Discussion Danmei Readers, Do You Actively Avoid Japanese BL Novels?

So the other day, I was looking to pick up a new BL novel, so out of habit, I browsed the novels on NU to see if it was being TLed. Along the way, I just out of curiosity checked to see if there were any other new Japanese BL novels being TLed. Turns out the Japanese BL translation scene is pretty disappointing.

There's like barely 7 pages of Yaoi AND shounen-ai (compared to the 50+ pages of Danmei), and half of them are either from the early 2000s or have been completed/dropped for ages. As for the rest, most hardly have a rating above 4 and even fewer have sufficient readers.

So that got me wondering, why is Japanese BL on NU so unpopular among both TLs and readers? Is it because you dunno where to find it? Is it because Japanese is hard to MTL? Or is it because you just don't like the plots in them? Or is it something else?

Well, I am a Japanese TL, so my bias is clearly evident. Please don't hate me for it.

TL; DR: Tell me why you Do/Don't read Japanese Yaoi novels~

P.S. If you want more Japanese BL out there, please join Watashi was Sugoi Desu~
We reaaaaaally need more Japanese TLs

 

It's kinda cringey and cliche, at least the ones I've read before on NU. There either old or even if new, not realistically portraying characters. There's no emotional input readers can put in and although a few I've read were decent, most of them have a delicate small pretty boy or straight but quickly turned uke while the seme is just always looking out for them and super powerful some way.
Or the premise is just smut.
Either way, if newer JP BL novels with an actual plot comes out and I change upon it, I would give it a read, but it's just rare.

 

Have you tried reading Hako no Naka? Or for some blatant self-promotion, Corporate Slave?
I have many other recs, but I'll leave it at these two for now

 

Every so often, I look for an engaging (smut, of course XD) JP novel to translate. I browse through the top ranking ones on syosetsu but none of them are ever to my taste :\ I am so sick of the usual omegaverse tropes and the Saintess stuff! I just want spicy sexy goodness with a bit of character depth >_< I mean, I do have a few good untranslated ones on my list, but a lot of them have rape which instantly equals many 1 stars on NU.

 

Before i addictive to chinese bl/danmei,in the past, i really like read jpn yaoi manga but every second they release new manga TLed, the plot it so boring. And i tried to read one’s jpnovel, they’re hv same vibe. So i’m sorry i’m not into jpnovel,

 

Japanese kinda hard to MTL (comparing to Chinese, for me la) so gotta wait for people to TL more gems. But so far, not many good yaoi novel being translated. Or good smut too _(;3/ (me looking at Otoko Darake)

 

I don't avoid them but there aren't enough translated for me to read, and the ones that are are either not that good or are dropped by tl for various reasons(ie rl stuff) and don't get picked back up. Also not a big fan of omegaverse. Shame really because most Chinese bl is censored nowadays so not much spicy smut.

 

Nope, I dont discriminate.. I read all BL regardless.. tho I dropped some that get stale or plot got worsen. My current fav Japanese BL is the Corporate Slave and the one that Watashi Sugoi Desu translates. There other as well but cant remember the name

 

Ever tried checking out alphapolis and fujossy for novels? They have some good ones there. I really wanna TL this one in particular if I could get someone to help

Ahh its a pity the author deleted the raws for that one

 

Shame it got dropped, I really enjoyed the vine chapter.

 

There’s way more yaoi manga compared to novels being translated so JP translators for the genre probably put their time and effort into manga instead.

 

Kind of related, which is why I'm quoting--I tend to prefer manga instead of JP novels as well (as a reader, not translator). I started reading novels because of a CN drama adapted from a novel, then I started to read whatever I find interesting. It turns out I'm interested in CN novels almost exclusively, though I still like Japanese anime/manga.

I don't have any research or basis to this explanation, but maybe most Japanese translators get into translating manga and then decide to stick with it? I can't name a single Chinese original manhua or donghua (does the happy sheep cartoon count...), and all the ones I do know are because they were adapted from novels that I already read, so maybe other CN translators are like me and got into novels first.

 

Honestly I dont really like reading BL Or GL due to my sexuality and romance tastes. Which may be a large reason for the 'Unpopularity'

As for japenese novels? Hmm honestly most Japanese novels have a short amount of chapters. And if you consider what's extremely popular now such as Chinese Novels especially 'Xiana' novels with cultivation and hot blooded mcs.

Not like those timid and no personality Japanese novels. And usually Japanese novels lack depth, and I used to like jp novels alot but honestly the novels are extremely repetitive. Usually the same world background, plot, romance flags it's all squashed together it's always cliched and it gets boring.

Chinese cultivation novels have the same issue tho where authors try to get on the cultivation and hot blooded craze that they pump out novels but that still in my opinion chinese novels are usually more well written than jp novels.

 

Hmm, I can definitely say that manga are easier to translate. Makes me wonder why I got into novels tho

 

I share the same sentiments as riririn, Japanese yaoi mangas are what kind got me into the BL pit before I discovered novels. As for reading Japanese novels, it's probably because there aren't that many translators being able to translate or MTL Japanese BL so I don't often have the chance to pick one up to read (as compared to the amount of CN BL novels) and you really can't find a lot of novels that are on the same par as for example Picked Up By A Strange Knight.

 

I do read corporate slave, it's pretty good, it's one of the rare ones I suppose on NU. As better jp novels get translated, I'll read more of them, but with jp translators focusing mostly on repetitive isekai...I don't that'll happen any time soon.

 

Ai no Kusabi was one of the big reasons I got into BL in the first place, so yeah I do read Japanese BL. Usually I tend to read officially translated Japanese BL novels rather than fan translated ones though, since I can't stand badly translated, barely coherent novels -- and I can read Chinese, but not Japanese, so when I encounter amateur translations of the former, I can just go to the source and read it there; I can't do that for the latter.

As for NU, I think it's just a demographics issue. The cultural background behind Japanese BL vs Chinese BL is so different, and a lot of folks here seem to have been weaned on Chinese BL that Japanese BL probably feels super different/foreign. Also, since there's no censorship, Japanese BLs tend to be more explicit, and badly translated smut is 9000 times more cringey than badly translated... anything else.

 

I don't think there's much mystery here - anime and manga are way higher quality than Japanese web novels so it's obvious where the translators are going to go. The fact that the Japanese web novel industry is so heavily dominated by otaku writers and readers only goes to exacerbate the problem. This is only more true given that BL and otaku fiction don't mix particularly well. Compare this to GL and Japanese web novels and the difference is very stark.

 

I haven’t read all of them mind you, but JP bl tends to have tropes that I don’t like such as harem or harem-adjacent tropes where everyone falls for the main lead which the the main leas is oblivious. Either that or it has very alpha/omega dynamics where the seme is very hyper masculine and the uke is submissive and feminine (which I often don’t read het romance bc of I prefer dynamics where it’s give and take). Either that or they are dead/dropped or infrequently updated.

Obviously not all there are some good ones like Corporate Slave, which I didn’t know had a novel version until I saw this forum, but generally JP is not my cup of tea and I tend to avoid it when I search for something new. Totally could change my mind if more gems got picked up though. I’m not stubborn.

 

Short answer: Yes.

It isn’t limited to novels, I’ve read way too many BL Manga and liked most of them a lot when I was younger, but as an “older” adult, I can’t stand them anymore and it’s the same for Japanese BL novels.

I have yet to find a Japanese one that is decent enough to finish it, especially when it comes to fantasy, they have this weird tendency to use European-style settings that are so badly done that I get embarrassed on behalf of the author (although nothing came close to calling a male character “Frau” lol).

How they craft characters is one of the biggest reasons, they tend to make their MC the overly good-guy-virgin that never committed any wrong, while you find a lot of Chinese novels with questionable or even vile MCs, which are more my cup of tea.

The romance is often awkward as well, there’s just something seriously off about how they portray relationship dynamics, this is by no means limited to BL but a general “problem” with Japanese romance.

Of course, there are Chinese novels that have the very same problems, it’s just much easier to find something that doesn’t, and considering how limited the amount of translated JP BL novels is, there could be countless great ones - but I will continue to avoid this category as long as those aren’t released in a great enough number to convince me that JP novels are worth a try.

Footnote: General JP novels can be amazing, one of my favourite book series is Japanese, so my whole rant is only about BL.