BL Manga for Beginners Main Page
Part 03: Japanese BL Manga Serialization ✧ Part 05: BL Manga Publishing in English

Long time no post!! In Part 4 of  BL Manga for Beginners, I’ll be talking about BL events in Japan. While the topic is more tangential to the series, I do feel like it’s worth learning about them. As a fan of BL manga, I know I found myself getting interested in them!

J.GARDEN
When it comes to doujinshi events for the original BL, J.GARDEN is the largest event. It takes place twice a year, in spring and in fall at Tokyo Big Sight. J.GARDEN is an offshoot of COMITIA, which is dedicated to original works. J.GARDEN originally took place at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro in 1996, and remained there until moving to Tokyo Big Sight in 2019. The J in the name comes from JUNE magazine I mentioned in the last post. Both amateur and professional creators attend J.GARDEN, bringing doujinshi and sometimes merchandise. It’s an opportunity for both fans and creators to share in the joy of loving BL! Like with other doujinshi events, J.GARDEN also has a traveling editorial department where creators can have their work reviewed and potentially connect with an editor. 

This spring, the 59th event took place on Sunday on March 22, with a total of 1,200 spaces. I was fortunate to attend this time, and the energy of the event was buzzing! This was my second time going, but I once again felt like I barely scratched the surface of checking out all the spaces. I was able to grab a lot of the doujinshi I wanted, and happily walked out of Big Sight with my bag full. The 60th event, which will also celebrate J.GARDEN’s 30th anniversary, will take place on October 4. This event will be nearly double the size of previous events, with a planned 2,000 spaces! I plan to attend again since it’s a special anniversary.

BL Collabs Pop-ups, and Exhibitions
Collaboration cafés, pop-up shops, and exhibitions are common with BL like other manga, anime, and media!

Many of the cafés and pop-ups coincide with the release of a new volume or anniversary for a creator or magazine/label, but they can also take place at any time. These events often have a theme and feature new illustrations and merchandise. Cafés also have themed food and drinks, while some are just drink stands. 

Exhibitions focusing on specific creators, titles, and magazines have also been popular. Many of these celebrate anniversaries

Chill Chill, a review site and database, usually has a pop-up for their annual BL Awards. (I’ve written a post about them if you’d like to learn more!) Last year, Kinokuniya USA also hosted the pop-up at select stores and a few conventions in the US. Chill Chill has stated that Kinokuniya USA will host the pop-up again for the 2026 Awards.

Larger Scale Events
Occasionally there are larger events for BL such as the exhibit BL Evolution: From Pioneers to Global Phenomenon, which was hosted at the Kadokawa Culture Museum in 2023. This exhibit focused on 50 years of BL history.

This year, a new event called Boys Love Tokyo will take place on June 27-28 at Sunshine City in Ikebukuro. The two-day event will include an exhibition with original artwork from 40 creators, signing events for about 20 creators, live talks, and a café!

BL Symposiums
There have been scholarly events related to BL as well. Here are two that took place within the last 5 years. BL and Media was an online symposium held by the Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics on November 21, 2021 and primarily covered the history of BL, similar to the BL Evolution exhibit. Meanwhile,  LGBTQ Issues and the Globalization of “BL” took place in person on November 25-26, 2023. I actually linked a few posts related to this symposium in my first post of the series, since I briefly mentioned BL fitting in with LGBTO+ media. (I’ll link them below again.)

Wrap Up
Events are fun ways for BL fans to come together and celebrate their favorite authors and works. In Japan, there is no shortage of such events, with announcements happening regularly. These events can sometimes be elusive for overseas visitors, as some are only announced a few weeks in advance. But for those who have the chance to travel to Tokyo, I definitely recommend keeping a look out for upcoming events. (Note that some may not be accessible to overseas visitors due to requiring a Japanese phone number or address to register.)

The next post in this series will focus on English-language BL manga publishing! It will primarily focus on print publishing, but I will include digital releases as well.

References/Resources
J.GARDEN: the importance of doujin events on the BL ecosystem – Renta!
A Quick Introduction to Chill Chill and the 2025 BL Awards – Stacks of BL
The Expansion of Modern BL – BL Evolution exhibit report from illuminesce.net
The first BL exhibition – a Renta! report  – Renta!
Reflections on “LGBTQ Issues and BL” Symposium at Meiji University – Thomas Baudinette
BL and its place in LGBTQ media – Renta!