Age Gaps--A Double Standard and Culture

Hey visitors,

The main topic for this week is regarding age gaps and I've read a few here and there, some small, some large, older, younger, etc. Over the years I've come to terms about the double standard as well as how the modern age culture has come to terms with regards to age gaps (does this mouth of words makes any sense?) Basically, double standard and cultural tolerance towards age gaps is what I'm saying/addressinghere.

First of all, cultures today are disapproving of age gap relationships hence the whole minors protection against pedophilia, statutory rape, and child porn.  However overtime, if people notice age gaps are more tolerable, mainly after you are out of compulsory schooling aka at least age 18 I guess. Why that is is kind of strange but when I think about it, what I think is that it's because people think that a minor doesn't understand love so much hence all those child love terms like "puppy love" and "crushes". However love is also a more modern concept since for quite a long time, people have married out of duty and sake of living (procreation, separation of labor, raising one's social position, power, etc). Side note: I'd like to point out one example of how love might have been a more modern concept; from Bokura no Kiseki (spoilers for people who haven't read it)-Manami said that as Veronica, even though people thought she and Glen were an item, he says they weren't because in those days, there was actually definition of what love was. Hence something so complicated and abstract that is also quite irrational at times, I think things like true love is a more modern concept.

Ok so I've kind of trailed off in another direction so back on track...What I'm getting at is that culture today has changed. What society defines as child has also changed of course since back then it was more acceptable worldwide to have marriages between youth and between a youth and an elder. But really, that's why when reading mangas that take place in the past (historical fiction or stories along the lines of fictional with more factual), if there are age gaps such as in Otoyomegatari, readers should realize that they're stepping into another culture that is different from the one they are raised in at the present. Age gaps were more socially acceptable back then especially since the concept of love and marriage weren't ideas that were put together until more present means. The purpose of marriage was more for purposes of social/status mobility, economic stability, political, etc (love wasn't usually first in line is what I'm saying). Anyways, for age gaps in historical context, not weird. Don't judge harshly on cultures by comparing it to your own. You can ask why but don't force it since you should know that the world of today isn't the world of yesterday as well as what is one culture's norm even in the present isn't another culture's norm. 

Next I'd like to note one double standard of age gaps which is the seemingly progression of age correlating with more tolerance towards age gaps. (I noted it above but I didn't expand on it since I got more into cultural aspects.) This is a more modern thing that goes on since age gaps in the past weren't such a huge issue and as I noted above, it could very well be the way people today view youth. Another reasoning would be the the accumulated intellect and life experience we have after adolescent that somehow qualifies people to have age gap relationships? The way I've put it sounds ridiculous but people do say "what do you know? you're still a child". As noted before, another example is terms like "puppy love" which label a person for ignorance who is usually a child but over time no one uses such a term especially when one is an adult deemed ready to commit to a relationship to life's end. Of course maturity is necessary to maintain a relationship so it makes sense.

Although life experience is good, the appearance of a child seems to be important as well.This is another double standard I've realized. I've noticed that in age gap relationships in mangas, those who appear child and adult are heavily questioned and criticized whereas if the child appears adult, there is less criticism. One clear example would be the popular yet controversial to today's societal principles, Kore wa Koi no Hanashi Of course if you appear adult and are mature in mentality for what is to say, a typical child, then readers probably won't criticize. But then you can go the other way where you have the appearance of an actual older gentleman or gentlewoman (I haven't seen older woman often in mangas of any genre) i.e. you actually look past your 40s or 50s. What I'm getting at is that appearance is extremely key in mangas for age gaps-at least that's what I've gathered after reading different age gap mangas. Frankly it is really annoying when the story is amazing despite the age gap. Though I suppose everyone wants to share their opinions whether they are uncomfortable or simply enjoying the situation at hand. To summarize this point, if a character appear child-like and in fact is a child, then s/he will receive much more criticism for a relationship with an obviously older person (or vice versa older pursues younger); if a character appears mature/adult-like and is a child in age (mental maturity doesn't really play into it as much from what I remember) s/he will receive less criticism for pursuing a relationship with an older person (or vice versa older pursues younger). I'm not that surprised since as humans, we've come to rely on our vision to determine survival as well as what appeals to us but yeah...the look of a couple, if socially approved of will be more socially accepted.

Well that's all I can think of right now. I've actually thought about this topic quite a lot since some of my interested mangas have been and currently are about age gaps; especially when people are arguing in the forums about being for or against the age gap relationship. In reality, I'm not sure how I feel about it. In mangas I've always been pretty open minded about age gaps-love for all, you know? That is as long as you are the couple I'm rooting for =d But realistically, I kind of understand the challenge of social norms today about age gaps.

I hope you've enjoyed reading. I'm glad I've finally written about this topic. I might add on later on but that's all for today =)

Until next,
tohukyo

P.S. Although I don't mind age gap relationships, it doesn't change the fact that I really don't favor teacher-student mangas. The way it's written usually just really gets to me. There's only been one (completed) that I've actually liked because of it's somewhat open ended and quite a confusing ending that a lot of people didn't like nor understand, "Beautiful Fascination is Better Than Love."

(Last updated 10-28-2013)

Quick Post--Movie Unrelated to Manga

Hey guys,

This post is completely unrelated to manga and anime and the like but I just have to praise this movie I just watched. The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones is a young adult movie recently released, adapted from the trilogy The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. I've been really anticipating to watch this movie since I saw the trailer and because I already read the books way before the movie was in the making and I'm so elated that I finally watched it!

Ok so most people have a bad impression of young adult adaptations because of Twilight (if you have a good impression well, that's your opinion) especially critics. Then there was Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins in which was finally adapted for the big screen but I'm one of those people who didn't particularly feel it was as well put together as it could have been. Though I've only watched it once when it was released in theaters. The books I loved years before it was the hype but the movie was, in my opinion, put together awkwardly. However it is a complete foil to Twilight because it puts a badass girl as a heroine compared to utterly useless damsel...There was nothing in between to level out between the two extremes but I can't exactly say it's in the middle and I'll tell you why later but technically, I guess you can say The Mortal Instruments can be placed in between (but a lot close to Hunger Games than Twilight).

Now, people, this is one AWESOME ASS movie. You see, I read these books way before the movie came out and way before there was even any discussion about a movie adaptation. The plot is amazing and contained so much action and so much in just one book (hence the thickness) but the problem was that the books, in my opinion, weren't so well written (the plot is so good that it still draws you in, but you get bored sometimes). My friend can testify to that since she read it only once and she watched it with me today. The first time I read it, it was good but I second time around, I found it more difficult to get myself into it (though it could be also b/c I already knew what was going to happen). ANYWAYS, the plot is AMAZING and definitely had great potential to be a good movie. When I saw that trailer, I knew it was going to be good.

Watching experience? OH MY GOSH! I can't stress how amazing and awesome it was. It was so full of action, scenes transitioned from one to the next quite well, and the actors portrayed the characters so well (almost perfect cast for me)! The actors, I thought, portrayed the main pair exactly as  Cassandra Clare wrote them to be in the books; especially Jace who is pretty much a cocky douche with a heart, portrayed by Jamie Campbell Bower. The couple dynamic was awesome too between the two main characters, it was just wonderful and not at all corny cheesy over-dramatic love. The nondiegetic sound for scenes in the movie were great too! Loved it! Demons, Mundanes, Shadowhunters, Downworlders, and lastly Angels. Gosh, so much supernatural but just so much fun (it's because there was just so much supernatural that I knew it had great potential to be a great movie too)! But most importantly, no useless characters. Every character had badass-ness in them. I was watching with my friend and she read most of the books so it was a lot more fun to watch it since we knew stuff was going to happen but we were getting ahead of ourselves, bringing up stuff in the end when we're still at the beginning. ANYWAYS, I just hope the next movies will be great as well. 

It's because of all that stuff above that I can't exactly say that it's in between Twilight and Hunger Games since I thought this was a whole lot more awesome than the Hunger Games movie. Though, the plots are completely different. I think the major difference is due to the fact that the author didn't actually write the script, simply looked over to make sure it was all there and well written. However one thing that makes both HG and MI better is how there is a bigger story than a love story going on here.

Anyways, awesome ass movie, WATCH IT PEOPLE. I totally recommend it and I hope you'll feel the same about it. Maybe it's because I read the story that I know that it's awesome but yeah...if you have the opportunity, read the books first then watch it. Trust me, it's a hell lot more fun having read it first. And it'll definitely be tons more fun if you have a friend who also read and watches with you.

Hoooooo, I feel like I'm running on adreneline because I feel so excited to watch the next 3 movies (Book 2, Book 3.1 and 3.2).

Peace out!
tohukyo

PS I say trilogy because the main story is in the first three books. I have yet to read the ones after since I really think the writing could be better and they're extra stories kind of like "adventures after Clary, Jace, and friends save the world".

Oh and no hate please. I don't need people getting fussy with bashing

Quick Post--Project Exclusivity

I just happened to read most of an "argument"/discussion between an "amateur" scanlator and a "major" scanlator relating to this whole "controversy" about exclusivity of projects on batoto. It's quite amusing to see this yet also sad since it shows how disturbed this phenomenon of exclusivity is. The "amateur" scanlator is doing pretty well in terms of translating and uploading chapters for a couple of mangas (one of which has become a recent favorite and both of which are historical genres outside of the japanese past). This whole "competing" thing sucks since it is as the person says, for the readers yet the "major" scanlator group was somehow insulted(?) by the fact that someone else is "speedscanning"? What?! Yeah....anyways, this exclusivity thing....hmm....

Sorry for being so generic. I don't want to be too direct about the individuals involved in this issue but check out Shoukoku no Altair on batoto if you want to see what I'm talking about. The "amateur" is Aizen-sensei and I just love the releases for Choukakou!

Check out my post(s) on the exclusivity thing and my thoughts about it~

• Exclusivity of Projects
• Why So Many Projects?

Quick Post--Clamp

Quick Post! Just wanted to just share this. 

I've been searching for new mangas to read and in the latest updates on a site, Gate 7 by Clamp was updated. I don't read Gate 7 (yet) but Clamp has always been pretty amazing and complex in general. Reading about their hiatus for Gate 7, I decided to search around from one thing to another about Clamp. 

I came to their wikipedia page and damn...I read everything on that page and just wow, their history and how they work as a team is amazing. What I'm most surprised about is just how they plan everything ahead of time especially the endings!! When I think about Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and think that they already knew that they were going to end it as it did, they sure are a "Fantastic Four" group of mangakas. 

Quite frankly, this may be exaggerated but I find CLAMP pretty mind blowing considering what they write and draw.

Rambling--My Beginnings with...

Sorry everyone. I had a topic planned but I haven't completed it yet. I would do another "segment" of "Authors" but I don't want to burn that one out. So right now I'm just thinking on the spot as I type this and I think maybe I'll just go with my "firsts" or beginnings based on what I remember. I was going to just do manga but it's not as long. This is just going to be my first on hand experience. I'll leave online exposure to another time.

MANGA
I was first exposed when I was really young. All mangas I knew of were from the library but I didn't actually read because it was what I myself decided to read. It's like when you are stuck in a small community and all you can do in it is what you are given to do. I was in elementary/grade school at the time. My brother was in junior high/middle school and right next to the school was one of the public library branches in my city. He occasionally borrowed mangas from what was available at the branch and so I was first exposed to manga by the title of...uh....*google search: robot girl manga* Battle Angel Alita. I didn't exactly follow the story (since there wasn't much of a transfer of books from library to library nor was there a request system yet, usually it was one of those volume 4 then 2 then 5 kind of readings) but it was interesting. There was then Ranma 1/2 and later on the whole "fad" with Inu-yasha--by that time, my sister was in middle/junior high school and she provided me with my manga. Of course later there were more and more mangas like Watase Yuu's Fushigi Yuugi; there was also Saint Tail, Cardcaptor Sakura, X/1999 (this one I couldn't follow because of its complexity but Clamp's art was and still is very beautiful). When I entered middle/junior high myself, the range of mangas widened to W Juliet, Kare Kano, Prince of Tennis, Godchild, Imadoki (Nowadays), Swan, Hana Yori Dango, Ceres, etc. (Just a lot more, the manga collection at my city's library system exploded in numbers) but anywas, I think my genuine first manga exposure was Battle Angel Alita. I haven't touched that manga since then....

ANIME
So being an ABC (American Born C____) it's not odd that my first exposure to any anime (not cartoons, anime as in made in japan kind of thing) was dubbed. Being a child of those times, I can't exactly remember my first animes but Sailor Moon was up there along with Dragon Ball Z and of course who doesn't remember Pokemon! Yeah I was growing up during those times when these anime dubs were on. I remember before I had to attend language classes on saturday that every morning, my siblings and I would wake up early like maybe 6 or 7 AM in the morning (not sure about the time but it was early) because that's when Saturday morning cartoons in general would begin. This was of course way before my exposure to manga. Over the years I remember having watched Digimon and Cardcaptor Sakura too...not sure where that fits in in the picture... and later Yu-gi-oh as well. But anyways, I still have VHS tapes (Yes, I'm a child of the last years of VHS) of Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Dragon Ball Z dubs stashed somewhere.

Ah...the memories. It's amazing when I think back. Just thinking about the mangas, the library system in my city has just grown so very much and there's also the whole online internet mangas! Then the animes as well as just Saturday morning cartoons. I didn't have cable and still don't have cable or any sort of television service that I have to pay for (I'm one of those people who didn't grow up watching Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, and Sponge Bob) so when I think about the huge shift in just kid's cartoon television shows on (what do you call free no serviced television?) the channels I have grown up with, it's just really different. There aren't any more anime dubs, all or most of what is available are American/Western cartoons--well with the exception that Yu-gi-oh is still on.

Alright that's it for this week. I think I'll do online exposure some other time. I hope you thought my experience was interesting but if not =)

Toodles~
tohukyo

Authors-Wann

Hey people,

I haven’t finished my last post on authors but I will sooner or later. I don’t have anything planned for this week nor do I have the will to go in depth on another topic that I would like to so I’m just going to be lazy and jump off of last week’s topic, authors. I don’t want to bash on an author nor do I want to choose an author who has written a lot and has been scanlated so please bear with me and excuse me for my laziness.

Wann is a manhwaga. I’m pretty sure Wann is a female because one of the free talk sections in a manhwa, she talked about her being pregnant, also her manhwa chibi portrait is a girl I think….? Anyways, Wann is one of my more recent favorite manhwagas. Or actually, she’s not so much as a favorite as is her stories are interesting and unique compared to what we see these days (so I guess she can be considered a favorite by my standards). She draws shoujo manhwas but a majority of them involve more adult presence than teenage high schoolers. First, her art—the drawings are pretty good and easy on the eyes so they qualify for most people’s standards I think. Males are handsome (especially in a suit and with black hair) and the females are relatively fashionable. Now for her stories…she mixes things up well with different plots touching on different lifestyles and settings. From what I’ve read, there’s been small country royalty, the art world, the rich and wealthy (a few of her manhwas), other worldly, etc. Both males and females are strong character leads in all of her scanlated manhwas so far. Basically it’s the diversity of settings that Wann dips into together with the strong characters that makes her a favorite for me.

The following is a personal note to the manhwas I’ve read by Wann. They’re kind of in order by favorites (length of notes aren't very significant):

Can’t Lose You

This is my above all favorite among all of Wann’s manhwas. It’s not the first that I touched on but it’s the first I enjoyed and read to the end (and rereading a few times right after reading it the first time). I first found it from my local library and later searched for it online with no luck at all until I obtained a direct download to the zip files from someone who had it downloaded from Netcomics. Now it’s available online too but it’s not a scanlated work (the very same Netcomics) so it isn't on batoto but on ad-ridden aggregate sites. 

So…there were a lot of things I loved about this manhwa but I don’t want to be so direct to give too much to spoil so I’ll be very generic. SPOILERS/Synopsis The story is about two people, girls who appear to be each others’ doppelgangers. Lida is rich, heir to an enterprise—she is, in essence, a cold hearted but very insightful queen. Yooi is dirt poor, an orphan but was raised to be a sweet hearted and hard working samaritan. Both are bound to a destiny beyond their grasps from the day they were born. When they meet, attempts happen to be made on Lida’s life so she hires Yooi as her double. Although fate brought the two together, the male lead’s presence, Gaon is significant to the two and their relationship. Gaon is a charismatic and successful young man as well as a cold hearted business man (doesn’t blink an eye to take money from people or have someone killed). Upon the first meeting with Lida, he rejects to be her fiancé but being the only man with his caliber fit to be the husband of the great Lida, she’s insulted. One day he walks by a shop that Yooi happens to be working at and at that moment, Yooi is napping by the window. Gaon is pissed and accuse her of stalking him and then lays a kiss on her. Next thing you know, he’s literally fallen head over heels for this girl whom he thinks is Lida. And so by being Lida’s double, Yooi meets him again and they develop a relationship—whenever with her, his personality turns 180 from his cold hearted-ness. However, with the two girls’ fate, the story isn’t so simple and there’s a lot of action going on especially with the attempt on Lida’s life.

I’m sorry that was a little too detailed was it not? Said too much I think. But anyways, the twist of fate for the two identical female leads, Yooi and Lida as well as the fiancé Gaon who stands between them. This isn’t a simple tale of love as cheesily as I’ve put it. There’s a lot more pressure with fate than with love especially since Gaon’s future is dependent on which of the two girls he decides to fulfill his days with. There are also a couple of other characters and the family of Lida is very crucial to this story. And touching on fate, if you know Greek mythology and the whole prophesy stuff with mythology, then this story is kind of like that. No matter how much you want to change the future, fate has a way to play and force you back to that route is kind of what this manhwa is saying. Also, even though seers can foretell the future, they don't see everything. I just realized it's kind of like how the Fae can't tell lies but they can speak the truth in a twisted way by leaving out details. The details of the future aren't aligned but the future will become as foretold.

Well, for the most part, I feel like it’s a well rounded dramatic story. I love how all of the main characters and secondary main characters turn out to have a happy ending except for one...which makes it a semi tragedy... All in all, it’s wonderful and just one of my favorite all time stories.

                                                                                                                                                                           

The Snow Queen

This is my second favorite manhwa by Wann but I guess this is influenced by another factor as well. This is a shoujo manhwa about a young man who becomes the body guard/chauffer of a spoiled “brat.” Spoiler This is also a tragedy because she has a fatal illness to do with her heart I believe. However their story isn’t as simple as a one day meeting. Her past has been tied to this man through her brother who died when he was young. I think this is a very good story but it has a lot of holes in it in and keeps the reader kind of wondering why and how this and that is relevant in the manhwa. I can’t exactly describe it without talking about the drama it was adapted into. Now, this drama is just really sappy. Literally, I was just crying from the very beginning to like episode 12 I think (it was so good that I remembered) but it was because I just couldn’t bear to cry any more. The manhwa is a good preview for the general storyline of the drama so if you watch it, I recommend reading the manhwa before watching. The manhwa kind of provokes the reader to try to read between the lines which I think is pretty clever of Wann and the drama does a good job filling in the holes. However I’m not sure if Wann had the intention of such a storyline in the drama when writing the manhwa so this is solely based on my personal experience. I guarantee the manhwa and the drama are great as a pair though!

                                                                                                                                                                           

100% Perfect Girl

This manhwa by Wann…many have held it as esteemed but for me, it falls short somewhat but I think it just may be because of my prejudice against harem mangas.  The first time I laid eyes on this manhwa was before Can’t Lose You but it was new in releases. I stopped reading the first few times I tried, I’m not sure why but when I finally did read it, it was because I read Can’t Lose You and The Snow Queen. Anyways..

I love the whole royalty and the whole falling in love between two characters with the same/similar names “J”. It’s cute but when things just got so intense and dramatic with the whole love-hate relationship and the aggressive prince lover…mmm that was a little off putting but I think the obstacles they went through with the whole love hate relationship was really amazing. Destiny really had a way with pulling the two together still. Even though it started off as a fairy tale kind of love story and they went through so much trauma and terror with each other to the point of actually hating each other yet loving each other, gosh it’s really amazing that they ended up together happily ever after if you can say that…

Both characters had SOOOOO many flaws and I meant to use the emphasis of “so” as how I’ve used it. The prince was just an extremely obsessive and possessive lover. A lot of the times, he was (kind of) a douche bag but you know, love has a way of making people crazy ergo “crazy in love.” But, for a powerful figure like himself who has never known love and simply known how to make love, I’m guessing the intensity of falling head over heels was just too much for him. Then there is the female lead…I love that she has talent in art and I admit that she’s pretty and kind of cute but seriously…an harem of men. AN HAREM OF MEN. Every single guy who has laid eyes on her except for her family, (excuse if I have this wrong but) it’s like every single guy literally fell in love with her to the point of laying down their lives for her. I have a prejudice against harems if you’ve read my post on harems and that really got to me about this manhwa. The intense love was already just so much to bear but ugh…every single guy just falling in love with her and every single one of them were all shady and dealt with bad business…she was a bad boy magnet. Also personality-wise...not so impressed with the female lead but I guess she's a different kind of "strong female lead" just not really what I picture or think a strong female lead is. She was kind of weak willed....

Ok, so I have a lot of feelings about this manhwa. I love it (I guess?) yet hate it like the relationship we have in this manhwa but not as intense. Props to Wann for the dramatic and intense story but I really did not like the whole harem of men falling for this “ordinary” but very cute girl (apparently she’s very ordinary in the story but very cute to all the men in the story). Sigh…glad I finally got that out but all things considered, good yet bad, very dramatic—not at all good for the heart yet also sweet. However I think people have disagreements on the ending...

                                                                                                                                                                           

So that's all I have to say for Wann and my experience with her manhwas. She really is a favorite. There are more manhwas but these are the big three. I may update this post at another time to add the other manhwas like Wann's newest 2013 manhwa but another time. Thanks for reading, I hope you've had a nice visit.

Best,

tohukyo

Authors—Yoshizumi Wataru

With the finite of topics I can think of to write about, I decided this week to write about one of my favorite authors in the graphic novel world whom I like reading and rereading from, mangaka Yoshizumi Wataru. This will probably a first of a number of posts with a topic on authors in general though I’m not sure how to structure this though since I don’t know so much about these mangakas than I do know about the mangas they write…Also, the chosen author is extremely significant—I just think it'll be easier for me to write about Yoshizumi as my first author post since most of her mangas are also completely scanlated. 

So the mangaka Yoshizumi was among the first mangakas I read from before I started reading online—Marmalade Boy and Ultra Maniac (was available at my city’s huge library network). I think she became one of the first I also read from when I started reading online—Datte Suki Nan Damon. And thereafter, I began to seek out and read all available Yoshizumi mangas that were scanlated.  I have this feeling that a lot of people don’t really like Yoshizumi’s work. I think all of them vary in degrees of greatness but generally the storylines are enjoyable if you read with more of an open mind. She initially wrote shoujo genre but recently in the past few years, I’ve seen more scanlated mangas by her showing up under the josei genre.

Whenever I think of Yoshizumi’s work, I think it’s quite relaxing in how realistic she writes her stories. Her style of art is between simplistic and detailed but more on the simplistic side. It’s pretty clean which helps the mood of the stories she draws since most of her stories aren’t extremely complex but very slice of life style (if the stories she wrote were to be played out in real life). The stories vary in terms of drama but when I think about the characters and stories she creates, the drama isn’t superficial and somewhat understandable unlike other shoujo and josei mangas. To simply put it, for me, she isn’t a cliché writer.

I’ve read every single Yoshizumi manga available on the net so the following will be personal notes on each manga.

Shoujo

Datte Suki Nan Damon (completed)

I think this is one of my favorite light reread mangas. The story isn’t great but I think it’s well written considering the characters that Yoshizumi creates in this manga. The male lead, Masato-kun isn’t someone to exactly look up to since he is dubbed a playboy but removing that information, he’s a pretty decent male lead. The reason for why Masato is a playboy is more or less forgiving especially when one reaches the end of the manga. The female lead Moka is likeable since she’s not a frustrating shoujo lead and is quite honest. Her commitment to the feelings she has, how Yoshizumi lets Moka shine by not making her overbearing and insistent about her love really drew me in. I think of this story as quite relaxing.

Random Walk (completed)

I like to think of this manga as a good realistic and possible account of dating for people today/in high school. It’s not everyone’s experience but I feel like it gives a piece of reality that not everyone sticks to one person throughout their high school years and in early adulthood (especially since young people don’t really know much about love either). Motives are different of course, some people date for the sake of the dating experience and just having fun whiles others like the female lead in this manga Yuka, date for the sake of finding their love. Much like the title, this manga is a “random walk” for Yuka because she finds different guys and falls in love kind of easily but I like how she’s open minded about falling in love. I like her father's open-mindedness towards love as well. I think a lot of people don’t find this manga very tasteful but I enjoy it because today, not everyone is lucky to find “the one” as easily as most shoujo mangas portray.
Handsome Girlfriend (completed)

This isn’t my favorite manga by this mangaka. In fact I find it fluctuating in terms of how interesting it gets throughout the story. What I like about this manga is that there is the element of the entertainment world but I find most of the characters…”meh.” I’m quite fascinated by the male lead, Ichiya’s ambition as a director and “movie enthusiast” and the people he’s gathered around him. The female lead, Mio…well the concept behind a “handsome woman” isn’t about sexiness or elegance but about the strength of a woman that can potentially be associated with that of a man as “handsome”. Mio is supposed to be a “handsome woman” but I see her as more of a cry-er than “handsome” so she didn’t appeal to me. However I love the concept behind the movie that is produced in the manga known as “Private Ai.” I wish Yoshizumi would write a manga based on the concept behind that movie because it’s pretty interesting but I don’t think it’s likely with what she said in the free-talk sections.

Mint na Bokura (completed)

It’s a gender bender involving two identical twins—brother and sister. The brother sneaks into his sister’s school (a boarding school) as a girl to try and get his sister to come back to school. He ends up rooming in a double with another girl of course. Another of course is that the roommate he has happens to be someone he ends up being attracted to/falling in love with. It’s pretty funny but it’s been awhile since I last reread it (maybe I’ll take this opportunity to reread it).

Ultra Maniac (completed)

I kind of call this an oddball manga written by Yoshizumi since it’s the most out of the ordinary compared to the other mangas she has written. This is a manga involving the supernatural—witches but not in the usual sense with wands but with spelled objects. I can’t exactly explain it since it’s been awhile since I last read this manga. The female lead is pretty childish but it’s forgivable because of she wasn't raised in the human world—though I don’t favor characters who refer to themselves in third person and I think she’s one of them. The man that she eventually falls for is sensible so I liked him. All in all, it’s an ok manga with touches of child-like innocence and refreshing youth.

PxP (completed)

I like this manga because both leads (male and female) are impressive. The female lead is outgoing, down to earth, and pretty smart and really athletic. The male lead is intelligent and cool with inventive skills. The two of them work as a duo in a Robin Hood way but instead of stealing from the rich to give to the poor, together they steal meaningful items back from people and return them to the original owners. I think it helps that this manga is also short so there isn't so much time to develop any frustration with the characters as well. It’s a light read.

Marmalade Boy (completed)

Not my favorite by Yoshizumi but it’s one of her earlier mangas and I think it’s her most successful right? I enjoy the unique scenario that she thought up as well as Yuu’s charismatic playful personality. Miki is a little annoying but she’s very much “normal teenage girl” material as a character so I give props for the reactions of Miki towards her baffling circumstances. It’s fun to reread like once a year or couple of years because of the freshness of older style shoujo (older than today that is). I enjoy the purity of older shoujos and even though Miki isn’t such an appealing character, I still like her since I feel like she’s like the connection of the “normal.” (Sounds like BS but I kind of feel like because she’s the most normal, it makes sense that she’s the/a main character).

Kimi Shika Iranai (completed)

I think this is another not as well liked manga by Yoshizumi. SPOILERS The female lead is a high school girl who was once married but is now a divorcee, but (and excuse me if this is a little plain-spoken) she didn't even lose her virginity yet. Now, the protagonist is actually a male who falls in love at first sight with the girl. As for the reason why I think it’s not a well liked manga, it’s ultimately because of the girl—she kind of became all anti-love after finding out that her ex husband had cheated on her. The worst part  about this ex husband is that he doesn't even see what he did wrong because physical cheating isn't the same as emotional cheating which I can kind of see his point since there are things like open marriages but still. The girl friend zones the guy pretty quickly but the guy perseveres. The thing I liked about this manga is the male lead’s perseverance and undying (exaggerating) devotion to his love. Also, the little sister of the girl is pretty cool despite being a grade schooler. She has a good head on her shoulders and takes the role of the rational and supporting secondary character for the male lead, encouraging him to continue persevering for her sister. But for the female lead, I must put in a word that readers are way too hard on her because I understand rationally why she feels the way she does and acts the way she does. It wasn't exactly a clean divorce so with lingering feelings, she couldn't help but still feel attracted to the manslut. 

Chitose, Etc.

JOSEI
Cappuccino
Spicy Pink
Cherish
Happiness

*Incomplete post, to be continued*