Our Top 10 BL 만화
WARNING! If we marked the last list as 18+ NSFW this is SOOOOO NSFW that we are glad we are sharing this in the middle of a quarantine. Seriously some of the images shared are extremely sexual. If you are not comfortable with such scenes this list is not for you.
Another Tuesday, another list. And this list is a doozy. Now that we introduced you to BL Dramas, we are going to introduce you to another BL genre. We had brough it up in the last list. 만화, are in the simplest terms, a comic book. And while not many BL drama’s come out of South Korea, 만화 are a totally different story.
Another thing you could gauge from our last list is that we like the sexy stuff. Fluff is nice, but the down and dirty is what we’re about for the most part. This is what we call Yaoi. All Yaoi is BL but not all BL is Yaoi.
These are our favorite BL 만화’s. Let’s Go!
10. Window to Window (창 너머 창) by Lee Aru
This was the first series we ever read, finished, and wished we had more. Ginu and Yubin were best friends ever since they were little kids. But Yubin is in love with Ginu. And does *ehem* to himself while thinking of Ginu. Bad part is Ginu see’s him doing it from his window across the way. Which turns out to be not so bad as Ginu is curious about what Yubin was doing and why and a friends with benefits relationship starts. What Yubin doesn’t realize is that Ginu has liked him since even before they really knew what “being gay” meant. And while their friends with benefits continues, things start to change between them. This was our first experience with yaoi. We were more so into the BL dramas before we knew yaoi and bl 만화’s existed. So our eyebrows raised, our temperatures rose, and our hearts pounded as we read through these sex scenes. We were hooked. The roll play one got us the most. So fair warning.
9. Puppy Love (퍼피러브) by Eumnya
This is a newer 만화having only been released, at the time of us writing this, two months ago. We usually try to steer clear of the overpowering, ‘ownership’ tropes. It just isn’t our thing. We can’t even tell you why we clicked it, but we did. And we were not disappointed. Seoyoon is a young man who is social media famous, but due to trauma in his past, he rarely goes outside and avoids all kinds of real life social interaction. He receives a DM from a man, Yeonwoo. A vulgar comment that is usually ignored but for some reason Seoyoon chooses to respond. The next thing you know Seoyoon is sending lewd photos and doing everything Yeonwoo asks of him. Even making Seoyoon his ‘pet.’ Yeah, we know, it sounds weird, but come to us after reading Killing Stalking. We can’t even share many images from this title as it is very VERY sexual. The reason it made it on our list is because we see that Yeonwoo, while dominating and making Seoyoon his pet, seems to have genuine feelings for Seoyoon. Since this is a newer title, we don’t know where the story may lead but we are excited to find out.
8. Pian Pian (피옌피옌) by Haesin Young
This is another new one to the scene. And while not a lot has happened in it yet, we have a feeling it’s about to. Sooha is the lowest of the low on the totem pole at a famous chef’s, Chef Calix, restaurant. Choosing to go into food as his profession was all due to seeing Chef Calix on tv when he was a bit younger. He started to develop a crush, not that he wanted to admit it, but he did. Seems like a pretty normal story, until you find out that in this world everyone has their soulmates initials on a part of their body, and Sooha has it on a pretty indecent place. He had chosen to never show anyone until he meets his soulmate. BUT, he keeps having very vivid sexual dreams about his boss, and at one point those dreams become a reality. That’s as far as the plot has gone. Our hope is these two are in fact soul mates and get to do all the things together!
7. On or Off (온 오어 오프) by A1
This one was recommended to us by a friend @dyani_robles who has an amazing YouTube channel AND a super awesome website @thebelulineup. Follower her for tons of awesome K-pop content. When we first started reading, we will admit we didn’t like the artists style. Still cannot say we’re the biggest fans of it, but when the story is that good you tend to forget how it’s being drawn. Yiyoung is part of a start up app company. The company gets the chance of a lifetime to present their app to a massive corporation and the head decision maker, Kang Daehyung. Unfortunately, Yiyoung is so flustered by the attractiveness of Daehyung he messes up the presentation. To try and save his ass, as well as help the team, he tries to talk to Daehyung outside the office walls. Daehyung, mistakes his approach as flirtation and angry that Yiyoung would stoop so low, sleeps with him with the promise to take a look at his proposal. Although he has no intention of actually doing so. Shockily, he accidently reads the proposal and finds it was the best and hires the company to create the app for his business. The story and relationship grow from there, but this is another unfinished story. Not a lot of sex has happened, but the characters are enjoyable enough with their growing sexual tension that when they finally do have tons of sexy time we will all be screaming “thank you lawd!”
6. Love Shuttle (애인셔틀) by Im Ae-Ju
Another trope we tend to avoid is omegaverse (men can get pregnant and such). Not for any particular reason but it just never interested us. This was another suggestion from our girl Dyani and we are, once again, glad we stepped away from our norm. Doyun is an Omega , who looks, and acts like an Alpha, but hasn’t ‘gone into heat.’ At his age, this is not common and his family is concerned that there might be something gravely wrong. Cue Taehan. Doyun’s sworn alpha enemy, for reasons that tbh weren’t that serious or worth getting so mad over, but we look past it because the story still is solid. Taehan, happens to be the one who sends Doyun into heat, and while he hates it, he loves it. And Taehan, we believe had a crush on Doyun since day one of them knowing each other, although not confirmed. The first season ended with a cliffhanger, and the second season started NOT even discussing said cliffhanger, but we’re here for the new couple that seems to be blossoming and pray that we find out what happened to Doyun and Taehan.
5. Sign (수화) by Ker
We wished this had more sign language in it because we probably would’ve become fluent. This story is about Go Yo, a deaf chef/coffee shop owner and Soo Hwa, a young man who was desperate for a job. Go Yo tends to never speak but when he hires Soo Hwa, who hasn’t learned all there is to sign language, he is forced to use his voice. The crazy thing is, his voice is sexy AF and makes Soo Hwa’s little Soo Hwa excited. The kicker? Go Yo gets turned on by Soo Hwa’s sign language. This is a very light, cute, sexy story, with a little bit of darkness but not enough to make it crazy. They are currently on the second season which is focusing on the best friend of Go Yo, and the boy he’s been crushing on for a while. It’s been a very cute story so far and we hope we will enjoy it, but we doubt it will be as much as the original couple.
4. Fanboy and Robot Idol by Young Dream
We found this one when we were scrolling Instagram and a scene popped up on our explore page. We read it and lusted after the art. So much so that we went on a quest to find the 만화. It took a little digging and several app downloads to finally find this masterpiece. This one is also tame. No sexy bits (shame) but still sweet and funny. Callum is a robotic popstar. Yep you read that right. A robot. He gets shunned by the world when he is blamed for murdering several humans. His creator tells him he needs to learn about humans and he can’t return home until he does. Ron Lee is a massive Callum fanboy. To the point his ex-girlfriend breaks up with him because he was more in love with a robot. Guess who finds Callum, battery almost drained on the side of a coffee shop? You guessed it! Ron. There are several versions of Callum and one of them escapes and finds solace with Ron’s boss. There is a bad guy who truly is scum but for some reason, there are parts you hope he gets redeemed because you feel bad for the guy. They story isn’t finished and hasn’t been updated in quiet some time which breaks our hearts because shiz was just starting to go down but we hope the author comes back to provide us more love.
3. My Suha (나의 수하) by Chahyun
Suha is the secretary to Park Jiwoon, a mild-mannered man who is Director of a massive company. Suha works hard at his job, and makes sure that Park Jiwoon is taken care of. Outside of work, he is much more carefree, trying to find a decent lay and always coming up short. While he does look at his boss and think, “damn, he fine.” (and when you see Jiwoon you will too), he knows not to cross the professional line. That changes when they accidentally run into each other at a gay bar. Hilarity ensues, but then something even better happens. Sexy time! The reason we chose this secretary/CEO trope over all the others was the fact that Jiwoon, while a freak in the sheets, is not a douchebag outside the bedroom. Jiwoon has a past, that Suha is also part of but we don’t know to what extent yet. This story is still not complete, but we will say it moved up the ranks of our favs very fast with the relationship growth, the sex scenes, but oddly one of our favorite things is all the suits Jiwoon wears.
2. Room To Room (방 건너 방) by Lee Aru
The sequel to Window to Window is focused on the friends of Ginu and Yubin. Dowan and Chamin who wind up living together after Chamin’s girlfriend breaks up with him. Little does he know that Dowan is in love with him. And little does Dowan know that Chamin starts taking medication to sleep that turns him into a sleep sex-er. Dowan is a muscled god and little Chamin, well, he is so skinny and tiny that as you read you worry Dowan might break the poor kid with how hard he goes. But their sex scenes are some of the best and we loved every second of it. There are some points where the story gets a little confusing (like when the author throws in a bad guy for only two chapters, that doesn’t really do much and you never hear of him again) but other than that the story is solid, and the sex…well you will have to read to understand just how good it is.
1. U Are Here by D. Jun AND IN A SURPRISE THAT SHOCKED ALL OF KOREAN FROM CONTEXT… A NON YAOI 만화 CAME IN FTW! Yes, you are reading that correctly. U Are Here is a sweet romance story of a boy (Yu Yang) afraid to fall in love and a boy (Li Huan) who wants nothing more than to shower him in love. It wasn’t love at first site. In fact, it was more so hate. But after constantly being thrown into situations together, they bond here and there, and Yu Yang, the boy who is openly gay, but also scared to fall in love again, realizes that the quiet anti-social freshman is actually a sweet, strong, and a little broken in his own way. They realize they can help heal and mend each other’s broken hearts. The story is adorable but real and the artwork is our favorite. These characters stick with us and keep us wanting more.
There you have it! Our top 10 만화! If you want to know where to read these feel free to reach out to us on Instagram @koreanfromcontext OR our Twitter @koreanfrmcntxt
Travel NYC like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids
Stray Kids went a lot of different places while being here in New York. And since they’re coming back NEXT WEEK, we decided to do one more before they arrive. Some of the spots we loved (Like when they visited The Roxy hotel, and DUMBO) and some we legitimately try to stay as far away from as possible (like Penn Station and now this new spot).
This spot is actually somewhere we had talked about and been to when ASTRO came to town. Yes, that’s correct. We went back to Times Square. JUST. FOR. YOU! To a section we actually have never even been close to if we’re being honest. We had seen it in videos, pictures, and we knew where it was but since it was in Times Square we avoided it like the plague.
Famous from the Alicia Keys and Jay-Z music video for “Empire State of Mind” those bright red stairs actually hold TKTS, an infamous Broadway ticket selling broker. We say infamous because they say they sell tickets cheap, when really they are the same, if not more than face value for the tickets. Fun fact if you come to NY and want to see a show…don’t go there.
The spot has now become an Instagram mecca for the tourists who come to see Times Square. And the boys of Stray Kids hopped on that bandwagon. And what they do, we do. And we have to admit…
It was pretty cool. Actually really cool. Yes, we will admit that something in Times Square was worth going to see. Between Broadway and 7TH Ave, on 47th St. you will find these large red stairs to climb up and see the enormity of Times Square. And you can snap your shot and check another location off your list as you have now travelled like Seungmin and Hyunjin of Stray Kids.
Travel NYC like Felix, Lee Know, and Woojin of Stray Kids (We still love and support Woojin)
Since Stray Kids are coming to New York in January, we decided to cover another travel of the boys from their last visit to our city. (Click here for our previous Stray Kids Travel)
We don’t live in NYC. While we wish we could, our day jobs do not make that a possibility. So we have to commute from our homes in New Jersey and Pennsylvania by taking the train. Every day we go into the city via NJ Transit, probably the WORST train system in the United States. (Google it. We’re pretty sure it is top 10 worst or pretty darn close)
But we digress. The reason we bring up the train is where it funnels into. New York Penn Station. Another nightmare of NYC. Yes, we are jaded to certain aspects of NY that some people will love to experience. The hustle and bustle of people waiting for and then ultimately running to catch trains, all the new food and drink spots that have been added, and now all the brand new construction causing even more pandemonium as half the waiting areas are closed…SUCH FUN.
But on one day several boys of Stray Kids chose to go and visit the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) section of Penn Station and enjoy a staple of New York, Shake Shack. And since we frequent the station we chose to go too! We didn’t eat Shake Shack as we are trying to not eat too bad ALL the time. Lol.
After you arrive in NY Penn Station, make sure to hit up the Shake Shack, have a burger and revel in the fact you traveled NYC like Felix, Lee Know, and Woojin of Stray Kids.
Travel NYC like Bang Chan, Changbin, Jisung, and Hyunjin of Stray Kids
On a hot summer weekend in NYC, the heat not only radiated from the sun above but off the concrete below causing us to want to spend the whole day in the nice cool AC of our hotel room. But no! We were determined to go hunting for travel spots. With our list as long as Priyanka Chopra’s veil, we ventured out into the jungle.
Hopping onto the subway, we made our way to the always entertaining area of SoHo (short for South of Houston). A place filled with amazing restaurants, cool shops, and all around fun stuff to adventure and find.
On this adventure we were going to a place we had actually never been, but knew from a movie called Two Weeks Notice (released in 2002). See how we have, are, and always will, love love. While they had put a different name on the building, Sammie’s mom had said she knew where the place was and had been with coworkers years prior.
When we watched “Stray Kids: 제 9구역 시즌2 ( chae 9 guyeok shijon 2 – the 9th district season 2) we loved seeing so many sights of the city we love, which will be showcased in future articles, but when we saw them walk past an iconic scene in RomCom history we paused and proceeded to screech. We knew the image very well.
Sandra Bullock running to save Hugh Grant Sandra Bullock had run to that very spot to find Hugh Grant had called her for the ‘emergency’ of not finding the right outfit to wear to an event. And our fan fiction hearts started imagining Jisung meeting us in one of the gorgeous rooms in the hotel for a romantic rendezvous, or Bang Chan ordering room service so we didn’t have to leave our room and simply spend time together, or Changbin buying us a drink while Hyunjin performed on the small stage in piano bar.
Stray Kids Bang Chan, Hyunjin, Changbin, and Jisung outside The Roxy We knew we had to go. And so here it is. The Roxy Hotel is located at the intersection of 6th Ave, Church St. and White St. Yes, three roads all meet to make the area that is The Roxy Hotel. Outside is a gorgeous old black clock with a white face that reminds us of the clock in the historic Waldorf Astoria Hotel (which is currently closed).
Sammie outside trying not freak out too much that she was living out a childhood memory. After you see some art at a small local gallery, do some shopping at some cute boutique, get a gelato from the local creamery, or a drink down at one of the local pubs, go and relax in the gorgeous venue that is The Roxy Hotel so you can say you travelled NYC like Bang Chan, Changbin, Jisung, Hyunjin of Stray Kids.
Hangul 한글
Hangul is the Korean alphabet. It’s the letters that form the gorgeous puzzle pieces that are Korean words. Sadly there is no way to put this into a story without having an extremely lengthy scene that would bore you and having you scream, “WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO MAKE OUT?!”
Don’t worry! Throughout the story you will receive both the hangul as well as a romanization. It will be at the bottom of every chapter so you can sound it out as you read.
Here is my breakdown of the letters and how you sound them out:
A real first chapter will be posted next week. Until then practice sounding out these letters as well as continue listening to K-pop and K-dramas and see if you can figure out how to spell some of the words they say!! (YES I ASSIGNED YOU SOME HOMEWORK…but tbh, you were gonna do that stuff anyway.)
Hello 안녕하세요
My name is Sammie (쌔미). Since you probably don’t know who I am, because why and how would you, I have been writing since I was in the fifth grade. I thank my mother for the gene as she is a New York Time Best-Selling author. I have also been an avid Korean Pop and Korean Drama junkie for the last four or so years.
Since getting into said Korean things, I realized I was slowly starting to pick up words and phrases used fairly often. I’m sure fans can agree that they have also picked up certain phrases. Much to my mother and father’s dismay, I know more Korean than I do Spanish or Italian.
And I wanted to learn even more of the language, so I bought study books and tried to dive in head first. It was so BORING! For me, at least, the breaking down to the point I was stressing out over something that was supposed to be fun, made me hate the idea of learning a new language. It was frustrating! So much so I wanted to bang my head against a wall and throw in the towel. If you want to make something fun, try to not make it so clinical. I mean, that’s probably why my high school Spanish never stuck.
The only thing I could say the books helped with was the pronunciation and grammatical symmetry of the Hangul. Other than that, I wasn’t able to get any sort of enjoyment or feeling of accomplishment from the books.
What I realized was that simply watching K-dramas and listening to K-pop was more helpful to me. I even had a Korean mail lady at my old surf and skate shop who I would ask questions and she would give me the correct pronunciations. Soon she had let me start calling her 언니 (older sister spoken from another female) and we formed a friendship. I came to realize I was learning from what I heard in context. And from that I have grown in my knowledge and have chosen to continue my studies in a unique way. I want to use my writing and I want to bring you guys along.
So here is my pitch: How fun would it be to learn a new language while falling in love?
Korean From Context is my baby. It’s the idea that a person can learn from what’s being said around what they don’t necessarily know. It’s my platform for a new type of genre. Educational Romance.
Yes, this will be predominantly romance. My plan is to create one or two large novels (who knows maybe more!), while also making small scenarios, where you the friendly readers can ask me how a saying would be used, or how something would play out in a particular situation and I will write a scenario in which the statement would be used.
This is a site to learn and 재미있게 보내세요 (have fun)
