I loved the manga 弟の夫! Wild to see that it got a drama adaptation.
しまなみ誰そ彼 was really good too, but really too short. I should check if the author has more stuff 
Please ignore the sound of my TBR list blowing up in the background.
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僕が夫に出会うまで | L30 might also fit the requirements for one of our lists. Which brings me to another question: we have a small pile of autobiographical books piling up; do you guys think they’d be most appropriate in the “non-BL gay” list or the non-fiction list? I’m kinda thinking the latter.
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How about both? Both is good.
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Nothing wrong with both!
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I think I’ll make a wiki post of the list suggestions we’ve had so far, and people can add their ideas. We could focus on working on one list a week gathering suggestions and fleshing it out (like we’re currently doing with EWC). Thoughts?
We don’t necessarily need to wait to create lists though, especially straightforward ones that won’t need detailed descriptions. We can probably get started on the separate lists for long-running manga and LNs, maybe a list of BL anime as well?
I think we can make a general outline for future list descriptions (not that all lists will need to be so detailed, but it would be nice to keep them consistent):
| Overview | A short paragraph summing up the theme of the list |
| BLU link | Link to the home post of this thread |
| Body | More detailed information |
| Further Reading | Links to websites, articles, etc. |
| Glossary | Maybe? |
| Notes | Anything that doesn’t fit elsewhere |
Updates/thoughts on BL University | Early Western Canon | Japanese list by eefara | Natively
- Added info about nomenclature and fan translations
- Added a list of scan groups - anyone have other groups they remember from the 00s? Especially ones that worked on anime/LNs, since I mostly consumed manga.
- I think the list descriptions
- Brief info about the item (themes, why it’s important, adaptions)
- Info about fan translations (if no official translations OR published prior to official)
- Info about official translations
- Should we order by first translated, regardless of whether it’s fan/official?
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BL University List Suggestions
This is a wiki post; feel free to add or edit if you have the permissions, or if not, post a comment with your suggestions and they’ll be added by another user.
| Theme | Description |
|---|---|
| Foundational BL | focused around really early stuff that’s seen as a genre-definer; Moto Hagio, etc. -this could probably be merged with manga by decade: 70s |
| The current hotness | a list of what’s popular as of the time of writing to give those interested in trying out the genre a |
| BL anime/move list | or as close as you’re going to get for what producers are will to show on television |
| Modern genre-definers in Japan today | more difficult, but could be interesting if we could figure out what’s considered the current “canon” for Japanese readers. I would imagine a mix of what’s popular now + specific titles released earlier this century. |
| Manga by decade | 70s & 80s probably everything published, 90s onwards a selection of the most popular/notable |
| For beginners | for those with little/no experience of reading BL (a range of themes) |
| Long-running series | KKM, Mirage of Blaze, FLESH&BLOOD |
| “Deep” titles | Works that explore psychology, gender and sexuality, prejudice, trauma, etc. |
| Quintessential manga | school / college / office / first love / omegaverse / whatever |
| BL with healthy relationships | a rarity…  |
| “Non-standard” characters | disabled, middle-aged or older, overweight, neurodivergent, ugly ([アイツの大本命 (series) |
| Novels with male-male romance | actual “literature” that would never be marketed as BL or as an LN |
| Media aimed at gay men | bara, etc |
| Media aimed at men in general | male homosexuality in shounen/seinen media |
| Hidden gems | great works that for whatever reason aren’t popular/well-known |
| BL with multiple adaptions | Popular works that have been adapted to manga / anime / LN / BLCDs / VNs / dramas, etc. |
| Cover Art | Books with cover art that’s beautiful, interesting, unusual, elaborate, etc. |
| Art Syles | Manga with different art styles |
| Recs from BL veterans | each contributor lists 2 or 3 of their favourite works |
| Straddling the line | Shoujo or BL? BL or bromance? |
| Prolific BL authors | by number of BL volumes published (chil-chil); manga/LN separate lists |
| BLCDs | including popular, recommended (manga/ln items; not an exhaustive list) |
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I definitely agree with this; we want to make fewer quality lists rather then a ton of extremely low-effort ones. EWC is shaping up great so far, but it still definitely needs some TLC.
And speaking of EWC, we just about need a table to contents, haha. I imagine this one would be one of our longer ones in terms of description text, though; it’s more of a history list than a recommendation one, after all.
Only one that immediately comes to mind is Storm in Heaven; I don’t think they typically worked on straight up BL, though, more that “in-between” shoujo line.
Hmm. It would be nice if we could add separate sections to the list. But yes, I think we should go with date when first translated in lieu of a better option. I think it’d get too messy if we listed all officially published first and just had to let the onus fall on the user to find that invisible dividing line for where the fan trans start.
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btw if we include shounen ai and not just yaoi in this then CLAMP should be included
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btw @eefara it took me some time but I finally noticed something missing in your list
it was… FUJIMI ORCHESTRA
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I’m sure it was on there before… must have gotten accidentally deleted. 
What was their biggest series at the time?
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Countless Time (I worked for them for a while. 
)
Nakama (that one was pretty big, if I remember correctly)
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Legal Drug is the only thing that comes to mind in regards to Shonen-Ai. Card Captor Sakura had gay side characters but was clearly Shoujo.
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Spent too much a lot of time on the list yesterday finding release dates and reordering.
Everything should have date info, but it would be nice if there was a couple of sentences at the start of the list description about the item (shounen-ai/yaoi, content, why it was popular).
I noticed we’re a little light on content for the end of the decade (2007-2010) if anyone has any suggestions.
Sounds good!
Still need to add some titles for these mangaka:
Added Countless Time and Nakama to the scanlator list. 
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most of their series at the time had some shounen ai in it, some examples:
Tokyo Babylon and the sequel X/1999
Card Captor Sakura (yes, the whole touya/yukito is not just a ship, it is canon)
legal drug (both the main characters were on the shounen ai kind of vibes as well as a “back” couple that was homosexual)
I can go on lol
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most BL and shounen ai initially started as shoujo so I feel like excluding it is a bit unfair to the genre?
edit: edited out the yaoi, that started as doujinshi lmao
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did someone start this one already? because I just remembered a really cute manga that first this
Definitely, I think most other lists should be pretty straightforward, so should only have a short introduction (the exception possibly is the 70s manga list, since it would be nice to include info on the early days of BL).
I’ve added Legal Drug since the BL characters are main rather than background, but it would be good to include links to the other series in the description to show how popular CLAMP was at the time.
I’m gonna take a break from editing the list for now, so if anyone wants to add/edit stuff, feel free! (I had to create boku no sexual harassment on TMDB just so I could add it to the list 
)
Not yet - we’re focusing on one list a week, but feel free to leave your suggestions in this thread! I might also try to think of some that fit that list… 
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Another name I remembered and is worth an add, not sure if she fits the criteria (she’s more of late 20’s)
Nakamura Asumiko
edit:
KUNIEDA SAIKA
SHES EARLY 20’S AND SHE WAS FAMOUS AT THE TIME
also Suzuki Tsuta
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What specifically is the criteria btw?
whether or not it’s main characters or how much of a factor it is in the story telling?
I’m asking because for example Tokyo Babylon+X/1999 is the main antagonist and MC being gay for each other but the plot itself is more of a wizard fight than that relationship (a.k.a you feel the tension but it doesn’t got beyond)
so I’m trying to pinpoint what it is I should or should not be recommending
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Some suggestions for this list:
- ugly: アイツの大本命 (series) | L24??
- deaf/hearing-impaired: ひだまりが聴こえる (series) | L22
- blind/visually-impaired: 小木くんのなつやすみ(1) | L24??
- overweight: ほっぺにひまわり | L24??
I think we’d need to include a disclaimer that these are not necessarily good/favourable/the best depictions of the “non-standard” characteristic, and elaborate on the details in the item description.
Other character types that could be included in the list:
- trans/gender non-conforming
- disfigurement/deformity
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