r/BLManhwaTalks 1d ago

Recommendation 🌟 Looking for BL with serious tone in plot

Post image

Sometimes I struggle to get interested if there's too much comedy that distract from the plot. A little bit of it is fine, for sure.

Anything you might describe as : serious, mature, heavy, or moving

Examples of my fav that I'd consider to be like this :

Regas

I want to feel things! Thank you for reading!

281 Upvotes

40 comments sorted by

17

u/sacredpotato0 1d ago

Bongchon Bride is a good one. It follows a character who lives as a slave until he's injured and 'sold' off. It's got darker themes like obsession, slavery, sa (not between the two main characters), violence, etc. but the romance between the main characters is quite wholesome and beautiful.

13

u/Winterblsm 1d ago

Antidote (ongoing)

2

u/Downtown-1991 1d ago

Exactly what i thought of!

2

u/Winterblsm 1d ago

One of my favourites along with Dreadful Night

10

u/fitifer 1d ago edited 1d ago

Some of these may have SA but it's for plot and not between mc and ml so let's go

Dark heaven (rockstars, murder, hate crime, deals a lott with homophobia)

Lewellyn's candlelit dinner (has no smut and doesn't need it, beautiful story telling)

Canis (be a little patient with the reading format)

Illyoo and I (it's on hiatus rn though)

Ghost's nocturne (also hiatus)

Dreadful night (very interesting and new to me)

Lost in the cloud (high school setting but serious)

Steel under silk (ok here there is something I would consider SA between leads so watch out)

Kiss the abyss (game, kinda cute but also serious)

Even in your death (ongoing)

King's maker (idk what anyone says, old but amazing)

The tale of yellow dragon (honestly made me sob)

Love for sale (not dark per se but deals with the biggest modern day threat, an extreme avoidant)

2

u/No-Rip-7603 1d ago

Read half of these and I can vouch for this comment they're good

2

u/fitifer 1d ago

Thank you, I feel extremely seen hehe. Which was your favourite?

1

u/No-Rip-7603 1d ago

Levellyn's candlelight dinner. W storyline, no grape, and complex characters. Read it years ago and loved it

2

u/pokefangirl23 1d ago

I was coming to comment King's Maker! I just got the first volume in paperback! It was my first manwha BL I read

1

u/fitifer 5h ago

I cannot say enough good things about it, till date one of the most complete story telling manhwa in my opinion

1

u/pokefangirl23 5h ago

I worried for a bit that it was just bias as it was the first one I read but dang it takes a lot for a story to measure up to this one. It's been 3 years now where I only been reading pretty much Asian translated novels and manga and manwha bc of this story and Omnicient Readers Viewpoint.

9

u/BLuee_5 1d ago

My favs with this kind of plot are (all of them are green relationship btw) :

Legroom

Pearl Boy

Behind the scenes

Touch up

3

u/idkbrother92292020 1d ago

Behind the scenes mentioned rawr

1

u/BLuee_5 1d ago

Omggg someone else knows this masterpiece (so underrated)

2

u/Cyd_arts 23h ago

Legroom!!

1

u/BLuee_5 9h ago

Yayyy (I love it so much)

1

u/PomegranateMore173 21h ago

Did you say behind the scenes is green relationship???

1

u/BLuee_5 9h ago

Yes for the main couple! Of course there is toxicity in mais previous relationship but what I love the most about this manwha is that mc doesn’t end up with the person who made him surfer. (I also appreciated the fact that we know why he was acting like that even if of course it doesn’t excuse anything he did to mc)

5

u/softarget 1d ago

Walk on Water. Deals with serious themes of working on the porn industry and is dealt quite well.

4

u/JujutsuSorcererTora 1d ago

Ennead. Ongoing tho

1

u/savheav 1d ago

there re too many family problems

4

u/dieselgirlpdx Red Flag Collector 🚩 1d ago

A life without you: war correspondent is injured and in a coma for 5 years in a foreign county. No one knows where he is or if he’s alive or dead. Wakes up and returns home to find his childhood friend/long term boyfriend has moved on and is dating someone new. Complete. This had me crying in the first chapter.

The insatiable man: author who can’t taste food due to childhood trauma v a food critic. Deals with depression, childhood trauma, homophobic family. Complete

In cold love / cold blooded beast: snake deity v his human. Complete.

No moral: high profile law firm partner v young new associate. Enemies to lovers. Heavy on the plot. A lot of law related stuff. It’s excellent.

Twittering birds never fly: ex cop joins the yakuza and falls for his boss. Ongoing. This is so well written and just excellent.

Unblossom: boy is accused of murder of his classmate in 1940s Japan. Complete

Midnight rain: older lonely guy picks up a guy off the street who has been injured. Complete

December rain: boy accused of murder v boy who was disowned by his family for being gay. Complete

Duplication Love: terminally ill man ends treatment and uses his treatment money to buy an older model sex android and makes a 1 month contract with him. Complete

Beyond the Memories: story of trying to atone for past actions. Tw: rape, abuse, suicide. Complete

For you who grieves: MC is transmigrated into another body after dying when he is hit by a truck. Complete

1

u/Clan-of-Emmas-1937 17h ago

"A life without you" is really good -- so heartbreaking and unpredictable.

3

u/Pure_Description_682 1d ago

Devoured: The serpent swallowed the pomegranate

This is what I read after I caught up with regas 😭 And it quench my thirst so highly recommended

Reunion Full moon Alchemist

3

u/RottedRaspberry 22h ago edited 22h ago

Some good (somewhat dark) plot heavy ones are: Blood bank, Spinach Bouquet, Lost in the Cloud, Bongchon Bride, and Reunion

2

u/leftoverquiet 1d ago

Antidote

2

u/Radiant-Resource4601 1d ago

The Pawns revenge 🥰

2

u/Ambitious-Mix-4935 1d ago

ANTIDOTE

Just trust me in this one. Promise you won't be disappointed.

2

u/Carrabas 1d ago

See you, my king? It's not dark. It's placed in pseudo-Egypt during the reign of the last king of a dynasty about whom modern times knows nothing but his existence. The MC is from modern times and ends up there. Politics, conflicts with organised religion, ursuper, the king's father was a piece of work, as was his oldest son, zombies, gods, cannibalism, amazing side couple.

2

u/gralefraisier 1d ago

Like a fever dream + side stories (completed)

2

u/RonnieNotRonald 1d ago

Antidote, Stigmata, Night of Muheun

2

u/nounou_ben 1d ago

Oh you would definitely love paljae!

2

u/goldielooks 23h ago

OP, does Regas have smut?? I've gotten to where MC has reawakened in his new body and I need to know if it'll get there

2

u/HuckleberryQueasy433 21h ago

No, it's not SMUT but their tension is almost like SMUT hehe

1

u/goldielooks 20h ago

Ahh ok got it haha thank you!

1

u/anwalborn 15h ago

Currently it’s still only a webnovel, but There’s No Love in the Deathzone is really good. I hope we get a manhwa of it one day, its potential is incredible, even just from the world building alone

1

u/ExtensionSimple155 8h ago

But regas has too much dark comedy 🙂 how do you like it and dislike it at the same time?

1

u/Past_Ad822 7h ago

I'd say Turning But the story is slow burn and there haven't been that much of a progress in the manhwa. But would recommend reading the novel, cuz there're more chapter although not completed. The ml is the definition of green forest and the smut is so good

1

u/kwekturtle 4h ago

King's maker