I’m now reading another by Ohmi Tomu called Bariaro My Honey, which I haven’t read enough of to really say how good it is, although it’s promising.

I’m very excited about DA running more reviews of manga series, and I’m hoping that these will include josei manga.

Also, anyone else that wants to throw me a bone and suggest something, I appreciate it!

Re: P.C. Hodgell

What with Pat Hodgell’s horrible luck in publishers before, she sort of slid through all kinds of gaps, which is why I’m trying to evangelize these days – BAEN being her first major publisher ever, the books being extraordinarily compelling and not well known and my fear that we otherwise will never find out what happens to Jamethiel Dreamweaver.

BAEN are well-known in the genre, but I don’t think they’re the best company when it comes to pr for their authors.

Considering you can get the two omnibuses of the first two and second two novels already out for $6 as a webscriptions ebook I think trying her out makes sense – not to mention that BAEN has 9 chapters of the first novel and 8 chapters of the third novel as a preview for online reading.
http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1416555765/1416555765.htm

There’s one called “Love Monster” that is classic paranormal romance shoujo, but I can’t remember the author or where I read it, but it was cute.

But for josei, there’s nobody better than Yuki Yoshihara. Funny as hell and sexy in a really sweet way.

I’ve been recced Hodgell before. She’s on my list but you know how it is. Something always comes up and it gets bumped down.

Oh and an alert to all the romance loving manga fans here – the editor of Vertical (that’s the people who did the amazing Tezuka and Keiko Takemiya editions) is asking for twitter feedback on whether they should license some older shoujo romance for the US – and he hasn’t gotten many positive signals yet – so for all the LiveJournalers out here you could comment on Wintersweet’s post or since most of you probably DO have twitter, twitter a positive answer directly

Should Vertical look into licensing some classic shoujo manga they might have an opportunity to license? @Vertical_Ed on Twitter is looking for yeas or nays (NOT recommendations, mind you) and isn’t getting many yeas. I think that’s because the shoujo manga fanatics are mostly not on Twitter.

So either post here and I’ll send him a link later or go follow Ed and @reply him with a YES on classic shoujo manga!

Otherwise I’ll just address the one direct question: yes, I was the person asking for a review of Kokou Debut. ^^

Oh and Jia, while reading your tag line below the review and thinking of great diverse fantasy epics with female protagonists – have you read P.C. Hodgell? Because her series is being rereleased by BAEN this year and she’s sold them a new novel as well – however, it’s not a romance fantasy.

@RStewie: If you like a bit of smut in your romance manga and no supernatural bit – then you would love Shinjo Mayu’s Sensual Phrase, which might still be available on the used book market and was released by VIZ.

I loved loved Midnight Secretary, but cannot seem to find another heavily romantic manga, so I must be looking in the wrong places.

@Jill Myles: Recommendations for Romance Manga, hmm – since you’ve read Midnight Secretary you are obviously able to get scanlations.

First of all there are werewolves and some vampires in the previous series of this author – I know that Kindan no Koi de Ikou and Kindan no Koi wo Shiyou have been completely scanlated.

As for good licensed romance manga with smut… I don’t really read those anymore, I got overfed when I went on ShoujoMagic’s Mayu Shinjo binge. – Well Kaikan Phrase was licensed as Sensual Phrase and you can probably get them as used books or ebay.

I like the romantic shoujo romances more: High School Debut (school), From Far Away (which Jan reviewed here) (fantasy), Kare Kano up until volume 14 although I still have them all (school), Love Roma (school), Emma (Victorian England), Fruits Basket (school and fantasy), Kimi ni todoke (school), Hana Kimi (school).

Unlicensed shoujo romantic mangas by KAWAHARA Kazune, HIKAWA Kyouko and MIURA Noriko I would buy right away, but it doesn’t look likely (except for maybe the newest Kawahara Kazune manga, Aozora Yell, because I believe Kokou Debut is selling pretty okay and certainly getting great reviews.

@lijakaca: Well, Oishii Kankei is being scanlated at least. I agree that it’s cute ^^. Wingtip Cafe in general do some lovely shoujo/early josei manga – not necessarily only romance either.

It’s a story about a young woman who grew up privileged, but whose family loses everything and she makes her way in the world by becoming a chef. It’s 16 volumes and also has a drama series, but is from the 90’s, before there was much Western interest in josei manga.

I also really like another of her series, Imagine (11 volumes), which follows a daughter and her divorced mother’s relationships. Coincidentally this also has a drama series ^_^, and I think this one focuses more on the romances than Oishii Kankei.

And may I add, hooray for more manga reviews! I don’t have much time for reading right now, so the manga reviews are usually the only posts I can comment on ^_^. Plus I just love manga…

I had a different feeling for the first section with Mizuno. I think it was on certain levels a good intro. And we see the perspective of the men who are now these less valued objects. I thought considering how Japanese and other cultures devalue women, the turn around to men was interesting. It might be from my cultural perspective but I thought it was awesome. The option of having the choice to go to the Inner Chambers to serve vs an unwanted arranged marriage or prostitution was absolutely fascinating. In following Mizuno I think that Yoshinaga was able to give us her world-building without a total info dump. That way, by the time Yoshimune comes around there are fewer questions.

I think there will be an interesting social commentary. My question is what happened to the rest of the world, if the japanese men were wiped out, Japan still had some trade with the outside world, why didn’t this pox spread there?

And can I just say, Midnight Secretary is like crack. Awesome crack, but still. There are some good seinen/josei work out there, I like My Girl by Sahara Mizu, Hotaru no Hikari, and Usagi Drop. If you are looking for romance, paranormal, and hot sex, Ohmi Tomu might be a good bet, the Kindan no Koi de Ikou involves a 300 year old werewolf and his girlfriend.

I’ll have to look into it and see what’s up.

Are there any out there that would compare that ARE licensed? My SO would love for me to get into manga (I’m a huge anime fan)…he’s mentioned it repeatedly that he thinks I might like it, and I have a BDay coming up, so that would be a great present idea for him!

I love the political intrigues in the Kushiel series, and I’ve read other novels that are heavily scewed towards political drama, as opposed to romance, although there are some elements of it.

I think, though, that Midnight Secretary might be better able to hold my interest at the moment, though. I’m still working my way through Fiasco, and I don’t want to bog down reading too much politico …especially if there’s a good adult manga out there with, evidently, a secretary and vampires?