I’m sure anybody who spends enough time in anime or manga fandoms knows what Yaoi is. There are even lost icons such as the Yaoi Paddle. Anyways, LGBTQ manga has actually been around for a long time. It has historical value along with its entertainment and personal value for some. Our selection of Boy Love manga has grown a lot in recent years due to the hard work of many people and growing acceptance of the general public. Let’s take a look at what publishers have to offer in the Yaoi manga space!
Boy Love from Other Publishers
Here are a few distributors that have BL/Yaoi content but don’t deal in it and only it.
- Kodansha (along with its Vertical imprint)
- Kuma
- One Peace Books
- Seven Seas (has a specific BL section)
- Shojo Beat (part of Viz now)
- Square Enix Manga
- Star Fruit Books
- SuBLime
- Tokyopop
- Viz
- Yen Press
Many manga publishers do have lines or imprints that specialize specifically in BL. Be sure to browse their catalogs to find what you want. Many of their sites do let you filter out genres/themes or have specific sections to easily find the manga you want!
The distributors I will discuss next target the BL/Yaoi market exclusively.
Animate
LinkTree – Twitter – Bookwalker
Animate is a retailer of games, anime, and manga in Japan. There are even physical stores of theirs in other Asian countries. However, over here in ‘Murica we don’t have any of those. They do have a few things published here though! They don’t have much manga published in North America but they have a good grip on the BL/Yaoi market here. They have published Breathing Momentum and Living With Him.
futekiya (Boys’ Love manga subscription)
Futekiya is a part of MangaPlanet. Futekiya is the BL/Yaoi section basically, but it’s its own library. I will plop an NSFW warning here. Not all content is NSFW, mind you but the front page does contain some HOT covers. The manga titles even have a ‘spiciness’ meter indicated by peppers. So, you can read something cold, lukewarm, or BLAZING HOT if you want. They do frequently get new licenses, and their library already has over 400 titles.
The subscription can be purchased per week, per month, every 3 months, every 6 months, or per year. The best deal is the yearly package which costs $47.99. 1-week is $1.99 and a month is $6.99.
Juné
Juné is an imprint of Digital Mang Publishing, so it focuses on digital distribution. As is consistent with the imprints of DMP, when you purchase a digital volume of manga, you can get in various formats (PDF, EPUB, CBZ). I cannot heap enough praise on this. Despite a large digital library and focus, there are a ton of physical books you can get. They’ve done physical printings of over 300 different volumes.
Kuma
Kuma is fairly new to the publishing scene, but they have over 20 series published. Their site directly links to Amazon, so it’s really simple to just order your manga. I can’t really find much about them as their site lacks an About Us page. However, if their social media indicates anything, they have the pulse on their community. They’re constantly retweeting and taking to fans it seems. Their pinned tweet even has a suggestion submission form to make requests.
SuBLime
SuBLime is a publisher of BL/Yaoi manga with a selection of over 100 series. Their website sells only digital copies, but they provide PDF and EPUB files so that customers can view their books on whatever device they wish. Physical copies can be purchased from various retailers, which their site will link you to.
Something great is that they have a form where fans can suggest titles, which they then compile into a “fan wishlist” which will be discussed by staff. They also check out what’s popular in BL magazines and such in Japan, so they do try to follow trends and get popular titles. SuBLime has a very hardworking and passionate team.
Yaoi Manga Related Links
I’ll be working tirelessly to provide more and more content for Manga March here on Final Weapon. Here are some other choice manga articles and reviews, conveniently linked here for your viewing pleasure!
