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The Kiss Collector by Wendy Higgins

Genere:

Romance, Contemporary,YA, Reverse Harem

Synopsis:

Zae Monroe, a 17 year old girl, is having a really hard time as their parents go through a divorce leaving her already poor family in a shaky economical situation. On top of that she finds her boyfriend cheating on her at a party and begins to wonder if all men are like this why can't she do it too? Why can't a girl just go around kissing whomever she likes without being slutshamed? So she and a group of friends star collecting kisses from a bunch of guys they just feel like kissing.

At the same time, during literature, the teacher reads a poem Zae is 100% sure it's about her. Who wrote it? Maybe her kiss list is the perfect excuse to go around the boys in her class and discover who among this guys really sees her and her pain.

In the process Zae and her friends find that while it is liberting to do whatever you feel like, they did not feel as good as they thought because maybe the solution of the problem is not to act like the people who hurt you, especially if you don't know the whole story.

Thoughts:

*I just loved this so much, the characters are mostly realistic and they have complex feelings.

*Zae is not purely dominated by her romantic feelings, she has ambitions and dreams that she puts first to anything else.

*She is a good sister and a good daughter that tries to help her mom as much as she can.

*The main romantic interest is such a great guy, he is really sweet and never gets mad at Zae for what she is doing. Also he quite literally ends up being saved by Zae and they are both better people with each other, but all of this comes after Zae fullfils her dreams and aspirations.

*It's a fairly quick read, and though it is mostly funny it has some serious heart wrenching moments.

Rating:

💖💖💖💖/5

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Just watched this movie and I 100% recommend it.

“Hey, did you know?”

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What is Josei?

Josei it's a manga genere aimed towards adult women, the term literally means "women", It's often confused with shoujo but the difference between them lies on the fact that whereas shoujo manga gives young girls a world of idealistic romance and fantasy, josei portrays the reality of the relationships of a modern women (even when the setting is historical or fantastical there is always a sense of realism and maturity in the relationships and mindset of josei characters) and the struggles they face in society.

A bit of background...

During the 1980's the girls that grew up reading the manga shoujo from the 50's wanted to read something that reflected this new stage of their lives. Fortunately Moto Hagio and her fellow mangakas from group 49 also wanted to expand their work making it more mature.

At first this kind of manga was called "ladies comics" (redicomi), and the first magazine dedicated to it was called Be Love, it was printed in 1980, and the genere would be so succesful that by 1989 there would be over 50 similar publications.

(A,A Prime 1981)

(Human Crossing 1981)

On their early days ladies comics were short, mostly compressed into short story anthologies, like the examples above "A,A Prime" and "Human Crossing", the difference between shoujo and josei was since the beginning not only thematical but aesthetical as well, forgotten was the flowing hair and big sparkling shoujo eyes to give way to more solid realistic depictions of men and women alike.

Their serialized works were at first adaptations of literature like "The tales of Genji" (1980-), and would later in the decade evolve mixing japanese characters in western settings or going all the way with western characters and settings. One of the mangas I think is worth mentioning and is accesible to find and read would be "Tomoi" (1987) by Akisato Wakuni, which tells the story of a japanese doctor living in New York struggling with being gay on a deeply homophobic society. This story is not only sophisticated and mature, is also well-rounded and hearbreaking.

Another exaple worth mentioning is "Hoshi no Tokei no Lidell" (The Star Clock of Lidell/ 1982) by Yoshimi Uchida, this one tells the story of Hugh, a collage student who keeps having a recurring dream of a strange victorian house. This manga is not easy to find (I believe there is just 1 volume online) and the translation is a bit confusing at times but It's really worth it because Uchida's art is truly breathtaking.

Golden Age

Ladies comics at the beginning were sex-free (josei includes sex scenes but in a much less explicit way than hentai), but in the 1990's they became more explicit which resulted in them being branded as "low-born" and dirty, in response to this the term "josei" was created to move away from the negative reputation of ladies comics without really changing anything in their stories.

It is the 90's as well when western setting and characters are less prominent and japanese stories take the protagonism as well as the theme of japanese woman exploring western culture, and revalorating what they want and wheater or not japanese society deems it acceptable.

An example of this new trend is "Walts wa shiroi dress de" by Chiho Sato (1990) telling the story of Koto, a girl living during XX century Japan, she as most of the country is having her first exposure to foreign people and their culture, she is fascinated by everything especially fashion as her dream is to become a tailor, unfortunately she knows that is not posible for her since she is bethroted to the heir of one of the oldest and most important families in Japan and if she works it would be scandalous. She is invited at a ball by her fiancé where she meets Sagitto, a half-indian half-british spy that completely changes what Koto thought her life would be.

And as the genere evolves the western themes get almost completly forgotten, in favor of exploring real life stories of japanese woman such as "Club 9" by Makoto Kobayashi (1992)where Haruo Hattori, a young university student recently arrived at Tokyo enters the world of Hostess Bars, and she is constantly challenged by this new world while trying to keep to her values and convictions or "Iguana no Musume" (Iguana Girl) by the renowned Moto Hagio (1992) telling the story of Rika, a little girl who believes herself to be as ugly as an Iguana due to her mother often comparing her bad looks to those of her pretty sister Mami, and how Rika deals with it after her mother's death, based off of the real life relationship Moto Hagio had with her own mother.

While some feel inclined to call Josei the "big sister" of shoujo manga I personally believe it is Shoujo manga itself grown up, for it shares It's core of challenging the views of women and girls and allowing them to see themsleves and their stories reflected and I sincerly wished Josei would be as popular as Shoujo or Shonen, because the stories of this women are as important and as intresting, they deserve to be seen and read.

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Original art by NAOE. “Let’s kiss Tachibana ~ Matsuoka version ~”

Tachibana-kun: Matsuoka-san has a nice smell…

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Feng Qi Cang Lan

Author

Gu Xuang

Genere

Romance, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Reverse Harem, Comedy, Drama.

Status

Ongoing

Summary

Xiao Wan plays a very popular online game of Virtual Reality called Cang Lang, one day her avatar is pushed off a cliff and Xiao finds herself unable to leave the game.

Thoughts

I really love the 'girl enters videogame world' theme some mangas and manhuas are using right now It's so cool!

This one is so funny tho, the girl is trapped in this new levels of the game but It's the only one there who knows It's a game and she has access to her menu and maps that makes people think she is really lucky.

The art style is so pretty, and everything is so colorful.

All the guys are amazing (my bae is elder Mu tho) and intresting.

Ranking 3/5

💖💖💖

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Otome Danshi ni Koisuru Otome

Author

Shimazaki Mujiroshi

Genere

Romance, Comedy, Gender Bend.

Status

Ongoing

Summary

Mizuguchi Mayu is a 15 year old girl who is terribly afraid of man. One day while boarding the train a kind and beautiful girl helps her out when she was about to fall and Mayu instantly falls in love with her, so she follows this girl to thank her and ask her for her name, but as it turns out Yuki -her saviour - is not a girl but a boy who crossdresses and works in a café where boys dress up as maids!

Thoughts

I really love it!!! Usually the girls are the ones to crossdress in shoujo manga and I loved that this one was a boy (male crossdressers are more common on shounen-ai and yaoi) much and the main love interest!!, I think that's pretty cool!!! As it explores one of the oldest themes in the genere: the gender identity.

This manga is also pretty new, it started last year, but it updates super fast, the chapters are very short tho...

Yuki is a sweetheart, like I stopped reading shoujo a couple of years ago cuz I just couldn't stand how much of an assholes where some main love interests, since then I have tried to look for different stories and this one did not disappoint.

So nice and fluffy! A perfect read to relax, as the chapters are very short and sweet. This is like the comfort food of mangas.

Rating 3/5

💖💖💖

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I just finished reading Short Cake Cake 🍰 and it just left me...... hngggg..... NOT KNOWING WHAT TO SHIP NOW!!!! Ackkkk!!!! Porqué?! 😭😫

OMG yessssss!!!! Both guys are so great and they really care about Ten, but I lean towards Riku a lil’ bit cuz he surprised me a lot, I thought he was just a flirty guy (ya kno the stereotypical one who isn’t really serious about the heroine until she rejects him and never has a real shot with her anyway) but gawwd Riku has real depth and the way he pined for Ten and tried not to flirt or compliment her cuz that made her uncomfortable, and then Ten starts to see him in a diferent light too 😘😘😘 but Chiaki is so great too, I assumed he was the main guy cuz he was so chill, smart, had family issues and even supported Riku’s crush, and also Ten kinda liked him at the beginning but then ahhhhhhhhh like so hard to decide. But if I had to I would pick Riku.

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Jigoku no Enra

Author

Shimada Chie

Generes

Paranormal Romance, School Life, Comedy, Reverse Harem.

Status

Ongoing

Synopsis

Yama, the King of Hell, has decided It's time to pick an heir among his 5 children, thus he gives them the task to seek and erase the sinners on his list, the one who erases the most sinners will be the next King of Hell.

Enra, his second oldest chooses to go after Takamura Komachi one of the highest ranked sinners. Komachi is a 16 year old highschool student, called the book of laws by her clasmates, because she is very strict when it comes to school regulations and posseses a very strong sense of justice (her dad is a lawyer and her mom a prosecutor), that is the reason why when she is sent to hell by Enra she is able to negotiate with him to let her live her life until she commits the sin that makes her be on the Yama's list.

Thoughts

This one is a very recent work (released on 2015) and one of my favorites, I just love the theme, the comedy and the romantic moments so much.

Using the Yama instead of some western version of the devil was so great. The Yama btw is part of the East Asian Buddhist myth (sometimes known as the King of Hell, King Yan or Yanluo) is a dharmapala (wrathful god) said to judge the dead and preside over the Narakas ("Hells" or "Purgatories") and the cycle of afterlife.

I am weak for Reverse Harem, and this one fullfils me, it has a paranormal aspect, and all the guys have very good moments with Komachi.

I am intrigued, as the manga advances the reader notices Komachi is a great girl who loves justice and likes to help people and belives in their inherent goodness, so wtf is my girl going to do to warrant being such a great sinner??? Like I need answers!!!

This is a very traditional highschool shoujo with a little paranormal romance thrown in (also a bit of violence) but also a very fun read and I definitely recommend it.

Rating 3/5

💖💖💖

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What is Shoujo?

Shoujo is a manga genere, it literally translates as 'young woman' and of course this genere's target audience are teenage girls. They are most often than not coming of age stories focused on friendship, romance and family issues most girls have at that age.

A bit of background...

As an industry manga took off after World War II, because manga magazines where not only uplifting but also where very cheap to produce, by this time the most popular mangas where the ones aimed at children.

Later in the 50's-60's the genere of shoujo was created, there were strips of comics on the 20's that would result appealing to woman and girls but until the 50's-60's surged a genere especiffically meant for woman. Surprisingly most of the shoujo writers of that time period were man.

The most remarcable was Osamu Tezuka (called manga no kamisama 'the god of manga) who published what is considered the first modern shoujo manga: Ribbon no Kishi (Princess Knight), it was a serialized work between 1953 and 1958 and would become the starting point for long running serialized story manga, stories that could run from just a few magazines to ten years, telling the story of a princess who must pretend to be a male prince to inherit her rightful throne. This motif of a girl dressing up as a boy is certainly one that finds its way into more modern shoujo manga such as Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena) and Ouran Koukou Host Club. While Tezuka’s story certainly lays some of the fundamental thematic groundwork with cross-dressing, romance, drama, and fantasy, Ribbon no Kishi more importantly represents a turning point in the conception of the story manga.

Golden Age

The consolidation of shoujo as a genere was until the 1970's when the Year 24 Group was created, its name derives from the fact that many in the group were born in the 24th year of the Showa period (1949). While some consider Tezuka to be the producer of the earliest renditions of the modern shoujo manga, the Year 24 Group masterfully recreated the genre in their image. It is the aesthetics of this period as well as its focus on gender and sexuality that would be the standard for all great shoujo manga.

It is an era of Moto Hagio, often considered the mother of the modern shoujo manga, who wrote a number of science fiction classics, including Juichinin Iru! (They Were Eleven), historical manga such as her epic Poe no Ichizoku (The Poe Family), and a number of early shounen-ai (mangas with homosexual relationships) works such as Thomas no Shinzo (The Heart of Thomas) that would be representative of the shoujo genre.

It is also an era of Riyoko Ikeda, most known for her masterpiece Berusaiaya no Bara (The Rose of Versailles). Published in Margaret Comics, Riyoko’s manga depicted the themes so popular in shoujo manga even thirty years later, including historical elements from the 18th and 19th century, an aesthetic that is focused on the details in the eyes and long flowing hair, as well as internal questions of gender identity and sexuality, as is referenced by the main character’s upbringing and masculine name, Lady Oscar. 

It's worth to mention that feminist criticism had begun in Japan in the late 1960s and early 70s. Still under the sphere of American influence, which was experiencing its second wave of the feminist movement, the feminist movement in Japan was, broadly, about women’s liberation. This included ideas such as liberating women from an oppressive household system and redefining ideas of husbands, children, households, and love. 

This took shape in shoujo manga as well, as more liberated female characters in the shoujo works of Moto Hagio and Riyoko Ikeda and others represented a shift towards more female agency. In addition, the presence of shounen-ai manga by Yasuko Aoike and Keiko Takemiya, who published perhaps the first shounen-ai manga “In the Sunroom”, were interpreted as not just a new intriguing fantasy for young girls, but also brought forth questions and topics of liberal gender and sexuality that had previously not been considered. Male characters often shared effeminate features in shounen-ai, yaoi, and boys love manga. Many have often attributed the popularity of these sorts of characters to the fact that these characters may represent the alter egos, or hidden desires, of the female reader trying to escape the limitations society imposed upon them for their gender.

This sort of criticism and feminist perspective would dominate the 80s and 90s, as the Year 24 group continued their careers. To supplement this, a new trend of fighting heroines from manga (called most commonly Magical Girls) such as Shoujo Kakumei Utena, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura also chimed in the latter half of the 1990s. Utena, Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura brought forth ideas of transformation, whereby young girls turned into something that enabled freedom, power, and agency. Utena, specifically, set herself apart from the pack as she was not only a fighting heroine, but a heroine wearing male clothes, which represented a callback to manga such as Ribbon no Kishi and Berusaiaya no Bara. It is thus no coincidence that Utena deals heavily in topics of sexuality and gender identity. 

While shoujo manga is nowadays criticized for its overemphasis on school environments, underwhelming teenage romance, and childish teen dramas, there still exists the intrinsic desires, dreams, and aspirations of young girls. These dreams can be fleeting and ephemeral, but shoujo manga preserves them in their entirety, now, and forever.

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AM I DOOMED TO FOREVER SUFFER FROM SECOND LEAD SYNDROME?!?!

｡･ﾟヾ(‘థ ▂ థ)ﾉ｡ﾟ･｡

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Original art by NAOE.

It’s twin tails day~

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Sorry I was away for a while enjoying my birthday food and drawing and I left Tumblr in the back burner 8D

A short original manga strip NAOE posted on her Twitter a while ago. This is just my crappy translation but this is what I think they are saying (a lot of word usage is the same in the Japanese version but I used different English words because I just type whatever comes to my mind and was too lazy to go back and edit for consistency…)

The first few pages are already small size in the original so the font is now tiny LOL

Anyways, enjoy~ PS. This is like Midori and Mattsun and Morita-san is airsoft *gets shot*

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Valentine’s Day manga strips NAOE posted on her Twitter today. This is just my crappy translation. The way Haruki speaks in the strip is so weird… or it may just be me not being able to translate it into some smooth English…  :P I want to see the Hoshishiro version too~~~

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This though😂💜

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Spirit of the Ocean

Author:

Yi Huan

Generes:

Romance, Historical, Drama, Adventure.

Status:

Ongoing

Synopsis:

 Ning Haier is a reckless pirate girl whose father is the leader of Ning Citadel -the most powerful pirate den of the Southern Sea. One day, Haier led a band of pirates and looted a Spanish ambassador ship while her father was away. There she met a very handsome English man named Michael, who was a very talented translator and an extremely intelligent merchant on the ship. Marveled by Haier's beauty and character, Michael attempts to win over Haier's heart but failed! However, opportunity arose when Haier was captured by the new governor named Shao Zhixun, who vowed to annihilate piracy from China's seas forever. Michael was able to convince Shao Zhixun that Haier is just an innocent maiden who was impressed into piracy... and Shao Zhixun arranged a position for Haier in his own household! Even more interesting, Haier's father captured Michael and planned to collaborate with the charismatic and capable young man, and offered Haier as Michael's bride!

Thoughts :

This is a really interesting read, and has a surprising romantic twist that I liked a lot, the pace is good and the story is really intresting.

Ning Haier is a very dynamic outgoing heroine: she fights, she is an amazing swimmer, a experinced sailor, she is pretty outspoken and rebellious as well. But she also balances out this traits by being extremely dreamy and charming.

The art style makes me feel nostalgic because it reminds me of "Rose of Versailles" and "Candy Candy" so for me it was pretty nice and unusual nowadays.

I had never read a Shoujo manga with pirates and this one is amazing if you are looking for something different than the usual highschool setting.

Rating: 3/5

💖💖💖

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Hello 😊😊😊

I've decided to make this blog to make a few recommendations and reviews on the things I read/watch:

Shoujo manga/anime

Josei manga/anime

YA novels and paranormal romance

Reverse Harem anime/manga

So if you are intrested please hit me up.