/bl/ - General BL

I like slowburn and don't like romance as much as a genre. Romance is especially boring when the characters get together. I want there to be a story and relationships and a world. Fandom BL is so much fucking fun. You have a sandbox of elements you already love and can build from there.

fpbp. I genuinely cannot stand romance series' because I know the end result and don't care about the journey because all those other ships that happen don't matter. The end goal's the end goal.

I'm aromantic too so, that adds to why I'm heavily romance series averse.

I tend to watch and play games with fujo thick fandoms because nothing is canon, everything is fanon, and what is canon is like the world's most dense sandbox with every tool you could think to use. I don't want to see a pairing I don't even care about get together. I want to see them both almost die and read a fanfic about life after their story is over

>>6219
>I'm aromantic
Not a thing. It is genuinely less cringe if you people just called yourselves forever alones instead of using these retarded nonsensical labels.

>>6219
>I'm aromantic too so, that adds to why I'm heavily romance series averse.
>I'm aromantic
No one cares nor wants to hear about your imaginary mental illness

>>6221
Oh shut up butthurt yume. Go whine about aidens in off topic if your thread isn't getting bombarded by cp again.

>>6224
How am I a yume for stating aromanticism is fake? And why would a yume even be in fujochan in the first place?

>All this arguing
>Nobody has answered the second part of the OP

It's been brought up before that Danmei tends to aquire a fandom that original Japanese BL works don't. Imo the difference is the ratio of plot to will-they-won't they BS.

>>6227
I never got into danmei but after seeing The Untamed (didn't read it) it's just a very well done drama that tells you the end first and throws all kinds of story at you that I find is missing from Japanese BL as a whole.

BL tends to be short, generally not more than a few hours of episodes, doesn't take risks, and is about as impactful as a mid tier Netflix series. You watch it for what it is or read it, and it's over.It's never so outstanding I go- wow where's the fanfiction. OP used loveless and I remember being obsessed at age 13 about it. But it was also pretty controversial in the way that danmei tend to just be from the beginning.

All the actual interesting BL is relegated to VNs from like 2004 that will never see more than a college student tier translation. Fandoms are easier to access, can come in any language you need, and can go as extreme as you can imagine without having to bend to the point of snapping for an editor or publisher just to be seen.

>>6218
Yeah, BL seldom has a plot outside of the romance (there are exceptions—I love Marginal and its wacky sci-fi glory). I'd much rather read a solid series with an action plot and shipping either non-existent or on the side, and write fanfic or draw fanart, than read a bland romance where the only thing going for it is the ship.

>>6227
>nobody reads bl
>they just like fanfiction
Doesn't that explain it all?

>>6217
For me personally as someone who has been nearly exclusively into fandom BL for 20 years now, I actually like worldbuilding and plot that exists outside of the romance between a main pairing.
I like genres like sci-fi, medieval fantasy, futuristic, or just simply what can be interesting and I care about there being an interesting plot and premise first, everything else kind of second.
But the type of 'fandom BL' i've gotten into aren't things like, sports anime for example. Because even though those shows aren't BL, the main premise of "sports" isn't appealing to me.
I've been into Fate for a long while, because I like historical chuuni shit and the characters are also appealing to me and so is the premise. I'm not super autistic to go in a sperg rampage by seeing a girl in a game or anime so I don't mind seeing them, so it's not a 'detriment' to me. But back into the main argument, I'm sure a lot of people likely feel the same. It's good to imagine some of the characters getting together or loving each other in a delulu kind of way, but what's interesting is the everything else that surrounds that particular media, 'omnipandering' or not.
I've liked some joseimuke too that have interesting premises (like touken ranbu) but there's only so much you can do with headcanons alone

I like both but I have a draw towards fandom BL because I enjoy multishipping and the community aspect towards creating fancontent. With original BL series, I seldom see any fan content or interpretations of the story, maybe some theorizing if the series is ongoing or discussion if lucky. Also it's fun to create crackpot theories, reading between the lines and imagining scenarios in canon that could be re-imagined as romantic development— in original BL the conclusion is rather straight forward, and most people are content with what's portrayed in canon. Of course there are always exceptions to this and I have seen a lot of fanart for original BLs such as killing stalking, mdzs, and heaven's official blessing, though this is an extremely small list compared to the fanships I follow lmao and most of the fanart are just redraws of existing scenes or smut.
As for the second question I think having an extremely drawn out story where fans have to make fanart to sustain themselves helps a lot in keeping a fandom's longevity. That makes me wonder if there's doujinshi culture for OG works or if its frowned apon because it goes against the author's vision (its different compared to established series like vidya, anime, shows because of the scale)

>>6228
>All the actual interesting BL is relegated to VNs from like 2004 that will never see more than a college student tier translation.
Yeah, my favourite actual BL media tends to be VNs. My tastes skew to the edgelord side so I enjoy how the prominent BLVNs tend to have dark stories alongside the romance content. I rarely read BL manga and the anime adaptations I've been watching never made any lasting impressions on me. The isekai BL currently airing is somewhat more interesting than your average office or high school romance but it still won't stick with me in the long run. I admit that I never tried that hard to seek out interesting BL manga but there's a lot of different media that draws my attention so I haven't made that effort yet. There's actually a western novel series I've been reading lately that I mentioned in /wes/ and I enjoy how the romance between the male leads is a slowburn and the plot revolves around political backstabbing and 4d chess. I'd probably enjoy chinese BL novels too.

I like both original BL and fandom BL but for different reasons. I haven't read long manhwa or danmei stories yet so I can only speak for Japanese BL: they more often than not tend to be short or new chapters/volumes are released so slowly they seem never ending. I like when they have a specific plot or setting, I find simple romance between high school students or salarymen repetitive now. I bought the first volume of Heaven's Official Blessing months ago and haven't read it yet because I'm just focusing on other things but I'm looking forward to it.

As for fandom BL, I think most fujoshi just get into a story/video game/manga/tv show, etc. just because they seem fun without the shipping factor and they will organically get into one or several gay pairings if they like the characters and their dynamics enough. That's my case at least and I like plenty of stuff without shipping any of the characters together. In that case fans are more likely to share their love for these pairings with other fans especially if they're into an ongoing series and more "hints" and scenes are released in some episodes or chapters or volumes. While with BL manga since most of them are one-shots personally I just check new releases online, buy and read whatever I feel like reading and don't feel the need to look for a fandom to talk about it besides maybe saying I loved this manga or that manga in a few tweets or here.

>What does it take for original BL works to aquire a fandom?
It's not something you can predict as easily as with mainstream stories. I feel it either needs to be a massive viral success because it's different from what's usually released or it has the "factor" to become a classic that will influence other BL artists. Or it has to be made by a successful and proactive artist with an already established fanbase I guess, like Asada Nemui or Ogerestu Tanaka. Obviously long series are more likely to have a fanbase: if you release an office romcom BL in one volume you're less likely to have an online fanbase with fans trying to guess what's going to happen in the next chapter compared to longer and plot heavy BL stories like Lullaby of the Dawn or The Summer Hikaru died (I know it's technically not a BL but it's treated as such by most if its biggest fans). It's the same for Yuri on Ice. Everyone was trying to guess what kind of crazy shit the next episodes would pull off each week. So that led to plenty of discussions about it online. If it were just one shorter movie it could have also been popular but less so that it was back then.

>>6217
>What does it take for original BL works to aquire a fandom?
Being longer than 1-2 volumes, for starters. For anime, it has to be BL + plot/theme outside of BL. For VNs - either needs to be plot-heavy (Adelta VNs), edgy (N+C VNs) or a meme game (Hadaka Shitsuji).

Aside from the plot focus, MXTX novels have popped off so much because of the prominent side characters who are shippable but not in canon relationships, so there's a lot more to play around with.
It's pretty interesting how Heated Rivalry is so huge right now despite it seemingly being like the TV equivalent of a smutty BL manga, not having slow burn or super deep plot. Must be the novelty and mainstream visibility, as well as being baby's first canon gay for some.