Not sure if this has come up but:
A list of works including gay characters but not BL.
(Antique Bakery, Card Captor Sakura, HanaKimi, etc.)
1 Like
I don’t think so! We might need to make a wiki post of potential lists. 
Another entry for the non-BL gay list:
(It’s freshly added if it doesn’t show. Also, I marked it nonfiction, but it’s a nonfiction manga. Not sure if there’s a precedent for that…)
2 Likes
I think I’ve added everything in your list except… 
I couldn’t find a couple of anime, so the manga will have to do as a placeholder for now.
Every shoujo since 1990… 
These kind of books that fit in more than one category bother me. I marked 薔薇はシュラバで生まれる―70年代少女漫画アシスタント奮闘記― | L24?? as manga, but it’s non-fiction, too. 
And all those children’s non-fiction books…
2 Likes
I think the tags should take care of those… but right now it’s a bit ambiguous for those cases… do you put it in manga and give it a non-fiction tag? do you put it in non-fiction and give it a manga tag? 
1 Like
Sophie’s choice… 
Added to the list!
I’m done for today, will be back for more BL fun tomorrow! 
huh? 
Oh wow, that’s a lot of activity while I was asleep
About the “nostalgic” list, there were only two series I had (partially) read prior to joining Natively ( 純情ロマンチカ and お金がない) and one more I had heard about (グラビテーション).
I have a lot of catching up to do on the curriculum 
1 Like
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.
1 Like
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.
2 Likes
How about both? Both is good.
3 Likes
Nothing wrong with both!
3 Likes
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?
2 Likes
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) |
2 Likes
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.
1 Like
btw if we include shounen ai and not just yaoi in this then CLAMP should be included
2 Likes
btw @eefara it took me some time but I finally noticed something missing in your list
it was… FUJIMI ORCHESTRA
2 Likes
I’m sure it was on there before… must have gotten accidentally deleted. 
What was their biggest series at the time?
1 Like
Countless Time (I worked for them for a while. 
)
Nakama (that one was pretty big, if I remember correctly)
2 Likes
