LGBTQ+ Manga for Pride Month: Part 1 – Yaoi

This week and for the next two Wednesdays, we’re welcoming Erica Friedman as a guest blogger. Join us every week for a curated list of recommended manga for Pride Month!

Part 1 – Yaoi

It’s Pride Month, and somewhere in between renewed activist rage and furiously demanding our space in the public sphere, you may have found yourself with some time to read. Whether you’re a novels kind of person, or you’re more into comics, today I’m hoping to introduce you to a whole new world of great queer reads from Japan.

Graphic novels from Japan, called manga, share the best qualities of both novels and comics. Manga typically keep the same creative team from beginning to end, allowing for character development and a complete narrative. Manga is popular for all ages in Japan, so you’re as likely to be able to read a story of a first love in school as you are a story of adult life or fantasy and adventure. And, most importantly, while manga about queer experience has existed for a while on manga shelves, queer manga by openly queer folks is a quickly growing category – helped along by a lot of creators and publishing companies on both sides of the ocean. I’ll talk about that more in Part 3.

The first genre I want to talk about is Boy’s Love, also often referred to in the west by a slightly older name, Yaoi. Yaoi is primarily manga about male/male relationships by women creators for a female audience; as a whole, Yaoi is a subgenre of girl’s and women’s manga in Japan. This is important if you, as a gay man, are looking for queer representation in your manga. It’s not that there isn’t authentic story-telling in Yaoi but, because Yaoi has been around for a few decades in Japan, it has developed specific tropes that may be targeted to a straight female audience more than a gay male audience. That’s changing a lot, though and Yaoi is definitely getting gayer in recent years. I’ve chosen a short selection of popular Yaoi manga that cover a variety of story styles – very explicit fantasy, young love and workplace romance – hopefully, something for everyone. If you’re looking for more gay identity in your manga, check back in Part 3 for queer manga by queer creators.

Dick Fight Island
by Reibun Ike
SuBLime

The tournament to choose the next king of the islands is about to begin. The rules are simple—whoever comes first loses! Participating warriors protect their mighty swords with armor that grows larger and more elaborate with each tournament. But one warrior has returned from studying abroad with a technique certain to force a pleasurable eruption! Is there a competitor alive able to withstand it? Or is this deft warrior destined to become king?!

This explicit —and hilarious— manga has exceptional, elaborate art.

Given
by Natsuki Kizu
SuBLime

Love of music unites the four members of the band Given: hotheaded guitarist Uenoyama, playboy drummer Akihiko, gentle bassist Haruki, and Mafuyu, a singer gifted with great talent and burdened by past tragedy. Their struggles and conflicts may drive them apart, but their bond to the music—and to one another—always brings them back together again.

A highly emotional Boy’s Love manga with heartfelt moments.

Sasaki and Miyano
by Shou Harusono
Yen Press

It all started like a typical old-school boys’ love plotline—bad-boy senior meets adorably awkward underclassman, one of them falls in love, and so on and so forth. But although Miyano is a self-proclaimed boys’ love expert, he hasn’t quite realized…he’s in one himself. Which means it’s up to Sasaki to make sure their story has a happily ever after…!

This is a touching romance between young men, for a wholesome story.

Cherry Magic: Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!
by Yuu Toyota
Square Enix Manga

Adachi, a thirty-year-old virgin, discovers he has the magical power to read the minds of people he touches. Unfortunately, the ability just makes him miserable since he doesn’t know how to use it well! And to make matters worse, when he accidentally reads the mind of his very competent, handsome colleague, Adachi discovers the guy has a raging crush on none other than Adachi himself! Things are about to get VERY awkward!

A ridiculous plot leads to a very tender adult romance.

Boys of the Dead
by Douji Tomita
KUMA

Introducing Zom-BL!

A collection of six zombie themed boys love short stories set in the USA. The English language debut of the 2017 Four Seasons Manga Award winning artist.

While queer horror is having a renaissance in novels in the US, manga is picking up the slack in Japan. There’s been plenty of vampire BL, but zombies deserve love too!

Next week will be Part 2 – Yuri.

Erica Friedman has written about Yuri for Japanese literary journal Eureka, Animerica magazine, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Dark Horse, and contributed to Forbes, Slate, Huffington Post, Hooded Utilitarian, The Mary Sue, Anime Feminist, Anime Herald and Anime News Network online. She has written news and event reports, interviews Yuri creators and reviews Yuri anime, manga and related media on her blog Okazu since 2002 and is the author of By Your Side: The First 100 Year of Yuri Anime and Manga out from Journey Press.

HEADER IMAGE: Images: Yuricon; Design Elements: Sachi; Font: Euphoragenic