Forum - View topicYaoi / Shounen Ai Recommendation Thread.
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Keichitsu0305
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Yuri / Shoujo Ai Recommendation thread
Hentai / Erotica Recommendation from 2006 **Note** Due to severe lack of quality official yaoi/shounen-ai anime, I've made the executive decision to expand this thread into Boy Love Canon + Fanon. Basically, this will include any animated series,OVA, or film that features prominent amount of BL subtext that have been noticed by the fujoshi/fundashi community esp. in terms of fanfic, fan art, AMVs, and erotic doujinshi. Must name the characters, animated series, and example why this "pair" should be recommended such as a clip or episode number. Absolutely no flame/ship wars otherwise I will notify the Moderators; let's be civil folks! *note* Apparently calling Boy Love/BL manga in Japan "Yaoi" is considered archaic but, for the sake of simplicity, I'll use the term. Wiki article and TV Tropes. Canon link and Shipping link. Shounen-Ai: Translated into "young boy love", much like Shoujo-Ai these series are more focused on the emotional love stories than explicit sexual relationships. Yaoi: Romantic stories primarily focused on male characters, usually adult or legally aged men, partaking in a sexual relationship of some form. Bara "Rose": Considered offensive term for erotic manga created by homosexual men directly for homosexual men, Bara anime is non-existent. Their are plenty of erotic doujinshi that parody the cliche Bara style or are created by well-known Bara artists themselves but, no Japansese animation studio has ever created such an series. Legend of the Blue Wolves sort of reminisces the Bara style but, I consider it Yaoi title. *shrugs* Few canon Boy Love anime I highly recommend: Ai no Kusabi (1992) 2 part OVA; (2012) the cancelled 4 part OVA; first OVA licensed by Media Blasters while the second remains unlicensed; neither are streaming legally The most ambitious Boy Love anime I've ever seen, this science fiction thriller explores classicism in a post-apocalyptic setting along with some kinky SM "master and pet" relationship. The seme X uke dynamic doesn't work here as both Rikki and his "owner" Iason are so Alpha male that only the 'weakest' male character is classified as Furniture. For those who remember Justin's Buried Treasure article way back in 2008, then the plot doesn't need a second mention. What makes Ai no Kusabi leagues above any other yaoi that has sexual abuse for shock value is that the story never feels bogged down by petty issues so common in BL manga. Take away the smut (although sexual relations actually matters as it acts as sign of power) and you have a provocative sci-fi featuring commentary on masculinity, what survival means based on your social-economic and (subtly) racial class, and so much more. FAKE (1998) formerly licensed by Media Blasters; not legally streaming Personally, its better to just read the manga since the OVA starts in volume two when the main couple are on vacation. In short, this is what happens if partner in buddy cop shows fell in love with each other. Dee, the hot tempered loose cannon, and his lover Ryu, the by-the-book rookie who has to reign in his partner, are in England but, crime never rest and the duo must find the murderer before he strikes again. Awkwardly, the OVA makes more sense in English than in Japanese (actually the whole manga since it takes place in NYC). Few odd moments here and there yet, one of the rare BL series that doesn't glorify sexual abuse and has realistic characters. Gravitation (1999) 2 part OVA (2003) 13 episodes; Nozomi Entertainment; streaming on Nozomi's official YouTube channel Alternative adaptation of Maki Murakami's 1996 (geez I feel OLD) manga, the love story of rising pop star Shinichi and his cold lover Yuki/Eiri, a popular novelist has catchy electro-pop songs, wacky comedy, and angst out the wazoo. Almost every BL fan has heard of this series. I will warn that Studio DEEN's animation has not held up and both Yuki's backstory and Shinchi's 'incident' remains the lowest parts of the series but, still worth watching even now although the manga is more comedic. The uber Hardcore doujinshi series, proudly created by Maki herself, are infamously the most smutty "fan" comic you'll ever read. 
Kaze to Ki no Uta (1987) Unlicensed; not legally streaming An OVA one-shot adapting shoujo manga pioneer Keiko Takemiya's 1970s shounen-ai manga. The story takes place in the 19th century at a French boarding house where Serge, the son of an aristocrat and Roma woman, is roommates with the promiscuous Gilbert. The drama is so thick and heavy, I want to cut it with a knife. Not the most progressive look on all-boys schools but, I adore all of the angst Gilbert has to deal with, the tenacity of Serge trying to shine light on such a dower person, and the art looks lovely (depending where you watch it). Love Stage!! (2014) 10 episodes + OVA; Sentai Filmworks; streaming on Crunchyroll Finally, a Boy Love anime about a hardcore otaku! Izumi is adorably nerdy whenever he talks about his favorite magical girl Lala Lulu and conducts 'research' on sex with cheesy BL manga. For the many, many, MANY cold-heart or abuse lovers, Ryouma's dorky approach to wooing Izumi is a welcome change of pace. The series remains upbeat and actually punishes anyone attempting to force sex out of Izumi. Viz's imprint SuBLime has the manga for American fans who can't wait to see Izumi crossdress as popular characters. No. 6 (2011) 11 episodes; Sentai Filmworks; streaming on Crunchyroll While this series along with Antique Bakery wouldn't be considered a shounen-ai among some fans, I consider No. 6 a rare BL anime series that hails from a fantastic animation studio, BONES, and not some lower level production company. Fairly basic false Utopian science-fiction story with tiny details that vary on each version. The book, anime, and manga adaptions all start and end the same but, the small details such as number of villains, spoiler[Shion's mother Karen's role in the building of the city], and the origins of Nezumi (or just Rat in English) and so on will change. While Shion and Nezumi start as platonic partners and graciously move into romance, the hidden Stockholm Syndrome implications does exist. Senstive Pornograph (2004) 2 part OVA; Media Blasters; not legally streaming Oh yeah~ Guilty pleasure time. 
Two distinct "stories" about two "couples" and... honestly who flippin' cares? It's porn; pure smut from beginning to end with some amount of dialogue that doesn't consist of moans. I remember watching this clip from AMV Hell at Katsucon on a friend's laptop and needed to know where it came from. Trivia time: the original manga artist, Ashika Sakura, also created the ecchi action series Sekirei so, clearly she knows how to appeal to both sides of the coin. 
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi (2011) 12 episode Season one & 12 episode Season two; (2014) "film"; unlicensed; streaming on Crunchyroll More so than Junjo Romantica (which only has one "healthy" couple IMO), the couples in Sekai-ichi have slightly more believable relationships. Erotica (Shouta the manga editor and Kou the book seller) and Trifecta (Takafumi the salesman and Zen the Editor in Chief) are the best couples and have little to no abuse in their relationships. One of the rare BL anime where there's a canonically gay man (Shouta) and a same-sex parental couple. The other couples start to decline around season 2 but, still recommend for those who couldn't get through Junjo Romantica. Winter Cicada/Fuyu no Semi (2007) 3 part OVA Loose alternative adaption of Youka Nitta's Embracing Love manga (think of it as an AU fanfic for the main couple only better than it sounds), the story takes place during the Bakumatsu (or End of the Shougunate). In Embracing Love, the main couple are both professional porn stars who end up working in a gay erotic film. Here, the duo are from rivaling clans. Touma is for the inclusion of Western society while Keiichirou's clan is against it. The series is such a wonderfully short period piece so no spoilers for those who haven't seen it. Trivia Time: Surprisingly, the OVA was on the Logo channel back in 2008. Last edited by Keichitsu0305 on Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:04 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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The thing with BL is that, unlike Yuri, it doesn't really get many anime adaptations. As far as full cour series with explicit BL (and with explicit I don't mean sex scenes, but an actual male-male relationship being depicted), I can only think of Junjou Romantica (which at this point I wouldn't recommend at all because the main pair is horribly toxic), Sekaiichi Hatsukoi (which, as you say, has two good couples -although Trifecta is only featured in a honestly quite disatisfying movie- one problematic one -Nostalgia- and one that's completely unacceptable -Domestica), Gravitation, Loveless, No. 6, Sukisho, Dramatical Murder (which I would NOT recommend to anyone, honestly) and Love Stage. If you count shows that don't have a BL focus but feature BL pairs you can include a couple of CLAMP series like Card Captor Sakura (although the Touya/Yukito relationship was a lot less explicit in the anime) and X. There are maybe a couple more series that I haven't watched, but that's pretty much it. We're talking about barely a dozen full-cour BL animes. Compared to the much longer list in the Yuri thread, the number is dismissable at best.
There are also a couple dozen OVAs, usually softcore porn. Off the top of my head, Haru wo Daite Ita/Embracing Love, the original from which Winter Cicadas was the spinoff, but it's only 2 OVAs for a 20 volume story, Tight Rope, Seikimatsu Darling and Kirepapa. And most of these OVAs and series have tragic budgets at best. I don't see this thread getting too long unless we start counting series with BL undertones -07 Ghost, Makai Ouji, K project, name your sports anime-, but I think that would defeat the purpose of the list. |
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Lili-Hime
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YAY!!! Thank you for making this thread!
 How do you feel about adding things like Black Butler or Pandora Hearts... where things may not be cannon but implied? I almost even feel like Evangelion 3.0 should get a mention but that's just me.
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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^I don't know about the OP, but I personally would oppose that idea. I think having a list of explicitly BL titles could be very useful considering the genre is so underrepresented in anime. Adding "implied" series would only artificially elongate the list. Besides, I think Kuroshitsuji and Pandora Hearts -much as I love SebaCiel and GilOz- are terrible examples for "implied" pairings, because the only reason people think the pairings are implied is because the shippers want them to be
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Merida
 Posts: 1945 |
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Mirage of Blaze It features bishounen, eternal love (reincarnation!), supernatural powers, Japanese history and the incredibly sexy voice of Hayami Shou - what more could you want?
Granted, it looks a bit outdated by now and there isn't any real smut, but it will always have a special place in my heart as one of my first encounters with BL/shounen-ai. |
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Keichitsu0305
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No, thank you for having the Yuri/shoujo ai list! I've seen all but 5 shows on that thread so, I figured "Hey, there's at least 5 BL anime that aren't total trash~" *snip* After others star recommending "non-canon" anime, I will also take part. Can't f**king wait for the Dōkyūsei film. *Q*
Yeah, and even when making this list I had to note there are some disturbing content among even the good ones. What I love/feel sting of jealousy is that Girl Love anime have visionaries like Kunihiko Ikuhara with Revolutionary Girl Utena and the very divisive Yuri Kuma Arashi that dismantle but rebuild the genre and took stories about girls loving other girls into fresh territory. Still need more positive women loving women anime though. Aside from most hentai, the most trashy yuri anime I've ever seen was Sakura Trick and even that has less creepy undertone than Gravitation sadly. Also, the small amount of "full length" 12/13 episode series only limits whatever good content there is while most of the OVA have such bottom of the barrel animation it makes me so glad that at least one BL anime, No. 6, came from a well-respected studio. Last edited by Keichitsu0305 on Mon Aug 24, 2015 7:05 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Lili-Hime
Posts: 569 |
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No problem! I'm thankful for this as I like yaoi but have mostly stuck to fanfics and doujinshi as the shows seem a bit more obscure, aside from implied things as you mentioned. Yuri is what I relate to best an I've seen the most of so I'm glad I can be a help!
Thank God for Ikuhara! I agree it seems yaoi has got the manga catergory locked down, but yuri gets more anime, adaptation or otherwise... and yuri does have a few shows that take the subject more seriously than just being fanservice. It's weirdly kind of the reverse in western media where we have shows and movies that take gay men more seriously but gay women are included usually as eye candy for the male gaze. |
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nobahn
 Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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I am sanctioning this as an approved recommendation thread. However, please keep in mind that that recommendations should be limited to explicit -- not implied -- BL relationships.
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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I don't want to be annoying, especially since nobahn already specified that this should stick to explicitly BL series, but I really want to insist that this "change" you added to the OP is a terrible idea and I strongly suggest you remove it. If we're really going to inflate the list/recommendations with things with "subtext" and anime with a large fujoshi fanbase you might as well add every anime out there, from Free to Psycho Pass to Naruto, and that really defeats the purpose of a legit BL recommendation thread. |
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geishageek
 Posts: 571 Location: Pleasant Valley, NY |
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I also agree with CrowLia that allowing subtext is a bad idea. Sure the numbers of actual BL anime and OVA's do not add up into the 100's, but for people to do enjoy BL, like myself, I would rather this stay BL series only and not slashable series, as loading the thread up with implied BL will make it almost impossible to find real BL recommendations. I do not want to have to wade through several pages of slash, just to see what someone has to say about a real BL title.
Now on to two recommendations .... I recommend Sensative Pornigraph, an OVA featuring two short stories, with the first being about two manga writers/artists with a ten year age difference, Seiji Yamada and Sono Hanasaki and their intimate love life and problems, and second about the strange incidents that happen to pet-sitter Ueno when he goes to take care of a pet rabbit named Aki, who he finds out is actually a human man. This was released in NA back in the day, uncensored, and is actually one of the more explicit BL to be made. The manga was available in NA from DMP's 801 imprint, but is now sadly OOP I would also recommend A Foreign Love Affair, a 2 episode OVA, about a young leader of the Ōmi group, Ranmaru, who was being forced to marry Kaoru, the daughter from another group. The couple went to Italy, and had their wedding on a ship. However, neither of them actually liked the marriage, and Ranmaru was kicked out by his newlywed wife Kaoru on their first night. Al (Alberto), an Italian man on the ship, took an interest in Ranmaru, and the story revolves around the romance between the two men, Ranmaru and Al. Turns out Al is spoiler[ the captain of the ship.] While the production values were not great, being done by studio PrimeTime, who produced other B grade BL OVA's (of very notable manga titles) around the same time, it has an interesting story to tell. Sadly it was never released in NA. The manga was available in NA from DMP's 801 imprint, but is also sadly OOP. |
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DuskyPredator
 Posts: 15457 Location: Brisbane, Australia |
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I am totally adding Buddy Complex. Now the show might not have any obvious BL or yaoi situations, it even has a likely female love interest, but there is an unmistakable underlying theme. One thing that had me chuckling with it were some choice of words that the series really liked making it feel like BL.
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Night fox
 Posts: 561 Location: Sweden |
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Wouldn't two separate lists solve that problem? One for canon BL, followed by one for subtext. If you want nothing to do with the second list, it's easily dismissable. There's no point in making a big deal out of such a small issue. I don't know if you've come across the Yuri List, but that site ranked yuri titles according to relevance, from central to the plot to pure fanservice. How about doing the same for BL titles in this thread? |
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geishageek
Posts: 571 Location: Pleasant Valley, NY |
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I took a look at that this morning and the Yuri list is broken down by Yuri and Shoujo-Ai titles. Both are well within the "yuri" genre as a whole
Slashable titles are not BL, just shows shippers use to fuel their pairings. You can read BL subtext is almost any show that has more than one male character. Any "bromance" as people like to call them nowadays can be construed to be BL in the eyes of people who want to see it. Id rather see a smaller listing of actual BL titles that people recommend, then seeing posts stating that Naruto is BL, or Get Backers is BL because the main characters are "close friends and I can totally see them having a romance". |
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CrowLia
Posts: 5504 Location: Mexico |
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I'm in full agreement with geishageek, even as a separate effort, making a list of "slashable" anime is a pointless waste of time because pretty much any anime with two male characters is slashable. Heck, you could add Ore Monogatari to the list on the terms of Suna's really bromantic relationship with Takeo. Or Yamada-kun and the 7 witches, seeing how the protagonist kisses at least two other male characters in the series. Or Arslan Senki, have you seen the vibes between Narsus and Daryun? Literally anything is slashable.
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nobahn
Subscriber Posts: 5120 |
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Last edited by nobahn on Wed Aug 26, 2015 10:47 am; edited 1 time in total |
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