One thing that I really love about our current BL Team is that we have all the bases covered. While there is some overlap between the three of us, we all have pretty different taste in terms of characters, stories, and tropes—to the point where sometimes if I’m completely uninterested in something, Yomogi knows that he should probably check it out. This vast difference in our taste means we can give a variety of recommendations to a much larger audience. I’m sure those who’ve been watching our socials, have attended our panels, visited us at conventions, or sat down to business lunch with us already have a fair understanding of what we like: Sou likes “milfs” and mpreg, Yomogi likes strong eyebrows and ojisan uke, and I (Ames) like my characters ultra femme, a little sad, and extremely slutty.
So when I saw this tier maker going viral while I was making my daily coffee break Twitter rounds, I thought it would be fun/interesting to have each BL team member make their own so we could see just how different our tastes really are.
One thing I’d like to note: we generally try not to talk about manga/characters/tropes we personally don’t like, since we try to avoid anything negative and don’t want to bring down those who do like it. We feel very strongly that all BL is “for” someone even if it’s not to our personal tastes. So please know there’s no judgement from us if you adore the tropes we’re personally not big on. Please fly your freak flag high—there’s nothing we love more at Renta! corp than people who unabashedly love the manga they read. Not to mention, as I already said, chances are someone on the team likes it even if someone else doesn’t.
Ames
Don’t act like you didn’t see this coming. The whole top line is 受け専用—I only have space in my heart for bottoms. That’s not entirely true—I do like seme characters, even if I usually prefer their bottom counterpart more—but I have been pretty open about having an extreme preference for bottoms (particularly more feminine bottoms) to the point where I’ve started spats in fandom in my rambunctious youth because of the more Western-oriented preference for characters who’re seen as properly “manly.” (This is one of the reasons I also started interacting with JP fandom more…)
I just really don’t like manly guys—in appearance or in behavior. Old guys just look like Guys. Heibon just look like Guys. Macho guys just look like Guys—though I’m willing to look past if if the character has a beautiful face and a glorious rack, like Mizuki from Eat Me Up, My Husband. I prefer guys who’re somewhat effeminate, whether in face or personality. 😭 I’m a femme-loving lesbian; what can I say? (Though shout-out to my fellow BL-loving lesbians who love super masculine dudes in BL—a lot of my friends are in this category, so I don’t want to discount their preferences.)
For a lot of the seme characteristics listed, it matters a lot what their uke counterpart is like—for instance, in my opinion wanko seme really shines only when it’s with a tsundere or strong-willed uke character. Nakimushi is admittedly always quite cute. Hetare is at its best when its contrasted with a highly capable uke. But some seme characters I do really like include Ueno from You Should Be The One To Come Kiss Me, Amakawa from It Was The End of Spring, and Shihark from Carnal Incarnation.
I love switching, but it’s only when both characters like bottoming—I hate the seme x seme trope where both characters are fighting for who gets to top and treat bottoming like it’s some grand insult to their masculinity. They should both take it up the ass. That’s my royal decree.
All of that being said, literally all of these preferences can be overcome if I like the art style enough, or if the characters are really engaging, or if the story is really good. Obviously, BL exists or a variety of reasons and in a variety of ways—sometimes you’re there for the emotional gooning instead of the straight-up gooning, y’know?
But obviously the best BL are the ones that satisfy you fully—heart, soul, and disgusting pervert brain. Which is why I will talk about Naisho no Stalker-san, Chirijiri Yukuno, Noumi-kun no Benmei, and Love Chain, Love Gene until my dying breath. Amen.
Ames’ recent top picks on Renta!:
Yomogi
The moment I finished creating my tier list, I messaged Ames and Sou asking, “AM I GOING TO GET CANCELED FOR PUTTING CROSS-DRESSING SEME SO LOW!?😭” Yes, I know… but somehow, cross dressing BL isn’t my cup of tea. But, if you enjoy it, that’s amazing, and I hope you encounter a whole slew of josou seme in your lifetime!
If you’ve interacted with us through our socials or at Citrus Con, you might already be aware that I am a huge fan of characters with thicc brows (unfortunately not on the tier list) and oyaji characters. While oyaji seme carries its own appeal, oyaji uke is what makes my heart REALLY dance. How could anyone resist an older, disheveled-chic-looking man getting his soul revitalized and butt destroyed by a younger seme, ready to accept him as he is?😭 That is what exactly happens in Heaven and Demon (I know I’ve recommended this series a million times, but it’s THAT good all the way up to the third volume).
Another one of my favorite tropes is sadistic seme. Now, I know this one can be interpreted in various ways: are they physically sadistic? Mentally? Are they into doing something typically considered “taboo”? For the purpose of this tier list, I interpreted it as seme who goes a little too overboard in how he expresses his love for the uke. Yandere stalkers? Obsessive and controlling characters? Choking the uke with his schlong? Yes, yes, and yes. In BL, I interpret all of these as acts of love! A special shoutout to Tomoyasu from Beware the Haters in Love, who currently ticks the former two boxes.
In a similar vein, I love myself some characters who cry. Bonus points of they cry while blushing. If I deem obsession-gone-overboard as a form of love, tears are the crystallization of characters’ cuteness, embarrassment, and/or patheticness. Tears of both the seme and uke cleanse Yomogi’s soul, one “PLIP” at a time. Wholesome and emotional tears—which often appear in Roji-sensei’s works—also make me feel a whole array of emotions for the characters, leaving me with some feel-good hormones☺️
Additionally, I have a soft spot for characters who seem cool at first but let their emotions run wild or get flustered at times, revealing a different side to them, like Yaotome when he’s behind the wheel in My Instructor Won’t Yield. It’s all about that gap-moe. Office romance and macho characters are fantastic, too, such as in Businessman Love Battle (note: this manga features a macho seme)–there is something beautiful about how buff characters cradle the other guy’s body (and having his way with it😏).
As I continue working on delivering manga to you all, I look forward to extending my taste in BL!
Yomogi’s recent top picks on Renta!:
Sou
If you felt betrayed by my dear colleague Yomogi’s dead-last ranking of “cross-dressing seme,” I am here for you 😇 way on the opposite side of the spectrum. Sadly, the trope seems so uncommon in commercial BL that the only instance I could think of off the top of my head was the scene in Breathless Momentum Vol. 4 (if you know, you know 😉) — but I loved it so much it’s lived in my head rent-free ever since I first read it years ago. But, maybe I’m just not looking hard enough—if you have recs, please hit me up! (I’m begging 😭 )
Regarding the rest of my rankings, well, you might be able to notice a pattern if you squint — literally, I mean, honing in on A x B categories and seeing where I tend to place the top and bottom — in the “power dynamics” I prefer in my BL pairings. That’s right. When I said I like “power bottoms,” I meant both in AND out of the bedroom! Bratty older senpai-kun, prepare to get POUNDED! 😈 I want to see the seme powerless and stupid, blubbering on his knees and BEGGING for even just a taste of the bussy 😩
Ames accused me of being dishonest re: my ranking of “bijin/beautiful uke” — evidently assuming it MUST be higher up, considering all the screenshots of beautiful older ukes I’ve sent her along with lurid comments that could certainly be described as “feral,” and also would probably get me arrested were I not talking about a 2-D fictional character. Understandable on her part, but I must let it be known that I do NOT only care about looks. To me, what matters is their essence as a whole: personality, relationship with the seme, gap moe, etc., etc. Some characters just happen to be a wonderful combination of all my favorite things, in a very pretty, older uke-shaped package, and that’s when I absolutely lose my shit. So, when The Golden Bee Drops Into Honey introduced me to the honeypot that is 30-year-old (oh, right, I also have a thing for arasa) wealthy, slutty, pretty, dominant, sexy, emotionally distant, broken, gorgeous Akifumi, I simply could not keep my thoughts to myself the entire time I was editing the book.
When it comes to relationship tropes, I also have a big Thing for enemies-to-lovers, a perfect foundation for “squabbling couple” fun. That’s why I couldn’t (metaphorically) put down Marrying the Coworker I Hate, with its silly bickering and hate fucking (erm, hate swordfighting?) between the two hot dorks right off the bat. In the same vein, Showered With His Loving Thoughts has been a delight to read, what with its kouhai x senpai dynamic, featuring a tsundere senpai uke and gap moe seme who seems cool and aloof but is actually the biggest SIMP for his beloved senpai.
I tend to like lighthearted, silly BL, so I feel the overall “vibes” of a story affect my enjoyment of it moreso than the specific tropes involved. Sure, high school romance is cute and all, but I wouldn’t say I go “feral” at the concept itself. However, when executed in a way that has me giggling throughout, kicking my feet at how adorkable both parts of the childhood friend main couple are, and with a heaping helping of tiddies to go with it? You’re going right onto my “peak” shelf, Hajime, Masamune, and Tits. I also couldn’t help but be charmed instantly by the short but sweet series Sex Is My Only True Talent, and NOT just because of the copious amount of boobie on the cover 🥴 A coworker couple with a cute bottom who thinks his sexy sleeper build is the only thing keeping his hot, talented BF around? Goofy misunderstandings as he tries to become the ideal partner for his buxom top who just can’t get enough of his cute boyfriend?? Heeeell yeah. Also, boobs.
I know I’ll continue to discover more BL that are right up my alley, and will gleefully share them every chance I get — even if that comes in the form of spamming the work BL chat with saucy screenshots, much to the detriment of Ames and Yomogi’s concentration 😇
Sou’s recent top picks on Renta!:
Final thoughts:
One thing that continues to surprise me is how fun it still is to discuss BL within the team, even with our massive gap in preferences. Even though we have our differences, we still find places we can agree—even though Yomogi and I feel vastly different about ojisan content and kichiku seme, for instance, we’re both diehard fans of Beware The Haters In Love and keep up with every new chapter, and both adore My Imperfect Marriage to My Childhood Friend—though perhaps for different reasons, since my focus is usually on Toma while his comments usually mention Hinata. 🥴 Sou may care about the seme character a lot more than me and prefer cutesier stories, but we still share recs regularly (though they frequently just reply “they have dumb hair” on all the boys I send), mousou about BL every day during lunch, and we already have reservations to go to the Moment x Ameiro 10th Anniversary Café together.
The thing about BL—about all art, really—is that everyone brings their own preferences and reasons and lived experiences to the table. Whether we read BL for escapism and fantasy, for the LGBTQ+ stories it brings to the table, for the gratuitous porn, for the beautiful artwork, for the labor of love by the artists, or for the passion of its surrounding community—I love that BL can be whatever you want and need it to be. My preferences for BL have evolved a lot in the long, long time I’ve loved it—as has the genre itself, and myself as a person—but BL has remained my main and most treasured hobby.
That’s why it’s such an honor to have my job—I get to share lots and lots and lots of BL with the world on a daily basis. 🤗 Hopefully the Renta! BL team can help people who’re new to the genre discover their own preferences.
Do you have similar preferences to anyone on the team? Hit us up and let us know if you have any recs!
rentaBLog 
Ames, I need to know the good uke x uke recs ( •̀ ω •́ )✧
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