Tag: screamo

[♡RECS♡] 11/22: Happy Good Husbands Day!

~ sou ~ Leave a comment

Here at RentaBLog, we sure do love our special calendar dates — so far, we’ve covered Good Meat Day, Cat Day, Cat Day Part 2, and even Twink(ie) Day. Last week on 11/11, BL fans and shippers around the world celebrated Pocky Day across social media, which was pretty exciting to see (so much great fanart!). But there’s one more day this month I’ve been looking forward to in particular. No, it’s not Thanksgiving — but I am very thankful for the cornucopia of BL I associate with it.

That day — today, November 22nd — is none other than いい夫婦の日 (Ii Fuufu no Hi), meaning “Good (Married) Couple’s Day” or “Good Spouses Day.” It’s a day for couples to show appreciation for one another, and to celebrate the special bond they share.

While the Japanese word for “married couple,” 夫婦 (fuufu), uses the kanji for “husband” and “wife,” the term can be used to refer to same-sex couples as well. Still, some on social media have taken to the M/M-specific term, いい夫夫の日 — here “fuufu” is pronounced the same, but uses the kanji for “husband” twice, to make it “Good Husbands Day”! I always enjoy scrolling my feed on this day, as it’s bound to be full of adorable BL and ship art tagged “#いい夫夫の日”.

Since I have a soft spot for sweet, married-couple vibes BL, I just had to take this opportunity to introduce some series on Renta! that you can read to enjoy “good husbands” all year round! 🥰

Without further ado, here are five BL series centered around married (or basically married) couples that will soothe your heart. From domestic newlywed bliss to the trials and tribulations of a long-term relationship, these manga have it all! 👨‍❤️‍💋‍👨

Continue reading “[♡RECS♡] 11/22: Happy Good Husbands Day!” →

[♥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” →

2/22 and Bottom Supremacy

~ ames ~ 6 Comments

Happy Cat Day! Or 猫の日 (neko no hi) as it’s called in Japan! As we’ve discussed previously on the blog, Japan loves to play word games with numbers (i.e. 8/01 or Yaoi Day, 11/29 or Good Meat Day, etc.), and 2/22 in Japanese can sound like nya-nya-nya, or the sound a cat makes. So, everywhere you look in Tokyo is currently covered in cats: the convenience store has tons of cat sweets and snacks and cat-related campaigns, department stores are hosting pop-up shops for cat-themed goods and toys and accessories, and shelters are obviously taking advantage of the cat festivities with fundraisers and adopt-a-thons! The weeks leading up to 2/22 are a very good time to love cats in Japan.

Family Mart mofusand cat coffee cups for Cat Day.

“What in the world does this have to do with BL manga?” you’re asking? Is this going to be a special about cat boys? How about beasts? Cats who can shape-shift into cute boys and fall in love with other cute boys? Or maybe about boys who love boys but who also love cats? BL where cats are heavily featured?

BZZZZT. You are incorrect.

Highly in-the-know people will probably already see where this is going: this is a post about bottom supremacy.

https://twitter.com/namiohana/status/1628226689246572545

As quite a few of you may know, the slang for someone who bottoms during gay sex, which originated in gay circles before slowly meandering into the BL consciousness, is neko (ネコ)—or, cat! Well, we actually can’t be certain if cats are the one-to-one reason for “neko” being used. When preparing for this post, I was reading quite a few theories online as to why neko is used to refer to bottoms. This article about gay slang points out the two most common reasons: it could come from pussycat/pussy (as in… women’s genitals… lovely), but it could also come from the Japanese word for a wheelbarrow, nekoguruma (because this is the way you might hold someone’s legs while you’re… umm… y’know). This article by drag queen and TV personality Mitz Mangrove about cats (in general) also discusses how cats are often seen as feminine in Japan which possibly is what led to neko having become the universal phrase for a man who bottoms.

https://twitter.com/kumakuma564/status/1760507204229058695

It appears the true reason neko has turned into the slang for ‘bottom’ is unknown, but the fact still remains: cats and bottoms are now linked.

As the resident number one cat lover and bottom absolutist in this town, I figured I would celebrate Cat Day by discussing uke archetypes, my favorite uke characters that are available on Renta!, and slip in a little cultural/language lesson for good measure.

黒猫黒猫黒猫

Continue reading “2/22 and Bottom Supremacy” →

Renta! Staff BL Awards 2023

~ Admin ~ 8 Comments

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!)

Without further ado, the categories are…

Favorite New Series
Favorite Continuing Series
Favorite Seme
Favorite Uke
Favorite Up-And-Coming Author
Amazing Art
Favorite Renta! Title
Favorite Cover
Favorite Couple

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.

Continue reading “Renta! Staff BL Awards 2023” →

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

~ 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.

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