Back in March I went browsing in the large bookstore at our local Aeon shopping mall. As I often do I drifted into the manga section and there I noticed something for the very first time.
Their manga section features an entire shelf dedicated solely to BL, or boys’ love comics.
This is probably not a surprise to manga readers who are generally incredibly knowledgeable about the titles and genres. However I live almost entirely encased within a bubble of my own little thought-creation and the outside world only rarely permeates its skin. So it felt like one of those “Eureka!” moments and suddenly things made perfect sense. For a minute or two.
So BL. Creator 945/gusao’s The Dangerous Convenience Store started life as a BL webtoon, but it’s from Korea instead. This makes it manhwa. Popular enough to inspire little stuffed toys of its main characters, the series saw physical format print in Korea in November 2022 but it had already been available online in English since February of that year. This October BL fans in North America can hold it in their hands when Seven Seas Entertainment prints it on real paper. Or they can view it on their e-book readers.
In Japan you can find convenience stores all over the place. I’ve heard there are more of them than there are dentist offices. Most of them are open 24 hours and you can buy not only candy and soft drinks there but some even carry household goods and hot ready-made food. But since I live in Japan and not Korea I can imagine Korean convenience stores to be largely the same. I do know they have some of the same chains, such as 7-Eleven and Family Mart. And wherever you live it’s probably for the best you avoid the dangerous ones. Here’s what Seven Seas Entertainment has to say about a young man finding love in aisles of a convenience store, possibly near the gift cards rack or the shelf with all the salty potato chip varieties:
(May 17, 2023) – Seven Seas Entertainment is thrilled to announce the license acquisition of the manhwa webtoon series The Dangerous Convenience Store by 945/gusao. This hit Boys’ Love comic is coming to print in English for the first time: a full-color and Mature-rated romantic comedy about a convenience store part-timer and a handsome gangster!
Yeo Eui-joon needs cash, so he works part-time at a convenience store–where the clientele includes hoodlums and mobsters. He’s tired of being yelled at while ringing up booze and trying to talk his way out of extortion, but he’s not tired of seeing a certain good-looking gangster walk in the door. Gunwoo is huge, gruff, and intimidating at first…but he seems to care about Eui-joon’s well-being, and is quick to knock aside anyone giving Eui-joon a hard time. After Eui-joon gets a peek at the enormous condom size Gunwoo buys, a little spark of attraction might just grow into a big, fiery love story!
The Dangerous Convenience Store Vol. 1 will be released for the first time in print in North America in October 2023 for $21.99 USA / $28.99 CAN, with the series available in single large-trim editions. Ebook editions will also be available on digital platforms.
About Seven Seas Entertainment
Established in 2004, Seven Seas Entertainment is an award-winning publisher that specializes in bringing the best of Japanese manga and light novels to English language audiences alongside the hottest hand-picked books from around the globe, as well as producing original comics, graphic novels, and youth literature. All of Seven Seas’ book imprints are distributed throughout the world by Penguin Random House Publisher Services. For more information, visit sevenseasentertainment.com
