Hello everyone. The Bara Audience survey has made its conclusion last week. With that, we got a shit ton of data to work with. Exactly 800 responses across several different sources. You can check them out here and here. You can also download a .csv of the results here. Thank you to everyone who filled out the entire survey, this is a huge boon to us bara creators. Now let's get into it.

Let's start off with some basic stats. First of all, the majority of respondents said they were male. That's not too surprising considering most people generally agree that bara is targeted toward gay men. Still, we also got a decent amount of people who said they were non-binary. Nine people said they were female, eight said they were agender, and five didn't say their gender. Going forward, most of the data here is from a male perspective, which will prove to be useful when making bara media for gay men.

For sexuality, most people said they were gay, with a couple saying they were bisexual, and a few saying they were pansexual, so the majority of respondents were into men, which is to be expected. We got a surprising amount of asexual respondents. Nine people said they were straight (six of them were male), three of them said they were queer (which was not an option I put), and eleven said they prefer not to say.

For age groups, we got more varied answers. The largest age group to be represented was the 18-21 group but the 22-25 age group and the 26-30 age group got only slightly lower results. Fewer respondents said they belonged to the 31-40 age group, even fewer said they belonged to the 41-54 age group, a tiny portion said they were under 18, and only three people said they were 55 or older. Generally speaking, most of the bara audience, at least according to this survey, are young adults, with the fall-off point being around 40. Having an audience in mind while making your art is important to note, so make sure to remember this. Also, keep this in mind when we talk about tropes about older men.

For ethnicity, the majority of respondents said they were White or Caucasian. The next two most represented ethnic groups were East Asian and Latino. Less represented groups include Black and South Asian (tfw making a game about South Asians) and very few people (we're talking under 20 people) said they were Middle Eastern or Indigenous. I also got a good amount of people saying that they were Southeast Asian even though I didn't include an option for it. Next time I'll include an option for it instead of making people put in a free response answer. At least two people also said that they found the words "Latinx" and "Latine" offensive. I researched this and found out why "Latinx" is considered offensive but not so much why "Latine" is offensive. For "Latine", it's apparently due to it not sounding natural sounding in Spanish.  If you are a Latino/Latina and you find "Latine" offensive, please tell me why. I'll reconsider changing the name. 

For the next two questions, I want you to pay attention to the method they found this survey versus what social media they use. Most respondents said they found the survey through itch.io, (I did always make sure to mention it in every devlog I made, and two fairly big VN devs did make a devlog about it as well), with a close second saying they found it from Reddit (I posted on r/gaymers, r/baramanga, and r/baramemes). Fewer people said they found it on Discord (I basically posted the link on every bara server I was in, except for the ones that I knew don't allow advertising of any kind), and the same amount of people said they found it on Twitter (If you look at my Twitter profile you'll see that I post about the survey every week or so, and at least one of them were retweeted by MinoAnon and DyneWulf, the creator of Extracurricular Activities). Only ten people said they found it through friends and family. All of this is really important to note. I got my tweet retweeted by two VN devs, and just barely a hundred people found the survey through Twitter. Meanwhile, I just made a few posts on Reddit and Discord and I got much better results with Reddit while I got similar results with Discord. I could have gotten more responses if I was more aggressive in marketing on Reddit and Discord. But I didn't because dealing with Reddit and people from Discord servers I don't visit can be a pain. Even still, this shows how Reddit can be a powerful tool in getting your stuff seen. I also hope this tells you that if you're making a game or a VN (if you don't consider VNs to be games), then making updates on itch.io is really important and is a good place to interact with your audience. Your audience will see when you post new devlogs.

For social media, remember the results from the previous question. Most people said they use Youtube, Discord, Twitter, and Reddit in that order. Facebook, Tiktok, and Tumblr got significantly fewer results, having less than a third of results from the more popular social media sites, although more people said they use Instagram. If you research social media marketing, people will often mention these websites as places you should market your stuff, so it's good to know what the bara audience uses so you know what sites are just a waste of time. I say that, but I've gotten decent results from making TikToks about my game, so maybe dipping your toes in those lower-tier social media platforms can be worth it if you are comfortable using them. I won't tell you how to be successful on those platforms, but I will give a few pointers. Making a popular Youtube channel is extremely difficult. Don't try doing that. Instead, try to get in touch with Youtubers and get them to make videos about your stuff. Obviously, this might be difficult if you're making something undoubtedly pornographic, but maybe consider adding an SFW mode so that streamers don't have to edit their footage to stream your game. This is a good article about how to actually get results from Twitter. As I mentioned, Reddit and Discord are hard, but they can net you great results. You just have to know which subreddits/servers to market in and know the culture of them to really get your stuff being seen. Also, shout out to the person who considers hookup apps as social media.

For what people consider their favorite Social Media, the most common answers from most popular to least popular was Twitter, Reddit, Discord, and Youtube. Note that this question is a little biased considering I posted this survey on the first three sites. Also my dumbass put this as a free response question instead of a multiple choice question, so the results are a little fragmented. Several people have said they don't like any social media and some mention they have a favorite but they regret that it's their favorite. That's perfectly fine, it's good that we know how the bara audience feels about social media as a whole.

For body type preferences, thinner body types were disliked while thicker body types were favored. The most popular body types were the Strongman, Bear, and Musclechub body types and the most disliked body types were Twink, Femme, and Hypermuscular. A balance of fat and muscle seems to be key here, as both Athletic and Ripped were voted very favorably while Bodybuilder had more mixed results. And while people enjoyed thick body types like the Bear, they weren't so excited about the Chubby and Fat body types. That being said there is an audience for all of these body types. Even Twink is represented with the MC of Small on Top, which otherwise has as beefy as you can get bodies for all of the characters the MC can have sex with. I will say, however, that if you are trying to make gay media that focus on Twink or Femme body types, I suggest you market it as "BL" or "Yaoi" as those audiences are more receptive to those body types. I know both of those mediums have some stigma attached to them, but the fact is that both are more well known than "bara" as a term. Interestingly enough, there were a few people who rated the Bear and Musclechub body types high, even though the works of bara they mentioned leaned more towards toned body types. And one guy mentioned that he played through Extracurricular Activities, After Class, and Pervader but rated Strongman a 3, Bear a 1, and Musclechub a 2. I don't get it, but I'm not here to tell people what they can or cannot enjoy. 

When it comes to groomed men versus gruff men, most people said they prefer gruff men but a good amount were indifferent to either. For body hair, most people liked an average amount of body hair, with fewer people saying they liked heavy amounts of body hair, and even fewer people saying they liked little or no body hair. This is kind of interesting because a lot of bara manga don't have body hair (though this is more likely because it's difficult to draw rather than a distaste for it). Still, there was a good chunk of respondents who said they liked characters with no body hair, so no need to be afraid if you prefer smooth men. As for where they liked seeing the body hair, most respondents said they liked chest hair. People love chest hair. There were also a lot of people who favored arm and leg hair, with pubes getting less love. Out of the five options I put there, however, ass hair got the least amount of love, but still a good amount. So if you want to be sparing with where you put body hair, consider giving your men a smooth butt. I also got a few free responses saying they liked armpit hair, shoulder hair, back hair, and belly hair. I'll consider adding them as options next time.

For facial hair, people love a full beard and stubble, while a simple mustache got only a relatively small amount of love. I expected mustaches to be more popular considering many characters who are popular in gay fanart have mustaches, but I guess it can't be helped. You can't go wrong with a full beard or stubble. Clean-shaven men, sideburns, and moustacheless beards were somewhere in between. Mustacheless beards are interesting because they aren't really common in real life, but have almost become a staple in Bara.

And now onto the Character Archetypes. I'm going to only mention the ones that are interesting to note because you can always look at the survey results to see which tropes are liked and which ones are disliked and there would be a lot of tropes where I'm just "People like this kind of guy, I guess." Daddy was a trope that I wasn't surprised was popular but it's still good to know for sure. A lot of the appeal of bara comes from the wider range of ages the men could be, which means more sexy older men. Of course how old is considered to be "older" depends on the respondent, but what we do know is that the bara audience loves their men being older than they are, while also having that mature side to them. Tsunderes were generally rated unfavorably, which is interesting because some of the most popular bara characters, such as Logan from Lustful Desires, would be considered tsunderes. Maybe I would have gotten different results if I named it something like "Sour and Sweet" but I didn't want to make up terms when there was a perfectly fine name for it already. People love masculine characters and are more hesitant about feminine characters. I'll be honest and say I worded the descriptions in a way that made the masculine character look undesirable and the feminine character look positive. Nonetheless, with most people considering bara to focus on masculine characters, the results were inevitable. The Closeted Bigoted wasn't a character archetype that was listed in the original survey by MinoAnon and most people don't like it, but there is a sizeable fanbase for this kind of character. Tread carefully with this one if you choose to make such a character.

One character archetype that has fairly different results from the original is the Blue Collar character. Originally they had more mixed results in the original survey, this archetype got a lot more love in this survey. A new character archetype, the religious man, got a lot of hate. I can only suspect it has to do with the perceived homophobia this character would theoretically have, and I have a lot to say about that if that's the case, but for now, I want you to keep this in mind for later. Fag Hag and Mommy were two archetypes that had very mixed results, which is also another thing to keep in mind for later. Sexually Liberated was something I thought would be received more positively, and while most people like the archetype, there's a small amount that is either indifferent or against this archetype. Finally, the bara audience doesn't like smokers, but there's a good amount who likes them. I mention this one due to the somewhat divided opinion on smokers in fiction and in real life.

Next are common tropes and stories. The coming out story is one that was received fairly well, but notably, there were only a small amount of people who rated it a 5. Certainly, there are a lot of ways you can play with this trope, and thus a lot of ways to either screw it up or make a good story. These few are important to look at. A lot of people are favorable towards Age Gap Romance and Power Gap Romance, but there's a good amount of people who dislike these tropes. The Parent's Friend Romance has more haters and fewer fans than the other two, but overall more people generally like the trope more than those who hate it. These three tropes I bring special attention to because many people will express their disgust of these tropes and will say that they cannot enjoy any stories that have these tropes as the main plot, and sometimes as a subplot as well. But in Bara? There are plenty of people who enjoy these stories and some of them will actively look for them. One thing to note is that I showed this to other people and they said that the description put implicit focus on the younger/less powerful character being the one to initiate the relationship. Another thing to note is that the younger/less powerful partner doesn't have to be immature. They can be responsible adults who have a good understanding of the situation they're faced with. Relationships, where they are blissfully unaware of the power that their partner has over them, are much more likely to get backlash than more "cautious" stories with the same tropes. If you are going to make a story with these tropes, be careful and make sure you don't accidentally open some closed wounds for people. There's this idea that gay stories have to avoid certain things in order to be "taken seriously" by the public, and these tropes are usually considered some of those things. Stories that feature these tropes will likely either only be known by the niche or get attacked by people if they happen to crawl out of it. Or you could just not take the story seriously while writing it. That's always an option.

On the other hand, Homewrecker and Tragic Romance expectedly got unfavorable results, but both still have their fans. BTW, while I was making this survey, I made some notes for some of the questions for test respondents (You can't see their responses because this survey is a separate survey from the beta one test respondents took) and while I was removing them, I noticed the one for Homewrecker Romance and decided to keep it because it was really funny to me. Love Triangle also got unfavorable results, with a lot of 3s, 2s, 1s. I knew it wasn't loved but I didn't know how hated this trope was towards the bara audience. I can only guess why this is the case. I will mention that the polyamorous relationship got more love, but the correlation between the two tropes isn't that strong either way, although people who like the polyamorous relationship were more likely to dislike or be indifferent towards the love triangle trope. Harem got better results, but not by much. Gay Reversal was one that got a lot of 3s, and I was honestly expecting it to be more loved. People tend to rave about stories where it's basically just [popular story] but with gay men.

Now we get to what people consider to be a happy ending for the protagonists and their story. Respondents could only pick three out of all the options. The most popular option was the MC getting married to their love interest, which I think was the most popular because it was the only one that definitely confirmed the MC getting into a relationship by the end. The second most popular option was that they went on more adventures like the ones they had in the story, which is interesting. Other popular options were that they settle down somewhere peaceful and they have lots of sex. Less popular options were that they make the world a better place, had children (which many gay men have conflicting opinions about in general), become a wise old mentor and that they get their dream job. This question had one of the most distant last options out there, however.  Only ten people said they wanted the MC to become rich and only five people said they wanted the MC to become famous. For all the obsession we have with rich and famous people in the real world, a lot of people would rather they just be happy with their lives. I got a lot of free responses and several just wanted a happy ending for the MC. Some said that the best possible ending really depended on the characters and the story. I understand that, but the point of the question is to ask what you generally consider to be a perfect ending for the characters. Special mention to the guy that said this:

And now for the section many of you are interested in knowing about, Sexual Preferences. A lot of bottoms complain that's there's too much content for tops and a lot of tops complain that there's too much content for bottoms. So which one is it? Let's get this out of the way. More people (A good 7.7% or so) like exclusive tops over exclusive bottoms. So the debate is settled, right? The market wants more content for bottoms and we should all be making more bottom content? 

No. 

The difference between people who like exclusive bottoms and those who like exclusive tops is so small, that you'd probably won't really notice it unless you're working with a niche that heavily favors bottom content. And keep in mind that the 7.7% who didn't love exclusive bottoms rated them as a 3, showing that difference can enjoy bottom games if everything else was good. With successful top works like Minotaur Hotel and Small on Top on the rise and plenty of bara manga/comics being aimed towards tops, there's definitely room for both bottom content and top content. And this whole point is made (somewhat) mute by the next question, in which most people rated the Verse/Switch character very highly, so people don't mind if their husbando occasionally has sex in the position they're not into. At the same time, while making everyone into a verse/switch would be desirable from the audience's perspective, from a writer's perspective, there are reasons why you wouldn't want them to be a verse/switch. I'll talk more about this in a later devlog.

The next few questions are less ambiguous though. Dominant characters were received very well while respondents were less generous towards submissive characters. Dom bottoms and sub tops also received similar results to each other. This one's interesting. Closet subs and closet doms got similar results to each other but closet subs got a lot more 5s compared to 4s. Seems like more people get really excited about apparent doms becoming total bitches in bed than the other way around. Non-penetrative sex got a lot of 3s, but overall positive response, while optional kinky sex got a lot of positive responses. Generally, people liked more unconventional stuff, like the closet characters, the dom bottoms, and the sub tops. Try to play with people's expectations in ways that don't involve using more uncomfortable kinks that you're not super into. Overall all of these things have their own niches, so don't be afraid to fulfill any one of these preferences.

So the next question asked respondents what were the last three bara works they enjoyed. I'm not going to cover everything, obviously, but we got a whole variety of responses. From furry VNs, to comics, to simple artwork, to even gacha games. It can be fun seeing all the different pieces of bara that people have talked about in their responses. I will say though. If you look up several of the bara works that people mentioned, you'll find piracy sites that host them. Some of the respondents even provided links to those piracy sites. I'm going to tell you that if you enjoy whatever work they make, you should support the artist. They usually have Patreon/Skeb where you can support them, or they have stores where you can buy their work. I'm saying this right now because unfortunately a lot of people don't realize that they could support them at all, and just stick to the piracy sites for new content. I know a lot of gay manga aren't available for purchase, but if you can buy their work, please do so. Again, I strongly encourage you to support the artists if you can and if you enjoy their work. As for what bara works got frequently mentioned, a lot of them were Visual Novels like Minotaur Hotel, Extracurricular Activities, and Coming Out On Top as well as manga from artists like Gengorah Tagame and Jiraiya.

All of the media I listed out were partaken by most of the respondents, except for novels, however Visual Novels, Art, and Manga were the three most popular mediums. Most people like sexually explicit bara, with few people saying otherwise while people were mixed about non-sexually explicit bara. For what species people looked for bara content for, humans were unsurprisingly the most popular option, with mammal anthros and orcs not falling too behind. Monsters, Demons, and Reptile/Amphibian Anthros were also decently popular. Robots and Aliens were the least popular, which is a shame as there is some good alien stuff out there. Note that people were only allowed to select a maximum of five options. 

Next is what types of art styles people liked. Respondents were only able to select three options and most people said they liked a semi-realistic but still stylized art style (The example I gave was Final Fantasy VII Remake). Meanwhile the least popular was a heavily stylized art style (the example I gave for that was Steven Universe). A realistic art style was also the second least popular, but admittedly the example I gave was Elden Ring, which at times arguably looks less realistic than Final Fantasy VII Remake, but I think the point still comes across. The next question was a free-form question. To be honest there was such a wide diversity of works mentioned that I don't think I could do an analysis that doesn't overgeneralize the entire list of answers I got (Unfortunately no one mentioned FLCL or Macross, oh well). But what I noticed is that people like high-quality art and art styles that have style and personality to them.

For the question of light-hearted versus grimdark, people generally preferred light-hearted stories, but most people picked 3, implying that they like both. For genres, Action/Adventure was the most popular genre while the least popular was Historical Fiction. Horror and Drama were also less popular than most other genres. The interesting thing to note was that Slice of Life and Romance weren't among the most popular genres, despite two genres that lend themselves well to Bara. Two genres that were more popular were High Fantasy and Urban Fantasy. Consider the setting of your work and think about how that will affect your audience.

When it comes to what people look for when it comes to queer content, most people are just looking for porn to jack off to. Hey, I can't fault them for being so simple. The option that was the least popular was the fanworks one, despite the fact that the majority of 2D porn, and the work of artists people mentioned, are fanart. Hmmm. Generally speaking, however, a lot of people are content with their favorite media having just at least one major gay character. With Bara media, that's not hard at all to do. 

The next question is about the respondent's opinions on sex and romance in queer media and this got a lot of people split. The general consensus was that queer stories that centered on romance and/or sex should stay, but there is room for a diversity of other topics queer media can cover. I also got a bunch of free response answers including one person saying that he couldn't pick any of the options because he clearly enjoys gay media that focuses on romance and sex and wants more of those stories, but also understands that there should be stories that focus on other types of gay/queer topics. Wasn't expecting this question to be so divisive, to say the least. One thing that was significantly less divisive, however, was that most respondents have said there was at least one piece of NSFW bara media that had a story they both enjoyed and took seriously, and they wanted to see more of that. There was a small section of people who said the main purpose of NSFW content is for jacking off even for those with stories they enjoyed, and an even smaller section that said they could see themselves enjoying an NSFW story and taking it seriously but haven't found one such story yet. This was something I was worried about. That you'd make a great effort in writing the story but most people are only interested in the parts where the characters fuck their brains out, so it's good to hear a lot of people are willing to take NSFW work seriously.

The survey asked people whether bara creators should make stuff their audience wants or what they want. Very few people picked 1 or 2, which is good, while people were generally geared towards creators making what they wanted to make. There can be disillusionment coming from what a fan thinks a creator wants to make versus what a creator actually wants to make, so it's good that fans believe that a creator should make what they want to make. I will say, creators should communicate with their audience about what they want to make, or else both parties can end up being very frustrated.

For diversity, people could pick five options at most. The thing most people agreed deserves representation was People of Color, which makes sense considering the push for racial diversity (at least in Western countries). Two options that got popular were Disabled people and Neurodivergent people, which is very exciting considering that the push for such diversity in media has been relatively quiet. Transgender people also got a lot of support, which is good considering that there is some concern that some people will be turned off that a character they're attracted to is transgender. A good amount of people said they wanted a representation of people from minority religions, which is interesting considering the lack of support the religious man trope got. If you are making a character of a minority religion, be wary about how religious you make them. There was a good amount of support for homeless people, asexual people (which is interesting to see in Bara media), and non-binary people. And Drag Queens got the least amount of support. Several of the free-form responses made a good point that the more important thing is that they're represented well and respectfully and not as tokens. The next question asks how non-men should be handled in bara media, and most people responded with a 3, with other answers leaning towards no presence. This is understandable considering that it's supposed to focus on gay men, but it's good that people aren't totally against the idea of women and non-binary people having a presence in bara media.

Now I got several people complaining that some of the questions limited you to how many you could pick. I can understand that people wanted to pick more or all of them. However, I wanted people to think about what they really wanted out of those options instead of just blindly picking them all. I believe that's how we'd get the best results. At least one person complained about how almost all the questions were required and the same reasoning applied. Even if respondents didn't have strong opinions, either way, that's still important for us to know as creators. Hopefully, you guys understand.

Now for the finances-related questions. There were a lot of varied questions for these questions so instead, I'm going to list out the average amount of money people were willing to spend. The average amount people were willing to spend on something they enjoyed but only of moderate quality was $11.4325. The average amount people were willing to spend on something they loved was $28.2375. Something to consider when pricing your stuff. On the flip side, if you get most of your revenue from Patreon supporters, only a small portion of your audience will be paying for your stuff, so don't worry as much about it as long as you're not paywalling too much of your work. This brings us to the next question. 53.125% of people say they don't support any bara creator, but would be willing to if they were more financially comfortable. That's quite a large chunk of the pie. Do you know what we should do? Make everyone richer. Seriously though, it's clear that you should give your audience at least some of your work for free so that they can be fans of your work and be more willing to spend money on your paid stuff. There's nothing wrong with more non-paying fans if they're spreading the good word about you and potentially earning you more fans to decide to support you. Just something to keep in mind. With that said, there were 36.5% of people who said they did support at least one bara creator, so don't lose hope.

With all of this data, I think one thing to note is not to go look at this survey and just use the most popular options to make your bara work. While it might be successful, the most important part is that you're having fun. Bara is a small niche, so you're not going go very far by creating something generic. What people really want to see is something you want to make. It might not appeal to everyone, but it's going to make the people who it does appeal to very happy. And if you're really good, you can make people who previously didn't like your tastes into fans. So use the data, but don't have it take over all of your creative decisions.

For merch, people were really so-so about it, however, plushies and figurines were the most popular options (although if you can sell a figurine of your characters to the masses then you are well above the rest of us). There were several responses who said they didn't care for merch, and keep in mind that you did have the option to select them all. Most people were optimistic about the future of bara, which is good. 

The rest are free response questions, and I want you guys to take the time to read some of them. While some of them are blank and others are a little mean-spirited, there is a lot of value to be found in these responses. I'm going to put in some special ones.

What's your favorite piece of bara media? Why is this your favorite? Please name the author/artist who made this.

I don't have much to say about this question other than that some people put in mediums (as in Video Games, VN, Art, Comics) instead of specific works of that medium. Next time I'll be more clear about this. But yes, please read what people had to say so you can see what makes them love bara. Here are some responses I provided:

Probably the game Small on Top by Spedumon. There are a lot that i like about the game but from the premise alone I'm already intrigued. Being a top with a small stature myself irl and my love for muscular, manly bottoms, the premise alone is enough for me to start playing and supporting. I like the stylized art that he uses that is stylized enough without going too far with it. While there is a story, its lighthearted enough that you can probably just ignore it if you're only playing it to jack off. The story is just a good time without too much baggage weighing it down and I love it for that. After all, as a wise man once said: "My guy I'm here to blow my load, not my mind."

Extracurricular Activities by DyneWulf but Minotaur Hotel is a close second. It's my favorite because it has fatter characters that are open to getting bigger (either fatter or more muscular) which isn't something I see in a lot of media. It doesn't explore that part further but I believe that's just due to limitations to tell a good story. The VN manages to tell interesting slice of life stories about each character while feeling like you're falling in love with them and they cater to the specific character type I'm interested in. It's been very difficult to find similar themed works and almost impossible to find similar quality AND themes.

Minotaur Hotel. The writing in general is phenomenal and was what led me to give VNs another chance (after many years past the Blackgate fiasco). The subject matter and exploration of mythology that is so familiar, but presented as an "AU" or from a different perspective is very enjoyable with how it presents lots of details that mythology enthusiasts might recognize and take as clues, while still not being too obscure people interested might just research about them and join in on the fun. The cast is also great and span a lot of themes and storylines that resonate with queer people (with emphasis on gay men)

Currently, The Smoke Room. It's very well written and keeps its focus on the story, one that isn't strictly about romance, and has good pacing (a rarity in well-known Furry VNs). Whatever NSFW content it has after the prologue isn't just for eye-candy, and the text doesn't constantly remind you of how horny the main character is, which I feel is important; sexual/suggestive content is naturally weaved-in, and not shoe-horned in for the sake of getting more clicks, which makes the characters more true to life rather than living sex dolls.

Killigan's Treasure by Kililio is pretty good; it's probably not my absolute favorite piece of bara media, but it's the first thing that comes to mind. I really like how the game most certainly has bara appeal, but it's way more about the romance/sexual aspect; it's an adventure game first and foremost. It's more linear than Minotaur Hotel, which I had a hard time coming to grips with, and it even explores themes of how bara relates to masculinity, in a sense (although I haven't played in a long while and I'm not up to date).

Oh, man.. I'm not sure how to answer this, since I don't really have a "favorite" piece of bara media; mostly because I'm kind of new to bara stuff, so I haven't consumed a whole lot of it. But if I have to pick one, I guess I'd pick Lustful Desires. The art is great, I like the theme of the story, and the writing is pretty decent (especially considering the creator of the game isn't a native english speaker). But my favorite part is this buff, grumpy, redhead lumberjack, Logan. His writing could definitely use some refining here and there (especially some of his earlier interactions with the player character), but I like the tropes that appear in his romance route. It starts off with him being a very unpleasant person, but later warms up to the player character and develops romantic feelings for them after the PC helps him through a bit of a rough patch of his life and thus earns his trust. A classic "tsundere", really.

Bakabu, because it's a mostly light-hearted dating sim that just makes you feel good, because all of the characters are likable and cute. Also there's human/furry romance that doesn't look bad, deals with how a human and furry society would even function and the dateable characters all bottom.

Jiro Like a Stray Dog. Short and sweet story, tackles unusual topic, characters with enough depth for a short story and their interaction. The author knows it's a porn comics, but that doesn't stop him from writing a sincere story and I love that.

Housamo, by a longshot. There are some guys I really like (although plenty I don't care for, but that's not a big deal). The story is insane and hits a lot of my crazy modern day + sci fi + fantasy/mythology interests. There's some tragedy but it's ultimately about friendship and love and a lot of the "bad" characters get redeemed once you understand their motivations and can work things out.

What do you like the most about bara?

Most people said the men. A lot of people enjoy the positive depiction of men as masculine and sexy, as well as increased diversity for things such as body types and age. People like that they can see gay content that mainstream media rarely gives them. And a lot of people like that because it's often made by gay men and for gay men, it provides more nuanced and relatable depictions of being gay. Here are what some people had to say:

It is gay media created by gay people for gay people. This means I seldom have to read or see silly tropes such as one character having to be the 'woman' in the relationship between two *men*. Instead I can indulge in a story that actually speaks to my experience of being gay. It also often features romance, which is something I personally have put as something optional in my daily life due to my difficulties of finding other gay people other than online. It is nice to read something that represents how I wish finding romance as a gay man could be.

Hard to answer, but usually it's just that gruff characters with a lot of body hair / fat tend to be depicted and have more than just one option. A lot of gay visual novel or television content just has one poc character, one fat character, one non-binary and/or trans character, and their personalities all revolve around that aspect of their character. Bara can certainly lack inclusivity as well, but it at least will include a couple varieties of heavy men and may even make them distinct from muscular men.

I like to see musculature in men and usually bara artist put a lot of effort on it to make it accurate, I also love the facial hair or body hair and how it mix with bara, in more wholesome topic I love how it shows big men or muscular men are not always heterosexual that there is more aside the stereotype and they can be soft, insecure, and they can do more like gardening, painting or take care of children

As a bisexual who is attracted both feminine women and masculine men, bara showcases the latter which I believe is a bit of an underrepresented category in mainstream R18 media. The thing I like most about bara is the fact that it caters to what I want especially since it is a bit of a niche art form (especially when compared to the amount of NSFW art and stories showcasing women on the internet).

at first because i really like the premise, big gruff men having sex , but now is more like a mixture of aesthetic , I'm more attracted to male body types and that now there are stories that are not focused so much on the sexual part of the relationship and it's nice to see romantic and domestic situations with characters whose archetype was not used so much in these situations.

Bara is my sexual preference, but it also features much more adult themes without using a younger aged cast for shock value when things get dark, the people in bara are adults, they've got problems that maybe haven't been fleshed out from childhood, but they know that, and they try to deal with it in their own ways, its something i rarely see in other sexual media.

What do you wish would stop appearing in bara?

For this question, a lot of people said what you'd expect them to say. Homophobia, noncon, dubcon, minors, stuff like that. Several people also mentioned they didn't like extreme fetishes like hyper stuff. Other people said they didn't like common tropes like badly written women, passive protagonists, and fetishization of toxic men. People also mentioned that they didn't like men being stereotyped into roles, particularly as bottoms or tops. Here's what people responded with.

I'm not a fan of tragic/overly-edgy, problematic/taboo, or overtly heteronormative content. Tragedy: I hate watching gay men die or suffer. It happens too much in mainstream content (to the point that it's made me suffer panic attacks), so I want to avoid seeing content like that in the media that should otherwise bring me comfort. Problematic: I mean things like rape, assault, unhealthy relationships, abuse, etc. Personally, I think we should have higher standards and respect that people who consume media like this might have suffered similar trauma. Hetero: I don't enjoy depicting gay characters/relationships in the context of hetero relationships (using heteronormative language and roles, forcing people in the closet, etc). When I'm playing or reading a character that is slow to warm up to a gay relationship because they were only in hetero relationships before, I can't help but be frustrated at the slow pace because I'm playing the game to see more gay men, not hetero-leaning ones. Though I do want to acknowledge having a greater variety or gay men/relationships is good, I just tend not to enjoy hetero-centric stories.

I've noticed that sometimes it can be a bit...too horny. Granted, I haven't really experienced that much bara content, but a lot of 18+ content tends to lean too heavily on the sex alone. Which is fine once in a while, but you want to make sure there's actually a setting and foundation to work off of. ...I'm also really not a fan of smut that focuses on the "jealous/psychotic ex" cliche. Just work through your problems like reasonable adults.

Fetishization of Poor Hygiene.

There was this website I hung out in that mostly focuses on yaoi/bara content where transgender characters are heavily vilified (so far as to make a red-colored disclaimer that a female-coded character has male genitalia, like why) and very little trans-man content. I've also seen a similar inverse case and it's just as bad. I suppose I wish there were less stigma and ignorance around other facets of the queer community.

I'd like the women to be more diverse as well. Often you get 3 types of women that appear in bara media. 1) Basically your mom 2) The super cool, tough, badass who has no faults other than maybe her temper 3) The sexual predator / crazy woman who is there to assault the protag or a love interest It's been strange to see how often these architypes show up and in case #3 it isn't always handled very well.

Shota characters. Some artists would draw a very nice bara man, but then there would also be a shota character and then that would completely ruin the artwork for me. For example Housamo had released a AR item called Piping-Hot Camp! drawn by Kijima Hyogo. I love Kijima Hyogo, and I love the art of Shiro and Aizen in it, but seeing Kagutsuchi a shota minor character really ruined it for me.

For some pieces of media, it's very centralized around being a "bottom" or "top" so to speak, to the point where consumers will have to go out of their way in order to pick one. While it's fine to have these story dynamics and archetypes, I really wish it wasn't such a staple, and that a popular piece of bara media would find a way to subvert this trope.

It's hard to say that it's one thing, but it's easy to trade off problematic theming in order to push sex that shouldn't happen and I think that should be addressed. A good example, while I did enjoy Nekojishi, is Lin Hi effectively assaulting Shu Chi to have sex with him. There could have been another better way around that I'm sure.

What's a bara story you want to see come to life? (Note: If you are a writer/artist, do not answer this question as other people can see your response) A lot of people misunderstood this question and put in existing bara works they would want to see literally become reality. Either that or they said bara works that they want a big-budget film/tv show adaptation of. However of those who answer the question as intended, I got a few interesting responses:

I want more stories that aren't based on school/collage, early adulthood in the "i'm discovering myself" sense. I want a story about a guy that is early 30s and decides to finaly start going on dates to meet a partner after stabilizing his life after he got over the toxic parents that tried to change his sexuality and the town that allowed/ ignored it . I want a story of a clasical type like a young man getting involved in a magical/ supernatural world from the POV of the supernatural partner. Example: a werewolf deals with the politics of showing his boyfriend the "secret world", or the boyfriend discovers it by himself and now they have to talk about the werewolf's secret. I know it's hard to come up with 100% original stuff, but please try to put one your own original idea you haven't seen anywhere, in any shape.

More stories about older men and how AIDS crisis did affect gay community. I have heard tragic stories about men not being able to see their partners in their deathbeds because they weren't allowed in the room, because they were gay. And as someone who has talked with older gay men, I do think there should be more stories about them. I don't like that most queer media (at least mainstream), is focused on young twink gay guys. A lot of blood has been spilled to get rights that we enjoy nowadays, and they were some of those who fought for those rights. Also, because old guys are hotter.

Since I see very many kink-/fetish-themes so far, it'd be an actual exception and "special" to me at least to see more deep and meaningful romance with explicit content, too, that can show how romance can also NOT be "boring" and "routine". I as a hyper-demi-gay don't see much of these stories sadly (neither monogamous nor polyphile ["polyamory" is an incoherent term since it consists of Greek and Latin parts, so "polyphile" or "multiamorous" would be more feasible unless the "polyglot" term is supposed to reflect the romantic attraction to multiple partners] ones)

I think I’d like a to see a fantasy or shounen like story with lgbt representation. Something like Jujutsu Kaisen where it has dark themes mixed with great action and comedy, but just with gay/lgbt rep. The story or narrative doesn’t have to revolve around lgbt topics, but can maybe be explored through characters within the main cast while they take on whatever evil is trying to destroy the world

Perhaps a story where the main character is taken into a magical/fantasy world. While there he must befriend someone to survive and in doing so falls in love with them, and they either do not return their love at first or possibly are heterosexual, but understands...maybe even coming to terms with the fact that they are gay as well or bisexual.

Hot jockish southern football playing college student falls for the out of shape, kinda nerdy guy who sits next to him in physics. Basically to show that all body types are beautiful, gay love can happen in the south (of the U.S, which is very conservative and rural), to disprove the assumption that someone needs to be exceptional to be loved.

A story focused on fatherhood/mentorhood, most stories have young MCs with young adult issues. I would love to see a father having more middle age issues, or trying to be a good role model or provider. Kinda like Dream Daddy.

A story where the mentor/parental figure is the real protagonist while the hero's journey is of secondary importance.

You're almost done with the survey. Is there anything you want to say to all the bara creators out there?

I want you guys to read what people said. A lot of people said kind things to you bara creators. They want you to thrive with what you're doing and be able to do the work you want to do. Here's what they had to say:

Love what you're doing mostly and thank everyone for their contributions to this Genre - it's only addressing and representing a certain excerpt of the whole Gay-Spectrum, but I think that's why toxic masculinity characters are "out-of-date" or "remnants" of an old Paradigm still, yet still valid to show their struggle in adapting (since it might help some guys to find help in RL inspired from stories even). Still, personalities and characters do evolve in time and I am personally a sucker for a good-ol' romance, that still has a challenging foundation since that's what it also is in "reality" mostly. I'd love to see some "emotionally intelligent" Wisdom "snuck-into" the stories since then they would not only be highly pleasurable entertainment, but also able to help inspire some enlightening thought processes in the subconsciousness or even educate through that subtlety then. I've seen captivating stories like that in "Human Cargo" for example and some very few others, that I can't remember right now in my half-asleep state sadly. All in all: I know for the emotional maturity to be represented in stories, the writers need to have gotten there themselves first and I know, that it's quite a challenge getting there seeing the lack of educational (re-)sources other than therapists really in reality. So, I won't expect too much of that meaningful stories and - after all - I also do enjoy the occasional jack-off material as long as it's clear, that it's fiction and original in its story with a few unexpected, but hot/entertaining "surprises" every now and then

I would like to offer you my gratitude. My penis and my wounded heart says thank you for all the support that you have given through all these years. Your creation help me on a breakthrough on many occasion, such as Self-Acceptance, Forgiveness, Love and Affection, Trust, Deep Comprehension and Appreciation, and Finding Purpose. I admit i often enjoy the explicit content more than just the story, but even in those moment Your creations help me survive a beaten and dark days! Thought i might walk into the valley of contempt and sorrow, your creation sometimes give me a glimpse of affection and help me found the catharsis in those difficult times. This might sound superficial, but as Hyper Sensitive Person INFP Empath with lots of issues, this is how i truly feel. Thank you, once more for your Arts, Stories, and Creations. Rest assured, the piece of soul your pour into has reached some else heart and help them.

make bigger tits

Keep up the good work. Whether or not I or anyone else like or dislike your work, you are all incredibly creative, artistic and inspire more and more people to get into art, storytelling and making games of their own for people to enjoy. Just make sure that whatever your working on is something that you are passionate about and is something that YOU want to do. Stay healthy, and dont be afraid to take breaks from time to time to recharge the batteries as this will give you the energy to do better and bigger things. Your respective audiences will understand as they know that, without you being happy and well the story may well go unfinished. Keep safe everyone, and just, be nice to each other.

We love you and everything you do!❤🥰 Some of us (like myself) actually look forward to your work on social media every day lol I hope Bara continues to grow and you guys take it to new heights, maybe we'll get a proper Bara romance anime someday I even encourage you to try using your talent to expand into other forms of stories that carry Bara energy. Genogoroh Tagame did this years ago with 'My Brother's Husband', and it seems more artists are following with Chijimetaro's 'Godaigo Daigo' bring published in the massive ShounenJump+ Looking forward to more from all of you!😉

Don't give up and trust in yourselves. I really love the romance genre without caring that much about the gender identity of the characters as long as it is a well written story. So even though I'm straight man and I'm not a furry, I can really enjoy a well written story that you can feel the author/s passion for it. Trust in your skills, I know there are more people like me out there that will like your story without caring on the tags. So, trust in your story and your passion for it. Just don't forget to take constructive criticism from your following so you can improve and to not become one of those infamous authors that can't take criticism from their communities.

I don't know you, and you don't know me. However, I wish you all success in whatever you propose and are currently doing. Keep looking forward, it will get better eventually. You can look back, of course, but don't get lost in the memories. Rather, use the past as a motivator to keep going. What's the rush? Go at your own pace and don't let others pressure you. More importantly, follow your heart and your gut feelings. Luv from Venezuela. I might not be able to provide financial support (can hardly do it for myself, tbh), but I hope these words help :)

Thank you for making bara content. Although I am a girl, discovering bara actually diversified my knowledge in types of gay individuality and relationships. FYI I am not consuming and fetishizing only gay media, rather I am finding and trying to read queer media as a whole because I am trying to understand my community. Also, I think bara made me think that big, musuclar, masculine men can vulnerable, as media often portays men with these kinds of bodies very differently. Thank you to the creators once again!

Ignoring my previous part; YOU ARE AWESOME!!! I love you all and wish you more creativity and prosperity and fun in making bara content. I want you to know that sometimes creating something is better than planing and perfecting it and never doing it/ publishing. What you do isn't bad as some Karens and rude people I heard saying/ seen writing make it out to be. Because what you do? it fing rules. I hope you have a nice day/ night depending on when you read this. <3

I know that it's hard for independent creators to do all the work up front, and that "early access" and page by page stuff is a much better model. But I've also been burned by so many things just being left unfinished that I tend to only consume media that I know is "done". So when you do finish stuff, please get the word out since I would love to give you money for it!

Please don't stop, I kind of don't know how to create motivational speech, but I just hope you guys aren't killing yourselves to create whatever it is for us drink water, do not use drugs, And if you don't have a boyfriend ..... just try sometime, it will work one day right?(I only had it at 25 but at least its something.)

You do some really great work and I'm comfortable today as a gay man because of the character depictions you've created over the years; without these examples to work from I would be creating a visual identity for myself with nothing to go on - I have no older gay role models!

And that is all. Thank you all for reading this long-ass post, and thank you again to everyone who filled out this survey. I put in a lot of effort in getting the word about this survey so I hope it pays off. Have a great day and see you later!