It’s that time of year again! This past Friday, ChillChill opened voting for the 2024 BL Awards! But I figured there might be some of our readers asking:
“What is ChillChill?”
“What are the BL Awards?”
“Why does this even matter?”
…which is why I’ve decided to write a post about ChillChill, the BL Awards, the recent history of year-end BL best-of compilations, as well as this year’s nominee pool and what you can actually read on Renta! So let’s just jump right into it!
What is ChillChill (ちるちる)?
I feel like anyone even vaguely versed in Japanese BL fandom has heard of ChillChill—that’s the level of impact and importance the site has in the Japanese market. You can barely search a BL artist or title without the site popping up as one of the top results.
ChillChill came onto the scene in 2008, starting out as an indexing and community site. Essentially, it was the BL version of sites like MyAnimeList. You could build a profile, share your favs, post reviews, take part in discussions, find new recommendations through their intense tagging system (which I’ve also discussed briefly in my post about why our community tagging system is important), make friends with similar tastes, etc.
Over time, as the site grew so did its legitimacy within the official BL market. They started hosting news reports on BL events as well as mangaka interviews, and including links on where to buy things. They’ve also created an official “BL sommelier” that can give you recommendations if you input your preferences. (Dream job, honestly…)
Now, it’s essentially the site used by the entire BL community. I go there frequently when I want to quickly find a manga that can scratch whatever itch I’m currently having. Want something super horny with an older bottom who’s blond? ChillChill’s got you, bro.
Whatever you want, whether it’s friends or new recommendations or upcoming events or more information on your current favs, ChillChill is there for all your BL needs.
The ChillChill BL Awards: History
The ChillChill BL Awards started all the way back in 2009 when the site was still quite new, and were originally very small. There was intially just a “best” category that gave the #1 comic, novel, BLCD, etc. and then a handful of favorite artists, favorite characters, and the sites top users. For the first few years, the ChillChill BL Awards were very specific to the site and those who used it.
To my fellow nerds out there, I highly recommend checking out the past BL Awards because they’re a fascinating snapshot of BL fandom over the last fifteen years—not only in terms of what was popular, but also how much the genre and fandom have both grown in size and legitimacy. It’s also really interesting looking at how the categories have shuffled and evolved over time.
For instance, this is the first year where 表紙デザイン (hyoushi/cover design) was removed after nearly yen years. Best seme/uke were removed in 2023, showing a push away from focus on characters and more on the books themselves. Top anime/drama used to also be included, but these weren’t BL specific but rather BL-adjacent, so anything that happened to be popular with BL fans (for instance, Free! is on there for anime and Sherlock for dramas in 2015). Removing those categories seemed to be a move away from the doujin/community roots of BL and more toward the 商業/shougyou or official commercially released works.
There also used to be categories for あまキュン (amakyun) or fluff, 異色 (ishoku) or unique works, etc. The ebb and flow of these categories shows the trends as they move through the genre—there was a time where fluff was the pinnacle of an enjoyable BL, and others when dark stories were preferred. Ishoku eventually had to go because, as BL broadened as a genre, anything goes now—whereas, in the past, darker authors like Harada were quite rare. Webtoon is a fully new category this year, because scrolling digital comics are only just starting to get popular in Japan. Even the ero category has continued to evolve over multiple iterations: first eroero, then just ero, then 官能/kannou or ‘sensual,’ and now focusing specifically on フェッチ/fecchi or types of fetishes.
Overall, there’s been a slow movement from the BL Awards being less specialized—using less language and categorization that’s highly specific to BL fandom and works—and moving toward a celebration of BL as a genre that incapsulates a huge variety of stories and themes.
The ChillChill BL Awards: 2024
The ChillChill BL Awards have been happening every year since 2009. Any manga released from January 1st through December 29th of that year can be nominated. (Though, I believe in earlier years the ranking just came from their built-in on-site ranking system rather than asking for outside votes.)
The process this year was broken into four short spurts (😉) across December. In three-day periods, fans, publishers, and authors could tweet the hashtag #BLアワードノミネート祈願 along with the title, author, ChillChill product page, and a small explanation on why they were nominating that BL. Once the three-day period was up, ChillChill’s workers would tabulate the results and categorize things based off their on-site information as well as what readers were saying about them, and then wait for the next period to start.
Finally, the results of the nominations as well as this year’s categories were posted last Friday, February 2nd, and voting opened at 6PM JST. This year’s categories are as follows:
Best Comic (New Series)
Best Series (Ongoing/Continuation)
Best Romantic Comedy
Best Emotional (Heartfelt)
Best Fetish (Steamy)
Best Deep (Intense/Dark)
Best Next Generation (Up-and-coming)
Best Novels
Best BLCD
Best BLCD Seiyuu
Best Webtoon
Voting will continue through Monday, February 12th, and then results will be posted in mid-April.
If you’ll allow me to be quite candid, I personally have mixed feelings about BL Awards and other similar ranking systems for BL. What they amount to, essentially, is a popularity contest, and they don’t actually tell us anything about the worth or enjoyment we’ll get out of a title. Rankings like these can breed a sense of superiority among fans who like The Popular Thing, and a sense of sadness among fans whose favorites go unrecognized. This attitude of “I only like the good BL” is unfortunately already so common in this fandom, so I don’t like to see those kind of feelings or ideas pushed more than they have to be. But that’s just my personal opinion, and is thankfully just a small aspect of the process.
The positive, however, and something I do really love about the BL Awards is it’s essentially a four month long celebration within the BL sphere. For instance, when nominations were being pushed through December, going into the nomination tag was such a treat because so many people, particularly fans of lesser-known works, were pushing so hard and putting all their love and passion into their comments on their favorite works. There were so many BL being recommended I’d never even heard of, because so much BL gets released constantly now that it’s easy to miss things you might otherwise enjoy. Plus, I just love reading people talk about their favorite BL stories or authors.
Now that nominations are over and voting has started, the authors of the nominated works are all posting adorable artworks thanking their fans for the nominations. So, that’s another reason to constantly be checking the #BLアワード2024 tag or the ChillChill BL Awards official Twitter. I’ve also included some examples scattered throughout this post.
The 24 hours after nominees were finalized, BL Twitter was wilding. I went out to dinner with a friend and tried to show her something that was on my BL list earlier that morning, but there were so many new posts I had to scroll for like five minutes to find what I was looking for. Any time BL fandom is seeing that much excitement, even if I have mixed feelings about the idea of ranking the perceived “appeal” of any kind of art, is a good thing to me. As long as BL mangaka and fans are having a good time, I’m happy.
The results won’t be out for a couple months, and I don’t really care who ends up on top—my favs will remain my favs, and I’ll continue to scream about how much I love them from the rooftops. But I hope this fanfare continues through April and continues to add to the excitement of being a BL fan.
Previous BL Rankings: Kono BL ga Yabai!
As I noted previously, before the ChillChill BL Awards became the fandom-wide phenomenon they are now, they were a small celebration of BL that was highly specific to ChillChill’s website. So instead, in order to get their year-end BL recs, BL fans used to purchase a book called Kono BL ga Yabai!, or “This BL is Crazy!” Starting in 2007, the compilation book was released at the end of each year with the intention of showcasing that year’s top BL titles. They cited their reason for creating the compilation being “to share a wide variety of BL with all our friends and fellow fans.”
Unfortunately, citing changing tastes around BL fandom and culture, in 2022 Kono BL ga Yabai! seemed to fall on hard times and eventually created a crowdfunding Twitter. When that didn’t work, though, they announced the publication of Kono BL ga Yabai! would be ending with the 2022 release.
Similar to the fanfare around the Chill Chill BL Awards, there was always yearly excitement surrounding Kono BL ga Yabai! since not only did it showcase the year’s top titles, but it often included special interviews, illustrations, and articles released just for the book’s publication.
But thankfully, the Chill Chill BL Awards have picked up the baton, and in a sense Kono BL ga Yabai!‘s legacy lives on.
The Chill Chill BL Awards & Renta!
Actually, if you go to the main site for the BL Awards, you can see right on the top that our Japanese parent company is one of the big-two sponsors of this year’s awards. 😚 Which makes me very happy and proud to work here, I must admit, even if I’m but a small fish in the Renta! pool.
Japanese Renta!’s BL team has actually been working hard to make the site super user-friendly for BL fans, so if you can read Japanese I highly recommend checking out their great BL search feature!
As for English Renta!, we actually have quite the handful of this year’s nominees available in English! 😲 A HUGE thank you to all of our partners in both Japan and overseas for making us able to share so many great books with you all.
Our amazing web and sales teams put together a special page to showcase which BL Awards nominees you can find on Renta!, but I’ll also list them below for ease of use since you’re already here reading this:
Best Series nominees:
Lala’s Married Life by Tamekou
Lost and Undefiled by Wataru Nagi
Twittering Birds Never Fly by Kou Yoneda
Maybe We’re Newlyweds by Chishanomi
Twilight Out of Focus by Jyanome
Lullaby of the Dawn by Ichika Yuno
Tashiro-kun, Why’re You Like This? by Yamada
Happy Shitty Life by Harada
FAKE FACT LIPS by Machi Suehiro
Pittosporum by Shino Mikami
I Didn’t Ask You to Make Love to Me! -The Man I’m Obsessed With is a Male Porn Star- by Saike Natsuhara
Brazenly In Love by Akira Nakata
Hit On by a Kinky Guy by bov
Best overall nominees:
A Romantic Comedy Between Two Ex-Boyfriends by Kishimoto
(double-nominated for “Romantic Comedy” category)
Romantic Comedy:
24-Hour Kiss by Susu Katoh SPINOFF “Takumi na KISS de Juchuu Shite“
Webtoon:
Whose baby is it by WenRenNiaoShiDuo/WuXianZuoYe/Yayoshi/YSSS Studio
The Silent Concubine by QiangTang/The Shubl Website/Kuaikan Comics/Baili Junxi
BLCDs:
Twittering Birds Never Fly by Kou Yoneda
(double-nominated for “Series” category)
SMOKY NECTAR by Akira Minazuki SEQUEL Renew
Next Generation:
All About My Two Dads by Roji
The Monster & The Ghost by Himemiko
Dear Sister, I’ve Become a Blessed Maiden by Yuiko
We’ll Get Our Happy Ending by Jiro Kawaii
–鮫は桜に恋をする “Same wa Sakura ni Koi wo Suru” by Ryo
License progress: translation complete; lettering pending
–押しかけ淫魔くんとXLサイズの社畜さん “Oshikake Inma-kun to XL Size no Shachiku-san” by Miyako
License Progress: translation complete; lettering pending
Deep:
Cradled By The Wild Blue Yonder by Nikke Taino
Miiyu Just Wanted His Dead Lover Back by Aniya Yuiji
A Beak Upon the Dawn’s Flower by Mocharo
SMOKY NECTAR by Akira Minazuki SPINOFF Domestic Beast
The Prefect’s Private Garden by Sanayuki Sato SPINOFF Prefect no Okibi
Emotional
–鈍くてかわいい君でなきゃ “Nibukute Kawaii Kimi ja Nakya” by Azumi Tsuna
License progress: translation complete; check and lettering pending
Fetish
First Night With My Beloved by Sattsu Kida
Unexpected Attraction by SHIKKE
I Caught Him Getting Off Online! by Megane
The Foxy Mouse’s Romance by HANASAWA NAMIO
Dream Guy Drinks a Love Potion and Goes Wild! by Banana Nangoku
Memento Scarlet by Keri Kusabi
You Who Wants to Love by Nanoka
Second Time’s the Charm by Nannan
If you’ve read any of the above and loved them and would like to vote for them, there’s an English version of the site with a short explanation:
As for Renta! English, we’ll continue working hard to bring lots of amazing titles to our users—both ones that end up in the yearly BL Awards, and ones that don’t. We hope we can continue to share the love of BL even outside Japan.
If you’re interested in other BL year-end recommendations, our in-house BL team put together a Renta! Staff BL Awards for 2023. It pales in comparison to ChillChill’s version, since we’re just sharing our personal favs, but you never know what great gems you might find!
rentaBLog 
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