Well, I too am a big believer in story. It’s hard for me to find something hot if time isn’t taken to develop the characters compellingly — at least a little. And if it’s just all about sex — without any interesting plotting, well, then, I kind of feel about those stories the same way I feel about comedies that are trying too hard to make me laugh — resistant.

(I know I’m a little unusual in this regard. Many folks aren’t big fans of “laugh tracks” in sitcoms, but I really don’t like them. And in truth, it’s a rare sitcom that really holds my interest. I’m much more interested in watching a drama that has lots of smart humor than a show that is doing anything it can to make me laugh. And I feel the same way about my romance and erotica: create a comic that is just about trying to turn me on and I’ll often just shrug my shoulders; tell me a great story that also happens to be really hot and I’m yours.)

Now, I know that there are those who would argue that there are Western gay comics that have plot. I think Tina has recommended Babyface (but I haven’t read it) . I can think of various gay comedy strips that have plot and there’s Max & Sven , which was entertaining and had plot/character development (but really was more of a newspaper serial than a true graphic novel.)

I suppose the truth is, I’m not really aware of any plot-driven Western gay male comics — my favorite gay comic growing up was always Alison Bechdel’s Dykes To Watch Out For — but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Perhaps another reader would care to step up with some recommendations?

Anyway, thank you very much for stopping by and commenting. Hope to see you again here soon.

@artdjmaster -

That’s interesting, Oliver — and good that you provide the other side of the equation. Me, I need the story, but I can understand that for others it would be a… distraction. There’s a reason why the majority of Western gay comics just focus on “the good stuff”. I suppose my goal with Yaoi 911 is just to fill in the gap for the rest of us, who want the hot sex and an engaging plot.

Cheers!

If I want a good story, I usually look for notable shonen-ai (hopefully, that term still means ‘tame Yaoi’). When sex is not involved, I usually find I pay attention to the story better. Otherwise, if there’s sex, I skip to those pages and then I’m done with it, heh heh Then I fall asleep *wink wink*

it’s not just about sex…it can be dramatic, funny, romantic yet pornographic…hehehehe…

my favorite of all the bara comics are the works of takeshi matsu (am i right with the name? hehehehe)…

so keep up the good work guys…

btw, this blog really helps me a lot in connection with the topic!!!

good day!

You’re very welcome! I feel so grateful to the readers of this blog and our comics, that I’m always delighted when I can actually provide a service to them. How to Find Bara in English is something that I’ve been updating as I’ve found more sites and will continue to update in the future, so it’s worth checking back to every now and then.

(And as our comics will most likely straddle both worlds, I find the genre of bara pretty fascinating too…)

Thanks for the props and for letting me know you found it useful!

This entry on “How to Find Bara in English” and “What is Bara?” along with Tina Anderson’s comments and her GGY entry on Bara are all entries that I find myself stumbling back to constantly in my internet travels. I find them all very helpful, clear and extremely useful. They are also fun-to-read while helping me know more of this genre which fascinates me.

Thanks for that!

By the way, I’m curious, which manga did you like the best?

Originally Posted By artdjmaster
Wow, great new site makeover!

Hey, thanks! Yeah, it was time for a change. I’d been looking around for some time for a new look that would be right for the blog, but I hadn’t found anything until I stumbled across this theme. I’m still going through and dusting off a few of the bugs, but so far, I’m really liking it too.

I’m really glad you posted this article, because Yaoi has not been turning me on at all. That’s why I sort of moved on to other non-Yaoi manga. Bara manga seems to be the type of manga I’ve wanted all this time, but why isn’t there an English Bara manga publisher?

I’m glad you liked the article. I don’t have a crystal ball or anything, but I’m betting in a few years (or less) you will see some English-language bara publishers. Publishing is a dangerous, expensive, high-risk undertaking — and a potential publisher wants to make sure there is actual interest in a genre before committing resources. There was a growing fandom for yaoi in the West for a number of years before English-language publishers took the plunge. I imagine the same thing will happen with bara — it’s just too hot not to get noticed, right?

(Also, creator Tina Anderson has clued me into the fact that bara is actually becoming a fairly popular genre even in Japan which I think is another promising sign.)

Thanks for the great links! After looking through those links, I had to go to my room and settle down a bit before I could come back to my computer!

Yeah, I had to, ahem, “settle down” a bit too after reading some of those comics. They’re a lot of fun. I’d definitely recommend downloading some of the work from Digiket — it’s not super-expensive and it’d be a great way to support the creators in making more of that manga you find hot.

And, as this blog is all about the inclusiveness, I will try to write more articles/reviews about bara as I come across them. And if you find anything in your journeys, please stop back here and let us know!

Alex

P.S. Happy to link to your blog. Hopefully, you’ll find some yaoi soon that’s more to your tastes — and certainly no reason why you couldn’t review the bara as well.

P.S. Thanks for the menonyaoi plug on your blogroll! I haven’t really been posting on it lately, though, ’cause I stopped reading Yaoi…

Thank you very much for sharing your experience and those links. Very much appreciated!

Another good place to grab some titles would be JPQueen.com. It’s mostly yaoi content but they do have some bara stuff. I once ordered 8kgs worth of books there and it arrived safely. Haven’t been getting stuff there lately since RS tries to stock faster.

I once tried this store - http://www.aclimatesolution.com/ - with great results. They were able to find me hard to find manga though somewhat expensive given than both RS and JPQueen don’t have them. Their other manga are mostly mainstream and at great prices. Warning on the shipping costs though since this is from Japan.