The evolution of BL

You can read the Portuguese translation in this link.

The Japanese website Chil Chil published an article about the Evolution of BL, from its emergence in Shoujo Manga to future trends. It’s a really interesting essay and since Yaoi’s History isn’t well known, we decided to translate it.

Before Heisei Era (pre-1989)

During the Showa era (1926-1988), the term “BL” didn’t exist yet. During that time, manga that portrayed love stories between beautiful male characters (bishounen) were called “Tanbi” and “June”, and were slowly starting to spread around. Those manga were considered Shoujo and had similar aesthetics and characteristics. 

The main aspects of this period were:

• Big shiny eyes, small mouth, wavy charming hair, etc.
• Deformed delicate bodies with slender fingers.
• Beautiful Bishounen style characters.
• Short works that had a somehow immoral feeling. 
• An admiration by Western countries could be felt in a sort of sensual way.

The 90s

During the 90s the terms “yaoi” and “BL” appeared and spread through the world. The main aspects of this period were:

• Nice chins, long limbs and neck and long almond eyes. 
• There’s also a lot of characters wearing silver accessories, black clothes, chains, crosses, bandages etc. It had a cool stylish vibe.
• You’d often see two beautiful young men staring at you with a dangerous expression.
• Pointy bangs were also a hallmark of that time. We think it was influenced by the growing popularity of Visual Kei during that time.

The 2000s 

A lot of “legendary works” in the genre were published on the beginning of the millenium. We believe that the main aspects of this period are the most well known.

• You could tell who was the seme and the uke right at the first glance.
• During that time, a lot of semes were the “oresama” kind of character (cocky and presumptuous characters) or they were super perfect (handsome, rich, intelligent, everything).

During that time, these trends also appeared:

• Thick lips, long-faced semes and feminine big-eyed ukes.
• Compared to those beautifully dramatic BLs from the 90s, it seems that now the stories are mostly sweet and happy.
• A lot of flowers on the background and on accessories 
• The protagonists (ukes) see themselves being controlled by emotions, even though they don’t want it.

2010 and so on

On the next decade, BL went through a lot of changes. The innovations during this period were:

• Slim but somehow muscular bodies for both ukes and semes
• Instead of light coloring, stories now have solid vibrant colors, closer to an anime style
• The differences between ukes and semes are less physical and more about posing and facial expressions.
• Now there are more works were you need to read the synopsis to know who’s the uke and who’s the seme
• There are more covers showing only one of the protagonists 
• From happy endings to dark stories, during that time a lot of young artist debuted and started to expand the genre. 

What about the future?

Current trends that might influence the future of BL

• Less physical differences between Uke and Seme
• Realistic muscular bodies (thick necks, strong hands, etc.) are getting popular.
• Less feminine looking ukes that can be easily mistaken for a woman at first glance.
• Increasing number of works with retro art style, reminiscing of Showa Era.
• Older characters.
• Breaking expectations: taller ukes, versatile couples, etc. There will be more and more works going against past trends.
• There’s an ongoing evolution in current times BL.

Thanks to Kousaka-Ouji (@Arth_Ouji) for translating the article!