Update to Oyaji BL Manga Primer – The Crack-tastic Oyaji

Since I’m still actively hunting the glorious oyaji scattered throughout BL manga, I figured I should actually update my Oyaji BL Manga Primer. I’ll post new additions separately before editing them into the main entry, so people can easily tell there’s been a change.  I have more oyaji manga on the way as well!

As stated before, these are selected picks that feature an older man.  There’s a short description of the oyaji and the manga itself listed.  It’s not all-inclusive, just manga that I particularly liked and felt worth including.  For now, here’s a few new additions to the list.  As I make new categories, a few things might get shuffled, like Oyajina! in this case.

The Crack-tastic Oyaji

Shachou Momoi-kun by Nishida Higashi
Watanabe is a hard-working, older manager who is targeted by the new company president (who is seemingly there to find a boyfriend more than actually work~). He’s an earnest, kind older man, but also a workaholic demon when necessary. Instantly attracted, Momoi weasels his way into Watanabe’s life. Since Watanabe has lived his life until recently as a straight husband, he isn’t sure how to feel about the situation, despite his growing attachment. Shachou Momoi-kun is a funny gag manga with a few serious moments. It tears down the fourth wall and has a half-naked man dance on top of it (sadly, not the oyaji). There’s also a randomly serious side-story included that has an oyaji vampire. Bonus salarymen oyaji everywhere, as expected from my Oyaji BL Queen (sorry Naono Bohra).

Liechtenstein Hakase no Karei Naru Nichijou by Shingyouji Tsumiko
This is the crack cocaine of weird oyaji BL manga.  Liechtenstein is a brilliant biotech company owner and professor.  He’s also naive and sheltered to the point he doesn’t know how to use public transportation.  This little lamb falls right into the sadistic arms of his younger admirer, Shumiia.  Liechtenstein is subjected to subway molestations, fake proctology exams, elaborate spy setups, and more.. including a random tentacle plant.  This is the only BL manga I own that contains tentacle porn (NSFW, duh), which is more comical than anything, if you believe that.  Being a huge masochist, Liechtenstein didn’t seem to mind much at all~

Oyajina! ~Chinatsu to Tomoe no Baai~ by Hiiragi Nozomu
How you can improve upon the already awesome oyaji character type? Stick teenage girls in older male bodies and watch the ensuing hijinks and budding romance. Fluffy teenage love, but now with more old man facial hair! This is what fangirl dreams are made of. Full entry here. A continuation will be released in February.

Oyaji BL Manga Primer

At some point, you get tired of reading manga about 16 year old kids.  You crave something different.  The further you get away from age 16, the more prominent this feeling can become.  Thankfully, there’s a trend within BL that gives us some grown, adult men and it’s been growing in popularity:  the oyaji!

“Oyaji” literally means father, but is also casually used to refer to middle-aged men. The lower age limit to qualify as an oyaji is typically early 30’s.  Common oyaji “cues” include visible signs of age like wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, an established family, and, of course, crotchety old man behavior (my favorite).   Within manga, there’s certain character types associated with this term.  The majority of oyaji seem to fall within the 30-45 year old range, particularly for BL.

Yamada Yugi teaches us oyaji moe points

First, if you’re completely new to this subgenre, here are some of the most highly regarded mangaka that reliably produce fantastic older men.  Their works are a great place to start and are relatively well-known, so I’ll only briefly mention a few of their relevant works.

• Ono Natsume (basso)- noticeably older, professional men
• est em – all types, very versatile
• Yamashita Tomoko – natural characters
• Suzuki Tsuta – one of the best at the gentle,  sweet type
• Nishida Higashi – mostly salarymen (this is a good thing).  Kudos for having real oyaji, including some in their 50s (and still hot!)
• Naono Bohra – her oyaji feel more fetishy, but there’s many and a wide range of them

This would be best titled “shin’s Oyaji BL Primer” because it isn’t all inclusive (too much!) and I’m blatantly playing favorites.  Hey, what can I say–it’s my blog and I think I have decent taste in oyaji. ♥ I’m not including everything, as I’d actually like to finish this list at some point (yet I know I’ll add to it later).  So this will be an overly large manga snippets post describing my favorite oyaji within those works.  And boy do I love my oyaji.

So here’s some hand-picked BL works that I’ve enjoyed which feature an older man, whether top, bottom, in the middle, on the side… I don’t discriminate!