Boys Love tag + Rising trend?

[vanillios]

I know that many readers/creators enjoy reading BL comic's. I'm personally 99% more inclined to read/subscribe to a comic if it's BL or GL so yeah, for those into the genre, it's pretty effective click bait.
Hm idk pretty much all BL can sort of classify as part of the romance genre but I haven't seen any trend in particular. Though high school AUs have always been popular.

EDIT: not saying that people use it to bait others, but it's good at attracting desired audiences (those into BL)

[AnnaLandin]

I'm not sure if I would define it as "clickbait". It's a content-labelling. It's like sticking an 18+ on your thumbnail picture to let potential readers now that your comic contains potentially NSFW-material.

It helps people who WANT to read BL to find the comic more easily, and it helps people who want to AVOID BL to avoid it more easily. The latter group, I think, is more important here; no one who draws BL comics wants a comment-field full of shocked and outraged homophobes, so it's easier to just stick the lable where it's easy to see, and ward them off.

[Kura]

It's been a rising trend for 10+ years... as for rising trends in BL I wanna answer REALLY sarcastically with a bunch of smart ass responses... but I will hold myself back.

[nessiefynn]

I wouldn't call it a rising trend, BL has been popular on webcomic sites like smackjeeves for years now. It's a niche genre with a lot of fans, so it can be easier for BL to find an audience, especially when "BL" is in the thumbnail. This lets competent BL comics garner fans very easily, and propel them up to front page popularity.

[vanillios]

Yeah I agree. There was this one time I forgot to add it in my side image and I got a few comments asking me if X character was a boy or a girl and one commenter that was a bit put off to finding out they were both boys (they stook around though and it's seems they've gotten used to it lol)

[SpavVy]

I think it's advertisement for those who are looking for this kind of stuff but is also used to warn other people away who don't enjoy that kind of content. The only thing I don't get is when the BL label is put on the icon when the picture pretty much says it all.

[merong744546]

I know there are a lot of reasons why people would prefer to read Bl over the hetero-themed genre, but do you think the nsfw content is the main interest? Or is having two male characters express their intimate feelings, which is hard to find as society "expects" men to be not in touch with their emotions as much as women, the main appeal for the readers? Which do you think has the bigger influence?

[nessiefynn]

Personally I think both the sexual/cuteness factors are the main drives of BL. I group cuteness with sexual because even between readers of NSFW BL and SFW BL, they both read BL because they find gay relationships to be attractive in some way. The only difference is that with NSFW BL readers the attraction is more explicitly sexual.
I don't think emotional men is the main drive of BL, even if it does play into the attractiveness factor. Readers can get plenty of emotionally intimate men out of straight romances, and I've seen many popular BL comics with unemotional men.

[katverwho]

It's ABSOLUTELY an established trend (they've been on the rise since Starfighter, I would wager) - I would go as far as saying BL/mm comics are their own genre at this point. There's frequently a similar tone and trajectory to them.

Because of how trope-ridden most bl comics are, especially those by first time comic makers, the ones that seem to get most popular most quickly are ones that try to re-imagine the genre, break the tropes, or stray from an accepted manga-influenced bishounen style.

A couple great examples of unique BL comics:
BFF comic
Check, please!
Hotblood!

[indagold]

It's been mostly popular in the anime community. From my knowledge it's mostly teen girls into guy on guy action. It's super niche. I'm not in the niche. All I see is this:

I have my deepest respect for the fujoshi. They see beauty where no one else can.

[katverwho]

I think there's something to be said for the inherent struggle expected in a BL story. Forbidden relationship trope is PRETTY MUCH a given, so there's always that juicy 'will they, won't they' as well as a million drama opportunities, schemes and deceptions with family and friends.

[SpavVy]

Oh my god I'm dying holy s**t! Those hands!

[69Michi]

My take on why BL is ever so popular is that there are way too many girl on the internet and generally girls are into BL more likely than GL. (There are girls who into GL me myself not really but several of my friends do) When you say well there are male too- well, when I look at it, in the online artist world, most people are /often/ females. Just look at DA. There is even a common knowledge going around "assume everyone you come across is a female except proven otherwise". And it might not be true all the time but there has to be a reason for why such assumption happens...
@indagold DEM YAOI HANDS THO

[joannekwan]

I dunno, as far as I know, it's always been popular since the middle to late 2000's. I suppose it's boomed with the advent of comic websites, either scanslation sites or original comic hosting platforms.
I'm sure many girls (and guys) like it because you get double the D. But a lot of them, especially Japanese ones, have main characters that can be self-inserts for the reader as they're usually more feminine and androgynous. And I think a good number of them are presenting a fantasy, even if it's mundane, like all the high school ones (omg, so many). It's a different flavor of the Harlequin romance novels, full of tropes meant to titillate and satisfy; your typical series not meant to provoke thoughtful discourse or reflection of the plot and characters.

I'll admit, I will often check out a series with the BL label just to see how trash it it.

[Kura]

Girls being into stories about gay guys have always been a thing though, I'm not sure why people seem to think it's only been popular since the later 2000's?????? **** and I know this will date me but girls were shipping the Backstreet Boys in gay ships and fanfics, and before that the REALLY young girls at elementary school would ship New Kids on the Block members in gay ships.

With that in mind I'm always shocked when I run into people that are shocked by it like 'this is a new thing' No. It's not new, the internet just wasn't around to make it as blatantly obvious. Of course this may also be a culture thing that's different in different countries.

[indagold]

wasn't yaoi around in the 70s anyway?

[Kura]

I wouldn't know, I wasn't alive then but I wouldn't doubt it in the least.

[indagold]

somewhere in japan grandma talks about the golden days of gay anime to her youngins

[katverwho]

Let's be real, yaoi has been around forever. Adam and Steve, not Adam and Eve.

[joannekwan]

Oh yeah for sure! There are lots of gay Shunga pieces dating back to the 1700's. Oh Japan and their hentai …

LOL omg, really? I never heard of people shipping boy band members. And yet that doesn't surprise me in the least.
I suppose I meant BL started "trending" more in the 2000's along with the rest of anime/manga here in the West and it became more common place.