The new series from Tomoko Ninomiya, creator of Nodame Cantabile, turns its focus on the world of jewelry! Shinobu, a second-year in high school, is part of the family that runs Kurata-ya, a storied pawn shop based in a breezy central Tokyo neighborhood. She helps run the place when school isn't calling, and she has a natural gift that aids her a great deal-the ability to see the "aura" released by gemstones! Shinobu doesn't have a boyfriend, but she does have a fiance handpicked for her by her grandfather-Akisada Kitagami, a man from a prestigious family who wound up being taken in by Kurata-ya at a young age. He now works as a salesman for a first-class jewelry brand, but he's also got more than his fair share of secrets... "
Yuriko, 35 and single, leads a humdrum everyday routine of work and looking after her disabled father. At the kindergarten where she teaches she's treated as an old maid, and at home her father won't listen to a thing she says. And of course she has no plans to marry... after all, she's just going to live out the rest of her boring life here in the countryside anyway, right? But while she's lost in thought over it, she causes a fender-bender. She doesn't know how to react, but Sosuke, the man in the other car, tells her he'll forget it ever happened... if she has sex with him! But after she goes with the flow and "just does it," it turns out that he's actually the father of one of her students?! And as if that weren't enough, Takumi, her kindergarten's cheeky young chief director, arrives on the scene...? Thus begins a clumsy love triangle for a flawed adult who had given up on love.
Suddenly, her life was turned upside-down.... Kinaho lived alone until one day, her boyfriend Akito brought with him two young relatives: a pair of brothers who had just lost their parents. All at once, Kinaho finds herself living under one roof with not just Akito, but serious-to-a-fault eighth grader Toma and innocent five-year-old Haruhi. As the days pass in confusion, this group starts to forge a new relationship: a family... or something like it.
Aoi is the kind of beautiful girl that everyone likes and who is always perfectly made up. Having been accepted into the art school of her dreams, she lives her days to the fullest. But she actually harbors a secret: she is actually male, devoid of self-confidence and fearful of the prying eyes of others. But then one day, her friend Rikako learns her secret....
He's off in search of a certain man's life.... Harboring doubts about Dorry, a man he had previously arrested, inquisitive cop Yagi sets off to uncover his past, arriving at a town isolated by winter snow. Despite the town's hostility toward outsiders, he secures the cooperation of a local postman and an orphan with no last name, and begins his investigation....
Reunited with a childhood friend after five years, I was in my first year of high school, yet you stood before me, a teacher.... Kato is a young man with a peculiar condition that causes him to age three years for every year of real time. Orihara watches over him as both a friend and a student. This is the tale of the unusual life of these two former classmates.
Koyomi Inagawa, wedding planner. Despite working freelance, she is highly sought-after and admired for her skill even among her peers in the wedding industry. She tends to embrace every whim of the bride and groom with a sunny warmth, and it is in her nature to be fired up by an impossible challenge. While continuing to build a delicate rapport with Shinoyama - an old colleague and rival from her time working at a big-name hotel back in the day - as she goes, Koyomi spends her time rushing to and fro to make each new day "the best day of your life" for someone out there!!
One year ago, high schooler Hana Odamaki (age 17) and auto factory worker Shogo Kine (age 38) suddenly switched places in body and mind. Now, after a year in each other's shoes, the two run into each other again. The man who found himself as a young maiden has brushed up his vessel's femininity and become an amateur model, while the girl in the body of a middle-aged man was treated as an amnesia case and lost any steady employment. They may have been reunited with "themselves", but what should they do when they can scarcely recognize the person they once were...?
To all the yokai, I am here to make sure you live peacefully together with the humans.Our world and the yokai world is connected by the Flower Demon Door. We of the Sakaimeya profession are summoned to teach those yokai that want to live in the human world how to, even though things don't always go according to plan. Teaching Yokai how to feel humanity leads to a heart-warming story.
You're great just the way you are. Even though Miku is 25 years old, she hasn't learned a thing about how to do her own makeup -- but her boyfriend, Haru, tells her that he prefers her that way. Miku and Haru live together, after all, and they might get married, in which case she'll just quit her job anyway, so it's probably fine never to learn... At least, that's what she tells herself. One day, a boy with a special love for makeup suddenly appears in her life. The beautiful stranger does Miku up gorgeously and Haru's reaction to her new look is almost unbelievable--? A story of starting anew and taking one's life back through makeup!
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!
"I never really wanted good friends. I always thought I'd rather have things I'd be okay with leaving behind." Tsukiko is the new girl in school. One day, she catches a glimpse of her classmate, Utsumi, swimming in the school's pool. She becomes fixated. Tsukiko knew they were classmates, but beyond that, the two girls had no reason to cross paths. However, one rainy day turns all of that around. An emotional story about the everyday lives of the enigmatic new girl and the girl with no filter who happens to love swimming!
A hapless young man is released from prison with nothing to his name, but he knows exactly what he wants: to train in the art of rakugo comedic storytelling. After seeing an unforgettable performance from one of Japan's greatest masters, Yakumo Yurakutei VIII, during his time in jail, he will settle for nothing less than to become apprentice to the best. Yakumo, notorious for taking no students, is persuaded to take him on, and nicknames him Yotaro-the fool. Yotaro has no formal training or elegance, but something about his charisma reminds Yakumo of someone from his past.
How reliable would you say your memory is? As humans, our minds can omit memories. Memories can become idealized. Sometimes, they can even be entirely fabricated. There are various ways by which one's recollection of past events can become distorted. One could even say that it is a type of mental defense mechanism meant to protect us. But what if you had the chance to see your memories in their original state, unblemished and untouched...? Would you take it?
Meet Hakucho, the hippocampus and their assistant, Rohen, two mysterious individuals that live and work at an old-fashioned cafe that's more than meets the eye. Their shop comes to those plagued by their past, offering a chance to see the truth behind their memories. When restoring a client's memories, Hakucho summons a mystical creature from their ancient pipe. The creature enters the client's mind, scouring its depths to reveal that which has become obscured. However... sometimes, the truth is perhaps best left forgotten.
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.