7 Boy’s Love Anime That Aren’t Uncomfortably Predatory

While long-loved by many fans, you have to admit that both yaoi and yuri anime often have their own unique problems in their depiction of same sex couples.

In yuri, they enjoy ending their series with either a tragedy or the girls just “growing out” of liking other girls. Meanwhile, yaoi has an aggression problem, or rather, a sexual aggression problem.

The yaoi genre has traditionally liked a few very specific tropes like the lack of consent (an “I’ll make you love me” approach, if you will) as well as a very uncomfortably large age-gap or power dynamic (i.e. student/teacher or any other set up where the dom truly has domination in all ways.)

Both of these well–worn boy’s love tropes paint same-sex couplings between men as just a cesspool of sexual assault, and unfortunately, for a sizable chunk of boy’s love fans, that is part of the charm. They find the taboo and the fantasy titillating, but it certainly doesn’t paint LGBT romance in a healthy light.

However, maybe you are the boy’s love fan that wants a normal and more realistic yaoi anime romance. While there was a time when finding a healthy and wholesome relationship in the boy’s love genre was a task, it has become increasingly common to move away from coercion and threatening rape into, you know, displaying normal relationships.

Boy’s Love Anime That Isn’t Rape-y

Given

Weirdly enough, if you are looking for subtle and lovely same-sex romance, music anime isn’t a bad genre to explore. Although, it rarely goes further than tossing in intimate bait moments.

Given, however, sets itself apart by not only being a great music anime with solid Rock insert songs and tender emotional moments, but by featuring several boy’s love romances that progress as the story goes on.

Given follows the clandestine meeting between a quiet, depressed boy who lugs around a broken guitar he doesn’t even know how to play and a slightly abrasive boy in a band that berates him for letting the strings on his guitar break.

While they start bonding over guitar lessons, eventually he recruits the boy into his band after hearing his striking singing voice.

Like any music anime, Given transcends being about the creative experience and become surprisingly tender and emotional as it explores the relationships that its wide cast of characters form.

Umibe no Etranger

Like a prohibitory censorship law in Florida, boy’s love anime often has a Don’t Say Gay rule for its characters due to the still fairly conservative sensibilities of Japanese society. Boy’s love anime is certainly exploring tender same-sex relationships, but heaven forbid they say the dreaded G-word to describe themselves.

Umibe no Etranger is perhaps the most “real” same-sex romance depiction in anime, even if it is sadly just a singular movie. It has a main character describe himself as gay and also fully explores the societal problems that he faces because of it.

In Umibe no Etranger, an openly gay novelist disowned by his parents for his sexuality meets an orphaned high school boy on beach where they grow close to each other over the next few weeks. After the boy moves away, he returns three years later to confess his love to the novelist only to find that the man’s life had wildly changed while they were apart and he is not quite the same person he was when they first met.

If you like relationships with an equal power dynamic and exploring just two people living their lives with no ham-fisted drama, Umibe no Etranger, again, is the most “real” feeling romance that boy’s love has to offer.

Sasaki and Miyano

If you are looking for fluffy and wholesome boy’s love romance, Sasaki and Miyano is a must. Alongside Given, it was the herald of the newer age of boy’s love anime where character were not the lust-fueled rape animals of days past.

Sasaki and Miyano honestly feels like any other romantic comedy. It follows a delinquent in an all-boys school who saves a boy from bullies and develops a little crush on him. As they bond over reading boy’s love manga together, deeper romantic feelings begins to bloom between them.

However, romance can move sluggishly in this series since the bullied boy, though a big fan of boy’s love manga, insists that he isn’t actually into guys romantically. However, the series keeps things very cute even if it does spend perhaps too much time weeble-wobbling with its romantic feelings.

Yuri on Ice

While there is no rule that says anime about figure skating also needs to be a boy’s love anime, Yuri on Ice certainly embraced it, if not embracing just dangling the possibility in front of audiences.

If you want clarity of gayness in your boy’s love romance, then perhaps Yuri on Ice is not for you. There is still debate to this day as to if the relationship presented in it was just the passionate pride between mentor and student or a legitimate romance. Although, personally, I think sports anime fans just don’t want to admit they watched a boy’s love romance – and liked it.

Regardless, Yuri on Ice follows a professional figure skater who flubbed a Grand Prix performance and retreated back to his hometown in shame. After a video of him recreating the skating routine of a professional he admired surfaces online, that same professional shows up at his doorstep and offers to coach him.

As they train together, you watch him grow as a skater and a person, but also form an increasingly intimate bond with his coach.

Twilight Out of Focus

If there is one problem you face when trying to dodge SA in boy’s love anime, it is that series will often swing too far in the opposite direction.

Instead of forced physicality, you get no physicality. There is certainly some charm to a fluffy and cute wholesome romance, but if you want something sexy that isn’t about forcing it on a weaker/younger man, then Twilight Out of Focus is for you.

Twilight Out of Focus follows the members of the film club at an all-boy’s school. You explore three relationships that all blossom in the club and all quickly turn physical in a fairly healthy consensual way.

As the series follows three different couples, it hits a lot of different personality types and relationship dynamics while exploring the relatable personal and romantic worries of its characters.

Doukyuusei

If you are well-versed in boy’s love manga, Doukyuusei is probably a familiar story. Alongside being based on a popular boy’s love manga story itself, it also depicts a familiar boy’s love dynamic.

Doukyuusei follows the slow-burning romance between a laid-back boy in a band and a high-strung, high-achieving honor student. They have a clandestine meeting when the rocker happens upon the honor student diligently practicing his singing for an upcoming choir competition, despite seemingly like the type who would likely not care about anything not academic.

Despite having two very different personalities, they sweetly grow closer as they spend time together. However, perhaps the most charming part is that Doukyuusei is more of a story of self-discovery than a deeply emotional romance. The depth of feelings definitely come through, but in essence, the movie is just exploring two boys getting to know themselves through falling in love with someone every different from them.

Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?!

While the title certainly makes it seem like Cherry Magic will be magical if not overly horny, it’s truthfully one of the best boy’s love anime to watch if you want a healthy LGBT romance between adults.

In Cherry Magic, the main character has indeed remained a virgin until 30 and did indeed develop wizardly powers in the form of being able to read the minds of people he touches or who touch him. This leads to the unexpected discovery that his handsome and popular co-worker actually has a huge, gushing crush on him.

There are moments in their developing relationship that could have easily embraced old tropes, but you can watch proudly as an adult man resists his baser urges and takes the high road of only wanting to touch people that are awake and also into it.

Do you have any more yaoi or shounen ai anime series that aren’t super creepy? Let fans know in the comments section below.