BL Manga I've Enjoyed This Year So Far
I started reading BL/shonen-ai in secondary school when I picked up FAKE by Sanami Matoh on a whim. I’ve never been the same since. There’s loads of BL available online now, and more publishers are acquiring the rights to series both unknown and popular, that would have otherwise been unavailable to Western audiences. I subscribe to Futekiya for £5 a month, which is a great deal considering how many titles they have in their library. Because many of the series are short, I go through quite a lot of titles in a month, so I decided to list my favourites from last quarter.
1. Can I Buy Your Love From A Vending Machine?
This steals the number one spot for me. It’s a sickly-sweet tale of a gay office worker, Ayumu, who falls in love with the vending machine engineer who restocks the drinks on his floor. It turns out that the engineer, Yamashita, had his eye on Ayumu for a very long time, so when Ayumu musters the courage to ask Yamashita if he could start stocking orange juice in the vending machine, he quickly takes the chance to give Ayumu his number. The smut in this series is very mild, just a couple sex scenes towards the end, but the magic is in the slow build of their relationship. Yamashita is bisexual and experienced; Ayumu is a gay virgin. They’re both dorky and stupid and act like teenagers trying to date for the very first time. With this story, Haruaki Yoshii perfectly captures the awkwardness and anxiety that plague new relationships, and also gives wonderful moments of innocent joy, relief, and excitement, as the two characters begin to be honest with each other and themselves. I loved every moment of reading this. Lots of stupid grins from my end.
2. Rec Me
Earlier this year, I binged Dakaretai Otoko and loved it, so when I read the synopsis for Rec me—two actors with a complicated sexual relationship behind the scenes—I was happy to give it a shot. This one is as steamy as the aforementioned series, and the artwork is beautiful. It follows Yusuke and Chizuru. The former is totally in love with the latter and clearly wants their relationship to be exclusive, but tries to hide it, whilst Chizuru avoids his advances and isn’t against being manipulative to get his way. A bit of toxicity, possessiveness, and a whole lot of sex can be expected from this story.
3. Pornographer Playback
This is a continuation of Pornographer, a short story by the same author. I was so happy to see the release of Playback, because Pornographer ended on a bittersweet cliffhanger. This time we see Rio, our self-sabotaging erotic novelist, out in the sticks, running away from his family, his responsibilities, and his happiness. Kuzumi decides to visit him after their long-distance relationship starts going stale. This sequel really develops Rio’s character. He’s frustratingly self-deprecating, but eventually he learns to open up and be true about his feelings. Kuzumi’s patience with him is saint-like! Either way, it’s great to see a wholesome conclusion to their story.
4. Melt at Night
Melt at Night is about shy and inexperienced salaryman Tomoki, who kind of accidentally gets kissed by an escort who got the wrong address. After opening up to Haru about his sexual fears and desires, they develop a teacher-student relationship. But no surprise, Haru begins to look forward to their sessions in a very non-professional way, and Tomoki quite obviously starts to fall for Haru. Like Vending Machine, there’s a lot of denying-love-as-self-protection going on from both parties, but the story is cute, with a very rewarding pay off.
5. Rational Pervert Romance
Ignore the title of this one, because it totally makes it sound like something weird when it isn’t at all. Rational Pervert Romance is one of my favourite series on Futekiya. It’s a spin off of Simplified Pervert Romance, and follows Sho, Kashima’s cousin, as he very desperately falls in love with Nao, a hunky, shy, inexperienced, dork. Nao has to dress up in women’s clothing for a fashion event, which catches Sho’s eye, but after this opening scene, the “fetish” side of the story gets side-lined completely. This isn’t a bad thing. Instead, we get to see the very sweet development of their relationship, as Nao comes to terms with his feelings for Sho, and Sho beats himself up for coming across too strongly, so Sho starts to avoid Nao, and Nao wonders why because he totally is in love with Sho but was just being shy, then Sho gets excited after the mix up and can’t keep his hands off Nao, and on and on. It’s really lovely, and the smut is A1.
With so many negative, triggering and distressing events going on this year, I need some light reprieve, something positive and fun with a happy ending. If you’re feeling the same, give these titles a go.