HonorableShadow wrote:

Free! is so much on the gay side than it becomes difficult to stick to one pairing as everyone has degrees of borderline romantic feelings for everyone else. It makes for a multiplicity of pairings. And the additional material only makes everything even gayer, the drama CDs have to be listened to be believed and some of the character songs are essentially love songs. I am not even kidding, Ai's is about Rin and is called 'He's so Perfect'. Yes. emot-dance

The side material is amazing. Rin's speech about "my shining" that he wrote when he was a kid is something I still wish had made it into the anime at some point. I also loved the crab battle drama CD track, did you hear that one?   Right now I'm waiting for the Haru and Rin mook (magazine/book), it's coming out on July I think. It made my year when they announced it at the live event last month!

I'm downloading that drama CD right now. The one I listened to had Rin staying over at Haru's place and looking for porno magazines only to find a magazine about waterfalls. Haru's love for water is canon after all. It gets really cute and one can't help wondering just what happened afterwards.

I got the official fan book but have yet to really dig into it. Just leafed through the glossy pages and enjoyed the pretty artwork but it comes packed with interviews and cool character info.
And today I received the light novels, I want to read them before the movie is released.

I also really like Yowapeda and yes, it has loads of homoerotic vibes. On that subject, Haikyuu is another example of a sports anime that gets extremely gay. As does Kuroko...actually, I see a pattern here.

Big Windup is another one, although the subtext is very subtle. It's slightly amusing because it focuses on the relationship between the pitcher and the catcher, and the pitcher is definitely the uke in this case. Good anime though, I don't care about baseball but I found it riveting.

YamPuff wrote:

I don't normally watch sports or competition anime but I judge them by one thing: if I'm sitting on the edge of my chair biting my nails like crazy over some lame sport that bores me to tears in real life, then it's a good one. I'll admit I watched it when I was rather young, but I always enjoyed Yu-Gi-Oh simply because they managed to make a card game so full of tension and excitement. XD I even till now remember some of the really good matches.

I dislike sports but I really enjoy sports anime. So much so that I managed to find Inazuma Eleven to be a world of fun even though soccer is about as boring as it gets. Then again, IE turns soccer into magic, literally, so it is not the best example. But it's full of BL undertones, too.

And speaking of Tiger x Bunny, how about Samurai Flamenco? It becomes more and more ridiculous as the story progresses but at one point we have the eponymous male lead completely naked telling his best pal that he'll be his bride. Yeah. It makes some sense in context but it was still overwhelmingly gay.

Abou t Big Windup, the mangaka has done BL before. And I'm not too sure about how subtle it is...I mean, two boys in a toilet stall, holding hands while one of them cries his eyes out...this without getting into the whole uke thing that makes me wonder if that was one of the reasons why the mangaka chose baseball in the first place.

Owari no Seraph is relevant to this thread:

And it makes you wonder just who on Earth has watersprings magazines under their bed. Oh, Haru. Only you.
It's weird but Haru is the only Free! boy who has claimed to have a first love (the Mikoshiba boys do not count)...only it's a waterfall. Haru x Water is canon. I like to imagine Rin trying to make a case by himself by reminding Haru that 'Rin' is written with a radical for 'water'; only to be outed by Nagisa whose name not only has a radical for water (and one less simplified than Rin's) as it actually means 'water's edge'.

The problem with Hunter x Hunter is that it's been on hiatus for what, a decade? Maybe even more. So even when one finishes the anime one will not find any closure in the manga. I was hoping that the new anime would spur the mangaka into resuming it but so far I see no signs of it. Which is a shame, Gon and Killua are really adorable together but I prefer Hisoka and Illumi myself...it's be...something else, that's for sure.

Heh, Rin is already very prone to crying as it is. The poor guy, he sure goes through a lot.
In my head canon the reason why Haru lives alone is because his parents found it difficult to endure his lack of expression. Considering he was already like that as a kid it's as good a theory as any.

Berserk suffers from hiatus hell as well. Even the recent movies did not seem to have done anything to change that much to my disappointment. I'm just glad I never got around to buying any of the manga (then again by the time I became a fan it was already on hiatus), I'll just get the entire collection if/when it gets completed.

And speaking of HxH, there's this drama CD with Kurapika and Leorio that sounds so much like porn that it has to be heard to be believed:

YamPuff wrote:

EDIT: Ok I think that Drama CD confirms it, no way was that unintentional.

I headcanon Kurapica x Leoria really hard, but I follow the old Hunter x Hunter series, not the reboot, definitely didn't like it. There's a scene in the original anime that really goes into almost-canon territory for those two, like the creators were definitely hinting strongly about something being between them. I never minded HXH being incomplete because they mostly finish Kurapica's arc, I like where they leave off with him, and he's really the only reason I care about the show.

Killua and Gon always struck me as just friends, besides that they're way underaged, I just didn't get that vibe from them.

To be fair, I don't believe Kurapica's gender has ever been 100% confirmed? It was always left ambiguous, at least during the time I was following the anime & manga.

It's blatant even by Drama CDs standards and that is saying a lot.

About that scene, is that the one when Leorio and Kurapika are staying together in a room and it is really, really awkward in a cute way? I seem to remember something to that effect but it's been a while.
I really like Kurapika myself and would like to see his vengeance concluded, foiled or *something*. But from what I've heard the manga has a world of pain still in wait for him.

I've heard that Kurapika's gender is indeed not been confimed but there is one thing that makes me doubt his status as male: [that one time he dresses up as a girl to lure the Phantom Troupe it's treated as crossdressing. Unless Kurapika is impersonating a woman, impersonating a man, impersonating woman. It's possible but a tad too convoluted.]

Killua/Gon becomes much more pronounced in the new anime. By the time the Chimera Ant arc rolls by it has reached a level of one sided infantuation on Killua's part. Even before that there are previews that toy with it.

And I believe it's time to plug Fafner:



And this is just a poster for the movie, the whole series is loaded with Kazuki/Shoushi moments. It's a shame that it has so little love in the West.

This is something of a spoiler for the movie but it's about as obvious as it gets:

http://i.imgur.com/OXx6Gvq.png

Last edited by Nocturnalux (05-01-2015 10:33:58 PM)

Yeah, I watch the new one so that's probably where the difference lies. There was a moment in the Chimera Ant arc that Killua is thinking about staying by Gon's side and the way he worded it was just super romantic imo.  I told my friend (who I was watching with) "that's not something you think about your best friend, that's something you say as a vow at your wedding." I shipped them way before that though, the puppy-love vibe they give off is really cute to me. I'm not sure what they were like in the 1999 anime because I haven't watched that one. Anyway, I like Leo and Kurapika together too, I just wish they got more screentime. They kind of... ceased to exist even in the OP and ED after a while.

Fafner looks interesting! I might have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

I'm glad I went with my gut and didn't continue with the new anime. I tried a few episodes and even skipped ahead to see their interpretation of my favorite scenes, but the show really is focused too much on Gon and Killua, when the series has always been about Kurapica for me. No Kurapica, no go as far as I'm concerned.

Nocturnalux wrote:

YamPuff wrote:

Hisoka x anyone is also approved by me

I can only slash Hisoka with Illumi because they are both so messed up that it's not even creepy as much as it is meant to be. The idea of pairing Hisoka with anyone else fills me with dread, poor Gon and Killua nearly escaped becoming shota bait.
And oddly enough Hisoka really is sexy when he drops the pedo clown attire.

Oh hells ya

Mayuri from Bleach is kind of hot without his creepy makeup too.

Thanks for the recommendations guys.  I'm up to date on Black Butler, and am checking out Pandora Hearts.  I like the gothic Victorian/Edwardian era they take place in.  I also heard Count Cain takes place during that time and is big on the subtext as well.  Does anyone know of any manga/anime like that?

Last edited by Sweetgm2 (05-06-2015 09:20:16 AM)

Also by Yuki Kaori and featuring a gothic theme and (probably) some subtext is Ludwig Kakumei. I have yet to read it myself but from what I've heard it's quite creepy and heavy on the horror.

Aw, I'm so glad I managed to convert you to the wonders of Toward the Terra. The moment I found that the mangaka from Kaze was behind it, I imagined Keith hopping over to meet Gilbert and co. and put an end to all the flower blooming drama.
[Poor Matsuka, now that was a love martyr if there ever was one. Such devotion and look what it got him. Then again, virtually everyone Keith ever ends up caring for dies horribly. It's something of a rule.]


I never finished Angel Sanctuary because it confused me greatly. It did not help that I had a hard time telling the characters apart, everyone looked remarkably alike.

Owari no Seraph has plenty of gay. It starts off as 'Attack on Titan' with vampires instead of giant humanoids with the MC being a dead ringer for Eren but it does get better. As for the gay content, the OP already ships Eren/Mika and it's right there in the first episode. So I suggest you give it a go.
Also, 'Mikaela' is a boy's name.

Heh, it's true that the Terra bishies are not all that interested in girls. The anime may have taken that even to a greater extreme as compared to the manga: [I haven't read it myself but from what I've heard Tony is Jomy's son. I actually prefer the way it played out in the anime.]

Keith is probably the most notorious example of being oblivious to females, Suena clearly had a thing for him but I suspect he did not even notice it. Keith reminded me a bit of Iason from Ai no Kusabi but without the kink.
Imagine Keith and Jomy arrive on Earth only to land in Kaze's school. Wouldn't that be a riot! That science geek in Kaze, the name escapes me now, would fanboy over the technology. Keith could add another cute uke to his harem as Gilbert would probably volunteer, I expect Serge would become friends with Jomy once he got over the whole 'you guys come from space?!' issue.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found Angel Sanctuary to be very confusing. Gender ambiguity can be great and it's something I love but in this case it only made it even more difficult to tell characters apart.

The quantity of homoerotic content is yet another criteria for judging fiction.

One wonders if Keith really is entirely clueless or if he is just pretending. Or if he is so repressed that he does not even realize it. Classic case of sublimation? Very likely.
But one has to wonder just Matsuka is so devoted to Keith. Maybe the sex is just *that* good.

See, a crossover would be beautiful all around and it's something that needs to happen. If only because I'd like to see Gilbert in a cool military uniform. And Matsuka going yandere over Keith. There is potential here, I swear.

Now that you mention it, it is strange how Jomy is ignored by females especially given that he is the main character. And it's a shame Blue spends most of the time literally asleep, I have a thing for albino space boys.

I've read BL that is less gay than Toward the Terra.