Author: ames

I love BL manga and cats and cool weather.

“Dear My Killer Tune”: A Look At Falling For Your Idols

~ ames ~ 2 Comments

Read on Renta!:
Dear My Killer Tune by Iyada

Japanese Title:
ディアマイキラーチューン

Links:
Iyada’s Twitter
Iyada’s Pixiv
Animate International Twitter
B-BOY P! Twitter (JP Publisher)

Iyada’s Dear My Killer Tune first caught my attention the second it was brought to Renta!—not because of the great art or the eye-catching cover or the intriguing description. No, when it was brought to Renta!, Sou sent me a screencap of one of the main characters, Haru. “This looks like something you’d like,” they said, referring to his pretty face and giant floofy hairstyle. And they were right.

Dear My Killer Tune is the story of Harutaka, a 26-year-old hair stylist who’s been obsessed with the rock band The Lazy Rats since he was a child. He’s in their fanclub, and he goes to every show. And, while he loves all the members, he’s particularly obsessed with their guitarist, 43-year-old Himemiya. So when, the day after their concert, Hime suddenly shows up at the salon where Haru works, Haru can barely handle it—especially since, while Hime was originally there to have his hair done by Haru’s boss, he ends up asking Haru to do it for him. Pleased with the haircut and enamored by Haru’s skill, enthusiasm as his fan, and awkward allure, Hime can’t help but continue to think back on him every time he touches his hair. As fate continues to push the two together, though, as much as Haru is ecstatic to be closer to the man he’s idolized for years, he can sense his emotions for Hime taking a turn for the more intense—and more greedy. But public figures belong to all their fans, so what is Haru supposed to do?

Continue reading ““Dear My Killer Tune”: A Look At Falling For Your Idols” →

Turning tropes on their heads with Kaibashira’s “The Doggy And The Fairy Prince”

~ ames ~ 3 Comments

Read on Renta!:
The Doggy And The Fairy Prince by Kaibashira

Japanese:
おくりワンちゃん
Okuri Wanchan

Links:
Kaibashira Twitter
PriaL Twitter (publisher)

I think from my presence on the BLog so far, I’ve made it pretty clear that I love BL, tropes and all. I know a lot of people hate that BL as a genre is so trope-laden—smol uke characters with long lashes, massive seme character with pointy chins, private school boys who scream from the rooftops that they’re “totally not gay bro” while simultaneously lusting after their male childhood friend from puberty and sleeping with their dorm roommate, etc. For me, though, I like those tropes—maybe because they cater pretty heavily to my personal tastes, granted. All this to say, I’m not necessarily a BL reader who desires to read BL that are anti-trope. I love the smol pretty uke boys. Give me all of the smol pretty uke boys.

So, when I first saw the cover for The Doggy And The Fairy Prince, I originally thought that was what I would get: cute twink-y bowlcut boy on the cover with his big dudebro boyfriend. Great. Cute. “Can’t wait to see this boy get railed!” I thought to myself. However, I then realized the little bowlcut twink (hereon referred to by his name, Sho) actually tops the massive dumb dudebro (Kuniaki), to which I was originally pretty disappointed. I ended up having to spend a long time with this manga during the final editing process, however, and while I was originally disappointed I didn’t get what I thought I wanted, what I did get was actually even better: an absolute comedic masterpiece.

Continue reading “Turning tropes on their heads with Kaibashira’s “The Doggy And The Fairy Prince”” →

Quickie: Sae Momoki’s “The Host with a Little Boy and His Dangerous Neighbor”

~ ames ~ Leave a comment

Read on Renta!:
The Host with a Little Boy and His Dangerous Neighbor by Sae Momoki

Japanese:
子持ちホストの危険な隣人
Komochi Host no Kiken na Rinjin

Links:
Sae Momoki Twitter
Hanaoto Twitter (Publisher)

Sadly, I don’t have time to write a super long, full review right now, but we recently released the third volume and I want to recommend it while it’s still fresh in my mind: Sae Momoki’s “The Host with a Little Boy and His Dangerous Neighbor” series! This wonderful series has been running since 2019, and the fifth volume was released in Japan a little over a month ago.

The story is centered around the incredibly beautiful and popular host, Seiya. While most hosts have a reputation for being players and spending their lives out all night and sleeping all day, Seiya is different—because he’s a single father to his beloved son Tenma. Tenma is the light of his life and the center of his world, and he does his best to support Tenma while also being present as often as possible. When he runs into his kinda weird and massively sleep-deprived neighbor, Ibuki, he originally thinks the riffraff has moved into his nice high-rise apartment. But when he offers the man some food and a couch to nap on, he’s essentially changed the course of his life forever.

While Seiya has never had much of a sex drive nor an interest in romance, Ibuki is hellbent on getting close to him. After multiple bad first impressions, Ibuki is somehow able to weasel his way into Seiya and Tenma’s family after it’s found out that he’s the writer of Tenma’s favorite children’s book series, Booh Bear. Since Seiya’s been dealing with issues at work, and since it’s convenient that there’s someone who can look after Tenma who both has an open schedule (as a professional writer) and lives next door, he can barely refuse.

As Seiya learns that he can actually rely on Ibuki rather than always shouldering everything alone, they slowly get closer and closer until Ibuki becomes an indispensable part of Seiya’s world—and with it, a slow-building desire to be intimate with Ibuki that Seiya’s never felt before!

This book is a really obvious recommendation to those who really love BL where the couple raises a child together. Ibuki and Seiya run into a whole host (pun intended) of issues trying to build their life together, including people not understanding why Ibuki is part of Tenma’s life if they’re not blood-related, people doubting Seiya’s parenting because of his career path, and Tenma’s father wanting back into the picture. Through it all, though, there are wonderful themes of found family, and how the best parent for a child is often the person who truly loves and understand them.

Plus, it’s really sexy watching the slow build of Seiya and Ibuki’s intimate relationship as Seiya moves from someone who’s never really felt romantic or sexual desire, to someone who finds a lot of enjoyment in their bedroom romps. Overall, this is great BL for people who like lots of story with plenty of sweet and wholesome content, and juuust the right amount of sexy scenes and drama!

BL Awards Light: The ChillChill BL Character General Election!

~ ames ~ 1 Comment

If you follow a lot of BL artists and publishers, there’s a good chance you’ve been seeing the #BLキャラ総選挙2024 hashtag floating around Twitter over the last couple weeks, along with little profiles of BL characters belonging to the artist or publisher. When I first started seeing them about a week and a half ago, I initially assumed it was just a fun new Twitter trend among mangaka, but boy was I wrong (and also super behind on commercial BL news—I guess you can really tell the Renta! office has been super busy these last couple months).

BLキャラ総選挙2024, or the “2024 BL Character General Election,” is another effort by the wonderful BL site ChillChill to spread the love for commercial BL. It was initially announced in early May with the following blurb (loosely translated by yours truly):

For the amazing commercial BL characters who make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!

This BL election was brought forth in order to shine a spotlight on those wonderful BL characters, spread the love of the BL series they’re from, and introduce new stories to an even wider audience!

This is really interesting, since the ChillChill BL Awards already used to have a seme/uke character section. So in this BLog post I’ll give a brief rundown of the ChillChill BL Awards character ranking history, before showcasing the BL characters whose stories you can read on Renta!, how to vote, and a little chatter about some of my personal Best Boys.

Continue reading “BL Awards Light: The ChillChill BL Character General Election!” →

Jerking off for the sake of humanity: Yuki Matsushita’s “Director! It’s Time To Collect A Sample”

~ ames ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!:
Director! It’s Time To Collect A Sample by Yuki Matsushita

Japanese Title:
Shitsucho! Sampling no Ojikan Desu!
室長！体液採取のお時間です！

Links:
Yuki Matsushita Twitter
Publisher Twitter
Publisher Homepage

Here at Renta! HQ, we’ve gotten pretty used to seeing bizarre stuff. We’ve had full in-office debates about outrageous bedroom acts that would make most people on the street blush. (Apologies to the teams that sit near us…) So it’s pretty hard to be fazed by any of the content after 4+ years of working here. However, when the checker for this series was like “they need his jizz to create the panacea” it made me stop in my tracks, turn to him, and go “huh?”

Yuki Matsushita’s Director! It’s Time To Collect A Sample is a wild ride from start to finish. Reclusive lab worker Toya has been transferred to the most prestigious lab in Kamishiro Pharmaceuticals, where they’re working on the panacea to cure all disease. Toya’s been desperate to help his sick grandma, so he’ll do anything he can to assist. When he meets the head of the lab, Saku Kamishiro himself, it turns out the main ingredient for the cure-all drug is coming from an unexpected source: Saku’s jizz.

Continue reading “Jerking off for the sake of humanity: Yuki Matsushita’s “Director! It’s Time To Collect A Sample”” →

Oshikatsu: Birthday Celebration!

~ ames ~ Leave a comment

Apologies for the lack of BLog posts lately! We’ve been pretty busy in-house working on lots of great BL series (look forward to it!) and thus have less time for writing and research. But today (July 9th) happens to be my babygirl Genshin Impact Kaveh’s birthday, so I figured why not do a short and easy oshikatsu post about celebrating your oshi‘s birthday?

This culture has been going global more and more, considering an entire mall in Shanghai is currently celebrating Kaveh’s birthday, there are birthday cafés set up all over China, and there will be a video showcasing his beauty in Times Square. It’s always been A Thing in fandoms worldwide to acknowledge and celebrate your beloved’s birthday. Japanese fandom often likes to play it on Hard Mode, though, so I’ll talk a bit about common ways to celebrate your oshi’s birthday here.

I would say the most visible and common celebration you’ll see online is: fanart! It’s very common for fans to plan way in advance and compose an artwork that perfectly sums up their oshi, what they love about them, how they feel about them, etc. I don’t think this is particularly different between the cultures—there’s tons of wonderful artwork from all around the world every time a much-beloved character has a birthday. Of course, there’s other great fan content that’s often released on and around characters’ birthdays as well, such as cosplay photoshoots, fan videos, etc. These are often marked with the tag #NAME生誕祭YEAR so they’re easy to search!

Continue reading “Oshikatsu: Birthday Celebration!” →

Net Prints: The Why & How of This Fujoshi Fandom Phenomenon

~ ames ~ 1 Comment

Those who frequent Twitter will have likely seen their favorite Japanese BL artists sharing their artwork with a little text/QR code. For those who’ve wondered what the heck the code is for, it’s for a trend that’s becoming more and more common in recent years: Net Prints!

BL Award Net Prints by Cafeco Fujita, HANASAWA NAMIO, Suzumaru Minta, Rin Teku, and Guri Nojiro

Net Prints (ネットプリント or ネプリ/ネップリ) is the shortened version of Network Prints (ネットワークプリント). This is a feature where you can upload images to the networks of various conbini (コンビニ, or convenience stores), and then print them for the standard printing fee at your leisure next time you’re there to buy a snack or pay your bills. They’re most commonly shared through Lawson and Family Mart, which appear to share the same network and are thus particularly convenient. Originally intended to make it easy to print personal photos without having to bring in an SD card or flash drive, it’s instead become popular within fujoshi fandoms as a way to share and disseminate artwork for postcards, prints, polaroids, and stickers of your favorite characters and fandoms. Being able to share physical artwork and prints with fellow fans used to be something artists could only do at doujinshi events, but with Net Prints if they share the code, the artwork can be printed nationwide with no extra effort necessary on the part of the artist.

While this used to be mostly relegated to fanart, over the last year it’s been exploding in popularity with commercial BL artists and publishers as well. Net Prints have become a really fun addition to pretty much anything worth celebrating: artists will post them when they release a tankoubon, or when a reprint or continuation is announced, or when a drama or anime adaption is coming out, etc. During the announcements for ChillChill BL Awards, tons of artists were posting Net Prints to celebrate placing in the finals, so you bet I spent my evening after work at Family Mart inputting code after code to enjoy nice, glossy photo prints of all my favorite BL mangaka’s artwork.

Continue reading “Net Prints: The Why & How of This Fujoshi Fandom Phenomenon” →

A Safe Space to Heal: Sakana Tojo’s “Sweet Apartment in Paradise”

~ ames ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!:
Sweet Apartment in Paradise by Sakana Tojo

Japanese title:
楽園性スウィートルーム
Rakuensei Sweet Room

Links:
Sakana Tojo Twitter
Junet (Publisher) Twitter

As I’ve probably made very clear from past blog posts, I’m a massive fan of Sakana Tojo. I’ve already written an artist introduction for her, and also review her works whenever I’m given the chance. There’s something about her manga that slots so perfectly into my preferences—whether it’s the art or character designs or their personalities and relationships, or just the VIBE of her stories. To me, they’re the perfect after-work (or, in this case, during work…) comfort of something simple, sweet, sexy, and cute.

This story is actually a slight step away from many of Sakana Tojo’s previous works, but I’d argue it still holds onto her characteristic sensuality and softness. Sweet Apartment in Paradise follows the story of Sui, a beautiful young man sold off to an “owner” at a young age, and the “Demon” who saves him. The “Demon”—later given the name “Angel” by Sui—is an assassin who hunts evil, bad men. In this world, the human trade is allowed and accepted so long as those who’re bought are treated with dignity and respect. However, there are many horrible people—often very powerful and wealthy men—who exploit this system and treat those they buy as objects for their own satisfaction. Sui’s previous owner, who he called “father,” was one such man. He bought Sui to be used for sex, dressing him up in strange costumes, drugging him to stunt his body’s development, training him to only respond to sexual advances, convincing him his only worth is in how well he can provide pleasure, and hiding him away from the world.

When Angel saves Sui, he’s surprised by just how traumatized the boy is. He’s used to seeing the horrifying results of human trafficking, but something about Sui touches him enough that he offers to home Sui to see him through his recovery. He teaches Sui how to do things on his own and creates a comfortable space for Sui to grow and heal—marking every “safe” thing in the apartment with little bunny doodles (Sui’s favorite animal) to make sure Sui’s trauma doesn’t get severely triggered. He replaces Sui’s shackles with cute accessories, and offers Sui the warmth of his body to show human affection doesn’t always need to be sexual or transactional.

Continue reading “A Safe Space to Heal: Sakana Tojo’s “Sweet Apartment in Paradise”” →

Sweeter Than Expected: “Kabukicho Cat Honey”

~ ames ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!:
Kabukicho Cat Honey by Nekojita Udon & Toriumemaru

Japanese Title:
歌舞伎町キャットハニー

Links:
Nekojita Udon Twitter
Toriumemaru Twitter
B.Pilz Twitter
Brite Publishing

Part of me wonders if I even have to post a review for this series, as it already seems incredibly popular. It really doesn’t need an extra push from me—the cover and description already seem to be doing the trick. However, there’s no rule on the blog that says we can’t talk about things we love that are already extremely popular, so I’m still gonna go for it anyway.

Kabukicho Cat Honey is a BL manga by writer/artist duo Nekojita Udon and Toriumemaru. This is actually their second book together, their first being My Private Love Actor (プライベート・ラブマイアクター) which is also released by B.Pilz and localized in-house. While it’s hard to say going off just two releases, it would appear the two mostly work together on BL projects, though Toriumemaru has also done some illustrations for a couple BL novel series and is currently working on a horror josei manga.

The story of Kabukicho Cat Honey follows a young man named Haru. Haru works in Shinjuku’s gay district as an escort, and is popular as a specialized top since he’s quite tall. He’s not just popular with the men, though—the hostesses who also frequent the bar his escort service runs out of love him as well, and so one night they invite him along to a host club with them. Haru doesn’t understand host clubs—he doesn’t get the appeal of being lied to with sweet nothings—but is forced to go by his boss since he was invited by paying customers.

There he meets Shinya, the number two host. His first impression of Shinya is that he seems arrogant and far too friendly, but they quickly bond when they realize they have the same phone case of an indie band they both love. Just as Haru lets his guard down, though, Shinya starts asking him about his work as a prostitute—and why he specializes in topping when he’s so obviously the perfect bottom. Lean build, slender hips, slim neck, beautiful face, soft hair—Shinya makes it clear he would gladly ravage Haru and make him squirm.

Continue reading “Sweeter Than Expected: “Kabukicho Cat Honey”” →

BL Lines to Look Out For: KiR Comics

~ ames ~ 4 Comments

As I’ve mentioned both on here and on Twitter before, when it comes to whether or not we can fulfill a license request, the best bet is to check if we have a history of licensing from that publisher. If we’re already releasing series by a specific publisher, it already means we have a relationship and contract with them, which makes it significantly easier to request titles. If we don’t have a contract with them, well… we will still gladly request the license, but the chances of obtaining the license can be a lot slimmer for a variety of reasons (some of which I discuss in my post about digital vs. physical publishing). But, this is just to say, there’s a reason we have a lot of content by certain publishers, and little to none by others.

For those who don’t know, you can find the publisher and line on the manga itself via logos on the cover, insert pages near the beginning, or backpage credits at the end. You can also check the description on the product page:

Also, the publisher and publishing line aren’t the same thing. For instance, B.Pilz and Tulle are both separate lines under Brite Publishing, and both aim to provide different content, if only slightly. A more clear-cut example is TAIYOH TOSHO‘s HertZ and Craft lines—HertZ tends to offer more standard, shorter BL stories that can be contained to one or two volumes, whereas Craft tends to run longer, more chaste, plot-driven content. There is some overlap between the lines, of course, but that’s simply because it’s hard to put all stories into clean boxes—one BL might be long and story-driven but very sexual, and vice versa.

Lately, when I’m sending out our licensed projects for translation, one BL publishing line that’s been catching my eye more and more is: KiR Comics! It’s not a rare occasion at all that I’m flipping through something thinking “damn… this is The Good Content…” and I find myself distracted reading the full chapter, get to the backpage, and it’s KiR! A few recent ones (and spoiler on content that’ll be coming later this year Peeking eye): Dekisokonai no Love Song by Akota, Kyou mo Kimi ga Toutoi by Hiiro (coming soon!), Eye Wink de Korogashite by Akari Hayashi, Ato Mou Sukoshi de Koi na no ni! by Sanma Tarou… the list goes on, really.

KiR’s manga don’t seem to have too strict a theme, but they often tend to be a bit on the lightly gritty, very sexy side—but not always. KiR also tends to host a lot of lesser-known or debuting artists, which is exciting for me personally since I love discovering new BL mangaka to throw myself behind.

The manga I noted before are all things to look forward to in the future, but for now, I was thinking I’d put together a post recommending some of my favorite current KiR releases that you can read in English. Also, this would be a great time to point out that their website actually has an “overseas” section that lists all their books that have been licensed and in what languages! 訴える顔 A very nice feature for non-JP readers; thank you, KiR Comics staff!

So without any further ado, my personal five picks that I’ve really loved from KiR Comics!

Continue reading “BL Lines to Look Out For: KiR Comics” →