Personally-followed manga, under-the-radar for everyone else

For anyone who's into light shoujo-ai or historical fiction, I found this really cute, very riveting short manga called Goodbye My Rose Garden by Dr. Pepperco, and it's wonderful! Taking place in Victorian England, a Japanese woman, Hanako Kujo, manages to find a job working as the personal maid for a young English noblewoman, Alice Douglas. But Alice is hiding a secret that she knows will ruin her family's reputation, and in her turmoil, requests that Hanako kill her, thinking there's no way out. But the two of them bond over their shared love of Western literature, and their relationship blooms into something more.

I only learned about this manga through this informative article (Warning: It does spoil the entire manga), and I honestly love it. Definitely give Goodbye My Rose Garden a read if you can. It helps that it's not only available in the United States thanks to Seven Seas, but also very short, complete at three volumes.

Edited by TwilightPegasus on Jan 15th 2022 at 8:07:42 AM

Yep, that’s a gem alright. Might be my favorite romance manga, period.

I know, right? Goodbye My Rose Garden is great! I'd like to make a page for it on here, but I don't know if I'd be able to really do it justice. Plus, I think I need to get images approved if I want to put an image on its main page, and I've never posted an image on here before.

There is already one, in fact!

Go read Kuzumi-kun

Kuzumi-kun, Can't You Read The Room?

Serious I need yall to read it, it's too crazy fun for a romance.

…Remember Yong-ui Kwi-ro, that I mentioned last page? Turns out chapter 93 is the last in the series.

And the ending is… nonexistent. It just stops in the middle of the story, with nothing resolved. Not even a "The End". What’s even more baffling is that the thank-you and congratulation messages from the Naver authors after that give no hint that the series was cancelled or anything, we’re just supposed to assume this is how the author wanted to end the story.

It sucks because this was genuinely one of my favorite webtoons. =[

Edited by Lyendith on Feb 21st 2022 at 9:13:25 PM

That sucks. Why does that sort of thing pass by editorial?

A lot of Webtoon don't have editor.

Are webtoons self-published then?

Speaking of webtoons, I've started picking up Daily JoJo, from the author of Yumi's Cells. As usual, the author has a very interesting way of portraying the characters' psyche and develop the relationships.

And I do like that his stories completely avert the Christmas Cake trope, where the female protagonist seem to be in her late 20s or early 30s when they start their romance, and don't seem to be in a rush to get hitched.

Edited by Adept on May 20th 2022 at 3:29:04 PM

It's depend. Some webnovel are self-publish, some are adaptation of popular novel so the artists are usually hired freelance.

I only just today discovered Happy Kanako’s Killer Life has an English release.

Shrinking Violet Kanako quits her job, but quickly finds one that offers better hours, regular days off, paid overtime and they even recently added benefits. On top of all that, she's a natural at it.

Her new job: Assassin

Edited by sgamer82 on May 19th 2022 at 11:52:16 AM

The title kinda spoils it.

Can't blame a guy for at least trying to preserve the punchline

Double post because I learned 2 things yesterday:

Magilumiere Co. Ltd. a series featuring a Magical Girls startup in a setting where Magical Girls are an office profression, has an official English release on Mangaplus, and Beast Tamer And The Cat Girl is getting an Anime adaptation this October under the title Beast Tamer

Quick version: a tale as old as trashy light novels, an Arrogant Hero Party chucks its single most useful member who goes on to thrive in a setting that works to his skillset. In this case he's a beast tamer and, learning his skill is enough to extend this to Cat Girls and Draconic Humanoids, among others, and grants Power Copying besides forms willing contracts with them.

Edited by sgamer82 on Jun 10th 2022 at 6:58:33 AM

On the one hand, I absolutely understand why more people haven't read Joshi Kouhei (an unholy blend of Apocalypse Now, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and K-On). On the other hand, it's the sort of psychic damage I feel strangely compelled to share.

I’ve just learned a web manga called Isekai Metal lv. 999 was to be released soon here and I’m curious about it… Has anyone heard of it?

According to the blurb, it’s about a metalhead who wants to bring peace to the world with his music… but dies on stage from an electric shock and finds himself in a videogame world with metal-related superpowers.

On one hand this screams "What theme has isekai not covered yet?" but on the other it sounds pretty damn cool.

Edited by Lyendith on Jun 14th 2022 at 12:48:56 PM

Reminds me of Brütal Legend

Edited by Kiefen on Jun 14th 2022 at 9:32:56 PM

Joshi Kouhei was amazing. Unironically one of my favorite series ever.

I was in the mood for some old classic, so for the first time, I decided to watch Haibane Renmei. I’m only halfway through, but so far I must say this is the first non-comedic slice-of-life anime that I actually want to watch all the way to the end. It’s mostly mundane scenes, but the underlying mystery and… I don’t if you can call it "social commentary"? makes it quite intriguing. The characters are simple but all very likeable.

I dig it.

Yeah Haibane Renmei is fantastic. We could use more vague-mystery SoL like it and, say, Girls’ Last Tour.

I quite like it too, yeah. In a way it reminds me of Sora No Woto, which is also one of my all-time favorites and which I absolutely recommend if you haven't seen it.

Reposting this from the Shonen Jump thread:

Just read "Mirrors", Kaiu Shirai & Demizu Posuka’s short-story collection loosely themed around Coco Chanel (it’s not about her directly − she’s not even mentioned by name − but about her… legacy and influence, sort of?) Graphically it’s very innovative in the way it blends black-and-white and color, and story-wise it depicts fascinating characters in very few pages. I liked it quite a bit.

The third story in particular tackles a subject that’s not often seen − how men can be stiffened by restrictive norms of virility, especially in the dress code, with the two protagonists deciding to go "fuck that shit, why not try wearing skirts?" And it’s depicted as affirmative and liberating instead of ridiculous.

…What I didn’t know when I read the book and wrote this comment, is that Chanel was violently homophobic and antisemitic and was literally a nazi agent during WWII. That… makes it a little awkward to read a manga and interview that celebrate her as a great liberator of women.

We can never have good things, I swear…

Finished Haibane Renmei. I’m still not sure what the series was about. Is it about forgiveness? Heritage? Altruism and selfishness? Enjoying the small things of our daily lives? Probably a bit of all that. All I know is that it left me with a sense of sweet, peaceful melancholy.

Now the series is deliberately stingy with answers but I’m particularly confused by Hyoko − he doesn’t have wings or a halo, so I thought he was one of the "unascended" that the Washi mentioned near the end, but in the last ep he suddenly has them for some reason. Was he just… hiding them the whole time? Can the Haibane even hide their halo?

One thing that might help is reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Murakami, which apparently inspired the anime to a more-than-superficial degree.

That said, I've gone through both and I can't really tell you what it's about, either, so.

I recently made a page for a manga I came across: Dungeon no Osananajimi

Van's an adventurer, Ryuuka's a dragon girl and final boss of the local dungeon. They're both childhood friends and Van makes regular trips through Ryuuka's dungeon and minions (who are professionally obligated to at least try to stop him) for the sole purpose of hanging out with Ryuuka. Meanwhile Ryuuka's Quirky Miniboss Squad watch and absorb the saccharine, as each and every one of them is a Shipper on Deck.