BLBB Chats About Boys’ Love

If you like boys' love manga, gay romance novels (known as “M/M” or “MM”) are throbbing for your attention. If you like M/M novels, boys' love manga (known as “BL” or “yaoi”) will lasso you in!

As part of author Hayley B. James' initiative to help the BL manga fan explore M/M novels and to help the M/M novel fan explore BL manga, we four ladies(?) sat down this past weekend to chat over coffee (definitely not vodka).
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Kimberly: 1. How did you find BL? Did you get into it right away, or did you have to warm up to it?

Barbara: Well, it all started with Harry Potter fan fiction. Do you remember after Goblet of Fire came out, and we were all waiting for the Order of the Phoenix? I wanted to read more so badly I thought I'd write my own novel, but I found out it was a lot harder than it sounded. So I started reading fan fiction. And I ran into slash pretty quickly. I don't think I even BLINKED. I got the eroticism of it right away and was totally hooked! So when I started watching Naruto with the kids in 2007, I started slashing Kakashi and Iruka naturally. Then I looked for fan fiction, and it existed. Then I found doujinshis. Then I realized that there was actual real manga featuring gay relationships! I was like a kid in a candy store! I'm a natural fujoshi. [A fujoshi is a female fan of BL.]

Anne Lee: Sounds very similar to me, except I started with Sailor Moon fan fiction. Sailor Moon was my first anime/manga, though, so I think it took me a little while longer to get to the point where I started slashing characters myself, but the gay/lesbian relationships written into the canon helped expose me to that "world," so to speak.

Alexandra: Netflix really helped me out. One day I'm watching Utena, the next it suggests Loveless. Next thing I know, I'm jonesing for a new fix, and there's Crunchyroll with Junjo Romantica. [After] the first episode, I was a goner. Shortly after that I met Barb, so it all worked out just fine. Haha.

Kimberly: I lived a fairly isolated existence from birth to about 20, but I did have posters of Erik from Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera (Susan Kay's version is better) and Mr. Rochester from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre on my wall; I've always loved intense human emotions expressed through words and art. One day, in my mid 20s, I just happened to see an AMV [animated music video] with clips from the 1992 Ai no Kusabi anime. Chains? Whips? Torture? Out of control emotion? Possession? ...Love? Sweet merciful above! WHAT IS THIS FABULOUS MADNESS? So, BL was actually my first introduction to manga and anime itself! Fifteen years later, the fire only burns hotter. Deep end first baby. No swimming lessons.

Kimberly: 2. Has BL brought any other benefits to your life?

Barbara: Yes, lots! 1. made my sex life better (when I had one) 2. introduced me to lots of cool women & men (or perhaps I should say nerdy otaku and fujoshi) [An otaku is a fan of manga, anime or video games.] 3. pushed me to learn Japanese and become a translator 4. gave me a year of fiction writing that I may not have had otherwise

Anne Lee: I'd have to say the biggest positive impact BL has had on my life has come from my deciding to pursue research of the sub-genre academically. I took this class while I was an undergrad called "Homosexualities in Asian Literature and Film," and it basically showed me that people were actually looking at BL from an academic standpoint, and I thought "Wow! I could do that!" (Since I already knew I wanted to go to grad school, the rest is history!) XD

Alexandra: Wahahaha! Er... I'd have to agree with Barb's 1-3, and then add in learning InDesign and Photoshop. Let's go with that. Big words about accepting sexuality without labels can wait for another day.

Kimberly: Here's mine: BL, despite the generalized “porn” classification, has forced me to question a lot of serious matters and helped me shape the questions I wanted to ask in order to find the answers I needed to find about myself and my world. Like Anne, I've been inspired to do a lot of exciting research.

Barbara: I have one more! Can I? I used to think penises were ugly, but now I really like to look at them. 

Kimberly: The Art of Penis?

Barbara: The Beauty that is Penis.

Kimberly: 3. Digital publishing and the comic medium: pros/cons?

Anne Lee: Pro: ease of distribution, able to get many titles out quickly. Con: I hate reading on computer screens! I want a shelf full of books I can smell!

Kimberly: Pros to digital publishing with business models like Digital Manga Guild: more authors I want to support are available in English now!

Alexandra: But dedicated eReader devices like Kindle need to catch up in regards to quality.

Seriously. I'm not blind, but comics on Kindle make me think I am.

Barbara: For me... I prefer books, but my life is unmanageable. I have too many books, so ereaders work for me. I do hate reading manga on my Kindle. I'm not thrilled by reading it on a computer either.

Kimberly: 4. Censorship on Apple iDevices & Amazon's Kindle: thoughts?

Barbara: Who knew that the most advanced technology came with Victorian age principles? I'm still stunned.

Anne Lee: I honestly don't know enough about the history of the whole ordeal to comment fully on the cases of Apple and Kindle, but I can't see how certain stores can think it's okay to censor what they sell like that.

Kimberly: There's enough censoring from the publishers. Please don't censor where I can buy and read something as well! Censorship is insulting to my emotional and intellectual intelligence. It has certainly influenced my buying habits. Right now, I have an iPad. It's great, but my next purchase will be a tablet that supports an operating system like Android.

Alexandra: Amen to that. Apple and Amazon have not been getting my money for a while now. Don't you smirk a little when B&N [Barnes & Noble] will distribute something they won't? I know I do.

Kimberly: 5. What are your top five BL mangaka recommendations?

Anne Lee: Fumi Yoshinaga, Basso, est em, Keiko Takemiya, Asumiko Nakamura. I realize not all of these are available in English.

Kimberly: Saemi Yorita's Brilliant Blue. I cried and cried and it felt so good. Completely fell in love with both main characters. Yuki Shimizu's Love Mode. Akira Honma's... anything. Yayoi Neko's Incubus.

Barbara: Nishida Higashi, Shiuko Kano, est em, Renaissance Yoshida, Tomoko Yamashita, Fujiyama Hyouta and Marta Matsuo.

Alexandra: Setona Mizushiro, Dokuro Jaryuu, Shoko Hidaka, Akira Kamuro & Hiroi Takao

together, Tetuzoh Okadaya, Sakaki Kuroda. It’s difficult to pick between favorites! * sob sob *

Kimberly: 6. What M/M romance would you most like to see adapted as a comic?

Alexandra: Josh Lanyon's Adrien English mysteries and the adaptation would be done by Guilt|Pleasure or Akiko Monden.

Kimberly: Anything by Sarah Payne! (Her subscriber system is beyond annoying--just let me buy the whole damn book and read it offline--but her stories are worth the aggravation!) Also, not exactly M/M romance, but a series of manga one-shots from The Great Mirror of Male Love (1684) by Saikaku Ihara would be amazing. OH, OH! Or even The Blue Hood and The Chrysanthemum Vow (both published in 1776) by Ueda Akinari!

Barbara: A comic adaptation of Forster's Maurice.

Anne Lee: Wouldn't a Brokeback Mountain manga be fine?

Kimberly: Excellent! Time’s up, ladies! Thanks for the chat!

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So, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen. If you love BL, try M/M. If you love M/M, try BL. There is manna waiting to explode on your taste buds and fill your starving bellies. If you're already dining on both, then we wish your continued pleasure alongside us at this fine buffet!

Don't forget to comment! Every comment on a "Manga & Romance" related site enters you into a draw for mouthwatering treats! There's also a scavenger hunt!
Treasure sparkles!

Blog hop image from: Sekaiichi Hatsukoi by Shungiku Nakamura.