What's Your Yaoi? #yaoi #manga #adult #fiction

What’s Your Yaoi?  

I’ve created a long list of my favourite mangakas, some of who have also produced mangas in other genres and doujinshis, but for now I’m strictly concentrating on their gay fiction. I’ve chosen different tropes and sub genres to separate them, which isn’t to say that any one is better than the other, it’s just my way of distinguishing between them. Art as with writing is purchased and enjoyed based on opinion—one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. And these are their stories I treasure the most.

List 1 to 5

1. Smut:

Bousou Kareshi

If you’re looking for smutty no-brainer plots with lots of sexy man on man action with buff guys that cause the reader to suffer from constant nosebleeds, look no further. Not only is Sakira damned awesome at drawing the male physique, she’s cornered the market on dirty humour. Honestly, I don’t think there’s a taboo she’s missed from twisted tales of BDSM to a cross-dressing university student and the sadistic teenage son of a yakuza boss giving it to an older man. Many of her works are one-shots. My favourites are: Pure-Hearted Lies, Absolute Love Tyrant, Lovely Lover, and The Moment of Excitement from Bousou Kareshi, which continues with more stories about Ran and Keitatsu in Hatsujou Kareshi (Boyfriend in Heat).

If you can, read the back cover blurb on the image below, it'll make you laugh.

Hatsujou Kareshi

2. Older Man with a Younger Man:

Harem Days

There are a number of mangakas that have used the ‘older man with a younger man’ trope and it was really hard to decide which was my favourite. But in the end, I kept coming back to Naono Bohara. If my memory serves me correct, I read somewhere Naono Bohara liked using this trope because she’s involved with an older man. Well, whatever the reason, she’s nailed it on the head. My favourites are: Harem Days, Itsuka no Himitsu and Confession. And I’ve got to say, I love writing these types of stories myself, considering I’m with an older man and have dated many in the past. Hmm…could it be art depicting life?

Itsuka no Himitsu

3. Soap Opera Series:

According to the dictionary a soap opera is a television or radio series that concentrates on the daily events in the lives of the same group of characters. Well, in this case, I’m referring to a pair of yaoi series written by the same artist Nakamura Shungiku. And I think everyone will agree Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi and Junjou Romantica are total soap operas. With multiple characters involved in various relationships, both are full of laughs, romance, angst and drama to a perfected combination.

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi

4. High School:

This is a setting that has been used to death with tropes like: senpai falls for student or student falls for senpai, or one student’s been in love with his best friend since he can’t remember when (childhood) and when they get into high school he goes crazy. And, of course, there’s the private school setting where the rich young man falls for the lowly poor kid, et cetera, et cetera. And in many cases the love interest carries on into college. Again, this was a difficult choice with so many yaoi to pick from. But, I found Kazuma Kodaka’s Bad Teacher’s Equation, a five volume series, best defined the trope: student falls for his teacher and it takes until he graduates for his love to be reciprocated.

Bad Teacher's Equation

5. Seme on Seme Action:

There are countless yaoi with ukes that equal their counterpart in one way or another, for instance, when it comes to wits or personality. And in some stories the uke is the verbally dominant one, feisty and even rude, while the seme is the strong silent type. But when it comes to seme on seme action, the stories aren’t so abundant. Akira Norikazu has drawn some pretty buff ukes that give the impression of being a seme, but they are still ukes. The best yaoi I’ve found so far is TxS, art and story by Takatsuki Noboru. Both guys are cops, both are crazy about one another, sexy and buff, but both are also semes who constantly argue over who’s going to top.

My list will continue on Thursday!

Happy Yaoi Hunting!

Blak Rayne