A young woman, Utage Kinoshita, who loves the popular boy band F/ACE, has a job as a house cleaner. When she covers for a colleague who calls out, she discovers the assignment is for her favorite member of F/ACE, Tamon Fukuhara. However, Tamon’s charming, bad boy persona is fake and the poor guy is riddled with imposter syndrome and anxiety. A lot of manga feature teenagers as the main characters; that’s the case with all … Continue reading Tamon’s B-Side, Vol. 1 by Yuki Shiwasu →
I forgot where I heard about Yakuza Fiancé initially, but that cover was a strong motivator. Yoshino, the granddaughter of a crime boss in Osaka, and Kirishima, the grandson of a Yakuza boss in Tokyo are instructed to date (and possibly marry) to strengthen an alliance between the two families. Yoshino is a bit of a fish out of water, leaving Osaka to live in Tokyo with the Miyama family. She transfers to Kirishima’s school … Continue reading Yakuza Fiancé, Vol 1. by Asuka Konishi →
Please check the content warnings before continuing as several of them are unavoidable when discussing the setup! This manga is originally based on a series of Japanese light novels. They’ve been translated to English and even just reading the sample, it seems that the beginning of the manga follows the text closely. Maomao was kidnapped from her job as an herbalist/apothecary in a red light district and is now forced to work as a maid … Continue reading The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 1 by Natsu Hyuuga and Nekokurage →
Machi has been going along with what other people want for as long as she can remember, but she’s so sick of her parents nagging her to find a husband that she’s ready to marry someone they’d hate to spite them. She wasn’t expecting her best friend Hana to volunteer for the role though! Yep, we’re skipping the fake dating and going straight to marriage. That’s how we roll here. I Married My Best … Continue reading I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up by Kodama Naoko →
Sometimes a series is just exactly what you thought it was going to be and what you were looking for, and the josei manga series You’re My Pet! was that for me. This 14-volume manga series is comedic, soap-operatic, a little weird, romantic, and hopeful. While I can’t say it’s flawless, I nonetheless loved it. This series was originally released in the US as Tramps Like Us in the 2000s by Tokyopop (although I think … Continue reading You’re My Pet by Yayoi Ogawa →
The SBTB crew were discussing a current manga sale going on at Comixology wherein the first volumes of many, many wonderful series are marked down to .99. If you listen to the podcast, you might have heard me talk about how, when my brain is tired, it doesn’t have the energy to do all the imaginary construction of the world and environment that usually happens when I read a book. And at times when my … Continue reading Witch Hat Atelier, Volume 1 by Kamome Shirahama →
This intrepid comics correspondent has been trying to fill the void left by Midnight Secretary (which I read thanks to this very site!) for lo these many years. I am sorry to report that Bride of the Water God does not fill that void. How hard is it to find a romance comic with beautiful art, a winning heroine, both humor and high-stakes over-the-top soap-style drama, and a surly supernatural hero with a heart of … Continue reading Bride of the Water God by Mi-Kyung Yun →
Ran and the Gray World is a delightful manga series about Ran, a young girl with immense magical powers and the hijinks she gets up to. She, like many her age, is enamoured with the idea of being an adult, and with being just as beautiful and amazing as her mom. The difference is, she can magically age her body, which also increases the magnitude of her magical powers. So basically, every parent’s worst nightmare. … Continue reading Ran and the Gray World by Aki Irie →
