Anyone want to swap yaoi?

I have a few titles i am willing to part with, but if you look at my manga list, i already have a lot. Still i am open to trades. I always want more!

Current favs are Love Pistols, Let Dai and i just ordered The Summit v. 1-2 and The Tyrant Falls in Love, cant wait to read!

I am not interested in swapping yaoi, sorry, but thats because I don't have any.

I was wondering if you could make some suggestions. I have never read any yaoi and would not mind trying some.

I prefer a series that all volumes have already been published, and maybe something that is not too long.

thanks

Fake is my absolute, hands down favorite. It has a great storyline and wonderful characters. It is a good starter for someone who is open to trying out the genre.

I looked up Fake and it looks good. Has the entire series been published? There are also 7 books, right?

Someone mentioned this website to get some discounted manga and they had a yaoi section. In that section I found a series called Demon Diary. Its just a little weird since I've read some of the series and I don't think that its yaoi. Have you heard of the series?

I own Demon Diary and I love it. It's more shonen-ai than Yaoi (Yaoi being explicit and shonen ai just hints at homosexuality, I think).
These two areas do seem to get lumped together, especially in shops. You can usually tell the yaoi, as it comes in a sealed cellophane wrapper ;-)

Yup, Fake is complete at 7 volumes, although only the last one comes wrapped in cellophane ;-) It has a long build up.

I've read the first two volumes of Demon Diary and have enjoyed it so far but didn't get the impression it is really yaoi.

Yes, from what I've seen shonen-ai is just a term for slightly slashy.

I'll go against the grain and say I didn't enjoy Demon Diary at all. It seemed overly simple and didn't have very good direction. It was also just slashy at best. I usually love fantasy BL too.

Fake is pretty good though.. classic BL series.

I've seen people write "BL". Sorry, but what does it stand for?

BL = boy's love, which is what they actually call it in Japan.

Yup. I know that the western market uses "shounen ai" etc, but that actually makes you sound like a pedophile in Japanese. It's a very outdated term.

ok, thanks for the response.

P.S. boy's love would have been my guess :)

Hello, just a note to novelandmangacrazy-if you want to get a kick start on your yaoi collection, you might check out www.mangatude.com its a great swap site for manga and yaoi-there are LOTS of titles there, it's where i got a lot of my collection.

As for the best yaoi series:

For a good laugh try 'Clan of the Nakagamis'
For the best yaoi series ever, check out the scanlations for the "Finder" Series, 'View in the Finder', 'Target in the Finder', 'One Wing in the Finder'-but it's heavy action, so beware.
For a good BL story, try 'Boy Princess'-the art is gorgeous!
Skip 'Love Mode'-the art is outdated and really depicts more young boys with older men-kinda icky...
'Future Lovers' is a great series-great story!

Hope those suggestions help!

>12 beginagain:

thanks for the book suggestions, and as for the swapping site, I'm not sure if I feel comfortable with the idea. I'm also Canadian, so shipping is more expensive.

Actually we have a few ppl from Canada on the website as well, but i do understand that there's a hesitancy to swap, you have a chance of losing out if the other person doesnt mail (it's happened to me once or twice) but i've also had over 250 good swaps, so you just never know. :)

Other good places to get yaoi is Paperbackswap and Bookmooch, and a cheap place to buy is Justmanga.com -very good prices!

so I read my first yaoi yesterday...and I did not like it. It's the story line itself that I did not really like. The book was Dear Myself.

>14 beginagain:
I'm still considering mangatude. Do you used the same username as librarything? I think that the main concerns for me are shipping costs (it's more if I ship to the states) and the fact that I have to give out my address to receive stuff.

novelandmangacrazy

Maybe you should choose something soft for the beginning, with a lot of story, and maybe a series...
One-shots in BL are usually sappy and just boring...
I recommend: Silver Diamond (fantasy-story, cute guys, just hints) or Wild Adapter (cute guys, mystery/crime story, just hints), Loveless (strange, mystery-story, cat-ears, just hints, but kisses).

Junjou Romantica and Totally Captivated are one of my favorites as well, funny, and more heavier stuff.
Crimson Spell and Finder are really great, from the art and story, but very heavy stuff as well.

I've had pretty good luck with using Mangatude myself, although I don't do much trading since I'm more of a hoarder. On great yaoi to start with, I'll just keep promoting Fake. Such good series!

Ya, I'll probably read Fake. I've read part of the first volume online and it looks good. I'll check out Silver Diamond too. I'm almost in the mood to read a little fantasy.

I think yaoi is something you have to ease into...i started off with Boys Love and worked up to the 'harder' stuff...if i had started off reading what they have out today i would NOT be reading it.

When you start off reading stories with light romance, with just a few kisses, you get to wanting more, then you are reading for the 'juicy' stuff. But there is a LOT of junk out there now-stuff for everyone's tastes. Stories for those who like young/old pairings, feminine ukes and a strong willed semes, or my personal fav-two manly guy pairings. (Hard to decide whos in charge!)

Bran Doll is very light BL, Cute Beast is minimal and more story line rather than oversexed scenes, if you are looking for sci-fi and a great story (though i do warn the scenes can get explicit) Wild Rock is probably one of the best you will ever read!

Gravitation is a good starter series-a lot of story, very little action, just enough to keep you wanting more. Alley of First Love is good, Desire is too and Constallation in my Palm are both lots of kiss and story line. And another one of my absolute favs-Dost Thou Know-lots of intensity and so on, but nothing further than kisses (i think).

Ghost and Hands Off! are both good starter series too!

Forgot to mention 'Same Cell Organism' also light on the heavy stuff and the artwork is gorgeous!!

>19 beginagain:

Well I read romance novel, so I think that I'd rather skip the light stuff and go directly into the "juicy" stuff.

For Wild Rock, is it only 1 book?

Oddly, I actually own volume 1 of gravitation. It was given to me as a gift, but I haven't read it yet. I'll have to read it some time. Is Gravitation light or "juicy"?

>21 novelandmangacrazy:: Gravitation, for the most part, is very light (there a few scenes here and there that are more "juicy" - but not explicit - and one, IMHO, slightly disturbing scene in either volume 3 or 4, I can't remember which). The story is wonderful, however, and absolutely hilarious. I found I couldn't read this in a public place because I kept laughing out loud. Like, really laughing - snorting and all...

After School Nightmare is a good one too. It doesn't show much even though in later books, you know stuff is going on. It's got a good, albeit weird and sort of freaky, story line and when you finally read the last volume and realize what's going on, you have a "Wtf?!" moment. But in a good way ;-)

Reading all the post above, I have so many manga to check out now. If only it were cheaper (or if I had a library that actually stocked most manga).

Gravitation gets kind of weird when you get to the middle/end of the series. The giant mechanical panda kind of did me in. Love the anime! It has great music too.

For a manga with lots of storyline that is one of the "jucier" ones I've seen, I'd also suggest Gerard and Jacques.

When I first saw the giant panda, I had to do a double take. I just thought "My eyes must be deceiving me. I know I'm not looking at a giant, robotic, missile firing panda." But I was.

Yeah, once you get to the giant panda, Gravitation sort of goes downhill. A lot. But it's still good and entertaining, which says something about the manga as a whole. I haven't seen the anime, though I really want to. I've heard great things about the music.

>22 RebeccaAnn:
“I found I couldn't read this in a public place because I kept laughing out loud. Like, really laughing - snorting and all...”
Those are always great books :D

>23 Jenson_AKA_DL:
I’ve actually heard of Gerard and Jacques before, but don’t really know what it’s about.

>25 novelandmangacrazy:
Gerard and Jacques is great, as are her other works. Like Lovers in the Night, it's a historical BL work dealing with French nobility (and servants). I'm not sure which I like more, but both are great.

>24 RebeccaAnn: Here is a YouTube link to the first Gravitation anime episode, if you're interested. The episode is split into three parts but you can find the other parts easily enough by going to the member's page. I prefer the subtitled to the dubs so that's what is here. It is not the best quality but it will give you a good look at the anime :-) The opening and ending songs are really great!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_HwkZJ4BCg&feature=related

Jazz is really good and it's only 4 volumes.

>26 shinkeikaku:
Lovers in the night sounds good. I love historical books (manga and novels). If you do as well, I'd recommend Emma by Kaoru Mori (not yaoi).

>27 Jenson_AKA_DL:
Thanks for the link, but since I actually own the first book, I would rather read it before watching the anime.

>28 yukikome:
I looked at Jazz, and I don't think that I would really like the series. sorry.

Personally, i didnt like 'Jazz' or 'Yellow' either...they seemed very formulaic to me.

I did love 'Hero Hee'l though, thought it was an interesting story line-juicy too!

'Gerald and Jacques' is really good, but really, anything by Fumi Yoshinaga i have liked, her stories are good, the art work is gorgeous and usually very erotic-quite tantalizing!

One of my fav yaoi books is 'The Presidents Time'-hilarious and cute and lots of action! Really very funny-a nice guy who has to become 'evil' (for reasons explained in the book) and his idea of evil is jaywalking, etc. Its just very cute!

Some i would suggest avoiding: 'Level C', 'Love Mode', 'Love is Like a Hurrcaine', and i personally find yaoi novels to be unsatisfing...anyone else agree?

I totally agree about avoiding Love is Like a Hurricane but I did enjoy Yellow, I really get into the buddy story theme :-)

Has "The President's Time" been translated? It sounds interesting.

I just recently read one online that hasn't been translated, but can't remember the name. It is the prequil to the Thunderbolt Boys Excite and I did like it. I'm thinking about picking up "Thunderbolt Boys" even though the reviews aren't all that great.

I do agree that yaoi novels generally haven't been my favorite. I did enjoy the first two volumes of "S" by Aida Saki, very dark story. I'm getting the next two so I can complete the series and guess I'd have to reserve a full opinion until I've read them.

Generally manga novelizations haven't been my favorite although I really enjoyed the first Gravitation novel. On the other hand I really disliked Voice of Temptation so it could have just been a fluke (but the cover was very cute!).

you should get Fake or Gravitation! there not too long but very interesting!!!

I've found some new yaoi series i'm really enjoying; 'Silver Diamond', 'Breath', and Kyo Kara Maoh! (which i have v. 1-4 up for swap FYI), all are pretty good!

Am reading the Scandalous Seiryo University series, i have all four, and those will NOT be keepers, may want to skip those...

Been thinking about starting Banana Fish...can anyone recomend?

>33 beginagain: Banana Fish is a great series to read. Not sure how to describe it, but I couldn't put it down and it stands out as a very unique work.

But it's not BL. There's only undertones, but it still works out perfectly that way. If you read it, you'll see why almost immediately (or by reading the back of vol 1!)--plenty of homosexual characters and even sexual abuse abound, but that's about power and violence, not sex, romance, or love.

The artbook for the series is a little different and somewhat fanservicey. :)

I see you liked Let Dai. I think of Banana Fish as a better version of that series (probably inspired it) in both plot, characters, and overall execution.. even with the admittedly dated artwork. :)

Silver Diamond and KKM! are strictly speaking not BL, either.

The President's Time, like most titles by that author, is very silly and quite sweet.

Silver Diamond is BL. That brand of shoujo/BL Ichiraci is known for. Keep reading I guess? KKM!.. not so much, but even less so compared to BF. BF is action and drama (and shoujo, but unique within the demographic!).

If you talk to the Ichiraci reps, they'll tell you they are shoujo not bl. In fact, their titles range from shoujo to soft BL and everything in between. The Silver Diamond author's titles run right on the hairy edge between shoujo and bl, but doesn't cross the line over into outright bl.

I'm not meaning to dispute what category to put them in, I'm a big fan of Ichiraci titles, but that I think readers should know they're getting a lot of fantastic innuendo and fanservice, but not outright stuff the way you'd get with things like Love Mode or Junjo Romantica.

When it crosses a line like some certain volumes (won't spoil I guess?), it's hard to call that pure shoujo. The old Racish days had straight up BL works and they've since then "softened" it, but I don't split hairs in categorizing it. Guys confessing with tears and sparkles? Maybe not Ciel/tres tres BL like Junjou, but it's there.

The point was that it's another level past Banana Fish. You don't get any fantastic innuendo--you get implied violent, sexual acts against characters. And not the rape is sexy love kind of thing you find in the BexBoy type publications. Real, hateful rape. Still fabulous.

If anyone is interested in swapping manga, yaoi and non-yaoi, through bookmooch just let me know.

i don't know if this is yaoi but love machine looks good.havent read it yet

I've been a long-time BL fan, though I tended to stay on the shoujo side of the spectrum because I really like shoujo :). I'd read the occasional pretty-arted yaoi in Japanese and sometimes it would seem a little silly, but I could just run with it.

But recently I just read a whole slew of Yaoi in English (some 20-25 random volumes of stuff), and I'm thinking, maybe it's the English, or maybe it's the too-much-yaoi-in-a-short-time-period that's what is causing me to feel this way, but at this stage of my yaoi-fangirlness I feel that I what I really want is shoujo that goes the distance. There's got to be something out there that is not either a) ridiculous, b) everyone is gay! or c) *really* ridiculous.

I've got some more in the pipeline (I tend to swap for yaoi rather randomly, trying to see what will stick) but I'm feeling a little disheartened with the genre at the moment.

Recs please? For shoujo/bl with plot. Doesn't have to be explicit but I would like there to be more than hints - heck, I'd settle for acknowledgement!

And, to rec in return, if you don't mind a girl in the mix Thirsty for Love is a great one-shot volume with a heavy emotional plot (grief & threesomes) plus Honami's art is *gorgeous.*

Would be willing to swap (though can't guarantee anything I'd have for trade is any good really.)

I'm pretty sure you've probably read everything I would have to recommend...Yellow, Fake, Totally Captivated, Our Kingdom and the one-shot Pet on Duty are my fave yaoi.

For a lighter BL aspect I've enjoyed Satisfaction Guaranteed, Gorgeous Carat and the Toya/Yuki 'ship in Cardcaptor Sakura.

As an aside I just watched the BBC series Sherlock which was absolutely fantastic and, when watched in the right frame of mind, could be considered wonderfully BL/shippy in its own way :-)