What kind of BL is your favourite? I've noticed that there are subtle differences between Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Western etc etc BL. But enough to make them unique. (Leave some recommendations of your favs if you want!)ヾ(☆▽☆)
For Manga, Manhwa, ManHua and comics:
Like majority of Japanese Bl are shorter, much faster pace, and are published in weekly/monthly magazines. Chinese, Korean, Western Bl are published on apps/websites like kuaikanmanhua, Lezhin, and Tapas. The dominant art style in each is also subtly different. (I always find it odd that Chinese bl manhua are hardly translated relative to Korean and Japanese BL...? There are tons of great ones! Recently, I feel like Korean manhwa are updated/posted much more frequently here than the others.)
Most of the Korean manhwa here have editors, and have seasons.(I've mostly read Lezhin) They are also tend to be mostly original works. From my impression. they tend to be more societal issue-focused, like appearance, income/status gap.(The King's Maker,the one with the ugly love-interest, love is a lie, etc) or well, psychological (I'm talking about killing stalking).
Many Japanse manga are well, less well developed due to the length constraints, and I keep feeling like they slowly merge into this common formula. (of course HArada works are F**-up, and really eye-opening, but aside harada, there aren't too many variants, of course the others are enjoyable too, they are all just short) The long ones...oh the long Japanese bl... i feel like they have a bleach-like repeating arc disease. The long ones tend to also be really really old (like a couple years/ a decade or 2 ago) . The newer ones end in 5-7 chapters.
Many of the Manhua I read were apparently web-novel adaptations, there are also tons of original works which were also amazing.
I'm in Chinese BL manhua territory recently, and well, there's an immense difference in the pg rating due to China's censorship law. If you want to find smexy ones, you'll have to look for those that were published prior to the enforcement of that law or well,published on their personal accounts.(same for chinese webnovels on sites like jjwxc) They do exist.
So, in all honesty, there's a good chunk for beginers here(who don't want p*rn shoved into their eyeballs). Although, in manhuas, there are kisses, hugs, blushes, compromising positions, and clear hints of sex, sex isn't shown explicitly.
For web novels: (love how this term is just its English equivalent)
There are an enormous amount of translated Chinese webnovels (maybe cause most of novelupdate's BL are in Chinese ). Their writing style obviously differs from western, and Japanese due to the structure of their language. For example, there are tons of idioms in Chinese web novels, which you hardly see in western web novels due to the cultural differences. Newer ones have little to no P*rn elements on main bl sites, older ones can get really really---- ⁄(⁄ ⁄·⁄ω⁄·⁄ ⁄)⁄
(Also, I feel like there're disproportionately more Chinese BL webnovels than Korean or Japanese one, to date, I've never actually read a Korean bl webnovel, either Chinese, Japanese or western(my camping in fanfiction.net days))
Anime/donghua
BL anime are well, less censored relative chinese donghua. There are even bl anime p*rn! And like, a lot of them! For chinese... well instant ban on state-run television( if it's a romance genre, like many chinese bl focus on cultivation/war/slice of life/horror games/comedy-- rather than romance like the tiny cherry on a milkshare) , but the hints/ subtleties are getting increasingly more prominent like kisses(usually they release a special uncensored clip online, and have Yuri-on Ice(YOI) level kiss censorship on the Tv version), hugs, blushes, or YOI level confessions aren't censored. Acutual, straight to the point confessions are censored. And if it's too obvious that they are in a relationship --then well = ban. I think they are getting more lax on bl censorship though, since tencent announced quite a few bl donghua. (EX: heaven's official blessing, scum villain smt, mo dao zu shi, those years I opened a zoo, berryl and sapphire(some are bl), the neko boy one that is release by a Japanese firm while being from a chinese manhua- so it's nationality is kinda weird- one)
BL anime tend to be more romance focused. or super high BL sexual tension. I.e Love stage, the one with the sketchy photography club, old ones like the neko ear boy , or the kinda rapey seme author with best friend's in-denial-little-bro one etc.
I haven't seen any Korean or western animations though. So no comment on them.
Reality tv shows:
I've heard of Thai shows/movies, not sure about the others? I've watched the one where the MC forgets stuff every few days movie, and it was heart-warming. I've also watched a Thai bl comedy show where they live with the MIL.
The Mo Dao Zhu Shi-inspired "untamed" was good!
Haven't watched any japanese/western ones though? So I can't really comment much about them.
(*note: I don't know much about Viet/Thai/Indonesian BL, I've heard of Thai BL shows and movies played by real people)
(For the translations, maybe it's just fan translator's preference?)
