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INTEREST: BL Manga Artists Share Recommendations as 'Commercial BL' Hashtag Trends on Twitter




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Tanteikingdomkey



Joined: 03 Sep 2008
Posts: 2345
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 1:19 am Reply with quote
can we get some general translations of what people actually said in their tweets maybe?
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Fenrin



Joined: 19 Dec 2015
Posts: 693
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 3:30 am Reply with quote
If the purpose of the tag is to recommend BL that you love, I think it becomes kind of moot if BL mangaka are just using it to plug their own stories. They should be promoting other people's works instead.

"Commercial BL" seems like a very generalized tag, as you'll likely get a large disparity among the recommendations, but I suppose the community is still niche enough that it could use this kind of publicity to attract new readers.
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Super_M



Joined: 08 May 2018
Posts: 201
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 4:43 am Reply with quote
Fenrin wrote:

"Commercial BL" seems like a very generalized tag, as you'll likely get a large disparity among the recommendations, but I suppose the community is still niche enough that it could use this kind of publicity to attract new readers.


In my opinion BL manga don't even try become more mainstream. I mean BL focus almost exclusively at romance and sex. When I look at this tag I felt like I browse gay pornhub. There is reason why fujosh create doujin of shonen series way more than BL manga, becouse shonen have much more variety story, characters and it don't feel like cheap masturbation material unless are ecchi, harem. Someone even known some BL manga with broad appeal like shonen Kimetsu or Dr. Stone?
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Fenrin



Joined: 19 Dec 2015
Posts: 693
Location: SoCal
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 5:27 am Reply with quote
Super_M wrote:
Someone even known some BL manga with broad appeal like shonen Kimetsu or Dr. Stone?

Not a shonen, but I heard 'Given' from this season is really good and doesn't play all the usual bl stereotypes, haven't seen it yet though.

I agree that BL really should branch out a bit and dabble in other genres (I've been dying for more fantasy/mystery plotlines) as the community has begun to feel quite stale and repetitive, but much the same could be said about shonen anime. Many shonen protagonists have love interests but hardly ever expand or elaborate on the relationship, or wait until 100 episodes have passed and the show is ending, because the romance is only a subplot and not that relevant to the story. The opposite goes for BL.
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poisondusk



Joined: 08 Aug 2006
Posts: 60
Location: Brighton, UK
PostPosted: Sun Sep 22, 2019 12:17 pm Reply with quote
Super_M wrote:
Someone even known some BL manga with broad appeal like shonen Kimetsu or Dr. Stone?


Kimetsu no Yaiba has a lot of different elements that allow it to appeal to a variety of people who can all get something different out of it. Character drama and tragedy, cool action scenes, mysteries to answer, enemies to fight etc.

BL manga (as in, manga running in BL magazines) is very focused on romance. Even where you have the trappings of a unique setting, or a mystery or politics, the point of the story is ultimately for the main character(s) and their love interest(s) to get together. Romance in general isn't really meant to have broad appeal. It may have a large audience, but they're all there for one thing - the romance. So while you may get the occasional BL series that picks up a wider audience due to the sheer quality of the writing, like this season's Given, it's never going to have broad appeal as a genre.

As for why we don't have many fantasy/action/sci-fi etc. with gay/bi lead characters yet, it's for the same reason we don't see it much in western shows either. The people with the money don't want to take the risk because they think it will put off their (straight) target audience compared to something with straight characters. So a creator with a work like this is in the awkward position of not having enough gay romance to fit into a BL magazine, but too much to easily fit into a mainstream one.
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