On Reading BL/Yaoi Comics
I've been consuming veritable tons of BL (boy's love)/yaoi manga (japanese), manhwa (korean), and manhua (chinese) over the past couple of weeks, and have learned quite a bit about the industry in the process.
There are various websites you can go to to get access to english translated comics from asia, but it's a mixed bag to be honest.
First of all, the websites:
- comixology (english from japanese)
- Lezhin (english from korean; but you have the option to read the korean version if you prefer)
- webcomics (english from chinese)
- tappytoon (english from korean, warning: heavily censored)
- dongmanmanhua (just chinese unfortunately *cry*)
- mangago (english from various; a pirate website where you don't have to pay to read many of the titles from these other sites plus tons of other titles not digitally available)
First off, I hesitate to list the last one there, because posted on that site are a lot of official licensed translations without permission from the companies, and that is definitely both illegal and immoral, but they also have loads of unlicensed (in the US) scanlations that fall into the grey area of whether or not it's lost revenue or advertizing. Mangago also has translated doujins and such, which is fun. :> But they also have annoying ads, you can't hit back or reload else you'll be forwarded to a spam page, and their webservers go down ALL*THE*TIME. I do like that they maintain a comment history on the titles so you read through so you can see what other people thought about a series; helps you decide if you really want to continue reading that 90-chapter epic that goes nowhere.
However, my favorite of the websites is Lezhin. It isn't perfect, but I like their model for quick translated content. It feels like the crunchyroll of manhwa, where chapters are "simulcast" in english, i.e., you get the english chapters very quickly after the korean chapters are uploaded. And because they're working with the content creators, they can skip the tedious 'cleaning' step of translating comics because the authors can provide the company pre-text raw image files to paste either language into.
Anyway, on Lezhin, you can read the first chapter (sometimes more) for free, and then you pay by chapter after that. Some of their older, complete titles, you can read entirely for free (I think) if you're willing to wait. Usually there's a 12hr or 24hr timer before the next chapter will unlock. Buying chapters in bulk will get you points that will allow you to unlock more chapters without paying too. Cons: No ability to review or comment on the titles (I would even accept comments that must be approved). I do not like the confusing 'coin' system, and feel like they should streamline that. It's also hard to find the place on the website where you can buy coins. I also feel they could benefit from a subscription service (monthly charge) that allows a certain number of chapters of your choosing to be unlocked per month without additional cost; a win-win, allowing the customer to access more content for even lower cost in exchange for giving Lezhin a reliable, steady monthly income. But that's just me; maybe some day.
The cost of chapters on Lezhin is a dollar or less (usually less) per chapter. Compare that with most manga translated out of Japan which costs $7-$12 for a tankubon containing 4-6 chapters, and you may or may not be getting a digital copy or a hard copy (depending on the title). Plus the translations on Lezhin are good, the adaptation is good, and it all looks professional.
Comixology is just an aggregating site for full tankubon (compilation books) and has no control over the content of those books. I haven't really liked their model much because there's no way to sample the stuff beforehand to see if you're even interested in the concept/content. Most books are not on their "unlimited" plan (where you can read them for free), and thus having a subscription only reduces the cost of buying a $7 digital manga by like 50 cents, which is hardly worth it. These days I just don't feel like dumping $7 per book without being able to flip through the thing first. Many of the BL/yaoi titles I've read on comixology have horrible, horrible translations/adaptations to the point I have to wonder if these were done by professionals or not. Full of typos, and nonsensical phrasing as if it came straight from google translate. Comixology is also missing notable titles for no apparent reason; Sekaiichi Hatsukoi, one of the biggest yaoi titles there is, is for sale on amazon (paperback), but not available digitally at all, on amazon or comixology, even though the english publisher, SuBLime, has other titles available on comixology. What's up with that? Also, their android app is junk and runs like a hippo on my kindle, and their integration with amazon is horribly flaky at best.
Unfortunately, dongmanmanhua does not provide official english translations of their titles, which makes me very sad, because they have some good shit on there (for example: Here U Are is great, if slow-moving). They could easily get some extra revenue from the western world for what I would expect would be a moderate effort (translation and typesetting, plus an English version of their website). However, if you can read chinese, go check it out!
There are other sites, but most are pirate sites with less content than mangago and worse ads, and some few publishers with their own sites, thus a limited catalog. I wish the industry (anime as well) would work together to consolidate rather than trying to each have their own service/subscription like the TV streaming industry is working thru right now. It isn't good for the customers, so eventually people will go back to pirating until the companies figure out a way to monetize something that is more convenient for the customers. I think Lezhin has the right idea, and I would love to see them partner with Japanese publishers and dongmanmanhua to provide translations and adaptations to their titles as well. It'll probably never happen, but hey, a girl can wish!
Anyway, I've been seeing BL/yaoi stuff available all over the place. More and more of it is being made, and more and more is being made (officially) available to english audiences, and I think that's great. It'll be great when someone finally steps into become the crunchyroll of manga and we'll start getting some of this other stuff as regularly as Japan (et al) does and Lezhin provides.
A final shout-out to the koreans who have some amazing art (especially the smut scenes ^_^), and the very few chinese titles I've been able to read in english which have some really great character development and plotting.