RELATED: Pride Month: 10 BL Anime & Where To Watch Them More and more often, positive queer representation has been normalized. Fortunately, as anime as a whole has evolved, so has BL. Given this, much of the criticism yaoi receives is warranted, and many of the relationships depicted in manga and anime have been damaging to the queer community. While representations of queer romance are invaluable, the genre has propagated some extremely toxic tropes over the decades. Boys' Love, also known as BL or yaoi, has a problematic history.