BLT (Boys’ Love Tokyo) 2026

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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BL Anime to Look Forward to in 2024

Gay edit of this meme by u/olafl on Reddit. Animu added by yours truly

Anime has been an important piece of BL fandom for decades, and thanks to online streaming services, it’s now more accessible to overseas fans than ever! Plus, the popularization of simulcasts in recent years has made it so that fans the world over can watch shows basically in real time together each week, and revel in the joy of screaming their reactions with fellow fans over social media.

As much as I love reading the original manga of my favorite series, there’s just something so special about seeing the world in full color, hearing the characters speak, and getting new tunes in the form of those catchy OP and ED songs to add to your playlist each season!

When it comes to BL anime adaptations for television or the big screen, sadly the number of new works coming out each year is but a teeny tiny fraction of the plethora of manga being released, and they’re typically but a blip on the radar to anime fandom at large. However, that just makes it extra exciting when a new BL anime is released! Not only is it fun for established fans of a manga to see their favorite characters and scenes animated, but anime adaptations are also a great way to introduce even more people to the original series, thus adding to the overall hype for a title and growing the BL community as a whole. A win-win for everybody!

It’s a new year and a new anime season is upon us, so I figured I’d give a quick rundown of all the BL anime we can expect this year — as well as a few potential projects in the works that are definitely worth keeping your eye on ç›®

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