Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving here in the United States, probably my absolute favorite holiday seeing as it centers around food. So, I’m feeling particularly giving this month and am giving away a set of four, count them, four boys’ love/yaoi first volumes to one lucky winner. The giveaway is open world-wide but you must be over the age of 18 to enter. (Also, please don’t be asking me to be doing something illegal by sending this to your country.) So, if you’re interested in a chance to win some free manga, read on!
First, a little about of the books. Love Mode is brand new, Shout Out Loud! is used but still in good condition, and both Eerie Queerie! and Gravitation are library discards that I rescued. All of the books are quite different and should give you an opportunity to sample some of the variety of boys’ love that’s out there.
Shuri Shiozu’s Eerie Queerie! was nominated for a Gaylactic Spectrum award in 2005 and then again in 2007 when it was shortlisted. Other than Sanami Matoh’s Until the Full Moon, Eerie Queerie! is the only manga that I know of that has been nominated for this award so far.
Maki Murakami’s Gravitation is a pretty substantial property with both light novels and an anime adaptation in addition to the manga. It’s a ridiculous series and makes me laugh and has quite a following. I believe the individual volumes of Gravitation are actually no longer being printed but the series is being republished in omnibuses as Gravitation Collection.
Of the four manga being offered in this sampler, Yuki Shimizu’s Love Mode is the most explicit, and I promise the art is better than what the cover might make you think. At eleven volumes, Love Mode is one of the longest yaoi series that I’m familiar with available in English.
Last month I posted my response to the NYAF/NYCC panel Gay for You? Yaoi and Yuri Manga for GBLTQ Readers. Satosumi Takaguchi’s Shout Out Loud! was included in the panelists’ list of recommended titles and is well worth checking out.
Since I’m giving away a bunch of first volumes, I thought I’d share a few of my manga firsts. (There’s some sort of logic there, I swear.) For the longest time, I thought that Hiroaki Samura’s Blade of the Immortal was the first manga that I had read and it remains one of my favorites. However, in the process of setting up Experiments in Manga, I realized that the honor in fact goes to either Osamu Tezuka’s Adolf or Masamune Shirow’s Ghost in the Shell. As for yaoi, my introduction to the genre was Yaya Sakuragi’s Hey, Sensei? which I’m still fond of. Around the same time I randomly picked up Sanami Matoh’s Fake from the library without realizing it was a boys’ love title.
So, you may be wondering, how can you win a sampler of boys’ love first volumes?
1) In the comments section below, tell me about one of the first manga that you read.
2) For a second entry, tell me about the first boys’ love/yaoi manga you read, OR if you’ve never read boys’ love before just mention that.
3) If you’re on Twitter you can earn a bonus entry by tweeting about the contest. Make sure to include a link to this post and @PhoenixTerran (that’s me).
Pretty easy? One person can earn up to three entries for the giveaway. The winner will be randomly chosen and announced on December 1, 2010 (hey, another first!)—so you’ve only got one week to get your entries in this time. Good luck!
VERY IMPORTANT: Include some way that I can contact you. This can be an e-mail address, link to your website, Twitter username, or whatever. If I can’t figure out how to get a hold of you and you win, I’ll just draw another name.
Contest winner announced—Manga Giveaway: Feast of Firsts Winner
My first manga was Hot Gimmick, a choice now I strongly regret. But at the time, I was addicted, until I realized it was going nowhere and Aihara’s heroines are always dishrags.
Second chance: My first yaoi I really liked was by Fumi Yoshinaga, because I really enjoy her artwork. That provided the entree I needed to the genre.
Third chance: Your tweet has been retweeted by me! I just want to get an opportunity to read Shout Out Loud. :) And thanks for not doing some silly Facebook thing for this contest!
my first manga was Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (Wallflower or Perfect Girl Evolution in English). I watched the anime and since it didn’t end properly, I ran and read the manga… but it’s now over 103 chapters and still no development, nothing -.- but I still love it xD and Sunako is one of my fav characters <3
my first yaoi manga.. it’s a bad memory xDD it was “Room Share” – my friend practically forced it on me. and I was really sorry I wasted my time on that -.- srsly, THAT shouldn’t have been my first yaoi manga T_T the art was bad, if there was a story I probably didn’t notice it, and the characters were beyond annoying – wanted to strangle a few of them >_> my second manga, “Crimson Spell” was so, so much better *tears*
my first manga (as well as anime) was Hellsing >…<
Hellsing’s something I’ve been obsessed with for a very, very long time, you could say that is what got me into anime/manga to begin with ^^
it’s great that OVA-s follow the manga storyline very closely >..< can't wait till 8th episode comes out *drool*
oh and it’s a bit annoying that noone I know has read it >.> wanna discuss with someone XD
now about yaoi XD a female friend of mine logged into messenger and was like “*kyaa* this manga is fucking great! >…< probably the best romance manga I've read! yaoi or not <33" i suggested (only half-joking.. well I'm curious person after all.. XD) that maybe I should give it a try and the answer was "why not? it's not that graphic and u can skip some moments^^"
well.. I gave it a try.. and I liked it XD
I didn’t even skip any pages XD
It’s sequel turned out to be even better and thus it was that yaoi found its place in my manga diet ^^’
oh, I nearly forgot ^^’
Kyuuso wa Cheese no Yume wo Miru is the name of that yaoi :3
My first manga was Kaoru Mori’s Emma. I loved the artwork, the setting (time, place, costume, etc.), the cheesy storyline, the maids! It would’ve been perfect if volume 7 hadn’t been such a letdown . . . the side stories were cute though.
First yaoi might have been You Higuri’s Gorgeous Carat? Does that even count? The man love elements are so mild that they’re easy to skip over if you just want to read a story, which is kind of how I read it now . . . although I’ve read other things since then >_<
My first manga was InuYasha. I’d seen episodes of the anime, and was surprised — and delighted — to discover that it was actually based on a series of books. I haven’t looked back since!
Early in my travels, I read several manga that might be described as shonen-ai — Tokyo Babylon and X-Kai among them — but I think the first true BL title I read was also You Higuri’s Gorgeous Carat.