Sasaki to Miyano
Sasaki and Miyano

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This is a real gem. The story is simple: two boys become friends as one introduces the other to the world of BL manga. However, every interaction feels so honest and real, and so much care is taken to develop the characters and their relationships to one another. The supporting cast really add a liveliness to the world, while the main characters are so relatable and compelling. Plus a lot of genuine humor.

You rarely get a manga about two guys longer than six chapters (unless it's all subtext and lasts 100+ chapters), and that's where this story really stands out. At eighteen chapters (so far), ... we've gotten to see their characters interact and change as time passes, without the rush necessitated by short chapter limits.

It is absolutely possible to enjoy this story if you are not specifically into BL. A lot about BL culture factors into the story, but the story itself is easily accessible as a school comedy/romance. There's (so far) nothing graphic or even suggestive, it's a lot like any other romance manga out there.

Also, the art is absolutely lovely and the English translation is really well done; it's definitely an easy manga to read. Give it a shot!

A BL manga that uses BL manga as a way to connect the characters. Interesting idea I guess.

Sasaki to Miyano is among the more slow paced shounen-ai. In this case, that’s not bad, as it gives the characters more time to feel real and less like a walking fanservice. Unlike the usual procedure, the pairing doesn’t get together and to business immediately. It even takes a while to show that this is, in fact, a BL title.

As usual with such manga, the main demographic is pretty much the only demographic, as if you don’t enjoy boy’s love, there isn’t much for you to enjoy here. ... But on the contrary to usual quality of BL work, this one isn’t offensively bad and I can see why someone would enjoy it. The characters aren’t walking cliché, the plot doesn’t feel forced, the interaction are likely cute to the intended spectators and the art doesn’t look like it was drawn by a meth addicts who thinks Slenderman is the paragon of human anatomy.

The least believable part is that the manga wants us to believe that someone who’s not into boys would want to read BL just because it’s fun. Because let’s face it, overwhelming majority of BL are complete trash and you definitely aren’t reading them for the plot, as popular that excuse is. Well, it probably didn't surprise anyone that the supposedly not gay protagonist might in fact be gay at least to some extent.

Overall, if you’re a fujoshi who doesn’t require explicit slash and is fine with some more sane content, go for it.

I know that this is very popular and for some reason most people are into this bs, but I'm still putting it to "not recommended". I love BL but it's merely one reason why I hate this:

The "top" and "bottom" (or Uke and Seme in Japanese) talk. I don't know why it's so popular, but it's actually extremely disrespectful to gay people. Most gays are switches, and so are girls. Feminine guys aren't the equivalent of a woman and won't therefore be the "bottom" of the relationship.
So damn annoying. When will y'all get this.

Even worse is when people label others whether they're a top or ... bottom just by the looks. That's very similar to guessing someone's sexuality. You can't tell by the looks. And if they haven't told you, you shouldn't put labels on them anyway.
It's one thing to see fans putting the top/bottom labels on characters for headcanons (even though it's dumb and I'm really hoping this trend will stop soon), but it's a completely different thing to have it in an official manga, that even has an anime adaptation. Very disappointing.

I could've actually given this 7 stars, bc apart from that, the story is cute...