I've been preparing for a competition that could open doors for me as an aspiring artist, but one day, in one fell swoop, I lost my art model and my girlfriend. I was still reeling from it when a young girl suddenly showed up beside me and said she would be my new model. However, now she says I need to offer up my body in exchange for her help...?! I had lost everything, and she knew nothing of the world; this is the story of our warped and fleeting, yet innocent, love.
Note: Chapter 11 is a stand-alone story about Ai's past. Ai Morikawa lives for her work. Pulling overtime and getting home past midnight is business as usual for this Tokyo career woman. She barely has time to catch the last train every night, let alone go chasing after a potential husband. One night, an extraordinarily pretty 16-year-old boy named Nagisa shows up on Ai's doorstep, and she takes him in. Her acquaintance with Nagisa, a boy as eccentric and aloof as a cat, slowly begins to change Ai's routine... This unconventional family drama is guaranteed to soothe your heart!
This town is unsettling, and yet somehow comforting.... When "Cee" awoke, humans had vanished from the world, leaving only the remains of their civilization behind. Desperate to evade the mysterious "Cone Heads," Cee encounters a one-eyed Golem, "Bulb." Golems are humanoid automatons, made to serve their human masters, but what befell their erstwhile creators? This is the story of a bond between girl and golem that could change the world!
At the age of 19, Ayano makes the fateful decision to set foot into the adult film industry. Alienated from her family and feeling she lacks a place in the world, she wields what "assets" she has -- her body -- and finds success in her newfound calling. This is the story, at turns delicately nuanced and starkly graphic, of a "porn star's" journey: everyday struggles, what happens when family finds out, and even love. The novel by a real-life adult-film actress is brought to life in manga form!
Ruriko Aoyama, a second-year in high school, was born with a large, blue birthmark on her face. She has lived her life trying not to make a big deal of it, trying to avoid overly conscientious treatment by those around her. One day, Ruriko gets her hands on a notebook belonging to her new homeroom teacher, Kanda. He had written all of her classmates' names in the book, and next to their names: distinguishing physical features. However, Ruriko notices that the space next to her own name is inexplicably blank. When she confronts her homeroom teacher, Ruriko finds that Kanda lives with prosopagnosia -- a disorder which prevents him from being able to make sense of and distinguish the human face...
I have to stop this. I can't let my friend be killed...! - Meiko Yashiro is in her second year of junior high. She's barely spoken to her childhood friend Hozumi Togawa ever since a certain incident drove them apart. However, one day Meiko has a supernatural encounter that could change everything... "I can't let his life end at 14 years." - One girl will spring into action to change her childhood friend's future in this time-paradox coming-of-age story that will pull at your heart strings and leave you blinking the stars out of your eyes!
Saki Edajima, 18 years old - Determined to make her own way in life, she resolves to leave home and move to Tokyo despite the naysaying from everyone around her. Saki managed to get hired at an animation studio thanks to her skill at drawing, but all her new coworkers are so grown-up and capable that she's really feeling the pressure as she works alongside them day and night. It takes tenacity to give it your all in work and in love. This is the story of one reckless girl racing full-speed toward her dreams!
The world has now entered the age of e-sports. Teen pro gamer Ren Azumino's motto is to win, and winning game competitions is exactly how she plans on making a living. One day, an industry rep who has taken notice of Ren's exceptional performance pays Ren a visit. His mission? Recruit Ren to enroll at Hakugo Academy under the newly established e-sports department. There, Ren meets several other students, including Mashiro Kanzaki, a novice gamer struggling to find his way in life. A coming-of-age drama following the lives of a group of misfits unfolds in the exciting world of e-sports!
What do you do when nothing's going right in your life?
Minori (29), who has been struggling from day to day, has become pessimistic about life as a whole. This year has been especially dreadful. Work has become a hellish experience because of her new boss. Her childhood friend and longtime crush, Asai, just told her he only sees her as a friend. When all seems hopeless, Minori is suddenly visited by a "Toshiotoko", a fairy whose job is to bring luck and happiness to their charge. With his gentle and encouraging support, she slowly learns to take control of her life by the reins. What will Minori discover as she continues her search for what happiness really means to her?
Mami has tried marriage once and failed, so now she's looking for something else. Even if her peers won't get it, she wants what she wants: not marriage, not romance, just a man to spend time with when she needs some company! Sure enough, when she brings this up at her junior high class reunion, her friends all gang up against her. However, a handsome former classmate she'd almost never spoken to before--Nakamura--does empathize with her! When Mami learns that Nakamura is also once-divorced and, just like her, is looking not for a wife or a girlfriend but just a woman to spend time with, she makes a life-changing decision. She's given up on living her life according to what's "normal." After spending thirty-some years toiling under the crushing weight of societal expectations, one woman finds herself a partner in crime and a new lease on life in this modern-day survival story.
Sayaka Shimada, 36 and single, loves three things: her job, her favorite singer, and her mother, who lives with her. Even with her junior coworker Sugaya tossing thoughtless comments her way, she'd poured herself into her work, and when she paused to look up she found herself on the cusp of her late 30s. Partly at her mother's suggestion, Sayaka visits a matchmaking service. The man she's introduced to is sweet and earnest, and things start moving smoothly toward marriage. Though it hasn't all sunk in yet, she is well on her way to a happy future--and that's when a sudden injury leaves her mother hospitalized. The injury is nothing too serious and Sayaka is settling her nerves, until she notices something off about her mother... A poignant and much-acclaimed depiction of the struggles of caretaking and building a future, issues faced by countless people every day!
Chitose and Ken Kuraki are working parents with a 2-year-old daughter, Nanase. With help from Chitose's mother, they somehow manage a work-life balance. But one day, Chitose and Ken suddenly swap bodies! Now literally in each other shoes, they must now face their new roles at work and child-raising, which come with a whole slew of challenges, including having to deal with a group of annoying moms. Will our couple be able to break gender stereotypes, and overcome their dilemma while raising Nanase at the same time?
"Humans in this country don't take sleep seriously enough." This is a story about work -- that is, an office worker in her late twenties and her sleep demon, whose job it is to get her to sleep! Yoko is a hard worker, that's for sure. She's missed her last train home yet again and feels herself losing the battle to sleep in the bathroom. That's when she senses a shadow over her shoulder. She turns around only to find -- a sleep demon?! "Oh. You can see me." says Nero, a regular old office worker at Sleep Demons Incorporated in the Underworld. His monthly salary comes from getting humans go to sleep, and from today, he's in charge of Yoko. Thus begins Yoko and Nero's daily quest to improve her quality of sleep -- for both of their sakes!
Our bias got married! What's the next big thing for these former groupies? Perhaps it's time for them to chase down... the perfect marriage partner?! When the actor they had dedicated their lives to announces his marriage, four young women (and former groupies) call an emergency meeting. A panicked Chikako, 34-years-old and the eldest of the group, announces to everyone that she absolutely will find a partner and be married within one year. Her secret weapon? Online dating! These women are giving up on the race to snag concert tickets and stepping onto the battlefield of love and dating. (sentence).
Achieve your dreams and find love...through bouldering!Miyo, a first-year in high school, has been bouldering since she was little with her friends, Keita and Tetsu at their local gym in Utsunomiya. But recently, Keita's found a girlfriend. Miyo thought the three of them would always stay climbing buddies, but their relationship slowly begins to change. An empowering story following three high school students and the obstacles they must face and overcome in the world of bouldering, and in love.
At a particular shopping district located in an old Tokyo neighborhood, humans and cats seem to live together in peace. But these cats aren't your ordinary felines! They are spirits, whose human forms allow them to go about their days undetected amongst the other locals. And the truth is, this neighborhood attracts some rather unique problems because of its residents. Chisato, a shop owner and the only human aware of the cat spirits' presence, and Kotora, a young cat spirit band together in attempt to solve the various predicaments they encounter. But will luck be on their side?
Ichigo Kaida is in his first year of college. It's raining heavily and he's biking home along the Kamogawa river after a couple of particularly grueling shifts at his part time job. That's when, out of the blue, he finds an abandoned dog. Whoever left the dog also left a letter, which relays two facts: 1. The dog, though truly and genuinely a dog, loves to eat bread. 2. The dog's name is Koppe Roll. Ichigo feels for Koppe and decides to take care of him, regardless of the struggle... but what will Ichigo do when the little dog simply refuses to touch the food that Ichigo puts out for him...?!
Kiri and her husband, both in their 30s, have been happily married for several years. They don't have any children yet, and Kiri knows that at her age they'll need to start trying soon if they ever want to. Yet she can't seem to take that first step, knowing that once she makes a decision, she won't be able to turn back. While Kiri agonizes, feeling more drained with every pregnancy announcement she hears, her husband seems awfully detached and casual about the whole thing...? In a sudden rush of motivation, Kiri takes the plunge and manages to get pregnant, only to face a world of new, unfamiliar challenges as a first-time mom-to-be. This story of one woman's journey into motherhood is for the women also struggling to decide, for those already expecting, for long-time mothers reminiscing about their own pregnancies, and of course for the men in all their lives. It's a story anyone and everyone can enjoy.
Jun (35) and Takeyori Sumisu (39) have been married for 8 years with no children. Since Jun quit her full-time job, she's more or less become a housewife, spending her days quietly. But when she realizes that 5 years have gone by since the couple last had sex, frustration begins to surface. "It's not like we don't get along... I just miss the way things used to be when we had first started going out." With her newfound motivation, she's determined to make a change, and begins job hunting again. However, when spring arrives and her new job begins, new encounters and experiences abound for both Jun and her husband.
Set on becoming a clothing designer, she got herself a job at a leading apparel company - only to end up assigned to the reception desk. Yet Mio Adachi didn't give up there. She spent her days practicing design, on top of performing her receptionist duties, in hopes of one day moving to a department where she could actually work in fashion design. That fateful day comes, though with an unfortunate twist, when a higher-up in the design department sees a sketch by handsome top-class designer Miyabi Shito and mistakenly thinks it's one of Mio's...! Caught between the pull of her lifelong dream and the weight of starting it off with a lie, what path will Mio take next...?