#my girlfriend's child manga

[lauraagrace]

In light of ordering volume three of My Girlfriend's Child, I thought I would share the cover of volume two!

I am SO thankful that Seven Seas published this series! It has been a favorite among the shoujo I've read this year and can imagine that I will only continue to feel that way!

[books-movies-anime-shows-games]

Buckle up for the drama of teen pregnancy... In Japanese society?! Well, this is gonna be different 😁

[mangatxt]

my girlfriend's child / ano ko no kodomo - aoi mamoru

[dropintomanga]

My Girlfriend's Child - The Loneliness of Teen Parents

I'll admit that this is my first real shojo manga read in a very long time. I will say that this is a great title to get back into the shojo game with.

Mamoru Aoi's My Girlfriend's Child is a stand-out manga due to its coverage of an issue that is often misunderstood and/or draws a lot of shame - teen pregnancy.

My Girlfriend's Child is about a high school couple named Kawakami Sachi and Tsukishima Takara. Sachi and Takara are just your regular 16-year olds doing teenage things and learning to navigate adolescence together. However, after one intimate night together, Sachi starts to feel early signs of being pregnant. She takes a pregnancy test and discovers that she is indeed pregnant with Takara's child. The manga covers the two's suddenly complicated journey in learning how to manage their new lives with one they conceived.

What I love about the manga is how it covers Sachi's loneliness once she knows that she's pregnant. She starts to despair over how she will be able to support her child. Sachi also wonders how her education prospects will turn out. She initially thought about having an abortion and felt a great deal of shame on how to tell Takara and her family about it. In the beginning of the story, Sachi was worried about a missing cat named Nora. She somewhat compares Nora's life and the baby's life in a way as she seems to place more value in a cat's life than her own child's.

When Sachi decides to visit a clinic to inquire about an abortion and goes through an ultrasound, she starts to have second thoughts. Sachi finds comfort in Takara, who tries his earnest to be there for her and re-assures her that he'll always be by her side.

After reading the 1st 3 volumes of this manga, I decided to look up research on the mental health of pregnant teenagers. There's not a whole bunch of research on psychosocial interventions to help improve the mental health of pregnant teens or teen parents. A lot of knowledge is missing to fill in gaps for an increasingly under-served group of people.

The manga highlights how support can be helpful while complicated at the same. Takara's mother is shown to lack compassion over Sachi's pregnancy. She blames Sachi to a huge degree for putting Takara into a tough situation. Sachi's mother is happy and is somewhat conflicted on how to best help her as she knows that Sachi has to take responsibility. Sachi's older brother, Kou, tries to be very rational about the pregnancy saying that it's impossible for teenagers to take care of a child.

All of these interpersonal problems start to freak Sachi out as she remarks that there's no future where everyone will be happy. The only guarantee is Takara. I will say that Takara is refreshing because when I hear about teen pregnancy stories, the father is usually out of the picture. But Takara is there every step of the way even when he's not the one who's pregnant. He sadly has to deal with his mother's stress over his relationship with Sachi and is actually kicked out of the house, which makes him remark on how much teens still have to rely on their parents despite craving independence as adolescents.

Girls face so much more mental adversity than boys do because they're "expected" to be married before having children. That's not to say that teen fathers who do care have it that much better. They face a stigma in that they should be "wild and free" while struggling to make ends meet much earlier than they would have liked. There's many socio-ecological factors in play that affect both genders. It does not help that sex education in first-world countries is extremely lacking. Institutions in general seem to treat teenage parents as aberrations that don't deserve support. Children born to teenagers can experience health risks due to teens not being well-versed in various life skills, but people love to blame the parents for that.

I do notice that the manga provides a fresher perspective in that the child of Sachi and Takara might turn out okay. There's a lot of real-life evidence that goes against that, but I think that's because teen parents aren't given positive messaging about their experiences. It's okay for teens to want to be parents if they want to. We don't honor that enough. Parenthood is indeed stressful, but those who welcome it are able to fare better when they are willing to build the strength to do so and have others to help encourage that strength.

My Girlfriend's Child is a very thoughtful series because teen pregnancy isn't really discussed enough and there's definitely a community out there willing to support expectant teen parents. I do feel that teenagers are smarter/better than people think at times and not many people respect that enough. Birth is a part of life that can happen to anyone and teens can make the right decisions for themselves if we let them and respect their ability to do so.

[highresshojosei]

My Girlfriend’s Child by Mamoru Aoi あの子の子ども

[engshoujosei]

My Girlfriend's Child

Volume 1 releases in English on April 25th, 2023. Ongoing.

Licensed by Seven Seas

In this poignant and critically acclaimed romantic shojo drama, a teenage couple's lives are changed forever after a positive pregnancy test. Sachi and her boyfriend Takara are your average high school couple. They go to school together, hang out, and even engage in the more intimate side of dating. However, as time passes, Sachi starts to get the feeling that something isn't right and decides to buy a pregnancy test. Later, in the bathroom of a family restaurant far from her home, she sees the two red lines that will change both her and Takara's life forever. Note: Nominated for the 47th Annual Kodansha Manga Award in 2023.

Status in Country of Origin 

5 Volumes (Ongoing)

Tags:

Award-Nominated Work

Childhood Friend/s

Established Couple

High School Student/s

Pregnancy

Teen Pregnancy

[animehouse-moe]

My Girlfriend's Child Volume 1

This is a relatively quiet manga, if that makes any sense. It is a drama, and it is centered around a rather taboo topic in media. But it doesn't stretch the truth, it doesn't dramatize pieces for the sake of drama. Essentially, it does nothing to promote itself to readers, and instead focuses on telling a very strong story through this medium.

⚠️Warning: Discussion of Teenage Pregnancy Ahead⚠️

Sachi and Takara are high schoolers with their whole lives ahead of them. Though, in Sachi's eyes that comes crumbling down because of a pregnancy test and the scares that it brings with it. This manga does a great deal to address those fears, confusions, and concerns that swirl around Sachi as a teenage girl, and give what almost amounts to an example as to how significant others should handle the process.

So lets get into it, starting with the art. It's a very wispy work overall, that makes very little use of shadows or darkness, instead opting for something that's very bright and almost fades into the light. There's plenty of detail in the art, but you don't quite notice it all the time because of how faint it is. It's all very monotone, which I find interesting. Takara has darker colors in his design, as do a few other characters, but the overwhelming impression is that the art is focused on white and brighter colors. Could it be about bringing the world under Sachi's point of view versus Takara's, given the difference in color palette for the characters? It's definitely possible, but hard to say so I'll leave it as a question.

The paneling and overall presentation of the manga is well done, opting for providing more information and character acting than scenery or larger spreads. It can become a little dense at times, but overall does a good job of helping better express the characters and provide more life to how they move and act. Take these pages for example.

There's 8 panels total between the two pages it depicts, and effectively all it does is establish how Sachi is looking for her lost cat Nora. It shows that she's not exactly overly prepared for being out in the snow and cold to look for the cat, and that she's also very diligent and willing to search for this Nora, as she looks underneath a bench as well. I think it's a great introduction to the character and understanding how they typically act. But I will also say, that this type of paneling is evident throughout. That is to say, that the overall creativity in layouts could use some work, as it relies heavily on squares and rectangles that fill space to confine the art and the flow of the content.

Somewhere I have no complaints though is the character designs. They're as detailed as they are unique (that is to say, very), and that Mamoru Aoi is very good with facial expressions and character posing. As much as they are well defined and appealing poses, they feel equally at home when interpolated or imagined to be moving.

Moving onwards, I feel like Mamoru sensei is using the visual medium to their best extent possible. Not so much in the sense of what they present, but how. Backgrounds and smaller details are used as focus and storytelling elements. Take a scene like this one, that shows Sachi's isolation and dissociation in the moment.

And a lesser detail that you'll notice is "noise", and how Sachi perceives and interacts with it. Given that we as readers can't experience this noise, it's an incredibly easy detail to miss, but one that exists as a constant in the manga.

There's some really great moments that use it as a way to isolate Sachi in her dissociation as above, but there's also examples when it's used to irritate her or cause anxiety. It's a really fine detail that adds a great deal of character to Sachi's experience. Just take this sequence as an example.

It easily expresses Sachi's frustration with having to listen to the pot bubble and rattle around while cooking, and is a very simple sequence that gives a lot of life and detail to Sachi's character and how she's handling and processing things. And it happens quite often throughout. Mamoru's shown impressive prowess in visually building things up for readers to understand Sachi, whether they've ever experienced a pregnancy, or been an SO to someone that's been pregnant, or none of the above.

I wouldn't call it a one-two punch or anything like that, but they make sure to include and provide inklings and cues as to Sachi's behavior and demeanor. It creeps up on you rather than appearing out of nowhere, and I think when dealing with such an emotional experience, it's a really important detail to nail to the highest degree possible. Things like this scene that precedes Sachi's isolation at the restaurant that I showed earlier.

It's a very simple and straightforward piece that speaks to Sachi's isolation from the moment that she thinks she's possibly pregnant. Forced to act like everything is normal and okay, all the students are shown to be hunkering down for class and settling into their normal routine, while Sachi is separated from them, in her own world, struggling by herself with this experience.

Now, moving on to the sensitive topics at hand: teenage pregnancy and teen sex. It's handled well, well enough that it's able to express those explicit aspects without being sexual or prying. It follows the journey from start to finish within this volume. Not to the point of birth or abortion or anything, but to where it leaves off. It doesn't skip a beat in depicting the fears of of being pregnant, of how society will view and treat you, how it can throw a wrench in plans for the future, how alone and scary it can be to experience it. How you go about getting tested and confirming, processing and understanding the experience.

All these pieces are expressed through Sachi incredibly well. She's not lashing out constantly or collapsing into tears at the slightest inconvenience. But those pieces are still there. She loses her temper, she's obstinate, she's emotional. She's conflicted and afraid and alone.

I think what Mamoru sensei does best here is in explaining the process of coming to terms with a pregnancy. The constant back and forth, the fear and uncertainty that permeates it. The confusion and rushed research and conflicting opinions that change at the drop of a hat. It's incredibly well expressed in such a candid fashion. How a cat can mean the world as to how you treat a pregnancy. How simple words can mean the world one moment and then nothing the next.

Just moments like these that contextualize, and almost normalize the experience for young girls. It adds so much important life and understanding to the story.

Or pieces like this, that show Sachi struggling with researching and fully understanding pregnancy and how it progresses/appears. I think the best part here is showing her uncertainty. She goes on to say that she doesn't have all the symptoms so she's unsure as to whether or not she's actually pregnant.

It's just such a great depiction of the experience, that goes on to show that it can happen to anyone. And that even though it can happen to any number of people, those that experience it still struggle and suffer isolated in their own worlds. Unsure of what to do next, uncertain of what to say and how to breach the subject. It's a really candid and close expression of teenage pregnancy, and I think it's an incredibly important read for any number of people out there to help understand the issues, fears, and challenges that come with pregnancy (at any age, really), and how to handle it with your SO.

[ljaesch]

Manga Nominees Announced for the 2024 Eisner Awards

Comic-Con International has announced the nominees for the 2024 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards. The following manga have been nominated for the Best U.S. Edition of International Material—Asia award: #DRCL midnight children by Shin’ichi Sakamoto (based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula) (translated by Caleb Cook) Goodbye, Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto (translated by Amanda Haley) My Picture Diary by Maki…

[mrsgojosatoru]

EISNER AWARD NOMINEE MY GIRLFRIEND'S CHILD.

The story follows a young teenage girl as she finds out she's dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. The story is full of nuance and compassion surrounding the topic as the girl and her boyfriend try and figure out what they want to do about the pregnancy.

I also think outside of the compassion that this series displays it's also pretty informative, which I think is important for a series aimed at teenage girls. For instance: they detail the abortion process without shame or fear as they present it as an option for the protagonist to go through.

Anyways, it's a fantastic series, I highly recommend it.

[theirishneko]

July Manga Haul

[lauraagrace]

Who needs a new shoujosei to read?

August has so many releases to choose from based on this release calendar I made! 🤩

I hope you see one of your favorite volumes on the list and maybe even discover a new series you want to check out!

Please note that all dates are subject to change and that almost all information (dates and covers) are directly taken from the publisher's website!

[hatsumishinogu]

Anoko no Kodomo Vol.8

[sean-gaffney]

Kodansha Award winners announced.

Shonen: Shangri-La Frontier

Shoujo: My Girlfriend's Child

General: Skip and Loafer

[mangatxt]

my girlfriend's child / ano ko no kodomo - aoi mamoru

[brainbuffering]

2023 Most Anticipated Series

The New Year is finally in sight, and with it the hype for new licenced Manga! So here are my Top 5 most anticipated series. 

1) The Invisible Man And His Soon-To-Be Wife by Neko Iwatobi from SevenSeas

[ID: English Book cover of The Invisible Man And His Soon To Be Wife by Neko Iwatobi Vol 1. An invisible man in a pin stripe suit and polka dot tie sits on a plush green leather sofa. He reads a book in one hand, and holds the hand of the young woman next to him with the other. The girl has a red/brown bob cut, and wears a long black skirt with a matching black sweater-vest over the top of an untucked cream blouse. Her eyes are closed, and her spare hand grasps her skirt in her lap]

“Yakou Shizuka, a quiet and bashful woman, works at a detective agency. Her boss Tounome, who owns the company, is the gentlemanly type, kind and dapper, though he has an extra talent—he’s invisible! His special ability is perfect for detective work, but he quickly comes to find it doesn’t work on Yakou, who is blind and always knows if he’s near. Charmed, Tounome is determined to get her to date him and isn’t against using his many skills. Yakou’s quirky coworkers, a contrarian human man and a sisterly beastwoman, kindly watch over her as she stumbles and blushes through the uncharted waters of office romance.” 

This one seems to really be going under the radar at the moment, which is part of why I’m putting it at number one!

I am always hyped for stories featuring disabled protagonists, and the concept for this series really appeals to me! How him being invisible doesn’t matter to her since she wouldn’t be able to see him anyway, but that doesn’t mean she can’t “see” him in the metaphorical sense! It’s that side of romance I’m always more interested in than anything else. Plus it’s always refreshing to see series that feature actual adults and not just high school kids. It’s what makes me love series like “Knight of the Ice” and “Sweat and Soap” so much! And as I always say, series featuring disabled protagonists falling in love are in no way heteronormative.

I naturally have my concerns. Will this be good representation or simply rely on worn out cliches (such as I fear the comedy manga “Love’s In Sight” will be)? Will the gorgoeus art on the cover actually reflect what we see inside? Will Tounome’s desire for her be respectful or harassment? Will we get some cool mysteries to solve along the way, and not just have it as a weird backdrop for romantic hijinks? My limited googling of the series doesn’t throw up too many answers to this, and I’m hesitant to dive further for fear of spoilers...

It could be good. It could be bad. It could just be perfectly average, but needless to say you will be hearing my opinons on it come February 2023!

2) My Girlfriend’s Child by Mamoru Aoi from SevenSeas

[ID: English cover for “My Girlfriend’s Child” by Mamoru Aoi. Two japanese high schoolers, a boy and a girl, are standing in the falling snow. The boy clasps the girl from behind, his hands resting on her stomach. The girl holds his hands in hers, and looks off into the distance with a nervous expression.]

“A poignant and romantic shojo drama about a teenage couple whose lives are changed forever after a positive pregnancy test.

Sachi and her boyfriend Takara are your average high school couple. They go to school together, hang out, and even engage in the more intimate side of dating. However, as time passes, Sachi starts to get the feeling that something isn’t right and decides to buy a pregnancy test. Later, in the bathroom of a family restaurant far from her home, she sees the two red lines that will change both her and Takara’s life forever…”

Now this one I have seen hype for! I know I just said that I wasn’t that into high school romances, but this one is already completely different to your usual will-they-won’t-they. I love series that deal with real life issues, and take mature stances on difficult topics. I went to what was dubbed the “Teenage Pregnancy School”, so these sort of stories have always felt important to me. I’m especially interested to see it from the Japanese perspective, and whether this will fall into the propergander pit of encouraging everyone to get to baby making ASAP to serve the aging population, or actually show the real life social, physical and emotional struggles these kids are going to be going through as young parents!

3) Like a Butterfly by suu Morishita from Viz Media/Shojo Beat 

[ID: Japanese cover for Like a Butterfly Vol 1 by suu Morishita. A manga style water colour drawing of a japanese school girl with very long pink/brown hair. A small butterfly the same colour as her hair sits in the top left hand corner. She has a wide eyed and nervous expression, as though worried over what you’re about to say.]  

“Would you rather wait for love like a flower, or fly toward love like a butterfly? Suiren Shibazeki is often compared to a beautiful flower—but one that grows on the tallest peak of a mountain, forever out of reach. When Suiren develops feelings for the quiet Taichi Kawasumi, however, she doesn’t want to be a distant flower. She’d rather leave her lofty perch and fly toward him like a butterfly. After Kawasumi rescues her from an unwelcome admirer, Suiren finds herself captivated by him. But Suiren is too shy to speak to anyone, much less this reserved boy. What’s more, Suiren isn’t the only one with feelings for Kawasumi! Will a class trip offer the opportunity to reveal her feelings before it’s too late?”

LOOK. Okay LOOK. This has every markings of your usual high school shojo romance with nothing to give beyond some warm fuzzies. But I love “A Sign of Affection” with all my gosh-darn heart and am having fun reading “Shortcake cake”. I will read any Morishita you put in front of me and getting to have another of their early works in print is making me smile big time!

Again, will it be anymore than what it says on the tin? Only time will tell. But know that I will be clicking that pre-order button just as soon as it becomes available in the UK!

4) Do Not Say Mystery by Yumi Tamura from SevenSeas

[ID: Japanese cover of “Do No Say Mystery” Volume 1 by Yumi Tamura. It features a head and shoulders image of a japanese man with large amounts of curly black hair. He is wearing a dark brown turtle neck underneath a light brown/yellow dufflecoat.]

“A quirky, award-winning mystery manga from the shojo powerhouse creator of Basara and 7SEEDS–inspired a live-action series!

Totonou is a young man who stands out–partly for his bushy hair, partly for his finely honed abilities of observation and deduction. When Totonou is accused of murder, he puts his skills to work delving into the lives of the cops investigating him and uses his insights to find the real murderer. After clearing his name, all Totonou wants to do is return to his laidback, mundane life, but he can’t help but be drawn into one mystery after another. In his own blunt but gentle way, Totonou is just trying to make sense of a chaotic world.”

Honestly, I have seen nothing BUT hype for this series! On the outskirts, it doesn’t really have anything to appeal to me beyond some intresting artwork. My Mum’s the one who’ll watch any sort of murder that happens on an island, not me. However, it has been regularly topping the japanese charts for the past five years yet has only just now gotten an english release? And in omnibus format at that! Whether the series will actually hold my personal attention it is yet to be known, but at the very least I’m excited to see what the english speaking internet makes of the series and if it lives up to their expectations.

5) Long Lost Pals Living Their Breast Life by Tamaki Nao from Irodori Aqua

[ID: English cover for Long-Last Pals Living Their Breast Life by Tamaki Nao. An adult man and a woman stand back to back, thir arms hooked together. He has dark hair, square glasses and a strong physique that gives him big tits in the muscle sense. Meanwhile she has brown/orange hair and big tits in the sacks of yellow fat sense. His expression is stoic but nervous, whilst hers is bright and bubbly. In the bottom corner is a small chibi style image of them as children running along hand in hand, him looking like he’s about to cry in fear whilst she is excited and reassuring.]

You’ve heard of meet cute, but reunite cute? Now that they’re both grown up, newly swole Shun visits his old friend Nana after an extended absence hoping to put a (figurative) stake in the heart of his one-time first love. But it looks like neither of these tiddy monsters is ready to let go! Join our hilariously awkward (maybe?) couple as they (hopefully!?) begin to bumble their way into an adorable relationship!

Did I MAYBE include this one just for the shock factor? Perhaps. But you give a series a name like that, and I’m GOING to be interested! I’d love to tell you all about how we should be supporting indy publishers who work directly with creators, and how Doujin isn’t just fanfic and BL, but let’s be honest. This is entirely here for the pun. I’ve also seen a few screenshots floating around from twitter and it does seem like a genuinely cute manga! But honestly, so long as I get some puns and some hijinks i’ll be happy! My anticipation is high, but my expectations are low, which hopefully will only lead to happiness. Right?

[ridley-was-a-cat]

102. My Girlfriend's Child, Vol. 1 - licensed - I've been eagerly awaiting this shoujo about two high-schoolers dealing with a positive pregnancy test, and I liked what I read in this volume, but the preview for volume 2 felt like anti-abortion propaganda, so I'm torn.