for one, the manga has some of the best lgbtq+ representation i’ve seen in any manga.
the story weaves together the divergent experiences of gay, lesbian, trans, asexual, and nonbinary characters - both young and old - as they carve out a community for themselves in a Japanese town.
the writing and characterization feels realistic and deeply personal. i should note that the mangaka - kamatani yuhki - identifies as x-gender and asexual.
kamatani’s art is also jaw-dropping.
the level of detail in some panels is incredible.
many panels take on a surreal, dreamlike quality, symbolizing the jumbled emotions of the characters.
and i can’t get over how well the mangaka captured emotion on the characters’ faces.
for anyone looking for a manga that will move you - and push forward representation in the medium - shimanami tasogare is it !
I just finished catching up on spy x family , and i lovee it , all of the delicious classic tropes ; fake marriage , but there are FEELINGS , absurdly elite school , psychic child , wrapped in an spy history , with nice artwork.
I mean , there are only a few chapters out , so catching up is a breeze and is free on mangaplus app , so there is no excuse to miss this jewel of a manga.
its ya boi back again after many years of hiatus - almost forgot that this existed but hey i’m back - let’s get to it
in my attempt to escape reality, i’ve delved into the unescapable hole of isekai reincarnation mangas, and just thought i should at least do something with my time and get back to doing rec lists :’) in particular, the daddy issue manhwas, or mangas?
specifically, those stories where someone from our modern era reincarnated into the body of some tyrant’s daughter - i think this might be slightly too specific to make a dedicated list but... well, i think there’s some things to be said about them.
starting off with the GOD TIER:
Who Made Me A Princess // holy shit i love this so much // i’m at chp 61
in the original novel, princess Athanasia gets killed by her dad (Claude) who is an absolute tyrant who has never acknowledged her as his daughter, and instead fawns (as much as he does) over this other girl who claims to be his daughter
now that MC is reincarnated, she is determined to not get killed by this dickhead of a father and decides to run away w valuables asap, but is forced into a situation where she might be forced to suck up to him instead //
the art is super good & you actually feel for the characters, like they are somewhat relatable or at least you can sympathise with them. MC isn’t super dumb af & her tyrant father doesnt do anything OOC (aka become a useless fawning idiot dad once he warms up to her) plot is somewhat slow but at an acceptable pace, it doesn’t feel rushed or disjointed... i just rly like it damn it
& ALSO romance isn’t forced down your damn throat (even tho i do have ships alrdy) because they are still kids after all, and something that i super appreciate is that MC doesn’t go on about how handsome her dad is... like she does acknowledge that he’s handsome but it’s not like omg dude my dad is so handsome, i can’t sleep when his face is super near mine!!!!!! ///
(unfortunately this is where my good recs stop, but i’m just gna add the other manhwas of this variety, just to acknowledge that they exist, but just as a side note - i don’t really recommend these lol feel free to disagree, but also! there might be spoilers below)
daughter of the emperor // nope 2/10 // art is meh, story is also meh
lowkey same premise as who made me a princess except not as well developed...? I enjoyed it way more when she was a kid but after a while she kinda got on my nerves - she’s cute & all, mainly to gain favour from her dad but as she grows older, she starts to act like that around everyone
and she is totally ignorant as a princess & is not educated...? like i don’t really understand why. the plot keeps venturing off to weird ass tangents like an anime that caught up with the manga and has to resort to bad filler arcs. the time skips are hella odd too but ya know, i dropped it after awhile, i might just be biased and directly comparing it to WMMAP lol maybe i should give it another try
if i remember correctly too, i think she also goes on about how her dad is handsome????? idk it bothers me
they say i was born a king’s daughter // wtf/10 // nope nope
before being reincarnated, MC had a loving bf & died w regrets that she didn’t properly love him back or smth like that THEN she gets reincarnated into a world where women are treated like absolute SHIT, and she’s the daughter of a king (tbh i don’t know whether he can be called a tyrant because judging by the standards of her reincarnated world, he’s normal...?) oh and also males are superior because they can use magic
so she basically tries to not live a shit life by sucking up to the males in her life aka her 2 brothers
other than the fact that it’s super uncomfortable to read the super misogynistic world building, it’s ok-ish at first? even though it’s weird how her brothers & dad just basically falls in love with her rather quickly (her brothers in a...maybe not so platonic way, who tf knows), the series is somewhat OK right up till season 3
i think they switched the writer/artist (?) when it came to S3 and it really shows:
1. they like to use a certain way to tell the story, like start off with a foreshadowing and cuts to a flashback, and after awhile it gets predictable and idk it broke the storytelling for me personally
2. the story took a very very VERY weird ass turn - i guess the story before might have been building up to it but... ????????? i’m so fucking confused so i dropped it like 10 chapters into S3
i was born as the demon lord’s daughter // tbh too soon to really tell
currently i’m only 4 chapters in but time will tell... BUT SO FAR
(stealing the summary from manganelo because 4 chapters can’t tell me shit) Joara lived and died miserably, but as her life ended she realized that she was reborn as the demon lord’s daughter? Joara lived as the school’s loser and while running from her aunt’s physical abuse she got into a life-ending car accident. After nearly dying at the hands of her new father, the newly named “Irene” starts a new life with her father’s familial love and adventure!
it’s ok? maybe? slight complain that babies don’t look like actual babies but what do i know, i can’t draw for nuts //
it feels like there might be a plot going on but i can’t tell? it’s just here because ya know, daddy issues & he’s a demon lord, though he seems to dote on her quite a bit AND ALSO she will go on about how her dad is handsome, which i guess if a grown ass woman were to go back and see cute guys around you without really comprehending that he’s your dad...maybe???? idk???
ok i’m done peace out // feel free to argue w me or if you have other recs, pls lmk i need more
For the first time, I found a story that realistically depicts a toxic friendship, and what it takes to get out of one. Nanairo Kakumei may look like a regular shoujo manga, but it’s nothing like it. It’s down to Earth, there is no anime drama - all the drama feels so real it’s scary, and the emotions the characters face are all too real.
What an abusive friendship means and how to deal with it - that’s what it is about, in the most down to Earth way, and I feel like there are more people out there who are living this very story and for whom it may be the eye opener they need. Sometimes, the ones that hurt us the most are the ones that love us the most, and that doesn’t make it okay.
Nanairo Kakumei didn’t just “give me the feels”, it genuinely made me reflect on parts of my life in new ways, and I recommend it to everyone who is interested in realistic, well written character based stories.
