Creating BL Manga With Mitsuru Sangou at Otakon 2026
Mitsuru Sangou, a boys' love mangaka known for her works Mask Danshi: This Shouldn't Lead to Love and Hebineko (both published by Libre in Japan), participated in a special live demonstration on Saturday, August 1, at Otakon 2026. The creator showcased her process while discussing how BL manga is made, alongside a fan Q&A hosted by a moderator and her editor at the "Creating BL Manga with Mitsuru Sangou" panel.
Sangou's editor Otsuka was also a part of the panel, which was moderated by Kwok-Wai Hanson, who represented BluPetal, an up-and-coming English publisher of LGBTQ+ manga.
The panel started with Sangou-sensei doing a live drawing session with an iPad in Clip Studio Paint EX. She noted that this isn't her usual setup, but that it is a mobile version that works for the panel. Sangou drew chibi characters from her manga Mask Danshi: This Shouldn't Lead to Love, using the default Textured Pen / Zara Pen brush. The line art drawing for Sayama was prepared in advance: there was a rough sketch, and colors were decided ahead of time, making it easy to pick with the eyedropper tool.
The panel continued with a Q&A with Otsuka-san, who confirmed that this is not the first time she's watched Sangou draw live. She mentioned an online event for fans in Thailand and stated that she feels moved by Sangou's sketches. The Hanson went on to ask whether she only works with one mangaka at a time, but Otsuka confirmed that at one time she was in charge of 15 artists at once.
The Hanson went on to mention that August 1 was dubbed the "Yaoi Day" (801 in Japanese wordplay that sounds like "yaoi"). The panel continued with audience members answering questions on where they find their yaoi. Social media was the biggest winner, and the most popular platforms included Twitter (now X), Reddit, Bluesky, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Discord.
At the halfway mark, Sayama and Saikawa drawings are complete. Sangou begins work on the spinoff side couple characters, Tsuruga and Setsu.
The session continued with questions from the audience. When asked how she deals with burnout, Sangou-sensei states that she tends to write down the idea so that she's working on two things at once.
The discussion moved on to anime adaptations of BL works, and Hanson highlighted the popularity of BL outside of Japan, where live-action and anime adaptations are common. Otsuka-san mentioned the popularity of BL overseas, mainly in China and Thailand.
Sangou-sensei was asked if she has any series to recommend and whether she was friends with other BL mangaka. Her manga recommendations were Honoo no Mirage (known as Mirage of Blaze) and Banana Fish. Sangou stated that she is friends with other mangaka and they're not necessarily BL authors.
They ran out of time for the last character, but let the audience take pictures of the final artwork on screen.
Seeing this live drawing session in person was totally worth it! Big thanks to the Otakon 2026 organizers for setting it up.
