This manga is published in a seinen magazine and it's not marketed as BL (this particular distinction is important, because seinen BL does exist! "10 dance" and "what did you eat yesterday?" are published in seinen magazines AND are marketed as BL), this was also explained by the author last year on Twitter (this was actually very interesting, but going further right now would be falling off-topic lol). Queerness and any sort of exploration around that theme is not enough to put a manga title under the BL umbrella because marketing is also another relevant aspect, especially in the manga industry! Where even BL magazines are looking to reach broader audiences (instead of going the usual shojo/shonen/josei/seinen demography route) in the country by becoming kind of it's own demography (liiittle by liiittle, since this is something that is lowkey still in the starting line)
And please... It's 2025, no magazine has used the "shonen ai" or "yaoi" tag in DECADES. The correct term is BL! This broken telephone game people has been playing since the 90s (especially in the west) has been explained over and over!. And no, BL is not a new "tiktok/social media" term or something like that. You can even check out for books about this subject if you are on the nerdy side of this hobbie, it's very interesting!
Having said that, have a happy reading! And buy the manga or any sort of merchandise if it's licensed in your language and in your possibilities ヾ(☆▽☆) at the end of the day we are all dogs in god's hot car lmao
You made some good points in your statement and I agree with you on some of them. But mangago.zone is not a magazine and the tags for genres are not assigned here on a scientific basis, but should indicate as well as possible what the themes of the respective manga are. And although it's true that Shonen Ai has become a bit outdated as a term and has been replaced by the term BL, I think it's very appropriate here as a genre designation. Shonen Ai refers to a genre that is about a spiritual or more emotional relationship and its development between two boys. And that fits extremely well as a rough definition for the relationship between Hikaru and Yoshiki. However, the two have no relationship that would justify the term BL as a genre designation for the manga series, I agree with you. However, it must also be said that there are very small, subtle echoes here and there that any experienced BL reader will recognize as such. But these are not enough to justify BL as a genre. So once again, I think it's very apt to specify Shonen Ai as ONE of the genres.
Manga maybe has no direction for BL, especially hor they market it. But the anime, judging by the trailers. It certainly implied the deep connection between two boys. A connection that not an ordinary friend could have. Especially in that trailer they made a time frame for words of confession between them to be clearly emphasized.
You can call It whatever you want, but at the end of the day it would still be desinformation. Mangago may not be a magazine (It's an island in the middle of the seven seas after all lmao), but there's many people that would like to actually learn. I won't try to change your mind and neither is my intention to go berserk over this subject and tell you "go study!" or something like that, because even for me, that I collect manga in real life like plenty of users here, this is just a fun hobbie. But trying to keep insisting on incorrect tags just because some people were playing broken telephone game years ago would not change the actual facts. That would just be enabling ignorance (in a general sense, I'm not blaming you or going after you specifically) and manga reading is still book reading, there's stuff to learn even from the boring or technical aspects of It.
Manga and Anime (adaptations specifically, even tho there's less and less original anime that does not come from manga/light novels/etc) market themselves in different ways and most of the time use different methods to approach its target audiences, so that's kind of a totally different discussion. Anime tends to become entirely its own thing even while doing a faithfull adaptation of its original source. Monochrome Factor anime is the first thing that comes to my mind (and one of the most in your face ones lmao) as an example of anime comitees doing whatever they want hahahaha because anime is a different spectrum and médium.
I think your opinion about 'broken telephone game' is incorrect.
While magazine you talking about isn't make a 'Shounen Ai' or 'Yaoi' tag, doesn't mean the limited tags they used is the only true tags or even an official tags. After all, tags is used for giving a character or information about the works. Why the need to limit that just because the company who published this area of works has limited tags.
Readers need to differentiate Boys Love into categories. One put an importance in feelings and relationship instead of desire in the form of physical contact, while the other put a physical contact is part of the important way to show feelings. Therefore people have the tags of 'Shounen Ai' and 'Yaoi'. To differentiate what kind of BL will be served to readers.
Shonen ai is a historical phase, yaoi was a term for works of similar line" in doujinshi/fanzine circles (having said that, it's also important to keep in mind that not all m/m doujinshis contain graphic depictions of sex, so that subject also has its own complexities) not serialized works. The meaning of the acronym comes as a sort of self mocking label that became popular in the 80s to separate works that were not published commercialky. Serialization (publishing contracts) is what separated yaoi from BL, not the existente (or lack) of erostism. And this is something that has been studied by academics in Japan and even outside. It's a broken telephone game as long as people insists in, once again, spread desinformation. No one is going to tell you to go and educare yourself if you don't want to, but the medium is the medium and even when it evolves (because everything does, no matter if its takes decades) its historical facts should be respected.
Now, if anyone is interested in this subject (because is actually a very fun one!) you can learn about BL and its evolution from plenty of sources. Some of my favorite ones are these:
In English:
- The book "Boys love manga and beyond" is available in physical and digital formats. It's a collections of papers and essays that were nurtured from a workshop organized by Oita University and Wollongong's Institute. This book not only focuses on history, but also opens about other topics like representation, representational appropiation and even japanese politics.
- BL with Akiko, a youtube chanel, although it's more focused on interviewing BL mangakas.
In Spanish:
- Pro Shōjo Spain is a divulgation group (as its name suggests, their focus is female oriented demographycs) that has done conferences about the origins and evolution of BL (since its origins are heavily related to shōjo manga) you can actually watch those conferences in their YouTube chanel.
Happy reading! ヾ(☆▽☆)
It doesn't matter what you believe when general agreement fixed with the same ideas. After all, tags purposely to give information about the works that readers gonna read. Why the need to limit readers when there's a way to tell what the works gonna be.
Well, what can I say. You're right about the terms and I also know about the history and development of the terms BL, Yaoi and Shonen Ai and can agree with you that the tag Shonen Ai is not quite correct here on a scientific basis. I already said that in my previous text. But there is the internet and other sources, and if any of the readers here on the platform are interested in the history of the term, they will certainly go and read up on it. For everyone else who is not interested in an academic discussion of such things, I think the Shonen Ai tag is simply very pragmatic and extremely well chosen. Most readers here on mangago.zone know what to expect under this tag, which is not a sexual relationship between the main characters, but more of an emotional one that expresses itself as a deep friendship or soul connection and goes beyond the realm of a platonic friendship. That's all the tag is supposed to do. It should enable the reader to assess, alongside the other tags of the manga, whether they find the content / themes of the series interesting for themselves personally. That's all it is and I really like this pragmatic approach to tags here on mangago.zone. That way I always know directly what I can expect from a manga as a BL-preferring reader - or what I can't expect, e.g. sexual content.
It's been a while since I gave this manga a reread. I was some publisher could (want to) rescue this wonderfull series（/TДT)/
I wish* lmao
This started so good but I'm not enjoying this manga as I should. I loved the premise and I think the first half of the current chapters were entertaining, but I have been skim reading this for at least the last 30 chapters as they were out (Who-TF skim reads a manga?! It's manga! Σ(っ°Д °;)っ
I'm dropping It, but lowkey I'm sad for doing It （/TДT)/
Kasuya-chan! (Haaai) Nani ga suki?(≧∀≦) Lmao
chocominto!!! yori mo anata
I can't believe I forgot about this series Σ( ￣□￣||) TIME TO REREAD!!!ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~
After reading the novel (although with auto translation) I have to say that what kind of comforts me a little is that at least (the bar is in hell since this is supposed to be a redemption story with romance involved) Kwon Ido actually SUFFERS and UGLY CRIES and we are all going to enjoy his tears, like, this man is going to repent and cry more than Verónica Castro in old telenovelas for Sejin's forgiveness even of his initial plan after saving Sejin's Life could have ruined everything (and Sejin tells him after learning about it, he is an angel and deserves better ( T﹏T ) )
Do we spend a lot of time in the flashback? He's just so awful, and I know it gets worse. I'm thinking of waiting....
[lowkey spoiler for other people] The principal story spends some time in the first timeline from Sejin's point of view, after that we go back to the present timeline and then a chunk of the extra stories revisit the first timeline but from Ido's point of view. In my opinion is not a hella lot of time but keep in mind that I read the whole thing in a couple of nights and the rythm of a book (with the complete story on top of that) is going to be different than reading while waiting for a single chapter every few days, so... Maaaaybe It would better for you to let it marinate and wait for the manhwa adaptation to be complete (〜￣△￣)〜
Televisa presenta: “Los ricos también lloran”
No te quiero mentir
No esperaba tu amor
Porque tú no sabías amaaaaaaar
Please don't let the anime adaption be like Requiem for the Rose King, I want good animation（/TДT)/ Remilia and Angel deserve it!
On the brighter side, the news made me hopeful for the manga being licensed in Spanish - I would 100% buy it if that happens (☆▽☆) -
TRUEEEE. Fingers crossed!!!! The art deserves great animation. Even the scary moments especially the fight with the gods deserve top tier animation hehe!
I'm lowkey wondering if Mr. Potato has a Toy Story kind of life? Hahahaja
I honestly hope Mr.Potato has a POV of the kids, that'll be so freaking adorable ε=ε=(ノ≧∇≦)ノ
Nakaba would never let a tournament reach its conclusion, right? ╮(￣▽￣)╭ hahahaha(≧∀≦)