I mean, it's not like I have my finger on the pulse of the differing success in the sub-genres of the BL market, and many mangaka put out material for both groups (i.e. FAKE's Matou Sanami). Also, there's plenty of mature BL visual novels coming through the pipeline, so the market is clearly there. (On the other hand, Nitro+Chiral seems to be single-handedly keeping the BL VN market alive, so maybe I'm wrong.)
I suspect it has more to do with the lack of cultural acceptance of homosexuality outside of adolescent experimentation. Like, it's fine for young men to be "confused" and sleep around, but once they reach marrying age, it's expected they'll settle down with wife and kids, and that's probably what's keeping the mature BL (as in stuff featuring >30yo men instead of boys/early-20s young men) out of the mainstream. (And gay marriage is still illegal in Japan, so there's...that.)
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I mean, it's not like I have my finger on the pulse of the differing success in the sub-genres of the BL market, and many mangaka put out material for both groups (i.e. FAKE's Matou Sanami). Also, there's plenty of mature BL visual novels coming through the pipeline, so the market is clearly there. (On the other hand, Nitro+Chiral seems to be single-handedly keeping the BL VN market alive, so maybe I'm wrong.)
I suspect it has more to do with the lack of cultural acceptance of homosexuality outside of adolescent experimentation. Like, it's fine for young men to be "confused" and sleep around, but once they reach marrying age, it's expected they'll settle down with wife and kids, and that's probably what's keeping the mature BL (as in stuff featuring >30yo men instead of boys/early-20s young men) out of the mainstream. (And gay marriage is still illegal in Japan, so there's...that.)