What Even Is BL/GL? - Questions - Tapas Forum

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Questions skippyjoeskilling 2021-01-15 01:45:07 UTC #1For readers/writers of Bl and GL, what do you think defines that genre? Is it just any comic centering on a gay relationship, or do you think it has to follow certain tropes or a certain tone?My comic is currently classified as BL because it's about two boys in a romantic relationship, but I've had a couple people say it's not BL because it's too depressing, and I should put it in drama instead. I know some people who read or write romance can have very strict guidelines about what make something a romance novel, versus say a horror novel or a thriller with romance elements, and I was wondering if anyone had similar guidelines with BL/GL.Not trying to make definitive rules or anything, just curious what people think. thedude3445 2021-01-15 02:07:30 UTC #2BL is a lot more based on a certain TYPE of story involving men in love with other men. It's been a really big genre in Japanese manga for a long time, and Western media has sort of taken from that as well. Generally, BL are MLM stories that are mostly written by, and almost always targeted towards, young women. Stories for and by gay men have traditionally been sorted separately, so you will see quite different art styles, character dynamics, and plotlines. Yaoi has all sorts of common tropes that people love to complain about such as uke/seme stuff, giant hands, an obsession with sexual content... The works. BL stories versus regular old MLM stories are often different enough that you may run into issues if you put your story in that genre and it doesn't fit the mold. Luckily, Tapas has the LGBTQ+ genre in those situations, as well as other options.GL, on the other hand, is a MUCH smaller genre by number of titles and so its stereotypes aren't quite as pervasive and fleshed out. They still exist (sexual assault is sadly very common in BL and GL alike), but interestingly GL stories aren't quite as demographically concentrated, even in Japanese manga. In the manga scene, I'd say a majority of GL/Yuri content is created by and for straight men, but there are certainly a lot of female creators involved and even GL stories made for shoujo (elementary/middle school girl) readers. Tapas's GL genre is so wide open to the point that it's hard to nail down any commonalities besides "girls kissin'" and that's pretty much the state of things there. Rasp 2021-01-15 02:12:55 UTC #3I think the problem comes in when we try to shove everything into ONE genre which Tapas forces smaller creators to do as a matter of policy. all my work is shoved into the GL category as its almost always present but I'm not sure its always the best representation of the content. I did a long yakuza novel with GL elements but was GL the main focus? debatable. It certainly had a gay lead but her relationships with other women were more of a side element to the main plot. So where the hell do I put it?Be way easier if I could choose several genres which were appropriate. There were action elements here in there does that mean it should land in Action instead even though it also wasn't the focus? GloamingCat 2021-01-15 02:14:30 UTC #4BL for me is anything in which the main couple is two boys and it's not just subtext. The mood doesn't matter. And judging from the works I see in BL lists or works officially tagged as BL, there's no such rule like it has to be happy or something.In all BL fan pages I follow, they define BL as an umbrella term for yaoi + shounen-ai. One of the first shounen-ai ever published (and one of my faves) was not only depressing af but also tragic (the name is Kaze to Ki no Uta).Also, Killing Stalking is almost a classic for fans of BL webcomics, and also depressing af, and it's tagged as BL on the official website (Lezhin).So, yeah... I'm pretty sure you can make a sad BL. GloamingCat 2021-01-15 02:17:45 UTC #5Tapas allows you to choose 3 genres though? For comics, at least. Not sure about novels. Black_Conscious 2021-01-15 02:26:53 UTC #6Yeah @GloamingCat it is the same they let you choose up to 3 different genres and out of the three you have to chose one of the three that is gonna be your main one, and I think that the main genre that you have chosen will be showed in that specific genre, which she had said about how all her work is shoved into one categoryhere what it looks like on the Novel, but It is the same as the comic one I believe

Rasp 2021-01-15 02:31:44 UTC #7I don't think I've ever seen my work show up in secondary categories maybe I just missed it but if it doesn't actually appear when browsing what is even the point if nobody is ever going to see it?I suppose its just that Tapas's search function is just absolutely terrible from an end user perspective I'm not sure how the hell you're supposed to search within a genre or search multiple.If I wasn't putting GL in all of my works anyway I'd be tempted to do it just for the additional browse traffic from being in an less crowded genre.Sure maybe we can pick multiple genres in theory but if it doesn't help people find our work then... well its pure vanity isn't it? what is their purpose if I'm the only one who can see them and it doesn't impact search? I'm scrolling down genre lists and as far as I can tell ONLY the main genre is exposed the the user.Edit: Okay it is exposed to the user but only if you open the work and go to the "show more" section. which nobody is going to dig into while casually browsing. I guess they also show up in search but... it primarily searches by TITLE which... if I already know the name of it you'd think I'd already know what it's about?TLDR: Search almost is useless for finding new content to read and browse doesn't let you filter search results which makes finding anything you don't already know about a nightmare. Black_Conscious 2021-01-15 02:48:15 UTC #8I believe on webtoon it is differenthere are two different photos that are in different category's one is in romance and the other is in Sci-fi but I think the main genre is Romance.

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I think webtoon makes it easier when of finding these story's in different genres HippieGhost 2021-01-15 02:54:02 UTC #9I struggle with this too. My stories cross multiple genres, and with my series being a collection of stories there are some where the main focus IS an lgbt romance and others where there's none to be found. Granted, only one of my stories is up at this time (the next drops tomorrow), but with their length it wouldn't make much sense to me to separate them as individual series since they'll all tie in together at some point. domisotto 2021-01-15 02:55:41 UTC #10I think it’s important to hit the tropes people expect because otherwise you won’t get the readership. I started my novel in BL, because a lot of it rotated around the romance between the male characters, but it didn’t really speak to the BL readership, so I moved it to fantasy.What I feel makes for a more successful BL is a setting that is close to here and now, and with environment that doesn’t distract from the BL component itself. So something like college, high school or office. I hesitate to comment on anything else, because as I said, I failed to get readership in BL, so I didn’t understand the genre. I think though that an attractive sensitive main that is paired with a confident and high-achieving Love Interest is a good combo. I have seem pretty dark BLs to do well so long as the main couple was the focus WriterLinXiaolong 2021-01-15 10:35:20 UTC #11I guess it depends on where you are from. I noticed that most western audiences prefer a romance centred BL while here in Asia (well maybe most Asian audience), BL covers broader genres.A horror novel that features two males as main couples are BL.A gaming novel that features two males as main couples are BL.A zombie apocalypse that features two males as main couples are BL.A fantasy novel that features two males as main couples are BL.An interstellar novel that features two males as main couples are BL.A thriller novel that ... I think you get the gist.Long story short, as long as the end game is that the main couple are both males, it's BL. Of course, in the end, it's all up to the author how they want to market it and who the target market is.PS: There's also one BL where the couple did not get together and instead, marry another woman because both are from two different kingdoms that had been at wars for years and both are monarchs. And yes, it is still BL. BlairFujin 2021-01-15 10:43:28 UTC #12For me BL/GL as a main genre means a romance story with mxm/fxf main couple,if the romance not the main focus BL/GL should be used as a subgenre NickRowler 2021-01-15 13:53:12 UTC #13I haven’t read enough GL to know enough about the genre.However, from my understanding, BL are usually defined by protagonists who are teens or young adults. This sort of sets them apart from just a MLM or LGBT label. So a story similar to The Birdcage would not be a BL because the couple is too old. Other than that, a BL can about anything and can be depressing and have a sad ending. domisotto 2021-01-15 23:46:43 UTC #14I wish it was more like this here, but I sort of understand the need to put it into the genre the reader is actually looking for. I think the BL aspect needs to be stronger than the setting/window dressing of the novel to make it in BL Teddy-Stonehill 2021-01-16 00:00:42 UTC #15That's definitely not true. I've read plenty of BL comics about older men.The main thing is that BL/GL are mostly used to describe certain genres of Japanese and Korean comics. They're most relevant as genre-markers for original English language works IF those works are taking clear inspiration from the tropes/storytelling approach of those types of comics.But on their most basic level, BL is just anything that centers a m/m relationship, and GL is just anything that centers a f/f relationship. It doesn't have to strictly be only a romance, but the romance should at least be one of the main focuses of the story imo.So if you're story is a drama about a m/m relationship, that would count as BL, no matter how dramatic it is. If your story is primarily a drama, and the m/m relationship is incidental or secondary, then it might be better to classify it as a drama.But I've read a lot of very dark BL comics. BL can definitely be depressing and still be BL NickRowler 2021-01-16 00:18:41 UTC #16

That's definitely not true. I've read plenty of BL comics about older men.

Can you give me links? I had an idea for a male love story with 50+ characters but I felt like no one would want to read it. But it would be cool to see if other people write these kind of stories. indagold 2021-01-16 00:36:39 UTC #17I think it's basically any gay romance/nsfw that gets kinda grouped under the label. People think it's less dicey than yaoi/yuri but they kinda blend over sometimes and the definitions get blurred. I've been on comic sites long before that label was even a thing lol skippyjoeskilling 2021-01-16 00:42:04 UTC #18I second that there should be BL about older men. Tbh, one of the unfortunate unspoken rules about what defines BL, and definitely about what BL gets popular, is that the characters have to be conventionally attractive. Especially to straight girls. Hopefully that'll change as more people write more diverse stuff (Long Exposure is one of the most popular comics on here and neither of the characters fit the typical BL prettyboy mold, which is great). But it's hard to find popular BL where the characters don't all look sort of the same. Teddy-Stonehill 2021-01-16 07:11:58 UTC #19Well, I know of a couple even just here on Tapas:CEO-san & Hisho-kun | TapasSeo Yutaka is a CEO of an IT company & the perfect gentleman. Behind his playboy appearance, he has another side of him that only his secretary, Hishokawa Tetsuo, knows about. This is a story about the daily interaction between the CEO & his...Something Important | TapasShort BL story. A successful businessman discovers his employee's big secret. It changes his life on 180 degrees.Office workers in their 30s are pretty common in BL in general. One particularly good one (that even has a live action drama adaptation on Crunchyroll) is:-Cherry Magic! 30 Years of Virginity Makes You a Wizard??A couple comics I know feature protagonists in their 40s are:-40 x 40 Chikuwa Kaigi-It Can't Be Mutual Love!!One that I can think of that has a protagonist who I'm pretty sure is in his 50s is:-Suki ni Nacchau YoThat's all the specific examples I can think of off the top of my head, but I read a lot of single-volume comics and then immediately forget what they were called lol.Stepping outside of BL comics specifically, I can also think of several movies from around the world that feature older gay couples. More than just The Birdcage. -Four More Years-An Almost Ordinary Summer-Love is Strange-Ideal Home-Uncle Frank-Twilight's Kiss(I remember more movie titles because I track the movies I watch more carefully than the comics I read lol)It's not actually an uncommon theme! I tend to seek out stuff about older couples, so there's definitely an audience for it if that's what you want to write. thedude3445 2021-01-16 09:44:18 UTC #20Hey, I found a really good article that details what I was trying to say about GL/Yuri's lack of a firm demographic:Yuri is for Everyone: An analysis of yuri demographics and readership - Anime...Throughout its 100-year history, yuri has uniquely evolved in and moved about multiple markets, often existing in many simultaneously. It is by and for a variety of people: men, women, heterosexuals, queer people, everyone!next page →