Attending FanimeCon 2026? Love Indie Comics and Manga?
Don't miss the first Original English Language Doujinshi market in the USA, MANGA ICHIBA, An event focused on self-published manga and comics for an English-Speaking Audience!
I’m super excited to be tabling at this event in May (representing my own problematic medieval RPF yaoiz from @angevinyaoiz ) so excited that I made my own personalized promotion graphic above <3. I hope that anyone attending Fanime this year can have fun checking out everyone’s hard work!
There will be people selling both original and fanworks, All Ages works in the daytime and 18+ works in the evening. This will be at the Doubletree hotel, which is separate from the main Convention Center, and also hosts the popular Night Market!
A book-focused event!
Fanime was one of the very first local anime and manga events I attended as a teenager. What encouraged me to apply to this event, as a longtime attendee and tabler at local zinefests and small book fairs, is that it focuses specifically on creating and sharing independent comics and manga, rather than on prints and merchandise (which are wonderful to see, but more specific to the Artist Alley.) My hope is that Manga Ichiba can encourage similar events to pop up across the country.
Spreading the Good Word of Doujinshi
So far, I haven’t seen very much promotion of this event from official sources, so it feels like a lot of the promotion has been from word of mouth. Well, I’m doing my part! I feel that there is a great hunger for these kinds of events, so I hope there can be some more discussion and anticipation. Feel free to post about the event if you’re attending or interested, and feel free to use/repost my unofficial promotion doodle as well if you’d like to share with others!
Staffing and Help
I have also heard that there is still some need for extra staffing at this event. If anyone is interested, feel free to comment or message (or email, at [email protected]) and I can put you in contact with more direct sources.
Thoughts?
Anyone else planning on attending, either as a vendor or as a curious visitor? It will doubtlessly be a busy time, but I’d love to say hi to anyone who comes by. While I can’t guarantee it at this time (I’m still busy working on my actual comic…) I’d love to make some little giveaways or something for folks who make it!
My online shop is OPEN for Citruscon 2026 Artist alley. There is original BL doujinshi print and digital release (in English only) and free mini print bonuses for the event.
STORE IS OPEN UNTIL MARCH 10th
I apologize if this is a complicated question or if it kind of scatters everywhere and doesn’t have a coherent point.
I’m new to BL, but one thing I’ve noticed from people both within and outside the community is that a lot of people say BL as a demographic is generally catered toward romantic stories.
Obviously there are exceptions, but non-BL queer stories seem to cater more toward identity-based narratives, if that makes sense. I’ve also seen people criticize the fact that some BL uses internalized homophobia more as a plot device rather than really treating it as a narrative that gets deeply explored.
And also I’ve seen people critique BL for when it delves into a guy having a girlfriend and then suddenly liking a guy, and it doesn’t really explore the complicated feelings of discovering that for the first time.
That then leads to the whole “I’m not gay, I only like you” trope. But even that trope itself, I feel like, isn’t really delved into from a nuanced perspective. I feel like it could make sense and be written in depth, but a lot of the time it isn’t.
And this leads to people kind of using this as a way to discard the whole demographic as not really being queer, even though it involves two men, because it doesn’t seem to want to get involved with the actual queerness of the characters — like the in-depth, complicated feelings someone might experience.
I’m not trying to dismiss BL or attack it. I just want a nuanced perspective on this from someone who doesn’t completely dislike or discard BL as a demographic.
I apologize again if this is complicated or scattered.
Hello! Thank you for reaching out to me, and your message wasn't incoherent at all. As is always the case with online social media discussions, a lot gets lost between people trying to best one another and snappy one-liner gotchas. I also think there are certain aspects that people don't take into consideration when talking about BL/LGBTQ+ comics, their tropes, and structure. You asked for a nuanced perspective, so you're getting a lengthy post haha. I'll try to break them down and hopefully, there'll be a useful takeaway here somewhere.
You're right in noting the distinction, and that's also my very broad rule of thumb. I often say that BL focuses more on romance, while LGBTQ+ comics tend to focus more on identity. However, it's important to notice that this is a spectrum. On one hand of the spectrum, we have wish-fulfillment, on the other, interpersonal drama and identity politics. Works in both genres fall somewhere on this line. As the IRL LGBTQ+ movement pushes forward and the identity politics/allyship discussions gradually become a topic of everyday conversation, you will see its effects on the genre without a doubt. Just like how climate change and discussions around scarcity are topics that are increasingly delved into, like in Fool Night, or discussions around neurodivergency give way to works like Spacewalking With You, BL changes and evolves too.
We also have to take into consideration that sexuality, gender, and how they are performed IRL are contextual and cultural. What we see in works from East Asia may not fit into what we want to see from a Western perspective. It's also possible that certain cultural codes that signal queerness elude us simply because we're not accustomed to them.
For example, the "only gay for you" trope you mentioned is still being tossed around, but it's been quite a long time since I've read a BL work that explicitly incorporates it. Now, one of the leads identifies as heterosexual until he meets the other lead, and after certain tribulations, they reach their hard-earned happy ending, but it isn't portrayed in a "I will never be with another man if we break up" kind of way, as certain older works have explicitly put those words onto the page to portray a very narrow, singular devotion. The characters cease to exist the moment a story ends, and unless the creator openly explores what happens after the breakup, we can't really speculate whether that ex-hetero character is now open to dating men or not.
To be honest, I'm reluctant to approach fiction simply through the lens of "How much of it exists in real life," but even if you wanted IRL correlation, there are people out there who, despite identifying as heterosexual, seek out gay sex for reasons of their own. Some BL explicitly mention discovering bisexuality and there are more and more openly queer characters in the genre. As I've talked about in a previous post of mine, people read very little BL and the ones that they read are the handful of extremely popular series, then they go around and base their whole opinion on a genre on these titles. They are loud, and the algorithm amplifies divisive takes. Then it looks as if everyone thinks that way.
Imagine believing every shonen series is like Naruto... It is no doubt an influential work, and you can trace the shonen staples in many works that come before or after it, but can you really say Gintama and Naruto are the same? Chainsaw Man? Promised Neverland? Or Marriagetoxin?
It is, again, important to keep in mind that BL in Japan is a genre that stemmed from shojo manga. You can, again, trace artistic sensibilities that are adopted — paneling, screentones, structure, tropes, you name it. BL's approach to love is also reminiscent of the shojo series that focus on romance. There is, and always will be, a wish-fulfillment side to BL, just like how there will be one to romantic shojo manga.
This fulfillment can be about a happy ending after hardship or about a world where two men can experience simple misunderstandings or run-of-the-mill interpersonal problems when getting together, instead of the crushing weight of heteronormativity and phobia. Or, it could be about extremely good-looking, kind, sweet, smart (or extremely evil, toxic, vile but hot) men that are either too good to be true, or you'd change countries if you were to come across one. Throw robots, beasts, and supernatural beings in the pot, and you have yourself a feast. The levels of this fulfillment vary as well. Some works are more grounded, while others are unrealistically sweet or unbearably kinky. Either way, it's so engaging, fun, and compelling to read all kinds of characters to find each other and fall in love and rearrange each other's guts in all kinds of ways!
I personally consider BL to be queer, not only because it focuses on two men, but also because we don't need fiction to spell things out for us. Simply engaging with fictional works creates the possibility of change, and it's no coincidence that countless people rethink/discover their own sexuality and/or gender through BL. I also suggest you check out Cathy's answer to an anon on subtext/canon BL. I'm not touching upon its transformative power for cishet women and their relationship with patriarchy since your message was about queerness.
Now that these are out of the way, I'll mention other key points that I don't often see taken into consideration.
Industry
Commercial BL, and comics in general, are an art form that is strongly tied to the publishing industry. What that means is that what gets published (both in and outside of Japan) is heavily shaped by the companies and, as an extension, fans. Each company, platform, and manga magazine has its own identity and style, and has a say in which series gets a bigger cut from the marketing budget. Fans are getting more and more reactionary, and with the purity culture that's infested the English-speaking fandom (can only speak for this fandom, as idk what the situation is like in others), the works that publishers dare to license are gradually getting sanitized. The overall far-right tendency around the world we've been experiencing over the past couple of years has been detrimental. Barely anyone takes any risks anymore, and that includes not taking risks in terms of art style or diverse works as well.
I highly suggest you check out Cream's blog post on Tsuki to Pieta. It's not like diverse works don't exist, or there aren't any artists who are interested in delving deeper. Sometimes, publishers don't take the risk or can't figure out how to frame a work in a neatly packaged, appealing way, and eventually, they reject said work. Other times, they don't promote certain works as much and they fly under the radar. I know I'm pretty biased about Dal Hyeonji's Love for Sale, to give you an example, but even disregarding the love I have for it, it's an excellent character study! Or you tell me why people aren't going crazy over Takahashi Hidebu's Stigmata! I'm not approving publishers' behavior, but that's how commercial publishing works and a lot depends on where they will allocate their resources and time. What is being read, what is popular, and what gets published is like a cycle that feeds each other. I also want to finish this by mentioning Breeze's blog as a BL artist. There are lots of interesting bits and experiences that we readers may not know much about on the creation side, but they break it down in a fun-to-read manner!
Form and style
This is obviously tied to the industry side as well, but when we are talking about commercial BL, almost all series (unless you're a big name or you're serializing your work in a digital magazine and accept that your work may not get printed physically) are single-volume stories. Saying that it doesn't allow much space for exploration or delving deeper would be a misleading remark, but it does play a role.
Just like in literature, different forms require different stylistic approaches. You can't approach writing a short story in the same way as you would a novel. So obviously, you'd have to find a way to tell the story you want, according to the space you're given. A one-shot has to be structurally and tonally different from a single-volume or a several-volume work. It's true that not many are great at short-form storytelling and instead opt for incorporating the standard beats within a volume, at times disregarding how cramped it reads or how superficial the themes can become.
It is also true that not everything has to be about identity and one's struggle with normativity. This doesn't make a work objectively "less valuable" or "less queer". It is, I guess, a balancing act. You can't drown in your pain and struggle day in and day out, but you can't completely turn away from it either. And I wholeheartedly think BL, GL, and LGBTQ+ comics together cover everything I might want and more from a genre! These three don't work against each other, but complement one another. And together, they paint a fuller picture.
Artist preference
Since we can't form an argument over speculation, we don't really take this into consideration but... sometimes you just want to create something simple and sweet, no matter how overdone it is, and regardless of readers' expectations! One fic I've written that's super dear to me came out of me wanting to write something extremely cringy and melodramatic, like the daytime soap operas you see on TV. Of course, since I'm the creator, the fic ends up being "my version" of a cringy soap opera, but from a reader's point of view, it might be just another random, sappy, "mid" fic.
The same goes for any creator. Not every work has to leave a mark or aim to be exceptional or deep. Not every artist's body of work is diverse, either. Sally Rooney has an interesting take on this (she was so patient with this awful interviewer, stronger than I could ever be tbh). From the BL perspective, look at Furuya Nagisa's works; they keep returning to the very same themes and characteristics, to the point that it's sometimes hard to tell one work from the other. Are they doing it because they know it will sell? Or because, as an artist, they find themselves wanting to keep circling the same spot? Who knows! But it is an important parameter in the equation.
Reader/fan assumptions
I will talk about two assumptions here that I notice are being made both by the fans and the antis.
First is the assumption that the type of work one wants to read has to dominate the market and just magically fall into one's lap. No. You have to dig and swim neck deep into the sea, acquire your own taste, find your own favorites, and make friends who can introduce you to what you might be missing out on. You have to jump headfirst into series you have no idea about and get a taste for yourself. That is the only way to survive and get past the surface-level popular stuff that may or may not be okay at best. The worst that can happen is you'll stumble into something that's not for you, and you'll swim away. Easy as that.
I came across a dead dove fic the other way and started reading it out of curiosity. I don't seek out dead dove. I'm a pretty mild reader compared to some, but I consider myself to be immune to pretty much everything. The fic turned out to be much... more than I could ever imagine it to be, for lack of a better word. And I was just like, 3 paragraphs into it, mind you. I closed the tab and went on with my life. The mental image persisted for a while, but you know what? I survived. And discovered a boundary that I didn't know was there. Only through encounters like this one can one discover what's good or right for them, and this is why fiction is irreplaceable for me. It allows me to approach the world from a safe distance and helps me discover ideas, circumstances, or sides of me that I didn't know about before. You just have to keep in mind that your boundary or taste is not, cannot be the norm, and reading is not activism.
The second assumption is that BL is a silly genre. It is silly and whimsical at times, sure. That's the spirit of BL. But anything that focuses on romance is immediately put into the "not worth pondering on" box. Emotions are silly! Interpersonal relationships are silly! It's simply about, for example, two university students in the same club, and they fall in love. What kind of "deep thought" can you extract from that?
That's where people are wrong again. I have so many mutuals who write extensively on BL, both specifically on works themselves, BL as a genre, and discourse similar to the questions you asked me. Let me tell you, there aren't enough people who do this!! Some of them I linked above, but you can visit the directory Cream kindly put together, and discover long and short-form writing that people are consistently putting out. I argue it's much better than reading simplified, snappy takes on Twitter!
I apologize that the answer got lengthy, but I can't give you a simple yes or no answer because it depends on so many parameters! And sometimes the same parameter can be regarded as good or bad depending on the context. But the tl;dr of it is industry, trends and real-life politics heavily affect the works created and licensed, and BL is a very diverse and fulfilling genre. However, it's up to the reader to put in the effort and discover not-so-hidden gems, while meeting other fans who read as diversly and engage with the genre critically AND whimsically!
Please check my Intro to the Traveling Editorial Department post before reading this entry for context! I’ve been wanting to get some feedba
Part 2 of a double blog post update~
I talk about the reviews I got on my BL doujinshi from actual BL manga editors from publishers Homesha and Takeshobo .
It was super helpful and a great learning experience!
In my previous blogpost, I talked about ways to connect with manga editors. This blogpost is about the most direct way to do this – mochikom
New Blogpost is Up!
Last weekend, I visited The Traveling Editorial Department at a doujinshi convention. It's where you can submit your work to manga editors and get a 1-on-1 critique for free. I explain the preparation and process of doing this in my post
Thanks to @allthefujoshiunite and @blrecs, I too wanted to join in making a BL blog and now hope to continue spreading the blog agenda. I wrote a bit this year, but with school not as much as I would have liked.
But anyways, I thought having a webring would be a neat idea! However I lack the skills to do so and decided a landing page with a bunch of blogs will be sufficient for now LOL. And that's how 801 Blogs was born! Tbh I may change the site title later but for now it is what it is. (801 = yaoi btw)
A directory of BL blogs!
I include it on the site, but if you have a blog you'd like to add to the directory, please fill out this form :D Your blog doesn't have to be 100% BL!
Are you a blogger who writes about BL? Come join 801 Writings (name pending lol), a BL blog directory~
For questions @ me @creamy_choux or s
Lastly, recommend today's post from @allthefujoshiunite!!! Honestly the reason I started working on the directory today ahhaha (And not just to procrastinate on my finals.......)
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Happy New Year! I made a list of Tokyo and Osaka Events that will have BL doujinshi this year.Sorry I did not add events in other cities bec
New blogpost is up about 2026 Doujinshi Event List for BL fans~ If you're planning a Japan trip sometime this year, wanting to participate in an event, or keeping an eye on online doujin sales- this is bound to be helpful!
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