documenting the BL fan experience
I like soft romance as well as hardcore smut. I would like to see more realistic and romantic portrayals of m|m genre, by that I don’t mean just hide the dark side or anything. It should reflect the story the author is trying to show. …
I’ve learnt very very basic katakana, so if the guiding katakana is given in a BL comic, I am able to follow it, although it does take me some time to decipher it. —20, She/Her, India
My country seems to have some people who are now aware of the BL genre, some started reading it. Vicious commentary is everywhere. But I have found some people who read not only manga, but [BL] literature as well. I wouldn’t have realized people existed like this in real life if not for the internet. I managed to get much entertainment as well as many insights about this. It became a new genre of romance for me.
— 27, She/Her, Bangladesh
I’ll be frank. Illegally, BL is very easy to find. I’m not exactly a veteran, but neither am I a newbie, so I know what to search for and where to go when I need to find something online. However, in terms of hard copies…
When I first engaged with BL, I could only do so with a shared desktop and limited connectivity, so I never really had anybody to talk to regarding the manga and fanfiction I’ve read. It’s very, very different now. I have a lot of people…
Getting officially translated BL here is impossible, pirated is the only way. But thanks to some online sites I can pay for some webtoons.
— 27, She/Her, Bangladesh
My first experience with BL was a NaruSasu fanfic I stumbled across very accidentally when I clicked a link in the comments. There wasn’t any feeling of immediate disgust, because I just never had any experience with LGBTQ representation before this due to my parents…
