I have been reading way too much BL manga lately, I am extremely happy about this. So, I thought I might as well do a short rec-list.

Masara Minase. I'd read anything this woman write, the fact that she and I seem to share similar kinks and a love of certain clichéd romance conventions make my little fangirl heart glad. She can pull my heart strings like very few mangaka can despite the fact that she's using the same old yaoi-plots; misunderstandings, substitutions, etc., but she does with such skill. In addition, her art work is really gorgeous; her uses of clean defined lines make me die of happiness.

Sumemo Yumeka's works more often than not hit a chord with me leaving me with a feeling of nostalgia at the best, wanting to weep at the worst. Chou ni naru Hi left me somewhere in between, which doesn't help, because not knowing whether I want to sigh for the days past or weep for the days that will come really doesn't better my current mood. All I can say is that, as usual, her art work is beautiful, her themes of growing, continuing on despite the odds, and finding each other in a vast world make me want to set up an altar for her, and maybe offer her my first born much love and money if she'd only give a clear, happy ending to her characters. But then I realise one of the reasons I find her works so beautiful, so poetic, is the lack of a clear ending to her stories. Her way of story telling is extremely subtle.

Suzuki Tanaka's works can be funny & light hearted; Menkui being the obvious title that pop into the mind, or they can be the sort that sucker-punch you so damn hard that you won't be able to breathe properly for a very long time; Memai being a prime example.

Yoshinaga Fumi blind-sided me. I honestly did not expect to like her works; her art style is not my thing, and her characters are not what I call endearing, at first. Having your main character shouting out that he hate homosexuals on the first few pages of the manga is not what I call normal. So, see my surprise when I couldn't STOP reading Antique Bakery at FIVE A.M. in the morning. There's just something about the way she depicts these characters (and in my saner moments I can admit they are indeed very screwed up characters); the owner of the bakery, who truth be told, is a jerk, the homosexual chef who has relationship issues, and the ex-punk who's now in training to be a chef. It is just brilliant the way that she depicts these individuals, flesh out their characters, and related everything back to a central plot (or what passes for plot), and by volume 2, chapter 10, the newest revelation has left me going; WTFH?! OMFGBBQ! WHAT?! Uh hum, so yes, READ!