HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: Top Picks for the BL Fan in Your Life

Christmas is right around the corner, and shopping for your favorite fujoshi or fudanshi can feel like a challenge. With so many great BL titles available, choosing the perfect gift might seem overwhelming. To make things easier, we’ve gathered some of our favorite recommendations to help you find the ideal present. And while you’re picking up a copy for your friend, why not treat yourself to one too?

Here U Are — $19.99

A classic Chinese webcomic about an openly gay college upperclassman and the quiet and serious underclassman who falls for him, now in a beautiful, full-color hardcover edition! —MZ

Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide — $12.99

Like BL and want to travel to more countries than you can afford? Look no further than Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide, a series that’ll take you all around the world with two beautiful men who are also in love. Beautiful and well-researched, Asahi and Mitsuki’s contrasting personalities make their journey entertaining and unforgettable. —MZ

The Big Apple — $21.00

Harusari and Hodot deliver an intense supernatural BL in The Big Apple, where Joachim leads a double life as a hitman for the SIA (Secret Intelligence Agency). After a mission goes wrong, Joachim decides to leave his lover Juergen behind to keep him safe. Juergen, however, refuses to accept the breakup and won’t let Joachim go. This gripping story kept me on the edge of my seat, eagerly anticipating what would happen next. (Side note: If you love plenty of FWOP FWOP moments, this manhwa has you covered!) —HK

Only the Stars Know — $12.00

Nagisa Furuya delivers a self-contained Boys’ Love story in Only the Stars Know, where two men form a bond after a chance encounter. Sora, the main character, feels miserable after losing his job and girlfriend, with nothing going his way. However, when he meets a friendly stranger, his luck begins to change. I enjoyed reading Only the Stars Know because it offered a light-hearted escape. This manga is perfect for anyone who can relate to Sora’s feelings of frustration and disappointment. —HK

Heaven Official’s Blessing (Deluxe Hardcover Edition) — $29.99

Seven Seas Entertainment recently rereleased one of their first danmei series out in hardcover and it is beautiful to look at. The deluxe hardcover edition features new cover art by the ultra-talented Arisk_k, spray-painted edges by Za Nian with huaepiphany illustrating the endpapers. Once the dustcovers are off, it reveals another set of illustrations in foil and…*fans self with a non-existent wad of money*. This is truly a gorgeous collector’s item and once all eight volumes are collected, the combined edges will unveil another spectacular scroll of artwork, making it ideal for new and old fans.

The first volume has been released with Volume 2 set to release on December 24 which would make the perfect Christmas present.

Heaven Official’s Blessing follows a disgraced god named Xie Lian who has been tossed out of the heavens twice and re-ascended three times. Although everyone in all three realms mock him, Xie Lian has never been bothered and is content with wandering the earth and collecting scraps. When he’s assigned to investigate a ghost bride case, he encounters a mysterious man in red who seems to be very, very familiar with Xie Lian. —HL

Semantic Error — $24.00

Semantic Error is one of the most anticipated BL releases to come out of Ize Press. Originally written as a webnovel by J. Soori, Angy Kim adapted the story into a webcomic which released exclusively on Manta Comics digitally. The webcomic follows Choo Sangwoo, a super anal, super no-nonsense computer science major who prizes rationality above all else whose routine life gets disrupted by an annoying red blemish called Jang Jaeyoung after Sangwoo takes his name off a group project, preventing Jaeyoung from graduating. Jaeyoung vows to make Sangwoo’s life a living hell. Can these two seemingly polar opposites find some common ground?

For anyone who’s looking for an enemies-to-lovers story, Semantic Error has got you covered. Plus there’s a lot of red (although Jaeyoung wears red for more insidious reasons) which makes it pretty perfect for the holiday season, if I do say so myself. —HL

Happy Crappy Life — $10.00 (Digital)

“An enemies-to-lovers slapstick comedy between a demoted office elite exiled to the countryside and his unemployed neighbor.”

You can count on Harada for crafting diverse, interesting, and, at times, traumatizing Boys’ Love manga! Kuma is one of the rare publishers in the North American manga industry whose manga has dust jackets, and their paper quality is unmatched. The series is ongoing, but three volumes are out already, and the set would make the perfect gift! —MG

Checkmate — $21.99

“Throughout high school, Soohyun obsessively competed with Eunsung for the top spot in all things, only to consistently come in second place. And as high school ended without victory, so did his passion for anything. But all this changes when, as an adult, he suddenly sees Eunsung again—except the other man is in the news, embroiled in scandal!”

This gritty vertical-scrolling comic was a digital-first release on Lezhin, and when the print license announcement was made, I remember thinking they did an amazing job snagging it. It’s compelling and dark and leaves the reader hanging until the end, but it’s all worth it. The first volume is out in print already, and the rest will soon follow. You might want to consider bringing a loved one down the rabbit hole! —MG