Your Favorite BL Manga Title

Yellow by Makoto Tateno
Blue Sheep Reverie by Makoto Tateno
Haru wo Daiteita by Youka Nitta
Boku no Koe by Youka Nitta
Koushi Kakka no Himitsu Gaikou by Youka Nitta
Love Mode by Yuki Shimizu
ZE by Yuki Shimizu
Jyunjyo Romantica by Shungiku Nakamura
breath by Chifumi Ochi

My favorites are:

Fake
Totally Captivated
Yellow (although the newest one is really short!)
Our Kingdom
Pet on Duty

I'm still new to the genre (I've only read a couple of books). I like Demon Diary (I have not completed the series yet). I've also read the first volume of Fake and thought that it was really good.

I never really considered Demon Diary as BL. At the most I found it to be slightly in the very light UST realm, but I know a lot of people consider it to be BL.

Fake is really wonderful. I can't say enough about how much I love that series!

I'm very new to the genre and now find myself with a new addiction and significantly less pocket change. A series that I'm enjoying that hasn't been mentioned yet is Tea for Two.

>5 PhoenixTerran:

Tea for Two is cool, though it is not one of my favorites. I will be getting volume 3 soon. It is great that it is finally published after so long.

After seeing lots of folks recommending Yellow as one of their favorites, I've picked up the first omnibus. I look forward to reading it. :-)

I'm actually considering buying a couple of volumes of Fake after Christmas. I want to see which books I get as gifts first :D

I borrowed Fake from my local library not realizing it was a BL title--I was just looking for all the manga I could find. I really enjoyed the series, though occasionally the kids would annoy me. But not necessarily in a bad way. I guess that just means they were authentically portrayed. :-)

>9 PhoenixTerran:
I read volume 1 of Fake at an all manga library at a convention, so I did not care as much if people saw what I was reading.

Unfortunately for me I only received 2 books for Christmas *grrr*. I got the Tail of the moon prequel and Playing with fire by Gena Showalter.

I haven't decided yet if I want to spend about $200 on anime stuff from rightstuf.com or not. Has anyone purchased stuff from them before?

10> You still did better than me. :-) I only got one book this year--Bored of the Rings--which does look rather amusing.

Has anyone here read the Black Knight series by Kai Tsurugi being published in English by Blu? I recently was given the third volume, and am currently tracking down copies of the first two books.

>10 novelandmangacrazy:
I always buy my anime DVDs and some of my manga from Right Stuf! Actually, I mainly use it for anime DVDs as I always buy my manga from the bookstore unless there was something I couldn't find. I like some of their weekly specials and daily deals.

>11 PhoenixTerran:
I have always been curious about Black Knight but I haven't read it. I have heard many things about it, so I don't know if it is any good.

My husband purchased the majority of my Christmas gifts through RightStuf! and I guess it worked out well for him. All I asked for were manga and books so he delievered very well LOL!

I really like Black Knight although I haven't picked up the fourth volume yet. They are being published extremely slowly, it was around 2 years between vols 3 and 4 (I think) and there doesn't seem to be a publication date for 5 yet.

14> Yikes, that seems like a long wait. :-) Is there really a fifth volume to come? I was under the impression that there were only four...

I read a couple of Amazon reviews that indicated that the fourth one wasn't the end of the series and that they were waiting on another volume.

Hopefully it won't be a long wait, then! :-) I expect the first two volumes to be delivered within the next few days and I'm looking forward to reading them.

(whoops...that was me above as BannedBooksLibrary...)

I enjoy them because they have a good (if sometimes confusing to me) plot. I think I'll have to do a re-read soon now that I'm thinking about it!

what's BL manga?

BL = Boy's Love.

I've only read a few and wasn't impressed at all with the gender roles the boys were pushed into in some of them (well, these were specifically "yaoi").

But a few weeks ago, I read a translation of Seven Days and really loved it. (Manga Updates link - finding a touchstone for it on LT is too much work)

I have too many I like but most recently my favourites have been

Loveless: Even though it is more Shounen-ai than yaoi it still has its own distinctive style that I enjoy.

Totally Captivated: House wife type coward + yakuza leader = classic. They also manage to throw so many twists into the story line that it just never stops getting increasingly hilarious but is also nose-bleed worthy.

Sex pistols/Love pistols (depends on translator): It is weird, a strange fantasy like take on school life where people are animals and 'normal' humans are the only ones that don't realise it. Contains mpreg but the science behind it is so outrageously wrong that I can't help but find it more amusing that anything else. For example, two chicks have two kids together and both are boys (XX+XX=XY??).

Oooh, so many to choose from! ^_^ I agree with a lot of Hatsumi's choices, though.

My classic (& current) favs include: Antique Bakery, Fake, Haru wo Daiteita, Jyunjyo Romantica, Kizuna, Love Mode, Ludwig II, Totally Captivated & ZE

>22 purpledragon42:
FAKE is a great BL. I enjoyed it a lot. Dee and Ryo make a great couple. They kinda reminded me of Goh and Taiki (Yellow).

Totally Captivated was good too, though I didn't enjoy the final volume as much as I did the previous ones.

Ludwig II is a series I didn't enjoy all that much so I didn't even continue it. I know it is only 2 volumes long but it still didn't interest me.

I am planning on reading Kizuna once it comes out in September. It is good that it has been re-licensed.

>23 HatsumiShinogu:
FAKE was one of my first favorites, closely followed by Kizuna. I really liked the fact that the story and the BL elements fused so seamlessly. Kizuna...well I have this thing for BL yakuza stories...so, yeah... ^_^; Not to say that it's not a good story, it really is and I enjoy the relationship between the two main characters...although it can get a little too angsty sometimes due to nothing more than character stupidity. -_-

Totally Captivated I haven't had a chance to finish yet, so I can't speak on it really yet. I just know that I've enjoyed what I've read so far. :)

As for Ludwig...I will admit it was depressing, but I really enjoy historical fiction and I've always been intrigued by the story of the "fairy tale" king, so I really enjoyed the BL/slightly supernatural take the story offered. I also really liked all of Higuri's artistic detail.

...I just reread and saw that Kizuna had been relicensed. YAY! Do you know by who? And will they be doing any more of BeBeautiful's titles?

>24 purpledragon42:
Kizuna has been relicensed by June. One other Be Beautiful title they have rescued is the Finder Series by Ayano Yamane. The first volume is slated for August.

I have read one or two volumes of Kizuna back then but I didn't see myself absorbed in the story. Hopefully now I will be able to get into it.

I hope other Be Beautiful titles will be rescued/relicensed such as Yebisu Celebrities, Haru wo Daiteita, and Boku no Koe.

>25 HatsumiShinogu:
I am so glad to hear this! *excitement* I desperately want someone to relicense Haru wo Daiteita. I stupidly sold off my Japanese copies when they started releasing them here in the states and then when BeBeautiful went under I just couldn't bring myself to re-purchase them all. *sobs* Maybe I'll write June a letter...it couldn't hurt, right? :)

>26 purpledragon42:
Actually, I think June has been trying to get more of Youka Nitta's works but it seems her publisher in Japan is still upset about what happened and thus did not give the licensing rights to her books yet. I have already asked June about the possibility of getting her books and this is the answer I got. They didn't state it as clearly as this but this is what I understood. Hopefully we will see her books in English eventually especially Haru wo Daiteita, and Boku no Koe. I am sure June want to license these books but it is out of their hands for now.

I also want Youka Nitta to continue The Prime Minister's Secret Diplomacy. It is one of my favorites. I totally love Yoshinaga and Shiraishi.

I, too, wanted to get the Japanese tankoubons but hesitated at the time and then that scandal happened and they were OOP. I kept asking about the possibility of reprinting them but the publisher keeps giving vague answers and that no plans to reprint them for now.

everybody is talking about Fake, is it that good, how do i get my hands on it, its not at the library

FAKE has been mentioned a few times in this thread as being a favorite, so that probably means it's pretty good...

It was licensed by Tokyopop, so if you can't get it at your library, you can try to do an ILL (interlibrary loan) and acquire it that way. Ask your librarian to teach you how to do one. You can find libraries which have it by visiting WorldCat.org and doing a search. Here is the result for my search for volume 1. It used my IP to find my location, and it says that though there are no copies in my local public library system, there are two copies at neighboring county library systems which I could possibly obtain through an ILL.

There are 78 libraries listed by WorldCat as holding the first volume, so you should be able to get it through the library somehow.

thanks so much

LOL! FAKE was actually the first BL series I bought. I still love it!

Totally Captivated
Yellow*
Hate to Love You*
How to Capture a Martini*
(*Really, anything by Makoto Tateno is both very well drawn and has a good storyline.)
Embracing Love
The Prime Minister's Secret Diplomacy
Lover's Flat
Freefall Romance
Alcohol, Shirt and Kiss
Time Lag
Only the Ring Finger Knows
Cigarette Kisses

...Just to name a few. : P

FAKE's a classic and gets recommended a lot.

Totally Captivated
Love Pistols
Les Bijoux (although, I'm not entirely sure this counts >__>)
Finders
Crimson Spell
Pretty much anything by Toko Kawai
One Thousand and One Nights
Vassalord
Pretty much anything by Taishi Zaou
Rin!
Blue Sheep Reverie

unfortunately rightstuf does not have all of the Fake volumes available. I guess I'll get the ones they have, then try to get the missing volumes.

I was also thinking of getting Yellow, but they don't have the first volume available either.

Try bookdepository.com, too. They might not be as low priced as righstuf can be, but you'll get free shipping on them, even if it's just one or two, which can balance out.

hmmm... I did not think of bookdepository. Unfortunately due to Tokyopop going under I was thinking of buying all of the volumes that I'm missing of my Tokyopop series. So I was going to buy the missing volumes from three different online stores including rightstuf.

I currently only have 1 volume of Fake (#4 I think). I've also read volume 1. Is it worth spending a lot of money to buy the 6 missing volumes? When I read the first one I thought it was ok, and I am curious, but it's expensive especially since I'll be buying other volumes to complete other series as well. So is it worth it?

In These Words
Finder Series
Crimson Spell
Totally Captivated
Breathe
Yellow

and many others! Love yaoi/boys love and have about 500+ titles so far. Currently buying a bunch as I'm trying to complete my collection with ALL yaoi titles in English.