/bl/ - General BL

>Franchise with the best doujinshi?
Eva, perfect mix of depressing and sexy to go around and like 99% of the fandom agrees on who's the uke and who's the seme. It's also an old franchise so there's stuff from every era and barafags rarely touch it.
Tetsu sabi is my personal favorite~
>Do you ever read doujins for series you're unfamiliar with?
Sometimes but not that frequently since I just get bored fast

These days hitomi.la is better than MRM, just don't use it on mobile or you'll get a trillion pop ups.

Anyone know any reliable people to pay to translate doujins? Have you done it before?

While fujochan was down I was in Japan and went to a Comic City event in Tokyo to buy doujinshi. I bought a lot of them. I was warned that it would be very hot in the Tokyo Big Sight buildings but it was fine imo, but I still bought a bottle of water in the combini nearby, even though the queues were really long. I only stuck to one fandom because the other ones that interested me weren't represented that time (and were present a month later but maybe next time) and all the booths about the same pairings were grouped together so it was easy for me to know where to go, and some of the queues were crazy long but everything went very fast so it wasn't an issue at all, the last in line had to carry a piece of paper with the number of the booth but I never carried them for very long. I managed to get doujinshi from some very popular circles/artists and didn't have any issue as a foreigner with my intermediate level in Japanese, but I was sticking out like a sore thumb. Here are some advice/info from me because checking the Comic City website was hell on earth as a visitor and I wish I knew some of these things beforehand:
>arrive in advance, wear comfortable shoes and prepare snacks and a bottle of water before taking public transport, or you're going to wait like 30min just to buy a water bottle nearby
>take a lot of cash, mostly 1000 yen bills and 500 yen coins because I had a lot of 100 yen coins and my purse was very heavy just from that
>a lot of girls came with small suitcases, and I was thinking it was excessive but it really wasn't. I bought a lot more doujinshi than I thought I would so I had to buy a solid paper bag in the store where artists were buying cardboard boxes to send their remaining doujinshi to their own home. I should have taken a thick tote bag on top f my already large purse
>don't hesitate too much to get in a queue or buy something because some artists are really popular and their stuff are sold out early

>>3501
I also bought some doujinshi in Mandarake but they're a lot more expensive and the same artists were reselling some of there older doujinshi for far cheaper but it's not like I could have known. I was embarrassed to browse the doujinshi section and not just the BL and shojo manga section at first but nobody there gives a fuck. The ones in Akihabara and Ikebukuro are pretty good, but make sure you know how the pairings you like are called in Japanese and in kanji. I was a bit disappointed by the ones in Nakano Broadway, I expected something bigger so it felt like a waste of time after everyone only hyped up that mall. Maybe because tourists treat them like a "must see" museum while I was actually trying to buy stuff.

I almost only bought JJK doujinshi (only satosugu because the other pairings I like didn't have anything I liked) and just a few SFW Pokemon doujinshi without any shipping. By the way, the number of Slam Dunk circles was insane. I thought I was hallucinating, it took almost an entire floor of one of the buildings. I also didn't find any Gintama doujinshi that interested me because I like Gintoki as an uke but he's more often a seme and most of the doujinshi had shitty art styles on the cover so I don't even want to know what they looked like inside. I really want to go back to this kind of short, fun and simple events asap instead of the huge cons we have in Europe with a lot of guests, professional publishing companies taking half of the room and selling bootlegs, and artist alleys being full of Genshin Impact badges and prints. I assume printing entire fanzines costs too much money in the West so it's not a thing.

I think that's it. If I can think of more advice I will post more. Btw I mentioned toranoana but I never used it, I saw it's possible to buy things from outside of Japan thanks to a proxy so maybe I'll look into it.

>>3502
Thanks for sharing, I hope you had fun during your trip! I'm going to Japan later this month and was planning to go to Mandarake. It's good to know that Nakano Broadway isn't worth it. I don't know much about doujinshi events but reading your posts made me think of how interesting it would be to experience it myself. Unless I misunderstand, there seems to be an event on the 25th which I could visit in theory. I don't speak any japanese and the website confuses me though. Do you have advice on how to buy tickets?

>>3502
Thank you so much for sharing nona! your advice is super helpful!
Also based for being a uke gintoki enjoyer and I hope youre able to find some 3745 HOUSE doujins at some point during your next trip. her MOB/Gintoki dj is one of my prized treasures

>>3504
>It's good to know that Nakano Broadway isn't worth it.
I wouldn't say it's not worth it, it's a bit complicated. It wasn't worth it for me because I went to the one in Ikebukuro so often the previous years I know where what I like is, and I've found cool stuff both there and in Akihabara so I didn't feel like buying anything once in Nakano Broadway, which is a fairly big mall. Instead of being one giant Mandarake, there are several separate Mandarake in Nakano Broadway specialized in a lot of very different things. If you're like me and you're just looking for BL and shojo manga, and BL doujinshi the ones there aren't too different from the others. If you want to buy merchs, you really like magical girls franchises, takarazuka, mecha, etc. then I guess I can recommend Nakano Broadway. By the way these stores open at noon so if you're like me, from a country where stores open at 9am or 10am be careful. There are restaurants and cafes on the first floor, just in case but don't spend the whole day in there, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro are nearby if you want to check these places before or after that. There are other similar stores, I heard toranoana also had physical stores in big cities but too late.

>Unless I misunderstand, there seems to be an event on the 25th
If you're talking about Comic City Vega in Tokyo then I actually considered going to that one and maybe try to go to the Comiket two weeks before that but plane tickets for August were way higher than for late June and the beginning of July. I went to the June Bride Fes and the point of that event is shipping, it was like 98% BL. Which is why I couldn't find some fandoms I'm into, I think the organizers decided which fandoms would be represented and then fans would purchase tables and say which pairing they'll represent. I assume the other events are way more free. For tickets it's very simple, you can buy one on some Japanese app that I don't know at all according to the ladies at the entrance but they saw I was confused and just made me buy a ticket with cash. A lot of information you will find on the Akaboo website are for sellers, not buyers, same for their twitter accounts. I saw that it starts at 10:30 in the morning so get there at like 9:00 or 9:30 or you'll really struggle in the train. Don't go there in a cosplay, only sellers can cosplay and even then they have to pay a fee iirc.

>>3506
>>3504
Tell me how it is if you decide to go by the way, I'm considering going back in two years after saving more money and this time I'd also like to try the Comiket even if I've heard it's more for male otaku and gacha games have gotten popular. Here's the page on the Akaboo website for the event you can go to: https://www.akaboo.jp/event/item/20197722.html and the website you can use to see a map of the building with the tables/booths is linked in there, it's b² Online. The franchises and pairing names are written in Japanese, idk if you can read it a little, if not don't hesitate to use translation apps. You might not be the only non Asian visitor btw, in the first big waiting line I saw two white bakudeku fans chatting nearby. I don't know much about MHA and we weren't close enough anyway so I didn't talk to them though.

And as I said, since this event will end at 3pm, I really hope the weather won't be as terrible as when I was there so you can maybe visit Odaiba or even another place a little the same day.

>>3505
You're welcome! Sharing is caring after all.
>I hope youre able to find some 3745 HOUSE doujins at some point during your next trip
Fingers crossed. She's the one who converted me into enjoying Gintoki as an uke. But I'm sure her second hand doujinshi must cost and arm and a leg. Popular artists like this tend to have their doujinshi locked in front of the door to shops in a glass closet with prices going for 100 euros at least, I wish I were joking. I had a heart attack in 2020 when I saw a compilation of Harada's Gintama doujinshi going for several hundreds of euros when converting currencies, and while the Pokemon doujinshi I bought were like 1500 and 2000 yen, I saw the same artist's BL doujinshi about her favorite character going for 19000 yen or 10900 yen. And it was recent so the artist was advertising it for way cheaper at the same time on twitter.

>>3507
AYRT, luckily (or unluckily that the lack of popularity with uke gintoki shows sob) her doujinshis are in a fairly priced range, going from 15 Euros to 21 Euros on the mandarake website. As much as Id like to gatekeep and nab them myself Id rather spread the gospel of uke Gintoki (￣^￣)ゞ
(Heck even the 2011-2013 dj compilation that compiles all her works is being sold for only 74 Euros!)

on a related note I did manage to find the singular uke gintoki doujin that harada has ever created at a whopping 30 euros for just 1 book AGHH

Doing a doujin haul in a few days, hopefully I can get everything in my pic! (Also getting a bunch of Gothic Lolita bibles so I’m kinda going ape on ‘books’)
I’ll be sure to post pics when everything I get arrives though!

>>3506
>>3507
Like you I’m mostly interested in BL and shojo but if I have enough time left I might go there. There seems to be a toranoana Ikebukuro so I might check it out later on.

I was talking about Comic City Vega! I initially planned to go earlier too but getting my passport took longer than expected so I had no other choice. I managed to find tickets for a somewhat acceptable price considering I only booked two weeks ago. Which fandoms were you interested in? I can just buy tickets at the entrance, that's good I feared buying them on the website somewhere. Thank you. I will keep the time of arrival in mind and thanks for linking the website. Comiket sounds interesting as well. If you go back tell how it was too, I will definitely make a post on how it is in this thread. I can't read kanji but I was thinking of relying on translations during my trip in general, maybe I can try and memorize the names. Visiting Odaiba would be fun too, iirc they have a life sized Gundam there. Thank you for all the advice, it helps me a lot and I appreciate it

Anyonr knows a good ikkaku x Yumichika doujin? Smut if possible. And provide link please, thanks.

>>3502
Just got back from Otakon, picked up a lot of zines so they're 100% a thing. I wish it was more so though, because even at a huge con like Ota proper fancomics (or even original comics…) are sparse. Americans at least seem to favor doing like full color single page spread illustrations only, or scrappy autobiographical/oc zines with little in between. It feels like they feel obligated to make it "fancy" and do all the nice color printing and foiling and adding feelies instead of just making a long comic or something. Also, while you can find collab stuff it's always one off illustrations compiled, not a proper circle writing a comic together type deal. Fanfic being in zines is rare too. I wish it was more like doujin culture, but I do think zines are on a bit of an uptick overall so hope springs eternal.
A lot of people just do stuff online too, which as a non social media user is super annoying. Can't see shit on Twitter any more. There are zine-only events that I want to try attending here, but I have a feeling they won't have bl… I wish there was bl specific ones, or at least a low scale weeb zine event…

>>3529
So many Scaras!!!!!

Toranoana doesn't accept payments with Visa or Mastercard anymore… I've never used it and hesitated to use it for a long time but shipping seemed complicated because of covid until recently, and before covid I was broke. iirc it will progressively happen to other stores that sell "adult content", even if you want to buy completely SFW, cutesy, wholesome doujinshi in particular. I'm going to look into other ways to pay online.

On the other hand, this summer's Comiket are going on today and tomorrow. If you're curious you can check the #c104 tag on twitter (not in public btw) to see what's sold but from what I've seen it's mostly hentai and fan merchs like acrylic stands, tote bags, keychains, etc. Makes me a bit relieved I didn't go and went to a Comic City event instead. I've seen anons here in another thread but I don't remember which one, and people on twitter talking about how Comiket is now more and more focusing on a male audience and Comic City is mostly for women by women but I didn't think it would be that clear cut.

>>3330
You bought cute stuff, I like it! I'm not into Genshin Impact at all though.

>Which fandoms were you interested in?
JJK mostly. I'm also into video games like Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Ace Attorney, Megaten, etc. but FF and AA weren't represented at all during June Bride Fes, I didn't find anything that caught my attention when it came to Pokemon doujinshi but I arrived a bit late in that section of the event, and I didn't even bother looking into Megaten because I knew I'd mostly find Persona 5 doujinshi, and I was worried about artists making the MC different from what I like. I said it earlier but I also didn't find anything very interested in the Gintama doujinshi sold there, and there are other series and characters I like but I didn't even look for doujinshi of these ones, idk why.

>iirc they have a life sized Gundam there
Yes it's right in front of a big mall so you can't really miss it. And if you like Gundam there's a Gundam store nearby too. There are other things too but I'm not super familiar with Odaiba because the one time I visited it was during Covid when almost everything was closed and there were only 5 customers in the mall kek.

>>3529
I've never been to America so I don't know how American cons are like, but it's cool that you found fanzines. It's probably just because of the internet but the few times I hear about fanzines in Europe or America (as a whole, not just the USA) they're expensive artbooks made by several artists based on a series, pairing or character so I never thought about buying one online, usually when I see them I dislike the style of half of the artists. Don't even get me started on scams that happened before. Makes me want to preorder anything at all.

>Can't see shit on Twitter any more
I was going to say you can use nitter, but the instance I used before doesn't work anymore and this one seems to show less stuff https://nitter.poast.org/

>>3535
>Toranoana doesn't accept payments with Visa or Mastercard anymore… I've never used it and hesitated to use it for a long time but shipping seemed complicated because of covid until recently, and before covid I was broke. iirc it will progressively happen to other stores that sell "adult content", even if you want to buy completely SFW, cutesy, wholesome doujinshi in particular. I'm going to look into other ways to pay online.
I guess in the long run it means that we will have to rely specifically on a proxy service like Anime otaku carry service or Buyee instead of a forwarder like Blackship, which means higher service costs usually.

>>3513
Oh wow that came way faster than I expected it to!

>>3547
Nice, I hope you enjoy reading all of them. How is the Pokemon doujinshi btw?

>>3551
It was quite cute but you could definitely tell it was old from the art haha
Also didn’t have much of my favorite ship (isshushipping)

>>3554
I am still kinda butthurt that in the west Steven/Wallace was way more popular than Steven/Brendan, especially after Brendan's ORAS makeover.

>>3555
I guess older guy x shota ships just aren't nearly as popular overseas (though in this case it's their manga counterparts), ironically in Japan the only protagonist who's not shipped with an older character is Red (obviously) and Victor who's mostly shipped with Hop (I'm guessing shota x shotafags were into him)

>>3555
I can only ship the male Pokemon MCs when I like their designs and at least for me, Brendan is too ugly. Petty but true. Not really into Victor or Lucas either (but weirdly I love Rei, I guess a change of outfit makes a big difference. It's too bad he's so overshadowed by Akari because I really want to see more art of him, so I understand your feelings, Steven/Brendan anon.)

>>3558
>Petty but true.
Completely understandable. Pokemon characters rarely have enough personality to carry them beyond what you see, even PokeSpe versions. Lysandre/Sycamore still makes my blood boil because I hate that ugly ginger fuck and how he cucked me personally out of what should have been one billion Sycamore/Calem doujins.

I think its sometimes weird to think of series which had a massive doujin culture and then just disappeared. Tiger and Bunny comes to mind here, big fujo hit for a few years and then just everybody moved on.

>>3577
It's still popular but yeah I think it's because of the second season starting way after the first one. There are still events here and there, some are official. I suspect it's going to happen to Yuri on Ice as well with how Mappa decided to move on from it. It's just the type of series that's very popular, time passes, people forget but when someone mentions it in a conversation everyone is like " oh my god I love Tiger & Bunny it's so, so good, I love Barnaby/Kotetsu!! I should rewatch the show someday! I recommend it to everyone!"

>>3577
It's a bit weird how most seem to move on at the same time with such hits, but maybe it's just the natural half-life big hypes have and the generational changes. Being active in dying fandoms myself I know it can also be discouraging when you see your favorite artists disappearing into the void or moving on.
It hits differently than being a rare shipper or the sole fan of a character from an otherwise popular show. The latter is like visiting a party where nobody knows you. You are an outside, but you can still go to someone and talk to them or do something cool and get their attention. Being in a dead fandom means staying in an empty room and hoping that someday someone might casually pass by and look at you.

>>3612
>It's a bit weird how most seem to move on at the same time with such hits, but maybe it's just the natural half-life big hypes have and the generational changes.
I think it's normal when it comes to series you watch on tv once a week when over a decade passed since then, I loved Tiger & Bunny and watched the first season as soon as it started and looked forward to each episode, was obsessed with Barnaby/Kotetsu but nowadays I don't think about it all that much. I was in high school back then, I wonder if I can rewatch it right now and still love it as much or if my tastes changed. It was kind of the same with the Yuri on Ice fanbase, it was huge, everyone was looking forward to the next episodes, and once Mappa went radio silence about the movie people quietly moved on. But as soon as the cancellation of the movie was announced everyone got very vocally upset so it turned out that people didn't fully move on, they probably just didn't have more to say about the series besides being disappointed over the lack of movie.

I don't follow a lot of series in general, I'm not the type to watch as many seasonal anime as possible just to say I watched a lot of anime, do fans forget about their favorite recent series faster or more often? I'm not talking about people jumping on trends all the time, but actual big fans.