One thing that I really love about our current BL Team is that we have all the bases covered. While there is some overlap between the three of us, we all have pretty different taste in terms of characters, stories, and tropes—to the point where sometimes if I’m completely uninterested in something, Yomogi knows that he should probably check it out. This vast difference in our taste means we can give a variety of recommendations to a much larger audience. I’m sure those who’ve been watching our socials, have attended our panels, visited us at conventions, or sat down to business lunch with us already have a fair understanding of what we like: Sou likes “milfs” and mpreg, Yomogi likes strong eyebrows and ojisan uke, and I (Ames) like my characters ultra femme, a little sad, and extremely slutty.
So when I saw this tier maker going viral while I was making my daily coffee break Twitter rounds, I thought it would be fun/interesting to have each BL team member make their own so we could see just how different our tastes really are.
One thing I’d like to note: we generally try not to talk about manga/characters/tropes we personally don’t like, since we try to avoid anything negative and don’t want to bring down those who do like it. We feel very strongly that all BL is “for” someone even if it’s not to our personal tastes. So please know there’s no judgement from us if you adore the tropes we’re personally not big on. Please fly your freak flag high—there’s nothing we love more at Renta! corp than people who unabashedly love the manga they read. Not to mention, as I already said, chances are someone on the team likes it even if someone else doesn’t.
Have you ever wanted something you can’t have? Have you loved someone so much you were afraid to be honest about your feelings? Have you ever loved someone so much you were afraid to accept theirs?
At the office, Eito Kanda and Kou Ueno have a cat-and-mouse relationship. Their coworkers are convinced that they have some kind of unspoken beef with each other and that Eito messes up on purpose just to mess with Kou. And, who can blame them? The two couldn’t possibly be more different: Kou is aloof, quiet, and detail-oriented—which resulted in him being removed from the sales department and swapped into accounting—while Eito is the company’s star salesman. Intensely outgoing and hardworking, with strong communication skills, Eito’s loved by most everyone in the office while Kou mostly keeps to himself.
In reality, though, the two are incredibly close. Having gotten to know each other during their time together in sales, Eito and Kou know each other better than almost anyone. Kou knows all about Eito’s issues with his father, and Eito knows all about Kou’s sexuality. The two hide their relationship at the office because Kou is skittish about their coworkers getting any ideas about just how friendly the two are. They’re just friends, and Kou is intent on keeping it that way. Having been traumatized by a previous relationship, Kou isn’t keen on dating a friend, and he’s particularly uninterested in dating a straight friend.
Today, March 21st, the drama CD for Yamayade’s smash hit Omae no Hou kara Kiss Shitekure yo (released on Renta! as You Should Be The One To Come Kiss Me) came out to much fanfare, and in celebration a pop-up shop for the series also opened at Sofmap stores across Japan! In collaboration with the Akihabara location’s STELLAMAP café, which often hosts BL collabs and cafés, there was a drink stand on the sixth floor. Thankfully, our kind boss graciously gave us the go-ahead to take a short work trip to hit up the drink stand and pop-up on opening day, so we’ve decided to post a report!
For the drama CD itself, the following write-up is from Sou, since I’m not particularly well-versed in the drama or seiyuu scene:
The main cast features none other than Chiaki Kobayashi as Eito Kanda and Ryōta Suzuki as Kou Ueno. The two of them are accomplished seiyuu with a long list of roles under their belts in a myriad of series, including both mainstream and BL works. Perhaps most notably for BL fans, the two of them recently co-starred as Kiyoshi Adachi and Yuichi Kurosawa respectively in the drama CD and anime adaptations of the mega-hit BL series Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!
The CD comes in both regular and deluxe edition (titled the “Kiss me more?” set — how adorable is that??), with the latter including an extra CD with bonus tracks and a special booklet that includes a bonus manga, a Q&A with the characters, and other special extras. Plus, there may be little bonuses that vary depending on where you purchase the CD from, so be sure to check out the 特典情報 (“bonus info”) for whatever retailer you’re looking to buy from! For Sofmap, this is a pair of “polaroid-style” cards with a foil-stamped replication of Yamayade-sensei’s signature. I was particularly stoked for this bonus, so I immediately bought a copy from Sofmap while enjoying the pop-up shop and drink stand. And, you know I had to splurge on the “Kiss me more?” deluxe edition for that extra booklet and audio! I’m personally excited to experience this story all over again, with the new addition of voices for the characters I’ve come to love so much.
Sou was super excited to be able to pick up the CD along with the drinks and goods, and spent much of their time in line going over the various special editions from a bunch of different stores. I, unfortunately, actually get really flustered and embarrassed listening to voiced BL content, so I don’t usually partake. But it was fun seeing Sou excited over the drama CD release.
But we’re rushing into things…! Let’s start from the beginning.
Make sure to cast your vote! ChillChill Awards 2025 nominees dropped this last Friday, and boy is the competition intense. Around this time last year I wrote about the ChillChill BL Awards and why they matter so much—about ChillChill’s rise from a review and indexing site into essentially the community hub for all lovers of BL manga in Japan—so I’ll spare you from having me write too much here. Nonetheless, I still wanted to make a quick index of all the nominees from the 2025 BL Awards that you can read on Renta!
Last year we had quite a few, and thankfully this year is no different. Also, not just in regards to Renta!, this year’s BL Awards are a testament to how big BL is getting in the West because many of the nominees are licensed by a variety of other localization companies—both digital and print. It’s so wonderful to see how many BL get brought to an international audience now, not to mention so fast. It used to take much longer before BL was licensed for release in the West, and the options used to be so few and far between. It’s such a testament to Western BL fans who keep showing up pushing that BL isn’t just some niche genre—it’s got a massive and excited fanbase ready and willing to support the genre and its creators in any way they can. I love that so much, both as a fan and obviously as someone who works in the field. I can work my dream job only because of the BL fans who show up to support its creation. Thank you so much!
Another thing that’s a bit of a pride point for me is that two years in a row, now, most of our associated BL Awards nominees (particularly our own licenses and localizations) are in the up-and-coming category. That’s honestly so exciting! I talked a little bit in my post about the benefits and drawbacks of being a digital licensor about how we’re able to take more risks on lesser-known, up-and-coming talent due to the lower entry fees of digital versus print, and it fires me up every time I think I get to play even a tiny part in bringing these new artists to a wider audience. And this year’s BL Awards have a particularly good mix of super popular, established artists and rising stars!
Anyway, without further ado, here’s the list of the 2025 ChillChill BL Awards titles you can find on Renta!—including some sneak peaks into exciting upcoming licenses! 🤭
As we get ready to make 2025 an even more successful and exciting year filled with tons of great manga, we still wanted to look back on our favorite BL of 2024! That’s right, it’s once again time for our BL Staff Awards!
This time we have the usual Ames (hello), Sou, and Yomogi from the localization team, and then the wonderful Pochi, Snow, and Ann from our sales and marketing teams! So if you want to see what we enjoyed having the opportunity to work alongside this year, please read on!
Same as last year, we have the following categories:
Feel free to click on each category to go directly to that section, or you can meander through from start to finish to get that full 2024 BL experience! We also decided everyone only had to fill out the sections they have an actual response for, so just know you’re getting our true recommendations!
Last time we had a sale on ShuCream POP, it seemed like many of our Twitter followers were well-versed in the publisher’s content. And I can see why—ShuCream consistently releases great stories, from silly, sweet comedies like Red-Light Trouble to dramatic, heavy stories like Pain, Sweet Pain. Most anything you could be looking for in a BL manga, ShuCream has it in their catalogue somewhere!
We’ve recently started releasing a handful of newer ongoing titles, however, that are all really fun and cute and I’d thus like to introduce here. This doesn’t include long-running series like omegaverse classic What We Do When The Curtain Comes Down—that one deserves it’s own long-form review one of these days—but some of the newer ones we haven’t had much of a chance to push yet.
Yuma’s been yearning for his older childhood friend Akito ever since they had an encounter in middle school, and when his chance finally comes, he’s shocked to realize Akito’s actually the bottom. In all his fantasies he’d imagined he’d bottom. Still, he’s happy to take on any role as long as it means he can be with the man he’s loved since childhood. Unfortunately for him, it seems Akito is having a hard time getting over his previous boyfriend, who he lived with for years. Even after Yuma starts living with Akito, Akito can’t seem to throw out his ex’s things. Is Yuma really going to be able to put aside his own feelings to live with the ghost of Akito’s ex if it means he gets to stay by Akito’s side, even if it’s going to cause him tremendous pain in the process? A BL manga about what it feels like to be the “rebound” and try to support your partner through their previous breakup while also having to acknowledge and respect your own limits. Yuma makes some bad decisions, but will he be able to prove his love for Akito before it’s too late?
Hiroyuki meets his distant cousin Wataru at their grandfather’s funeral. Beautiful but flippant, and annoyed by Hiroyuki’s innocence, professional model Wataru arrogantly comes on to him and offers to “buy” his virginity. A senior in high school, Hiroyuki’s been desperate to figure out how to pay for his upcoming college expenses after his father’s bankruptcy, so a popular, stunning, wealthy model offering to “buy” him is a chance he can’t possibly pass by. But Hiroyuki is still an incredibly sweet, kind young man, and so he doesn’t want to just fuck Wataru and get it over with—Wataru is beautiful, after all, and there’s a deep sadness within him that Hiroyuki can’t help but be intrigued by. As he finds himself more and more attracted to Wataru, however, it becomes harder for him to accept that once he gives Wataru his virginity, they have no reason to ever associate with each other again. I have to admit, Wataru is absolutely my type, so I’m with Hiroyuki here—I can’t wait to learn more about him and see him open up to Hiroyuki as the story unfolds!
Both Sou and I are obsessed with this series. Kou is a hard worker, but he can seem a bit cold and standoffish. However, office prince and salesman extraordinaire Eito is up to the challenge of befriending him. While at work they seem like perfect enemies, with Kou constantly nagging Eito to fill out his expense report right, as soon as they leave work Eito is actually one of the only people who knows Kou’s secret: he’s gay. As Kou slowly learns more and more of Eito’s secrets, too, the two become almost inseparable—but as Eito wants to continue getting closer, finding himself more and more attracted to Kou, Kou isn’t willing to let himself see Eito as anything other than a coworker and incredibly precious friend. Is there anything Eito can do to make Kou see him as a potential partner, or is Kou’s past trauma around dating straight friends going to get in the way of deepening his relationship with the man who loves and treasures him the most in the whole world. Kou and Eito’s personalities clash, but at the end of the day they complete each other so entirely that it’s impossible (and so incredibly painful) to imagine them not ending up together.
Rui’s the most popular groomer at his pet salon—with the dogs, at least. When an incredibly stylish man, Joji, comes in with a Siberian husky, Rui can’t help but be struck by how handsome and cool they look together—to the point where, when he sees the dog out wandering the streets later that day, he knows exactly who the owner is. He takes the dog into his apartment for safe keeping, in bliss at having a wonderful furry friend around (in his no-pets-allowed apartment). When he’s woken up in the middle of the night by a loud noise, however… Joji is in his apartment?? And he’s naked? And where’s the dog? Not to mention, Joji claims being intimate with Rui is the only way he can learn to control his urges and, thus, his body’s tendency to revert to his dog form. Rui is incredibly cute, and I just love how lovestruck Joji is, so I can’t wait to see how this one will continue to unfold—Rui seems to have trouble accepting his attraction to Joji, so how with Joji convince him they’re meant to be? And what’s this secret Joji seems to be hiding?
Have you read any of these yet? We’d love to hear what you think! Let us know your thoughts (or any personal ShuCream POP recommendations in the comments or on Twitter!
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