NEW YAOI ON SALE NOW!: The Boy Can’t Help It by Tei Hidou 

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NEW YAOI ON SALE NOW!: The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window V5 by Tomoko Yamashita 

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NEW YAOI ON SALE NOW!: Am I in Love or Just Hungry? by Akane Abe. Available digitally. Click here for FREE preview and purchase links.

Bought it! It’s rare for a BL to have me laughing on one page, uncomfortable the next, and :3 soon after.

Buy now before the retail price changes later this month! :O

I filled in my Blue Morning and Hidoku Shinaide collections. Still debating getting more.

We have the responses from our BL Community Questionnaire compiled for y’all on our site as a slideshow and for download as a PDF. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to give their responses. We’re overwhelmed with the amount of people who participated. We have everyone’s individual responses compiled, and our very own Nagareboshi took the time to quantify the data and summarize it up at the beginning for everyone. It’s quite interesting seeing the commonality among everyone and getting to know a bit about each of you individually. Enough rambling here, please enjoy what was shared! Let us know what you think. Happy 801, y'all!

I’m sure some people will fight me on this, but for real–Viktor Nikiforov at the beginning of YOI is probably the closest depiction of my experience of depression that I’ve ever seen in any media, including anything I’ve ever created.

* lack of interest/emotion * repeatedly forgetting important things (like promises to Yurio) * depression is triggered strongly by success * deals with it by deciding to–in a matter of hours–toss away a wildly successful career that is making him miserable to do something incredibly rewarding that his former colleagues think is a joke * incredibly good at faking it * ability to fake it only worsens depression * not parsed by anyone around him as depression because, heh, he’s not SAD and he’s SUCCESSFUL and how could he be depressed

There’s a lot of talk about Yuuri’s mental health issues, and those are amazing, but Viktor starts off the show in what reads to me as a pretty deep depression. Episode 10 and 11, when he’s finally experiencing emotions again, and is grounded in the moments that he is in, instead of free-floating outside them, are incredibly meaningful to me.

It took me more than 30 years to understand that what happened to me was depression, and I so rarely see depression as I experience it portrayed anywhere, so…

TL;DR this show is extraordinary.

I noticed an author I like referenced Yuri on Ice on Twitter (her name was Courtney!!! Milan). Turns out she’s posted on Tumblr about it a couple times, too!

いろいろlog １：キスの日 　昨日は日本ではキスの日なんだそうです 　なんか初めて日本でキスシーンのある映画が…とか…そういうのだったはず 　先輩はヒドイなーまた小宮に叱られちゃいましたね ２：電子配信用のお知らせ絵 　久しぶりに『放課後はいつもふたり』のカプを描いた！ ３：Dear+6月号のリレーエッセイ『モエパラ』載ってます！ 　大好きな碗島子先生からのタスキです☆ 　私は大好きな高野ひと深先生にタスキをお渡ししました！ 　是非是非見てください～！！

Aim was to get the Blue Sky Complex illustration book. Seeing as this one in particular is a part two, and neither of them come by themselves, the following are what all I got with them (had them for quite some time now). Putting the pics behind a read-more so the post doesn’t spam anyone’s dash > <.

Keep reading

Madeline Miller: The Song of Achilles

The complex and heartbreaking love of Patroclus and Achilles. 

The pace! Such a perfect build for their friendship, the growth of their relationship, their individual maturation, the war campaign… The evolution and fruition of every event, every appraisal, every expression, every reckoning was perfect.

There was not a single moment at which I wanted things to speed up. And that’s rare for me in regards to epics even though I love them.

Also, it’s been a while since I’ve had to pause in my progress because one of those moments were about to happen in a story. When that chill or hollowness descends upon you, you know it’s really about to fall apart.

When there was just over an hour left that moment approached and I was not brave. At all. 

I endured Patroclus’ seemingly never ending humiliation at the beginning; I suffered through his loneliness; I made it through the awkwardness of his and Achilles’ budding acquaintance, the fear brought on by their first kiss, the return of his loneliness and new desperation when they were separated the first time for Achilles’ training with Chiron, and the second when Achilles’ mother, Thetis, secreted her son away to Skyros. I stood by him in his fear each time he faced the unabashed disdain and contempt of Thetis. Sighed and considered biting my nails when he allowed himself to be led by Deidamia–because I thought this might be one of those moments, but it quickly passed. I even sided with him when he went to Agamemnon for the sake of Briseis and Achilles’ increasingly doubtful legacy. But when he went blind with misguided passion and hubris and could not scale the wall… I just couldn’t. My stomach flipped, like I had been called to receive my (deserved) punishment, but was made to wait while my mother finished some menial task to purposefully stall the inevitable.

I took a breather retold the story to myself and when I returned, I sat tensed with my bottom lip between my teeth and I endured once again. I felt Achilles’ despair before it really hit, but was quickly freed from it when Briseis spoke her peace. She was right. But again I was with Patroclus as he continued narrating. It was rather surreal and so very sad.

Neoptolemus, Achilles’ son, called Pyrrhus due to his flaming red hair came on the scene and it soured things for me. The story remained as engaging as ever, but the story took a sour turn. My heart broke when it reached the encounter between Pyrrhus and Briseis. And further when he–this son of Achilles who was called the next aristos Achaion by Thetis, this boy, just a boy in a man’s body with enough arrogance to spare–was addressed and counseled by an Odysseus who was urged by guilt. Something inside me screamed at his dismissal and cried for Patroclus and cried for all he endured because he never really learned to be spiteful and never developed a heart or body that could safely house or artfully wield the kind of antipathy that his contemporaries did.

I am such a fan of this retelling. It was cruel and tender and full of so many kinds of love and yearning and I need more stories that tell of relationships by telling of the people and less of the other way around.

Debuting at TCAF 2017 - My Brother’s Husband, Volume 1 by Gengoroh Tagame

Translated by Anne Ishii Published by Pantheon Books

From one of Japan’s most notable manga artists: a heartbreaking and redemptive tale of mourning and acceptance that compares and contrasts the contemporary nature of gay tolerance in the East and the West

Yaichi is a work-at-home suburban dad in contemporary Tokyo, married to wife Natsuki, father to young daughter Kana. Their lives are suddenly upended with the arrival at their doorstep of a hulking, affable Canadian named Mike Flanagan, who declares himself the widower of Yaichi’s estranged gay twin, Ryoji. Mike is on a quest to explore Ryoji’s past, and the family reluctantly but dutifully takes him in. What follows is an unprecedented, revelatory look at and journey into the largely still-closeted Japanese gay culture: how it’s been affected by the West, and how the next generation has the chance to change the preconceptions of and prejudices against it.

“When a cuddly Canadian comes to call, Yaichi—a single Japanese dad—is forced to confront his painful past. With his young daughter Kana leading the way, he gradually rethinks his assumptions about what makes a family. Renowned manga artist Gengoroh Tagame turns his stunning draftsmanship to a story very different from his customary fare, to delightful and heartwarming effect.” —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

COME SEE @tagagen at @torontocomics y’all! 

NEW YAOI TITLE ON SALE NOW! Don’t Be Cruel: Akira Takanashi’s Story by Yonezou Nekota. Available in PRINT and DIGITAL! Click here for a FREE preview and to buy.

Yamashita Tomoko Ohanashi Hon: Interview 1.1: Basically, anything goes.

Yamashita Tomoko, Ohanashi Hon

Interview One: He really exists! The pub owner of dreams! PART 1

Basically, “Anything goes”.

Interviewer: You published your first comic in 2007. How was that year? 

Yamashita: Well, that year I was like, “I guess I’ll give it my all?”. I started to receive regular comic work, so I quit my part-time job.

I: How did you feel when you published your first comic?

Y: It wasn’t a particularly poignant moment. I basically have an “anything goes” attitude. So much so that my editor got mad at me for it! He/she asked me if I had any requests regarding job topics, and when I replied, “anything,” the editor got mad at me, like, “’Anything’?! Again?!”

I: What was it that got you to write BL in the first place?

Y: I guess I ended up writing a story I wanted to read. I started reading BL around middle school, and I felt that that the most common topics in BL, that most people were really hot for, weren’t really my thing. So eventually I stopped reading them.

I: Is that when you first experienced BL?

Y: Yes. There was a period of time during middle school when I wanted to read anything if it was manga. I think that’s when I encountered it as a genre.

I: Is that when you started wanting to become a manga artist?

Y: Not necessarily. Even now, I don’t care what I do for a living, as long as I can survive. But I like making manga.

I: Did you always love drawing?

Y: Yes, always. There were a lot of times during that period where I’d daydream about stories for manga, but I hadn’t yet gotten to a place where I could actually concretely write it down. I started drawing manga properly quite late, actually. Maybe when I was 20 years old? I somehow started teaching myself how to draw it, and even now, I don’t quite know how to draw manga the “proper way”.

I: What was the turning point where you decided to draw manga?

Y: In general, I don’t really have big turning points or epiphanies in my life. What’s more, I don’t usually remember them (laugh). At the time, I think I just decided to start drawing it. When I started drawing it, I was able to properly write it into a manuscript, and I submitted it (trans: to newcomer contests) to test myself. That was the extent of it, and I actually did submit a few works to them. Though, I wasn’t really concerned about BL or other genres when I was creating. I’m not really tied to genres, so at the time, I really just went with whatever urge I had to draw at the time.

I: Was the debut tied to your submissions?

Y: I actually don’t know if that’s the case! Maybe my doujinshi were the reason. Tokyo Manga Publisher saw my doujinshi and graciously contacted me, but… Maybe the story that was included in an anthology— “God’s Name is Night” may have been my debut work. That story happened because an editor saw my website and reached out to me.

I: When did you start your doujinshi career?

Y: Around the same time I started drawing manga.

I: I only remember you doing original works in doujinshi, but were you doing some doujinshi work before that? (trans: doujinshi are usually fan works of an existing show/manga).

Y: No; I started my doujinshi career with original works. I didn’t know what doujinshi were before that, and I didn’t read them. That was just about the time I got internet in the house, so I learned about the existence of doujinshi over the internet, and thought, I could do this myself… Again, there’s definitely no epiphanies or anything this time (laugh). I do have a memory, though, of not knowing anything about making a book or printing or anything like that, so I asked a friend who was knowledgeable about these things to teach me.

I: You were discovered from your manuscripts and doujinshi, and your website; this opened the doors to being a pro. How did you deal with these changes in your circumstances?

Y: I wasn’t really… Sorry, this is just the way I am! I was of course glad that I was thought of highly. I generally thought since I worked so hard, at least one person would think it was good… Whenever my manuscript wouldn’t win an award or some such, I’d just think, I didn’t try hard enough…

I: Since you’ve been a pro this whole time, and you’ve been drawing manga that you love as much as you want, have you felt any changes?

Y: When it was only me drawing the manga, the storyboard only needed to be understood by me, and it didn’t matter if it was just a memo, basically. But since now I have to do it as a job, I drew it properly so that my editor can understand it as well.  I suppose that changed. Especially, my editor at Tokyo Manga Publisher always gave me thorough comments and corrections, it was worth making the proper storyboards. (Turning to the editor, seated next to her): Look, I just said nice things about you.

I: Since there’s no editor for dounjinshi. 

Y: Different from doujinshi, with commercial comic magazines, you don’t know who your readers are. Even if I get letters from readers, it’s not like I can see their faces. There’s definitely some distance there. Writing for an unspecified large number of people scares me, so instead, I aim to have my editor say my stories are interesting. 

I: The existence an editor seems to be a particularly important role for you.

Y: I’m not particularly good at making friends or being close to people, but I consider my communications with my editor inordinately important. I think of my editor as someone I have to trust, and that’s sort of the feeling I have towards him/her. I end up putting distance between myself and others, so with my editor, I try not to do that so much. I’m prepared to go force my way into his/her space, if I need to.

-End of part 1-