Oh my gosh before I clicked on the video I was like “Oh my gosh there’s just so much manga out there and I don’t know what to read, if only there was someone who could give me 7 completed manga recommendations so I could have somewhere to start”
Wake Up Sleeping Beauty had me on the verge of tears in the later chapters. By far one of my current favorites. It's criminal that it doesn't have an anime adaptation because it just such a phenomenal series.
I love Ohayou Ibarahime. The supernatural element and the plot about family makes me cry ngl. It is such a beautiful manga. The fact that this series has the same mangaka as A Condition Called Love shows how talented the mangaka is at storytelling. Megumi Morino is awesome.
Another banger. You brought the comedy in this one too 😂 This channel is one of the best resources on YT. I'm a super binge reader. It's a bad habit but I hate getting caught up to a monthly series that I've been loving and having to wait, ha. I'm definitely grabbing Burn the House Down!!
library wars is FANTASTIC! please read it 🥺 i have also read wake up, sleeping beauty (it's been a while but i remember really liking it) and haru's curse (didn't like it)
LIBRARY WARS IS MY FAV ROMANCE im so glad someone is talking about it... for the longest time my only experience w manga was my school library so i was shocked when i found out nobody online had heard of it lol
NOT THE STUART LITTLE SHORT KING REFERENCE I LAUGHED SO HARD I read almost all of the series except Library Wars and it caught my attention with your great explanation as always, thanks Colleen!!! (also Burn the house down and Haru's curse are one of my favorite mangas ever)
omg, I added every single title to tbr list! I'm happy I have finally found a creator, who I have similar taste with! Thanks a lot for creating such quality content in manga community!!
Definitely adding the majority of these series to my tbr, especially Twinkle Stars and Library Wars!! I’d also love to see a manga shelf tour in the future. what we see of your shelves already look so lovely!
Welp, guess I’m hunting down Shortcake Cake now ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I had written it off as fluff, but ya know, this a good season of life for me to enjoy fluff, especially if it’s cozy. I’d like to see an Shoujo fantasy/isekai rec list. I know there’s kind of a glut going on right now, but there’s some lesser known series that are great, Like Fiancé Chosen by the Ring, or 7th Time Loop. I get a kind of “grown up magical girl who’s actually quite normal” feel from the whole trend, and there’s a very heavy emphasis on the female gaze.
Big W Wake up sleeping beauty is a fantastic manga and also very touching. It´s amazing how much good stuff are put in just 26 chapters! Madhouse would make a great adaptation but Chihayafuru season 4 first👀👀👀👀
I started reading Burn the House Down today and have already blazed through the first two volumes, I'm shook! Thank you for the recommendation, I will definitely check out all of the series you listed here. It's so hard to start long running ongoing series, so having some completed series to enjoy is really appreciated.
Have you ever thought about doing a video essay on Banana Fish Colleen? Despite its popularity, it does not get the recognition it deserves. Putting the actual series aside, that alone haunts me.
Ok Collen, I know this can sound a bit strange thing to ask, but since it envolves money, safety first. Is this Walt's comic online shop totally legit and worth believing (in terms of whether they actually send the manga and all that)? Cuz, for me, who leaves in EU and on a country that's not really "into manga" this can be a really big live changing moment, cuz i only saw RightStuff as an option for me and was thinking of buying from them.... Btw, I totally agree with the recommendation of Wake Up Sleepy Beauty, I loved it so much when I first read, the final panel was so heartwarming
Thank you for another great video! I definitely would love a supernatural shoujo manga rec video!! I can never get enough of those. Also, maybe a video about non-romance centered shoujo if that's interesting to you! Don't get me wrong, I love a good romance, but some of my favorites, such as Natsume's Book of Friends, have not had romance integral to the plot and I find that interesting.
I was totally surprised when you mentioned your sponsor... I'm from Germany and here we really have a problem of finding good shôjo and josei (at least in my opinion, most of the German translated manga are more or less the "super ordinary and cliché" series). :,D Thank you foor the recommendations, I might pick up some series when I'm in Japan with my husband (I an read Japanese and am so thankful for that because buying manga over there is sick cheap xD)! Kepp up the good work :)
I've either already read (in the case of Haru's Curse) or planned to read most of these series, but one that wasn't on my radar was Shortcake Cake, and now I'm very interested, primarily based on the description of the protagonist. Thanks for the rec!
Superb recommendations as always! I picked up Twinkle Stars a while back based on one of your older videos, actually, and while I wasn't sure how much it would be for me, I know I could trust Natsuki Takaya to kick my heart into pieces and I was not dissappointed there :'] Haru's Curse is already on my list, and I'll be peeking at some of these other titles when I can, too! Thank you as always for your work!
Come back here just to say I just finished Library Wars! Totally struggled with putting it down; it was so easy and engaging to read. So many lovely moments, so many head pats?? I really enjoyed the emotional aspects and grew quite fond of the cast :')
i would like to add that i used to read a lot of shoujo in my younger years, and your videos helped me going back to reading mangas, thank your very much! greetings from Chile!
always love your recommendations. it's too bad i've read all but two of these; library wars (which i watched the anime years ago and loved!) and haru's curse are already on my list. just finished burned the house down and talk about twists. the ending got a little too outrageous for me, but otherwise solid. absolutely adored wake up sleeping beauty. i remember being astonished that such a complex and fulfilling story could be told in only 26 chapters.
Omg when you said Twinkle Stars…something sparked! I just finish collecting the series. Especially volume 2 is butt to find but still worth it! Lastly, thanks for the other recommendations I have added it to my list!
The last volume of “changes of heart” deals with one of the side couple in a way that I liked quite a bit😊. As for “wake up sleeping beauty” to this day, after years almost, I still can’t forget that the issue with mom was not resolved and that kind of overshadowed everything else for me😞
Changes of Heart was so good! I was worried that the spice would be too much (especially since it was my first spicy manga), but it was all so well balanced and didn't halt the story at any point 💛 As always, such a good video!
While Fruits Basket and A Condition Called Love are the better works of the mangakas IMO Twinkle Stars and Wake Up Sleeping Beauty are also phenomenal! Natsuki Takaya and Megumi Morino are nothing short of amazing!
have you read/watched yumeiro patissiere? its one of my absolute child hood favorites (and current favorite bc i keep rewatching it!!) i really resonate with so much of ichigo's imposter syndrome and the romance feels more like a really sweet build up with character development. i feel that there is so much care and love put into the creative parts of making sweets, as well as the competitions! i am an illustrator and ugh i just have such an appreciation for stories that really respect/love the craft. i saw you spoke about gakuen alice before, so i wondered if youd ever seen yumeiro patissiere! ITS A GOOD ONE!!!
I guess this is my cue to finish my collections of Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty and Twinkle Stars! I would love to read Burn the House Down as well, I hope it gets a physical release at some point.
I just read Ohayou Ibarahime based on your recommendation and I can't thank you enough. I cried SO. MUCH. I loved the plot, Tetsu is such a charismatic protagonist, the ghosts are so nice but also complex and and have such a rich backstory. Off to read the next one!
Library Wars is one of my all time favorites! I'm so happy people are starting to know more about it. Most people have never heard of it and that makes me sad, Thanks for the awesome video, as always!
Im gonna check out all of these that have physical versions. Youre my fave source for Shojo/Josei. I'm currently loving Yona of the Dawn and waiting on volumes of Prince Freya from my library
ohayou ibarahime was one of the first mangas i read and i absolutely adore short short cake !! i've had burn the house down since i saw your reactions on twitter so i definitely sit down and read now. thank you for another banger video !!
All of these titles have a wait time at the Los Angeles Public Library. But Library Wars! It never grabbed my interest when it first came out, but my gawd am I interested in it now 👀🌟✨🌟✨🌟✨
Always love your videos! ❤ you have been one of my big motivations to get back into my roots of manga + shoujo. As much as HS slice of life / romance can be a warm comfort, I'd love to see more recommendations with adult characters and ~the spicy~. Even if not I will still be watching your releases and my wallet will cry 😅
I started reading "Do not say Mystery" after watching one of your videos. I like mystery stories, so I will check out Burn the House Down. Do not say mystery protagonist seems a bit TOO talkative. Other than that it's great. Thanks.
I don’t remember if I’ve commented in one of your videos but I’ve been meaning to for a while. Thank you for the recommendations and thank you for what you do. I started watching a few months ago after someone shared one of them in a discord group I’m in. The video about misogyny in the manga community really touched me in a profound way, and made me reevaluate several things in my life and how I’ve engaged with media/art in the past. Since then, I’ve also been exploring shojo/josei manga/anime and rewatching old ones I had seen. Recently finished the Glass Mask anime with my wife, who introduced me to it, and now we’re watching Nodame Cantabile (a rewatch for me). Have you seen/read Nodame and have any thoughts about it? Thanks again for what you do.
I love your recommendation videos so much!! A lot of your recommendations are manga that I had no interest in until I heard you explain the plot! Sometimes what's written online or on the manga itself just doesn't grab my attention, but the way you explain things makes it sound so much more interesting - in this video particularly it was Wake Up Sleeping Beauty. That and Burn The House Down are now at the top of my anticipated reads ^_^
I went to add Wake Up Sleeping Beauty to my BookWalker wishlist (I only read manga digitally due to limited shelf space) and they're giving the first volume away for FREE! So I guess that's the next series I'm going to start reading! As for videos... as an aromantic woman, I've always wanted to ask for shojosei recommendations that aren't romances/have little-to-no romance, but I am painfully aware of how much *all* shojosei is pigeonholed as "only romance" and also how the fight against that perception can devolve into shitting on romance and people who read it. Which sucks! Shojosei romance is so important and special, it deserves to be celebrated widely. But sometimes, I'd like to pretend I can see myself in the story too. (Thanks to you, the moment Do Not Say Mystery goes up on BookWalker I'm buying it!)
one that have little romance are harder to come by in English but a few I can think of off the top of my head would be Natsume's Book of Friends, Life Lessons with Uramichi, Usotoki Rhetoric, Life (just got licensed by Kodansha check TWs), and I just read Mermaid Scales recently from Viz which was great
I wish Haru was longer! It was soo good. It was definitely different thqn other manga I've read. This would be such a good movie too 😩 I loved the ending
I just finished The Rose of Versailles and it was a pretty incredible ride and very ahead of its time. I'd like to see a recommendation for older classics of the genre if you haven't done that already.
It's kinda hard to recommend old classics since for shoujo we don't have many that are easily available other than some of Riyoko Ikeda's work (Rose of Versailles, Claudine) or Moto Hagio's work (The Poe Clan, Otherworld Barbara)
excellent recommendations. I'm exicted to start!! I also would love to hear your opinion about Sweat and Soap. It's a seinen/romance completed series that to me, focuses on communication within a new relationship and the progression of dating over time. It starts off similarly to Change of Heart with a bit of a twist. Hopefully you'll get to it soon.
Thank you for these recommendations! I was having trouble finding some good completed manga and then I came across this video. Will check these out! :)
Oh I love your videos so much! You inspired and for some time I’ve wanted to create a channel with similar content but I think I’ll have to wait some more because I haven’t read/watched that many of manga/anime and I feel like you and people with such content know well so many series 😭 dbsbbsbs You’re genuinely so cool
Haru 's curse was an amazing read This was probably the only josei I read in my life I wish any manga can be like it or at least give me the same atheistic
Hello Colleen thank you for all the wonderfull recommendations now I have one for you that I'm sure you'll love. The name of the manga is "Kono oto tomare!"- Sounds of life, beautifully written story about friendship, overcoming trauma, music, finding yourself and romance. Status: on going
It's been a while since I've seen youre videos! Love what you're putting out but I have to sit down and watch your content more often than not but I just noticed I got the same shaggy haircut as you😅
