BL and Shoujo are like Ketchup and Jam

They don't really go well together. I wouldn't know though. I've never had ketchup and jam together on anything. It's like a forbidden union between vegetable and fruit (though tomato is also a fruit).

Okay, BL (or boys' love) and Shoujo are like ketchup and a piece of bread when you're trying to make a sandwich. You've got to have some good stuff in between to make that shit work. And some authors try to sneak a hot dog in between some buns. I'm not talking about men bumping genitalia in shoujo either. That's when you know the manga's clearly mislabeled.

But usually when the author tries to write BL in Shoujo, I find the comic falls into three categories:

• To give a character a fucked up past.
• To write an absurd fucked up plot.
• Lawl, there are no female love interests in here. And if there are, they stand no chance.

In my history of reading manga, I've only read one manga that blends BL and Shoujo well. When an author pulls it off, it's like drinking coffee without worrying about the jitters later. Or that somebody laced it with crack.


It's called Crush on You.

You might want to slow down there a bit, dude.

It's been a while since I read this manwha so I might have memory beer goggles, but I remember reading with such enthusiasm. As if I spotted a leprechaun, and he offered me gold without any intention of killing me and packaging my hacked off remains in boxes of cereal.

Oh gawd, Jennifer Aniston, kill it before he shows you his lucky charms.

"Dude, he eats pizza with a fork." "What a freak."

But anyway, the comic opens up by introducing the two main characters, Yoon Seung Hun, a playboy who currently has three girlfriends, and Yi Woo Sun, a girl who likes to play with boys' hearts and also has three boyfriends. And it seems they're out on a date when holy crap, they stumble upon a body in front of Seung Hun's house.

And it's hungry.

After the food warrior has his way with the fridge, he takes of his hood to reveal that he is the most beautiful person that they've ever seen. And almost immediately Seung Hun switches his charms to woo this new beauty.

Woo Sun is having none of that. That is her flowers in the background love interest and she'll be damned to lose him to another guy. So she starts slipping into snarky comment mode, "I didn't know you were into guys. How disappointing."

He smiles, "No, what's interesting is you being into girls."

They both have this "What? Ka-dur?" moment before arguing over the gender of their beautiful bum.

What they don't know is that his left eye is lower than the right one.

Seung Hun's common sense finally smashes him over the head with a light bulb. "Stop it. Why don't we just ask her?"

Of course, by this time, the bum's already asleep. "Oh you see? Only a guy could sleep through this!" And somehow Woo Sun notices there's a number written on the palm of his hand. Some dark haired chick shows up, wakes the guy up ("Jongyi! Jongyi! Time to go home"), and says, "Whelp, sorry for bothering you. (Peace out bitches)." And they turn to leave.

Now hold on a minute! Woo Sun smacks Seung Hun out of the way and asks, "Is that person a boy or a girl?" Because clearly that's the most important thing.
Dark haired chick has this "Are you fucking kidding me?" expression on her face. She grabs Seung Hun's hand and pulls it to feel Jongyi's flat chest. Effectively shattering his dreams.
The next day, Seung Hun's moping around with a friend, still in denial ("No, it's a lieeee. She must be just very flat chested").

Woo Sun shows up, happy as a girl can be when she is right, and for some reason decides to share that she knows who the dark-haired chick is. "I've seen her face before around school." Okay Shoujo, bit of a stretch there but it's plausible. Don't let me down.

Scene cuts over to the dark haired chick whose name turns out to be Yuri. She's in a newly formed club which doesn't even have a name yet. And she chats about how her friend's transferring to their school tomorrow (oh thanks for the heads up, Shoujo), and that's it before the scene switches back to the two main characters.

It's the next morning, and they're waiting by the school gate with a bored expression.

Woo Sun: So what time did you wake up to come so early?
Seung Hun: Six.
Woo Sun: Pfft...all this effort for a boy.
Seung Hun: Shut up! Right now, I'm waiting for a girl!

Yuri finally walks by. They bother her enough for her to clarify that no, she's not Jongyi's girlfriend and that he's going to their school now. And even though they waited for this chick at the school gate for hours, they decide that they'll find Jongyi sooner or later. Because he's pretty. And the school hones in on that like mosquitoes to a bug zapper. Until then, Woo Sun kills time by teasing Seung Hun.

 

Well joke's on her. Because after Seung Hun skips school to take a smoke break behind a tree, Jongyi pops out of nowhere. Apparently he's also hiding from somebody, and immediately jumps back into the bushes. Seung Hun helps Jongyi out when a random guy asks if he's seen a 'puppy'.

Nope, haven't seen anything. Guy leaves, and Jongyi reveals he and the dude are playing hide and seek. Seung Hun has this "What the hell was I thinking? This guy is too weird" revelation and gets up to leave.

Hold up, you're not going anywhere until you're so in love with me that you're crapping hearts.

Yes, gaze into my innocent rose summoning eye, puny mortal.

Durrrr, okay. Whatever you say.

And that's the end of Chapter 1. Though the art could be better, I think the writing's worth a read. The comic has a good balance of light-hearted comedy and drama. It's also a complete series on Mangafox so no waiting forever for the updates. Again, this is the only manga I've read so far where the BL actually blends in nicely. Though I do read BL, I find BL focused Shoujos a bit irritating. I don't recall one ever being straight-forward. It's all hints here or there and ten or twenty chapters later, they're still in a 'will they, won't they' cockfight (I just wanted to write that). If Sunako and Kyohei from the Wallflower were a gay couple, that's what every BL Shoujo's main couple would be like.

Now a really misleading Shoujo title is the Utopia of Homosexuality. The female lead is a lesbian and the male lead is gay, but they end up getting together in the end. A gay friend of mine was very displeased.

Main point being: Just write it well. Make me believe it. Or at least enough so that I don't give a fuck about the absurdity of a situation. Though if it's strange enough, it might end up on this blog.

WHAT THE FUCK, BLACK ROSE ALICE. ("Lol, I'm a tree now.")

Credits: Evil Flowers, Mangafox (unless stated otherwise, all the manga pictures I post will be from there), Aerandria (for Black Rose Alice what-the-fuckery), and Mangareader