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.
It’s the beginning of February, and you know what this means—it’s the beginning of spring! Uh, wait, no. Or, actually, yes. According to the old lunar calendar in Japan, the 3rd of February (or the 2nd, every four years) marks the separation of Winter and Spring, and is thus called setsubun (節分、”seasonal division”). The next day is officially considered the first day of spring, which is often associated with new beginnings, much as the New Year itself. So Setsubun, as a festival, has a lot to do with cleansing the previous year, to carry on into spring with good fortune.
But there’s also something sinister that happens during this crossing point from one season to the next, and, considering festivals like Walpurgisnacht and such, various cultures seem to agree on this: between seasons, the spirit world approaches our material world, so wandering spirits get too close for comfort. Thus, people had to come up with ways to ward them off.
Setsubun has its origins in the Chinese rituals of tsuina, but it got to its current form during the Muromachi period (1336-1573). Aristocratic households would throw beans into the open air to drive evil spirits out of their home. The practice apparently originates from a legend about a monk on Mt. Kurama, Kyoto (THE hub for a lot of demon legends) that blinded a demon with beans to escape him. The word for bean, “mame” (豆) is pronounced the same way as “demon’s eye” (魔目) and the word is close enough to “mametsu” (魔滅), meaning “destruction of evil”. Hence, the connection between beans and demons.
From the Edo period onward (1603-1867), the practice became a standardized tradition to ward off evil. The ritual is called “mamemaki” (豆まき, bean scattering) and people throw roasted soybeans (fukumame, 福豆, fortune beans) out of the front door. In a somewhat more fun version, the male head of the household will wear an ogre mask and people get to pelt him with beans to drive him out of the house. Either way, people chant “Devils out! Fortune in!” (Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi! 鬼は外! 福は内！) to welcome in good luck, while driving out the ill-intentioned demons. Alternatively, you can join in the festivities at a Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple, where the priests will throw beans at attendees; in the bigger venues, celebrities and sumo wrestlers are invited to join in and the events are televised; and, in Kyoto, the festivities also include dances performed by geisha apprentices.
There are other, less known practices, like tying roasted sardine heads to holly sprigs and affixing them to the gate of a house, in order to scare away the demons; or eating a soybean for each year of one’s life, plus one to count in the good luck of the next year; or, you could eat an over-stuffed, long sushi roll in total silence, while facing in the direction determined to be lucky that year (a custom popularized by convenience stores in recent years.)
(Fun fact, in case you’ve encountered this in your Japanese folk/pop culture content: Watanabe no Tsuna, an imperial retainer, is known for slaying a bunch of powerful demons, so families with the surname Watanabe don’t need to practice the ritual, because it’s believed that demons will instinctually stay away from any mention of that name.)
Okay, the bean-pelting is good and all that, but we cannot talk about Setsubun without talking about the protagonists of this auspicious day: oni. They’re a kind of yokai (evil spirit), demon, orc, ogre, or troll in Japanese folklore, their own species of supernatural being in itself. The traditional depiction of oni is as murderous, man-eating monsters hell-bent on causing humans all sorts of trouble, either through trickery or direct violence. In recent years, that depiction seems to have softened somewhat, with folktales about them performing good deeds spreading, as well as their connection to bringing in good fortune.
These horned supernatural creatures have become mainstay figures of Japanese culture, so, of course, they couldn’t be missing from BL! In honor of Setsubun, here are a few works on the Renta! catalog that are all about spicy demon shenanigans:
After Suoh, a struggling novelist, pawns a tiny box that was a family heirloom, his already poor luck takes a turn for the worse. First he trips, then all the money he got scatters in the wind, then he almost gets hit by a truck only to wake up in a strange old man’s house. Taking pity on him, the old man offers him a place to stay—but it turns out this house holds the same demon who’s been haunting his dream. When Suoh accidentally frees him, the demon Jin is desperate to get his powers back—by “devouring” Suoh’s “lifeforce” AKA drinking his bodily fluids. Thus starts a home life where Suoh is desperately dodging Jin’s attempts to pin him down and jerk him off. However, as Suoh sees more of Jin’s softer side as the demon protects him from all the ghouls lured in my his scent, he finds himself disliking Jin’s advances less and less.
Kurama, a goblin and guardian of the mountain, simply wants to maintain the beauty and peace of his home. One day, he stumbles into the abode of an intimidating gang of demons who have moved to the mountain, and quickly finds out they’re not as scary as they seem. In addition, he is struck by the beauty and kindness of their leader, Hijiri, and falls in love at first sight. But that night, as he’s patrolling the mountain and reveling in the bliss of his newfound crush, he spots his “pure and gorgeous” Hijiri getting railed by another member of his gang. Heartbroken but undeterred, Kurama decides to shoot his shot with the sexy demon, but is Hijiri ready to embrace his feelings…?
(As a personal recommendation note, the demon bottom is basically the BL embodiment of the Big Tiddy Goth GF meme and I cannot get enough of him He wears BLACK NAIL POLISH, I TELL YOU.)
Legendary author of the “Reamed on Livestream” series Merino is back at it again, this time with a new — and very unique — take on the famous Japanese legend of Momotarou, the boy born from a peach. In this BL iteration of the brave children’s story hero, Momotarou is a hedonistic and sadistic playboy who can’t be assed to do much of anything but is extremely horny all the time. Alongside him you’ll also find all the familiar characters from the classic tale, such as Momotarou’s dog, monkey, and pheasant companions, and of course the demons of Demon Island — one of which Momotarou sets his sights on, and proceeds to torture in every kinky way you can imagine. If a tanned tsundere ogre in a tank top and shorts being tied up, humiliated, and ravaged from all directions by the king of DGAF (unless fucking is involved) sounds up your alley, be sure to check it out.
Hot and stylish, this is all about the star-crossed romance between a demon and a human, narrated with tons of sexiness and humor. The Onigami Shrine is dedicated to the worship of demons, who access the physical world through a sacred tree and protect the local human community. Higure, the son of the family tasked with protecting the shrine, is up for a surprise when he turns eighteen, as the sky darkens, thunder booms, and a young demon appears in front of him with a proposal—to make Higure his wife! Well, thing is, Higure does want to get married to Kouen, the demon he had met in childhood and has been in love with ever since, but… not quite the way Kouen had in mind. In an art-style and character designs similar to shonen manga (unsurprisingly, as Yusatona is a huge fan of my own favorite Boku no Hero Academia, if their second Twitter is any proof) , this story is definitely recommended as a first foray into spicy BL; the folklore underlining the plot is an added bonus. All the demons featured are fleshed-out with entertaining personalities, which makes me hope we could see more of them… but the series seems to be at an indefinite hiatus on chapter 3. *sniff* Still, for a quick and easy fix of steamy BL, Yusatona’s human x oni couple’s got you covered.
TW: yandere trope as a whole; emotional, physical and sexual abuse
In my endless rant about yandere BL, the manga that I gave the most love to was Sanayuki Sato’s “The Prefect’s Private Garden” which I can describe confidently as a masterclass in how to write yandere angsty romance. I’m biased, because the story includes a bunch of tropes I adore (TsukihitoTsukihitoTsukihi—), but, to borrow wise words from Sou, you know when you find a manga that hits just right?
The very first of anything is something to remember—which is why I remember that the very first BL I got to check after joining Renta! was a short rollercoaster of a story, Akota’s “My Perilous Darling Boy”. My trainer back then probably couldn’t have asked for a better vehicle for getting all our style-guide rules into my head: Akota’s stunning art is packed with details, which means that there could easily be mistakes in replacing sound effects; speaking of sound effects, there were many, so you could miss or mistranslate some; and the translation itself, in a story this subtly complex sometimes, was another challenge altogether.
But we’re not here to talk about translation/checking woes, we’re here because I wanna tell you that, aside from the fondness I have for this manga for being my first BL task, I do genuinely love it.
There are too many BL about Japan’s legendary host clubs to count, but this one earned its stripes, in my opinion, by humanizing not only the hosts but also their clients.
Around the time the team first started this BLog, Ames and I headed to a BL café event showcasing Harada, Mitsuaki Asou and the subject of today’s post, Akira Minazuki, and their work, “SMOKY NECTAR”. Already hooked by the gorgeous art adorning the café walls, imagine my elated surprise when, one July day, I found myself assigned to the translation check of that very same manga. ‘Motivation boost’ doesn’t begin to describe it. It’s not just me either; everyone on the team worked painstakingly hard to bring this masterpiece to English-speaking readers in the perfect form it’s worthy of.
Give a girl with a hidden gothic heart a vampire-themed BL and you might as well win her over for life—and well, I’ll follow Akira Minazuki forever, because “SMOKY NECTAR” is one of the greatest manga I’ve had the pleasure of checking at Renta!.
New Years is the perfect time to look back on the last twelve months and think to yourself… “What was the best BL manga I read in 2023?” Best-of lists are common this time of year, so we wanted to get in on the action and make a list of our staff’s favorite BL titles a la Chill Chill’s BL Awards. However, our list is less a ranking of the absolute top popular titles as voted by our users (you can find that by checking the “best sellers” list), and more just us—as a team of BL fans—wanting to celebrate some of our favorite titles that were added to the Renta! site this year. (The 2024 Chill Chill BL Awards should be happening again in march, with people already discussing the nominees, so let’s look forward to that in the coming months!)
To make sure it wasn’t just our main blog team pushing our favs we’ve already talked about at length, we also invited Nan, Agedashi, Anne, and Snow from our Japanese side to share some of their favorite titles they got to work with this year!
For each category there’s a good mix of responses, showing just how varied BL fans are in their tastes. However, in the spirit of not making this post too ridiculously long, we’ll just highlight two or three staff comments for each and then list the rest of the choices below.
It’s finally time for me to rant/write about my not-so-guilty pleasure in the Renta! catalog: ITKZ’s “The Titan’s Bride”.
(When I announced my intention, Sou jeered at me from behind her huge monitor, “You’re finally going there??”)
I still remember when news of an animation adaptation had taken some corners of Tumblr by storm way-back-when; now, this manga is past the 30 chapter mark and still going on. One reviewer on Renta! brilliantly describes it as a “shamelessly smutty fever dream”—but I would argue that enough fantasy story-building has gone into that good-ol’ isekai flavor that there’s enough plot to pad and support the gratuitous, giant x normal human smut. The art is wonderful, too; as someone who got into BL from reading shonen doujinshi, it gives me the same vibe. Coincidentally, ITKZ seems to be also active in doujinshi-selling events.
So, anyway, come with me into this review to talk about isekai and, uh… macrophilia.
There’s this huge store in Ikebukuro that’s floors and floors of anime and manga goods, even an exhibition space. Having moved to Tokyo recently, the first time I visited it isn’t that far back—so I very clearly remember the gorgeous artwork on the walls, advertising one particular BL manga that had recently released its first collected volume. I didn’t have time to stop and catch its name, but I did stare at the beautiful, realistic art, almost daydreaming every time I passed it by; then, I noticed that many other stores around Ikebukuro were advertising the exact same manga, so I knew it had to be a phenomenon in the making.
When I saw a manga named “The Monster & the Ghost” in my work assignments, I let out a squeal of excitement at its cover, like, “OH! IT’S THAT MANGA!!!”
And I’m obviously not the only one who’s been entranced by this work since. Both Japan and overseas, people seem to be buzzing about this story—so, what is it about?
“Two (upcoming) beast-person manga reviews for Halloween?” Well, no, you see, the beast-people in Yanase Seno’s “Double Beastly Trouble”(Double Dog Buddy) are “beastly” (hah), sure, but they’re a species of their own, therefore they’re not the same as any other run of the mill wolfish beast-person. (Putting those rhetoric high-school classes to good use.)
Our protagonist, Sir Ewan Gwenthia, is an aloof, capable soldier, leading a squad against an underground dogfighting ring, where two members of a humanoid species, known as the “larga,” are being exploited. The two reigning champions, cool Zazie and dorky Seto, are unwilling to part with their turf, just as Ewan himself is loath to come anywhere close to a larga. As circumstances would have it though, the twain choose to follow Ewan as his ‘dogs’ and Ewan is obligated by the military to train and subdue them.
Many Renta! readers might be familiar with Yanase Seno’s gorgeous, crisp art-style from their other hit, “Geminis Craving Love”(Aisaretagari No Gemini), which means they might also be familiar with sensei’s apparent preference for 3P/poly action/ménage à trois. So far, the two larga that comprise this threesome are in agreement that they want to “toy” with Ewan. There’s more to them than their animal instinct for domination though, as, at times, they display a more nurturing side, too. With his small stature and very relatable thirst to prove himself, Ewan seems to bring that protectiveness out in the larga, just as much as their need to “play”.
Personally, I’m very keen to see where this plot is going. Ewan has character the depth of the Mariana Trench, and his unresolved family issues are a key part of the story. There’s also the intricate worldbuilding that doesn’t seem to be just there as a setting, but intrinsically connected to the characters, their background and hopefully their path forward. I’ll stop here before I end up spoiling anything, but, let’s just say, if you’re looking for a beast-flavored ménage BL for this Spooky Season, give Yanase Seno’s “Double Beastly Trouble” a spin. And, if you have read it, do tell, whom of the two larga do you prefer so far? (I’m team Zazie, btw.)
With the forces that decide which manga I get to check each month being out of my control (and fully in the hands of the team project coordinator), Shima Yashiki’s incredibly angsty and sexy “This Poor Beta Doesn’t Know About Love”(Awarena Betaha Koio Shiranai) appeared on my laptop screen at work quite unexpectedly.
Up until this story, I had never read omegaverse once (yet, after this, I also got to enjoy a certain fox-and-mouse romance), so this was a wholly new experience at that time. Obviously, as a twenty-something that spends most of her time online, I’m familiar with the concept, but not the nitty-gritty of it, you know? So, a couple of comprehensive guides later, I rolled up my sleeves and was ready to dive into this manga—to discover the perfect BL about fictional mind-games and emotional edging (maybe even the physical kind, too).
Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoy Sou and Alice baring their “rotten” souls to the world discussing Mpreg, and assholes.
rentaBLog 