I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT YAOI WAS. and I didn't look it up either. Just saw a manga with good art, didn't know what yaoi meant, searched up the manga, got confused, became addicted. Honestly, I'm okay with it. Not yuri though, but I think it's just a girl thing. Girls don't really like yuri, but they like yaoi, and guys don't really like yaoi, but they like yuri. Unless they're gay, which isn't a problem either. But still. It's fictional characters. So it was just the art. I like good art. All the characters that are guys that I make up are either cross-dressers, bishies, or somewhat girly because I can't draw so-called "handsome" guys (shoujo, but not too shoujo). Anyway, that's it, I guess. The art?? Meh, I just like them now. Believe it or not, people, they have good plots, too, sometimes!!!!!

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Weirdest story ever. I have always hated shoujo manga and anime, so I was searching the web looking for an action anime. As I was looking, I came upon Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi and decided t watch it. It never came to mind that it was a BL. I was so stuck on it, I finished it in two days. Then I beagn to look for more anime, and when I was done watching all bl anime, I moved on to manga.

Usually, starting with manga, people start with light sounen-ai, but I started with Love Prism by TOHJOH Asami. It was so scary because this manga has everything from incest to bondage, which sort of traumatized me.

Now my favorite genres include: threesome, possessive lover, yakuza, but I never watch S&M, because it scares me.



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Wow, your story and mine in how you discovered and got hooked onto yaoi is actually really similar!

....Actually, it's the exact same thing. LOL

So yea, when I discovered what manga is and started to borrow it from my library, I tore through each series so quick and moved on to the next one like lightning. But when I picked up Hana Kimi, I savoured every volume, every page, every word, of the series.

Now that I looked back, I was mildly disappointed that the main protagonist was a girl. And I always wondered what would happen if she turned out to be a guy.

But it wasn't until years later that I discovered another whole genre out there: YAOI.

I stumbled on Sweet - Ano Amai Amai Aji by accident. I thought the art was amazing and I was thinking "eh, why not". And then hook, line, and sinker, I was sucked into the dark pits of yaoi Hell. And it didn't help that my best friend was also a yaoi fan before me and she actually used the phrase "come over to the dark side, we have cookies" in order to convince me. And when she actually offered me real cookies AND milk I was like, "Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu"

From then on, I discovered doujinshis through Katekyou Hitman Reborn! because I was desperate to see some action between Byakuran and Mukuro.

I discovered fanfics because my friend writes it for certain fandoms (her writing is very good, she gets like 100% on essays..)

And here I am, four years later, still hooked and probably never gonna get tired of it.
It's gotten to the point where I can't pick up a shojou, shounen, or any genre except yaoi and shounen-ai manga anymore.

Shoujos... There are some really good ones, like Lovely Complex. But that's just it. I think what made me loose interest in shoujos all together is because of Vampire Knight (sorry to any fans out there).

So yep! That's my story

Last edited by xXTsukiXx at 10:24 am, Apr 18 2014

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Let me start by saying that I think you phrased your question in a very curious way usually the question goes like this: what was your first BL anime/manga -or- how did you find BL to begin with. However, you speak of initial "reactions" to male-on-male action, and when you put it like that I think the issue gets far more interesting -- haha sorry, over thinking here.

After giving it some thought I don't think I ever had a specific interest in love relationships in my anime (or anything, really) before I came across with BL. The closest thing to a couple that I cheered on was in Sailor Moon, Haruka and Michiru, who in the dubbed version weren't even a couple

I guess there was always something in heterosexual love, in fiction that is, that would put me off though. For instance: my dolls were never married and they never dated (they were cool ), plus I was never into the "prince and princess" part in Disney movies (which were/are a great part of my child- youth- adulthood). Also, when my mother showed me those kid-friendly versions of Shakespeare my favourite story was always As You Like It because Rosalind dressed as a boy and Orlando had to woo "him" (I love it to this day!).

Then, when I watched Digimon Adventure for the first time I got really into the whole deal of true friendship and the tightening of bonds between the group, which consisted mainly of boys. I loved Izzy and Matt but for some reason Matt was always with Tai -- fighting and making amends, fighting and making amends. I loved it. It became such an important thing all of a sudden. Wherever Tai went I was always thinking how could that affect Matt if they were not together LOL.

On a subconscious level I guess I always preferred the alternative to heterosexual love --- that or no love at all. When I found BL (through a friend) I was not for a second weirded out by it. It was more like a click, like "Aha! So this does exist after all. It is possible after all"



I'm an heterosexual woman myself and despite Haruka and Michiru from Sailor Moon I never felt any inclination towards GL. As for BL, as soon as I found it, I couldn't let go of it. A friend introduced me to Gravitation and when I saw there were other possibilities (like fanfiction and doujin) I immediately rescued Matt and Tai. Then came Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts and--by Gaia--I had succumbed

It was only really, really recently that I started to take a genuine interest in heterosexual love but even so, not to the extent I probably should o.o I guess...

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Of the player and the craftsman,
Of the writer of songs, of the creator of love,
Of those who will follow, of those who led,
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Well the way I got interested is a friend showed me a yaoi manga at first I was not interested but then I got curious and looked some up and I have like yaoi ever since.

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For the life of me, I cannot remember how I got started on BL. My friends were into slash fiction at the time, but I remember not being into those. All I remember was that I liked the harder yaoi from the start.

It's either I got tired of shoujo cliches (shoujo heroines =_=) or wanted something sexier than shoujo smut. By my guess, I had a lot of kinks I want to see that shoujo/josei doesn't usually cover. (Stuff like incest, rape, BDSM etc.)

I lived in holland where homosexuality is a big deal at all so I didn't really understand the gay or straight thing and when I was ten I was watching anime on YouTube and I ended up watching Sukisho which was shounen ai, I liked it so I continued watching the recommended until I got around to reading shounen ai manga then eventually yaoi. I still can't stand bara though and the uke should be able to pass off as a girl - Sam

My friend kept reading yaoi fanfiction in school so I tried it when I got home and became obsessed - Tammy

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Recommend me horror , yaoi and shoujo manga please

Heehee I kinda just fell into it actually. I was watching manga on you tube and one video caught my attention because I thought it was just smut, so I clicked it.
I saw the " This is yaoi" warning but I was all " I don't know what that is but I'm gonna find out." So I watch the video and I started seeing the two guys, from Mogura Taiyou by Naono Bohra, kissing and I was first thinking " Omg guys are... Kissing!!!" Then I thought, " wow, it's getting kinda hot around here!" (^•^) and I was hooked after that. *giggle* This was three years ago but I'm still sold on yaoi love c:

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Lovely words tell me the most ;3

If we're talking about the time BEFORE I got into BL... I think one word will do quite nicely - Bromance.
I love it. Still do.
And BL... is kinda taking bromance to the next level? ...Maybe. xD

The real start however was with fanfiction. I read One Piece, got obsessed, read its fanfiction, ran out of gen fanfics, out of curiosity started on ZoSan and then BAM. I got so hooked. It went from ZoSan to MarcoAce to KiddLaw and then only after exhausting the fanfic supply did I move on to actual manga.

Interestingly, I've found that I read BL mostly for the story. It's the relationship dynamics that really attracts me, rather than the prospect of hot guys making out. It's the sense of equal strength and rawness(for lack of better term) you get when both parties are guys (hence I tend to stay away from BLs with super-girly ukes). In terms of that One Piece yaoi pairings are honestly the best.

That said, I do still love my shoujo with its fluffy and sweet storylines, which kinda contradicts my taste in BL. Thinking about it, I have very different expectations when I read BL and shoujo, so there's no direct comparison of these two genres for me, and in the end which I feel like reading is really dependent on my mood.

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OVAs Zetsuai, Bronze, and Lesson xx brought my interests in BL to light. It was mostly Zetsuai that did it though. I must have been 13 or 14 when I saw them and Zetsuai really struck something in me. I thought the story was so sad and the very beginning scene really entranced me plus I liked the music in it. The ending song "Saishuushou" from Bronze left a deep impact on me as well.
Then I started reading some yaoi/shounen ai and watching some more as well. It probably wasn't until I started reading Junjou Romantica that the amount of yaoi I read increased though. Before that I had not read that many yaoi/shounen ai manga and I was not as into it.

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Remembrance, a forsaken thing that revokes ignorance and leaves people in doubt, is my only redemption and solace deep within the cascade of white.
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The evergreen trees speak of days long past when music mingled with the wind and sweet murmurs brushed our cheeks.

How I got into BL?
It was last summer vacation. Me and my family were going to a trip somewhere by car. I was bored of course, sitting in a car for hours isn't at least my cup of tea. I tried to search for some new shoujos to read, but couldn't find anything interesting, I was kind of fed up with the whole genre. It was then when I began to wonder. Why are yaoi and shounen-ai so popular with girls? Why do I keep seeing them everywhere on this site? Back then I had thoughts like, how can people get into something like that? I wasn't disgusted, but I still kept excluding them when searching for something new. But, back to the point. I was bored so I decided to try reading a yaoi, thinking that it would be the first and last time. I proved to be really wrong.

Well, I used to read only shoujo/josei manga when I was in my "romance manga mood", then I kind of run out of manga (I felt like I've read it all) so I tried some yaoi/shounen-ai... and realized that I don't really care whether it's love between 2 men or woman and a man, I just want a good story
I'm not reading only yaoi/shounen-ai, there are actually only few genres that I don't like, but I guess I just... broadened my manga reading pool


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Before I got into BL/GL I kind of looked down on it since all I'd heard of were the "rabid yaoi fangirls" and whatnot giving it a bad rep.
I suppose it started when I read a manga not realising it was shounen ai (only had really light hints though) and from the similar recommendations here read another one which was more explicitly shounen ai. I thought it was pretty different and cool after all. So that's where it started initially.
After a few years (like 2 or something) I became more mature and realised I actually liked reading about non-cliched relationships, especially when they weren't all trope-y (super cute girl character; cool, calm and collected male character), and this was especially prevalent in some BL/GL. Relationships where the main leads are actually on equal footing with each other (this is what bothered me about some relationships in popular shoujo which had the male character so much more talented and basically better in every way than the "clumsy, cute" female lead). I'm not a fan of all BL/GL though, especially the ones where heteronormativity is still present (crybaby uke; dark, tall handsome seme or cute, clumsy, cute girl; dark-haired, calm beauty etc.), and my favourite BL feature potentially seke couples, eg. Junketsu Drop and Kyuuso wa Cheese no Yume o Miru.

Last edited by Nirachu at 4:09 am, Jun 16 2014

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Yu Wo is my favourite genre.

wall for me,i was watching anime in you tube when i came across a video ofYami no Matsuei
not really the anime but an amv.i was in this video there was some really close moments for me(the is beyond friendship i thought).so from time to time i type the same title and tada i have a lot of recommendations videos ,also i came across a video which i know now a yuri.it didn't intersted me like the first so i became adicted to just whatching this types of anime's genre,in the begining it was (wich i know noow shounen ai.
a day i was watching an episode of naruto i don't remeber which one,(but it was about naruto and sasuke hehe that'smost of why i am still interested in this manga )it made me impatient for the next events.i read some comments about what will happen next they mentened the kay word manga after a not soo long search i found naruto and read it .and i was 'hey maybe i can find some of ,you know,heeh)
that was it for me o come in the paradise of yaoi.
i tried to read/watch some yuribut didn't like it much
from then i started reading mangas ,i am addicted to mangas now(mostly:yaoi,shounen ai,bromance) .and i rarely whatch anime
haaaaaaaaaaah that is it for me

That was a pretty bad yaoi to start with. I read that a year or so after reading yaoi so it didn't bother me too much but it really did take yaoi cliches and push them to the extreme. The S&M definitely bordered on torture in those last couple chapters. That mangaka was definitely in a dark episode when they drew it up.