Recs if you like Nana, Vol. 1...

pink, sophisticated & sometimes fatale <3 curating the personality of my aspirations (added some essential nonfic & poetry!)

They're here. This is a list of manga about adults in contemporary, non-fantasy settings. BL and GL are included here. SPOILERS: Actually some of them are unemployed as a plot point.

🌹Genre-defining, highly popular, and influential classics of Shoujo (girls') manga, all bestsellers in their demographic or influential series by the Year 24 Group.🌹

✨The Year 24 Group was a group of manga creators (mangaka), all women, who redefined shoujo manga in the 1970s, focusing on contemporary problems and high-stakes, emotional drama as well as defining shoujo's signature style of big, emotional splash pages, beautiful men, using imagery to illustrate emotional states, and on-panel text to denote inner thoughts - all visuals used across all genres of manga to this day. The Year 24 Group is also credited with creating the genre of BL, aka BoysLove, sometimes called shounen ai, as well as pioneering GL, GirlsLove or yuri.✨

🎀All of these have official English releases and were first printed in magazines for girls.🎀

💖Expect sparkles, pounding hearts, and romance, and BL, but also science fiction, fantasy, action and melodrama!💖

Cultural phenomenon mangas that have become global household names over the years. All of these series have defined or impacted the animanga culture globally, in one way or another. From international movie releases, live-action adaptations, and instantly recognisable titles, these are the mangas to read if you want to sound like you know what you're talking about. Mainstream? Starter pack? Maybe, but they're pop culture icons for a reason. Believe it!

Suggestions and discussions welcome!!

it happens to the best of us, you start reading a series that sounds so good and then at some point it just…stops, there’s no final book, no satisfying conclusion, nothing. sometimes this is a deliberate choice an author is making (cough, cough George!) or simply they could not complete the series due to life-altering circumstances.

as always, please drop any suggestions in the comments!!!

the coquette femme aesthetic is of the utmost importance

includes the Big Three and other influential works; non-exhaustive;

Shoujo and Josei series everyone should read.

List inspired by @Lady_of_the_Library's club post. Recommendations provided by the PB community! These stories are intended for adult readers (18+) and often feature realistic, mature romantic relationships, complex emotional situations, and sometimes explicit content.

Manga that I feel in my soul is subtextually or explicitly queer.

All fiction books that appear in the Tiny Bookshop catalogue! Would sort them by genre as I read along.

codependent yaoi/yuri/queer situationships, friendship or relationships 💔 some may be toxic. open to suggestions especially sapphic ones

sapphic books with dark, messy, & morally gray romance and/or homoeroticism

I love manga and shoujo and josei are my favorite demographics. Consider this list a potential starter pack in shoujo and josei

in shoujo manga/anime, the “crimson rose and candy” archetype historically features romance between a confident, alluring “crimson rose” (often with high-contrast, dramatic or gothic features and aesthetics) and a more feminine, blithe “candy” (often with low-contrast, airy or pink features and aesthetics). while these stories in yuri originated as queer coming-of-age tragedy, i love identifying similar polarity frameworks in my favourite lesbian/sapphic novels alongside its various subversions!

Manga that were in Shoujo Beat Magazine supposedly (I'm doing this in alphabetical order in English)

I wanted to collate all the largest and greatest manga completed series with the first and last volumes to help me look to what to read next but also maybe this list will be helpful for others.

If you have any recommendations please leave a comment (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)

Manga that defined my girlhood

Manga that have anime adaptations.