker. It was a little disappointing to think about because it feels a little less "human." I'm not sure if it's unfair for me to think that. I remember that old shitty yaoi anatomy from manga (wide shoulders and kinda small heads and those huge hands) lol but at least that was just someone drawing it themselves. It could be considered someones art style.
I also feel like there's this weird emphasis on smut. It feels like the plot is just a way to get to the smut instead of it being tastefully incorporated. Reading a lot of creators notes, sometimes it feels like they kinda didn't want to put it into the stories but knew that would make their works more popular.
A lot of characters dont feel like they have any depth to them anymore. There's been a few stories where I really feel connected to the story and it's characters but it isnt something that happens a lot. Love Sick Dog is one where I truly felt so connected to the characters. They felt like real people with complex problems and emotions.
One part of it that I wish would change is that no one really knows when to share and when to keep quiet lol. Websites like these are really popular and easy to find but I still feel like it's common sense to not post about it online. People got spoiled with the internet feeding then things as soon as they want it, so no one put's their own work into finding sites.
A good side to it becoming more popular is the huge variety of subgenres. For example, guideverse is a really cool subgenre of BL. Theres so many weird and creative new universes lol. Cakeverse, nameverse, omegaverse, etc. It's all really cool and fascinating to learn the rules of these universes and get immersed in their little worlds.
I also am really happy to see such a huge variety of art styles now. I have so many new authors and artists to admire and study when practicing my own art. BLs from Japan, China, and Korea give such a large playing field when it comes to finding art styles to study.
One thing I despise is how we have to buy these titles. I hate the coin system with a passion. I think a lot of people wouldnt mind buying from these platforms if it was a subscription based model instead of buying individual chapters. Who wants to start buying a story only to realize you hate it?
Unfortunately the community I have is pretty much 0. I have one friend who likes it but I kinda think it's more of a "I don't mind it" instead of an active like because they don't read it very much. They pretty much just listen to me rant about stuff and don't seem interested in reading my suggestions lol I actually dont think they've read any of the titles I have suggested. I think that's why I chit chat on here a lot cuz this is really the only place where I can find people who enjoy what I do.
All in all, there is always a good and bad side to things becoming more popular. I'm hoping the good will always outweigh the bad but it truly depends on perspective on these things.
The Korean manhwas have been a surprising shift, though I recall reading Korean ones before ( eg: Let Dai), which had very different art and plotline from most of what comes out of Korea today. I'd like to also add that I miss the distinction that existed between shounen ai and yaoi, it seems like the shounen ai genre was lost in the backround of more detailed and graphic content. I'm happy you are able to collect vintage ones, I might take this hobby as well.
I think there's still a very strong distinction between Yaoi that comes from Japan and BL that comes from South Korea. With JP, countless themes are explored including the taboo free from criticism whilst KR seems to ride the trends quite often (nothing bad, just that I find JP more diverse in terms of tropes, depth, and characterization). I like KR BL too since it's what's mainstream now hence easier access and I enjoy reading them as much as the next person. But when I'm asked what comes to mind when the word 'Yaoi' is brought up, I'll always say titles like Finder, Bi No Isu, Ai no Kusabi, Hidoku Shinaide, etc. It's just because that's what Yaoi actually is, and KR BL seems to be a lighter and more restricted version despite all the sensuality.
I collect both as well and some of my friends are also into it but what I find a little sad is the community now prefers reading KR BL because it's their introduction to what they think is 'Yaoi' (I still make this distinction in my head sometimes out of habit). There's nothing wrong with it, but majority of the reason when I ask why is because they like reading in colour and JP is just black and white. They also think the shorter chapters 'can't possibly tell a deeper story or flesh out the characters properly' which is farther from the truth. If anything, the storytelling in JP is much, much more complex even in just those very few chapters.
I'm not saying one is better than the other, but there's just a distinction between them. I rarely refer to KR BL as 'Yaoi' because I feel like it doesn't fit quite as well with the genre. Still, I read and enjoy a lot of it because each BL has its own charm. Some are also exquisitely written too. It's just the community for JP is kind of being drowned out mostly because like us, majority of the readers have either grown up now and have more priorities in life as opposed to the newer generations who can stay online and build the community the way they want it. It all really just boils down to preferences now. I still hope more people read the JP ones because it's a breath of fresh air too.
(I am also personally biased to CN as well because the story-telling is just top-tier.)
Ah, yes, they feel like a story that happenes to be Bl, rather than Bl that happens to have a story. The older Korean ones too. Though it's amazing we got beautiful animations for the CN ones (Mo Dao Zu Shi, Heaven's official) . Hope more will come. There' s some good to these times as well.
I read a manga a long time ago (I think it was rather shonen-ai) and I checked for it on my 800+ list but I'm running out of patience.
So, the Mc is in love with his best friend for a long time and the best friend has a Gf and they seemingly have a good relationship. The Mc is annoyed that he grew up to be so manly because he is not cute. Somehow his teacher falls in love with him. (And I think the teacher's sister was in love with him? Incest smth) I think on the cover the Mc had green eyes and reddish hair and his friend was blonde
So guys how long since you ve been on this site? 6 years for me. Only interest i still have from my teenage self is reading manga from time to time here. Hope this site would be here forever so i can laugh at my weird porn choices and think about cringe but good old days.
Like 9 months but I’ve been reading here unsigned in a littler longer
Been signed here for 6 years too!
sadly I barely knew about this website. I’ve been reading BL for a long time thooo ofc I still go on legal websites and support the author
High five
About 4-5 months I think...and before that I just held on some random BLs suggested by Youtube, and found this site almost by accident because I was looking for a certain yaoi with bette uploads
3 years (this is isn't my first account)
3 to 4 years, only made an account this year.
Not the proper place but anybody else who has some College sugestions? I'm bored and I want to talk with someone, who has no idea what they want to do in future ( just like me). I have 1 month left. So? Any posible failure camerades? Strange enough, I'm very good at school and I could do many things but I'm lost and I don't really care anymore.( liar) I'm not sad, nor depressed. Just lost and scared because of the future changes ( well, maybe a little sad too)
Is anyone else still reading yaoi only because it's a habit?
Once I click Google, my fingers would immediately tap incognito and type www.mangago.me. It became an act of muscle memory. Even though most of the time, I find myself struggling from finding good or even decent yaoi.
Dude me too. I literally was gunna look up some new 2019 manga yesterday but ended up typing mangago instead omg how embarassing that would be if a friend was next to me XD
So relatable It's like a daily routine for me now
Lool i feel like part of me is missing if I dont come here every night.
YAS exactly if i try to google something I somehow end up on mangago, if I'm bored mangago, I wake up mangago, before sleeping mangago, I type mangago unconsciously when I'm on my phone .I'm on this site more than 3 hday on average. I don't even like reading manga anymore. I can't stop
Lmao. I didn't tag anyone it's sounds like I'm replying to myself
:< same here, I just go to this site cuz of habit. One time, I accidentally typed my alt email and password at a government site, since I literally type it everyday whenever I go to mangago in incognito (damn muscle memory). I'm more used to typing my alt email than my actual email T^T
Hahahaha...i myself bookmarked the mangago page to be faster...XD
That's brave o.o
Right?! Hahahaha
I haven't found out yet so...its still there
Why is this so relatable?! One time I want to go to another website, I unsciously wrote mangago. Feels like it's in my nature now and I'm already nor interested in some manga but I LITERALY can't sleep if I don't read something from here so I still open it.
wait... you actually use incognito when going to mangago? I use my school gmail account...
whenever i try to sign-in on mangago without using incognito, it doesn't let me because it always say that my captcha was wrong when in fact it's not.
Why do people take yaoi so seriously? I feel like if someone watches hetero smut they just do their stuff and that's it buuut when it comes to yaoi people forget that it's basically porn with a plot and start analyzing and criticizing everything like it's some literature masterpiece. I'm pretty sure that I didn't express myself well but I want to see if someone else observed this.
maybe cause they didn't experience the idea of enjoying yaoi some ppl naturally dislike it so they keep saying thing to express there hate or feelings toward it cause at the very end we cant force ppl to like thing, even if the yaoi is the same as hetero smut but a little bit different they will see that as a huge gap cause that's the way they think ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶
Agree. It can be slightly annoying when people treat smut with a little bit of plot like it has to be masterpiece to be good. And I will also never understand why so many people complain about yaoi having unrealistic sex scenes, unrealistic stories and characters etc. I mean they're talking about manga, of course the sex scenes and the stories are often unrealistic. That's not a yaoi problem, that's how most of the porn in manga is.
The sex scenes and the female characters in pron made for straight men aren't very realistic either, there are a lot of rapey bara manga out there and yuri manga are mainly written for straight women and men. Nobody really complains about that but for some reason when it comes to yaoi it's suddenly a big problem.
That being said, we should also keep in mind that every story that focuses on two male characters who are sexually or romantically interested in each other (or the story is about one male character being attracted to another male character), doesn't matter what kind of story it is, gets labeled "BL". Fans in the west usually distinguish between "Yaoi" and "Shounen Ai" but that doesn't say a lot about the actual story either.
"Feeding Lamb", "My Darling Kitten Hair" and "Following Namsoo to the Bathhouse" wouldn't be labeled as the same genre if they weren't about two men. But because they are, all of them are yaoi/BL.
Yaoi isn't necessarily porn with plot. And I guess that's the problem. A yaoi tag doesn't tell you if a manga/comic is "porn with plot" or "a good story with sex scenes between two men". So I get why some fans expect way too much from every yaoi they read.
Not all yaoi are like porn some have no sex at all but just kissing and hugging scenes and the plot of some of them are still good however that is my opinion. I basically love yaoi for it is like forbidden love and also it stated by an accident and because there was nothing else to read. Right now I have nothing and reading of the post. I normally read what ever but yuri (for I'm a girl)as long it is good!(๑•ㅂ•)و✧
Well yeah it's called shonen-ai and you're right they're usually better mainly because they're focusing on relationshionships and development rather than sex. Anyway I was talking about yaoi ( the smutty ones)
I was reffering at the ones that like yaoi. I wonder why it's such a diffrence between the reactions at hetero porn and yaoi. I feel that people expect too much from yaoi when in fact it's still porn
Damn that's some response you've got there. That's what I wanted to hear, why people treat yaoi like it has to be a masterpies. Yeah not all yaoi is porn (shonen-ai, because for example on sites like this they are differenciated) but I said that so I could make clear that I'm refering to really smutty ones. When there is some really graphic yaoi and the characters cheat, are 'too slutty' or sleep with old men and who knows what else people start judging everyting like you know... it isn't intended for people kinks and hornyness. When it comes to characters relashionships too. These dudes meet like 2 days ago, had sex and if one of them does something that in.a normal ( normal like irl) relashionship would be considered bad and they fight, people lose their mind , when in fact it's some excuse for a scene with violent, sadistic or make-up sex
That's what I wanted to hear. Why people have such big expectation from yaoi. Yeah not all yaoi is porn ( shonen-ai, and on sites like this they are differenciated) but I said so because I was reffering at really smutty ones. When there's some graphic yaoi where dunno somebody cheats, it's 'too slutty' or sleeps around or with old men or who knows what else, people start judging like it wasn't in the first place intended to be for people's kinks and hornyness. When it comes to characters too. These dudes know each other for two days. They have sex and when something happens, one of them does something bad and they fight people lose their mind when in fact it's just an excuse for a scene with either violent, sadistic or makeup sex. Dunno about them but when I read yaoi I don't expect a pure-hearted perfect relashionship
Like, why when it comes to hetero things people differenciate between what's intend to be porn and what romance but when it comes to yaoi both of them are expected to come toghether
I think they expect to much from yoai for it is something you don't normally see in real life. I have had a few gay friends but they had disappointed me in how the they are not how I expect them thy o act. However, I like the part that in my school there is no bullies of any kind. ┑(￣Д ￣)┍
To me this is just another case of mainstream arrogance. Most popular yaoi are pretty much the same. Girly (or smaller), innocent uke x manly (or taller) seme, at least the uke is still a virgin, at least one of them is actually not gay, the love of his life just happens to be a man etc. (you know what I'm talking about ;) ). To people who like this kind of plot and don't really read anything else (it's not like they have to since there are so many manga with a plot like this) this is what yaoi is, a story about pure, forbidden love between two men with a few sex scenes in it. So whenever they pick up a manga or comic that is popular but it's just smut or has a darker plot or is simply more realistic than what they usually read they don't like it and feel the need to let the whole world know. Because they're not used to reading something that is popular but not to their liking.
They're so used to getting exactly what they want and the manga they like being popular that they become arrogant enough to believe that every story has to be the way they want it to be. Nothing they don't like can be good and they will tell you exactly why it's shit (although the reasoning behind it is often ridiculous).
Ah... If we could give like to responses too
I really can't found this yaoi. The seme is a prisoner and the uke is supposed to train him to be a good slave( sex slave I think?) and there is this crazy king or emperor that wants the seme. It was settled in either Ancient Greece or Rome or something like this
Ff
Ff
ff
Ff
It's probably not, but it sounds similar to this http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/hoshi_no_yakata/
maybe this (first story)
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/sono_ude_de_boku_o_daite/
Ff
ff
That's it :)) Thank you
ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~
Who else is excited about Mo Dao ZU Shi anime release? For those that don't know it's based on a bl novel and the series it's gonna be bl too. God. I wasn't so excited in a veeeeeery long time
Meeeeeeee
Some manga that really fucks up your mind and makes you think "what the fuck did just happen? " I really miss that feeling, nothing excites me anymore. The world has no more mysteries for me. Come with all you have buddy
Bradherley no Basha
also this extremely fucked up manga which can be read here http://www.guromanga.com/read/mai-chan-no-nichijou#.USHRBNSFxWo
gijin gahou
ichi the killer
oh tks for sharing this
I'm horrible... this isn't fucked up enough. Still it was a good read, a pretty enjoyable amount of fucked up. Thanks a lot. Now excuse me, I must think over about my life choices
your welcome
oof not fucked up enough lol
Not really messed up nor twisted but after reading it you're just like "WTF just happened?
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/moritat/"
I read it already. Twice. Ah... good times when I could still get excited. Anyway, good story
Anybody? Some advise? I really can't find enjoyable things anymore... it's like I've already seen all the interesting stuff . I just wish to forget all the things that I have seen
Well if you want something that will fuck with your feels then maybe this one?
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/500_nen_no_itonami/
Sorry I can't be more helpful (￣∇￣")
Thanks for trying too help.I already read this one too. You see what I'm saying?
Yeah, I can totally see your point... Try these!
THIS!
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/my_god/
Perhaps a bit messed up?
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/acid_town/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/zhen/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/sakura_gari/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/isagi_kojima/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/saezuru_tori_wa_habatakanai/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/papa_s_assasin_ryuunosuke_wa_tonde_yuku/
I seriously tried really hard to find something with a great and a messed up plot but I mostly ended up finding mangas that have great stories in my opinion.
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/canis/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/hishakaishindo/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/getsuei/
Fluffy but I really just like the story: http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/muchuu_no_hito/
Not actually a Manga per second but stay with me...when I first saw something from the omegaverse project I wanted to learn more and I Googled it. I came across a grad studies paper on it for a women studies class..,that is someone read thru a sh*tload of yaoi for school research. Clearly I should have re-thought my major...here is the link if u want to see... https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/10852/60216/Omegaverse-MarianneGunderson.pdf
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/deichuu_no_hasu/
When these chapters were being released everyone on Instagram was going batshit crazy
Also if you don’t mind Bara read anything by https://myreadingmanga.info/tag/gengoroh-tagame/
I must say that you have pretty good tastes. Sadly for me , from all of these it's just one that I haven't read yet and I mean, read it completely. Wellp, humans should start making more great things. I'll just hibernate until then
That's just awesome (≧∀≦)
I thought this one was fkd up... http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/recipe/ b/c shota....and this one http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/badluck/ it's so funny but still leaves u with a wtf? thought
Belive me I don't mind anything. I just want something exciting. And yep I also read a lot of bara
This is getting fun~ I went through my "fucked up" tag and found 3 more stories
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/namida_kun_to_namida_chan/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/sora_o_daite_oyasumi/
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/goodbye_until_time_to_meet_you_again/
I am familiar with omegaverse too. I'm gonna look over this anyway. Bonus knowledge ヾ(☆▽☆)
The first one is new to me. I can't belive this. You made me discover a new one
This is something.
My lists used to have hundreds of them, now I see very few?
they weren't deleted from the site but j deleted from our lists... theres nothing we can do to bring them back:(
I'm gonna cry, I had an account since 2015 and I wanted to go through them to see what I used to like :(. Thanks for letting me kneow
thats really sad:(( all of us had the same issue... bookmarks r still there tho !