Is it good when something feels like out of a shoujo manga? Lol I'm sorry I haven't read any shoujo yet
Faded first love :) u should really check it out its so good! Its the same artist Ore monogatari
Are you the one who commented that one too earlier? Haha I'm already planning to read it. Thanks
Oop not the same person apparently sorry lol
Koimonogatari
Ramune no shalala
(or in general the works by tagura tohru)
Thanks
o-o What a weird request. I'm confused.
Totsugimasen Kara!
About the same, just tend to be more raunchy (but still super romanticized like a shoujo). I switched to reading BL thinking the characters would be more equal since they're the same sex. But no, it's exactly the same.
I really hate that about bl. Have you come across a BL that goes against that trope?
They're going to fall into those tropes one day or another lol. It's really about how well they use it. Your reading list is pretty good. Have you tried reading Yukue Moegi or Ueda Aki?
Ones that don't focus on the romance are good, too. I had one more but it just went out of my head lol.
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/everyday_is_a_good_day/
Some recs (I read older protags) from me.
This one is authored by a guy that taps into shoujo vibes strongly, but it's pretty nice. The author mentions in his notes that the female editor went ham on the revisions: https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/kitto_oujisama_ga_nante/
At the other end of the spectrum is a guy author with a very BL atypical work because he posted it in pixiv first and got very popular (meaning, it didn't go through a BL editor):
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/the_honest_life_of_a_game_studio/
There is a big difference, starting by the format.
- Usually, BL manga has less trame : you know, the flowers, sparkling all over the place.
- Things are usually straightforward, because the community is looking for some high tension betwen the main cast unlike shoujo.
- It tends to cruder than shoujo.
- It gives the juicy contents.
- Drama tends to be less melodramatic than shoujo.
- You almost never come across the obvious tropes such as : Imma gonna be late better take my bread and knock over my lover-to-be, or the childhood friend never wins...
Or the extremely innocent airhead Uke who gets bullied 'cause they stand too much by just existing... RARE tropes you'll barely see in BL.
- It's dude things. Guys talking more openly about first time or their right hand. This is the crude part.
If I should make a comparison. Shoujo is like a tea party with your little sister and BL, is like pizza party in your room with your friends. Not all shoujo are like that, but the classical "by the book" tend to follow that logic. Of course, shoujo that are not focused on romance is another one.
Romance focused shoujo make it hard to attain the goal : confession. Romance focused BL make it hard to sustain the goal : remain in relationship.
Just the idea of straightforwardness. It less cheesy as well. Cheesiness is such a turn with shoujo, even shonen-ai are not that cheesy.
Interestingly, the ones that portray equal power dynamic between the uke and seme are those that don't have an uke and seme lol. Those stories have characters that are verse or seke in bl terms. It's just sad that a majority of them have terrible stories. Anyways, I'll try your suggestions. Thanks!
Hmm I guess I'm looking in the wrong place? Maybe it's not shoujo that I'm looking for but a certain style of writing? There's this type of conversations that some authors put in their stories where they put additional unimportant but interesting dialogs on the side of the plot-important dialogs. I'm not sure if I described it clearly lol. Example would be one of the mcs saying something plot-important to the other, and the author would put a throwaway dialog like him asking the other to pass him the food or something. I've seen this a lot in Sasaki to Miyano, Ao no Flag, and most manga by Nagisa Furuya. I like it a lot because it adds casualness and homey feeling to the story. I assume it would be common to shoujo manga since the authors have the freedom to do so since shoujo manga seem to run a lot longer compared to bls. Is there a term for that style?
I mean, romance is still romance. Should the difference be drastic?
I am under the assumption that an average romance shoujo is better written than an average bl... Is that wrong?
I wouldn't read an average shoujo (manga) in the first place.
Tea-time quality. The trames used is just suffocating.
Average shoujo is really "go by the tropes". If you have read or watched plenty shoujo, at some, you can tell the story apart by few chapters and get bored soon. Well, if you like the setting and all, you might find more "delicate" or "subtle" in terms of development.
For myself, I like pragmatism and BL is delivering me what I want. The story is usually straighforward. Unlike Shoujo Romance whose demography is mostly young girls interested in blossomy love story, BL is fueling some "fantasy" of the fujoshi and fudanshi - literally mean depraved. This is the average kind of BL : the writing gives you exactly what you want "efficiently" and cheesiness that "the girls universe implies".
Shoujo will more likely be a slow burn compared to BL. I wouldn't say it's better written, but average one are well codified (by the tropes) with plenty years of market study. And for BL, it is written in a way to serve its purpose with intensity factor. It's not a matter of who is better written that the others, they have their own things. It's like trying to argue over Chicken being better than Beef.
without cheesiness*
There is still that inherent who tops when riba characters started to show up--better nowadays but still not in a good level. Japanese fujoshi are very particular about who tops in the relationship based on a man/woman dichotomy. Which is why I state that BL inherently follows the beats of shoujo (and josei) romance. It's not a hard conclusion to get to. BL came about because authors weren't allowed to put sexual content in shoujo.
BL is even made worse now with the popularity of Western Fandom tropes like Omegaverse and Dom/Sub. Goes back to even more misogyny and power imbalance. It's just they the other woman is masquerading as a guy.
To the other comment you responded to, do you mean slice of life? Or something introspective? https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/koudaike_no_hitobito/ would something like this be what you're talking about? (This is josei, romance is a sub-plot, but the main characters get together very early, so it's more the characters spending time with each other and revealing their backstop.)
Do shoujo manga feel different than bl manga? Can anyone recommend me a bl manga that feels like a shoujo?