All great recs from YamPuff, I'll add Toward the Terra. It's based on an old manga despite the anime being fairly recent so you get really adorable classic shoujo boys, in space, with great animation. If I am not mistaken the mangaka did BL as well and it really shows. It is so slashable that it veers into canon territory, almost. On top of all this it has plenty of depth, a dystopian future akin to No.6's and an engaging plot. Greatly recommended.

Since you are fine with mind screw and violence, I'll mention Berserk. The manga is still ongoing and the foe-yay is through the roof and extremely important to the plot. It is brutal and horribly beautiful at the same time.

Since you're into Victorian-like anime like Pandora Hearts, which I also love (and isn't really, really slashable all around?) Kuroshitsuji immediately comes to mind. Odds are you've heard about it, the first season ended in a trainwreck, the second season is a mixed bag but Book of Circus, that follows the manga very closely, is very good. The manga is wonderful as well.
D. Gray Man also falls under this category and is very easy to come up with pairings, the manga lends itself to it.

Also, Fafner. Despite being virtually unknown in the West, it is fairly popular in Japan and a second season is currently airing. It is a bit Evangelion light, it never reaches the complexity of Eva but it does a decent job of going a bit deeper than the usual mecha anime. As for slash content, let's just say that even a girl in-universe seems aware that the two main boys have a thing for each other. Then the movie comes round and it gets even more obvious.
The authors themselves seem to at least toy with the possibility by having one of the boys comparing their relationship with that of his parents.
Those tight plug-suit like piloting suits aren't bad on the eyes either.

And everything CLAMP.

Nocturnalux wrote:

I'll add Toward the Terra. It's based on an old manga despite the anime being fairly recent so you get really adorable classic shoujo boys, in space, with great animation. If I am not mistaken the mangaka did BL as well and it really shows. It is so slashable that it veers into canon territory, almost. On top of all this it has plenty of depth, a dystopian future akin to No.6's and an engaging plot. Greatly recommended.

*shining eyes* Space Opera with pretty boys?.

*stealthily adds on to-watch list*

I even have that 'Gay men in space' image on my laptop. I just never knew where it came from! I am so happy now. C:

Kouga Yun can say whatever she likes, Loveless is freaking shonen-ai. You can't have your cake and eat it, too, lady. Speaking of which, I should go back and finish it.


Oooooooh read Vassalord. READ VASSALORD. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH FAPMOTICONS

YamPuff wrote:

*shining eyes* Space Opera with pretty boys?.

*stealthily adds on to-watch list*

I recommended this in another thread and I'm going to recommend it here too, Legend of the Galactic Heroes.

Loveless is currently at 12 volumes, at least the English translated version is. There was quite a hiatus around volume 8 but quite a few have come out since then. I got volume 9 courtesy of my secret santa and currently have all published volumes but I have yet to read 9-12, I'm planning to re-read 1-8 first.

Princess Tutu's omakes mock Fakir's obsession with Mytho, too

More recs:

07-Ghost,  evil empire, super-powered bishies, boy soldier with no memories of his past, sexy priests and lots, lots of homoerotic vibes. I've yet to tackle the manga but the anime was nice if a tad too generic.

Banana Fish is a very good manga. It's about a young Japanese photographer who is visiting the States when he becomes involved with Ash, a ruthless, beautiful and very tortured gang American gang leader. The relationship between the two, while really unlikely at first glance, is beautifully handled and veers very close to romantic. The plot is really enganging and includes Ash trying to find who drove his brother insane and fighting the mafia. The way the mystery is slowly unraveled reminded of Monster as did the way Western society is realistically portrayed.

Last edited by Nocturnalux (03-05-2015 09:45:55 PM)

Petshop of Horrors
Set in New York it follows Count D, a mysterious and highly girlish man whose petshop in Chinatown is more than what it seems. Without wanting to spoil anything, Count D's 'pets' include plenty of mind screw to whoever purchases them and most cases delve into the psychology of the owners to be. As the name implies there is a lot of horror and some highly disturbing moments.
Then there is Leon, the cop who suspects that Count D is connected to a lot of crimes. Their interaction consists of D pretty much flirting with Leon and as the story progresses Leon's initial knee jerk freak out reaction becomes more complicated. The mangaka clearly toys with the pairing.
The really detailed and beautiful artwork makes the manga a wonder to behold, not only is Count D and his traditional Chinese outfits absolutely gorgeous as plenty of D's 'pets' are nothing short of stunning.

   
Gankutsuou
It's often recommended for its originality, how often do you see a take on The Count of Mont Cristo set in space with surreal artwork to boot? But every bit as present is the homoerotic tension. There is even one trap and at least a case of one sided love between two guys. Apart from all this it really is a strangely compelling interpretation of a classic.

Psycho Pass. It's really interesting. It's s-fi, it's psychological and pretty, so it's a nice package of my fav anime traits. If you like Dexter, Hannibal and/or GITS, you'll like Psycho Pass. You may find some ideas cliche, but the s-fi component makes it more philosophical than the shows I've mentioned.

There are Shakespeare and Plato's references, too.

I've just started watching the first episode of Free! and MAN is it gay. I've heard people saying Boueibu is gayer but I am not convinced at this point. It out-gays Boueibu by a mile.

Just wait til episode 12 of s1... it has tons of romantic tropes.

The Arabian Nights ED is responsible for a plethora od doujin, too. Free! makes 'swimming' code for...something else. The almost total lack of interest in girls (with the exception of the Mikoshiba brothers but it's played for laughs) really seals the deal.
There is one particular moment in the second season that is worth mentioning although is not by far the gayest, mild spoilers:
[At one point Rei seems rather listless and even skipping practice. So Gou immediately assumes he has a girlfriend and decides to do some 'helpful' stalking. Upon seeing him talking to the member of the track team she jumps to the conclusion that Rei is about to go for a love confession. That's right, the only female in the whole cast (barring the teacher) has her fudojishi. moments. Oh and she later confronts Rei about him who laughs it off and goes, "What, girls? Me? As if!". It was a rare instance of self-awareness in the show the reason why they an anime exclusive character, namely Rei, is probably because the original light novel is not half as gay.]

But yeah, in a way Free! is gayer than Binan, all those intense close encounters and rivalry add to it, too. And it is, of course, entirely deliberate. And worked very well as the show ended up being a huge success.

Last edited by Nocturnalux (04-28-2015 01:08:45 PM)

Yeah, Free! was produced by KyoAni so it has the same slice-of-life feel of K-On. Only instead of 'cute girls doing cute things' it's 'cute boys doing cute things and angsting greatly'.

From what I understand Free!'s main fanbase is mostly (if not entirely) female.

And no, it's not just you who sees Rei's gushing about how beautiful Haru as veering on the romantic. Granted, Rei goes on about Haru's swimming style being a thing of beauty and not necessarily Haru himself but even among a cast where everyone does that to some degree (Sousuke excepted but he has a reason), Rei still comes across as really infantuated with Haru.

As mentioned before, the anime is gayer than the light novels and Rei is an anime exclusive character so it figures he would be...'Rei as in Rainbow!', to quote Nagisa.

Free! is so much on the gay side than it becomes difficult to stick to one pairing as everyone has degrees of borderline romantic feelings for everyone else. It makes for a multiplicity of pairings. And the additional material only makes everything even gayer, the drama CDs have to be listened to be believed and some of the character songs are essentially love songs. I am not even kidding, Ai's is about Rin and is called 'He's so Perfect'. Yes.

To some extent Free! is a sports anime but the fact that the main is defined by his lack of interest in competitions easily allows the whole thing to spin off into fantasy lala land with pretty boys being half-naked most of the time. With that said, the competition aspect of the show is actually much more realistic than in hardcore sports anime.
I swim myself and can relate to a lot of the issues covered in the technical aspect and the way the different strokes are animated is really flawless. I'd go as far as say it is one of the most true to life sports anime, as far as the sports element is concerned which is somewhat ironical.

It's just that the sports element is downplayed in relation to character interaction. [The end of the first season is a prime example of that. Rin entering Iwatobi's relay race can only lead to disqualification and is not likely to happen in an anime where competing is the most important aspect but it is there to show how patching up relationships is what really matters in the end]

I also can't wait for the movie, I'd rather have a sequel instead of a sequel as the lack of Rein will be painful but there should be enough Nao and Kisume (what a name...) to make up for it.

How about Yowamushi Pedal? Nowhere near as overt as Free, but plenty of subtext, and some great characters.

Last edited by purplepolecat (04-29-2015 10:28:48 AM)