#i basically parodied the seme/uke dynamic

[depths-of-misery]

yaoified my ocs

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

So i used to read BL alot in middleschool and early highschool but I stopped by the time I got into college. But I found a few good ones and started getting back into it. And based on the ones I recently read I noticed alot of differences compared to how BL used to be. Then again Im alot more picky now. So I was wondering have you noticed how BL as a genre has changed ? Like what new tropes or types of stories are there now? Or how has the depiction of BL type stories changed over the past7 yrs?

OOOooOOooo this is a good question that I’m probably not qualified to talkabout but FUCK IT!

My introduction to BL was back in the late 90s with Fake and Gravitation so myhigh school vs. now is much wider than 7 years.  I’ll confess I feel as ifit’s hard to track differences in such a short period of time so I’m going withmy longer track record. Tracking trends is especially difficult for me becausethroughout my time running this blog I have been reading stuff in no particularorder.

However I’m going to bullshit out for you trends I’ve noticed in the decadespan.  Is the decade tracking of trendsnonsense? It is, but I need a basic metric to go by.

I think art styles are the easiest things to notice but I’m going to focuson the writing.

90s

While BL was a thing before the 90s, I get the impression that it started totake off in this time period.  I wouldsay that the 90s had kinda an upswing in over-the-top, frivolous,poorly-written, zany styled manga that would typically feature high schoolers.Manga/animes like Gravitation, Eerie Queerie, and Bad Teacher Equation.

Yet on the other end of the spectrum were the melancholy, over-wrought,trying-so-hard-to-be-dark dramas featuring ~professional~ adult men.  Theysometimes took themselves super seriously.  I speak of titles like Mysexual harassment, Fish in the trap, Fumji Orchestra, Legend of the Bluewolves, and Space Between (anime specifically.)  Back then the antagonistswere mostly “worst rapists“ or unhinged, jealous harpies.  Without fail any woman who popped up was goingto be an 1-d antagonist.  Lots ofmisogyny there! Oh boy, lots!

Angels were also a thing? For reasons?

the 00s

I noticed in this time period that the trend for cross-dressing andover-the-top feminity in ukes was dying down in the genre.  While the genre has hardly turned tohard-bodied studs, there is more of an emphasis on boyish.  There used to be a lot more starklyeffeminate/androgynous ukes who (for whatever reason) cannot fathom why anybodywould mistake their traits for anything other than masculinity at its finest.(The reason is feeding placating the readers’ misogyny and/or love oftsunderes.)

There has also been a big rise in the Yakuza titles.  Now I can recall a few Yaoi Yakuza (Yao-kuza?)stories from the 90s but it has gotten bigger and stories now more focus on theYakuza aspect rather than it being a side-plot. Yet I will say the Yakuzatitles typically were not dark.

I would also say that titles were getting more self-aware? After theover-the-top drama of the 90s BL,

the 10s

I feel like recently there are two opposite dichotomies here too.

I feel like on one hand we have the more old-school style yaoi.  Thatbeing slice-of-life with obvious seme/uke, lots of rape, tsunderes for miles,cutesy schmaltz mixed in with abusive relationships.  Yanno the ones Ispeak, Purehearted Romance, Don’t be cruel, Private Tutor, and etc. 

Yet on the other side we have things going in experimental directions.  We can thank fanfiction for the increasingpopularity of Omegaverse. There is also some self-aware parodying of the BLgenre like with His Favorite.  

We can thank ML for making muscles and masculinity more of a thing in BL.  You more regularly get the blend of skinny +toned, like with Ogertsu Tanaka, and sometimes you get full grown beef-cakelike with Sakira’s stuff.  There’s alsomore acceptance that bottoms can have muscles.

One of the big things being played around with is the idea of slutty bottomswith agency.  That gives us titles Likethe Beast, Twittering birds, Yatamomo, and most recently Jealousy.  However this sometimes goes in the oppositeextreme with the rise in manga with rapist ukes.  While seme/uke dynamic is still pretty strongI would say it’s weakening.  There aremore couples who are the same size and no obvious seme/uke differentiating inthe physical features.  Sometimes they’lleven subvert who you’d predict to be the top.

[cherry-valentine]

Summer 2017 Anime Season: What I’m Watching:

Konbini Kareshi is a slice of life high school romance that seems to focus more on the male perspective. It prominently features two couples but it looks like it might touch on more couples as well. The show is cute and sweet and has a “feel good” vibe. The drama never gets too serious (so far) but there’s enough conflict to keep you interested. The art and music are pleasant enough. It’s not my favorite of the season, but it’s just cute enough to stay on my watch list.

Dive!! is a show I had high hopes for. Another swimming anime animated by a studio with a great track record? It sounds like a guaranteed hit. But Dive!! is no Free! and that becomes clear by the end of the first episode. Dive!! looks great, has interesting character designs, and decent animation. The problem is that it seemingly fails to realize what makes sports anime so fun. We don’t watch sports anime for the actual sports. We watch it because we become invested in the characters and we want to see them win. And we become invested in the characters through watching their lives, in and out of the sport. Dive!! takes itself way too seriously, focusing almost entirely on the sport of diving and spending very little time developing the characters. I’ve watched every episode so far and I honestly can’t name a single character in the show. I don’t feel like I know any of them. They barely interact with each other at all, so we don’t get the usual team dynamics of sports anime. There’s very little humor as well. Despite all this, I’m still watching the show because I feel like it has potential. The last couple of episodes have tried to throw in some drama for the protagonist outside the sport, and at least one character has a very interesting back story that would be great if it were fleshed out. Dive!! can still be a good show, if the writers can just figure out how to let the audience connect with these characters.

Chronos Rulers is a fairly generic action fantasy anime. There’s nothing new to see here as we follow two attractive male protagonists as they travel around fighting enemies while searching for something important to them. Already sounds familiar, right? But being familiar isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and Chronos Rulers is an entertaining series with a few interesting ideas (the relationship between the two male leads, as revealed at the end of episode one, is genuinely surprising and the concept of using time as a weapon is, if not completely original, at least presented in a fun and fresh way). The character designs are sleek and stylish and the battle scenes are fantastic. It’s pretty clear that they decided to use the whole animation budget on the action scenes because the non-action scenes look pretty shabby by comparison. Still, given the genre of the series, this was probably a good decision. Chronos Rulers will never be a favorite, but it’s definitely a fun watch.

Shoukoku no Altair is like a more realistic and serious Magi. It’s set in and around a fictional desert nation with vague Arabian undertones and inexplicably stars a young blonde man. But instead of well-timed comedy and magic, we get political intrigue and a hero who relies on his wits much more than his physical capabilities. It’s an interesting setup, as the hero legitimately wants to avoid conflict at all cost and his goal in nearly every situation is de-escalation. The political aspects are made compelling by the way the show zeroes in on individual characters and how the various shifts in power affect them personally. The series also looks great and has good music. I can’t spell or pronounce any of the main characters’ names, but it’s still a solid show.

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan is one of my favorites this season, for one primary reason: the show neither glorifies nor vilifies the Catholic religion which features so prominently in the story. The series takes a fairly neutral stance on religion itself, which is refreshing. The two main characters are priests, and present a positive view of Catholicism, but at the same time, the show doesn’t shy away from portraying negative aspects as well. For example, there’s probably one major negative thing that comes to mind when you think of Catholic priests, right? Yes, this series goes there. It also makes the concept of miracles, and whether they exist or not, the defining plot point of the show. It’s all very interesting stuff, helped by the gorgeous art (the backgrounds are amazing) and the likable leads, Roberto and Hiraga. I also admired the guts it took to start the series with a multi-episode arc in an age where most anime open with a self-contained episode to introduce us to the setting and characters. At its core, this show is a mystery/thriller, and has enough creepy moments to make it good Halloween viewing, so keep that in mind for this fall. It also seems like it would lend itself well to marathon watching. High on my watch list.

Ballroom e Youkoso is very entertaining, in spite of or perhaps because of some flat-out weirdness. I have to say this first: The intense looks on the characters’ faces while they’re dancing are absolutely hilarious. They’re bizarre as hell, but still hilarious. It’s also hilarious that some of these characters look like they’re in their late 20‘s but are apparently fifteen. The female lead honestly looks waaaay too old for her supposed age. The exaggerated long-limbed and lanky figures add to this problem. Much of the anatomy and posing are downright impossible, but all this strangeness somehow adds to the show’s charm. The protagonist is, as per usual in shows like this, a likable, relatable underdog. Watching him grow through ballroom dancing is very satisfying. I honestly didn’t know ballroom dancing could be so much fun to watch, but I’ve learned that anime can make anything interesting if it’s done with the right mix of humor and tension. And this show has nailed that mix. Also, just gotta add, I would watch this show for the dresses alone. They're absolutely gorgeous and make me wanna cry rivers over the fact that I can't wear them.

Hitorijime My Hero is a BL series that caught my attention mainly by the fact that the protagonist is not the usual doe-eyed uke we see in shows like this (though there is an actual doe-eyed uke in the show, he’s a side character). Protagonist Setagawa is a pierced, bleached blonde delinquent trying to get his life back on track after separating from a bad group of guys, which automatically makes him a refreshing lead. He’s not naive. When the show’s lead seme (who does seem more like a traditional seme) toys with him, Seta is fully aware of it, and his reactions are more believable. This makes their relationship as a whole very interesting. The secondary relationship, between Seta’s best friend and a classmate, is more in line with the usual BL setup, and is unfortunately steeped in some of the worst BL tropes (manipulation and emotional blackmail galore). At least these negative tropes are presented in a more honest way in the main relationship, where the seme’s problematic tendencies are called out as being just that: problematic. Aside from that, the art is very nice, with very attractive character designs (Seta’s eyes are drawn in an usual way for a bishounen style but they give him personality). The music is also peppy and fun. Overall, it’s one of my favorites of the season.

Katsugeki/Touken Ranbu is basically a dream come true. A few seasons back, there was another Touken Ranbu anime and I talked about the fact that, after the first episode, I thought it was going to be my favorite of the season. The art was gorgeous (those outfits! those backgrounds! that generally fluid animation!) and the characters were likable. And the basic concept was really cool. Then the series went from an action fantasy series with awesome sword fights to a fluffy slice-of-life series about cute sword-boys doing laundry and opening butler cafes and going shopping. Like I said back then, it was cute and all, but I really wish it had stayed focused on the action elements because they were much more interesting. And now we have this anime, Katsugeki, and it’s pretty much everything I wanted from the first Touken Ranbu anime. The focus is squarely on the sword battles and the missions the characters go on to protect history from monstrous creatures. Yes, we get some humor and some silly hijinks but they are scattered lightly amongst the bloody battles. Katsugeki is awesome, and it’s at the very top of my watch list.

Cleanliness Boy Aoyama-kun is a comedy/parody series lightly disguised as a sports anime. You’d be forgiven for watching the first episode and dropping it, assuming it was a one-note series with not much to offer. But continue and watch episode two. I dare you watch the second half of the episode without cracking up. Aoyama-kun gives similar vibes to last year’s Handa-kun, as both feature a quiet protagonist seemingly obvlivious to the fact that he is surrounded by admirers who will sometimes go to extreme (and hilarious) lengths to help him. The major difference is that Handa wasn’t anywhere near as cool as everyone thought he was and assumed everyone hated him, whereas Aoyama is actually cool (even if he doesn’t know it) and is only vaguely aware that people like him. I think Handa-kun’s setup was more funny, but Aoyama-kun is still pretty good. The art is fine, with some nice comedic facial expressions, and the music is a good fit for the show. At its core, Aoyama-kun is a silly little show that is surprisingly entertaining if you give it a chance.