Make sure to cast your vote! ChillChill Awards 2025 nominees dropped this last Friday, and boy is the competition intense. Around this time last year I wrote about the ChillChill BL Awards and why they matter so much—about ChillChill’s rise from a review and indexing site into essentially the community hub for all lovers of BL manga in Japan—so I’ll spare you from having me write too much here. Nonetheless, I still wanted to make a quick index of all the nominees from the 2025 BL Awards that you can read on Renta!
Last year we had quite a few, and thankfully this year is no different. Also, not just in regards to Renta!, this year’s BL Awards are a testament to how big BL is getting in the West because many of the nominees are licensed by a variety of other localization companies—both digital and print. It’s so wonderful to see how many BL get brought to an international audience now, not to mention so fast. It used to take much longer before BL was licensed for release in the West, and the options used to be so few and far between. It’s such a testament to Western BL fans who keep showing up pushing that BL isn’t just some niche genre—it’s got a massive and excited fanbase ready and willing to support the genre and its creators in any way they can. I love that so much, both as a fan and obviously as someone who works in the field. I can work my dream job only because of the BL fans who show up to support its creation. Thank you so much!
Another thing that’s a bit of a pride point for me is that two years in a row, now, most of our associated BL Awards nominees (particularly our own licenses and localizations) are in the up-and-coming category. That’s honestly so exciting! I talked a little bit in my post about the benefits and drawbacks of being a digital licensor about how we’re able to take more risks on lesser-known, up-and-coming talent due to the lower entry fees of digital versus print, and it fires me up every time I think I get to play even a tiny part in bringing these new artists to a wider audience. And this year’s BL Awards have a particularly good mix of super popular, established artists and rising stars!
Anyway, without further ado, here’s the list of the 2025 ChillChill BL Awards titles you can find on Renta!—including some sneak peaks into exciting upcoming licenses! 🤭
On Twitter a while back, I remember seeing a complaint that there’s lots of BL with businessmen and older guys, and lots of BL with high schoolers, but where are all the college guys? And while plenty of people were kind enough to swoop in with their favorite college-centric BL recs, it still made me start thinking about what college BL I would personally recommend from Renta!’s catalogue. And what better time than now to make a rec post, as spring semester heads into full swing in the U.S.?
First, though, let’s talk a little about what college looks like in Japan to get a better understanding of some of the more common college tropes you might see in BL manga. I’m sure we’ve all experienced the fanfiction that puts Japanese characters in a super American college setting, with dorm parties and drinking and fraternities—the whole nine yards. (Always a fun and exciting AU scenario, up there with flower shop or coffee house.) Actually, though, college in Japan is pretty different in a lot of ways.
First, there’s no greek life. There also aren’t really dorms—at least, not in the on-campus sense like in the States. I stayed at a dorm that was eight train stops away from my school, and that seems to be the norm. College students generally live at home, stay in apartments (financed by their parents if they’re wealthy enough, or by themselves if not), or live in shared housing or general dormitories that aren’t associated with a particular school but instead house students from schools all around the city. The dorm then has a dorm head who usually takes care of management and maintenance, and a dorm mother who’s usually in charge of cooking and cleaning. This scenario is pretty common in manga: the main character moves into the dorm and has to rely on all the strange and exciting people they meet.
Sometimes you see a cover and you’re just like “yeah, I’m gonna like that series.” Just one look, and you add it to the cart. You don’t read the description, you don’t read the tags, you don’t look at the reviews—you don’t need them. You just know this specific book was made for you. And that’s how I felt the second I saw The Top-Ranked Omega Doesn’t Believe In Destiny.
First of all, the redhead bottom—Aka—is just so extremely My Type. The art is beautiful and the linework is so soft and clean. The coloring is stunning. The contrast between the two character is also extremely eye-catching and instantly speaks to their personalities: Aka and Soei’s colors contrast brilliantly, Aka in intense fiery red with Soei in soft, calm blue—as does their level of undress with Soei fully clothed in a suit while Aka only has open shirt and collar, not to mention the difference between Aka’s look of sensual arrogance, while Soei looks serious and concerned. I knew without even reading a single page I was going to love both of these characters as well as their dynamic.
And, sure enough…! So if you, too, are interested in seeing what’s so intriguing about this top-rated omega and his elite suitor, read on!
As you may have gleaned from our previous publisher showcase on KiR as well as our Citrus Con panel about the ins and outs of BL localization, when it comes to manga, paying attention to the publisher (and the publishing lines within) matters not just in terms of the type of content on offer, but also how easily a license request can be fulfilled. Different companies have ties with different publishers, either through long-standing relationships and trust building, or simply because they may be the subsidiary of a larger company. So it’s useful to pay attention to what publishers a localization company already has in their roster, because if they’ve licensed from them once, chances are the process of doing it again will be much smoother.
As I mentioned in the KiR showcase, we’ve had a long relationship with them as a publishing line, and frequently release their content. But another publisher we have a good relationship with is Brite Publishing, the larger company behind the two BL lines Tulle and B.Pilz . Our long-standing relationship with Brite Publishing is a major reason we’re able to bring you guys so many of their wonderful titles.
As you canmaybetell, we at the RentaBLog love Brite Publishing and the mangaka who release stories under them. I’ve discovered many of my more recent favorite mangaka through getting to work on Brite Publishing stuff through Renta!, and it’s made me really want to help push their BL out to a wider audience.
One of the things I love about Brite is that, as a medium-size publisher, they work with a great mix of established and newer, lesser-known mangaka. This not only means getting to experience lots of new art and writing styles, but since the artists are newer to the scene, they bring a fresh new take on established tropes and stories. Because of this, you might see a lot of youth culture references (which also makes them fun to translate—we live for the challenge!) or themes that previously didn’t show up in BL much. It makes it so there’s always something new and exciting releasing under Brite!
For that reason, we (me, and our newest BL Team member Yomogi) decided we’d showcase a handful of our Brite Publishing favs! (Aside from, you know, the many, many, many we’ve reviewed on the BLog already… hehe★)
I was first introduced to this manga when my friend who worked at Coolmic said “you’ll love this series; you have to read it.” And while I usually take his recommendations, since he knows me well, for some reason I put off reading it—maybe because my “to-read” list is already massive, or maybe because I’m usually not that into megane characters. But, his recommendation aside, I kept seeing it in the trending and top rankings of the various online bookstores I go to for intel, and I eventually was like “FINE, JEEZ, I’LL READ IT!”
And, boy howdy, am I glad I did. I feel like you’ll see my experience replicated in the reviews for the series on Renta! as well: almost everyone who reads this reports being kind of blown away by how enjoyable it is. It’s cute. It’s funny. It’s very sexy. So, what exactly is the magic of Unexpectedly Naughty Fukami? Let me explain.
The story follows Kaji. Loved by his coworkers, admired by women on the street, and just overall seen as the pinnacle of capability and manhood, Kaji seems like a great guy. In reality, however, Kaji’s a total piece of shit. He’s arrogant, callous, and incredibly calculating. He fakes his Nice Guy™ personality at the office while looking down on his coworkers, thinks lowly of anyone who isn’t appropriately “attractive” by his standards, and gives every man he sees a score from 0 to 100, judging their worth on their status, style, and looks above all else.
Granted, all of these aspects of his personality are because he’s desperately hiding his sexuality from those around him and trying his best to keep people from ever knowing him on a deeper level. If he’s perfect, no one will ever question him. Still, this has left his personality completely twisted to the point where he sees everyone around him as objects to fit his needs at any given time.
Enter Fukami, a coworker from the tech department at Kaji’s company. Fukami is frumpy, unsociable, and bland, hiding behind uncut hair and thick glasses. Thus, when he’s paired with with Fukami for an overnight business trip to clear up a bug in another prefecture’s system, Kaji’s incredibly judgmental. While they’re on their business trip, Kaji secretly leers at Fukami and rates him a “total 0.” However, at the hotel that night, Fukami walks out of the shower and—he’s stunning!??? Dressed in the skimpy hotel nightshirt, bare legs in full view, and hair finally out of his face, Fukami is incredibly, 100% Kaji’s type—from 0 to 100 in an instant. So shocked, Kaji drops his phone—leaving the gay hookup app he was previously browsing in full view.
When I was lucky enough to attend the ChillChill BL 2024 Awards Ceremony and meet up with the head of Futekiya, they told me their coworker often attends little business seminars put on by ChillChill. This was the first time I’d heard of such a thing—business seminars specifically catered to people looking to spread the gospel of BL manga? Sign me up!
These seminars, aptly titled Fujoshi Marketing Kenkyuujo (or “Fujoshi Marketing Lab”), are run by SANDIAS, a BL marketing research firm associated with ChillChill. SANDIAS’s aim is to understand fujoshi and BL culture, and as such, they host seiyuu events, assist with the BL Awards, and help push other types of content (oshikatsu, idols, etc.) that might appeal to fans within that realm. The seminars can be watched via their YouTube channel as well. I highly recommend them if you can understand Japanese—they’re honestly fascinating, especially if you’re the type of dork who loves to look at the figures behind the things you love. Also, since ChillChill is one of the most well-known BL sites and is trusted and beloved by the BL community, it’s a bit easier for them to get interesting and varied stats from their surveys.
That being said, I wasn’t able to attend one until earlier this month, which we definitely had to set aside time for: Foreign Fans and Japanese BL Manga. ChillChill surveyed over 600 BL fans, half of which were English-speaking (EN) and the other half Chinese-speaking (CN), both from a multitude of different countries, and asked questions about their tastes and interests in BL, as well as their reading and spending habits. Originally, I wasn’t going to write a BLog post about it, but there was some information presented that I found really interesting, so I wanted to share that with our readers.
I’ll only be sharing a few of the slides to make my points, since I want to make sure ChillChill and SANDIAS get all the proper credit for their work. However, you can actually request the full presentation on their downloads page for free, along with previous seminar materials. For those who want to see all the data, please make sure to check that out! One video for the presentation is linked above, but be sure to check in on their YouTube channel regularly (and maybe even drop a sub) in case they continue to post content from this seminar as well as other interesting content in the future.
Today is November 15th, 2024 in Japan, and it marks the ushering in of new rules on Twitter (X). While it may contain other changes to the terms of service (I didn’t fully read them—as most people don’t), the two big ones are as follows:
・ The block feature is being neutered to the point where the only way you can prevent certain people from seeing your tweets is to fully lock your account. ・ You can no longer opt out of your tweets—both text and images—being accessed and processed by Twitter’s AI tool, Grok.
This has made huge waves across the entirety of Twitter, for good reason. The block feature exists to protect yourself against people you don’t want to interact with, from small threats like trolls to more serious threats like stalkers, but if those people can still see your tweets—even if they can’t interact with them—they can still use your words to start hate campaigns, use your tweets to find your location and dox you, etc.
Not only that, but JP users in particular use the block feature to cultivate their online space to their preferences. From people whose art or opinions or ships they don’t like to fandom shit-stirrers, the block feature has generally been preferred over features like mute, since mute is only a one-way feature and many don’t want people they don’t like seeing their tweets at all. So the block feature being diluted to still having to see other people’s stuff and having them see yours (just not being able to interact with it) makes it a pretty much useless feature.
In our circle of the universe over here at Renta!, however, the second change to Twitter’s terms is much more massive: anything posted to Twitter can be used to train AI. As I’m sure anyone who works in artistic fields know well (see: the current voice actor strike asking for protections against AI), AI is seen as a massive threat—not necessarily just because “it will replace our jobs” (trust me, after being told for years and years and years that AI translation will replace real translators, and seeing the current state of AI translation… well… I won’t be put out of a job in my lifetime, that’s for certain) but because of the massive theft of other people’s hard work and intellectual property to train these models.
Because of this, a lot of artists have been incredibly anxious about AI training. They’ve spent years and years—decades, even—of their lives practicing and crafting their personal style only for some tech bro to claim it as fair game “just because” they had the audacity to share it publicly. So, with the ability to opt out of training these AI models removed entirely, what are artists to do?
Publishers, as well, are incredibly concerned about their IP being used wholesale to train a product that benefits them in no way. We’ve been contacted by multiple partners asking what guardrails we have in place to make sure that—when we post to Twitter going forward—we will prevent their property from being stolen. Some have even gone so far as to say they don’t want us sharing any of their images on Twitter until they’ve figured out how to prevent it from being used.
People who’re active on Japanese BL Twitter may have also seen many publishers releasing statements like these:
The above tweet is from the publisher B-boy (Libre), but you can actually find numerous examples from publishers stating they’ll be using software to edit their images and make them harder for AI to read—and apologizing that it might make them harder to see and enjoy for their readers, but that these are the necessary steps they have to take. Some have even gone so far as to consider asking fans to not even post images of the covers and inside art online; you can see a reference to this type of discussion in this thread by artist Megane:
In the thread they say it had been floated that perhaps even fans should be dissuaded from sharing their thoughts using images on Twitter, but that the fandom ecosystem is too important and would be too massive a loss to not get to hear fans’ thoughts and opinions. They mention that hearing directly from fans serves as a great source of motivation, too.
But as you can see, this is really weighing on the minds of the entire manga industry. For years and years, Twitter has been the main outreach tool. Publishers have used it for advertising and growth. Artists have used it to connect with fans and fellow mangaka. Fans have used it to find great new series and artists to follow, and discuss the manga they already love with fellow fans. So suddenly having that entire community turned into a tool to fuel the AI is jarring. This one change in Twitter’s rules is essentially disrupting an industry’s marketing infrastructure.
As for what we’ll be doing at Renta!: we’ll be continuing to work hard to share BL far and wide while also respecting the wishes of the artists and publishers we partner with. Since this means there will be some images we’ll no longer be able to share to Twitter, we’ll be working hard to also boost our presence on other platforms like Bluesky, on which our follower count has more than doubled in the last 24 hours. Thank you so much to everyone who’s been willing to add us over there, and here’s to continuing to build amazing, manga-loving communities no matter what happens.
Last time we had a sale on ShuCream POP, it seemed like many of our Twitter followers were well-versed in the publisher’s content. And I can see why—ShuCream consistently releases great stories, from silly, sweet comedies like Red-Light Trouble to dramatic, heavy stories like Pain, Sweet Pain. Most anything you could be looking for in a BL manga, ShuCream has it in their catalogue somewhere!
We’ve recently started releasing a handful of newer ongoing titles, however, that are all really fun and cute and I’d thus like to introduce here. This doesn’t include long-running series like omegaverse classic What We Do When The Curtain Comes Down—that one deserves it’s own long-form review one of these days—but some of the newer ones we haven’t had much of a chance to push yet.
Yuma’s been yearning for his older childhood friend Akito ever since they had an encounter in middle school, and when his chance finally comes, he’s shocked to realize Akito’s actually the bottom. In all his fantasies he’d imagined he’d bottom. Still, he’s happy to take on any role as long as it means he can be with the man he’s loved since childhood. Unfortunately for him, it seems Akito is having a hard time getting over his previous boyfriend, who he lived with for years. Even after Yuma starts living with Akito, Akito can’t seem to throw out his ex’s things. Is Yuma really going to be able to put aside his own feelings to live with the ghost of Akito’s ex if it means he gets to stay by Akito’s side, even if it’s going to cause him tremendous pain in the process? A BL manga about what it feels like to be the “rebound” and try to support your partner through their previous breakup while also having to acknowledge and respect your own limits. Yuma makes some bad decisions, but will he be able to prove his love for Akito before it’s too late?
Hiroyuki meets his distant cousin Wataru at their grandfather’s funeral. Beautiful but flippant, and annoyed by Hiroyuki’s innocence, professional model Wataru arrogantly comes on to him and offers to “buy” his virginity. A senior in high school, Hiroyuki’s been desperate to figure out how to pay for his upcoming college expenses after his father’s bankruptcy, so a popular, stunning, wealthy model offering to “buy” him is a chance he can’t possibly pass by. But Hiroyuki is still an incredibly sweet, kind young man, and so he doesn’t want to just fuck Wataru and get it over with—Wataru is beautiful, after all, and there’s a deep sadness within him that Hiroyuki can’t help but be intrigued by. As he finds himself more and more attracted to Wataru, however, it becomes harder for him to accept that once he gives Wataru his virginity, they have no reason to ever associate with each other again. I have to admit, Wataru is absolutely my type, so I’m with Hiroyuki here—I can’t wait to learn more about him and see him open up to Hiroyuki as the story unfolds!
Both Sou and I are obsessed with this series. Kou is a hard worker, but he can seem a bit cold and standoffish. However, office prince and salesman extraordinaire Eito is up to the challenge of befriending him. While at work they seem like perfect enemies, with Kou constantly nagging Eito to fill out his expense report right, as soon as they leave work Eito is actually one of the only people who knows Kou’s secret: he’s gay. As Kou slowly learns more and more of Eito’s secrets, too, the two become almost inseparable—but as Eito wants to continue getting closer, finding himself more and more attracted to Kou, Kou isn’t willing to let himself see Eito as anything other than a coworker and incredibly precious friend. Is there anything Eito can do to make Kou see him as a potential partner, or is Kou’s past trauma around dating straight friends going to get in the way of deepening his relationship with the man who loves and treasures him the most in the whole world. Kou and Eito’s personalities clash, but at the end of the day they complete each other so entirely that it’s impossible (and so incredibly painful) to imagine them not ending up together.
Rui’s the most popular groomer at his pet salon—with the dogs, at least. When an incredibly stylish man, Joji, comes in with a Siberian husky, Rui can’t help but be struck by how handsome and cool they look together—to the point where, when he sees the dog out wandering the streets later that day, he knows exactly who the owner is. He takes the dog into his apartment for safe keeping, in bliss at having a wonderful furry friend around (in his no-pets-allowed apartment). When he’s woken up in the middle of the night by a loud noise, however… Joji is in his apartment?? And he’s naked? And where’s the dog? Not to mention, Joji claims being intimate with Rui is the only way he can learn to control his urges and, thus, his body’s tendency to revert to his dog form. Rui is incredibly cute, and I just love how lovestruck Joji is, so I can’t wait to see how this one will continue to unfold—Rui seems to have trouble accepting his attraction to Joji, so how with Joji convince him they’re meant to be? And what’s this secret Joji seems to be hiding?
Have you read any of these yet? We’d love to hear what you think! Let us know your thoughts (or any personal ShuCream POP recommendations in the comments or on Twitter!
It is the era of 純情ビッチ! Well. Not really. It’s just always the era of 純情ビッチ in my heart.
For those who don’t know, 純情ビッチ (junjou bitch) or “pure-hearted slut” is a BL trope that has always existed, but has been on the rise in recent years. You can see this trope in the form of characters like Nao from Hotaru Dies Tomorrow, or Hajime from Junjou de Nani ga Warui, or Haru from Kabukicho Cat Honey—the most important factor is that they’re actually quite innocent and pure-hearted in terms of emotional love, but are either mistaken for being promiscuous, or just see no issue with sleeping around or otherwise using their body while secretly wishing for true love to come their way. Personally, this is one of my favorite tropes because it’s a really easy way for a story to contain pure, sweet, innocent love with lots of really raunchy ero scenes (hehehe), so I get excited every time I find a BL manga that has this premise.
Thankfully, Custom Togii’s Asphyxiating First Love is one such BL manga. I was tasked with proofreading a single chapter for Sou since they were drowning in other deadlines, and I got so into it that I ended up proofreading the entire series in one go, other deadlines be damned. You’re welcome, Sou.
Sometimes you’re just in the mood to hurt a little bit. A little hurt/comfort with yourself, if you will. As a treat. Except the thing that’s going to hurt you this time is a BL manga about sexuality and human relationships between college boys because, at its core, Jiro Kawaii’s We’ll Get Our Happy Ending is about human relationships—about how it’s not necessarily about being gay or bi or straight, but about finding someone you care about, learning to treasure and open up to them, and trusting yourself and your feelings—and the difficult path to cultivating a relationship with someone you love as you move on from the past. So, just how does this wonderful manga handle these themes?
It’s been two years since college senior Wataru broke up with his high school boyfriend, Jin. While he’s dated since the breakup, he still sees Jin as special; while Wataru openly considers himself bisexual, Jin’s the only guy he’s ever truly had feelings for. Nonetheless, when he meets college freshman Soma—who’s openly gay—he thinks he’s found someone he can open up to. Soma, however, has other plans—not taking Wataru’s bisexuality seriously (accusing him of “hopping on the bi trend,” no less) and shutting him down by saying he’s already got a boyfriend and isn’t interested.
rentaBLog 