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Romance Mangas

I second IO, it was a great story and the ocean artwork was really well done. I also recommend Mars, basically for the same reason as everyone else. Some other choices are Kodocha, I''s, and Living Game.

I also agree that Mars is an excellent series to pick up if you like romance and drama manga. Its basically about two people who help each other deal with deep emotional scars from their past. While this fits into the romance genre, the story line is far from the light and fluffiness of the two manga you mentioned....the past problems of the two main characters is pretty dark. However, that is what makes this series an excellent read.

Another good series is Tramps Like Us also known as Kimi wa Petto (info can be found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tramps_Like_Us as well as http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/manga.php?id=3877) It basically deals with the main character, Sumire's, insecurities and how a young man who she takes in as a pet helps her overcome them. (On a side note...this series was also made into a japanese drama of the same title, kimi wa petto).

Other romance series that might interest you are: koukou debut (high school debut), special A, akumo de soro (the devil does exist) *about a boy and a girl who fall in love but because their parents' (the boy's father and the girl's mother) are going to get married it makes it an obstacle for their love and whether or not they should continue to be together, and there are a whole bunch of stuff out there that you can check out. Try series by Yuu Watase, they're always highly recommended. Wink

I would have to say Mars it's a very good series and actually has a great story to it. I think that manga is a #1 for me.

Also Dramacon it's a cute and humorous read. Very good.

Wish is another manga that has great art and won't get you lost into the whole story. Very awesome.

[[EDIT: No links to scanlations sites, and no listing. -TK[/i]]

I would recommend the following:

Lovely Complex/Love*Com
It's basically about the hilarous chemistry between a very short but talented high school basketball player and a very tall, clumsy but pretty girl. I found the manga and show to have its moments and the anime is finally going to get a US release! Manga has been out for a while I think.

Bokura ga Ita
This is one of those sad romantic stories. I haven't finished it yet and it's been running for about 10 years I think. It's about the new girl in school, Nana, catches the attention of the popular cute boy, Yano, because she accidently does a highschool faux-pas in front of everyone. They go through every awkward dating obstacle the author could think of. The main obstacle being, Yano still spoiler[ feeling guilty about the death of his former love who was older and happens to be named Nana as well (different Kanjis though) ].

Hana Yori Dango/Boys Before Flowers
A girl stands up for her friend against the leader of the popapular rich boy group in one the elite private schools in Japan. She's labelled as an invisible person but the leader of the group just can't get her out his mind. They fall in love, but she secretly falls in love with one of his best friends.

Sweet, necroposting a general genre recommendation thread! Might as well throw in my 2cents, right?

NG Life is certainly a fan favorite, one of the final series Tokyopop was able to publish in its entirety (the day I got back from the Borders with vol 9 then came over to ANN only to see the news, and now the mention of both in the same sentence has made me depressed). It's a wacky sort of comedy about a guy who is a reincarnation of a dude from Pompeii now living in Japan as a teenager. His best guy friend has reincarnated as a girl and his fiance has reincarnated as a (somewhat girly looking) boy who wants to be as macho as possible. Neither the friend nor fiance remember their past lives, but other characters from the main's past certainly do. It's just a funny sweet romcom that knows how to make every character count, and luckily for us, it was all released, so that's definitely one to get.

Although Maison Ikkoku shall always take the crown for romcoms for me. It's possibly Rumiko Takahashi's only series that 1) has no super powers anywhere (or cell phones since it's the 80s) and 2) has a definitive ending in 15 volumes (short by her standards), but it's easily my favorite series. It also involves college age people and older, making it one of the few romances to not focus on high schoolers. But I loved the jokes, I think Takahashi had a tendancy to reuse a lot of jokes in later series, but here they all seem fresh, even today, but she also has no problem breaking the hearts of her characters. There is the annoying tendency for people to not just talk to each other like normal grownups (a lot) and to just act like complete jerkwads, but as one of the earliest series I ever got into, it's still one of my favorites.

Seiho Boys' High School is another more recent series that I quite enjoyed. It's a bit similar to Here is Greenwood in that it takes place in an all boys' school, but Greenwood had almost no romance while all the main guys at Seiho (except for the gay one) somehow manage to get girlfriends despite the school's location being on an island you have to get to by a ferry that only runs twice a day and it being the only school on the island. But people do live on the island, including girls who go to high school out in the real world, and they have to come back home sometimes too. Definitely one of the more overlooked series from the Shojo Beat label, probably because it's not quite like the other SB titles, but I quite enjoyed it.

I think I'll even rec a borderline yaoi with Shout Out Loud!, which was borderline enough to be under Tokyopop's BLU line. Still, there's a lot of dude, starting with the main guy, a 30 something who could still pass for a college student, who does voice work. He has to voice some yaoi work, but it seems some of his coworkers want to take it a bit further than the recording studio. But the main also has a son, who comes to live with him due to convenient mother death, so the main wasn't gay before, but (and his son, but not with his son, nothing that creepy) might be before the end of the series! Also, there was a part where the seiyuu that the main (and those he works with) do of a parody of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, which made me beyond nerdgasm.

How about "Flowers of Evil"... Dark comedy, lots of drama and a unique type of school based romance (based on pranks, freaks and geeks).

A lot of old threads are being revived lately. Interesting.

If I have to recommend a romance manga, it would have to be Kimi ni Todoke. What I love about it is the main characters' naivete and purity, to a degree. The story really focuses on its characters. It focuses on the development of their love for each other. There are no extra drama situations involved like a difference in social status or a jealous sister or a dying lover or any of that shit. It simply portrays the budding love of the main characters. That's what I love about it. I think, because of this setup, it's easier to relate to. I mean, if you're talking romance manga, you have some of the more popular ones like Dengeki Daisy (includes a genius hacker), Skip Beat! (actor and actress with severe issues), and Faster than a Kiss (student-teacher relationship). They're all great, but they all have this unique factor that pushes the romance factor out of the spotlight sometimes. But with Kimi ni Todoke, it's pure love, and a cutesy, high school first love one at that.

PS. Something the three mangas I mentioned have in common is the fact that the guy is older than the girl by years. If you like that stuff, check them out, they're actually really good.

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Romance Mangas