Suzumaru Minta – rentaBLog

Back in early January, I met up with two industry friends for New Years coffee at Akha Ama near Waseda, and suddenly one of them asked “have you heard of this BLT thing??” Of course, we have to get the joke out of the way: “Like, the sandwich?” I asked, and she was like “nooo it’s this massive BL event they’re supposedly planning…” while showing me their website. At the time, there wasn’t much info aside from a homepage with a bunch of “coming soon” markers. I was interested, but skeptical.

A week or two later, they announced a massive list of extremely popular artists who they said would be participating. “But, participating how?”

Then they announced a list of book signing events. “Okay, so it’s just a really big book signing thing?” I thought to myself. But, all the participating artists weren’t doing book signings, so there had to be more.

Then they announced a bunch of talk events, but still not all the participating artists were included.

“Just what the heck is this god damn event!?”

Well, on June 27th, I went to BLT 2026 Day 1! So I’ll tell you a little bit about my experience.

Disclaimer: I went as a fan first and foremost (as in, I did not get paid to go, so I didn’t take extensive notes or photographs and just enjoyed my time attending), so this is going to be a more casual report just using my memory and the photos I took for my own personal enjoyment. So apologies if none of your favorite artists or series are represented here!

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Those who frequent Twitter will have likely seen their favorite Japanese BL artists sharing their artwork with a little text/QR code. For those who’ve wondered what the heck the code is for, it’s for a trend that’s becoming more and more common in recent years: Net Prints!

BL Award Net Prints by Cafeco Fujita, HANASAWA NAMIO, Suzumaru Minta, Rin Teku, and Guri Nojiro

Net Prints (ネットプリント or ネプリ/ネップリ) is the shortened version of Network Prints (ネットワークプリント). This is a feature where you can upload images to the networks of various conbini (コンビニ, or convenience stores), and then print them for the standard printing fee at your leisure next time you’re there to buy a snack or pay your bills. They’re most commonly shared through Lawson and Family Mart, which appear to share the same network and are thus particularly convenient. Originally intended to make it easy to print personal photos without having to bring in an SD card or flash drive, it’s instead become popular within fujoshi fandoms as a way to share and disseminate artwork for postcards, prints, polaroids, and stickers of your favorite characters and fandoms. Being able to share physical artwork and prints with fellow fans used to be something artists could only do at doujinshi events, but with Net Prints if they share the code, the artwork can be printed nationwide with no extra effort necessary on the part of the artist.

While this used to be mostly relegated to fanart, over the last year it’s been exploding in popularity with commercial BL artists and publishers as well. Net Prints have become a really fun addition to pretty much anything worth celebrating: artists will post them when they release a tankoubon, or when a reprint or continuation is announced, or when a drama or anime adaption is coming out, etc. During the announcements for ChillChill BL Awards, tons of artists were posting Net Prints to celebrate placing in the finals, so you bet I spent my evening after work at Family Mart inputting code after code to enjoy nice, glossy photo prints of all my favorite BL mangaka’s artwork.

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