I have heard a lot about older BL series that were "old fashioned." I've also heard that no one wants to translate them, but that there used to be a lot of them. I can't seem to find them though.

I can read Japanese, so it is okay if there are no scans/translations. I can buy the volumes if you think I would like it.

My favorites are Golden Days and No. 6. I would really like series like this, where the love story goes alongside an exciting plot. I would like for the boys to have an emotional connection where they help each other overcome problems. They should be equals or close to being equals. I also like strong female characters. I don't like it when the only girls are love rivals and such. It is best when at least one of the boys has a good female friend or mother he is close to. I also prefer the stories to be a little sad.

Some others I have enjoyed are Thomas no Shinzou, La Esperança, and stuff by Bikke, like Shinkuu Yuusetsu. I wouldn't say I loved these, though. I felt like they were missing a little something.

I have also read Seven Days and Doukyuusei. I liked them, but I probably don't want to read more like them (it would get old after a while).

I don't like a lot of sex. It needs to be PG-13 or under. I an example of the upper limit for me is New York New York. (That one also had good female characters).

Last edited by meredithbecca at 5:05 pm, May 14 2016

While not "old fashioned" the BL Manga "A Night of a Thousand Dreams" focuses a lot on the story, since it's a retelling of "Arabian Nights," but with a BL Twist.

"Gravitation" is one of the older BL series out there. It's not action packed, but is more well known for it's comedy and randomness.

"Fake" is really old fashioned and HIGHLY regarded in the BL community. It's about two cops that form a relationship and has two sex scenes in it near the end. It can be confusing at times because it does love to switch between the present and future in order to focus on other characters other than the two cops.

"Animal X" is an older series as well. It's very... interesting. It does have a bit of sex and rape in it (which most of those scenes actually have a lot of importance to the plot and not just random). It's also not as graphic compared to other yaoi series.



Last edited by Angelrose6 at 6:27 pm, May 14 2016

I definitely second A Night of a Thousand Dreams. It's great.

Slice-of-life-ish:
Antique Bakery
Dear Green
Mirai no Kioku (if you want some dark BL stuff, you can also try her Itsuka Ame ga Furu You ni)
Otona no Mondai (not really "BL" more like family comedy with a gay dad)

"Exciting" Plot:
Canis
Ciel (the BL side-plot is fairly peripheral though)
Tokyo Babylon (and its sequel X)

You could also try some of Hayakawa Nojiko's stuff. They're very much like Seven Days/Doukyuusei in terms of plot, but her amazing paneling more than makes up for it. (I personally really like her Endou-kun no Kansatsu Nikki and Kurayami ni Strobe.)

I'm honestly not sure if any of these are "old-fashioned." I basically just picked the ones I liked, oops.

P.S. Most requests for BL/GL go in the Yaoi/Yuri forum, though I agree that what you're asking is a bit different than that forum's usual requests...

Thanks for all the recommendations.

I have looked at both Night of a Thousand Dreams and Gravitation before (I was planning to read Gravitation soon, actually). I have seen Canis around, but I think I will wait until it is finished before I think about starting it.

I have already started reading Ciel and Tokyo Babylon. I'm liking both so far, but I can't finish Ciel because I can't read Korean and they stopped publishing it in Japanese around volume 3 or so. I'll just have to wait for the English scans to finish.

Otona no Mondai looks cute, I will read that one. I have been planning on watching the Antique Bakery anime, but I think I will read the manga instead.

The Hayakawa Nojiko manga look like they have very pretty art - they might be worth reading just for that.

I'm not sure about Animal X, it looks a little too strange for me. I tend to try to avoid anything with rape in it (I am okay with it as a backstory and stuff, but it's hard to tell with just the categories). I also tend to avoid things with seme/uke in the categories, because that implies to me that it is too descriptive.