This is another commenter who has a question about another ask, and I hope this doesnβt cause any discourse. You donβt have to answer if itβs something that could create a useless debate, but could you expand on what you mean by βin a JP sense, BL works were not that popular or readily invested into by this particular readershipβ?
This might be a fairly dumb question, but I was mostly curious about what βBLβ is referring to in this context. Do you mean commercial BL? I noticed that both the commenter and your research mentioned βBL artists,β so I was wondering if you were referring specifically to artists working in the commercial BL industry, or if you were also including doujinshi/yaoi spaces.
Iβm asking because I remember you also mentioned that there were works and collaborations involving both women and men that appealed to both audiences, so I was curious how that fits into the distinction youβre making.
Sure thing! Thanks for asking. That's a perfectly fair question, and I don't think it's particularly contentious.
So when I said 'this particular readership,' I wasn't referring to Japan as a whole. I meant the readership surrounding Adonis specifically. That's an important distinction. BL would certainly grow into a significant commercial and doujin phenomenon in the following decades, but that isn't the same audience or historical moment.
BL -> Boy's Love, yaoi, mlm etc.
BL artist -> Commercial BL artists and BL artists of the mid to late 70s onward.
Collaborations -> Non-commercial BL artists working together, both fujoshi and fudanshi, in creating both Aniparo (Anime parody) or original content. Many Non-commercial artists went on to become or were already commercial mangaka, such as Takano Yuriko, who went by YΕ« Asagiri and published Mecha themed Aniparo BL in the mid to late 1970s under her Circle OZ. That said, collaboration between women and men in doujin Circles doesn't necessarily imply that readerships completely overlapped. There was certainly a crossover at times, but the readership surrounding publications like Adonis occupied a very different cultural and historical space than the predominantly female BL circles that emerged later in the 1970s.
I don't rule out and alienate actual queer men reading commercial BL work, however, at the time in which Adonis (γ’γγγΉ) was published, commercial BL work was not as prevalent or mainstream as one may think. The first issue of Adonis was first published in September of 1952. Created by the Adonis Society, it was one of Japan's earliest underground, private-circulation magazines dedicated to a queer and homoerotic audience, namely gay cisgendered men with the inclusion of bisexual or 'lavender leaning' (gay men who had marriages with straight ciswomen or lesbian ciswomen).
Adonis was what is typically deemed as a coterie magazine - a journal, typically academic in its distribution and content, usually for 20+ adults. In the modern day, due to its independent and non-mass market production, it can be deemed a doujinshi or, in the West, a zine.
The last issue of Adonis on academic record was published in and around 1962. There is speculation that other issues were made, however, this text is still publicly undocumented in full and as the readership was very 'elitist' (many were academics, wealthy, et al.) and under the radar, the content we do have suggests nothing with a connection to BL. Even by 1962, commercial BL was not readily available as homoeroticism was still very much looked down upon as a 'perverse pastime'.
For a general way of looking at this for instance, The Heart of Thomas (TΕma no ShinzΕ), the seminal manga by Moto Hagio, was originally serialized in Japan in the magazine ShΕ«kan ShΕjo Comic from May 5 to December 22, 1974. This would nearly be nearly a decade, 12 years in fact, from the last issue of Adonis etc. Attitudes had changed, though mainly in the sphere of works made by women.
Commercial manga like The Heart of Thomas was not being made or ingested in the same realm as Adonis was due to demographics, readership and accessibility or in the same ready capacity. Commercial versus a much smaller, private-circulation underground publication (this is namely because it shouldn't be slated as an absolute dichotomy, these topics are still being researched actively).
Should any of these gentlemen have read any doujinshi featuring BL works, they too were underground and are even more obscure than Adonis was and currently is. This cannot be readily speculated upon or easily denied, however, as many of these works are coming to light via research and finding them after almost 50 to 70 years later.
I hope that clarifies anything!
