As a sort of follow-up to this topic, I wanted to know whether there are any shounen-ai, shoujo-ai or yuri (no yaoi, please!) with straight side couples.

You know how it is; in BL all the side couples are also boy x boy, and in GL the side couples are girl x girl. And while that's okay since we've all come to accept the fantasy worlds that yaoi and yuri happen in, it does get a little annoying at times...

So, please recommend me a manga, anime, movie or novel where;

• The main couple is girl x girl or boy x boy.

• The side couple/s is/are straight.

• The straight couple has a fair amount of page-time, and at least one of them is a moderately important character. I don't want some couple which appears for two pages or so and then disappears, never to be seen again.

• As usual; no hentai, shota/loli, adult, smut or ecchi!

Examples -
For GL, Girl Friends.

For BL... I don't really want to say this is shounen-ai because Mitsuya doesn't feel the same way towards Jin as Jin does towards him, but Golden Days has plenty of straight side couples and Mitsuya doesn't have a girlfriend (yet...), so this is the closest a BL manga has ever gotten to being what I want to see here.

Thank you for your time 🙂 Hope there are at least a few titles which fit my request!

This is a nice topic.

I don't know any manga like that (except the two you mentioned), but since you're accepting novels as well, you should definitely try Nightrunner by Lynn Flewelling. I can't say there's any particularly important side couple in it, but all the major characters besides the two protagonists are straight, and most of them are either married or have a fiance. It got just the tiniest bit weird from volume 3 onwards (imo volume 1 was by far the best), but it's still worth the read. The literary standard isn't very high, but the series definitely qualifies as interesting fantasy pulp fiction.

I have no idea why I forgot about Nightrunner! It's the only BL novel I've read, but I couldn't find the enthusiasm to keep going past the 2nd book. Now that you've encouraged me to see it in a new light, I started on vol. 3 today.

But...is that all? Wow, this scenario is rarer than I thought! Can't say I'm all that surprised though...

Unmei ni Kiss - the straight best friend even gets his own chapter with the girl he has a crush on.

There may be other Eiki Eiki manga that fit the bill - she's kind of a free-for-all-er when it comes to romance in her manga. For example, I think Seikimatsu Prime Minister (shoujo) and Yuigon (yaoi) are related to each other, though I'm not 100% sure on that.

Also, Mirage of Blaze (novel) has a very important female character who is searching for her long-lost (male) love. I can't say anything for the manga, since I haven't read it, and I think the official anime translation refers to her as male on occasion (she's, uh, trans by reincarnation? Long story...), but the books refer to her as female and she considers herself female, so it counts.

I also made a thread a long time ago about BL with straight male side characters - not exactly the same thing, but there's some overlap.

@wolf_unknown - Thanks for Unmei ni Kiss. I'll check that one out.

I'm already reading MoB. But isn't / wasn't Haruie a guy? Oh well...it doesn't really matter, I guess. Pity Asphodel's Heaven is so slow with the translation. I'm pretty sure I'll never get to finish all 40 books 🙁

Quote from cyclamen

@wolf_unknown - Thanks for Unmei ni Kiss. I'll check that one out.

I'm already reading MoB. But isn't / wasn't Haruie a guy? Oh well...it doesn't really matter, I guess. Pity Asphodel's Heaven is so slow with the translation. I'm pretty sure I'll never get to finish all 40 books 🙁

Yeah, Haruie/Ayako was a guy. But she's been reincarnating as a woman for the past 200 years, and when she and Takaya first meet, she does say, "I am a real woman." I don't know how Asphodel's Haven is translating it, but in the original Japanese, it does use "kanojo" (she) when referring to her. (But pronouns are rarely used in Japanese, so there's a chance Asphodel's Haven used "he" before the original Japanese ever said anything about it.) Plus, Takaya (uh, when he's not being all Kagatora-like) calls her "Nee-san" ("Sis"). <3

Bump!

Fake & Kusatta Kyoushi no Houteishiki both have well developed straight couples (fake even has more than one), both are rather long so the couples (both gay and straight) take a while to develop.

Hm. I think I know some more, but I can't remember quite at this moment. I'll probably update this post with some more when I remember.

Oops, I read your first post again, these are both yaoi sorry OTL Oh well, my recs still stand, they both have plot and for the most part they are shounen-ai except for the very end.

I would recommend four manhwas: The Tarot Café centers around a woman (and her man love interest (?)) but it's still shounen-ai, because there are many many men x men couples. The first few volumes are quite episodic, and the story stars to focus on Pamela (main character) from somewhere around the 4th or 5th.
(Actually, that's shoujo with shounen-ai, so not exactly what you're looking for)

The second, A Night of a Thousand Dreams, has a gay main couple, but it's also very episodic due to the tales the uke always tells the sultan; and those tales are mostly revolve around straight people.

Then there's Let Dai. Main character was originally straight, and hetero relationships (for example with his (used-to-be) girlfriend) are very important parts of the story.

And finally Kiss me princess. Main couple - shounen-ai, and there's another gay couple too, but also a hetero, which I really enjoyed. (rare thing, but I liked the girl very much; she's got an interesting personality)

(man, those koreans sure do these kind of manhwas 😀 )

And as for the Nightrunner series: ohhhh, yeah! I love that! Unfortunately I still couldn't get the volumes after the second, but I really came to love the first two so I'm expecting the others to be just as enjoyable. ^__^ Go, read Nightrunners, everyone! <3

@roxslide -
Thanks for the reply, but I don't read yaoi. Might seem weird since I don't mind yuri (though I'm not too crazy about that either), but I find BL sex scenes way more gross. I can't really figure out why, but that's just how it is.

@AislinCeivun -
Something like Tarot Cafe isn't what I'm looking for here. That actually fits my other request better (the one I mentioned in my first post).
I'll check out the other three. I'm afraid KMP looks like it has the kind of sappy, girly uke I hate - so that does not bode well. But Let Dai and 1001 Nights definitely seem very promising!
Thank you for the recs 🙂

Oh - and if you don't want to buy the Nightrunner novels right now, just download the e-book version. You can find all five books in the series online, for free 😉

Bump!

Anyone 😕

Bump!