#but 99% of what I read is shoujo and josei romances

[minzapinza]

So, as someone who kind of does not like battle manga as a genre, I gotta say Sakamoto Days really knocks it out of the park?

Like, I'm about 100 chapters in, and so far there has not been one single fight where I wasn't on the edge of my seat, analyzing the action and appreciating the way it is drawn and paneled.

[filliteapot]

regarding your toughs of the evenin, what is your taste in things?

Tough question, maybe check my blog and series I post about or reblog? I guess I can’t describe it with just one genre or type of the story. I might say it’s “heartfelt slice of life joseis that never get translated” but it would not cover eveything I like.

quick summaries of what i've been mad about lately without calling names:

story of a girl who becomes friends with a boy who is fan of her father’s music and is not really interested in her as a person but only her father’s daughter and struggles their relationship then suffers + parents’ story gets told too

culinary josei about a couple (a widow and a student 15 years younger than her) in an arranged marriage pursuing their own reasons for this union but mostly for the goal of making the heroine’s family restaurant great again while slowly falling for each other for real

story of a woman working in an ad company making her way through life and romance + her colleagues‘ lives also get screentime

daily life of some teens being teens in a small village sometime in the 90s, with their small problems and surprise their parents get storylines and screentime too

story of a boy who sees ghosts and is not living his best life bc of this, meeting different people and ghosts, helping them, falling in love with the aura of the heroine and missing opportunity to meet with her and talk with her irl every single damn time (much a+ pining included) 

daily life of two school girls with different personalities who live in a small town (at this point you see a recurrent theme i like, i bet) and get interested in some weirdos much older than them with much rumours and shady stuff about them going around - the premise sounds shady as sht but i’d give much to read it fully

a really free adaptation of hyakunin isshu poems and their authors’ lives that pretends to be a lighthearted comedy but can kill your soul with all its sadness melancholy and broken hearts (and also has special edition made in collaboration with a professor who knows much about the poems and the matter in general) 

a compilation of essays on life, nature, and especially birds

daily life of a literature teacher who is being weird 99% of the time with other weird people around (yeah this author’s works actually get translated and two even got/will get edition in my native language but it’s a rare case)

story set in post war Japan about a girl who goes to Tokyo to find her sister’s lover while the only thing she remembers of him is that he played cello (?), then apparently finds him, break the cello and they start a band (??? i need to check on it more but it certainly got my attention) 

two introverts in love going places eating tasty food having a good time together ready to work on their relationship and resolve their miscommunications pretty quickly (ok this one gets translated too, but it’s for illustrating what i like)

To put it simply, I’m someone who is quite frustrated that popular things or things that get licensed that fit ‘shoujo/josei romance’ category are either school romances about characters whose personalities I cannot feel and totally cannot care about, or stories trying to explore heavy topics which is kinda neat but certainly not my cup of tea at all. I want stories focusing on characters and their journeys, everyday problems and struggles, rather than something created with a sole purpose of giving a social commentary or giving us some romance we saw many times set in  some sugar vacuum very far from real life. Such stories are needed too and they certainly find their audience too, but I can’t help being bitter about how much similar stuff is published while so many interesting things never get attention.

It got a bit depressed in the end, but thanks for this ask, I had fun talking about it. Hope you got an idea about my taste in stories from this post.