Month: December 2023

Renta! Staff BL Awards 2023

~ Admin ~ 6 Comments

New Years is the perfect time to look back on the last twelve months and think to yourself… “What was the best BL manga I read in 2023?” Best-of lists are common this time of year, so we wanted to get in on the action and make a list of our staff’s favorite BL titles a la Chill Chill’s BL Awards. However, our list is less a ranking of the absolute top popular titles as voted by our users (you can find that by checking the “best sellers” list), and more just us—as a team of BL fans—wanting to celebrate some of our favorite titles that were added to the Renta! site this year. (The 2024 Chill Chill BL Awards should be happening again in march, with people already discussing the nominees, so let’s look forward to that in the coming months!)

Without further ado, the categories are…

Favorite New Series
Favorite Continuing Series
Favorite Seme
Favorite Uke
Favorite Up-And-Coming Author
Amazing Art
Favorite Renta! Title
Favorite Cover
Favorite Couple

To make sure it wasn’t just our main blog team pushing our favs we’ve already talked about at length, we also invited Nan, Agedashi, Anne, and Snow from our Japanese side to share some of their favorite titles they got to work with this year!

For each category there’s a good mix of responses, showing just how varied BL fans are in their tastes. However, in the spirit of not making this post too ridiculously long, we’ll just highlight two or three staff comments for each and then list the rest of the choices below.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Japanese Doujinshi Events

~ sou ~ 1 Comment

It’s the end of the year again, and for the hardcore otaku here in Japan, that means another Winter Comiket.

For the uninitiated, Comiket (short for Comic Market, コミックマーケット Komikku Maaketto in Japanese) is known as the largest fan convention worldwide, held twice a year (in the summer and winter) at Tokyo Big Sight. It’s famous for its gargantuan marketplace of doujinshi, or self-published comics — often created as fanart — catering to fans of nearly every side of manga and anime fandom imaginable. But the fun isn’t limited to indie works — you can find established pros and industry giants setting up shop here as well, often putting out exclusive merch just for Comiket attendees. Plus, it’s a major event in the cosplay sphere as well, so you can enjoy seeing your “favorite characters” walking around in real life all day! To learn more, and to get an inside look at the overall vibe of the event, you can check out this official English presentation prepared by the event organizers!

Perhaps you’re planning to attend this upcoming Comiket, or you dream of one day experiencing it for yourself and want to gear up with the essential knowledge beforehand. And so, as one geek lightly seasoned in attending fan events here in Japan, I’ve attempted to put together a little guide to help you out!

By the way, the tips here don’t apply only to Comiket, but smaller doujin events as well. I hope it’ll come in handy if you ever want to dip your toes in this unique part of otaku culture!

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Making Love to Santa: chabasu’s “A Gift From Santa Claus”

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Read on Renta!:
A Gift From Santa Claus by chabasu

Japanese:
Santa Claus ga Ataerumono
サンタクロースが与えるもの

Links:
Twitter (author)
Twitter (Publisher)

It’s that most wonderful time of year again! You the know the one: the season where everyone wants to make love to Santa Claus and fulfill their life-long Christmas dreams! …Wait, what do you mean that’s not what the holiday season is all about? I mean, why else would Reibun Ike’s Twitter account be covered in a wealth of sexy Santas?

For all my true Santafuckers out there, though, I’ve got just the recommendation for you. Two summers ago I was assigned the manga “A Gift From Santa Claus” by chabasu, and at first I was like “no way. There’s no way is this actually a BL manga about Santa Claus.” But you bet your sweet ass it’s a BL manga about Santa Claus. Never ever underestimate the mousou power of a BL artist.

Orphaned as a child, Kiyoshi is an now an adult—a simple man with simple desires, he just wants to spend an incredibly beautiful, romantic Christmas with his partner snuggled up next to the tree, surrounded by candles and presents as they sip champagne and huddle close for warmth while watching snow gently fall outside. But newly single, Kiyoshi is starting to feel like his dream will never be realized. That is, until he happens upon a Santa in the park offering to grant any wish. He wishes for a boyfriend he can spend a romantic Christmas with, thinking he’s just shitposting into the wind, and then heads home.

But then the next night Saint Nick shows up at his doorstep, telling Kiyoshi he can do whatever he desires to his body. 😲

This manga is a rollercoaster from start to finish. In true chabasu “older bottom” fashion, Father Christmas is the one to offer up his body. Discarding his silky fake beard and naughty red suit he reveals himself to be Goh Kiritake—but he’s still very much Kris Kringle at heart. It turns out there are many “Santas” all around the world who discard their selves to become a vessel of happiness for children on Christmas. However, by allowing himself to be seen and desired as a man by Kiyoshi, Santa—Goh—must face his punishment by the board of Santas for his Christmas sins.

I don’t want to spoil too much, since I truly feel like this is a manga that needs to be experienced from start to finish. There’s a lot that’s just mindbogglingly wild, such as… you know… watching Santa get fucked. But there are also some incredibly sweet moments, particularly around the fact that Kiyoshi is an orphan, and watching him finally make the Christmas memories he never got growing up. And I also really enjoyed the lighthearted worldbuilding around why there are actually many Santas around the world of all races and creeds—because these are all men who’ve dedicated their lives to making the children around them happy.

There are also hot reindeer.

Incredibly funny and cute and bizarre and entertaining (and sexy—something I don’t often associate with Christmas), I can’t recommend this enough for a heartwarming and light Christmas read! I know I personally think back to this manga every Christmas since it was first assigned to me. Make this your new holiday tradition—you won’t regret it.

I leave you with a simple question this Christmas: if Santa was exiled because he let you fuck him, would you choose to live the rest of your life with Santa in seclusion in an endless winter? I sure hope you would.

Size difference out of this world: ITKZ’s “The Titan’s Bride”

~ alice ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!

Japanese Title: Kyouzinzoku no Hanayome・ 巨人族の花嫁

ITKZ’s Twitter (X) / pixiv / fantia

It’s finally time for me to rant/write about my not-so-guilty pleasure in the Renta! catalog: ITKZ’s “The Titan’s Bride”.

(When I announced my intention, Sou jeered at me from behind her huge monitor, “You’re finally going there??”)

I still remember when news of an animation adaptation had taken some corners of Tumblr by storm way-back-when; now, this manga is past the 30 chapter mark and still going on. One reviewer on Renta! brilliantly describes it as a “shamelessly smutty fever dream”—but I would argue that enough fantasy story-building has gone into that good-ol’ isekai flavor that there’s enough plot to pad and support the gratuitous, giant x normal human smut. The art is wonderful, too; as someone who got into BL from reading shonen doujinshi, it gives me the same vibe. Coincidentally, ITKZ seems to be also active in doujinshi-selling events.

So, anyway, come with me into this review to talk about isekai and, uh… macrophilia.

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“Where’s the Dong??” – the Confusing Mechanisms of BL Censorship

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If you’ve spent a good amount of time in the spicier part of Japanese BL fandom, it’s likely that you’ve encountered some form of censorship. A dick scratched out here, a hole whited out there — basically anything to keep the images from being completely explicit. It may have left you wondering, in a genre focusing on guy-on-guy romantic and sexual relationships, why is there nary a peen to be seen?

Inquiring minds NEED to know.

This phenomenon isn’t unique to Japan, though – it’s also present in Korean webtoons, for example, and other adult-oriented media in countries where anti-obscenity or anti-pornography laws exist.

It begs the questions: what rules are in place, if any, that keep us from enjoying our pr0nz in their uncensored glory? And, what point even is there if the intended audience is over 18 anyway, and we already know full well what’s going on behind those teeny tiny censorship bars?

I decided to take a trip down the rabbit hole and explore this sometimes annoying, often confusing, yet in some ways necessary aspect of BL and share my findings with you all. Please note that this article pertains to Japanese BL manga specifically — it’s the type I’m most familiar with, dealing with it on a daily basis for work and enjoying it in my free time as well. The censorship landscape may look different in other countries and across different media, so this is but a small case study!

Continue reading ““Where’s the Dong??” – the Confusing Mechanisms of BL Censorship” →

Call Me Daddy: Shizuku Kunichi’s “Dad, My Lover”

~ ames ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!
Dad, My Lover

Japanese title:
ダッドマイラバー

Links:
Twitter
Comic Picn (Publisher)

This last father’s day, I asked on Twitter which kind of BL dads our readers prefer, and sugar daddies—referred to in Japan as パパ活 (papa katsu)—got a pretty lukewarm response. Which I guess is understandable, since there’s actually not a lot of BL about sugar daddies. It’s truly an untapped market. If you look up the tag on Chill Chill, even, there are only twelve (!?) hits.

Which is one of the reasons I got really excited when I found Shizuku Kunichi’s “Dad, My Lover.” Full disclosure: I actually read this three years ago when it was originally released in Japanese. One look at the cover sitting on the bookstore shelf, adorned with Shizuku Kunichi’s stunning art with Makoto’s adorable twink face and lopsided pink hair, was all it took for me to know this was going to be one of THOSE manga—you know, the ones where for some reason they just hit all the right buttons and you find yourself rereading them every six months? That’s not just me, right?

So when I saw we got the translated version of the manga via one of our partners, you bet your sweet ass I was going to take advantage and push this book with all my might. So here I am, doing just that. Pushing this book. Directly into your arms. Imagine me with a creepy, crazed look in my eyes as I take your hands in mine and then gently but firmly place this book into them. (Or, in this case, the JPEGs…)

Dad, My Lover is about sweet, innocent (beautiful cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure) gay university student Makoto. In university on a scholarship with no extra support from his parents, when Makoto loses his arcade job he’s absolutely screwed. He’s living on his friend Ryota’s couch when Ryota, desperate to get Makoto to move out, recommends sugar dating. Makoto, without thinking too much about it (sweetie… baby… please…) agrees and joins a sugaring app. From there, he’s contacted by a man who calls himself “Sako.”

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BL and its place in LGBTQ media.

~ ames ~ 3 Comments

From Japan’s やおい論争 (Yaoi Ronso, or Yaoi Debates) to the online discourse of today, the most common question surrounding BL in media and social criticism is “what is BL’s place in the larger sphere of LGBTQ media?” Does it belong there at all? Is it a genre that, while revolving around MLM, remains entirely separate from LGBTQ culture? Does it mostly being written by and for (supposedly) straight cis women fully disengage it from being LGBTQ? Is BL a force for good, or does it only exist to promote stereotypes of queer men? And what about BL’s treatment of women? Which supersedes the other: the queer men who’re uncomfortable with the content in some BL, or the fans who use BL as a reprieve from the stifling nature of the heteronormative media landscape? Or is BL, in itself, heteronormative?

Those are just a handful of the questions discussed at the Meiji University symposium “BLの国際的な広がりと名国のLGBTQ,” or “LGBTQ Issues and the Globalization of ‘BL’.” Hosted by around twenty scholars, academics, fans, and community members from around the world, this symposium aimed to share research around how global queer communities interact with and shape BL in their own image post-import.

First, a little background. Taking place on November 25th and 26th, the event was hosted at Meiji University, which is often at the forefront of manga studies and research in Japan. The actual lectures were held at the Nakano campus, which just seemed right considering Nakano is also home to Nakano Broadway, a huge multi-level otaku hub for used manga, doujinshi, and goods. It’s been years since I was personally on a university campus and, being a huge nerd (I probably would have tried for my graduate degree if I hadn’t landed my dream job), I was pretty excited to feel those academic vibes again. Especially since the temps recently finally took a turn in Tokyo, so not only was it academic vibes, but cold weather, fall leaves, grab-a-huge-ass-coffee-before-class vibes. The perfect atmosphere to nerd out about BL manga for two days straight. (And get paid for it… 😏 I love my job.)

Continue reading “BL and its place in LGBTQ media.” →