All the News and Reviews from Anime NYC 2026

Boys-Love Is Here To Stay

All things boys-love is here to stay (BL), omegaverse, and romantasy made their rounds during the final day of this year's Anime NYC. Rebecca Taylor of Inklore, Ingrid Lorenzi of Yen Press, and Lauren Hill of Seven Seas held a panel discussing the BL genre and its explosion in popularity over recent years. It wasn't enough for these three to cherish the stories they loved; they dived deep into what made them so revered in the first place.

The first topic at hand: why do readers stay? Rebecca Taylor mentioned that when she founded Inklore back in 2023, it was right after COVID, and the anime, manga, and web novel scenes were blowing up. She knew that her niche would never beat the big titles VIZ and Shonen Jump put out. That mattered very little to her and her audience. “I think there is an audience that is less concerned about what country of origin something comes from, or what format they find it in,” Taylor said. “What they want is particular kinds of stories that are emotionally indulgent but also emotionally intelligent. Ones with really opulent, beautiful art that are always around a relation of some kind.”

BL stories' international rise means the genre is no longer considered niche. But was it ever niche to begin with? Ingrid Lorenzi argued that BL was an “invisible” genre rather than a niche one. Meaning it was very much there and in plenty back in the early days of online fan fiction. Since a lot of BL appealed to queer audiences, fans either had to keep their adoration of it a secret, or forever be stigmatized as fujoshi trash. The zeitgeist has since shifted. “Just seeing it grow from the early 2000s to now has been insane,” Hill said. “Now people are just saying the word ‘yaoi’ out in public, and I'm like 'we're allowed to do that now?!'”

Now that webnovels have become more mainstream, more and more people are finding it impossible to put BL, romantasies, and the like down. Taylor made a point of discussing how she convinced her 41-year-old bachelor of a brother, a complete fiend for hardcore sci-fi novels, to check out the romantasy Fourth Wing. Similarly, Taylor mentioned that working in the comics industry for fifteen years led her from seeing people complain about published BL and romantasy stories to seeing people gushing over them with unfiltered joy and wonder.

“You actually do get to meet people that wouldn't have otherwise ever responded to our branding,” Taylor said. “I can't tell you how many times someone who I would never expect is not our demographic would come up and start flipping through under the oak tree and just be like, this is really beautiful. And I'm like, 'dude, you should get it!'”

BL, romantasy, yaoi, and omegaverse no longer being invisible genres leaves little room for casualness either. Taylor mentioned that fans cave stories so much that they're willing to create them for themselves and each other, and that showed the real depth and density to the fandom of these genres.

That being said, what are the classic tropes that keep fans coming back into the fold? Well, there are rivals to lovers, childhood best friends, villainess, cohabitation, and best of all, HOT DADS!! “I'm sure we have fans of Our Sunny Days in here?” Hill asked the crowd, who then immediately and enthusiastically applauded.

The panelists also predicted a fusion of Eastern and Western genres and stories emerging in future stories. Lauren Hill was quick to note that since omegaverse technically came to life thanks to Supernatural (a Western TV show!), seeing Western tropes blend into Eastern BL, romantasy, and omegaverse seems to be inevitable at this point. Taylor would ponder the possibilities: “Are you going to see a reincarnation story in a direct-market single-issue series? Are you going to see zombies? I think that will be fun to see how people play with the crossover.”

While zombies were on her mind, Taylor spoke of the intersection between horror and romance. “People think that horror is the opposite of romance. Incorrect. It is part of the same spectrum, and it's a different way to scratch the same itch. So I think there's a lot more connective tissue than people think there is.”

Towards the end of the panel, Taylor spoke about the ongoing globalization of BL stories as they start to bubble up in other countries. “ I'm excited to see where the next stories are going to come,” she said. “Are we going to get like Indian web comics? Are we going to get Mexican web comics? We just signed one from Costa Rica. We signed one from Mexico. We signed one from Norway. It's starting to come from everywhere. And I think that's really exciting.”