793 Results for "Josei"

"Love Jessica" - That's what Leah finds on the back of a love letter to her sister - but who is this Jessica? When more letters, flowers and gifts start popping up, Leah goes undercover to discover her sister's secret. What she doesn't expect is to find is love of her own, and in some very unexpected places!

Ami Satou works for Cobara, a company that specializes in sweets. While she may be good at sales, her confidence in pretty much everything else is low, which is why she hasn't even thought about dating since college. Instead, she fills up her imagination with romantic scenes from shoujo manga.

When she meets Alain Giraud, a handsome, older French man in charge of a new project she's assigned to work on, she begins to struggle to keep that romantic imagination in check... especially with Alain being so overly friendly! Ami keeps reminding herself that it's just because he's French, but will she be able to resist his romantic charm?

Why I Adopted My Husband is a profound exploration of love, societal expectations, and individuals' lengths to solidify their bonds. Yagi's storytelling prowess and the manga's impactful message position it as a must-read, shedding light on the challenges LGBTQ couples navigate in Japan. As a gay couple living in Japan (where gay marriage is not yet legal), Yuta and Kyota have found a unique loophole in order for the government to recognize their union: Kyota adopted Yuta.

This nonfiction manga depicts how the two men met and fell in love, their life together for the last twenty years, their struggle to communicate their relationship to their families, their anxieties about the future, and their determination to live happily and carefree as any other married couple, while they strive for independence and equal rights in a changing cultural landscape.

"If you know nothing about what homosexuality or LGBTQ people, Why I Adopted My Husband is a perfect introduction and learning tool. It also teaches you about Japanese culture, how many family traditions are ingrained into law, and how that's both a comfort to people and can hinder LGBTQ people who want to live their lives. It's cute and funny and gets the points across with a spoonful of sugar instead of a hammer." - Adi Tantimedh, Bleeding Cool

"Why I Adopted My Husband is a profound exploration of love, societal expectations, and individuals' lengths to solidify their bonds. Yagi's storytelling prowess and the manga's impactful message position it as a must-read, shedding light on the challenges LGBTQ couples navigate in Japan." - Travis Hayward, Geek Therapy

"There are tips on how a gay couple can go the adoption route, like information on contracts. It even includes a section showing how to fill out the paperwork. This part doesn't pertain to American readers, but the manga is still worth reading because of its well-told story, its look into the realities of gay couples in Japan, and how the characters are relatable - because even if someone isn't in Yuta and [Kyota]'s shoes, the parts about feeling left out would be something everyone can relate to on some level. The fact that both men are otaku (and there are plenty of references to otaku culture) makes telling the story in manga format all the better." - Katie Kimura, Otaku USA

Shuuko, Eika, Misaki, and Shio are roommates and friends making their way in the busy world of Tokyo, Japan!

Though they share an apartment and a friendship, each faces her own unique problems. Shuuko is feeling the pressure of those around her getting married and has no idea whether she'll truly be happy on her own for the rest of her life. Eika, a hardworking career woman, wants to prove herself to the judgmental men in her office. Romantic and idealistic Misaki is spurred into action when it turns out her "boyfriend" of two years didn't know she thought they were dating. Nurturing and good-spirited Shio struggles to set a work-life balance while paying her many bills.

Join these four roommates as they navigate the biggest question of their late twenties: What does happiness really mean?

"You Can't Live All On Your Own! engages with some prescient contemporary issues through the lens of slice-of-life comedy [and] it's the social factors of sexism and ageism that really loom large as the antagonist of the series. [...] With all those heavy themes, it might surprise you when I describe this first volume as "fun." [...] While it touches on some heavy themes like misogyny and ageism, You Can't Live All On Your Own! keeps its tone light, and the story addresses these issues through the lens of relatable comedy and upbeat slice-of-life antics." - Alex Henderson, Yatta Tachi

"This borderline slice-of-life story tackles many fears and dilemmas of young adults trying to figure it all out. [...] This title succeeds in creating four distinct female characters with their own unique voicing in addition to their personal struggles and situations they've been placed in. [...] Tsuno's illustrations are unique. There are lots of simple, clean lines with sparse and effective use of shading and screen tones. Characters are extremely expressive..." - Sara Smith, The Graphic Library

After finding out she is to be forced into an marriage of convenience as soon as she graduates high school, Kokoro sees her life ending before her eyes at her father's wishes. And so in her final year of high school, she decides to indulge in her love of other women, and create an incredible sketchbook of lesbian romance to leave behind as her legacy. As she observes the young women of her town, she learns more about their desires, their struggles, and the unpredictable whims of love.

Cree is the lead singer for a punk band. When her bassist bails, she's in a tough spot - until she meets Izsak, bass player extraordinaire. He's the answer to all her prayers! But when a pair of mysterious figures begins to stalk the band, her world quickly spins from a dream to a nightmare. Between a dark past and a shadowy future, can the light of this romance survive?

Karin's wedding is just around the corner, and while she is enjoying a blissful meal with her family, her fiance Chris and his father suddenly inform her that the engagement is off. Though shaken by their unexpected declaration, Karin asks Chris for the reason, and he reveals that he has fallen for Mary, Karin's best friend. With her honor and dignity tarnished by Chris and his father's thoughtless actions, Karin plummets into despair. However, her brother asserts that they will give them "a taste of their own medicine." The Rhedsum family shall not be trifled with! Dive into a refreshing and elegant fantasy of nobility and revenge!

Ryo, my husband of six months, has become distant lately. Every time I speak to him, he seems irritated and responds with sharp words. Our strained relationship has taken a significant mental toll on me, but thankfully, I can lean on my best friend Miku. She's someone truly precious whom I trust and can confide in about anything. One day,I decide to surprise Miku with a visit, only to find my husband's car parked outside her apartment. He'd told me he was heading out for golf with his boss early that morning, but it turns out he was lying. The truth? He's been sleeping with my best friend behind my back! And as if that weren't enough,he showers her with affection he never shows me while also trash-talking me. As I grapple with my disbelief, a dark resolve forms within me, urging me to get rid of both my husband and best friend.

"Did you know? Even I get a turn to make my move." Temp worker Rino Amano, 27 years old, used to have a lover. His name was Haruo Higashiyama and he worked full-time at the same company as the manager of the planning department. He was 32 years old, married, and had a two-year-old daughter. While 99% of her knew that this was an unforgivable love that would never amount to anything, the other 1% was clutching her phone, spending her days waiting for him to reach out. One day he suddenly demands to break it off, throwing the feelings she had for him in the trash. This devastating blow leaves Rino distraught. Even at work she is unable to suppress her feelings, and she searches for an empty room to hide her tears. In doing so she catches Haruo secretly making out with another coworker much younger than herself. At that moment something inside her breaks and awakens something inside.

*This volume compiles ch. 1-3 of "Love and Hell"

On a moonless night... I hear your voice for the first time. Ume was abandoned by the family she married into because she was unable to bear children. She returns to the village where she was born but finds herself alone as her parents die from a spreading disease. As told in tales of sacrifice to the gods, the village also begins to experience a shortage in the crops of their farms that will only continue until someone is offered. Ume is not able to bear a child but as she does not have any children, she is able to lie her way into being offered to the gods. Waiting for her at a shrine deep in the mountains is a wolf god with silver hair and beautiful nails that shine in five different colors... what will come from this encounter between a despised god and an unhappy girl?!

*This volume compiles ch. 1-5 of "The Lying Moon Princess's Marriage: I Will Gain the Wolf God's Favor"

Akari is good at her job, beautiful, and her sense of style is beyond compare... but she has a secret. She's almost 30 and she's still a virgin! One fateful day, a new department chief takes over -- the handsome Shinomiya. "You're my subordinate now, which means from today, you have to do what I say." Shinomiya is a condescending bully and he and Akari clash from day one. Akari finds herself drinking her worries away at his welcome party and before she knows what hit her, she's completely smashed. She wakes up the next day to find -- Shinomiya emerging from her bathroom half naked?!?! Thus begins Akari's comedic office romance with her callous new boss!

*This volume compiles ch. 1-6 of "From Zero to Office Romance"

Yoshiwara has been reborn in modern-day Tokyo.... In this new Yoshiwara, beloved actresses whose talents grace the screen by day spend their nights selling both their bodies and the idea of romance to their male clientele. Thrust into this world is the ingenue Asuka, who's been sold out by her foster parents to pay off their debts. While at first oblivious to the nature of Yoshiwara, she accidentally barges in on a "transaction" between a courtesan and her client. Confronted with her new reality of being bought and sold, she longs to make a break for it... but is there anyone around her she can trust...?!

*This volume compiles ch. 1-8 of "Worth a Billion: Modern-Day Courtesan"

Her first love reached its first death...

"I thought this would be the only love of my life." Lacheria, the daughter of a marquis of the Gazel kingdom, becomes one of the candidates for princess consort of Prince Bradford, her childhood friend. However, he falls in love with Alamoana, a daughter of a marquis who he suddenly meets one day. Bradford's feelings for Alamoana are so deep that he forgets his position and doesn't notice Lacheria's bittersweet feelings, as she had loved him ever since they were children. Where does this story about Lacheria's faithful love and sacrifice lead?

"What did I just 'feel'...?" The daughter of a baron, Melvy Renoir, has a peculiar constitution that impedes her ability to feel anything. Derided and oppressed by her family as an unsettling "defective product," she is ordered to marry Duke Gerald Valrier, feared as "The Bride-Slaying Duke." Feeling her life in danger, she reluctantly visits the duke's mansion. Upon meeting him, Gerald declares, "If you don't lose consciousness when I touch you, I will make you my wife." The moment his fingertips touched Melvy, her body, which should not feel anything, is overcome by a sweet, numbing "pleasure"... That encounter would come to serve as the prologue to a story in which two "flawed people" learn about love...

"Did you notice my feelings for you back then?"
Back in high school, Hinako had secretly loved her classmate Masashi. Ten years later, they're suddenly reunited! Once reserved, Masashi has become much more handsome. When he openly expresses his thoughts to Hinako, they send her heart racing!
"I love him... I want to hold his hand. I want to be close to him."
A love reunited and finally fulfilled...?!

Cafe Waikiki is so empty that owner-chef Yori swears he's been hearing voices. Why isn't he getting any customers? His cooking can't be that bad, and it's not like he's in the wrong location, so what other reason could there be for this to happen?

Cecia attends the Royal Academy as a double for a noble lady. If she can graduate with top scores, she'll be free from her life of poverty working as a maid. Enduring bullying at school and harassment at work, our heroine fights on with the support of her one and only red-headed female friend. But when things start to fall apart, why does the second prince run to her defense?

Original Story: RINGO
Art: NAZUNA NANAKO
Character Design: TSUKAZA, SATSUKI

King Yuri is bound by tradition to marry the Saint, so fiancee Edeline accepts life as a mere "figurehead queen." Until the Saint appears as a scared five-year-old named Ai. Adopting the child, Yuri and Edeline forge an unexpected family whose love may become the kingdom's greatest power.

The plan of the incredibly close sisters... is to show what's what to their mother who always was prejudiced against the older sister!

"I know very well that a parent's love isn't always equal... but I'm fine as long as I have my little sister with me!"
Amanda is plain and always ridiculed when compared to her beautiful younger sister, Adeline. Her parents ignored her and other people's words hurt her... but only at first. After Amanda learned how Adeline truly felt, all Amanda could think about was how to become the best big sister to Adeline as she could be. If she had the time to be hurt, then she could improve herself for Adeline's sake! In other words, she became someone with the mental strength of steel and an obsession with her little sister. Their mother had always irrationally doted on Adeline, so they made a plan to escape her clutches. When they put it into motion...

He loves him, but he doesn't know if these feelings are truly his.
In order to get through a bout of writer's block on his latest romance novel, author Aoi Miyashita takes the advice of his editor, Kairi Kurihara, and the two begin a simulated romantic relationship. Aoi hopes that by doing this, he'll be able to understand just how the female protagonist of his story is feeling. He ends up being possessed by her, confusing his own feelings with hers. Are his feelings for Kairi real, or all pretend...?
In the meantime, Kairi begins to develop his own special feelings for Aoi whenever the author glances his way or gives him a certain look. Will their relationship end when Aoi finishes writing his novel...?
A wondrous love story between an author and his editor as they engage in a pretend romance all while living under the same roof.

I'd like you to sleep with me. The day after my birthday, the chief I look up to made me a shocking request. I agreed wanting to be useful to him, but... he suddenly pushed me down looking nothing like himself!! Mikan Sasaki, an office lady who can see spirits, is pretty worried about all the evil spirits attached to Chief Akutsu, whom she's one-sidedly in love with. Moreover, she's been feeling a truly wicked presence among them lately... That very night, when she was drinking in the park in the name of a birthday party alone, he just happened to pass by and bring her back to his place... She then woke up with no memories of the previous night and her handsome chief sleeping right next to her!! I'm wounded and there's a bandage on it, meaning that I caused him trouble, right...? I asked him what I could do to pay him back, but for some reason he asked me to sleep with him!? In his room, in his bed filled with his scent, my heart is about to explode just from lying down next to the one I've loved for a long time. I can't believe I'm this close to him, whom I've always only watched from afar... A bed time love story about how an awkward pair get a bit closer every passing night.

Olivia Taylor opens her eyes after being caught and executed for her countless brutal murders to find that she has been reincarnated in a time and world she has no memory of called "modern-day Japan." She soon learns that the woman whose body she is inhabiting, Meisa, has been living a meager life with her preschool-age son, Reo. Meisa and Olivia's memories begin to blend together as she ends up getting caught up in a major incident involving Reo and her common-law husband, Ryuya... Surrounded by friendly faces like the loving Reo and the kind manager of the grocery store where Meisa worked, Natsuki, is this reincarnated monster now destined to navigate this new world as a mother...?! This single mom has no choice but to use the memories and instincts of her former life as a vicious serial killer to confront the evils of the present!

What will you wish for in exchange for your lost love?

Broken Heart Hall is a shop where a witch grants wishes in exchange for broken hearts.
Matilda, the daughter of the Commander of the Knights, is scorned by her cheating fiance; Freya, the daughter of a marquis, is abandoned by her ruthless fiance; and Emily is toyed with by her womanizing fiance from her arranged marriage...
What wishes did these women make to the witch?

You cut my red string of fate!

One morning, Alex Hubert, a student in the knight department at Howard Royal Academy, suddenly begins to see countless red threads. The beautiful outcast Sarah Crowleagh tells him that these threads are "red strings of fate." But she cuts Alex's red string without a second thought!
Alex is outraged by Sarah's selfish behavior, which has earned her the reputation of being the "witch of breakups" who breaks up lovers, but he realizes that she is actually cutting the threads of unhappy couples.
Alex can't help but worry about Sarah, who is not afraid to play the bad guy and continues to isolate herself.

While working at their mother's cosmetic shop, Takeru and Ayumi discover a mermaid in one of the lotion bottles! A strange and unexpected phenomenon, the two aren't sure what to do when Ayumi volunteers to take the mermaid home. Puzzled by his sister's behavior, Takeru thinks about their childhood and how much everything changed after their parent's failed marriage. Could this mermaid mystery be just the thing to help them reconnect and rebuild inspite of their troubled past? Mermaid in a Bottle dives deep into a the bitter-sweet relationship of a brother and sister from a broken family.

Mine-kun is Asexual. He doesn't like sexual intimacy in a relationship. He can kiss a girl, but it's not something he wants to do if he can help it. But Murai loves him so much that she's willing to overlook the fact that she can't hold his hand; that she can't cuddle up next to him when they watch movies together; that she can't fall in love with him the way that she hopes to be loved in return. In the eyes of those around them, is this even a relationship that's meant to last, or is it a train wreck just waiting to happen?

Two women working at the same company fall for each other through a series of short comics. Somehow, what starts off as a one-sided crush becomes a dream come true...

Sae, a 35-year-old part-time worker and housewife, spends her days telling herself she's "happy" with her life married to her emotionally distant husband. One day, she crosses paths with Omi Ayase, an old classmate from high school. Once an aloof teenager with an air of maturity, he now lives in a dazzling world far removed from what Sae knows."You don't love your husband... do you?"Upon their reunion, Omi delivers words that cut straight through Sae's facade. The intense kiss that follows causes Sae's reality to fall apart, forcing her to finally admit her true feelings: "I actually hate my husband. I despise him."The next day, Sae leaves behind divorce papers and walks away from her old life with a carefree smile...

The girl who feared love because of her mother's death meets the one and only romance in her life...

My mother lived for love, went crazy for love, and sacrificed herself for love...

Minerelli, the "Ice Noblewoman," was raised while being compared to her half-sister who gets doted on. Due to her unrequited love, Minerelli's mother left her as a young child and took her own life. As a result, Minerelli fears dying the way her mother did and worries that she'll go crazy for love. However, Kaktos' warmth and kindness touch her closed-off heart...

I won't date my coworkers. But marriage should be fine, right?

"When he looks at me like that, I feel like I'll get the wrong idea..."
Manaka, who loves handicrafts, works in the Planning Department of Brown Sugar Honey, a hair accessory brand she dreamed of joining. She had a crush on Itsuki, the young chairman and founder of the brand, but when she found out that Itsuki had a policy of not dating his coworkers, she secretly put a lid on her feelings and immersed herself in her work. But then Itsuki called her name in a sweet voice and gently held her hand... As they gradually grew closer, the feelings of love she had almost given up on began to bloom again.

Aiko worked hard to get a job at a good company, but in her first year, she meets Seiichi and ends up marrying him. Acceding to his wishes, she quits her job and becomes a housewife. At first, everything is smooth sailing. She enjoys her role supporting the man she loves as he aims for success... But before they've even been married a year, Aiko discovers that Seiichi is having an affair. It starts with small things, like coming home late, but it continues to get more and more flagrant. In spite of what she knows, Aiko still holds out a tiny hope for the husband that she loves, and resolves to continue with this imperfect but tranquil lifestyle. That is, until she discovers an even more shocking truth...!

From her entrance exam days to her college years, and even when she was job hunting, Hana Kanazawa's mother has decided everything for her. Even as an adult in the present day, she continues to act as the "good girl" her mother raised.
Hana's finally started living on her own near her parents' house, but her mother keeps interfering as usual and forces her to wear a fancy kimono to her best friend's wedding. For the kimono fitting, Hana drops by a barber shop, run by the unsociable Shinichirou and the effeminate Maria. Her heart races as she gets her hair and makeup done by these two handsome men.
Hana discovers her first love while imprisoned by her mother's values...!!

Hana has started dating Shinichirou, a divorced barber with a child.
Even though Hana is clumsy, Shinichirou, his cute son Jinta, and Maria, who supports their relationship, all care for her. Finally, Hana has started living her own life and is surrounded by love, happily married!!
...Or not, as a series of real-life problems stand in her way...!
The highly-anticipated sequel to "When The Grown-Up Good Girl Falls in Love"!