BL NON-Guilty Pleasures

When the idea of a “guilty pleasures” blog post was floated during one of our BL meetings, I (Ames) was originally not super into it. While the intention was good—creating a space to talk about less-common or accepted niches within the BL sphere—I’m not someone who likes the idea of ‘guiltily’ or ‘ironically’ liking things. (I know, I know—perhaps I’m a bit too serious and sentimental.) In my honest opinion as an ancient BL fan, just enjoying the things you love with your whole ass is most often the way to go.

There’s already so much shame in fan spaces as it is for just enjoying BL on its own, so I’m not so big on adding even more shame by referring to things as “guilty pleasures.” We already agreed this blog would be a positive space for and by BL fans, and I want to uphold that at all costs. So rather than making a post about guilty pleasures, Sou and Alice have shamelessly gone whole-hog talking about the aspects of BL and MLM media they love that maybe gets a little flack sometimes—but who cares? If you love something, love it.

I admittedly wasn’t able to participate in this post this time around, but maybe someday. Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoy Sou and Alice baring their “rotten” souls to the world discussing Mpreg, and assholes.

The Beauty of Mpreg

That’s right, baby (haha!). I want to see some bois knocked UP. Breeding kink is all well and good, but let’s see what happens when it actually results in, well, breeding!

You may be thinking, “Oh, so like Omegaverse?” but the answer isn’t quite as simple as a definitive “yes.”

Sure, in the majority of Omegaverse settings, omegas are able to give birth regardless of whether their “primary” gender is male or female,  but I’ve found that (at least in the omegaverse BL I’ve read) it’s not given as much emphasis as the other aspects of the world. Omegaverse stories tend to focus on heats, ruts, pheromones, and the social statuses assigned to each “secondary gender” within the universe. The Omegaverse is pretty interesting in its own right, regardless of the presence or absence of pregnant men — but, this also means that while my favorite aspects of Mpreg do sometimes overlap with Omegaverse series, in general the Venn Diagram is not a circle.

I do enjoy seeing the creative ways in which BL authors explain the workings of MLM conception outside the framework of Omegaverse (though I’m aware of sadly quite few of them — please PLEASE let me know in the comments if you have any more recs!). For instance, there’s Satomichi’s “Sacrificed to the Shark Clan,” wherein members of an all-male clan can gain childbearing abilities based on their first sexual experience, and Yuzuru Mikumo’s “No One Said Anything About a Baby! -What Happens When a Military Man Meets Alien Tentacles!?-,” in which an alien species is able to impregnate human males — because, uh, science!

That being said, I personally don’t think Mpreg needs to be bound by the logic of the universe it’s set in. Maybe it all goes back to my roots in fandom — even before Omegaverse exploded in popularity sometime in the 2010s, there was no shortage of Mpreg works on Fanfiction.net, DeviantArt, etc., and the reason given for it being possible was, in general, “just because.” NGL, I do miss those simple days when nobody batted an eye at a man giving birth through his ass thanks to the “power of love.” BL as a genre is largely defined by fantasy, after all, and Mpreg is just one fantastical example of how BL can play with gender roles. (Of course, men can and do get pregnant IRL, but since the vast majority of BL features cis men, I believe most Mpreg still falls under “fantasy.”)

But, the “how” isn’t so important to me as what Mpreg brings to the table for me personally. Why am I so into this particular trope that I MUST spam Ames (admittedly against her will) with memes and fanart of her fave knocked up any chance I can?? (Ames Note: Why must I see pregnant Kaveh so often…?)

The simple answer, my friends, is FLUFF. In many Mpreg BL, the story often fasts forward from the discovery of the pregnancy to when the kid is actually there, and they all live happily ever after. That’s just dandy, of course, and there’s really no cuter baby possible than the product of your OTP.

But, I also want all the stuff in between. Give me the top comforting his preggy partner when the morning sickness hits. Give me the bottom demanding strange food combinations in the middle of the night and his baby daddy immediately running out to fetch it like the good partner he is. Give me scenes of them picking out baby clothes and decorating the nursery. 

The bottom absolutely glowing with happiness, rocking a little baby bump? Nice. The top vowing to protect his partner and their child forever?? YES. A dramatic childbirth and the couple holding their long-awaited child for the first time? Heeell yeah. A couple of individuals who’ve always longed for family but never thought they could have one, finding love and building their own family from scratch?? *Faints*

The DOMESTICITY of it all could charge my mental battery for years on end.

I understand why it’s not everyone’s cup of tea — maybe the idea of pregnancy at all freaks you out a little and you don’t want to see or read about it, or you dislike the idea that same-sex couples need to fit the mold of an “ideal” heteronormative lifestyle, complete with marriage, 2.5 kids, and a white picket fence. And sure, maybe it’s dehumanizing to see a child as merely an extension of a couple’s relationship, and romanticizing a physical phenomenon that is, by most accounts, not very fun all things considered. But, as I stated before, BL is a playground for dreams and idealism. This is all fiction, and you’ll have to pry my preggo bishies out of my cold, dead hands (ʘ‿ ʘ🌸)

Anyways, my ass is SAT for the “Tadaima, Okaeri” anime coming out this spring. If you’re on the fence about Mpreg, maybe it could be a nice introduction to the trope!

TL;DR: My appreciation for fluff knows no bounds, and the tooth-rottingly sweet possibilities of Mpreg got me like “?”

In Praise of Assholes

No, not those assholes. Get your mind out of the gutter… Sou. (Sou: ““)

Someone once responded to another rant of mine about such-and-such manga: “Have you considered that you like the bad guys so much because they have something you don’t?” Deep. And, to be honest, kinda life-changing. I’ve had a lot of years since then to dive into the meaning of those words, so my conscience is clear when it comes to liking such characters… This is merely a mini-rant about those who come up to you, a grown-ass person, wagging their finger like a scolding parent and dictating what you should or shouldn’t like. But MOOOOOM, is the sole way to respond to something that absurd.

Of course, there are multiple reasons why a character who oscillates between major jerk to downright monster might not be everybody’s cup of tea. Our tastes are often shaped by our internal responses to our experiences, so, someone avoiding these kinds of tropes is just as valid and understandable as me diving head-first into them, as per my own experiences! Specifically when it comes to romance, there are many proper, wholesome love-stories IRL… so in fantasy, I want my romance laden with angst, psychological intricacies, the journey of problematic people learning to love despite everything that would hold them apart, be that the pain caused by the world or the pain they cause each other. 🔥(ʘ‿ ʘ)🔥

Working at Renta! has definitely been a journey for me in that regard, 1. in meeting Ames, who has always defended BL creators’ right to explore darker stories, and 2. in letting me discover a plethora of great titles that approach romance from a gnarly perspective—especially via characters that pepper their romantic lives with unsavory but so-damn-intriguing elements.

A great example is the god-damn-so-amazing-aAAAAH “Kabukicho Cat Honey” by writer Nekojita Udon and artist Toriumemaru. Shinya has an adorably soft side to him, but when we and our protagonist, Haru, meet him, we’re about to be taken on a rollercoaster ride, as he’s a sadistic ass that toys with him to a breaking point, both physically and mentally. Even fluffy moments end up involving some forceful shenanigans, one way or another—and damn, am I here for it. I don’t want to spoil anything, but, setting aside the pure, unadulterated hotness of all the sadistic ero, Shinya actually being such a wholesome, caring, attentive sweetheart majorly satisfies my adoration for the “gremlin with a secret heart of gold” archetype.

While not yet uploaded on Renta!, I’d be remiss not to mention a title that Takochan has been proof-reading and preparing for the site, “My Bias Is A God!?” by Fuyu Touji (author of “Pain, Sweet Pain”). I’m so jealous that he got this in our assignment sheet. So. Jealous. (He also got “Kabukicho Cat Honey”, so brb, I’m off to air-dry, marinate and grill an octopus🐙). The titular god seme doesn’t hesitate to use extremely morally ambiguous methods to get his way with our protagonist, but, as these two articles of mine have already made clear, there’s nothing that I love more than the dubious relationships between unfeeling, solitary gods and their poor, unfortunate devotees. Sou might roll their eyes at me from behind their monitor, but hey, there are elements of stuff they also like in here, so maybe it balances things out for them?👀 That is to say… expect “My Bias Is A God!?” on Renta! soon.