ALL the groceries? Oh shit! Strong lady! Anyway, I totally get the 'gay men don't like BL' thing. Sometimes I like to read them, other times I don't. I think a lot of it, for me at least, has to do with the types of characters that appear in BL. A lot of the time the characters are a type that I read too much of and get sick of, and certain types are waaay underrepresented in manga. Like, this is just an aside or example or whatever, I enjoy romance manga with muscular women, but that type of character isn't common in romance manga to begin with, so searching for stories with specific character types can be annoying and often fruitless. I'm glad I got to talk about this, I rarely get to. Anyway, paragraph over.
BL is preferable to Yuri for me, generally, sadly… It’s gay, and takes place on Earth and often times people are people. (Now I need to listen to Depeche Mode)
Yuri often takes place in “every girl is gay”-land or “only girls exist”-land, and everything feels all ethereal and weird.
It seems to be that or “this shit rips! 🤘 “
BL is preferable to Yuri for me, generally, sadly… It’s gay, and takes place on Earth and often times people are people. (Now I need to listen to Depeche Mode)
Yuri often takes place in “every girl is gay”-land or “only girls exist”-land, and everything feels all ethereal and weird.
It seems to be that or “this shit rips! 🤘 “
Oh yeah, yuri definitely has an unusually high concentration of lesbians, so I totally get what your saying. This is slightly off-topicn but I always find it interesting how different similar genres can be, like yuri and yaoi are drastically different in a lot of ways despite how positively similar they are in concept. I think a lot of it has to do with target audience, a lot of yuri is targeted to people who like cute girls and a lot of them, so the stories most often have a lot of cute girls all interacting with each other, whereas a significant portion of yaoi is targeted solely towards women for various reasons. It's the same concept: people want to see a number of attractive characters involved with each other, but it's handled totally differently between the two genres. I might not be making any sense and I might be rambling, but it's just something I find interesting, y'know? How different similar things can be and why.
Oh yeah, yuri definitely has an unusually high concentration of lesbians, so I totally get what your saying. This is slightly off-topicn but I always find it interesting how different similar genres can be, like yuri and yaoi are drastically different in a lot of ways despite how positively similar they are in concept. I think a lot of it has to do with target audience, a lot of yuri is targeted to people who like cute girls and a lot of them, so the stories most often have a lot of cute girls all interacting with each other, whereas a significant portion of yaoi is targeted solely towards women for various reasons. It's the same concept: people want to see a number of attractive characters involved with each other, but it's handled totally differently between the two genres. I might not be making any sense and I might be rambling, but it's just something I find interesting, y'know? How different similar things can be and why.
Makes sense to me.
It’s changed exponentially over time, but BL seemed to start out as a means of young women exploring the ideas of sex and relationships, but with a buffer between them by making it all boys. So old-school ukes are all… girls, basically. Look and act stereotypically feminine. Semes all tall and ripped.
And because misogyny men and sex are scary, consent isn’t a factor.
…things are better, now.
We deal with “straight, but…” less often, even! Well, the term “nonke“ is a whole can of worms… bi erasure ftw 😤
Makes sense to me.
It’s changed exponentially over time, but BL seemed to start out as a means of young women exploring the ideas of sex and relationships, but with a buffer between them by making it all boys. So old-school ukes are all… girls, basically. Look and act stereotypically feminine. Semes all tall and ripped.
And because misogyny men and sex are scary, consent isn’t a factor.
…things are better, now.
We deal with “straight, but…” less often, even! Well, the term “nonke“ is a whole can of worms… bi erasure ftw 😤
I did read an interesting article once about why BL is so popular with women and one of the reasons was that it was one of a small number of romantic/erotic media that women could read in public without getting hit on by guys. That was interesting to me, the idea that a certain genre would be popular because of the safety it provides to the people who read it. Anyway, yeah I have noticed that bisexual isn't a term I ever really see in manga, but the storylines and characters that show up are changing with the times and that makes me happy. Like, there's more stories with polyamory, like real polyamory, not just harems, and there's a few really good stories I've read that explore gender and sexuality in an impactful way too. There was one I really recommend if you haven't read it, 'Fukakai na Boku no Subete o' it is about a nonbinary kid who gets a job at a crossdressing Cafe, and it was super impactful, I loved it a lot. I'm really happy to see manga and really just media in general grow and change with the times.
I did read an interesting article once about why BL is so popular with women and one of the reasons was that it was one of a small number of romantic/erotic media that women could read in public without getting hit on by guys. That was interesting to me, the idea that a certain genre would be popular because of the safety it provides to the people who read it. Anyway, yeah I have noticed that bisexual isn't a term I ever really see in manga, but the storylines and characters that show up are changing with the times and that makes me happy. Like, there's more stories with polyamory, like real polyamory, not just harems, and there's a few really good stories I've read that explore gender and sexuality in an impactful way too. There was one I really recommend if you haven't read it, 'Fukakai na Boku no Subete o' it is about a nonbinary kid who gets a job at a crossdressing Cafe, and it was super impactful, I loved it a lot. I'm really happy to see manga and really just media in general grow and change with the times.
Read Fukaboku as it was coming out.
I’ve read a few poly things, though Girlfriend X Girlfriend was “I am too old to be reading horny teenage things” cringe. Lotta speed scrolling, there…
Another one I can’t remember the title of decayed into mediocre BL with a girl who was just also there with a fujo cuckoldry fetish annd saying she was physically attracted to one of them and was kinda meh on the actual poly front. There was a “all girls, all gays” yuri that had a cute triad arc, then the author did an ULTRA CRINGE reimagining series with creepy age stuff and way too horny.
“Crossplay Love: Otaku and Punk” (the official translation. The Japanese title translates better to “Cross-dressing becomes a mess for a Yankee and a solitary otaku”.) Which is in the “gag comedy“ section on Pixiv Comics, and is tagged “romance” and “happy ending”. It’s bloody hilarious and cute and stupid and awesome and “wow birds of a feather huh”
that not only does the otaku just cross-dress for fun, with no extenuating circumstances, but is bi/pan, too. “I mean, he IS nice, and good-looking, and thoughtful, and good-looking, …and good-looking. but I already have someone I like…” “Oh, I thought you’d be creeped out by a guy confessing to you.” “Huh? Well… different people have different interests…”
queer. (Let’s face it, that happens irl. I remember when I came out in my DnD group and realised/found out then and later moreso that like 20% of my friend group was straight and 45% was cis. “Wait, what?” All of Green Day came out as bi to each other like “Oh.”)
Wild: shonen action comedy manga “Mairimashita, Iruma-kun!” is crazy subversive. Boy ends up in demon world, hijinx, magic, battles, friendships…
MASSIVE spoilers below.
Cross-dressing jokes becomes “wait, was that kinda gay?” occasionally, on top of people in the fandom needing to debate an important character’s gender. He has two bestest friends that are so close it’s like this ace triad, almost? I can’t define their relationship (scanlators went with “soulmates”, which isn’t inaccurate, I suppose), bu he has a romantic interes… Which they get jealous of and drag him away to hang out and cuddle.
Then, suddenly, BAM, cross-dressing and lesbians for a whole arc. The MC is like “you want to marry another girl?” “Huh? Yeah! Why would gender matter? Anyway…” and no one mentions queerness again, because why would anyone give a shit? Homophobia? Not a thing.
Oh, and that one character? Canonically non-binary.
their angy, gruff teacher? Wore a custom uniform with a maxi skirt when he was in school. Why? 🤷♀️
Here comes an emo homo boy terrified of being dragging to the (not really existent) harem by the kind, sunshine-boy W rizz of the MC, but cannot fight what he assumes is some kind of power while fantasising about them dating all “oh, no! I’m going to end up spending all my time in school with senpai…” and getting rescued, turning beet red “Nooo! I’m being dragged into the harem!” Later “Hi! If you ever have any questions, just ask!” “😳 What do you want from meeee?!?! …am I already part of the harem?…” collapsed on the floor. I fucking LOVE that character! Hilarious.
I’m on my third reread of it, because it’s just GOOD. I haven’t been this into action animanga since Slayers.
Geez I can’t even bore myself out of this insomnia…
Read Fukaboku as it was coming out.
I’ve read a few poly things, though Girlfriend X Girlfriend was “I am too old to be reading horny teenage things” cringe. Lotta speed scrolling, there…
Another one I can’t remember the title of decayed into mediocre BL with a girl who was just also there with a fujo cuckoldry fetish annd saying she was physically attracted to one of them and was kinda meh on the actual poly front. There was a “all girls, all gays” yuri that had a cute triad arc, then the author did an ULTRA CRINGE reimagining series with creepy age stuff and way too horny.
“Crossplay Love: Otaku and Punk” (the official translation. The Japanese title translates better to “Cross-dressing becomes a mess for a Yankee and a solitary otaku”.) Which is in the “gag comedy“ section on Pixiv Comics, and is tagged “romance” and “happy ending”. It’s bloody hilarious and cute and stupid and awesome and “wow birds of a feather huh”
that not only does the otaku just cross-dress for fun, with no extenuating circumstances, but is bi/pan, too. “I mean, he IS nice, and good-looking, and thoughtful, and good-looking, …and good-looking. but I already have someone I like…” “Oh, I thought you’d be creeped out by a guy confessing to you.” “Huh? Well… different people have different interests…”
queer. (Let’s face it, that happens irl. I remember when I came out in my DnD group and realised/found out then and later moreso that like 20% of my friend group was straight and 45% was cis. “Wait, what?” All of Green Day came out as bi to each other like “Oh.”)
Wild: shonen action comedy manga “Mairimashita, Iruma-kun!” is crazy subversive. Boy ends up in demon world, hijinx, magic, battles, friendships…
MASSIVE spoilers below.
Cross-dressing jokes becomes “wait, was that kinda gay?” occasionally, on top of people in the fandom needing to debate an important character’s gender. He has two bestest friends that are so close it’s like this ace triad, almost? I can’t define their relationship (scanlators went with “soulmates”, which isn’t inaccurate, I suppose), bu he has a romantic interes… Which they get jealous of and drag him away to hang out and cuddle.
Then, suddenly, BAM, cross-dressing and lesbians for a whole arc. The MC is like “you want to marry another girl?” “Huh? Yeah! Why would gender matter? Anyway…” and no one mentions queerness again, because why would anyone give a shit? Homophobia? Not a thing.
Oh, and that one character? Canonically non-binary.
their angy, gruff teacher? Wore a custom uniform with a maxi skirt when he was in school. Why? 🤷♀️
Here comes an emo homo boy terrified of being dragging to the (not really existent) harem by the kind, sunshine-boy W rizz of the MC, but cannot fight what he assumes is some kind of power while fantasising about them dating all “oh, no! I’m going to end up spending all my time in school with senpai…” and getting rescued, turning beet red “Nooo! I’m being dragged into the harem!” Later “Hi! If you ever have any questions, just ask!” “😳 What do you want from meeee?!?! …am I already part of the harem?…” collapsed on the floor. I fucking LOVE that character! Hilarious.
I’m on my third reread of it, because it’s just GOOD. I haven’t been this into action animanga since Slayers.
Geez I can’t even bore myself out of this insomnia…
Ooh! I am very happy to get recommendations! Also, I know the pain. Insomnia is a bitch. For the last few days I've been staying up for like 20-22 hours straight unable to fall asleep until I literally pass out in bed. Just sitting here re-reading manga on my phone and then I wake up and it's 6-10 hours later. For some reason I am thinking of that manga called Sexiled or something like that about the lady who was a crazy powerful sorcerer, it was stupid and often a bit on-the-nose, but it was a fun read.
Oh, that’s when it really hits its stride. Really sets the tone for the flow of things with The Misfits. …but every time they pull of something, “but what if we went harder?”
I came across it while looking for something else “Wow, that thumbnail looks badass! Why is that tagged “cross-dressing”? Must be some running gag.”
Then I was too busy laughing my ass off to even remember how I found it.
”oh, here‘s the gag. …Wait, what? Wait, WHAT?! Yes! It’s not stopping!”
I love that one of his friends is a guy named Alice. That’s just… his name. No one cares. Names are just names. (The names derived from Hebrew send me half the time. “PFFFT that’s a deep cut. Pretty ironic choice!”)
I’m on my third reread. I found it like last month.
That shit rips. It has EVERYTHING. MULTIPLE TIMES it has everything!
Including soooo much Jewish stuff I keep finding more on rereads. It’s so “huh! That’s new!” but I’m also like “who uses a gold kiddush cup?! Have all of them been gold? I‘ve seen that exact design, before on a website to buy… I like it. Don’t need a new one.” “is this a horah!?” “Yarmulkears!”
I didn’t expect to ever see a mangaka put in work on researching our shit! There is, like, ONE community in Japan. One shul, two Chabad houses and that’s it.
Wild stuff. It’s a way for your stuff to stand out from other fantasy manga!
Oh, that’s when it really hits its stride. Really sets the tone for the flow of things with The Misfits. …but every time they pull of something, “but what if we went harder?”
I came across it while looking for something else “Wow, that thumbnail looks badass! Why is that tagged “cross-dressing”? Must be some running gag.”
Then I was too busy laughing my ass off to even remember how I found it.
”oh, here‘s the gag. …Wait, what? Wait, WHAT?! Yes! It’s not stopping!”
I love that one of his friends is a guy named Alice. That’s just… his name. No one cares. Names are just names. (The names derived from Hebrew send me half the time. “PFFFT that’s a deep cut. Pretty ironic choice!”)
I’m on my third reread. I found it like last month.
That shit rips. It has EVERYTHING. MULTIPLE TIMES it has everything!
Including soooo much Jewish stuff I keep finding more on rereads. It’s so “huh! That’s new!” but I’m also like “who uses a gold kiddush cup?! Have all of them been gold? I‘ve seen that exact design, before on a website to buy… I like it. Don’t need a new one.” “is this a horah!?” “Yarmulkears!”
I didn’t expect to ever see a mangaka put in work on researching our shit! There is, like, ONE community in Japan. One shul, two Chabad houses and that’s it.
Wild stuff. It’s a way for your stuff to stand out from other fantasy manga!
This story is so funny and so fucking cool so often! I love the scenes when you see something happen and it's crazy and you just go "HOLY SHIT!" I'm really really enjoying this, I can see myself rereading it a few times. I was hoping that the crossdressing tag was used in conjunction with the romance tag and that Alice would be the love interest, but it doesn't seem to be that way, either way, the student council president is a cool lady. I'm very excited to see where this is going!
As someone who is now fully caught up, I can say this with full certainty, that shit rips! I am so enamored by this story, this is one of the best recommendations I've ever gotten. Thank you very much. I am very very very happy!
This story is so funny and so fucking cool so often! I love the scenes when you see something happen and it's crazy and you just go "HOLY SHIT!" I'm really really enjoying this, I can see myself rereading it a few times. I was hoping that the crossdressing tag was used in conjunction with the romance tag and that Alice would be the love interest, but it doesn't seem to be that way, either way, the student council president is a cool lady. I'm very excited to see where this is going!
As someone who is now fully caught up, I can say this with full certainty, that shit rips! I am so enamored by this story, this is one of the best recommendations I've ever gotten. Thank you very much. I am very very very happy!
I can’t even define what kind of relationship Iruma, Alice and Clara have.
Well, aside “adorable”.
The best part is that I don’t have to.
And as far as I can tell, (I had theories) Alice is just a dude. Just a fancy, sassy boy.
Their butler‘s gender is “meh.” The adjective used is 不詳. “Unidentified, unspecified“ according to my dictionary. I guess “non-specific“ works based on stuff in context.
Vine RULES. All “Oh, noes! What dark magic is this?!” Well, to use slang of the youth: W rizz.
You just gotta deal with this crush, you silly, nebbishe boy. “I don’t want to start liking you more than I already do!” Ummm. That’s not really a thing that just stooooops… and you’re the one imagining dating him!
HILARIOUS. His fuckin’ face!
This series only getting 3 seasons of low-budget anime is a crime.
i hate that all anime has like 16 frames per second of animation… Coming up in the 90s and 00s spoiled me.
The content of a lot of that aged like raw fish, but he animation was buttery or at least quality.
As someone who is now fully caught up, I can say this with full certainty, that shit rips! I am so enamored by this story, this is one of the best recommendations I've ever gotten. Thank you very much. I am very very very happy!
Oh, and read some of the spin-off content.
I haven’t gotten through all of it, because I’ve been looping the main story.
Kalego Gaiden is actually pretty important world-building and backstory… and you get to see Eggy-sense in a dress.
because… he wanted to wear a dress, I guess.
