Tag: manga

After A Year At The Yaoi Factory, These Are The Five Things I Learned

~ Yomogi ~ Leave a comment

For those who have been following our BLog for a while, you’re probably well-acquainted with my beautiful colleagues Ames and Sou, who have been central on the BL Team here at Renta! I, on the other hand, only joined the team last summer, so some of you may have not seen me around quite yet (unless you were at Citrus Con 2025…!).

A beautiful rendition created by Sou.

Before coming to Renta!, while I had done on-and-off freelance translation, my career was in a completely different field. Therefore, despite having been a BL fan for a while, there were so many things I’ve learned on the job. Now with my first year of working at the Yaoi Factory (™️heh) under my belt, I figured this would be a good time to recap what my experience has been like. Compared to many people on our team, I’m still a newbie, but I feel like I’ve gotten a grasp of the basics related to localization, manga platforms, and the Japanese working culture. And, since many of our users are interested in the industry, why not share my experience with you all?

So, without further ado, here are the five things I learned during my first year at Renta! Of course, these are all from my personal point of view, so please don’t come after me if you don’t completely agree😅

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5 Reasons You Should Check Out “Redoing My Youth In Another World -The God Of Death Is My Fanboy-“

~ sou ~ Leave a comment

Read on Renta!:
Redoing My Youth In Another World -The God Of Death Is My Fanboy-
by Taiyo no Taiyo & MANGA SHOKUNIN STUDIO; original story by Hare Takizawa

Japanese title:
青春のやり直しは異世界で～死神は俺のことが好きすぎる～
Seishun no Yarinaoshi ha Isekai de -Shinigami ha Ore no Koto ga Sukisugiru-

Links:
Hare Takizawa’s Twitter (original author)
DeNIMO’s Twitter (publisher)

When it was first announced at our weekly company-wide meeting that our content development team was working on a Renta! Original BL VertiComix, I was ecstatic. Of course, I’m always grateful to get to work with BL regardless of the publisher, and whether or not I personally have a hand in the localization process. But, there’s something especially exciting about being so closely associated (albeit with limited direct involvement) with an original creative work. Renta! already releases some original BL manga through our DeNIMO line, but this would be the very first BL series we’ve made in the form of a vertical-scrolling, full-color comic — which are generally quite different from traditional black and white manga — so I was excited to see what kind of vibe Renta! would bring to the world of BL color comics. After a few weeks of curious anticipation, bada-bing, “Redoing My Youth In Another World” was born, and soon after, the English version was already in the works.

So, what kind of story did we end up making? Initially given very little information besides the key visual, I wasn’t sure what to expect myself, but “RMYIAW” was quite the surprise nonetheless.

What this manga has to offer includes, but is not limited to, a guy in his mid-twenties rocking a school uniform (🥵)(←Ames and Yomogi have already kinkshamed me, so don’t come for me), a God of Death who’s more like the God of Gap Moe, and a plethora of demons and monsters — all of whom want a piece of our dear protagonist. “Literally,” you ask? Well, not exactly…

I don’t want to spoil too much of the story because it’s kind of a wild ride — so instead, I’ll lay out the top 5 reasons this fresh addition to the BL genre won me over, and why I think it’s worth giving it a read!

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[♥RECS♥] Isekai BL That Are Out Of This World

~ sou ~ 2 Comments

If you’ve been even moderately involved in the anime and manga fandom at some point within the past 10 years or so, you’re no doubt familiar with the genre/trope known as “isekai”: a story mechanism, literally translating to “another world” or “a different world,” by which a character magically transports to, gets reincarnated into, or otherwise finds themselves in — you guessed it! — another world.

Delinquent Omega Belongs to the Beast King!
I Got Reincarnated in a (BL) World of Big (Man) Boobs
The Titan’s Bride

It’s become such a staple of Japanese popular culture that earlier this year, it officially made it into the Oxford English Dictionary — showing just how recognizable the genre has become worldwide.

We’ve talked on this BLog before about how trends in Japanese pop culture at large can affect even the relatively niche corner that is BL manga (such as the rise of streamers and Vtubers that Ames eloquently discussed) — and it’s no surprise that we’ve seen a steady increase in BL mangaka making use of isekai in their stories lately.

Even if you’re not a huge fan of isekai in general (it seems every other anime coming out these days is an isekai, amirite fellas?), I think it’s pretty likely you’ll find something to your taste when it’s used in a genre as subversive and diverse as BL. As I’ve always said, BL mangaka are endlessly creative, and when they see an opportunity to tell a touching story about love that transcends space and time, or to depict NSFW situations with hot fantasy creatures, they’ll take it!

I’ve handpicked 5 series to introduce today that make me especially grateful I was born in just the right era to enjoy BL isekai manga 🙏 Whether you’re looking for some LOL-worthy comedy, tearjerking drama, or just some good ol’ otherworldly dick-downs, you’ll find it all down below!

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Artist Spotlight: The Brilliant Eccentricity of Jake Akahoshi

~ sou ~ 1 Comment
So adorbs I LOVE THIS STORY. It’s about a guy who grows apples in his ass りんご
青リンゴ

One of our favorite topics to talk (write?) about on this BLog is the discovery of series and artists that we first come into contact with through our job — whether it’s in the process of quality checking, advertisement creation, hearing our coworkers rave about something they’re working on, or sometimes just clicking around on our site and servers.

One such artist that’s made a big impact on me since I discovered their manga is none other than Jake Akahoshi.

Akahoshi-sensei’s been in the BL game for over a decade, and in that time they’ve earned quite the reputation for their outlandish plots, beautiful depictions of the male body, and moving romance writing.

For the uninitiated, I’ve picked out a handful of their manga currently available in English on Renta! that I believe encompass the spirit of Jake Akahoshi’s unique approach to BL manga, which I personally find utterly delightful.

I’ll also be assigning them ratings 1 thru 5 on each level of the “Jake Scale” — a system I made specifically for this article, since I really believe Jake Akahoshi is on a level of their own when it comes to these three aspects:

Spiciness: 唐辛子How much sexy action can we expect?唐辛子

Unhingedness: パーティの翌朝How “out there” is the setting/plot?パーティの翌朝

“Aww”-worthiness: 涙をこらえた顔Likeliness to hit you right in the feels?涙をこらえた顔

Hopefully this will help you find a title (or titles) most likely to match your personal tastes, so you too can start your journey into Jake Akahoshi’s whacky BL world. Now, without further ado, let’s get right into it!

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“Look at Me.”: Identity & Acceptance

~ ames ~ Leave a comment

Read it on Renta!:
Look at Me. by Momose An

Japanese Title:
俺を見て。
Ore wo Mite.

Links:
Momose An Twitter
Doodle Twitter
Momose An Pixiv

When I heard we’d be getting a Momose An title on the site, I was personally ecstatic. I’m not sure how well-known she is in the West, but Momose An is currently an incredibly popular BL mangaka in Japan. She has two smash-hit, long-running series, Naka Made Aishite (Yuzuriha, my love… I use your LINE stamps every day…) and Osananajimi ja Gaman Dekinai, and her series Shitasaki kara Koi was highly influential for the cakeverse genre. I haven’t seen much fanfare for her overseas, and from what I can tell none of her other stories have been licensed.

Look at Me. is actually one of Momose An’s earliest titles. Published in 2017, you can tell she was still coming into her art style at the time, as this is quite different from the angular and boyish characters she currently draws—but the essence of her style still remains (particularly when she draws the side-views of characters). The art is softer and rounder, but still equally a joy to look at.

The story of Look at Me. centers around childhood friends Kyosuke and Saku. Saku was beautiful from birth, with a gentle and feminine face, so Kyosuke initially mistook him for a girl. Most people, in fact, mistook him for a girl—and were often disappointed to find he wasn’t. Not Kyosuke, though—young and blunt, Kyosuke didn’t care one way or another if Saku was male or female. But unfortunately, Kyosuke was too young to save Saku from an adolescence of trauma, isolation, and loneliness.

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BL Anime to Look Forward to in 2024

~ sou ~ 3 Comments
Gay edit of this meme by u/olafl on Reddit. Animu added by yours truly

Anime has been an important piece of BL fandom for decades, and thanks to online streaming services, it’s now more accessible to overseas fans than ever! Plus, the popularization of simulcasts in recent years has made it so that fans the world over can watch shows basically in real time together each week, and revel in the joy of screaming their reactions with fellow fans over social media.

As much as I love reading the original manga of my favorite series, there’s just something so special about seeing the world in full color, hearing the characters speak, and getting new tunes in the form of those catchy OP and ED songs to add to your playlist each season!

When it comes to BL anime adaptations for television or the big screen, sadly the number of new works coming out each year is but a teeny tiny fraction of the plethora of manga being released, and they’re typically but a blip on the radar to anime fandom at large. However, that just makes it extra exciting when a new BL anime is released! Not only is it fun for established fans of a manga to see their favorite characters and scenes animated, but anime adaptations are also a great way to introduce even more people to the original series, thus adding to the overall hype for a title and growing the BL community as a whole. A win-win for everybody!

It’s a new year and a new anime season is upon us, so I figured I’d give a quick rundown of all the BL anime we can expect this year — as well as a few potential projects in the works that are definitely worth keeping your eye on 目

Continue reading “BL Anime to Look Forward to in 2024” →