documenting the BL fan experience
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…
BL can be easy to find. But not in English. Online comic sites like Lehzin and Tappytoon toon are making it easier as they offer translations. But an annoying payment system makes it hard to enjoy. Pirating has led to publishers realizing there’s an audience.…
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 or tankobons, it’s very hard to find or order things to my country, although I do believe that’s a subjective opinion with regards to my country in particular.
— 20, She/Her, India
[tankobon (単行本, “independent/standalone book”) is the Japanese word for a book that is not part of a series.]
Fandom is still mostly on the internet, we don’t really meet except for friends who I knew before and we discovered we both liked BL. When I was living in France I would go to conventions, expos or in cafes to meet friends who liked…
I liked how I was able to perceive sweetness, romance, and libido in a more positive light, that I was able to unabashedly “squee” over BL without any of the hangups, as opposed to consuming straight/HL content. — 29, She/Her, Philippines
When I first started, it was mostly stuff available only in Japanese, and nowadays there’s a lot of translations, and also different source material. Also I have a lot of friends in the world that make fanmade stuff, so it’s cool we can connect by that.
— 27, She/Her, Chile
My first experience with a “boy x boy” pairing was Kunzite and Zoisite in Sailor Moon. I started watching Sailor Moon (the DiC/USA network version) in 1996, and became obsessed with it. The internet was very young at this point, and the “World Wide Web”…
I was watching prince of tennis and I used to come across a lot of m/m fanwork, and the first pair I ever liked was the Silver Pair (Choutarou/Shishido). Some explit work was too much for me as I was young at the time. And…
I was never a fan of romance but in high school decided to give popular shojo anime a chance, which gave me more disappointment than anything. At that time BL was as popular as ever so I tried one day reading a random BL manga without any high expectations at all, and surprisingly enough I actually liked it. Since then I got hooked, as most of the time BL provides romance that’s really good and satisfying. Where I live is an extra homophobic place, which is why fans are divided into two groups: one consumes and loves BL totally but are against real life gays, and the other group just chills liking BL as well as supporting LGBT people.
— 22, She/Her, Egypt
I was certainly open to explore my sexuality, as from my exposure to BL. Liking same sex isn’t bad, contrary to what Indonesian society taught me as a child. Interactions with fandom also helped me to navigate my boundaries, what am I comfortable with, what…
