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Rumspringa no Jōkei Tops Kono BL ga Yabai! 2019 List
posted on by Lynzee Loveridge & Kim Morrissy
Readers may be familiar with Kono Manga ga Sugoi! and its sister list Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi!, two annual guidebooks that publish the cream of the crop for readers. There is a more content specific version though, known as Kono BL ga Yabai! The word yabai is doing a lot of work here. Typically, yabai has negative connotations but it's evolved colloquially to also mean something akin to "dangerously good" or to denote in this case, the perception of BL among the uninitiated. It might be best to think of yabai in this sense as BL manga that's "dangerous" because it's so good it might just convert its readers to fujoshi status.
Next BOOKS released its Kono BL ga Yabai! 2019 guidebook this week with its top 20 boys-love manga recommendations. The ranking is decided by fellow fans of the genre and this year they've chosen The Scene of My Rumspringa (Rumspringa no Jōkei) by Kaya Azuma as the top choice. The one-volume manga tells the story of an Amish boy named Theo living in America in the 1980s. Theo has traveled to a bar for Rumspringa, a traditional coming-of-age period for members of the Amish community where the adolescent leaves the enclosed religious community to take part in the outside world. There, Theo meets Oz, a man working as a waiter after abandoning his dream to be a Broadway performer.
The rest of the list is below.
Kono BL ga Yabai! 2019 Top 20 Manga
- The Scene of My Rumspringa (Rumspringa no Jōkei) by Kaya Azuma
- 10 Dance by Satoh Inoue (available in English from Kodansha Comics)
- Liquor & Cigarette by Ranmaru Zariya
- Nights Before Night by Kazuki Natsume
- Twittering Birds Never Fly (Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai) by Yoh Yoneda (available in English from DMP)
- MADK by Ryō Suzuri
- Dragless Sex: Tatsumi and Inui by Enzou
- 100 and Swastika (Hyaku to Manji) by Sawa Sakura
- Perfect Fit by Tanato
- A Thunderbolt from Cupid (Cupid ni Rakurai) by Minta Suzumaru
- A Monster Exposed (Hadakeru Kaibutsu) by Tanaka Ogeretsu
- Ten Count by Rihito Takarai (available in English from SuBLime)
- Remnant -Therianthrope Omegaverse- (Remnant -Jūjin Omegaverse-) by Hana Hasumi
- Color Recipe by Harada
- Whimsical Jaguar (Kimagurena Jaguar) by Unohana
- Marble by Tōko Kawai
- I Don't Know How to Trust (Ore wa Tayorikata ga Wakarimasen) by Koshino
- Tashiro, You Are (Tashiro-kun, Kimitte Yatsu wa) by Yamada
- May I Fall Into Your Control? (Shuchū ni Otoshite Ii desu ka?) by Mataaki Kureno
- The Nine-tailed Fox and the Degenerate Priest (Kyūbi no Kitsune to Namagusa Bōzu) by Rinko and Shirayuki Mihara
Source: Kono BL ga Yabai! 2019, Nijimen