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animehouse-moe · 7 months

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The Iceberg of Online Manga - A Reading List and Print Wishlist

We get a lot of manga in English, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. We get a hell of a lot of fan translated manga, but even that doesn't cover the whole thing. Separated by language and culture, the "untapped" potential of manga is foreign to a lot of readers, myself included really. But it's because of that deficiency that I decided to start taking a look at interesting fan translated titles to find series to recommend to publishers (and potentially read), so this is a sneak peek into my ever-growing list.

It's also an open request for people to share their favorites from the online manga sphere! As a single person it's impossible to find all the hidden gems, so being able to share titles between one another can really help widen horizons.

Sui and Neri of the Twilight Planet / Tasogare-Boshi No Sui To Neri

In a way, it reminds me of Girls Last Tour, a sunsetting planet that explores the oddity of a du in their life. Not quite as bittersweet or contemplative through what I've seen so far, but still very pretty and detailed. Lots and lots of hand drawn background art, and some really good layouts and paneling.

Poison Poison Forest Forest /Doku Doku Mori Mori

Mushroom on Mushroom violence, with a healthy side of grim visuals. It's got all the punch you could expect, and has a pretty novel approach to what you could consider a revenge story. Still early on so not a mountain of stuff to go off of, but at the very least what there is is good.

Captain Momo's Secret Base / Momo Kanchou No Himitsu Kichi

Tsuruta Kenji, the mastermind behind the art of Emanon (and other series), need I really say more? Regardless, with Tsuruta's art behind a lighthearted and curious series of a woman travelling through space alone with a cat, it's an undeniably enjoyable ride. Though do be warned, there is quite a bit of nudity featured as Momo prefers going commando to wearing clothes.

Every Every Night / Yona Yona Yona

An incredibly strikingly designed robin hood-esque story, Yona and her crew go on nightly missions to try and steal back art that was originally stolen by a corrupt police force. Creative, expressive, fun, and impressively detailed and unique, it's got quite a bit of potential!

The Feared Witch of Tasihou / Taishou Kitan Majo

Mixing the Western practices of Witchcraft with a Taishou-era Japan setting? A cultural combination that I'm truthfully surprised we haven't really seen yet. Add onto that the incredibly unique and sketch-like art style (and the wonderful color pages) and it's just a super easy pickup.

Welcome to Hotel Metsäpeura / Hotel Metsäpeura e Youkoso

A little hard to explain succinctly, but this is the story of a trio, two men and a teenager who they find standing outside their hotel in the Finnish wilderness in the middle of Winter. Characters with... interesting pasts, it's a story about providing not just a house, but a home to this young boy on his own.

The Ends of A Dream / Yume no Hashibashi

This is one that I'm really quite desperate to get in print. It's an emotional story of a pair as they retrace their forbidden romance through the years that have evaded them as they reach the end of their lives. A painfully beautiful concept that I really hope to see licensed someday.

Will You Clean This For Me? / Kirei Ni Shitemoraemasuka

Alright, something a little more light and fun! A story of a laundry (though it's really sorta general cleaning) shop as they go about their daily life, even offering a few tips and tricks to better cleaning things. Simple idea that has some pretty clear care put into it, and is just the right thing to relax with.

Amber Days and Golden Nights / Kohaku no Yume de Yoimashou

Let's keep the good vibes rolling! Another specific interest series, this time about craft beer. Kenzaki Nana's a burnt out employee at a Kyoto advertising firm, but happens to stumble across the Shirokuma bar. With just one night she ends up pulled into the world of craft beer, and our story begins! Very fun and light, and a really cool area to see explored by manga.

The Dragon, The Hero, and The Courier / Ryuu to Yuusha to Haitatsunin

Nothing like some good old comedy at the expense of someone else. Yoshida, a half elf, is a mail carrier for the Imperial City of Idazig that will deliver mail to anyone, anywhere. With the breadth of fantasy and middle-ages history expressed early on, there's a lot of creative potential for humor alongside the really wonderfully scratchy and sharp art.

Deep Sea Aquarium Magmell / Magmell Shinkai Suizokukan

My friend Phantom would kill me if this wasn't on the list. Anyways, it's a series about a deep sea aquarium employee in Tokyo. Very cool, very informal, and incredibly beautiful. I love how much they work with blacks and darkness in the art.

A Coffee Shop in the Unwaking Town / Samenai Machi no Kissaten

I love stories that are incredibly odd and quiet, and this is no exception. Suzume one day finds herself unable to wake up, stuck in the unwaking town Lutetia. It's in this town that she works at the coffee shop known as 'Quatre'. From the moment I laid eyes on it I knew I'd enjoy it, a unique concept paired with standout art, it has such a comfortable feeling to its experience (as well as offering a few recipes).

Living In an Antiquarian Bookstore of The Karakida Family / Karakida-ke no Kosho Gurashi

A simple story about three girls inheriting their grandfather's shop in the heart of the largest collection of used bookstores, Kanda-Jinbouchou. A very calm and borderline mundane story that is supplemented with some truly beautiful art.

And that's all this list has in it for now! Of course I've got more I can chat about, but I thought these to be the most promising in my perusing of the internet. Best of all though? All of these are available (to some degree) on MangaDex! If you want to give them a shot they're there. And really, do feel free to add to this list with your own online finds, I'd love to find all sorts of unique and creative manga that we don't get to hear about in the English sphere!

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houkagokappa · 10 months

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The Yuri Manga Post

From when I first came across yuri manga a decade ago, followed by a long break from it due to the excruciating longing I’d experience reading about girls loving girls while not experiencing it myself, I’d been wanting to get back to reading yuri manga again. The loneliness hasn’t gone anywhere, but my love towards girls and girls loving girls has remained, and I’ve wanted to take part in it once more.

What got me started was Hanamonogatari by schwinn. People were hyping it up on twitter as old woman yuri, and not just yuri involving a grown adult, but an actual grandmother. So far only 2 chapters have been translated, so I don’t have a whole lot to say about the series. It’s a nice change of pace to read about someone in their 60′s, and it’s wholesome to see how they discover make-up as a new hobby and the salesperson as a new romantic interest. Life doesn’t end after your 20′s, y’all!

This inspired me to check out what else is popular these days, and one of the first works I saw recommended was Mahou Shoujo ni Akogarete by Akihiro Ononaka, which is the polar-opposite to Hanamonogatari. It’s about a young girl who adores magical girls, but ends up becoming a villain forced to fight them. Her new alter-ego is sadistic and enjoys teasing and torturing her opponents. The manga feels like a combination of Douman Seiman’s works and Kill la Kill, the way it’s stylized with high contrasts and contains plenty of wacky, sexy comedy that takes things just a little too far for comfort. Personally I love it. It’s not a manga for everyone, and I wish it would start wrapping up soon after 9 volumes, before it starts repeating itself too much. It’s been one of the most refreshing manga I’ve read in a while, a funny parody with an amazing artstyle, even if it also contains some... questionable scenes.

Looking at more conventional works, I picked up Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko ja Nakatta by Agu. It’s about a high school girl who falls for a guy as they bond over similar tastes in music, but as the title suggests, it turns out the guy’s actually a girl and her classmate (disguised in her casual/alternative style). The manga releases on twitter, and it’s been a fun exercise for me to keep up with it in Japanese. The twitter releases have also allowed Agu to use some colour, adding lime green to the traditional black and white, which makes the manga stand out and look really cool. The art itself is great too, both girls are super cute with their own distinctive styles. I like seeing how their relationship develops and I’m glad that it doesn’t dwell on the initial misunderstanding for too long. I will say that it’s a shame to be caught up with the story, since each weekly update is only 4 pages long and I’d rather read this in one go.

Next, I picked up Kakeochi Girl by Battan, since it was recent and renowned, with gorgeous covers. It’s about a woman who runs into her old high school sweetheart again after 10 years. While she never got over her, her old lover is now about to get married to a man, and have his baby. I wasn’t a huge fan of this manga. I thought it was sad how the main girl hadn’t been able to move on and felt stuck with her life for so long, while her romantic interest was stuck making bad decisions. I also didn’t like how the husband was portrayed as a villain of comical proportions. I think there’s value to the story which explores what comphet does to a woman, but it’s not something I care to read about when men become too central to the story. I also have conflicting feelings about the art. The covers, illustrations and some pages were absolutely gorgeous, and I love how Battan portrays different feelings, especially whenever something’s a little scary, but exciting, with tingles and sparks, but I’m not a huge fan of her style when it comes to the eyes and other facial features, which is a stylistic choice for her and a personal preference of mine.

I gave Battan another chance with Ane no Yuujin, since I couldn’t resist the enthralling, sensual cover. I liked it better than Kakeochi Girl, and it helped me appreciate the art more, thanks to her excellent portrayal of longing and joy. I was about to say that I liked the characters better too, but now that I think about it, I’m not sure I did. I think the fact that this was much shorter and focused on more characters masked it for me. I don’t think Battan’s works are for me, but I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who do love them for good reason!

I continued my yuri journey with another work I’d seen and heard much about, Sayonara Rose Garden by Dr. Pepperco. It’s about a Japanese maid who works for an English noblewoman, set in England in the early 1900′s. My first impression was that Dr. Pepperco is a genius for this setting and combination of aesthetics, with the Japanese maid dressing in kimono off-duty (!!!). The manga is beautifully drawn, and I enjoyed both main characters, but unfortunately a man had to get between them as well. It makes sense considering the setting, but it’s still not something I enjoy reading about, so my initial excitement was dulled out after the first volume. Overall it was a good read with great art, but because of my high expectations and slight disappointment, it didn’t end up as a favourite of mine.

After getting worried about not finding any more good yuri to read, I was happy to discover Ikemen Girl to Hakoiri Musume by Mochi au Lait and majoccoid. It’s another manga where one girl mistakes her classmate for a man and falls for them. Here the girl confesses right at the start, the other one accepts as a joke, and they end up dating while the misunderstandings are still at play. The girl who was mistaken for a man is incredibly sympathetic and a whole mood (TM), while her girlfriend is super bubbly and sweet. The manga is light-hearted and funny, and I wish I could find something similar to this, since it’s been one of my favorites.

Next up I read Yuunagi Marbled and Kimi Koi Limit by Momono Moto. Yuunagi Marbled was a tad bit on the edgy side, but still an okay read. Kimi Koi Limit had a real mess of a main character, which I enjoyed immensely, since I’ve been looking for something like that in yuri works. After all these stories about women who suddenly end up in lesbian relationships, or who have to hide the fact they want to be in them, it was refreshing to read about women who were open and assertive about their interests. I can’t say either of these works left a strong impression on me beyond that, but I found the girls cute and they were easy enough to read.

Then I went on to read Papa no Sexy Doll by Kajikawa Gaku. Look. The title is questionable. And the manga is indeed about a girl and her dad both having some sort of relationship with an android to get over the loss of the girls’ mother. I checked it out because I read something else by the same author, which left me curious about what else they’d done. Then I wanted to check what Papa no Sexy Doll could possibly be about, since it wasn’t marked as r-18. It was a pleasant surprise to see that it was yuri, and I actually got attached to the main character, who’s a young girl going through a rough patch with her crush/girlfriend and seeking solace (not necessarily sexual, but also that kind of comfort) from the titular doll. There are only a few chapters out and it’s still ongoing, but so far it’s been a nice story about loss and the pains of growing up. I can’t recommend it for everyone, but it’s been a pleasant surprise for sure.

To continue with more questionable works, I was excited to give Kyou wa Kanojo ga Inai kara by Iwami Kiyoko a try, based on the gorgeous art and a powerful line I randomly came across and had to fish out the source for. Like the title suggests, it’s about a girl in a lesbian relationship, but said girlfriend is still in the closet afraid to show any sort of affection towards her in public. Furthermore, she keeps ignoring her in favour of club activities, which leaves our main girl sad and lonely. A third girl shows up, and with a few pushes, the main girl starts two-timing her girlfriend. I love how horrible the girls are, and how easy it is to see what drove them to be the way they are. The art is to die for, and although I can’t recommend such a controversial topic to everyone, it’s been one of my favorites. The manga is still ongoing, with 4 volumes currently, and things are heating up!

After reading all these popular and currently talked-about series, and not finding that much more looking though what’s popular, I discovered the greatness of Interest Stacks on MAL. There were a few collections with titles and covers that looked intriguing, and I started reading older works, with the oldest being Maya no Souretsu by Ichijo Yukari, published in 1972. I love the 70′s shoujo manga style, and the story was a tragic wild-ride about loss and revenge.

From there I kinda fell down the rabbit hole that was 90′s josei. Some of the yuri works I read were Love Vibes and Sheets no Sukima by Erica Sakurazawa. They are both about messy relationships that involve a lot of sex and cheating, and while love between women was central for both, there was more action between women and men. Because I read other josei works from the same era before these two, I came in thinking it was cool to see women be active and forward, so I didn’t mind it, but I do think Sheets no Sukima in particular suffered from not developing the relationship between the two women further. The ending was incredibly unsatisfying and abrupt, even if it could be seen as realistic and tragic in a way I usually love, because it reflects how uncertain and unsatisfying real life can be. I definitely preferred Love Vibes out of the two, where the feelings were more clear and reciprocated. Both works had a charming artstyle, and the girls were cute so it was nice reading them.

Back to the present day, although ready to take a journey into the past, I continued with Yume no Hashibashi by Sudou Yumi. It’s about two women in their mid-80′s who have been in love with each other since they were 14/15, but unable to be with each other due to various societal reasons. The manga starts with them in their old age and progresses backwards in time, with each chapter giving us a small glimpse of the choices they made and the feelings they had throughout different periods in their lives. It’s quite an interesting structure, and I loved seeing what drove the characters to make the decisions they did, when I already knew what they would lead to, and to see what prevented them from choosing to be with each other throughout the years. I wasn’t sure what to think of it based on the first two chapters, but I was crying as I reached the end. It was tragic, yet beautiful, and what hurts the most is how there are people out there who have gone through similar experiences. This was another favourite of mine and I highly recommend it, with the warning that it’s a heartbreaking read. I’d love to read more yuri by this mangaka, but unfortunately I couldn’t find much else.

Following these, I read Nettai Shoujo by Yoshitomi Akihito. I picked it up after reading Balance Policy, also by him, thanks to the nice cover art. Balance Policy contained some yuri as well, which would ordinarily be a nice bonus, except here it was paired with some of the most absurd ideas of how women work I’ve come across in a long time (weird stuff about periods etc.). Along with some other choices, it was quite obvious it was written by a man. I don’t think gender should prevent you from writing whatever, and I can even appreciate yuri that’s created for the male gaze, but oh man does it hurt when it’s combined with bad writing. Both Balance Policy and Nettai Shoujo got me though, since they depict summer in the countryside, which is one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to manga settings, especially paired with queer themes. Nettai Shoujo is a collection of shorts around that theme, and it delivers, save for a couple instances where you can clearly tell it was written by a man, and a few “but I’m a girl” lines, which I didn’t know I’d come to dislike as much as I now do. In their defence, it was written in 2007, so I can’t be too mad about it.

It was only after reading Nettai Shoujo that I realised Yoshitomi Akihito is the man behind Blue Drop. I’ve read one or two installations from the series and I’ve always wanted to read through them all, so I’m now stuck in this weird love-hate relationship with Yoshitomi Akihito and his works. I’ve gotten quite busy, so I haven’t had the time to read more than the first (original) volume so far. I love the art and the sci-fi setting of lesbian aliens taking over Earth, but it feels aged and contains gratuitous fanservice, which I don’t enjoy. The girls are either undressing themselves at weird moments, too often, or it’s done to them in a way which feels exploitative. I’ll read and reread the rest of Blue Drop, and I’ll probably check out the anime too, but for now, I no longer have the time. Pride month is coming to an end too, so this shall be it for my big yuri manga review.

Thank you for taking the time to read any or all of this!

I hope you’ve been able to read some good yuri as well, and if you have any recommendations I’m happy to receive them!

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