393 reviews in this genre
by Ken Akamatsu
A review of A.I. Love You — Ken Akamatsu's early romantic comedy series about a lonely programmer whose AI creation manifests as a real girl after a lightning strike; all the DNA of Love Hina in its earliest form, before Akamatsu found his full voice.
by Ji-Sang Shin / Geo
A review of Chocolat — the eight-volume Korean manhwa by Ji-Sang Shin and Geo about a girl who infiltrates the wrong idol fan club to chase her favorite band, gets blackmailed by one of the boys she was using, and slowly falls into the world she pretended not to care about.
by Seung-Hee Son
A review of Full House Kiss — Seung-Hee Son's two-volume Korean manhwa about a girl who loses her house to a stranger in a bet and has to move in with him under a fake marriage contract.
by Moyoco Anno
A review of Happy Mania — Moyoco Anno's ten-volume josei manga following Shigeta Kayoko, a woman in her twenties whose desperate pursuit of love and romance constantly undermines her relationships in ways she doesn't quite understand.
by Kazuro Inoue
A review of Midori Days — Kazuro Inoue's eight-volume romantic comedy about high school delinquent Seiji Sawamura who wakes up one morning to find a miniature girl named Midori has replaced his right hand.
by Nicky Lee
A review of The One — Nicky Lee's ten-volume Taiwanese manhwa about a girl who enters the modeling world after falling for a famous male model, and the complications that arise from her resemblance to his deceased twin.
by Ikuemi Ryo
A review of Moe Kare!! — Ikuemi Ryo's eight-volume shojo comedy about a girl who is obsessed with bishounen anime characters and the real boy who appears to be her ideal type in person — and then turns out to be considerably more complicated than a 2D character.
by Honna Wakou
A review of Nozoki Ana — Honna Wakou's thirteen-volume mature manga about a college student who discovers a peephole to his neighbor's apartment and the complicated, adult relationship that develops from that specific beginning.
by Shoko Conami
A review of Shinobi Life — Shoko Conami's twelve-volume shojo romance about a girl who falls off a rooftop and lands in the arms of a ninja from the past who is convinced she is the princess he has sworn his life to protect.
by Miki Aihara
A review of Tokyo Boys & Girls — Miki Aihara's five-volume shojo romance about a girl who enrolls in a famous fashion design school and discovers her past is more intertwined with her new classmates than she expected.
by Kaori Yuki
A review of Boys Next Door (Shonen Zanzo) — Kaori Yuki's one-volume manga about a teacher who murders male prostitutes and the street boy who blackmails him, then loves him.
by Yun Mi-kyung
A review of Bride of the Water God — Yun Mi-kyung's Korean manhwa about a girl sacrificed to end a drought, who learns the water god is a sulking child by day and a cold, beautiful stranger named Mui by night.
by Rio Itoh
A review of Gaba Kawa — Rio Itoh's single-volume shojo manga about a demon who comes to the human world to collect souls, falls in love with a human boy, and discovers that demons who love humans lose their powers and eventually their lives.
by Fumi Yoshinaga
A review of Ichigenme: The First Class Is Civil Law — Fumi Yoshinaga's compact BL manga set in a Tokyo law school, where a studious first-year finds himself in an unexpected relationship with the dean's careless son.
by Wataru Yoshizumi
A review of Marmalade Boy Little — Yoshizumi's continuation of the Marmalade Boy world, following Minami, daughter of Miki and Yuu, who grows up in the same complicated family structure her parents navigated and discovers her own version of its romantic complications.
by Takako Shigematsu
A review of Tenshi Ja Nai!! — the shojo comedy about a girl who shares a dorm room with the school's most popular idol, discovers the idol is secretly a boy, and gets caught in the comedic spiral that follows.
by Nami Akimoto
A review of Ultra Cute — the shojo romance about two best friends who discover they're both in love with the same boy, and choose to compete fairly rather than let the rivalry destroy their friendship.
by Ayumi Komura
A review of Mixed Vegetables — the shojo romance about a pastry chef's daughter who wants to run a sushi restaurant, and a sushi chef's son who wants to be a pastry chef, who start dating specifically to access each other's family businesses — and then complicate everything by actually falling in love.
by Tomohiro Marukawa
A review of The World of Narue — the sci-fi romantic comedy about a middle school boy who starts dating a girl who turns out to be half-alien, and the increasingly complex consequences of living adjacent to the universe.
by Higuchi Tachibana
A review of Portrait of M & N — the shojo comedy about a secret masochist girl and a secret narcissist boy who discover each other's hidden personalities and end up protecting each other's secrets while falling in love.
by Yasuhiro Kano
A review of Pretty Face — the Shonen Jump comedy about a martial artist who wakes up from a coma with a girl's face after a reconstructive surgery accident, and is mistaken for the missing twin sister of the girl he loves.
by Higuri You
A review of Prism — Higuri You's compact romance manga about identical twins whose switched identities spiral into genuine emotional complexity, asking what it means to know someone when their face isn't really theirs.
by Kazuto Okada
A review of Sundome — the mature manga about a high school student in a celibacy club who enters a relationship with a terminally ill transfer student who uses him for something beyond what he understands.
by Mitsuba Takanashi
A review of The Devil Does Exist — the shojo romance about a girl whose mother remarries, bringing into her life a stepfather and a stepbrother who is the terrifying delinquent at her school — and the complicated relationship that develops.
by Soren Takasago (art), Yousuke Tomizawa (story)
A review of Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai! (Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father!) — the light novel manga adaptation about a college student who suddenly has to raise his three young nieces when their parents go missing.
by Yoshitomo Ohmine (art), Yousuke Kuroda (story)
A review of Please Twins! — the companion manga to Please Teacher!, following Maiku Kamishiro and two girls who both believe they might be his twin sister, in a romantic-comedy that is considerably more complicated than it initially appears.
by Yu Minamoto
A review of Samurai Harem: Asu no Yoichi — the action-comedy manga about a mountain-trained swordsman who moves to the city to continue his training and ends up living with four sisters, unable to understand modern life or his own feelings.
by Peach-Pit
A review of DearS by Peach-Pit — an alien arrival comedy about a boy who accidentally acquires an alien girl as a 'slave' and their subsequent attempts to navigate each other's worlds.
by Nami Akimoto
A review of Miracle Girls by Nami Akimoto — a classic early-90s shoujo manga about twin sisters with telepathic powers navigating school, romance, and the complications of being psychically connected.
by Shizuru Hayashi (art), Please! Project (story)
A review of the Please! Teacher manga adaptation — an alien teacher and her student husband navigate the secret of their relationship in a small school community.
by Ikku Masa (art), Ohji Hiroi (story)
A review of Sakura Wars manga adaptation — a steampunk mecha story set in 1920s Tokyo where an all-female theater troupe secretly protects the city using mechanized armor, and one soldier falls for the work before he understands it.
by Masahiro Itabashi (story), Hiroyuki Tamakoshi (art)
A review of Boys Be... — the long-running Kodansha anthology that wrote first love from the boy's point of view, brought to English by Tokyopop as Boys Be: Second Season.
by Waki Yamato
Haikara-san follows Benio Hanamura, a spirited Taisho-era young woman who defies tradition, loves sake and kendo, and refuses to accept the arranged marriage her father has imposed on her — until she meets her fiancé.
by Aka Akasaka
Aka Akasaka's 28-volume romantic comedy (2015–2022) about Miyuki Shirogane and Kaguya Shinomiya, two student council officers at Japan's most elite high school who are both in love and both certain that whoever confesses first loses. Complete in English from VIZ Media.
by Kiiro Yumi (art), Hiro Arikawa (story)
Library Wars: Love & War is a romantic action manga set in a near-future Japan where librarians battle government censorship forces to protect the freedom to read.
by Aya Nakahara
Love★Com follows tall girl Risa and short boy Otani, always mistaken for a comedy duo, as they help each other with their love lives and slowly realize their feelings for each other.
by Mitsuru Adachi
Miyuki follows high school student Masato Wakamatsu who is secretly in love with his neighbor Miyuki Kashima, while also living with his quiet stepsister — who is also named Miyuki.
by Makino Aoi
A review of Peach Heaven! — a sweet shojo comedy about a high school girl who secretly draws erotic manga and the classmate who discovers her secret.
by Mayu Shinjo
A review of Mayu Shinjo's Sensual Phrase — 18 volumes in Shōjo Comic. Aspiring lyricist Aine Yukimura's words catch the attention of rock star Sakuya; they become entangled in a passionate and complicated relationship against the backdrop of 1990s J-rock. VIZ Media's English edition is complete.
by Tsunami Minato
We Married as a Job! follows Mikuri Moriyama, an unemployed graduate student, and Hiramasa Tsuzaki, a workaholic IT professional, who enter a 'professional marriage' contract — an arrangement that gradually becomes complicated by real feelings.
by Kouji Miura
Blue Box follows Taiki Inomata, a hardworking badminton player quietly in love with basketball star Chinatsu Kano — until her parents move abroad and she moves into his house, turning his crush into a roommate, a rival, and the person across the breakfast table.
by Hajime Kamoshida (story), Tsugumi Nanamiya (art), Keiji Mizoguchi (character design)
A review of the Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai manga — Tsugumi Nanamiya's two-volume adaptation of the first Adolescence Syndrome arc, where a girl in a bunny suit slowly stops being seen by anyone but one boy.
by Shioko Azuma
Yu's review of Crossroad — Kajitsu's mother has remarried, bringing Kajitsu into a new household with two stepbrothers: cold Natsu and warm Ao; as she navigates her new family life, she finds herself unexpectedly drawn to both and uncertain which feelings are real across 5 volumes.
by Banri Hidaka
Yu's review of I Hate You More Than Anyone — Kazuha Yoshida is the eldest of seven siblings and has been fighting with next-door neighbor Seiichi Tennozu since childhood; the series follows how their determined hatred gradually reveals itself as something more complicated and more honest across 9 volumes.
by Battan
Raise wa Tanin ga Ii follows Yoshino Somei, granddaughter of a yakuza boss, who is placed in an arranged marriage with Miyama Kirishima — another boss's grandson who is terrifyingly, smilingly dangerous. Their courtship is a psychological chess match between two people who understand exactly what they're doing.
by Hiro Fujiwara
Yu's review of Kaichou wa Maid-sama! — Misaki Ayuzawa is the strict student council president of a recently co-ed school; she secretly works at a maid cafe to support her family; when the most popular boy at school, Usui Takumi, discovers her secret, he keeps it — and keeps showing up at her workplace across 18 volumes.
by Sakura Tsukuba
Yu's review of Land of the Blindfolded — Kanade Outsuki can see glimpses of the future when she touches people; she meets Arou Nougami, who can see the past; their complementary abilities and developing feelings for each other create a quiet, thoughtful romance across 9 volumes.
by Mie Ryumon
Yu's review of Living Game — Fuwa Raizo is a 29-year-old salaryman whose fiancee left him; he ends up sharing his apartment with Kou Asahi, a cheerful 18-year-old new employee at his company; the series follows how their cohabitation becomes something genuine over 10 volumes.
by Natsuki Takaya
Yu's review of Phantom Dream — Tamaki Otoya is the last in a line of spirit summoners tasked with exorcising evil; his childhood friend Asahi loves him and fears the duty that is consuming him; the series is Natsuki Takaya's darker early work, full of sacrifice and the cost of supernatural obligation.
by Jinushi
Sasaki is a quiet salaryman in his thirties. After work, he buys cigarettes at a supermarket and smokes them in the back alley. The cashier — a cheerful young woman named 'Yamada' he sees every day — turns out to be a completely different person when she joins him for a smoke in the same alley after closing. The girl smoking next to him is not the cashier he thought she was. Jinushi's romantic comedy began as a Twitter webcomic in 2022 and runs ongoing at 8 volumes (as of 2026) in Square Enix's Monthly Big Gangan; Square Enix Manga & Books licenses the English edition.
by Natsumi Matsumoto
A review of Natsumi Matsumoto's St. ♥ Dragon Girl — eight volumes in Ribon from October 1999 to April 2003. A Chinese-magic-meets-martial-arts shoujo where Momoka punches and Ryuga incants. VIZ Media's Shojo Beat English edition is complete (December 2008–September 2010).
by Arina Tanemura
A review of Time Stranger Kyoko — Arina Tanemura's 3-volume Ribon series (September 2000–September 2001), about a 30th-century princess who must gather twelve Strangers and their holy stones to wake her comatose twin sister. VIZ published the complete English edition 2008–2009.
by Tarō Shinonome (based on the game by Enterbrain)
A review of Amagami: Precious Diary, Tarō Shinonome's manga adaptation of the romance game, focused on the Tsukasa Ayatsuji and Kaoru Tanamachi routes.
by Park So-hee
A review of Goong, the Korean manhwa set in an alternate Korea where the monarchy still exists — and a commoner girl is engaged to the Crown Prince.
by Gi Maeng-gi (Maenggi)
A review of My ID is Gangnam Beauty, the Naver webtoon by Gi Maeng-gi about a college freshman whose new face didn't end the judgment — it just changed who was doing the judging.
by Ryuta Amazume
A review of Nana to Kaoru, the mature romance manga that uses BDSM breathers as a framework for exploring trust and vulnerability between two people.
by Yūji Yuuji (story), Ruroo (art)
A review of Oreshura, the romantic comedy manga about a boy blackmailed into a fake relationship that becomes increasingly complicated.
by Sana Kirioka
1921, Chiba prefecture. Tamahiko Shima — 17, son of a wealthy industrialist — has been disinherited and exiled to a remote mountain house after losing his right arm in the accident that killed his mother. He has been told to die alone. Then Yuzuki Tachibana arrives — 14, cheerful, sent by her father as a bride to settle a debt. Sana Kirioka's 5-volume romance is gentle, sad, and complete in English from Yen Press.
by Koi Ikeno
Tokimeki Tonight follows Ranze Eto, the daughter of a vampire father and a werewolf mother, who has inherited both bloodlines and the power to transform into whatever she bites. Her romance with the most popular boy at school, Shun, and her supernatural mishaps drive a classic Ribon comedy romance.
by Akiko Higashimura
A review of Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Akiko Higashimura's brutally honest josei manga about three women in their thirties confronting their romantic failures.
by Yaongyi
A review of True Beauty, the Korean webtoon romance about a girl who transforms herself with makeup and the boys who fall for both sides of her.
by Matsuri Hino
Matsuri Hino's 11-volume sequel to Vampire Knight (2016–2025) picks up after the original's controversial ending. Yuki and Zero across decades. Kaname's absence. Their daughter Ai. New character vignettes and old character resolutions. The manga the fans needed after Vampire Knight ended in 2013. Ongoing release in English from VIZ.
by Ikki Kajiwara (story) / Isamu Nagatani (art)
Ai to Makoto follows the turbulent relationship between Ai Saotome, a girl from a wealthy family, and Makoto Taiga, a violent delinquent — one of 1970s manga's most culturally significant romances, and one that requires critical distance to read productively.
by Ren Kawahara
A review of Ao-chan Can't Study!, the romantic comedy about a top student trying to study her way out of her erotica-novelist father's shadow — while her own brain keeps betraying her.
by Mihona Fujii
Gals! follows Ran Kotobuki, a self-declared champion of Shibuya's gyaru scene who refuses to become a police officer like her entire family — choosing instead to be the most stylish and fearless girl in the most fashionable neighborhood in Japan.
by Miki Yoshikawa
Yankee-kun to Megane-chan follows Daichi Shinagawa, a delinquent who wants to be left alone, and Hana Adachi, the class representative with a secret — a comedy about two people who are both performing a role they didn't choose.
by Mitsuru Adachi
Short Program collects Mitsuru Adachi's short story manga — brief, precise studies of the moment when two people almost connect, or do connect, or miss each other by a margin that changes everything.
by Mitsuru Adachi
Rough follows two high school students from rival families of traditional confectionery makers who both swim competitively — a typically Adachi romance where the sport and the relationship develop at the same careful, restrained pace.
by Mitsuru Miura
The Pumpkin Wine follows the romantic misadventures of a short, ordinary boy in love with an extraordinarily tall, beautiful girl — a high school romance comedy built entirely on the comedy of that contrast and the genuine sweetness underneath it.
by Katsu Aki
Futari Ecchi follows Makoto and Yura, two virgins who marry young and navigate their physical relationship together — a long-running adult manga that approaches sexuality through the lens of a committed couple learning together, with more warmth and less exploitation than the genre typically offers.
by Akemi Yoshimura
Bara no Tame ni follows Yuri Makurano, a plain, orphaned girl who learns her actress 'mother' is alive — along with three glamorous half-siblings — and a buried secret about her real parentage. An award-winning Shogakukan shojo drama by Akemi Yoshimura.
by Yuzo Takada
Jajabako Groomin UP! follows Yuu Kasugano, a city boy who comes to work at a horse ranch and falls into the world of horse grooming — and into the orbit of the ranch owner's daughter, a tomboyish girl named Chizuru whose relationship with horses is more natural than her relationship with people.
by Izumi Matsumoto
Kimagure Orange Road follows Kyosuke Kasuga, a boy with hidden psychic powers who is caught between two girls — the cool, mysterious Madoka he loves and the devoted, energetic Hikaru who loves him — in one of the defining romantic comedies of 1980s manga.
by Toshie Kihara
Mari to Shingo follows two young men at an elite Taisho-era Japanese school — the aristocratic Mari and the street-smart Shingo — whose complicated bond defines the series and refuses to be categorized by the vocabulary available to either character.
by Hisashi Eguchi
Stop!! Hibari-kun! follows Kosaku Umetsu, who moves in with his parents' friends after being orphaned — a yakuza-connected family with four daughters, except that the eldest, Hibari, is biologically male and presents as female, a fact that Kosaku cannot get past and cannot stop thinking about.
by Maki Miyoshi
P to JK follows Kako, a high school girl who accidentally marries Kohei, a police officer, after a night of mistaken identity — a Bessatsu Margaret romance that took its age-gap premise seriously enough to work through its implications.
by Yukari Ichijo
Yuukan Club follows six ultra-wealthy high school students who form the Leisure Club and stumble into mysteries, adventures, and romantic entanglements while maintaining an existence so extravagant it functions as its own genre of comedy.
by Manga adaptation
Nante Suteki ni Japonesque is a manga adaptation of Saeko Himuro's popular light novel series set in Heian-era Japan, following the spirited Takarabe Remon as she navigates the conventions and intrigues of the imperial court while falling into an unexpected romance.
by Makino
Don't Mess with Me, Kurosaki-kun follows Yuzuki, a high school girl who is ordered to serve as assistant to the school's dominant student council president Kurosaki Haruto — a Hana to Yume school romance about unwanted proximity that becomes something else.
by Riko Miyagi
Mei-chan's Butler follows Mei, a girl who discovers after her parents' death that she is heir to a vast fortune — and that Rihito, the attractive young man assigned as her butler, will protect her at any cost, including from her own wishes.
by Yukari Ichijo
Suna no Shiro follows Lise, a young woman of extraordinary beauty who has learned to keep herself at a distance from others — Yukari Ichijo's shojo romance about the way beauty isolates and what love requires to break through that isolation.
by Ai Yazawa
Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai follows Midori, a first-year student who joins the student council and falls into the orbit of Sudo, the student council president — Ai Yazawa's pre-Paradise Kiss, pre-NANA early work that shows the creator's sensibility already formed.
by Yuki Obata
A high school love story that follows its couple deep into adulthood, through a four-year silence, a mother's suicide, and the slow work of finding each other again.
by Key / Jun Maeda (original), Juri Misaki (manga)
A review of the Juri Misaki Clannad manga (CLANNAD Official Comic, 8 volumes) — Key's story of a hollow delinquent, the girl who reopens the drama club, and the long road through grief into fatherhood.
by CLAMP
A teacher and a student. A mysterious past. CLAMP's quietest romance — and one of their strangest.
by Momo (story) / Cheoncheon (art)
A review of Marriage of Convenience — the Korean historical romance manhwa about a fallen noblewoman who marries a powerful duke through a political arrangement, and what grows from unlikely proximity.
by Shiwasu Yuki
A review of Spring Has Come, a quiet romance manga about a young woman grieving her sister and the brother-in-law she inherits a relationship with.
by Tsukasa Fushimi (story) / Sakura Ikeda (manga art)
A review of My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute (Oreimo) — the manga adaptation of the light novel about a boy who discovers his model student sister is a secret otaku.
by HereLee
A review of Season of Blossom — the Korean romance manhwa about high school students navigating first love against the backdrop of a friend's death and the grief that follows.
by Youko Shingou
A review of Hanasakeru Seishōnen, the reverse harem shojo manga with genuine political intrigue about a girl whose billionaire father challenges her to find her own husband.
by Mizuki Takahashi
A review of Strawberry 100%, the Weekly Shonen Jump romance about a boy who sees a mysterious girl with strawberry panties on the rooftop — and spends 19 volumes trying to figure out who she was.
by Hinako Ashihara
A ballet hopeful falls for a dancer with secrets — a gentle '90s romance from the author of Sand Chronicles.
by Tadahiro Miura
Yu's review of Yuuna and the Haunted Hot Springs — Kogarashi Fuyuzora is a young psychic who has spent his life being possessed by spirits; when he moves into a cheap hot springs inn, he discovers it is full of supernatural tenants; the ghost Yuuna, whose unresolved feelings keep her tied to the inn, becomes his central concern.
by Chika Shiomi
Yu's review of Yurara — Yurara Tsukinowa can see spirits and has always tried to avoid them; when she encounters Mei and Yako, two boys with spiritual power who are rivals for her attention, her dormant guardian spirit begins to emerge — transforming her into a powerful spiritual protector when others are threatened.
by Miman
Yu's review of Yuri Is My Job! — Hime Shiraki's entire identity is performing perfect femininity for public approval; working at Liebe Girls Academy café requires her to act out romantic yuri relationships with her coworkers for customers; her assigned partner Mitsuki hates her genuinely, and Hime begins to develop feelings that are not performance.
by Naoshi Arakawa
Yu's review of Your Lie in April — a piano prodigy who lost his ability to hear his own music after his mother's death meets a violinist who plays like she is throwing everything she has at the sky.
by Makoto Shinkai / Ranmaru Kotone
Yu's review of Your Name — Taki and Mitsuha swap bodies unpredictably while sleeping; a Tokyo high school boy and a rural shrine maiden from a small mountain town; Ranmaru Kotone's manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai's film about two people connected across distance, time, and the limits of what they can reach.
by Miki Yoshikawa
Yu's review of Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches — Ryu Yamada is a failing delinquent; Urara Shiraishi is the top student; when they fall down stairs together and accidentally kiss, Yamada discovers he has switched bodies with her; this supernatural power connects to seven witches in their school and to a larger mystery about their student council.
by Makoto Tateno
Yu's review of Yellow — two drug enforcement agents with completely incompatible personalities are forced to pose as a couple for an undercover mission, and slowly discover the act isn't entirely an act.
by Nozomi Mino
Yu's review of Yakuza Lover — Yuri Koda, a strong-willed college student who has never let anyone push her around, meets Oya, the heir to a yakuza empire; she refuses to be intimidated by him; he finds this extremely attractive; the romance that follows is adult, explicit, and specific about the complications of loving someone in organized crime.
by Ayuko Hatta
Yu's review of Wolf Girl and Black Prince — Erika Shinohara lied to her friends about having a boyfriend and used a stranger's photo as proof; that stranger turns out to be the most popular boy in school, Kyoya Sata; he agrees to play her boyfriend in exchange for her acting as his dog — a romance that starts from a deeply uncomfortable power imbalance.
by Eku Takeshima
Yu's review of Whisper Me a Love Song — Himari falls in love at first sight after hearing her senpai Yori perform at a school concert; when she confesses to Yori that she loves her, Yori thinks Himari means as a fan; the series follows the slow clarification of what both of them actually feel.
by Yura Nakamura
Yu's review of Wild Act — Yuniko Sakuragi is devoted to Ryu Eba, a legendary classic actor who died before she was born; when she encounters Shunsuke Arisaka, a young actor who is the spitting image of Eba, she kidnaps him — the beginning of a relationship that is complicated by who he might actually be.
by Makoto Shinkai / Nikki Asada
Yu's review of Weathering With You — Hodaka runs away from his island home to Tokyo; the city has been raining without end; he meets Hina, a girl with the power to temporarily clear the sky; Nikki Asada's manga adaptation of Makoto Shinkai's film about a boy who has to choose between a person and the world.
by Nao Yazawa
Yu's review of Wedding Peach — a classic 90s magical girl manga where three girls transform using wedding accessories to battle demons who want to destroy all love.
by Taishi Tsutsui
Yu's review of We Never Learn — a scholarship student agrees to tutor three geniuses, each brilliant in one field but failing in the subjects they want to pursue, while navigating the increasingly complicated feelings everyone develops.
by Tomoko Hayakawa
Yu's review of The Wallflower — four outrageously handsome boys agree to turn their landlady's niece Sunako into a proper lady in exchange for free rent; Sunako is a horror-obsessed, light-phobic, anatomy-model-collecting girl who has no intention of changing, and the series is about what happens when they all stop trying.
by Emura
Yu's review of W Juliet — Makoto Amano is a beautiful boy who has been living as a girl named Ito to fulfill a bet with his father; when he joins the drama club, the tomboy Ito Miura discovers his secret and becomes his protector; a shoujo romance about performance, identity, and two people who understand each other's hidden selves.
by Anashin
Yu's review of Waiting for Spring — shy, socially withdrawn Mizuki Haruno becomes friends with the school's popular basketball players after a chance meeting; she falls for one of them while another falls for her, and managing friendships and feelings in high school is harder than she expected.
by Masakazu Katsura
Yu's review of Video Girl Ai — Yota Moteuchi is heartbroken after the girl he loves confesses her feelings to his best friend; he rents a video from a magical shop and the girl on the tape, Ai Amano, steps out of his television — damaged by his worn VCR, with a personality different from what was intended, and developing real feelings he wasn't supposed to create.
by Maki Minami
Yu's review of Voice Over! Seiyu Academy — Hime Kino dreams of becoming a voice actress like her idol; she enrolls in the voice acting program at her high school, but her voice — husky, deep, and immediately cast in villain and old-man roles — is nothing like the heroine she imagines herself to be.
by Erika Kari
Yu's review of Vampire Doll — a fearsome vampire lord wakes from a 100-year slumber to find he's been sealed into a cute doll body and must now serve as his enemy's maid.
by Atsushi Suzumi
Yu's review of Venus Versus Virus — a girl who can see supernatural Viruses teams up with a brooding monster-hunter in a boutique that doubles as ghost-extermination headquarters.
by Rumiko Takahashi
Yu's review of Urusei Yatsura — Earth is invaded by aliens; a random lottery selects Ataru Moroboshi to compete against the alien princess Lum in a game of tag; he wins by grabbing her horns; his victory declaration is mistaken for a marriage proposal; Lum moves into his house; Ataru continues to chase every other girl he sees while Lum insists on being his wife.
by Banri Hidaka
Yu's review of V.B. Rose — Ageha helps out at VB Rose, a boutique wedding dress shop run by two young men; her sister is getting married and Ageha becomes involved in making the dress; the craft focus and the shop's atmosphere form the backdrop for a romance with one of the shop's owners.
by Tomoko Hayakawa
Four gorgeous boys must transform a horror-loving recluse into a proper lady — or pay rent for life.
by Wataru Yoshizumi
Yu's review of Ultra Maniac — Nina is a witch from the Magic Kingdom studying abroad at a regular Japanese middle school; she is terrible at concealing her magic; Ayu, her only friend who knows her secret, tries to manage the chaos while pursuing her own low-key romance.
by Bolze
Yu's review of Ultra Romantic — Tsurezure Ito is so shy his face literally overheats when flustered; Rika Yakumo is so direct she'll say anything she's thinking; together they are trying to figure out their feelings; Bolze's Jump romance comedy about two extremes finding each other.
by Makoto Hagino
Yu's review of A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow — Konatsu Amano moves to a new town after her father is transferred abroad; she joins her new school's aquarium club, which has only one other member: Koyuki Honami, a capable and quietly withdrawn girl who runs it alone; their friendship becomes something more specific as they teach each other about themselves.
by Mika Yamamori
Yu's review of Tsubaki-chou Lonely Planet — Fumi Ohara's father's gambling debts leave her without a home; she takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for Akatsuki Kibikino, a young novelist who works from home, has no patience for people, and is completely unprepared for someone like Fumi.
by Yayoi Ogawa
Yu's review of Tramps Like Us (Kimi wa Pet) — Sumire Iwaya is a successful career woman whose life is going exactly wrong: demoted, broken up with, alone; she finds a young man in a cardboard box and takes him in as her 'pet' Momo; the relationship explores power dynamics, vulnerability, and what people need from each other through a deliberately unconventional frame.
by Kazuhiro Okamoto
Yu's review of Translucent — Shizuka Shiroyama has a condition called Translucent Syndrome, which is slowly making her body invisible; as she navigates middle school while becoming literally harder to see, she forms connections with classmates who want her to be visible to them.
by Kenjiro Hata
Yu's review of Tonikawa: Over the Moon for You — Nasa Yuzaki decides to marry Tsukasa after she saves his life; she agrees on the condition that they marry first; their married life is the manga; Kenjiro Hata's romance manga about a couple who skip dating and go straight to marriage.
by Yuyuko Takemiya (story) / Zekkyou (art)
Yu's review of Toradora! — a delinquent-looking boy and a tiny, terrifying girl make a deal to help each other confess to the other's best friend, and discover they had the wrong target all along.
by Mia Ikumi / Reiko Yoshida
Yu's review of Tokyo Mew Mew — Ichigo Momomiya goes on a date to a natural history museum and ends up infused with the DNA of the Iriomote cat; she becomes Mew Ichigo, the first of five magical girls who transform with the power of endangered animals to fight alien parasites that threaten Earth's ecosystem.
by Fumita Yanagida
Yu's review of Tomo-chan Is a Girl! — Tomo Aizawa confesses to her childhood best friend Junichirou Kubota; he congratulates her and keeps being her best friend because he has never thought of her as a girl; the comedy of her trying to be seen as a woman to the person who has always seen her as a buddy is the entire series.
by Hana Akatsuki
Yu's review of 'Tis Time for 'Torture,' Princess — the Princess is captured by the Demon King's forces; the Three Hell Executives interrogate her to get information about the kingdom's defenses; the 'torture' they use is things she actually enjoys — delicious food, comfortable beds, adorable animals — and she almost gives up information every time.
by Saki Hasemi / Kentaro Yabuki
Yu's review of To Love-Ru Darkness — the sequel to To Love-Ru shifts focus to Momo Belia Deviluke's plan to build a harem for Rito by integrating more girls into his life; while Rito remains the protagonist, the series develops Yami, Mikan, and Nemesis as central characters with more serious character arcs than the original series offered.
by Negi Haruba
Yu's review of The Quintessential Quintuplets — Fuutarou Uesugi is hired as a tutor for five identical sisters who all refuse to study; the story spans their high school years, and the reader knows from the first page that one of them will marry him.
by Tomoko Hayakawa
Yu's review of The Wallflower — four beautiful high school boys are given free rent in exchange for transforming Sunako Nakahara, a girl obsessed with horror and darkness, into a lady; she resists; nobody wins; Tomoko Hayakawa's long-running shoujo comedy about the impossibility of changing someone fundamentally.
by Koume Fujichika
Yu's review of The Girl I Like Forgot Her Glasses — Komura has a crush on his seatmate Mie; every day Mie forgets her glasses; without glasses she can barely see; she has to get extremely close to Komura to see anything; Koume Fujichika's rom-com about a boy who loves a girl who has no idea how close she keeps getting.
by Natsuki Kizu
A review of Given, the BL music manga about a guitarist who falls for a beautiful boy with an extraordinary voice and a devastating past.
by Rikito Nakamura / Yukiaki Nozawa
Yu's review of The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really Really Really Love You — after 100 failed confessions, a god tells Rentaro that he is destined to fall in love with 100 soulmates; refusing to let any of them down, he commits to loving all 100 equally and completely — which results in an expanding group of extremely devoted girlfriends and increasingly absurd situations.
by Chii
Yu's review of The Bride Was a Boy — manga artist Chii tells her own story: growing up feeling wrong in her body, realizing she was a woman, transitioning in Japan, and marrying her husband who stayed with her through the entire process.
by Hiroshi Aro
Yu's review of Tenshi Na Konamaiki — a boy who was transformed into a girl by a genie as a child has grown up strong, fierce, and determined to find a way to transform back, but life keeps getting complicated.
by Tetsuto Uesu / Fumihiro Kiso
Yu's review of The Testament of Sister New Devil — Basara Toujou's father remarries and reveals the two new stepsisters are a demon lord's daughter named Mio and a succubus named Maria; Basara, from the Hero Clan, is supposed to be their enemy; instead he forms a master/servant contract with Mio to protect her.
by Yuki Shiwasu
Yu's review of Takane and Hana — sixteen-year-old Hana Nonomura attends an omiai in her sister's place as a prank; the man waiting is Takane Saibara, heir to a corporate empire, who has rejected every previous meeting; Hana argues with him immediately; he finds her refreshing and wants to see her again.
by Rihito Takarai
Yu's review of Ten Count — Tadaomi Shirotani, a corporate secretary with mysophobia and OCD, meets Riku Kurose, a therapist who recognizes his condition and offers to help him through a ten-step desensitization process; what develops between them is the series' central moral complication.
by Sana Kirioka
Yu's review of Taisho Otome Fairy Tale — Tamahiko Shima is a sickly, bitter young man exiled to the countryside after an accident; his father sends Yuzuki Tachibana as a bride without asking; she is cheerful, capable, and changes his life; Sana Kirioka's Taisho era romance about someone who stopped hoping being given reason to hope.
by Taamo
Yu's review of House of the Sun (Taiyou no Ie) — Mao Motomiya, whose home life fell apart when her father remarried, finds herself staying at the house of Hiro, her cheerful childhood friend; his large, warm family gradually becomes the home she didn't know she needed, and the romance that develops is built on that foundation.
by Natsumi Aida
Yu's review of Switch Girl — Nika Tamiya is perfectly put-together at school and a lazy slob at home; her neighbor Arata Kamiyama accidentally discovers her real self; he has his own switch — impressive at school, feral at home — and they become an unlikely pair built on mutual knowledge of each other's real selves.
by Rinko Ueda
Yu's review of Tail of the Moon — Usagi is the granddaughter of the leader of Iga and is supposed to be an elite kunoichi, but she keeps failing her ninja exams; she falls for the cold, competent Hanzo; Rinko Ueda's historical ninja romance about an underachieving heroine's determination to improve.
by Abe Miyuki
Yu's review of Super Lovers — Haru Kaido is sent to Canada to meet his younger half-brother Ren, a feral, untrusting child raised in the wilderness; Haru promises Ren that they will live together in Japan; years later, Ren arrives in Tokyo and the promise must be kept.
by Takako Shimura
Yu's review of Sweet Blue Flowers — Fumi Manjoume and Akira Okudaira were childhood best friends who lost contact; they meet again in high school; Fumi is going through a heartbreak and beginning a new relationship with a senior girl while discovering who she is; Akira watches, loves, and cannot yet name it.
by Io Sakisaka
Yu's review of Strobe Edge — a girl who doesn't understand what love is falls for the most popular and unattainable boy in school, who is already in a relationship, and learns that loving someone is more complicated than she expected.
by Hisaya Nakajo
Yu's review of Sugar Princess — Maya Kurinoki slips on the ice at a public rink and somehow performs a jump she has never been taught; she is immediately recruited by Shun Todo, an elite figure skater who needs a pairs partner, and agrees to train for the competitive skating world despite never having skated before.
by Rinko Ueda
Yu's review of Stepping on Roses — set in Meiji-era Japan, Sumi is a poor girl burdened with her brother's debts and siblings to care for; she agrees to marry a wealthy man, Soichiro Ashida, in a loveless contract marriage for the money; the marriage predictably becomes complicated.
by Sai Yukino / Kairi Yura
Yu's review of The Story of Saiunkoku — Shuurei Hong is a noblewoman in a historical Chinese-inspired kingdom who wants to become a government official, but women are barred from the civil service; the Emperor Ryuuki asks her to teach him responsibility; Sai Yukino's historical fantasy about a woman who refuses to be excluded from the world she's qualified for.
by Maki Minami
Yu's review of Special A — Hikari Hanazono has been second to Kei Takishima since childhood; she is completely dedicated to surpassing him and completely unaware that he has loved her for years.
by Tomu Ohmi
Yu's review of Spell of Desire — Kaoruko Mochizuki discovers she's a half-witch with uncontrolled magical powers; Kagari Sudo, a Knightguard Witch Hunter, is assigned to contain her powers; Tomu Ohmi's supernatural romance about a woman discovering her heritage and the complicated guardian assigned to her.
by Maki Enjoji
A review of Happy Marriage!? — the manga about a young woman forced into an arranged marriage with her company's CEO, and the unexpected feelings that develop.
by You Kyung Kim
A review of Snow Drop, the Korean manhwa about two very different people brought together through the language of flowers.
by Suu Minazuki
Yu's review of Heaven's Lost Property — Tomoki Sakurai is a boy who just wants to live a peaceful life; when an Angeloid named Ikaros falls from the sky and pledges absolute loyalty to him as her master, his peaceful life ends; the series develops from harem comedy into genuine science fiction about the nature of Angeloids and the world they come from.
by Sorata Akiduki
Yu's review of Snow White with the Red Hair — Shirayuki is an herbalist with distinctive red hair who flees her country when its prince demands her as his concubine; she crosses into the neighboring kingdom of Clarines and meets Prince Zen, who helps her without expecting anything in return; the series follows her life in Clarines as she trains to become a court herbalist while her relationship with Zen develops.
by Go Ikeyamada
Yu's review of So Cute It Hurts!! (Kobayashi ga Kawai sugite Tsurai) — twins Megumu and Mitsuru Kobayashi swap schools after Mitsuru fails a history exam; Megumu (a girl) attends his school disguised as a boy while he attends hers, and both fall in love; a shoujo romantic comedy about gender performance, twins, and the chaos that follows when you try to live someone else's life.
by Yoshiki Nakamura
Yu's review of Skip Beat! — a girl who sacrificed everything to support her childhood friend's pop idol career discovers he was using her, and decides the best revenge is to break into the entertainment industry herself.
by Suu Morishita
Yu's review of A Sign of Affection — Yuki is a deaf college student whose world is small by necessity; when a tall stranger at a train station asks her for help and she cannot explain her deafness in time, a classmate named Itsuomi translates — and Itsuomi is curious about Yuki's world in a way no one usually is.
by Shiho Sugiura
Yu's review of Silver Diamond — an ordinary Japanese boy who has an unusual ability to grow plants is pulled into a fantasy world where the land has turned to desert and he might be the only one who can save it.
by suu Morita
Yu's review of Shortcake Cake — Ten Serizawa moves into a boarding house to avoid the long commute to school, finds herself living alongside four boys, and falls into a story about two of them who are opposites and what that means for who she becomes.
by Matsuri Hino
Yu's review of Shuriken and Pleats — Mikage is a ninja who served as a bodyguard for a noble; her master releases her from service and tells her to live a normal life; she enrolls in high school; the normal life proves difficult because people keep trying to kill her; Matsuri Hino's romance about a warrior learning a different kind of living.
by Leaf (original), Yoshikazu Houchi (manga)
A review of the White Album manga adaptation of the classic visual novel about a college student who cheats on his girlfriend with a rising idol.
by Keigo Maki
Yu's review of Shikimori's Not Just a Cutie — Izumi is a boy with the worst luck who is dating Shikimori, a girl who is sweet and feminine most of the time; but when Izumi is in danger, Shikimori shifts into a cool, intense mode that is completely different from her usual self, and which Izumi finds extremely appealing.
by Arina Tanemura
Yu's review of The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross — Haine Otomiya was sold to the Otomiya family as a child to pay a debt; she's now at the elite Imperial Academy; she's devoted to Shizumasa Togu, the student council president known as the Emperor; Arina Tanemura's drama-heavy shojo about class, identity, and love in an elite school.
by Shungiku Nakamura
Yu's review of Sekaiichi Hatsukoi — Ritsu Onodera transfers from his family's literary publishing company to manga editorial to escape comparisons; his new boss Masamune Takano is demanding and difficult — and is also the person who was Ritsu's first love years ago, a relationship that ended badly.
by Masakuni Igarashi
A review of Masakuni Igarashi's Senryū Girl — 173 chapters in Weekly Shōnen Magazine from October 2016 to April 2020, collected in 13 tankōbon volumes. Kodansha USA's English edition is complete.
by Shoko Hidaka
A review of Blue Morning (憂鬱な朝) by Shoko Hidaka, the Meiji-era BL manga about a boy viscount and the butler who was once meant to inherit the house himself.
by Kanae Hazuki
Yu's review of Say I Love You — Mei Tachibana has had no friends for years after a childhood betrayal, but when she accidentally kicks the most popular boy in school, he inexplicably decides she is worth knowing.
by Jin Kobayashi
Yu's review of School Rumble — Kenji Harima is a delinquent who has fallen desperately in love with Tenma Tsukamoto; Tenma is completely oblivious to Harima and completely focused on confessing to Karasuma, who has no romantic feelings for anyone and is focused on curry; the series follows this triangle and its many complications across a cast of dozens.
by Hinako Ashihara
Yu's review of Sand Chronicles — Ann Uekusa moves from Tokyo to rural Shimane after her parents' separation; her mother's death by suicide shapes everything that follows; the series follows Ann from childhood through adulthood with unflinching attention to grief, depression, and the slow work of becoming a whole person.
by Shou Harusono
Yu's review of Sasaki and Miyano — Miyano is a high school boy who reads boys' love manga; Sasaki is an older student who discovers this and becomes interested in both the manga and in Miyano; the series follows Miyano working through his feelings as Sasaki waits with remarkable patience.
by Ryoko Ikeda
Yu's review of The Rose of Versailles — Oscar François de Jarjayes is raised by her father as a son and commander of the royal guard; she navigates the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, torn between duty to the aristocracy and growing awareness of what the common people suffer; as the French Revolution approaches, the world she has served is ending.
by Megumi Tachikawa
Meimi Haneoka is a Catholic middle school student by day. By night, she becomes Saint Tail — a phantom thief who uses stage magic to recover stolen things and right wrongs the police cannot. Her classmate Asuka Jr., the son of a detective, has been assigned to catch her. He has no idea who she actually is. Megumi Tachikawa's 7-volume Nakayoshi magical-girl-phantom-thief manga is complete in English from Tokyopop.
by Rumiko Takahashi
Yu's review of Rin-ne — Sakura Mamiya has seen ghosts since childhood; at her new school she notices a classmate, Rinne Rokudo, who appears and disappears mysteriously and who she eventually learns is a half-human, half-shinigami boy desperately short on money.
by Wataru Momose
Yu's review of Romantic Killer — Anzu Hoshino wants games, her cat, and chocolate; a wizard named Riri strips these from her and gives her an otome-game reality where handsome men are introduced into her life; she has no interest in any of them, which the series plays as comedy while developing genuine romantic content through Anzu's resistance.
by Lee Vin
A review of Crazy Love Story, the dark Korean manhwa about intense, dangerous first love between a high school girl and a dangerous older man.
by Reiji Miyajima
Yu's review of Rent-a-Girlfriend — Kazuya Kinoshita is dumped, rents a girlfriend service on an app, meets Chizuru Mizuhara who is perfect at her job, and then lies to his grandmother that they are real — a lie that spirals for 30 volumes.
by Chika Shiomi
Yu's review of Rasetsu — Rasetsu Hyō works at a spirit consultation agency after being cursed by a powerful demon at age 15: unless she finds true love before her 20th birthday, the demon will claim her; she is 18 when the series begins; the countdown creates the tension that structures the supernatural romance.
by Chie Shinohara
Yu's review of Red River (Anatolia Story) — 15-year-old Yuri Suzuki is summoned to the Hittite Empire in ancient Anatolia by a queen who intends to use her as a human sacrifice; she escapes with the help of Prince Kail Mursili, and what begins as an attempt to survive becomes a journey to protect an empire and the man she loves.
by Kim Kang Won
Yu's review of The Queen's Knight — a Korean manhwa about a girl transported to a fantasy medieval kingdom who must train as a knight while navigating court politics and complicated feelings.
by Kyousuke Motomi
Yu's review of Queen's Quality — Fumi Nishioka works for a family of Mind Sweepers who enter people's minds to remove supernatural bugs; the Kyutaro Horikita, her partner, knows that Fumi harbors an extremely powerful inner persona called the Black Queen who could destroy or save everything — and that his feelings for her are complicated by his role in her situation.
by Mikiyo Tsuda
A review of Princess Princess by Mikiyo Tsuda, the 2002-2006 Wings comedy about three boys at an elite all-male high school drafted into the school's official cross-dressing morale squad — and a surprisingly tender story about three orphaned-ish kids finding a home in it.
by Kyousuke Motomi
Yu's review of QQ Sweeper — Fumi Nishioka has nowhere to live and loves cleaning; she encounters Kyutaro Horikita, who runs an extermination service that targets psychological 'bugs' — manifestations of trauma and negative emotion that infest the minds and environments of troubled people.
by Rie Aruga
Yu's review of Perfect World — Tsugumi Kawana reconnects with her high school crush Itsuki Ayukawa, now an architect who uses a wheelchair after a spinal cord injury; the manga follows their relationship with honest attention to the practical, emotional, and social dimensions of disability in a romantic relationship.
by Miwa Ueda
Yu's review of Peach Girl — Momo Adachi's tan skin from swimming makes others assume she's a gyaru; her best friend Sae is actually her manipulative enemy; she is caught between two boys while Sae engineers situations against her.
by Sakura Tsukuba
Yu's review of Penguin Revolution — Yukari Fujimaru can see floating wings on talented people; she spots Ryou Katou's enormous wings and ends up as his personal manager in the idol agency he belongs to, while he hides the fact that his famous persona is female.
by Megumi Tachikawa
A schoolgirl uses computer software to become a virtual idol — predicting Vocaloid by a decade.
by Miwa Ueda
Yu's review of Papillon — Hana Mizuki has spent her life being overshadowed by her beautiful, popular twin sister Ageha; when a school counselor named Ryusei challenges her to become who she actually is rather than who she's been hiding, a transformation and a romance begin.
by Ai Yazawa
Yu's review of Paradise Kiss — Yukari, a high-achieving student who has never questioned her path, is spotted by fashion students and asked to model their graduation collection; George, the designer, becomes the first person who sees who she might actually be.
by You Higuri
A review of Gorgeous Carat, the historical BL manga set in Belle Époque Paris about a noble's son sold to pay debts who ends up partnered with a dashing thief.
by Mita Ori
Yu's review of Our Dining Table — Yutaka Uedera has a condition that makes eating with others impossible; when he meets the cheerful Tsubasa and his young son Minoru who keep inviting him to share meals, the shared table becomes the site of unexpected healing and connection.
by Bisco Hatori
Yu's review of Ouran High School Host Club — a scholarship student at an elite school accidentally breaks a vase and must join the Host Club to pay off the debt, in a manga that satirizes shojo tropes while being genuinely charming.
by Yuuki Bara / Ruruu Susukimori
Yu's review of Oresuki — Amatsuyu Kisaragi (Jouro) expects both girls who call him out separately to confess to him; they both confess that they like his best friend Taiyou; he smiles pleasantly and internally rages; the series is a romantic comedy about a scheming, self-aware protagonist navigating a situation that keeps getting worse for him.
by Aya Kanno
Yu's review of Otomen — Asuka Masamune is the ideal masculine figure at school — kendo champion, cool and capable — but secretly loves cute things, baking, sewing, and shojo manga; meeting Ryo, who is the exact inverse of expected gender roles, begins to change what he can admit about himself.
by Wataru Watari / Naomichi Io
Yu's review of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru) — Hachiman Hikigaya is forced to join the Service Club with the socially isolated Yukino Yukinoshita; they solve students' problems; Wataru Watari's light novel adaptation about a cynical student's actual growth through genuine human contact.
by Izumi Tsubaki
Yu's review of Oresama Teacher — former gang leader Mafuyu Kurosaki transfers to Midorigaoka Academy determined to become a proper lady; her homeroom teacher Takaomi Saeki is her childhood friend and used to be a delinquent himself, and he immediately destroys all her plans.
by Ichigo Takano
Yu's review of Orange — on the first day of high school, Naho receives a letter from herself ten years in the future, listing the regrets she has about a classmate named Kakeru, and warning her to save him before it's too late.
by Matcha Hazuki
Yu's review of One Week Friends — Kaori Fujimiya loses her memories of people she considers friends every Monday; Yuki Hase finds out and decides to become her friend every week regardless; he keeps a diary of their time together; this is a gentle romance about persistence, memory, and what friendship means when it has to be rebuilt.
by Satoru Kannagi
Yu's review of Only the Ring Finger Knows — at a school where matching rings signal couples, two boys accidentally end up with identical rings and the wrong impressions of each other.
by Milan Matra
Yu's review of Omamori Himari — Yuuto Amakawa is a normal high school boy who forgot he comes from a demon-slaying clan; when his protective charm expires on his sixteenth birthday, demons can now sense and target him; Himari, a cat demon (ayakashi) bound by oath to his family, appears to protect him.
by Chie Shinohara
Yu's review of Night of the Beasts — a girl carries a family curse that transforms anyone who falls in love with her into a murderous beast.
by Naoshi Komi
Yu's review of Nisekoi — Raku Ichijo's yakuza family and Chitoge Kirisaki's gang-boss family form a truce that requires Raku and Chitoge to fake a relationship; they hate each other; there is also a locket with a promise from childhood that connects to multiple girls; the comedy of the situation is the series.
by Ai Yazawa
Yu's review of Nana — two young women named Nana meet on a train to Tokyo and become inseparable, even as their lives move in opposite directions through love, music, and loss.
by Haruka Kawachi
Yu's review of Natsuyuki Rendezvous — Hazuki becomes a part-time worker at a flower shop run by Rokka, a young widow he is in love with; the complication is that her deceased husband Shimao is still present as a ghost, invisible to everyone except Hazuki, and Shimao is not ready to let go.
by Nagaru Tanigawa / Puyo
Yu's review of The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan — a spin-off/alternate universe from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya; in this version, Yuki Nagato is a shy human girl who runs the Literature Club and has a quiet crush on Kyon; the series is a warm school romantic comedy that operates independently of the original series while rewarding fans of it.
by Nanashi (774)
Yu's review of Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro — Nagatoro is a first-year girl who discovers the art club room where a shy, isolated second-year boy (Senpai) retreats; she begins teasing him mercilessly, returns every day to do more of it, and it gradually becomes clear to everyone except possibly both of them that this is entirely how she expresses that she likes him.
by Takako Shimura
A review of Happy-Go-Lucky Days by Wandering Son's Takako Shimura — a collection of short BL stories about love found in everyday moments.
by Kazune Kawahara (story) / Aruko (art)
Yu's review of My Love Story!! — a huge, scary-looking boy with no luck with girls saves a girl from a groper on the train, and she falls in love with him — not his handsome best friend.
by Yayoi Ogawa
Yu's review of Nagareboshi Lens — Risa Hoshino has never had close friends; she sees the world through metaphorical glass; she meets Touga Okamoto through a lens at school; Yayoi Ogawa's romance manga about seeing someone clearly for the first time and being seen in return.
by Robico
Yu's review of My Little Monster — a studious girl focused entirely on grades is disrupted when she is asked to deliver notes to a classmate who stopped coming to school, a boy who fights constantly and has no idea how human interaction works.
by Aruko (Art) / Wataru Hinekure (Story)
Yu's review of My Love Mix-Up! — Aoki has a crush on his classmate Hashimoto; he borrows her eraser and notices it says 'Ida' on it, which he assumes means she likes their classmate Ida; when Ida catches him looking at the eraser, he assumes Aoki likes him; Aoki, rather than correct this misunderstanding, goes along with it — and discovers his feelings are more complicated than he thought.
by Rito Kohsaka (Art) / Akumi Agitogi (Story)
Yu's review of My Happy Marriage — Miyo Saimori has no spirit abilities in a family defined by them; treated as a servant by her father and step-family after her mother's death, she is sent as a bride to Kiyoka Kudou, a military commander whose reputation for dismissing servants has led others to refuse him; he treats her with quiet care, and she begins, slowly, to believe she might deserve to be treated well.
by Ai Morinaga
Yu's review of My Heavenly Hockey Club — the world's laziest girl gets forcibly recruited into a field hockey club by a pack of handsome rich boys, and comedic mayhem follows.
by Tahiko Kimura
Yu's review of My Bride is a Mermaid — Nagasumi Michishio nearly drowns on summer vacation and is rescued by Sun Seto, a mermaid; mermaid law requires either his execution or their marriage to keep the secret; her father runs a yakuza organization of mermaids and chooses marriage while making his displeasure extremely clear.
by Shinichi Fukuda
Yu's review of My Dress-Up Darling — Wakana Gojo is a quiet boy learning to make traditional hina dolls who believes his interests make him weird; Marin Kitagawa is an outgoing, beautiful girl who wants to cosplay as characters from eroge games she loves; she asks Wakana to make her costumes; the series follows their collaboration and the relationship that develops.
by Shouko Akira
Yu's review of Monkey High — Haruna Aizawa transfers to a new school after her politician father's scandal; she expects to keep her distance from her new classmates; Masaru, the class's short, energetic leader who reminds everyone of a baby monkey, is entirely impossible to keep at a distance.
by Mitsurou Fujita
Yu's review of Moteki — Yukiyo Fujimoto, 25, unemployed temp worker, has never been in a relationship; his 'moteki' (a period of romantic popularity) arrives when multiple women from his past suddenly show interest; he is entirely unprepared and consistently fails to handle it well.
by Tomu Ohmi
Yu's review of Midnight Secretary — Kaya Satozuka is a devoted, professional secretary who discovers her difficult director Kyohei Touma is a vampire; rather than leaving, she continues working for him — and gradually, inevitably, becomes more essential to him than any previous secretary.
by Ema Toyama
Yu's review of Missions of Love — Yukina Himuro is a popular anonymous shojo manga creator who lacks real romantic experience; she discovers a classmate's secret and uses it to blackmail him into performing romantic gestures for her research; the arrangement predictably becomes something more complicated.
by Hari Tokeino
Yu's review of Me and My Brothers — Sakura Miyata, fourteen, lived with her grandmother after losing her parents; after her grandmother's death, four stepbrothers she didn't know existed claim her; the oldest is protective, the second is cheerful, the third is tsundere, the fourth is childlike — and the story follows their developing family dynamics.
by Matsuri Hino
Yu's review of Meru Puri — a high school girl discovers a tiny boy has tumbled through a magic mirror into her home; he's actually a prince who ages rapidly when in darkness.
by Fuyumi Soryo
Yu's review of Mars — Kira Aso is a quiet art student who has withdrawn from people; Rei Kashino is a reckless motorcycle racer whose fearlessness on the track conceals what he's afraid of; they begin a relationship that requires both of them to confront what they've been avoiding.
by Hazuki Takeoka (Story) / Tiv (Art)
Yu's review of Masamune-kun's Revenge — Masamune Makabe was a chubby child who was cruelly rejected by the beautiful Adagaki Aki with the nickname 'Piggy'; he spent years transforming himself into a handsome, fit boy; now they are in the same high school, and his plan is to make her fall in love with him and then reject her; the plan does not survive contact with actual feelings.
by Wataru Yoshizumi
Yu's review of Marmalade Boy — Miki Koishikawa's parents announce they are divorcing and remarrying other people; the other couple happens to have a son, Yuu, who moves into the same house; the series follows Miki's developing feelings for Yuu in this extremely unusual living situation.
by Hiro Fujiwara
Yu's review of Maid Sama! — Misaki Ayuzawa is the iron-fisted student council president of a formerly all-boys school; she works secretly at a maid café to support her family; the school's most popular boy discovers her secret and holds it over her, but not in the way she expects.
by Aya Nakahara
Yu's review of Lovely Complex — the tallest girl in class and the shortest boy in class are constantly mistaken for a comedy duo, gradually realizing the comedy might actually be love.
by Yuzu Mizutani
Yu's review of Magical × Miracle — a girl gets magically transported to a fantasy kingdom and must rule as a substitute king while keeping her true identity secret.
by Eiki Eiki & Taishi Zaou
Yu's review of Love Stage!! — Izumi Sena is the only non-entertainer in a family of actors and musicians; when he is dragged into a commercial shoot, the popular actor Ryoma Ichijo recognizes him from a shoot years ago — when Izumi played a girl — and discovers he is a boy.
by Yun Kouga
Ritsuka Aoyagi is twelve, has cat ears, and is investigating his older brother Seimei's murder. A 20-year-old man named Soubi Agatsuma arrives claiming to have been Seimei's Fighter — and now wants to be Ritsuka's. Yun Kouga's psychologically dense manga has been controversial in the West for its age gap and ambiguous relationship; it has also been on indefinite hiatus since 2019. 12 of 14 volumes available in English.
by Yuki Shimizu
Yu's review of Love Mode — an anthology-style BL series set in and around the Blue Boy host club, following multiple couples with interconnected stories.
by Kaede Kouchi
Yu's review of Love So Life — Shiharu Nakamura is a high school girl raised in an orphanage who loves small children; when Seiji Matsunaga, a TV newscaster whose sister recently died, asks her to babysit his twin niece and nephew, she takes the job; the series follows her developing relationship with the twins and slowly with their uncle.
by Kata Konayama
Yu's review of Love Me For Who I Am — Mogumo is non-binary; they're hired to work at a maid café called 'Queer Egg' that specifically employs gender-nonconforming staff; the café's owner Tetsu initially misunderstands Mogumo's identity; Kata Konayama's manga about finding the people who see you as you actually are.
by Io Sakisaka
Yu's review of Love Me, Love Me Not — Yuna is reserved and has never said her feelings openly; Akari says everything she feels immediately; when they become friends and meet two boys connected to each other, the series explores the difference between those two approaches to love.
by Ken Akamatsu
Yu's review of Love Hina — Keitaro Urashima made a childhood promise with a girl to get into Tokyo University together; twenty years later, he has failed the entrance exams twice; he manages his grandmother's all-girl dormitory Hinata House; one of the residents, Naru Narusegawa, may be the girl from his childhood promise — but she's also the one most likely to punch him.
by Yoko Nogiri
Yu's review of Love in Focus — Mako moves to a new city after her grandfather's death and joins the photography club; she keeps encountering and photographing Kei, a boy from a different school who seems to appear wherever she points her camera; what starts as coincidence becomes something deliberate.
by Shizuru Seino
Yu's review of Love Attack — Hiyo is the most feared delinquent at her school, but Chiemi is the only person she's ever met who refuses to be afraid of her.
by Musawo
Yu's review of Love and Lies — in a Japan where the government algorithmically assigns marriage partners at age 16, Yukari Nejima has fallen for Misaki before his notice arrives; when he confesses just before the government names his official partner, he enters a triangle between the girl he chose and the girl he was assigned — and neither relationship is simple.
by Fuka Mizutani
Yu's review of Love at Fourteen — Kanata Tanaka and Kazuki Yoshikawa are thirteen-year-olds who present as older than their classmates; their maturity makes them popular and respected, but they hide their actual selves; they find each other as the only ones who understand the isolation of seeming older than you are.
by Key / Visual Arts / Yui Nakamura
Yu's review of the Little Busters! manga — Riki Naoe and the childhood friends who saved him from despair form a baseball team; the manga adaptation of Key's visual novel, covering Riki's journey through school and the secret that changes everything he thought he knew.
by Keiko Iwashita
Yu's review of Living-Room Matsunaga-san — Meeko moves into a unique boarding house run by her uncle where multiple adults live together; the cool resident Matsunaga becomes the person she falls for, despite the age difference.
by Shinobu Amano
Yu's review of Last Game — Yanagi Naoto has been trying to beat Kujou Mikoto since elementary school, when this ordinary girl showed up and outdid him in everything; now in university, he is still competing with her and still losing — and has finally realized the competition was never the point.
by Kiiro Yumi / Hiro Arikawa
Yu's review of Library Wars: Love & War — in a Japan where the government censors books and an armed Library Defense Force protects the freedom to read, Kasahara Iku joins the LDF to find the prince who saved her favorite book — and discovers her commanding officer is more than she expected.
by Yuki Kure
Yu's review of La Corda d'Oro — Kahoko Hino is a non-music student at a school that takes music seriously; a fairy named Lili gives her a magical violin and enters her in the school's concours alongside the elite music students; what develops is both a musical competition and a reverse harem romance.
by Tsuyoshi Yoko & Nekoyama
Yu's review of Ladies versus Butlers! — Hino Akiharu enrolls in Hakureiryou Academy's servant-training course, a school that also trains noble ladies; his rough-looking face causes constant misunderstandings; his childhood friend Sernia and the dignified Flaminia both compete for his attention across twelve volumes.
by Jun Mayuzuki
Yu's review of After the Rain — Akira Tachibana, a high school track star sidelined by injury, works part-time at a family restaurant and develops feelings for her 45-year-old manager Masami Kondo; the series takes both characters' inner lives seriously without romanticizing the age gap.
by Ayu Watanabe
Yu's review of LDK — Aoi Nishimori's apartment floods and she ends up temporarily sharing her neighbor Shusei Kugayama's apartment; Shusei is the school's most unapproachable boy who has never shown interest in anyone; the cohabitation produces a relationship that neither expected.
by Miyuki Kobayashi / Natsumi Ando
Yu's review of Kitchen Princess — Najika Kazami grew up in an orphanage where the only warmth she knew was from a mysterious boy who saved her when she was choking and gave her flan; she has spent years learning to cook in the hope of finding him; she transfers to an elite school in Tokyo following a clue and tries to find her 'Flan Prince' while discovering the school's food culture.
by Karuho Shiina
Yu's review of Kimi ni Todoke — Sawako Kuronuma is avoided by her classmates because she resembles the horror movie character Sadako, but when the most popular boy in class actually speaks to her, her world begins to change.
by Junko
Yu's review of Kiss Him, Not Me! — Kae Serinuma is a passionate fujoshi who fantasizes about the boys around her dating each other; when she loses weight after a traumatic event, four boys suddenly notice her and want to date her; she wants them to fall in love with each other so she can watch.
by Taeko Watanabe
Yu's review of Kaze Hikaru — Sei Tominaga disguises herself as a boy to join the Shinsengumi and avenge her family's death; she serves under Saito Hajime, who discovers her secret but keeps it; the series follows her life in the Shinsengumi through the turbulent end of the Edo period with Watanabe's unusually thorough historical research.
by Keiko Takemiya
Yu's review of Kaze to Ki no Uta — set in a 19th century French boarding school, the relationship between Serge, a half-Japanese student with a traumatic past, and Gilbert, a beautiful and sexually promiscuous boy whose behavior conceals something devastating; the manga that essentially created the Boys' Love genre, published between 1976 and 1984.
by Hiromi Takashima
Yu's review of Kase-san and Morning Glories — Yamada is a soft, gardening-focused girl; Kase-san is the school's star runner; they fall in love; the series follows their high school relationship with warmth and honest physical and emotional development.
by Satoru Akahori (story) / Yukimaru Katsura (art)
Hazumu Osaragi is a shy, gentle high school boy who has just confessed to the girl he likes and been rejected. While crying on a mountain afterward, a UFO crashes and kills him. The aliens revive him — as a girl. Now the boy who couldn't get a girl to like him is a girl, and two different girls love her. Satoru Akahori and Yukimaru Katsura's 5-volume manga (2004–2007) is complete in English from Seven Seas. Anime, manga, and novel each have different endings.
by Kaho Miyasaka
Yu's review of Kare First Love — Karin Karino believes she is too plain to be seen — until Kiriya Aoi, the most popular boy at a nearby school, begins pursuing her with genuine interest; a shojo romance about a girl who has to learn to believe she's worth being chosen.
by Julietta Suzuki
Yu's review of Kamisama Kiss — Nanami Momozono is evicted after her father's gambling debts force them out of their home; a stranger she helps gives her the mark of a land god, and she discovers herself suddenly in charge of a shrine with a fox familiar named Tomoe who resents her immediately.
by Key / Visual Arts / Fumio Obata
Yu's review of the Kanon manga — Yuichi Aizawa returns after seven years to a snowy town and begins remembering the girls he knew and the promises he made to them; the manga adaptation of Key's visual novel, with supernatural and illness elements that make each character's story emotionally distinct.
by Koge-Donbo
Yu's review of Kamichama Karin — Karin Hanazono is an ordinary girl with poor grades and no special qualities; her deceased mother's ring turns out to be capable of transforming her into a goddess-vessel; she meets Kazune Kujyou, who has a similar ability, and the two become entangled in a conflict over divine power.
by Arina Tanemura
Yu's review of Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne — a high school gymnast by day, phantom thief by night, she steals artworks possessed by demons on a divine mission as the reincarnation of Joan of Arc.
by Aka Akasaka
Yu's review of Kaguya-sama: Love Is War — 28 volumes about two geniuses who are in love but won't admit it. Funnier than it has any right to be, smarter than it looks, and one of the most satisfying romance arcs in manga history.
by Mayu Shinjo
Yu's review of Kaikan Phrase — a high school girl who secretly writes poems gets discovered by the lead vocalist of Japan's hottest rock band, and is swept into a passionate and intense love story.
by Touya Tobina
Yu's review of Jiu Jiu — Takamichi Night is a young female demon hunter who lost her twin brother; she is assigned two half-werewolf familiars, twin boys named Snow and Night, who follow her everywhere in both wolf and human form; Touya Tobina's supernatural romance about a girl who doesn't want protection and the beings who exist to protect her.
by Shungiku Nakamura
Yu's review of Junjou Romantica — Misaki Takahashi needs help getting into university; his older brother's best friend Akihiko Usami is a famous novelist who agrees to tutor him; a complicated, intense relationship develops; the manga follows multiple BL couples across 25+ volumes.
by Kaoru Tada
Yu's review of Itazura na Kiss — Kotoko Aihara confesses to Naoki Irie, the school genius who has rejected every confession; he rejects her too; her house is destroyed and she moves in with Naoki's family while her father rebuilds; proximity forces them together across years of school, college, and work.
by Yuu Watase
Tanpopo Yamazaki arrives at Meiooh Academy — Tokyo's most elite private school — from rural Hokkaido. She is mocked for her accent, her clothes, her poverty. She plants a dandelion in the school garden and refuses to leave. She forms a 'greening committee' that becomes the school's strangest student group. The Kugiou brothers — Koki and Yoji, sons of the school's chairman — both notice her. Yuu Watase's 5-volume Shoujo Comic series ran 2000–2001, complete in English from VIZ.
by Shiki Mizore
Yu's review of Iris Zero — in a world where nearly every child is born with a special power called an Iris, Toru Mizushima has none; called an Iris Zero, he has learned to minimize his presence and avoid attention; when the most popular girl in school approaches him asking for his help, his carefully maintained invisibility begins to crack.
by Akiko Ikeda
Yu's review of Ice Revolution — a powerful but graceless judo girl discovers figure skating and finds both her calling and the partner who completes her.
by Mizuki Kawashita
Yu's review of Ichigo 100% — aspiring filmmaker Junpei Manaka accidentally sees a girl with strawberry-print underwear on the school rooftop; his attempt to find her leads him into a four-girl romantic entanglement that spans his entire high school life.
by Mika
Yu's review of I Cannot Reach You — Kakeru is perfect: good at everything, well-liked, seemingly without needs; his best friend Yamato has been in love with him since childhood but has convinced himself that someone like Kakeru is beyond his reach; the series is about the gap between who Yamato thinks Kakeru is and who Kakeru actually is.
by Masakazu Katsura
Yu's review of I's — Ichitaka Seto is in love with his classmate Iori Yoshizuki but cannot confess; when Itsuki Akiba, a childhood friend he believed to be dead, reappears as a rising actress, his feelings become complicated; the series follows the love triangle and Ichitaka's growth over 15 volumes.
by Miki Aihara
Yu's review of Hot Gimmick — Hatsumi Narita lives in company housing where her neighbor Ryoki holds a secret over her; what begins as coercive leverage develops into one of shoujo manga's most discussed and debated romantic triangles, with Hatsumi caught between childhood friend Shinogu, first love Azusa, and the controlling Ryoki; a romance that is controversial precisely because it depicts what it depicts without editorial distance.
by Tamifull
Yu's review of How Do We Relationship? — Miwa and Saeko are college freshmen; Miwa has a crush on her friend; Saeko is gay and has decided she wants a girlfriend before graduation; they agree to date, neither of them has done this before, and they have to figure out what being in a relationship actually requires.
by Amu Meguro
Yu's review of Honey So Sweet — Nao Kogure is terrified of Taiga Onise, the scariest-looking boy in school, until she realizes he has been secretly looking after her because of a connection to her family; what follows is a gentle romance between a girl learning to receive care and a boy who has always expressed love through action rather than words.
by HERO (story) / Daisuke Hagiwara (art)
Yu's review of Horimiya — the popular girl hides her domestic home life, the quiet boy hides his piercings and tattoos, and when they accidentally discover each other's real selves, something begins.
by Memeco Arii
Yu's review of Hitorijime My Hero — Masahiro Setagawa was drifting toward gang life when he was rescued by Kousuke Ohshiba, a legendary street fighter; Kousuke becomes the older brother of Masahiro's best friend; years later Masahiro's feelings for his protector have become something he can't categorize; Memeco Arii's BL manga about gratitude, protection, and whether the person who saved you can become the person you love.
by Chica Umino
Yu's review of Honey and Clover — five art school students love each other in various permutations that cannot all resolve, while each navigates the question of what their talent means and who they want to become.
by Shimesaba / Imaru Adachi
Yu's review of Higehiro — Yoshida is rejected by his coworker and, drunk, finds Sayu, a high school runaway on the street; he takes her home and gives her a place to stay; the manga adaptation of Shimesaba's light novel about what actually happens when an adult takes responsibility for a runaway teenager.
by Kazune Kawahara
Yu's review of High School Debut — a sporty, enthusiastic girl who has never had a boyfriend asks the school's most popular and romantically experienced boy to coach her on how to get a boyfriend, but he falls for her instead.
by Yukie Nasu
Yu's review of Here Is Greenwood — a high school boy moves into a school dormitory to escape his brother's wife (his first love), and finds the dormitory is populated entirely by eccentric misfits.
by Suu Morishita
Yu's review of Hibi Chouchou: Everyday Butterflies — Suiren Shibazeki is so beautiful and quiet that people find her unapproachable; Kawasumi is so internally focused that he barely notices others; they notice each other, and what follows is one of the most unhurried and genuinely tender slow-burn romances in shojo manga.
by Moto Hagio
Yu's review of The Heart of Thomas — Thomas Werner falls from a bridge at a European boarding school, leaving behind a letter declaring his love for Juli; Juli, the student Thomas adored, must now live with having rejected Thomas's love, while a new student who resembles Thomas arrives at the school.
by Mick Takeuchi
Yu's review of Her Majesty's Dog — Amane Kamori comes from a family with the ability to command spirit beings; her partner is Hyoue, who appears human but is a demon dog spirit bound to her bloodline; as they navigate high school with Amane's spiritual obligations, Hyoue's feelings for her complicate the master-servant dynamic they have maintained.
by Maki Enjoji
Yu's review of Happy Marriage?! — Chiwa Takanashi's father has gambling debts; Hokuto Mamiya, the president of the company where she works, offers to cancel the debts in exchange for a marriage of convenience to fulfill his grandfather's wish; the series follows their gradual transition from contract to something real.
by Tohko Mizuno
Yu's review of Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time — Akane Motomiya is transported to Heian-era Kyoto along with two classmates; she is the Ryujin no Miko (Dragon God Priestess) who must save this world from demons; eight Hachiyou warriors are assigned to her protection; Tohko Mizuno's historical fantasy reverse harem romance.
by Hisamu Oto
Yu's review of Hana to Akuma — Vivi is a demon living in isolation in the human world who discovers an abandoned newborn he names Hana; he raises her for fourteen years; when she is old enough to feel, the relationship becomes something more complicated.
by Rie Takada
Yu's review of Happy Hustle High — Hanabi Ozora attends an all-girls school that merges with an all-boys school; the students resist the change; Hanabi, who is all energy and enthusiasm, decides to bring the two groups together — which puts her in contact with Yasuaki Garaku, the student body president of the boys' school who finds her impossible.
by Yomi Hirasaka (story) / Itachi (art)
Yu's review of Haganai: I Don't Have Many Friends — Kodaka Hasegawa is a loner because his blond hair makes him look like a delinquent; Yozora Mikazuki is a loner who lost her childhood friend; they accidentally form the Neighbors Club — a club for people who have no friends, to practice friendship; the comedy and eventual romance come from a group of social misfits figuring out what connection means.
by Hisaya Nakajo
Yu's review of Hana-Kimi — Mizuki Ashiya, an American-Japanese girl who is a fan of high jumper Izumi Sano, disguises herself as a boy and enrolls at his all-male boarding school in Japan to be close to him; she must maintain the disguise while navigating school life and developing genuine feelings.
by Maki Murakami
Yu's review of Gravitation EX — the sequel to Gravitation picks up with Shuichi and Eiri navigating their relationship after the events of the original series.
by Maki Murakami
Yu's review of Gravitation — an aspiring pop musician's dream of stardom collides with a cold, dismissive novelist who somehow becomes both his harshest critic and the center of his world.
by Yuyuko Takemiya / Umechazuke
Yu's review of Golden Time — Banri Tada enters law school with amnesia; he falls into the orbit of Kouko Kaga, a wealthy girl obsessively pursuing the boy she loves; the romance that develops between Banri and Kouko is complicated by Banri's lost memories and the person he was before the accident.
by Hiroyuki
Yu's review of Girlfriend, Girlfriend — Naoya Mukai, who has finally started dating his long-time crush Saki, falls in love with a second girl, Nagisa, and proposes that they all date simultaneously; his complete honesty about his feelings collides with everyone's reaction to them in this shamelessly energetic romantic comedy.
by Arina Tanemura
Yu's review of The Gentleman's Alliance Cross — Haine Otomiya was sold to the Kamiya family as a child by her own father; she fell in love with Shizumasa Kamiya after he showed her kindness in a moment of despair; she joins her elite school's student council to get close to him, but Shizumasa does not remember her.
by Milk Morinaga
Yu's review of Girl Friends — Mari Kumakura is a quiet, bookish girl with no real friends; Akko Oohashi is pretty, popular, and inexplicably interested in her; their friendship grows into something more complicated than either of them has words for, which is the point.
by Arina Tanemura
Yu's review of Full Moon wo Sagashite — a 12-year-old girl with throat cancer secretly becomes a pop idol to fulfill a promise to her first love who left to study overseas.
by Tachibana Higuchi
Yu's review of Gakuen Alice — Mikan Sakura follows her best friend Hotaru to Alice Academy, a prestigious school for children with supernatural abilities called Alices; the school's gleaming surface conceals a system that exploits children with exceptional abilities for organizational purposes.
by Arina Tanemura
Yu's review of Full Moon o Sagashite — twelve-year-old Mitsuki has throat cancer and one year to live; two shinigami arrive to escort her when the time comes, but instead grant her the ability to transform into a healthy sixteen-year-old so she can pursue her dream of becoming a singer and find the boy she promised to meet again.
by Natsuki Takaya
Yu's review of Fruits Basket Another — set in the next generation after the events of Fruits Basket, Sawa Mitoma is a girl with low self-esteem who encounters the children of the original series' characters; the story centers on Sawa finding her place and the friendships she makes with the new Sohma generation.
by Natsuki Takaya
Yu's review of Fruits Basket — a girl who has lost everything moves in with a family cursed to transform into animals of the Chinese zodiac, and slowly melts the ice that generations of abuse built around their hearts.
by Kyoko Hikawa
Yu's review of From Far Away — Noriko Tachiba is pulled into a fantasy world through an explosion and rescued by a young man named Izark; she cannot speak the language; Izark is fated to become the 'Sky Demon' — the prophecy says the creature that awakens his power will cause the end of the world, and that creature is Noriko.
by Mita Ori
Yu's review of From Now On We Begin Ethics — Takayanagi Ayumu is a high school ethics teacher who delivers textbook morality without personal investment; Skye is a half-Japanese transfer student who challenges him to engage honestly with the subjects he teaches; the relationship is academic and then something more complicated.
by Mag Hsu / Nao Emoto
Yu's review of Forget Me Not — Serizawa is an ordinary man who keeps encountering women from his past who remember things about him that he has completely forgotten; each story recovers a relationship he lost track of; Mag Hsu and Nao Emoto's romance anthology about memory, connection, and the people we forget without meaning to.
by Sato
Yu's review of Fragtime — Moritani can stop time for three minutes per day; she uses this ability to observe Murakami Haruka, the class representative, without being noticed; on the day she stops time, Murakami is still moving — and she has seen everything Moritani has been watching.
by Shigeyoshi Takagi
Yu's review of Flower in a Storm — Riko Kusakabe is an ordinary girl with extraordinary reflexes; Ran Tachibana is an eccentric billionaire's heir who decides within minutes of meeting her that he wants her as his future wife and will accomplish this within a single day.
by Kenjiro Hata
Yu's review of Fly Me to the Moon (Tonikaku Kawaii) — Nasa Yuzaki saves a girl from a traffic accident; she agrees to marry him on the spot if he can find her; when they reunite, they marry immediately; the series follows their married life as Nasa gradually learns who his wife Tsukasa actually is and why she proposed so quickly.
by Meca Tanaka
Yu's review of Faster Than a Kiss — after their parents' deaths, Fumino and her little brother face placement in separate foster homes; her teacher Kazuma Ojiro proposes a secret marriage arrangement so she can keep her brother; what begins as a convenience agreement gradually becomes something genuine.
by Ayano Yamane
Akihito Takaba is a 23-year-old freelance photographer who shoots evidence of underground activities. When he photographs Ryuichi Asami — a 35-year-old high-class club owner with deep yakuza ties — Asami captures him. Twenty-three years later, the series has run 15 volumes in Japan, sold 2.4 million copies, and become one of the most recognized adult BL manga in the world. SuBLime's Deluxe Edition is the current English release.
by Itou Mitchi
Yu's review of Failed Princesses — Nanaki Fujishiro is the beautiful, popular girl at school whose social world collapses when her boyfriend cheats on her; Kurokawa Nao is the plain, unnoticed girl who witnesses this and offers help; their unexpected friendship develops into something more as Nanaki discovers a different kind of value.
by Sanami Matoh
Yu's review of FAKE — NYPD detectives Dee Laytner and Randy 'Ryo' McLean are partners who work cases together, parent a runaway child named Bikky who attaches to Ryo, and navigate Dee's persistent pursuit of Ryo across seven volumes of police procedural boys' love.
by Kaoru Mori
Yu's review of Emma — Emma is a maid in Victorian England working for a retired governess; William Jones, a young gentleman from an upper-class family, falls in love with her; Victorian class structure stands between them as both an obstacle and a presence in every scene.
by Takako Shimura
Yu's review of Even Though We're Adults — Akari is a schoolteacher who runs into Ayano, her first love from high school, at a bar; they reconnect; Ayano is not married, but Akari is; the series follows two adult women navigating a love that is real but has a cost.
by Ichigo Takano
Yu's review of Dreamin' Sun — Shimana Kameko runs away from home after her father remarries and she feels replaced; she ends up in a large old house where three men live, and the house's owner allows her to stay in exchange for performing household duties; the series follows her slow development through found family, romantic feelings, and the eventual resolution of her family relationships.
by Inoue Koharu
Yu's review of The Duke of Death and His Maid — the young Duke Caladbolg was cursed as a child: any living thing he touches dies; exiled to a manor and avoided by everyone, his only companion is Alice the maid, who delights in flirting with him as close to the edge of his curse as she can get.
by Kei Sasuga
Yu's review of Domestic Girlfriend — Natsuo falls for his teacher, sleeps with a stranger at a party, then discovers both the stranger and his teacher are now his stepsisters after his father remarries.
by Yonezou Nekota
Yu's review of Don't Be Cruel — Maya Nemugasa is caught cheating on an exam by Shiba Naoki, who offers to keep quiet in exchange for compliance; the coercive beginning of their relationship is what the series spends its length undoing as both characters develop past their initial positions.
by Miyoshi Tomori
Yu's review of A Devil and Her Love Song — Maria Kawai was expelled from an elite religious academy for speaking the truth too directly; at her new school, her brutal honesty and inability to perform social niceness makes her an instant target; two boys choose to see past what everyone else reacts to.
by Yukiru Sugisaki
Yu's review of D.N.Angel — Daisuke Niwa is fourteen and in love with Risa Harada; when he thinks of her, he transforms into the legendary phantom thief Dark Mousy, who has his own romantic interest, his own art theft agenda, and a complicated relationship with his own host.
by Suzu Enoshima (story), Eihi (art)
A review of Endo and Kobayashi Live!, the meta romance manga where two modern teens watching an otome game can be heard as divine voices by the villainess and the hero.
by Aya Shouoto
Yu's review of The Demon Prince of Momochi House — Himari inherits Momochi House on her sixteenth birthday, an old estate that serves as a border between the human world and the spirit realm; living there is Aoi, a human boy who has become the house's supernatural guardian; Aya Shouoto's supernatural romance about a girl who falls for someone who might not be able to stay human.
by Kyousuke Motomi
Yu's review of Dengeki Daisy — a poor orphan girl is protected by a mysterious phone contact called DAISY, not knowing that the school janitor she argues with daily is DAISY himself.
by Mika Yamamori
Yu's review of Daytime Shooting Star — Suzume moves from the countryside to Tokyo to live with her uncle, meets a teacher who becomes her homeroom teacher, and falls for him; what makes the manga interesting is how carefully it handles the inevitability of that being wrong.
by Mayu Shinjo
Yu's review of Demon Love Spell — Miko Hashimoto is a shrine maiden who cannot see spirits; when she performs a ritual meant to seal an incubus named Kagura, she accidentally seals his powers rather than him; now the incubus whose power comes from collecting love must live with her to regain his strength.
by Rei Toma
Yu's review of Dawn of the Arcana — Princess Nakaba of Senan is married to Prince Caesar of the rival kingdom Belquat as a political settlement; Caesar despises her for her red hair, which marks her people as inferior; she possesses the Arcana of Time, a power that shows her moments of other people's lives; Rei Toma's fantasy romance about power and genuine connection across political enmity.
by Ghost Mikawa / Yukiko Nozawa
Yu's review of Days with My Stepsister — Yuuta and Asamura Saki are strangers who become step-siblings when their parents marry; they make a pact to maintain a sibling relationship only, without romantic complications; the series follows their daily life as that pact becomes harder to maintain.
by Hashigo Sakurabi
Yu's review of Dakaichi — the actor who held the 'sexiest man' title for five years is displaced by a newcomer, and proceeds to make that newcomer's life very complicated.
by Norio Sakurai
Yu's review of The Dangers in My Heart — Kyotaro Ichikawa is an antisocial, dark middle schooler who fantasizes about hurting people and considers himself a dangerous person; Anna Yamada is a popular model classmate who keeps seeking out the library where he hides; his determination to dislike her keeps failing.
by Setona Mizushiro
Kyouichi Otomo is a 32-year-old salaryman married to a woman he met in college. He has been cheating on her — repeatedly, with multiple women, without significant guilt. His wife has finally hired a private investigator. The investigator turns out to be Imagase Wataru, a junior college classmate who has loved Kyouichi for years. Setona Mizushiro's single-volume manga is followed by a sequel and adapted into a 2020 live-action film. Complete in English from SuBLime.
by Ayano Yamane
Yu's review of Crimson Spell — Prince Vald has been cursed by a demonic sword that causes him to transform into a monster at night; he seeks out the sorcerer Halvi to remove the curse; Halvi can suppress the transformation, but uses the prince's vulnerable nightly state for his own interests.
by Yugi Yamada
Yu's review of Close the Last Door — a man watches the friend he loves get married, drinks himself stupid, and wakes up next to a stranger named Honda. A grown-up BL love triangle by Yugi Yamada.
by Megumi Morino
Yu's review of A Condition Called Love — Hotaru Hinase has never understood romantic love, but after she shields a heartbroken classmate from the snow with her umbrella, the intense Hananoi asks her out, and she says yes to find out what the feeling even is.
by Asumiko Nakamura
Yu's review of Classmates (Dou kyu sei) — Rihito Sajo studies alone and sings alone; Hikaru Kusakabe is the easy-going band guy who hears him practicing in an empty classroom and offers to help. Asumiko Nakamura's quiet, beautifully drawn BL about two high school boys who slowly become something neither expected.
by Yuu Toyota
Yu's review of Cherry Magic! — Adachi turns 30 a virgin and gains the power to read minds through touch, then accidentally learns his handsome coworker Kurosawa is hopelessly in love with him. Yuu Toyota's warm BL comedy about a man who can hear how much he's loved and still can't believe it.
by Yuna Kagesaki
Yu's review of Chibi Vampire (Karin) by Yuna Kagesaki — Karin Maaka is a vampire who makes too much blood instead of needing it, and gets drawn to unhappy people. When the unlucky transfer student Kenta Usui shows up, her body starts overflowing, and a strange, tender romance begins.
by Hinako Takanaga
Yu's review of Challengers — a lost student gets kissed at a train station, decides it must be a foreign custom, and moves in with the salaryman who did it. The BL comedy that gave us Souichi Tatsumi.
by Mitsubachi Miyuki
Yu's review of Cheeky Brat (Namaikizakari) — Yuki Machida manages the basketball team and hides her heart behind a calm face, until Sho Naruse, a brash first-year, decides he can see right through her.
by Yuu Watase
Yu's review of Ceres: Celestial Legend — on her 16th birthday Aya Mikage learns she is the reincarnation of the celestial maiden Ceres, and that her own family tests and kills its children to stop Ceres's revenge. Yuu Watase's darkest, most adult shojo.
by Riyoko Ikeda
A new student at an elite girls' academy gets pulled into a sorority's poison politics in Riyoko Ikeda's haunting epic.
by You Higuri
Yu's review of Cantarella — You Higuri's dark Renaissance fantasy where Cesare Borgia's own father sells his infant soul to a demon for the papal throne, and only the assassin Chiaro keeps him human.
by Yoko Kamio
Yu's review of Cat Street by Yoko Kamio (Boys Over Flowers) — Keito Aoyama, a former child actress who froze on stage and shut herself away for years, enrolls in El Liston, a free school for kids who can't fit the normal one, and slowly learns how to be a person again.
by Maki Kusumoto
Ojou-sama Matsuri inherits her yakuza father's household — including his fiercest enforcer, Issa, who is devoted to her like a loyal dog. What begins as a comedy about their mismatched dynamic becomes a genuinely moving romance.
by Yuki Yoshihara
Yu's review of Butterflies, Flowers (蝶よ花よ) — Choko Kuze's wealthy family went bankrupt, so she takes an office job at a real estate firm and finds her new tyrant boss, Domoto, is the son of her family's old chauffeur — the servant boy who once worshipped her. At work he's a dictator; off the clock he reverts to her devoted butler. Yuki Yoshihara's screwball josei romance about a power dynamic that flips twice a day.
by Nana Haruta
Yu's review of Cactus's Secret (サボテンの秘密) by Nana Haruta — Miku Yamada has crushed on clueless Kyohei Fujioka since middle school, but when she tries to confess he treats it as a joke and nicknames her 'cactus' for being so prickly around him. A breezy four-volume Ribon romance where the girl makes the first move.
by Yoko Kamio
Yu's review of Boys Over Flowers — Tsukushi Makino is a working-class scholarship student at Eitoku Academy, a school ruled by the F4. When she fights back against their bullying instead of breaking, she becomes the obsession of their leader, Tsukasa Domyoji.
by Kaoru Mori
Yu's review of A Bride's Story (Otoyomegatari) by Kaoru Mori — set in late-19th-century Central Asia near the Caspian Sea, it follows Amir, a 20-year-old hunter and embroideress, who marries 12-year-old Karluk, then refuses to leave when her own family comes to take her back.
by Akira Sugito
Yu's review of Boku Girl (ボクガール) by Akira Sugito — Mizuki Suzushiro, a boy with a girlish face who keeps getting mistaken for a girl, is turned into an actual girl by the bored trickster god Loki after a heartbreak. Eleven volumes of ecchi gender-bender romcom that, against the odds, lands a real ending about choosing who you are.
by KAITO
Taichi Ichinose has just been seated next to his old childhood friend Touma Mita on the first day of senior year. Touma is the school's star athlete. Taichi has not really talked to him in years. Then Futaba Kuze — a quiet girl with a crush on Touma — asks Taichi to help her. The four-way love story KAITO builds out of this premise is one of the most thoughtful queer-inclusive high school manga of recent years. 8 volumes complete in English from VIZ.
by Yousuke Kaneda
Yu's review of Boarding School Juliet — at Dahlia Academy two rival nations share a campus through the Black Dog and White Cat dorms, and Black Dog leader Romio Inuzuka and White Cat leader Juliet Persia fall in love in chapter one, then spend 16 volumes trying to keep it secret long enough to change the world that would tear them apart.
by Nio Nakatani
Yu's review of Bloom Into You — Yuu Koito has never felt the romantic love everyone describes, and Touko Nanami confesses to her precisely because Yuu can't love her back. The series follows what happens when that arrangement quietly becomes a lie.
by Hotaru Odagiri
Yu's review of The Betrayal Knows My Name (Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru) — Yuki Sakurai, an orphan who feels other people's pain through touch, is found by a Duras named Luka who has guarded him for fifteen years. Hotaru Odagiri's supernatural shoujo about the Giou clan, the Zweilt Guardians, and a demon who betrayed his own king for a love that keeps being reborn.
by Yui (story), Yui Kikuta (art), Satsuki Shiina (character design)
Yu's review of Bibliophile Princess — Lady Elianna Bernstein accepts a fake engagement to Crown Prince Christopher so she can read freely in the royal archive. Four years later she sees him with another woman and braces to be dumped — never once suspecting he has loved her since they were children.
by Kyousuke Motomi
Yu's review of Beast Master by Kyousuke Motomi — Yuiko Kubozuka loves animals but every one of them runs from her; Leo Aoi looks terrifying and scars everyone off, yet animals adore him. When he sees blood he goes berserk like a wild beast, and Yuiko becomes the only person who can call him back. A complete two-volume shojo romance from the creator of Dengeki Daisy.
by Kiyoko Arai
Yu's review of Beauty Pop — Kiri Koshiba is a half-asleep hairdressing genius who quietly fixes bullied girls' hair while wanting nothing to do with the spotlight; when she defeats the school's flashy Scissors Project in disguise, she's dragged into a styling team led by the insufferable Narumi, and a one-sided rivalry slowly turns into a ten-years-later marriage.
by Natsumi Ando
Yu's review of Arisa — twin sisters Tsubasa and Arisa swap lives for a day, and within hours Arisa throws herself out a window. Tsubasa goes undercover as her comatose sister to find the 'King' who broke her. Natsumi Ando's 12-volume Nakayoshi mystery-thriller dressed as shojo.
by Fumi Yoshinaga
Yu's review of Antique Bakery — four men run a Tokyo pastry shop, and the cake that one of them can't stand is tied to a kidnapping he survived as a child.
by Io Sakisaka
Yu's review of Ao Haru Ride — Futaba liked a boy named Tanaka in middle school. He vanished. She finds him again in high school as Kou Mabuchi, colder and changed, and spends the series trying to understand what happened to him.
by Yuu Watase
Yu's review of Alice 19th — Alice Seno is a shy girl who becomes a Lotis Master, wielding words of power; when a jealous outburst banishes her sister Mayura to darkness, Alice must master the Lotis Words to undo what she said and save her. A compact 7-volume Yuu Watase shoujo about words, guilt, and sibling love.
by Ryoko Fukuyama
Yu's review of Anonymous Noise — Nino Arisugawa has sung too loud since childhood, ever since two boys she loved vanished and singing was the only way she knew to call them back. Years later she finds them both in the same high school music scene: Momo, the first love who left, and Yuzu, the composer who hides her real voice behind a masked band called in NO hurry to shout.
by Key / Visual Arts (story) / Yukimaru Katsura (art)
Yu's review of the Air manga — Yukito Kunisaki travels looking for the girl in the sky his mother told him about; in a small seaside town he meets Misuzu Kamio, a lonely girl whose happiness triggers a curse; manga adaptation of Key's 2000 visual novel.
by Yoko Maki
Yu's review of Aishiteruze Baby — high school playboy Kippei has to raise his abandoned 5-year-old cousin Yuzuyu, and a quiet, hurting classmate named Kokoro watches him become someone worth loving.
by Mayu Shinjo
Yu's review of Ai Ore! — Akira is beautiful, delicate, and fronts a band at his all-boys school. Mizuki is tall, fierce, and runs the delinquent element at the girls' school across the street. Their romance inverts every convention about who protects whom, and the series commits to that inversion throughout.
by Kou Fumizuki
Yu's review of Ai Yori Aoshi — college student Kaoru Hanabishi, estranged from his wealthy family, is found by Aoi Sakuraba, a young woman in a kimono who has traveled from Kyoto to honor the childhood engagement their families arranged; Aoi's love is real and absolute; the series follows their quiet life together.
by Hitoma Iruma (story) / Non (art)
Yu's review of Adachi and Shimamura — Adachi and Shimamura meet in a gym loft where both are skipping class; they spend time together without agenda; Adachi realizes she is in love; Shimamura does not process her own feelings for a long time; the manga is about the space between two people who matter to each other before either acknowledges it.
by Kazurou Inoue
Yu's review of Ai Kora — Hachibe Maeda has an impossibly specific physical ideal: particular eyes, a particular voice, a particular figure, particular legs. When he moves to Tokyo and ends up in a co-ed dormitory, he finds all four components in four different girls — and then finds out what he actually wants.
by Eiji Masuda
Yu's review of Actually, I Am... (My Monster Secret) — Asahi Kuromine has one defining flaw: his face betrays every thought he has. When he walks in on his beautiful classmate Youko Shiragami with her vampire wings deployed, he becomes her secret-keeper — despite being the single most unsuited person for the job.
by Yoshitoki Oima
Yu's review of A Silent Voice — Shoya Ishida bullied a deaf girl named Shoko Nishimiya in elementary school; years later, carrying that weight, he finds her again; what follows is not a redemption story but something more honest than that.
by Yuu Watase
Yu's review of Absolute Boyfriend — Riiko Izawa, repeatedly rejected in romance, accidentally orders a life-size perfect boyfriend robot named Night on a free trial; the trial becomes real feelings, and the question becomes whether love with something that cannot imperfect itself is love at all.
by Inio Asano
Yu's review of A Girl on the Shore — Koume Sato and Isobe start a physical relationship after Koume is rejected by the boy she loved; it is not what either of them would call love, but neither of them can stop; Inio Asano's precise, uncomfortable short manga about how adolescents hurt each other.
by Canno
Yu's review of A Kiss and a White Lily — Ayaka Shiramine is the top student at her new school until she discovers Yurine Kurosawa, who surpasses her effortlessly without trying; Ayaka's infuriated reaction becomes something more complicated; the series follows Ayaka and Yurine alongside other couples at the same all-girls school.
by Miki Yoshikawa
Yu's review of A Couple of Cuckoos — Nagi Umino discovers he was switched at birth with the daughter of a wealthy family; their parents decide the obvious solution is for the two teenagers to fake-date and eventually marry, which goes about as well as expected when both already have feelings for other people.
by Fumiaki Maruto (story) / Misaki Kurehito (char design) / Takeshi Moriki (manga)
A review of Saekano — the manga about a high school otaku who wants to create a dating sim game and recruits his classmates as creative team, including the 'ordinary' girl who inspired the whole project.
by Kanoko Sakurakoji
Akari accidentally bruises the school's untouchable kabuki star — and becomes the only person, besides his cat, he can stand. A complete two-volume shojo romance.
by Masaki Zouge
A review of Douki-chan, the short office romance manga about a competent woman who has liked her oblivious coworker for years while younger rivals close in.
by Hiroyuki
A review of Ojojojo, the quiet, sweet romance manga about an ojou-sama with no social skills and the ordinary boy who becomes her first real friend.
by Kyoko Mizuki, Yumiko Igarashi
An orphan girl carried from Pony's Home to England and back through love and loss — one of the most beloved shojo manga ever made, now frozen out of print by a famous lawsuit.
by CLAMP
A review of CLAMP's Wish — 4 volumes in Asuka Fantasy DX. A small angel named Kohaku gets stuck in a tree and is rescued by a doctor named Shuichiro who cannot think of anything to wish for; the cohabitation romance that follows is CLAMP's gentlest work. Dark Horse Comics' English edition is complete.
by Julietta Suzuki
A review of Karakuri Odette, the shojo manga by Kamisama Kiss's creator about an android who attends high school to learn human emotion.
by Setona Mizushiro
A review of Heartbroken Chocolatier, the josei manga about a pastry chef who channels his unrequited love into making the finest chocolates imaginable.
by Arina Tanemura
A girl is sold to a powerful family and tangled in school politics, broken siblings, and impossible love triangles.
by Io Sakisaka
A review of The Man I Love (Otoko no Issho), Io Sakisaka's josei manga about a 26-year-old woman who meets her grandmother's neighbor — a 30-something professor — and slowly falls in love despite every resistance.
by Saburouta
A review of Citrus, Saburouta's yuri manga about a fashionable gyaru who falls for her stern, cold student council president stepsister at a strict all-girls academy.
by Gong Ji-Young (story), Sahm Geun-Ho (art)
A review of Our Happy Hours, the manhwa adaptation of Gong Ji-Young's novel about a suicidal woman who visits a death row inmate and finds unexpected healing.
by Won Soo-Yeon
A review of Full House, the Korean manhwa that inspired the beloved K-drama about a girl who accidentally sells her house to a top star and must live with him.
by Kii Kanna
A review of Kii Kanna's Stranger by the Shore — single volume from Dear+. A writer in Okinawa meets a young man grieving his mother's death; three years later the same young man returns. BL romance with a specific sense of place and earned emotional depth. Seven Seas Entertainment's English edition is complete.
by Kozue Chiba
An ordinary country girl moves to an art school dorm and clashes with a so-called genius — a four-volume Sho-Comi romance about talent, jealousy, and wanting to be special.
by Woon Soo-Yeon
A review of Let Dai, the controversial Korean manhwa about the volatile relationship between gentle Jaehee and dangerous gang leader Dai.
by Meguru Ueno
A review of My First Girlfriend Is a Gal, the manga about a nerdy high school boy who confesses to a gal and somehow gets a girlfriend — funnier and sweeter than you expect.
by Soborou
A review of Why the Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?, the comedy manga about a student who keeps ending up in compromising situations with his teacher — explicit, absurd, and surprisingly sweet.
by Nanaji Nagamu
A review of Parfait Tic!, the long-running shojo manga about a cheerful girl caught between two very different half-brothers.
by Baek Hye-Kyung
A review of Bring It On!, Baek Hye-Kyung's Korean romantic-comedy manhwa about Mi-Ha, a tomboy trained to terrify boys, and the beautiful transfer student she literally knocks out the first time they meet.
by Torako (light novel) / Mimosa Mori (manga)
A review of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions — the manga about a high school boy who buried his embarrassing middle school fantasy persona and the girl who refuses to let go of hers.
by Arata Miyahara
A review of First Love Limited, the ensemble romance manga about multiple simultaneous first love stories among middle school and high school students in the same neighborhood.
by Idea Factory / Design Factory (game) / Multiple manga artists
A review of Hakuoki — the manga adaptation of the beloved otome game about a young woman who becomes entangled with the historical Shinsengumi and their supernatural secrets.
by Rin Kokuyou
A review of Recovery of an MMO Junkie — the manga about a 30-year-old woman who quits her job and retreats into an online game, where she forms a close bond with another player who is actually her neighbor in real life.
by Masami Tsuda
A review of His and Her Circumstances (Kare Kano) — the 1990s shoujo manga about two high school students whose obsessive need for recognition brings them together and forces them to confront who they really are.
by Tamiki Wakaki
A review of The World God Only Knows — the manga about a legendary galge player who is forced to conquer real girls using dating sim logic to exorcise spirits, with increasingly self-aware results.