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Mine-kun is Asexual by Isaki Uta (digital only)

Mine-kun is Asexual. He doesn’t like sexual intimacy in a relationship. He can kiss a girl, but it’s not something he wants to do if he can help it. But Murai loves him so much that she’s willing to overlook the fact that she can’t hold his hand; that she can’t cuddle up next to him when they watch movies together; that she can’t fall in love with him the way that she hopes to be loved in return. In the eyes of those around them, is this even a relationship that’s meant to last, or is it a train wreck just waiting to happen?

Available now

acesincomics

This month, not one but two manga with aroace protagonists will be released in English!

Kimi no Sekai ni Koi wa Nai (Is Love the Answer?) by Uta Isaki and Watashi wa Kabe ni Naritai (I Want to Be a Wall) Vol. 2 by Honami Shirono are both coming out January 17th!

きみのせかいに恋はない Kimi no Sekai ni Koi wa Nai

Is Love the Answer?

By 伊咲ウタ Uta Isaki

A poignant coming-of-age story about a young woman coming into her own as she discovers her identity as aromantic asexual. A complete story in a single volume, from the creator of Mine-kun is Asexual. When it comes to love, high schooler Chika wonders if she might be an alien. She’s never fallen for or even had a crush on anyone, and she has no desire for physical intimacy. Her friends tell her that she just "hasn't met the one yet," but Chika has doubts… It's only when Chika enters college and meets peers like herself that she realizes there’s a word for what she feels inside--asexual--and she’s not the only one. After years of wondering if love was the answer, Chika realizes that the answer she long sought may not exist at all--and that that's perfectly normal.

Available from Kodansha (Japanese) | (English)

わたしは壁になりたい Watashi wa Kabe ni Naritai

I Want to Be a Wall, Vol. 2

By 白野ほなみ Honami Shirono | Emma Schumacker, Alexis Eckerman (Eng.)

Any good love story starts at the beginning: Where and how did the lovebirds meet? Was it love at first sight? And most importantly, was there a spark? For Yuriko and Gakurouta, their initial meeting was nothing to write home about—after all, matchmaking services aren’t unheard of. But a chance second encounter on the street revealed that as an asexual woman and gay man, they might have much more in common than they initially assumed. And in that moment, they felt not a spark but something better: the seed of a friendship, ready to take root and bloom.

Available from Kadokawa (Japanese) | Yen Press (English)

shoujoseiworld

Is Love the Answer? Released in print by Kodansha on January 17th! (And early digital on January 10th.

When it comes to love, high schooler Chika wonders if she might be an alien. She’s never fallen for or even had a crush on anyone, and she has no desire for physical intimacy. Her friends tell her that she just “hasn’t met the one yet,” but Chika has doubts… It’s only when Chika enters college and meets peers like herself that she realizes there’s a word for what she feels inside–asexual–and she’s not the only one. After years of wondering if love was the answer, Chika realizes that the answer she long sought may not exist at all–and that that’s perfectly normal.

kiwimuichiro

Currently reading Is Love the answer and ITS AMAZING!! I could really relate with what Chika has been through. Highly recommend!!

bloggingboutburgers

I never did have an “am I broken” phase, more like the other way around ironically

charlataninred

Love how tumblr has its own folk stories. Yeah the God of Arepo we’ve all heard the story and we all still cry about it. Yeah that one about the woman locked up for centuries finally getting free. That one about the witch who would marry anyone who could get her house key from her cat and it’s revealed she IS the cat after the narrator befriends the cat.

much-the-millers-kid

Going to try to do as complete a list from the notes that I can find. Lot's of credit to @wavrn for doing this before. (Some with summaries if I think the title is vague)

I will also like to say that @sarcasm-n-insomnia is making a blog of these on @hellsite-folklore

much-the-millers-kid

Adding some more from the tags - also some got posted multiple times so I gave up on separating them by who shared them - there are way more but also DANG this list is long.

You wish to be productive in 2017, the genie hears 20:17 (story)

Event Horizon (story with art)

It Was In a Name (story)

Rowan and Meria (story)

Being Villagers (story)

The Fey Are Free (story)

The Mother of Monsters (story)

The Queen & Her Cursed Children (story)

Isekai (Between Good and Evil) (story)

My Grandma Lives in The Woods (comic)

'Nice' Does Not Always Mean 'Good' [part 1] [part 2] (comic)

the succubus who doesn't realize she's a succubus (story)

the merchant and the hero (story)

magical girl anime about moms (concept)

monstrous homes (art)

bride of the rose beast (comic)

the ghost and their boarders (story)

the knight finds the dragon's corpse (story)

a witch curses a princess that had wronged her (comic)

chronic hanahaki (concept)

"no-one came to my funeral" (story)

the princess cursed to die the night before her 25th birthday (story)

a death that is kind, and patient, and inevitable (story)

release them, fredward jones (concept)

a woman makes a deal with the devil (story)

new apocalyptia (concept)

woman leaves demon and witch fighting for custody (story)

guy moves into a haunted house with 7 demons (concept)

One of the top 10 most powerful superheroes has a mediocre superpower (story)

Untitled Comic (comic)

warmchillz

My favourite interaction during Jaehee’s route lolol

Bro is 3rd wheeling so hard

neon-ufo

Okay!! Let me introduce you to the characters that will play a role in the story I'm working on!

First here's Barbi and King, who are probably the closest to what could be considered the main characters.

King is very thoughtful and calculative. Barbi is not.

Otto and Jernej. Jernej is like a puppy to Otto, and Otto is like an old dog to Jernej.

The latter has gone through the most drastic design changes in this cast, and I even changed his name (he was previously Vivid, in case anyone remembers him)

Mario & Ren (loud rich party boy and some weeb he picked up from a trashcan)

and then there's the nerds.

---

I've been chipping away at this project since 2019 and it's basically my new year's resolution to get it comic-ready this year. The story still needs work atm, so it'll be a while longer before I feel confident in starting it, but I really hope 2023 is the year it happens.

I know I basically treat King as my Favourite Child among these lmfao, but I hope to draw all the characters more this year so that you can get to know them a bit before the comic!

tehtariks

“People have always told me: ‘You’ll understand once you start dating. You’ll feel it when you like someone. You’ll learn when you grow up’. But the feeling of romance I was supposed to understand one day - the meaning of kissing or sex - I couldn’t get that at all. I thought I was lacking something as a human. That’s why the words aromantic asexual… they saved me.” | KOISENU FUTARI

(how to watch)

tehtariks

if you have time, please watch the japanese drama 恋せぬふたり (koisenu futari; the two people who can’t fall in love) which focuses on two aroace characters

Sakuko finds it difficult to live in a society which operates under the assumption that people will fall in love with each other. She meets supermarket employee Takahashi when she goes to support a "fall-in-love" campaign by her junior at work. She is startled when she hears him say that there are people who don't fall in love. As Sakuko's mother keeps hurrying her to get married, she decides to move out and rent an apartment with her friend but her friend backs out at the last minute after reconciling with her ex-boyfriend. Just when Sakuko is about to give up, she ends up living with Takahashi under one roof because of their similar values towards romance.

(how to watch)

sboochi

This was a good excuse to draw tiny food and stuff

cripplecharacters

My MC uses a cane and experiences chronic pain. I was thinking about making the cause of this chronic pain stem from them being a magic user. In my story, magic users often have chronic pain or need to use mobility aids due to the idea that magic is unable to be contained within organic material (ie a human/animal's body) for a prolonged period of time. Not every magic user has chronic pain and when they do it would impact them in very different ways but I was wondering if this is in anyway ableist? Im not intending to make it seem like disability is a punishment for using magic or anything but I wanted to make sure that this idea wouldn't be offensive or stereotypical towards the disabled community. I'm open to suggestions on how to fix/rewrite this if it is.

Hey there, thanks for your question!

My biggest concern with this premise, as you've expressed, would be the framing of disability as a punishment for something--in this case, being a magic user--as well as a potential association with "otherness" depending on how magic users are treated within your setting, especially if they are oppressed or mistreated in any way.

I do want to point out that the fantasy genre in particular has a tendency to depict disability in ways that are fundamentally divorced from the real world, like being acquired in exchange for something like special powers or being a condition of some kind of mystical ability/bloodline/whatever. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, per se, but its predominance makes it--in my personal opinion--a bit of a tired trope.

That said, while these types of premises aren't my favourite for the above reasons, I don't inherently dislike this idea so long as you take care to make sure that their disabilities are not seen as or intended to be punishments. You can avoid this in part by:

Not having the characters resent their disabilities or wish that they weren't magic users.

Not treating magic users poorly in your setting (I don't know if they are, because it isn't included in the ask, but since it's a common fantasy trope I'll add it anyway).

Depicting what kinds of accommodations would reasonably exist in a setting where magic use is tied with disability would also go a long way, especially if magic users make up a large portion of the population. This would help the disabilities not seem like a fun flavour thrown in for drama while not actually being realistically thought through.

Finally, I also strongly recommend including disabled characters who are not magic users in your story. Disability in speculative fiction is rarely shown just... existing the same way it does in real life. Disabled people exist all around you, not just as a quirk to serve in fantasy worldbuilding, and I certainly encourage all fantasy authors in particular to remember this.

Other disabled people are welcome to add their thoughts as always!

-Mod Faelan