Tag: Recommendations

[♥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!

Continue reading “[♥RECS♥] Isekai BL That Are Out Of This World” →

This Manga is the Cat’s Pajamas (Happy Cat Day!! ≽^•⩊•^≼)

~ sou ~ 1 Comment

Catboy lovers and BL readers looking for something both heartwarming and a little frisky, have I got the purrfect pick for you! (=^･ω･^=)

Yes, we’re very proud of that pun we worked into the title Smile cat

Read on Renta!:
Choose Me And Avoid Cat-Astrophe [Plus Renta!-Only Bonus] by modu9

Japanese Title:
崖っぷち猫は指名がほしい
Gakeppuchineko ha Shimei ga Hoshii

Links:
(Author) modu9’s Twitter

If the title of this post is giving you a little déjà vu, it might be because we’ve already made a “Cat Day” post this year — on 2/22, specifically, as that’s the day it’s celebrated in Japan. But, as it turns out, August 8th is International Cat Day. And hey, you can never have enough cats, or opportunities to appreciate them, right? Plus, it just so happens that one of our latest Renta! releases, featuring a cat-human hybrid young man (who is very cute) recently caught my eye and didn’t let go till the very end. So, the timing was perfect to write a review for this BL that’s paws-itively remarkable!

What we’ve got here today is a story about a very dumb (but lovable) catboy overcoming the challenges of discrimination and a demanding job, and finding love in an unexpected way…

Continue reading “This Manga is the Cat’s Pajamas (Happy Cat Day!! ≽^•⩊•^≼)” →

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!

Continue reading “Artist Spotlight: The Brilliant Eccentricity of Jake Akahoshi” →

Roji’s “All About My Two Dads” (Happy Father’s Day!)

~ sou ~ Leave a comment

Father’s Day has rolled around once again, and as we shared last year, we at RentaBLog love some daddies around here パーティの翌朝

I figured Father’s Day (which also falls during Pride month! 虹) would be the perfect occasion to introduce this series that recently hit the English market, centered around a pair of loving fathers and their adorable son.

Read on Renta!:
All About My Two Dads by Roji

Japanese Title:
ぼくのパパとパパの話
Boku no Papa to Papa no Hanashi

Links:
(Author) Roji’s Twitter
(Eng publisher) Animate International’s Twitter
(JP publisher) Libre’s Twitter

As you can probably guess from the title and cover alone, this is an extremely wholesome story about a perfectly normal family which just happens to consist of two dads and their son. It’s still a BL, though, so expect plenty of romantic scenes between two pretty boys in love to make your heart flutter — with a healthy serving of baby antics and “kids say the darnedest things” moments to brighten your day!

Continue reading “Roji’s “All About My Two Dads” (Happy Father’s Day!)” →

Calling All Ikuyasu Fans!! (Fan Mail Special #3)

~ sou ~ Leave a comment

BL fans far and wide, I am pleased to announce the third installment of our Fan Mail Special!! In case you’re new to the phrase, this is a Renta!-exclusive project in which we open up digital fanletter submissions from fans all around the globe, translate them into Japanese, and present them to the featured creator — so they can enjoy messages from their international fans, language barrier-free!

This time around, the esteemed artist you’ll all get the opportunity to lavish with your love is none other than… Ikuyasu-sensei!!

Works Available on Renta!

Ikuyasu’s Twitter

Their manga’s catchy titles, which are always fun to translate, are also a plus 笑い (via Hammered And Pounded)

With an unmistakeable art style and playful sense of humor, Ikuyasu’s become one of those artists that gets me pumped every time I see a new release of theirs — I just know I’m going to enjoy it somehow, no matter the premise. But my personal tastes aside, I can tell why Ikuyasu-sensei’s manga has earned such high praise from countless Renta! readers over the years.

If you enjoy your BL with a healthy serving of “beef” — that is, a bit of meat on both the seme AND uke — I hope you’re familiar with Ikuyasu’s works — and if not, well, then boy are you in for a treat! The musculature of the characters in their manga, whether on the leaner or thiccer side, is clearly drawn with much loving care, which makes it impressive in an artistic sense just as much as in an erotic sense パーティの翌朝

But, the appeal of Ikuyasu’s manga doesn’t stop there. Though they seem to have a penchant for loveable oaf (or, dare I say, “himbo”) characters, which can make for tons of laughs, some of their stories get pretty deep emotionally. All around, they’re quite filling for the yaoi lover’s soul!

For the uninitiated, I’ve prepared below a brief introduction to some of Ikuyasu’s works, and why I’ve personally come to adore them so much. And, for existing fans, maybe this can serve as a quick refresher of some of the many reasons to love them 目がハート Feel free to take inspiration for your own personally crafted fan message, which you can submit here until June 14th JST!

Continue reading “Calling All Ikuyasu Fans!! (Fan Mail Special #3)” →

The good, the dark and the gritty: omegaverse

~ Admin ~ Leave a comment

Blooming cherry blossoms be damned, Japan has been in a rainy mood lately. It’s probably the kind of situation when most people would like to indulge in something uplifting, like a comedy or happy song; but, if you’re anything like me, you prefer to consume media that affirm the rainy season tenfold. That’s sometimes the appeal of sad, dark stories, after all. Which is why this humble purveyor of angst embarked on another exploration through the Renta! catalog, not to find our many cute, sweet, domestic, sexy omegaverse manga, but the stuff that shows people utterly under the thumb of a society governed by biological urges.

Which means of course, here’s a hefty content warning for the most ruthless things omegaverse might offer—if you’re looking for something to scatter the rainclouds rather than darken them, how about Sou’s April Fool’s post?

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Artist Spotlight: Kaoru Watanabe

~ ames ~ 2 Comments

Kaoru Watanabe’s work was first introduced to me through my job at Renta!, quite early in my career here. When I was first assigned her I Might Be Your Fan, But I’ll Never Fall For you!, my first impression was that her art is incredibly unique and beautiful, but her characters weren’t necessarily to my tastes. However, after starting to read it, I was hooked—their personalities made me fall in love with her characters, and eventually I came to love both them and the storytelling so much that my own tastes didn’t even matter—or more like, my tastes evolved to include “anything by Kaoru Watanabe.” I’ve now read everything by her that I can get my hands on.

Thus, I want to introduce you all to the BL powerhouse that is Kaoru Watanabe.

Read on Renta!:
I Might Be Your Fan, but I’ll Never Fall for You!
Lovingly Cruel Services

Release List:
ビッチ受け～純情リーマン×ヤリ捨てBitch～
推しには絶対ほだされない！
恋するサディスティックサービス
はるかといつか
ディア・マイ・ヴァンパイア
ミルクなきみとビターな彼

If I had to sum up the intense appeal of Kaoru Watanabe’s work in one word, it would simply be: “sensuality.” Her stories have a lot of humor to them, and great pacing and comedic timing. But when it comes to the relationships, it’s truly the push and pull of their feelings and biases and fears and desires that truly makes Kaoru Watanabe’s work. This adds a lot of sensuality to her stories, because things tend to move quite slow between her characters—in their relationships, as well as in the bedroom.

Continue reading “Artist Spotlight: Kaoru Watanabe” →

Happy Twink(ie) Day!: a Discussion of BL Twinks by Two Passionate Twink Enthusiasts

~ Admin ~ 3 Comments

Did you know that April 6th is National Twinkie Day? Well, now you do!! Perhaps only Americans will understand the nostalgic, sickly-sweet sensation that is a Hostess Twinkie (everyone else we tried to explain the iconic junkfood to seemed baffled yet fascinated at the concept).

While many would argue that aside from the hit of dopamine thanks to the intense sugar content of the phallic snack, it has little to offer, I’d disagree — it is rumored to have been partly responsible for the slang term “twink” that is well-known in LGBTQ+ circles, and even mainstream pop culture today. (Why Twinkies, you ask? Well, uhm, you might have to do some of your own research to get to the bottom of that one ドラム)

Because of that association, we decided to use this opportunity to show our love for the twinks that are so prevalent in — and do so much for — Boys Love.

In celebration of twinks, BLog authors and pretty boi connoisseurs Ames and Sou sat down for a nice, long chat (via DM) about twinks in BL. What is a twink? What kinds of twinks are we most drawn to personally? And, what is the appeal of twinks in the broader BL culture?? Read on for our extremely big-brained, candid, and (mostly) unfiltered fujin thoughts.

Conversation timestamps have been kept intact so that you can see for yourself just how much (or how little) time we spent poring over our thoughtful discussion of this dazzling aspect of BLスパーク

Continue reading “Happy Twink(ie) Day!: a Discussion of BL Twinks by Two Passionate Twink Enthusiasts” →

Fuyu Touji’s “Pain, Sweet Pain” and a dive into the Dom/Sub-verse

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Read it on Renta!: Pain, Sweet Pain by Fuyu Touji

Japanese title:
スウィート・ペイン・セラピー
Sweet Pain Therapy

Links:
pixiv
ChilChil page

It’s not like I have a particular preference for omegaverse. I don’t really go out of my way to find it. It finds me. That’s how I’ve come to review omegaverse works twice on our sweet BLog. So, I guess, why not also tackle one of its many offshoots, the Dom/Sub-verse? I mean, as an afficionado of the darker stories that romance has to offer, clear-cut dom/sub dynamics aren’t just music to my ears, but the additional element of mind-control is the cherry on top of the fucked-up yet oh-so-delicious cake that this trope could be.

So, considering that I recently discovered Fuyu Touji’s “My Bias is a God!?” (coming on English Renta! soon) I decided to explore the Dom/Sub-verse through their previous work, “Pain, Sweet Pain” which has been in my reading list forever. Just as the title implies, this story is both sweet and painful, so join me if you’re down for that.

Continue reading “Fuyu Touji’s “Pain, Sweet Pain” and a dive into the Dom/Sub-verse” →

Prepare for trouble and make it double (and furry): yanase seno’s “Double Beastly Trouble”

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Read on Renta!: Double Beastly Trouble by yanase seno

Japanese title: ダブルドッグバディ・Double Dog Buddy

Links:
yanase seno’s twitter
doujinshi twitter
website
instagram
pixiv
all of yanase seno’s works on Renta!

That’s right. We’re talking, once more, about what’s building up to be a masterpiece by author Yanase Seno (stylized in lower case), “Double Beastly Trouble”: the tale of two beast-men joining the military so as to reach the top… and to harass a deeply troubled young man. We’re not too many chapters in so far, be it in Japan or our English release, and yet it’s already sucked me in with its multi-dimensional characters, the developing mysteries around their relationships, and the unassumingly delicate world-building that promises so much more to come.  

If my prior mini-rant on this fantastic story left a lot to be desired, come with me to delve even deeper into this tale of military power struggles and hot, but also adorable nekomimi (‘cat’, in this case, ‘beast-eared’) men.

Below be spoilers, so don’t go rummaging like these two >:0
Continue reading “Prepare for trouble and make it double (and furry): yanase seno’s “Double Beastly Trouble”” →