Interest

Twittering Birds Never Fly, Lullaby of The Dawn Top 2022 BL Awards

The boys-love website Chil-Chil announced the winners of its 13th annual BL Awards on Friday. The awards honor manga, novels, drama CDs, voice actors, characters, and cover design in the boys-love genre. The winning works are decided via popular vote on the website.

The Best Series winner is Kou Yoneda's Twittering Birds Never Fly, while Ichika Yuno's Lullaby of the Dawn was voted Best Comic. Yuu Nagira's Utsukushii Kare (My Beautiful Man) novel series also picked up awards from multiple categories.

This year's winners are as follows:

• Best Comic: Ichika Yuno's Lullaby of the Dawn *Available in English on MangaPlaza
• Best Series: Kou Yoneda's Twittering Birds Never Fly *Available in English from Digital Manga Publishing
• Best Next Generation (Newcomer): Miyuki Nakayama's Shota x Oni
• Best Deep (work that strongly shows the artist's individuality): Ogeretsu Tanaka's Happy of the End
• Best Erotic: Licca Arata's Boku no Tsugai wa Thoroughbred Omega (My Mate is a Thoroughbred Omega)
• Best Novel: Yuu Nagira and Ricaco Kasai's Interlude: Utsukushii Kare Bangaihen-shū (Interlude: My Beautiful Man Side Story Collection)
• Best BL CD: Yūki Ono and Sōma Saitō's performance in Nikurashii Kare Utsukushii Kare 2 (Detestable Man, Beautiful Man 2)
• Best BL CD voice actor: Sōma Saitō
• Best Cover Design: Ito Nonomiya's cover for Hadashi no Tenshi (Barefoot Angel)
• Best Seme Character: Taira Kazunari from Yuu Nagira and Ricaco Kasai's Interlude: Utsukushii Kare Bangaihen-shū (Interlude: My Beautiful Man Side Story Collection)
• Best Uke Character: Kan Kiyoi from Yuu Nagira and Ricaco Kasai's Interlude: Utsukushii Kare Bangaihen-shū (Interlude: My Beautiful Man Side Story Collection)
• Best Video (screen depiction): Utsukushii Kare (My Beautiful Man), a live-action television drama based on the popular novel series

Yoneda's Twittering Birds Never Fly launched in 2011 and follows the sexually masochistic yakuza boss, Yashiro. Yashiro is typically a cold man but when Chikara Doumeki, his newly hired bodyguard, catches his interest, he reconsiders his "hands-off" policy with subordinates. As Yashiro's invitations fail, the yakuza boss finds out his bodyguard has a very personal reason for staying at arm's length.

Twittering Birds Never Fly was adapted into the first of three planned 60-minute anime films. Twittering Birds Never Fly: The Clouds Gather opened in theaters in Japan on February 15, 2020. The manga also topped the BL Awards in 2020.

Yuno's Lullaby of the Dawn launched in 2020 and follows Alto, a boy who wishes to save the warrior priest Elva from his tragic fight of fighting monsters from the dark sea. ShuCream launched the manga in English on MangaPlaza on March 31.

Sources: Chil-Chil, Press Release