The psychology behind the host club glam: Akota’s “My Perilous Darling Boy”

January 19, 2024September 2, 2024 ~ Admin ~ Leave a comment

Read on Renta!:
My Perilous Darling Boy
by Akota

Japanese:
Gakeppuchino Darling Boy
崖っぷちのDarling Boy

Links:
Akota’s Twitter
Akota’s Instagram

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.

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Like a bug attracted to nectar: Akira Minazuki’s riveting “SMOKY NECTAR”

January 11, 2024September 2, 2024 ~ Admin ~ Leave a comment

Read on Renta!:
SMOKY NECTAR
by Akira Minazuki

Japanese:
Smoky Nectar
スモーキーネクター

Links:
Akira Minazuki’s Twitter
Akira Minazuki’s Instagram

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!.

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The XL-lent BL That Turned My Expectations on Their Head: Tamachi’s “I’m An XL. Could You Find Me A Spouse?”

January 9, 2024January 6, 2025 ~ sou ~ 2 Comments

Read on Renta!:
I’m An XL. Could You Find Me A Spouse? by Tamachi

Japanese:
XL size Desu ga Kekkon Sasetekuremasuka?
XLサイズですが、結婚させてくれますか？

Links:
Twitter (Author)
Twitter (Publisher)

Once in a while, you find a BL that just hits all the right notes to the melody that is your personal taste — almost as if it was tailor-made for you, like the creator knows and sees YOU.

…BL mangaka probably aren’t all psychics, though, so I’ll just call it a stroke of luck that I encountered Tamachi’s “I’m An XL. Could You Find Me A Spouse?” while on the job here at Renta!

The dichotomy of a BL fan (if you’re like me, that is)

If you’ve read some of my other posts on this BLog, you might have already clocked me as a fluff fanatic — to which I can only reply, “Guilty! ” But, if you’ve seen the full catalog of the series I’ve recommended here, you’ll know I’m no stranger to the, erm… thirstier side of BL as well (in which case, I can only say, “Go ahead and handcuff me ” Sorry). These two “flavors” of BL are by no means mutually exclusive, but striking that perfect balance between the two is an art that, when done exceptionally well, calls for celebration in my book. And if a BL can make me laugh too, that’s just icing on the cake!

That brings us to Tamachi’s “I’m an XL. Could You Find Me A Spouse?” When I first saw the title of this series, my first thought was, “Oh. He’s got a big dick. Whelp, better brace myself to check all those tiny sound effect texts during the seggs scenes.” I must admit I have some prejudices; when I see a BL put its most “sexy” component out front and center, I tend to assume that’s its main draw — and that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Sometimes you’re just in the mood to see a cute guy getting reamed on livestream, or a precious boy get degraded (and railed).

So, little did I know this series was going to take hold of me and never let go, with its ridiculous premise developing into something far more tender — and even SEXIER — than I was expecting!

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Size difference out of this world: ITKZ’s “The Titan’s Bride”

December 21, 2023September 2, 2024 ~ Admin ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!

Japanese Title: Kyouzinzoku no Hanayome・巨人族の花嫁

ITKZ’s Twitter (X) / pixiv / fantia

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.

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Call Me Daddy: Shizuku Kunichi’s “Dad, My Lover”

December 12, 2023December 13, 2023 ~ ames ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!
Dad, My Lover

Japanese title:
ダッドマイラバー

Links:
Twitter
Comic Picn (Publisher)

This last father’s day, I asked on Twitter which kind of BL dads our readers prefer, and sugar daddies—referred to in Japan as パパ活 (papa katsu)—got a pretty lukewarm response. Which I guess is understandable, since there’s actually not a lot of BL about sugar daddies. It’s truly an untapped market. If you look up the tag on Chill Chill, even, there are only twelve (!?) hits.

Which is one of the reasons I got really excited when I found Shizuku Kunichi’s “Dad, My Lover.” Full disclosure: I actually read this three years ago when it was originally released in Japanese. One look at the cover sitting on the bookstore shelf, adorned with Shizuku Kunichi’s stunning art with Makoto’s adorable twink face and lopsided pink hair, was all it took for me to know this was going to be one of THOSE manga—you know, the ones where for some reason they just hit all the right buttons and you find yourself rereading them every six months? That’s not just me, right?

So when I saw we got the translated version of the manga via one of our partners, you bet your sweet ass I was going to take advantage and push this book with all my might. So here I am, doing just that. Pushing this book. Directly into your arms. Imagine me with a creepy, crazed look in my eyes as I take your hands in mine and then gently but firmly place this book into them. (Or, in this case, the JPEGs…)

Dad, My Lover is about sweet, innocent (beautiful cinnamon roll too good for this world, too pure) gay university student Makoto. In university on a scholarship with no extra support from his parents, when Makoto loses his arcade job he’s absolutely screwed. He’s living on his friend Ryota’s couch when Ryota, desperate to get Makoto to move out, recommends sugar dating. Makoto, without thinking too much about it (sweetie… baby… please…) agrees and joins a sugaring app. From there, he’s contacted by a man who calls himself “Sako.”

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Beefcake Special (Happy Good Meat Day!)

November 29, 2023May 21, 2024 ~ sou ~ 3 Comments

For all lovers of BEEF — dinner is served!!

It’s finally cooled down a bit here in Tokyo, and the Christmas decorations lining all the shopping centers and Mariah Carey blaring from every store’s loudspeaker do a wonderful job of reminding me of the upcoming holiday season.

…But maybe you’re the type of person who wishes the holiday cheer could hold off for a bit longer, and prefers to savor the time between Spooky Season and the lively-but-potentially-exhausting year-end festivities. In which case, Japan’s got you covered!

As we briefly touched upon in our Yaoi Day post, Japan has lots of “special” days throughout the year, based on wordplay that’s possible with the Japanese pronunciation of a given date — and November 29th is one of these days! In Japanese, 1-1-2-9 can be pronounced いいにく (ii-ni-ku), which is a homonym for 良い肉 (also pronounced iiniku), which means “good meat.” As such, 11/29 has been designated “Good Meat Day” in Japan.

Unfortunately, as far as special days in Japan go, Good Meat Day isn’t really that big of a deal — beyond some meat vendors having special offers, or meat lovers treating themselves to a delicious, protein-rich meal .

However, here at RentaBLog, we like to spice things up and take every opportunity to celebrate different aspects of Boys’ Love — and thus, I decided that on this day, we’d give the spotlight over to the beefy guys of BL, who make our hearts pound with their rippling muscles — the buffer, the better!

Hope you’ve saved room for a feast, because meat is on the menu tonight!!

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Himemiko’s indescribably, unbelievably gorgeous “The Monster & The Ghost”

November 28, 2023September 2, 2024 ~ Admin ~ 1 Comment

Read on Renta!:
The Monster & The Ghost by Himemiko

Japanese Title: Monster and Ghost
モンスターアンドゴースト

Himemiko’s twitter
Himemiko’s pixiv

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?

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Healing From Trauma’s Scars: tapon’s “Entwined in Red”

November 22, 2023November 22, 2023 ~ ames ~ Leave a comment

Read on Renta!:
Entwined in Red by tapon

Japanese Title:
Karamaru Himo no Akai Ato
絡まる紐の赤い痕

tapon (author)
moment (publishing line)
ShuCream Official EN

TW: emotional, physical, and sexual abuse

A complaint I see frequently regarding BL manga is that it’s too short. Compared to shonen or shojo series, which can go on for tens (and sometimes hundreds) or volumes, BL is often kept to between one and three volumes, and only goes beyond that for extremely popular series. (Though, I’ve noticed this is changing a bit with the proliferation of digital publishing in the BL space, but that’s a tangent for another day.) I personally like this aspect of BL, however—it forces the artist to write a concise story that makes a big impact with as few pages as possible. And, in the case of today’s review subject, sometimes you come across a manga that fits a full coming of age story in as few as four chapters.

tapon’s Entwined in Red condenses a story about abuse, trauma, and shame into just over one hundred pages. Our main character, Asai, is a Very Good Boy whose entire personality and motto are heavily based on the idea that it’s best to live a “normal” life. Good in school, a wonderful son and big brother, and popular with all his female classmates, Asai seems like the perfect example of what a teenage boy should be. However, he’s harboring a secret—ever since elementary school, when he and some fellow classmates stumbled on a porn mag with women in full shibari, he’s been obsessed with the idea of beautiful red ropes marking pale skin. From his classmates’ exclamations of disgust, however, it was made clear that liking shibari isn’t “normal.”

Enter his beautiful classmate Rui. Consistently truant, to the point that most of his classmates only remember his existence through rumors about him being a player and son of a yakuza, Rui is a complete mystery to Asai. So when Rui is suggested as the pianist for their class choir contest (evidently a staple in Japanese middle and high schools), Asai is asked as the class rep to visit Rui’s apartment, tell him about the contest, and deliver some paperwork. What he walks in on, however is Rui in the middle of prostituting himself to an older man, his beautiful pale skin covered in red rope.

When Asai tries to chastise Rui for doing “stuff like that,” Rui gets annoyed and points out Asai got hard from seeing him all tied up, so what right does he have to act superior? When Rui tells Asai to take responsibility for constantly interrupting his time with his clients, Asai can’t resist the allure of these desires he’s been pushing down for half his life, and thus Asai’s squeaky clean image is tarnished—but in its stead starts the blossoming of a relationship tying him to Rui.

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Zombies, Delinquents, and More: The World(s) of Yuo Yodogawa

November 6, 2023May 21, 2024 ~ sou ~ Leave a comment

Available on Renta!: Works by Yuo Yodogawa

Author’s Twitter: 淀川ゆお (@yuo_zero)

Author’s Pixiv: 淀川ゆお

When I first heard whispers that the next Renta! fan letter campaign would center around THE Yuo Yodogawa, I could hardly contain my excitement. My company would be serving as a bridge between international fans and one of my favorite BL mangaka in the game today?? Heck yeah!

In case you’re unfamiliar with the wildly popular Yodogawa-sensei, I’ll quickly share how I became a fan. Have you ever fallen in love at first sight with an art style? I believe that’s what I experienced upon laying eyes on Yuo Yodogawa’s art for the first time. Little did I know when I stumbled upon a chapter in the middle of a random manga and thought, “Huh, that art looks really nice!” that I would quickly be sucked into the Yodogawaverse — and I couldn’t be happier.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing a Yodogawa manga, I suppose the best way to describe their body of work would be as sexy, funny, and cute — but that doesn’t do it nearly enough justice, so I’ll just use this space to gush about a few of my favorite series from Yodogawa-sensei!

I hope you’ll join me in the Yodogawaverse, and discover some BL series that are both awe-inspiring and “aww”-worthy!

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Beast Week Day 2: would you make these two your dogs?

October 24, 2023September 2, 2024 ~ Admin ~ 4 Comments

“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.)

For more goodness:
Sensei’s works on Renta!
Sensei’s Twitter
Website
Instagram
Pixiv