“Dame BL” anthology

So Bookman, the publishers behind the “Moe Danshi Gatari” essay collections-turned-artbooks everyone loves so much, are finally releasing the “Dame BL” anthology! Initially they announced it in the back MDG2 with the tentative release date of “early summer 2011” so when that date passed I figured the plans for the book must have fallen through and I was thoroughly disappointed. But who would have known the book would be set for an official release almost half a year later?

I initially heard of it when someone I follow tweeted about Kumota Haruko’s blog post about it. Somehow I’d totally missed her post (that’s what I get for never getting caught up with twitter… orz) so it came as a huge shock to me. But sure enough, Kumota announced on her blog that she’d have a story running in “Dame BL Anthology”, to be released on November 1st. Go here to check her site and the cute illustration she did to fit her ‘dame’ theme: foot fetish. Yes, those are a man’s legs.

However, try as I might I wasn’t able to find any other information on the book even after Kumota announced it (aside from a small conversation on twitter between Uno Zinia and Psyche Delico) so part of me was still like “no way… it’s too good to be true, isn’t it?” But—! Today Kijitora updated about it, announcing that the book and its information have been added to Animate Online. And sure enough, here the book is. It’s still not added to any other site, but the fact that it’s on Animate means I can really start getting my hopes up that the release date is 100% cemented in.

Anyway, here’s the lineup:

Comics include Kumota Haruko, Morozumi Sumitomo, Est Em, Umematsu Machie, Okadaya Tetsuzou, Chiba Ryouko, etc.
Columns include Aoyama Toomi, Kusama Sakae, Psyche Delico, Yoneda Kou, etc.

I can’t wait to see the names hiding behind ‘etc.’—I’m sure you all know who I’m hoping for the most.

For those who don’t know, ‘dame BL’ appeared on the scene a year or two ago because a bunch of mangaka on twitter were having conversations about BL manga they would love to read or write that would never ever be okay’d by their publishers. It created a huge boom even among fans, who started talking about all the weird BL that they thought would be interesting to read as well, such as stories about old men strolling along the street holding hands or maybe two men getting in an argument about their relationship for the whole story. So I guess what we can look forward to with this anthology is a collection of unusual stories unlike most of the BL we’ve seen thusfar.

I’m definitely looking forward to it!