I don't so much have that reaction to romance manga as to "any serialized media".
Very rarely do they end when they're supposed to (either they end before their time or are kept alive until any sense of redeeming features have been flogged to death in order to extract those last few cents or yen)
"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent
True. I guess I just notice it more with romance and slice-of-life stories because there is nothing but the current plot and characters to keep people interested. Fantasy, science fiction, mystery, etc. all have something else that can catch a person's interest (figuring out how the world works, Myth Arcs, etc.)
You know, I never really considered Skip Beat as a romance manga. It's far from it, imo.
Hmm, have you tried reading Strobe Edge? It's also a shoujo manga and while it has its cliche moments, I've heard it's pretty good. It's only 10 volumes long so it's not as stretched as the other 3 you've mentioned.
If it's not you're thing, then never mind.
edited 22nd Apr '11 10:21:35 AM by Bunny-kins
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Well, the romance is often how the plot moves forward/between arcs and it is still slice of life.
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To true. I have to add that almost anything can be made better by adding in a romantic relationship. Though the opposite is also true: almost anything can be made worse by adding in a romantic relationship. Just depends on how it is written/implemented.
Exactly why I asked for recommendations as well. And it is not like ether of the stories start out bad. What can I say? I like the Nice Guy Protagonist with little fanservice.
edited 22nd Apr '11 10:33:47 AM by Belian
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!Ironically I think some of the best romances I've seen *aren't* romance. (Rah Xephon, Princess Tutu, Planetes...)
"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy EntKimi Ni Todoke is pretty much the only thing I've seen that can qualify as romance I guess. I loved it, it's great.
I read GE-Good Ending and Hetakoi. Both are awesome in my opinion. I've also enjoyed several comedy/harem series, like Love Hina, Tora Dora or Mahoraba.
I guess it's a matter of taste, really.
edited 22nd Apr '11 2:44:40 PM by Kayeka
I was going to suggest Lovely Complex, but I realized that it plays the "'Looks like we have a happy end all set up so now we need to toss in a new plot twist/false romance/bring back an old romance' card" pretty straight. Otherwise, it was cute, although I agree that it's really frustrating to have the main couple go through 234924592351 misunderstandings just so the story can drag on...
Tumblr here.There are plenty of good Romance mangas and animes out there that I liked. Love Hina was a really good one as well as Amagami SS.
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!And... you don't see any fake relationship obstacles in Love Hina Raso?
No I see many of them. Most are flatout blatantm, lampshaded or just absolutely absurd... a Giant Onion, a freaken plane and Kanako (One reason why alot see her as The Scrappy.) a curse ect. But it was good when it counted, more so after the partial Genre Shift.
edited 22nd Apr '11 4:32:33 PM by Raso
Sparkling and glittering! Jan-Ken-Pon!
Lampshade or not, they are as fake as you can get. Furthermore, there is some other fake obstacles that were played pretty much straight. Like Naru being so adamant against confessing her love for Keitarô, even after she having confessed her love for him. It made sense for a while, then it becomes ridiculous (then the author noticed it was ridiculous and started to lampshade, but it was played straight for a while).
That being said, I like Love Hina.
If you are going to talk about a romance manga without such blatant devices to keep the romance interesting, I would say the shoujo Suna Dokei is a good example. Mostly because the focus is less the couple and more the Coming of Age story of the girl, though.
Like a lot of people, I'm gonna say Kimi Ni Todoke. It does have its share of misunderstandings, though most of them are fairly short (the long ones are annoying, but there aren't many). It gets past that mainly because of two things: it realizes it has other characters it can develop, and it knows that just hooking up does not mean the development, or the awkward phase, is over.
Wait, when did I get a manga blog?I've seen both series which do romance well, and ones which don't.
The worst are ones I get bored of - I don't get bored of plots very easily - and to memory this includes only around half a dozen series. Mysterious Girlfriend X and Pastel come to mind.
In the general "bad" category are ones which drag on, but I feel I can continue reading for one reason or another. Love Hina and Mx0 are among those I think of in this category. Notable is Ai Kora, which only belongs in this category because I eventually got around to finishing it.
Next is the majority. These often have a secondary (or even Primary) plot which has little to nothing to do with the romance plot. Too many to even begin listing them.
Then the good stuff. Your Mileage May Vary I know, but I fit quality series such as Mahoraba and Nagasarete Airantou here.
And then what I consider the best of the best. Even my own opinion varies regarding these, depending on my mood at the time and how well I remember everything. Right now though, I can't think of anything to put in here; the border between this group and the previous is very fluid. (Actually, there were a few things I was considering putting in here, but they all require shipping goggles of various degrees of clarity to see them as "romance")
Thanks for all the opinions! And I definitely agree: the best romance stories I've seen have come from series that had something else going for them. That is why I specified "pure" romance in the title/OP and made that earlier comment about what a romance can do for a story.
Just to clarify a bit of a misunderstanding, Tropes Are Not Bad. Just making it that far in those two series shows that I enjoyed some of the cliche antics that went on. It is the "not letting the series reach a natural conclusion" by overusing those tropes that gets to me.
I'll have to check out those other series some time. Just not right now. Got finals in two weeks
Another vote for Kimi Ni Todoke.
Other possible choices include:
- Cross Game
- Touch
- Maison Ikkoku (which does use a lot of the cliches you were complaining about- however Maison Ikkoku often gets a pass on these things for three reasons: 1: Execution is superior to other romances using those tropes, 2: Many of those tropes weren't old and cliche when Maison Ikkoku used them, 3: Maison Ikkoku has a definite ending that it moves towards consistently over the whole run, and it has a reasonable and believable obstacle that prevents the romance from being resolved, thus while it does use a bunch of these romance tropes, Maison Ikkoku is never dependent on them to justify dragging out the romance.)
edited 23rd Apr '11 7:59:37 AM by Sackett

Is anyone else disappointed in pure romance-and-slice-of-life manga? I'm not all that interested in that sort of story, but there are a couple I've read. The three that come to mind are Suzuka, Kimi No Iru Machi, and Skip Beat. And I like the beginning of all of them. The problem is that I only continue to like Skip Beat. My Willing Suspension of Disbelief for the other two gets lost after they use Sitcom plot devices one to many times. Basically, I like them until the original plot point/romance is resolved, but once the "Looks like we have a happy end all set up so now we need to toss in a new plot twist/false romance/bring back an old romance" card has been played a number of times, I quickly loose interest.
I liked Suzuka until the main character forgets Suzuka's birthday, the issue is not resolved, she leaves, and an old romance popped up right away out of nowhere. At that point I just gave up.
I thought that a newer romance by the same author might be better. And was mostly right. I found Kimi No Iru Machi to be reasonably good until he goes to collage. There is absolutely no reason for all of his old friends to show up there or even the time skip at all. That would have been a perfect place to have a happy end, but the author just could not let that happen. I managed to get up to Rin asking "Do you really love her?" and that was one too many times for that question. (also, just got to that point and it is the reason for this post)
Skip Beat does have a romance as the main plot line, but it is just as much about the Character Development that is going on. The main romance has also never come close to feeling "resolved" though there is reasonably steady progress.
Basically, I am wondering if there is anyone else who has this sort of reaction to romance manga* and maybe someone can explain why the first two are so popular. If there are recommendations for romance manga that ether reach a solid conclusion/don't use all that many sitcom events or have something else going for them (Negima, Rosario To Vampire, etc.), feel free to mention them.
edited 22nd Apr '11 8:57:51 AM by Belian
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!