[Pomelo]

So either I'm totally blind or this topic hasn't been made yet.

Good ol' Boy's Love and Girl's Love. Or yaoi and yuri, if you like the more 'mature' aspects. ;D

People always seem to be really divided on it, either LOVING BL and finding GL disgusting (which is funny when they try to make a rant against homophobia), or vice-versa.

Personally, I love both! I can't choose between the two~
Though lately I've been reading more GL than BL, and vice-verca in highschool.

But my taste between the two is totally different.

For example, my taste in BL is:
-Incest (brother/brother or cousins) is a huge plus, with twincest being the best
-I hate huge age differences (so no teacher/student stuff)
-I hate guys with long hair (this just applied to any guy in general)
-I hate guys that are super uke and girly, basically just a chick with a dick. I'm reading BL for BOY'S love. But, on the other hand, I don't want super muscular beef-cake type guys, either.
-What I love is BL with a lot of romantic drama (cheating and shit like that) with bittersweet endings.
-Another thing I love is long stories which take a while to develop, rather than just "OH HI YOU'RE HOT AND I LOVE YOU". I love childhood friend turned lovers stories.

But for GL, it's...
-No incest (well, twincest is still okay, but...)
-I love age differences, ESPECIALLY teacher/student
-Don't like those kawaii-type underclassmen/cool onee-chan upperclassmen type relationships. Just not really a fan of the whole kawaii moe-moe kyun schoolgirl romances that seem to be popular.
-Drama is still awesome

Yeah, I'm a lot less picky about my GL :U

Here are some manga that I like~

BL:

Spoiler

Only the Ring Finger Knows- because it was basically my first BL, so it hold sentimental value. The art is pretty nice, too. I try to look for the light novels whenever I'm in America. I've really been searching for the 4th volume for a while now. Anyway, the novel's wording is pretty iffy, but it makes a cute light read.

Complex - By far my favourite BL and probably my favourite manga overall. I read it all in one day, and by the end my eyes were all puffy from crying continuously and laughing and crying while laughing. Art style is a bit old, but I personally didn't mind it.

Doukyuusei- Apart from having GORGEOUS art (Asumiko Nakamura, I want your artistic babies), the story is really cute and I love the characters.

Elektel Delusion- I confess, this one doesn't have much substance- I just love the art style and the way the characters look. And I think they're cute together. ;w;

Otona no Mondai - This is more a slice-of-life type manga that's centered around a family which has a gay couple in it, but it's humourous and, well...relatable? I don't know, I really enjoyed it. Plus it helps that it contains one of my only 2D male crushes (Ebi, if you were real and straight I would marry you in a heartbeat ♥).

The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese & The Carp on the Chopping Block Jumps Twice - So I mentioned I liked drama. This has a lot of it. I like the two characters, one of whom is really uncertain about the relationship and sort of keeps falling in and out of love. I could relate, and I think that his uncertainty was protrayed pretty well. Plus, again, I really like the art. |D

Kyuugou's stuff - They're quick reads, but cute and look pretty.

Seven Days - Again, I like this one mainly just because it was really cute, though I thought the relationship happened rather quickly. There was something about it that just left a really sweet feeling with me. I saw it on sale in a comic book shop recently, so I'll be buying it when I have the money.

GL:

Spoiler

Maka-maka and Mars no Kiss - Holy shit, I just love Torajiro Kishi's art syle (after Asumiko's). His women are gorgeous. Okay, so Maka-maka is mainly just straight up yuri between two really hot girls (unff Jun ♥) who are friends. But apart from being really sexy, it offers some development and insight on their friendship. And, well, it's really hot and in full colour. Mars no Kiss hasn't been scanlated much yet, but I'm liking when I see so far.

Love my Life - I think this was one of the first I fully got into, though I saw the movie (live action, not anime) first and read the manga after. I actually ended up liking the manga more, though the movie was quite good about staying true. This is another of those slice-of-life type stories.

Honey & Honey - this is actually an autobiographical manga about the author's life as a lesbian with her girlfriend. The art style is really simplistic, but cute.

Shibuya District, Maruyama Neighbourhood: After School - Okay, though I did like the relationship between the two girls and their blossoming friendship (and the girl drama), mostly I loved the art. The girls look like candy. ;w;

Hen - Why do I like this? I have no idea, really. Apart from being one of my first GL that I commited myself to reading (but get losthalfway and lose track), it doesn't seem to be very popular, and I can understand why. The art is really bad. But it's really charming to me, for some reason. I'm always rooting for Chizuru to get the girl (it helps that I've got a girl crush on her). Anyway, I haven't actually finished this, so no spoilers if you have please~

GirlxGirlxBoy - Quite possibly the cutest love triangle scenario I've ever read, which is saying something as I normally dislike them. but I liked all of the characters so much that I had no problem were it to end with any pairing. I found myself rooting for the happiness of the two girls and the boy. Anyway, you get a sense that they all really care for each other.

Pieta - Not much to say because I don't remmeber much about it tbh, except that I liked it. Same author made another manga I liked, this one was between a MtF Transexual and a woman who live in the same apartment, though it just meandered and ended pretty abruptly to me.

So, which do you prefer? What is your taste? And what are your favourite BL/GL manga?

[SeeU]

m kinda sick of BL....i used to be really into it but years of exposure to radiation "YAOI IS TEH SMEX"/chix with dix/people with an unrealistically high amount of gay characters/DEVIANTART IN GENERAL on the internet makes me get a sour taste in my mouth when someone talks about it.
GL's never really been my thing....the fem zero pair in loveless were super sexy though, i loved them so much. ;v;

tl;dr not really my thing anymore

OH and little butterfly is a great yaoi manga....just lettin y'all know

[Byakuren]

Luka, on 02 November 2010 - 12:04 AM, said:

I've never liked BL. It just doesn't appeal to me at all. I think it has something to do with the fact that I don't like anal sex at all which makes BL a bit of a turn off.

Need I note that BL =/= Yaoi.
Yaoi is malexmale explicit shit(Anal sex and all that naughty shit). Where as BL is just the soft romantic stuff without the hardcore explicit material.

Just bringing this up in the thread in general since a lot of people seem to get the two mixed up. ._.

At any rate...

I personally don't mind BL and GL.
Though I'm more of a fan of the heterosexual stuff (MalexFemale).

I still look at yaoi and yuri though, porn wise, I look at a lot of porn....
Don't really look at as much yaoi as I used to. Though I still look at it, just not as much. I see a lot more yuri around these days out of the two.

I've pretty much strayed away from BL for the most part, but I hold the series I do like such as Princess Princess, Gravitation, and the like dear (Like any other series).

I actually don't read much GL. |:
Though I see GL a fuck lot in the RPs I normally am apart of and shit. But not so much in anime or manga, compared to BL.

[leslie]

I can't staaaaaaand BL because fandoms just forward it straight to yaoi D;

Any possible chance of liking either BL OR GL was crushed by dA. Not gonna lie.

So no, I do not like either. I use to think I liked GL, but there's not nearly as much appeal in that for me =ω= That means on occasions I'll actually try looking for it. BL I just...can't.

I really just can't, however I completely support gay rights and all that in real life, so don't go thinking I'm a homophobe; I hate people that are = _=

[Pomelo]

It's understandable. I like both BL & GL and can't stand the majority of the fandom either. (Ex. Yaoi fangirls that are like OMFGGGG TWO GYUYS MAKING OUT OIEWJGTOIEGJJI SASUKEXNARUTO 4EVER!111) I just stay away from DA and places like that.

And I realise that you can be for gay rights and not necessarily need to like BL and GL (and, like I mentioned, some fans just have idiotic views on it). :Y

[leslie]

Ah, thank you for understanding :}

Yeah, I'd probably love both/either if the fandom hadn't gotten to me first :\ I got into Kingdom Hearts which was what lead me to dA. Of course at that time I thought Sora and Kairi were war to obviously canon, so by searching "Sora Kairi Riku" I see some comic that looks like shit, is shit, and makes a shitty joke.

From there on out I just couldn't. ;n;

[RabbitDoubt]

I like both, in a non-sexual way anyways. Manga like Girl Friends or Kou'un no Rihatsushi are examples of what I like; both very cute manga without much focus on stupid drama like a lot of stuff does. While I like yaoi fanart and such, though, most of the time I don't really look for BL/yaoi manga. Why? Because everyone tends to be an ukemcgirlyface, which was extremely annoying, ie: Gravitation (which is a shame, because it had a solid storyline). I don't really look for GL/yuri stuff at all but I'll read it if someone recommends it to me.

[Zodiac Rain]

I voted that I like both, but in all honesty... I don't like stories where the only (or the main) focus is romance. Romance stories bore me, regardless of the gender. Especially one-shot romances... Ah, whats-his-face and whats-the-other-guys-face are going on a date! How exciting! I so totally care about these random people!

However, I do like reading BL/GL if there are other elements to the story. I also like writing BL/GL. (These stories, too, have elements other than romance, though the romantic elements are the ones I focus on the most in my mind. OTL)

[Pomelo]

I'm not so big on one-shots myself, I don't get a good sense of the characters or any closure with just one (or only a few) chapters...I hate it when they end it abruptly.

[DanaDynasty]

I used to be into BL, but now I can't stand it. Naruto overkill ruined it for me. And a yaoi manga I found by accident. My eyes and brain bled. GL, now that's some good stuff. Yuri is pretty cool too, I tend to read it a lot. I'm not really picky about it but I'm not too fond of huge age differences, but that's also my personal preference. I'm really into the friends becoming lovers stories, and GL is my favorite out of all the couple stories. c:

[VocalRaynbow]

YURIIII HOW I LOVE YOU SOOO <333

Yaoi/BL/Whatever is eughhh. I honestly couldn't care less in terms of real life relationships. Do what you want. But in entertainment... Dx

Yuri is delicious and adorable and hyaaa. But it's not if it comes out of nowhere. Like that one pairing in Strawberry Panic, mmm, Nagisa and Shizuma. It's like, 'Huh? I'M PARALYZED BY YOU. KISS ME.' 'Kay.'.

Yuri crack ships are fun too. Like Fuko and Nagisa from Clannad, and Nagi and Sakuya from Hayate the Combat Butler. So cuuuute.

[Pomelo]

You totally reminded me of how much I dislike Strawberry Panic! My friend recommended it to me since I like GL, but it was all like "OMG PERSON I JUST MET BUT INSTANTLY LOVE, YOUR SKIN LOOKS LIKE PORCELAIN" "WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULD TOUCH IT THEN"

And I want to kick Nagisa. She is really annoying. :|

It's nice that so many people here like GL though~ Usually wherever I go to forums the girls are all like "KYAAAA YAOI IS SMEXY!! <3333 YURI IS SO GROSS!!!1" GL doesn't get much love there...

[Klaidon]

Excluding the tyrant who fell in love, I only read guy/guy manga for sex to be honest >u>" I read girl love and yuri for the cuter plot lines and the MOÉ KYAAA factor ♥(and the sex).

Anything by Morninaga Milk is amazing ♥ I love you forever for bringing Honey&Honey into my life.

[Sunao]

I really enjoy both, but overall I read and watch more BL/yaoi than GL/yuri. I think I'm more picky with GL... Maybe that's because I'm a girl that likes girls too (I do prefer boys though).

Quote

For example, my taste in BL is:
-I hate guys with long hair (this just applied to any guy in general)
-I hate guys that are super uke and girly, basically just a chick with a dick. I'm reading BL for BOY'S love. But, on the other hand, I don't want super muscular beef-cake type guys, either.
-Another thing I love is long stories which take a while to develop, rather than just "OH HI YOU'RE HOT AND I LOVE YOU". I love childhood friend turned lovers stories.

This. Also:

Spoiler

-I don't like stories which only show romantic stuff. I'm more into BL/yaoi with genres like action/fantasy/drama/comedy PLUS romance. But I'm not gonna lie, I do like tons of stories that only (or mainly) show romance (I think I'm more picky if that's the case).
-I dislike too much sex. I think it's easier for a story (and for the characters) to be better developed if the sex isn't there all the time.
-Old virgins and/or old characters who had never been in love before are annoying. It's just too forced and unreal to me. When I say old I mean 25+ years old (I'm 20, almost there lol). I mean, what's the problem of having past relationships?! I don't like it when everything looks innocent.
-Sadistic characters (not just in BL/yaoi). They're usually superficial and are there just to make the fangirls go "kyaaaaa~ he's so hot~" and stuff. Plus they're forceful so the story doesn't develop really well.
-Girly-looking characters who don't necessarily act girly. It seems like everyone shaves their eyebrows, wtf. We all know that most men don't do that (that's a shame, though).
-I REALLY like goofy seme/tsundere uke pairings. It's the cutest and funniest thing ever.
-I also really enjoy short-haired seme with a medium-haired (I don't know if that's how you call it) uke. Short-haired uke are really cute too.
-Seme who acts like he's an uke and uke who acts like he's a seme are really welcomed too.

.......Okay, I think I'm also picky with BL.

Quote

But for GL, it's...
-No incest
-Don't like those kawaii-type underclassmen/cool onee-chan upperclassmen type relationships. Just not really a fan of the whole kawaii moe-moe kyun schoolgirl romances that seem to be popular.
-Drama is still awesome

This, and also:

Spoiler

-I dislike huge age gaps if one of the girls is underage.
-I also dislike lots of sex, for the same reasons I don't like it in BL too.
-I prefer soft/sweet romance than deep romance. I enjoy drama here but not romance-wise.
-Way too girly girls annoy me. I'm not girly so I can't relate to them, and if they're girly all they talk about is make-up, boys (or girls), diets and stupid things like that. I want deep characters!

I probably forgot some things but I already wrote a lot...

As for favorite manga:

BL/yaoi

Spoiler

I'm not gonna make a lot of comments about all of them, I'm too tired for that :<
-Animal X series: It's like a shounen manga with a gay couple as main characters. So much win.
-Kyuuso wa Cheese no Yume wo Miru and it's sequel: Really realistic in my point of view. It's not all fluffy and cute and stuff. The drama CD is a must hear.
-Doushitemo Furetakunai: Well developed stories and characters (God, I keep saying that...), but I liked more Onoda/Deguchi than Togawa/Shima. Shima is kind of annoying sometimes... I think Deguchi is a better uke. Also, it could be longer, only one volume is too short. The drama CD's part with Onoda/Deguchi is just so cute! I didn't like Morikawa as Onoda very much though.
-Everything I've read by Yamashita Tomoko: She knows how to write good BL stories that aren't really common. I also love her art style, even though I admit it's a bit weird.
-Aitsu no Daihonmei: The uke's is completely different from every other uke I've seem before. He isn't girly or beautiful, even though I find him very cute. The seme isn't exactly my favorite type of character but they make a funny couple. Everything is pretty funny, actually.
-Sangen Tonari no Tooi Hito: I... absolutely loved this. The bitterness is irresistible. I can't properly describe it, and if I tried it would sound weird.
-Haru wo Daiteita: I didn't read it, I devoured it. It's really captivating. Again, I can't properly describe what I think of it.
-Lots and lots of Bohra Naono's works. I love her.

I have so many more to list but I'm gonna stop here. >_>

I don't like many GL manga because I'm really picky with them, so I'm just gonna stick with Aoi Hana, Honey & Honey, Mermaid Line and Himitsu no Kaidan.