So after this couple comes out to their family one character's grandma becomes a gay rights activist and campaigns to legalize gay marriage in their town ... yeah, you don't see that everyday in a BL manga! This is a very realistic BL; the well-rounded characters have a complicated relationship but ultimately find support in each other. Our uke takes a lot of time (10 years!) to come to terms with his feelings ? but at least he makes up for it by the end.

This is a very special historical BL set in Seattle during the early days of computer science, the 1960s, where code was still punched on paper and coders were still nerds in a very niche field. The romance takes a backseat to a slice-of-life plotline about launching a scrappy tech start-up, so don't expect anything more than a kiss here. Luckily, the plot is well-written and the characters are rounded, so I didn't mind! The mangaka, Yuhki Takada, lived in America for an extended period of time and now lives in Canada, making her the only Japanese-American BL mangaka that I know of. The manga is littered with stray "culture gap" observations about American culture, some of them very amusing. I think a unique manga like this deserves some support!

Such a refreshing, sex-positive manga. There is no blushing gender role stuff whatsoever; Kiminari acts like no other uke. He is truly shameless and extremely self-confident. For such a silly comedy manga, the plot is surprisingly complex and gripping. I really care about who's going to win the Best Balls competition! Not to mention the commentary on being gay in a society that puts intense pressure on you to have children ... this manga is sexy and deep.

The heterosexual thirty-something salaryman Rihito is a extreme masochist, which turns women off. So he asks his gay coworker Tomoki to try tying him up! There's a nice comic premise: Tomoki is a laid-back software developer who isn't a dom naturally but turns into one when he's angry or jealous about Tomoki. So Rihito has to cook up schemes to purposefully provoke Tomoki! The dialogue writing is snappy, and Haruno Narita has a way of nailing facial expressions, even complicated and ambiguous ones, that make the characters come to life. Excellent chemistry and excellent comedy make for one of my favorite manga on this site.

As a grizzled fujo veteran, I really appreciate manga that can surprise me at every turn by subverting my genre expectations. This is one of those manga where I can promise you will see nothing coming; even 100~ pages in we have no idea which two (or more!) of this manga's many characters will end up together. The ending is genuinely shocking! While this manga definitely has its weak points, I think its unpredictability makes it an enjoyable read for experienced BL readers who want something new.

This isn't a romance - this a slice of life comic about a imperfect couple five years into their relationship, who are just beginning to settle down and think about their future. The plot arc is about coming to accept your partner's flaws. This is the perfect read if you're looking for something with low drama and angst but high in feel-good vibes.

It's one of those quirky strange BLs