/bl/ - General BL

I love fantasy, especially sword and sorcery, and feel like it could be the perfect setting for exploring unique and interesting BL dynamics. Aside from a few ships, the lack of actual BL media with fantasy (not urban fantasy, btw) is disappointing. Sure, theres some elves getting ugly bastard'd by orcs doujin out there, but I mean dramatic shit like LOTR. LYKT. was the closest I've had that itch scratched, and that very fun VN The Frozen Kingdom (BL inspired by Conan is godtier thinking).

Dying earth, romantic fantasy, grimdark, mythological fantasy, ect. I think the possibilities are endless, we need shit like a Bloodborne inspired BL. I guess there's Danmei but I don't care for it.

>>4426
> I guess there's Danmei but I don't care for it.
Honestly I associate Danmei more with historical fiction even though it is very fantasy, I guess it just doesn't scratch the same high fantasy itch that something like LOTR does.

>I love fantasy, especially sword and sorcery, and feel like it could be the perfect setting for exploring unique and interesting BL dynamics

Agree since in addition to standard BL archetypes you can also play with different fantasy races and their socio-political differences. Speaking specifically of LOTR I always though an underrated component of Gimli/Legolas was the dwarf/elf aspect of the relationship.

>>4426
>BL inspired by Conan is godtier thinking

I'm honestly surprised that there isn't more, it seems like a logical setting for BL considering everything about it.

Was in a bunch of zines, never made a negative experience. I don't want to come off as arrogant, but 99% of the transwashing artists suck, and since tine admins are usually picking the decent artists you don't have these people part of your zine. I stay away from "representation" or OC zines of course or zines where the majority of mods/admin themselves are cringe.

I have more negative experience with certain users trying to sabotage zines because they can't participate as artist or mod. Wish there were more fanzines but most western fandoms are simply too fucking small these days.

>>4422
Was it stressful to apply? I've seen a few zines that I've wanted to apply as a author on, but ultimately chickened out since I didn't think I was good enough.

>>4423
No. Usually zines are announced months earlier so you should have enough time to finish the artwork or fic.
If it's well organized they have multiple check-ins to assure that everybody is progressing. Like 2-4 weeks after the start you should have an outline, 6 weeks later roughly 50% done and so on. So if you should apply but something in real life happens that makes you unable to draw/write for a while they will notice it in time and replace you. There are always people ready to contribute two pieces, that's usually asked at the start when someone applies.

>>4366
Sometimes I wonder if I'm weird for wanting chubby guys with faces and hair styles just as handsome as anyone else. So many debu artists make them the same cookie cutter body shape, like fat always deposits in the same places no matter their height or lifestyle, with the same receding hairline. I will never get the obsession with fat = losing hair.

It's frustrating how guys get tons of art of girls at every size, but there's very few artists who do in between sizes for guys. At best it's just an overeating gag with a belly added to an average body. I'll take hints of chubby where I can get it but it'll always end up as headcanons about characters from non-BL.

Reading through Loveless pretty consistently rn. I love it, but it really does have poor writing. I'm still going to tear through it though, because I have all the books in my possession and it's the vibe. I feel sad and it's capturing my sad heart. Also I'm a big fat shota-con.

The magic plot bullshit is the least interesting part so far tbh. (At lease in the Volume and a half I've read, does it pick up somehow?) I love Ritsuka and Yuikos friendship, and I love Soubi and his classmates interactions

>>4413
As I continue, I think I'm liking it more. Still thought the magic was a slog but now that I have the first two vol. floating around in my head, I think they're a bit more interesting. Impersonal, institutionalized violence, using personal connections in the pairs as a motivator even though they have no personal grievances with them. The obvious stuff like Soubi being able to easily get a hold of Ritsuka because of his abuse at home. It's fun

>>4416
Given is basically a slice of life series about guys in a band. It revolves around how they deal with their emotional baggage and how that baggage affects their interpersonal relationships. It's not groundbreaking but you can try it out if the premise sounds interesting to you. For some reason after starting out as an anime season the rest has been getting adapted into movies.

>>4417
So are all of them gay or is it just one main couple? The band angle is probably the most interesting part of that summary. BL K-on lol.

>>4418
Everyone in the band is gay

>>4377
You said it way better than I ever could. Enzai is the game you play because almost nothing else is translated. It's way too intense to hit a widespread appeal normally and if it didn't have a localization I don't think anyone would be clamoring for it to be translated. Absolute Obedience is a fun time and casts a much larger net in terms of content and appeal.

>>4377
NTAYRT but your theory is pretty sound and I had never thought about it from that perspective. Like for a lot of grandma fujos, Enzai was my first because it was the only translated one back in the day and it was so intense I can never forget the shit I saw in that game, the piss drinking and being raped with all sorts of objects with blood dripping everywhere were so intense my little teenage mind was forever tainted by it. I was always wondering why the fuck they picked up such an extreme title instead of something more vanilla but trying to reach the male audience would make sense.

As for Absolute Obedience, I don't even remember any obscene fetishes being in it, at least in comparison to Enzai. It's a shame I've lost my copy ages ago, it could be a fun game to revisit.

>>3828

I did! I used textractor with deepL and it was pretty much 70% understandable! great story, great characters, pretty nice sex scenes.
The music and art are beautiful and it's right up there with Shingakkou in my top BLVN list!

Cute. Didn't expect him to get such a figure

>>4385
That is pretty cute, I hope the entire party gets a set of matching figures.

>Makao and Joma getting figures
Kinda based if you ask me

>>4400
I always go back to Spock/Kirk when I'm in the mood for fanfiction but can't find anything good in the tags of more recent interests. A lot of people (rightfully tbh) hate the AoS movies, but I like how they gave us 2 distinct flavors of Spirk to play with. If I'm not in the mood for that I'll go check Garak/Bashir (which recently got some fresh entries thanks to the cartoon). Thanks Star Trek!

I sometimes hate that I am a weeb because western fandoms tend to have a much higher percentage of adult women writing quality, no-nonsense, novel length fics. I wish I could pay some of them to play some of my favorite jrpgs and write for my dead fandoms haha.

>>4400
Wrightworth/Narumitsu from Ace attorney. It's not technically my first gay ship but it's the first one I got obsessed with that has never been fucked with by canon so it's very comforting to return to. Actually I guess they kinda did fuck with it once but that plot point was forgotten after one game. I'm sure capcom knows by now that fujos are a significant part of their audience. The appeal of Wrightworth to me is that they have a different dynamic to play around with during multiple stages in their lives from young crushes in school to angsty and snarky rivals to married dads. There's also a timeskip that canon has always kept vague, meaning that fic writers can imagine whatever they want. There's still new fics coming out to this day and it probably helps that the original trilogy has been put on modern platforms and gone on sale all the time, bringing in new people.

>>4403
>I wish I could pay some of them to play some of my favorite jrpgs and write for my dead fandoms haha.
Be careful what you wish for, I found it really obvious to spot Untamed fic written by slashers from western TV fandoms because everyone will be talking like a pair of American guys and the basic cultural research i.e with food will be lacking.

Various of things in my younger years eventually yaoi-pilled me, but I think fanon yaoi has impacted my taste in anime media the most, one of the first ones was picrel Kizami x Kurosaki from Corpse Party (an osananajimi kind, albeit one that doesn't end pretty). People created great yaoi of them on tumblr and ff.net that truly tickled the fujo in me, and inspired me to learn to draw anime boys better. Funnily enough, when I checked back, Morishige x Kizami is the most popular yaoi Corpse Party ship.

Hetalia yaoi doujinshi was I think the first lewd yaoi I stumbled upon, my reaction was very much akin to Kagami reading Gauron x Sousuke haha.

Ragna X Jin from BlazBlue is what truly incest-pilled me and I still read fanfiction of them from time to time (Their dynamic as well dubcon/noncon fanfictions probably impacted my tastes greatly). A great pair for if you wanna read about an insanely obsessive little brother. Brothers entwined in a fate that cannot help but keep binding them together. Pretty easy to see why even the games themselves joke about their very incestuous bond.

As for actual yaoi anime, I remember watching SukiSyo on YouTube which bewildered kid me at the time, I don't remember much of it, but I should eventually watch it again.

In the end of it all I am mostly a fanon fujo, though I still indulge in canonically yaoi stuff from time to time.

>>4381
>Ragna X Jin

Great taste for hatefucking.

I actually haven't played Corpse Party and from an outsiders perspective I assumed it had a very male fandom. Interesting gateway series.

>>4382
Yeah Corpse Party in the end is still mostly anime girl fanservice in the end, quite a few yuri-bait and panty shots of the female characters. So while its fanon was my gateway yaoi I'd only recommend it if you can sideline those things for the anime guys.

Okay, hard mode. Rec me a BL Japanese novel/light novel that is actually written like it's not literature for retards (like most LNs). It 1) has to be longer than 1 volume; 2) can't have an anime adaptation; 3) is not a (middle)highschool story; 4) Yukio Mishima doesn't count.

If anyone wants a collection of dysfunctional somwtimes fucked up stories Stroboscope is pretty interesting but uneven.

https://mangadex.org/title/944d89ce-55ba-47fe-aa28-b0d8cb32a17d/stroboscope

Going to rec Smoky Nectar a vampire themed yaoi with a childhood friend angle.