[Manga] Subtext Tag
Hey! I think Mangadex should have a (romantic) subtext tag. Consider:
Mangadex already has a way to tag subtext. It’s just unintuitive and should be made more clear.
The way the BL and GL tags currently function is that either tag as a standalone
only means BL or GL subtext. The addition of the
romance tag is needed for a series to be interpreted as “there is outright canon BL/GL”. So, the way to tag subtext is to tag either BL or GL but
NOT romance.
I think that’s a little silly, more than a little confusing, and probably unknown to most users (hidden in a 2019 thread). If you saw the BL tag by yourself, your first thought is probably “there’s gay main characters” and
not “there’s maaybe implied gay main characters”. (There’s also the issue that most people implicitly read the romance tag as straight romance, so scanlators may not even consider tagging romance for BL or GL series. Official publishers like
Seven Seas,
Tapas,
Bookwalker have a standalone BL or GL tag with no need for tagging romance to mean romantic gay stuff)
To demonstrate how strange this policy for tagging BL and GL is:
Here are some popular overtly romantic series that, by current definitions, are missing the romance tag and should only have "subtext".
There's probably more in the
hundred pages of series tagged with BL or GL but not romance. A good chunk of those probably have overt gay romances.
And here are some recently added series that, by current definitions, are missing the romance tag.
Basically, the guideline of "tag romance AND BL/GL" is kind of not being followed in a lot of cases.
My suggestion is to change the BL and GL tags to mean an explicit romance or romantic relationship on their own, denoting a romance the same way the romance tag works as a standalone, and add a subtext tag to be used in conjunction with BL or GL to mean respective subtext.
With this proposal, here's an idea of what tag combinations could mean:
- BL
- Main focus of the story is on a gay couple
- GL
- Main focus of the story is on a lesbian couple
- GL + Subtext
- Significant theme of an implied romance between major characters
- BL + Romance
- Main focus of the story is on BOTH a gay couple AND a straight couple
- Maybe a bisexual love triangle?
- Four main characters who pair off into a gay and straight pair
By adding a subtext tag, it
visibly divides up subtext and text umbrella and leaves people only wanting confirmed romances happier while also having a way to more recognizably tag series.
I think this would help clear out some of the messy data around the BL/GL tags, while also dealing with the thousands of series not tagged romance before yuri/shoujo ai and yaoi/shounen ai were merged into GL/BL.
Possible subtext tag definition:
Implied but not outright said romantic feelings or relationship between major characters that is an underlying series theme.
Use case:
Not for ongoing series that are probably just building up to a romance, but series that in all likelihood (if we quit inhaling copium )aren’t going in that direction, or for finished series with a consistent will-they-won’t-they to tease the readers. Especially useful for yuribait and fujobait series which have original tags that "overpromise." Probably best for series that end up with no conclusive major romances.
Tag Applicability:
There are a combined over
2000 GL Subtext and
BL Subtext tags on MangaUpdates.
Dynasty has its own subtext tag which sees substantial use.
Off the top of my head, here are some series which could benefit from a subtext tag:
Liar Satsuki
Free!
Lycoris Recoil
Idolish7
Mosspaca
The Antagonist’s Pet
Your Throne
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
New Game!
And here are some users who like having tags for "borderline" gay content.
BONUS:
- If this goes through, I also think that the romance tag should be changed to straight romance. This is because that's basically what it's used by, and making its use more narrow allows for more specific tagging of series as having both straight romance and gay romance (eg. My Next Life as a Villainess)
- Making straight romance its seperate tag (and not having it be added to some BL/GL series because they're more overtly romantic) allows it to be filtered out and people to "drown themselves in gay"
- This would also allow a subtext tag to be used with straight romances too, that only ever have "vibes" or "bullshit flirting that never goes anywhere"
