The Pain in My Life
Last week was awesome, as I was in Seattle with the fabulous 
rinalin, and we did tons of fun things, like go to the Jim Henson exhibit, stomp around the Sci Fi museum, go up the Space Needle, and watch a lot of tv.
I made her watch ALLLLL of Mei-chan, and she's promised me porn. Im very excited.
We also made our way halfway through Dollhouse, and a few episodes into Stand Up!! so, we got both American AND Japanese fun in. YAY!
We also made our way over to the Japanese book store/grocery store while we were there, and Rinny got seduced by manga, so I promised when we got back to her place that i would direct her to the online places where I wept bitter tears of agony over myself while reading every single chapter of Hana Kimi.
Yes. Bitter tears. Im not really a manga or a comics person.
REMEMBER THIS. I BEG OF YOU.
So, I hopped onto my laptop during some down time and sent her the link.
And then, while I was waiting for her to get it, I absently was clicking around on the tags on the side, hit "gender bender," and promptly got sucked into reading W Juliet.
OMG Y'ALL. I DONT LIKE MANGA.
IVE READ ALL OF IT. EVERY SECOND. I COULD BARELY STOP.
A BOY WHO DRESSES LIKE A GIRL FALLS IN LOVE WITH A GIRL WHO LOOKS LIKE A BOY.
HOW COULD I NOT LOVE IT?
*weeps betrayed tears*
Y'all...I even....i even looked to see if it had been made into an anime.
I DONT LIKE ANIME EITHER.
*weeps more*
FORTUNATELY, IT HASNT BEEN MADE INTO ONE SO I DONT HAVE TO MAKE THAT HORRIFIC ANNOUNCEMENT.
But...now...now ive read it all. and all of W Juliet 2 that i could find..
...now what do i read?
OH CRAP IM ASKING FOR MANGA RECS, SHOOT ME NOW.
*also, apologies for the upcoming spam. i have picspams to do.
rinalin, and we did tons of fun things, like go to the Jim Henson exhibit, stomp around the Sci Fi museum, go up the Space Needle, and watch a lot of tv.I made her watch ALLLLL of Mei-chan, and she's promised me porn. Im very excited.
We also made our way halfway through Dollhouse, and a few episodes into Stand Up!! so, we got both American AND Japanese fun in. YAY!
We also made our way over to the Japanese book store/grocery store while we were there, and Rinny got seduced by manga, so I promised when we got back to her place that i would direct her to the online places where I wept bitter tears of agony over myself while reading every single chapter of Hana Kimi.
Yes. Bitter tears. Im not really a manga or a comics person.
REMEMBER THIS. I BEG OF YOU.
So, I hopped onto my laptop during some down time and sent her the link.
And then, while I was waiting for her to get it, I absently was clicking around on the tags on the side, hit "gender bender," and promptly got sucked into reading W Juliet.
OMG Y'ALL. I DONT LIKE MANGA.
IVE READ ALL OF IT. EVERY SECOND. I COULD BARELY STOP.
A BOY WHO DRESSES LIKE A GIRL FALLS IN LOVE WITH A GIRL WHO LOOKS LIKE A BOY.
HOW COULD I NOT LOVE IT?
*weeps betrayed tears*
Y'all...I even....i even looked to see if it had been made into an anime.
I DONT LIKE ANIME EITHER.
*weeps more*
FORTUNATELY, IT HASNT BEEN MADE INTO ONE SO I DONT HAVE TO MAKE THAT HORRIFIC ANNOUNCEMENT.
But...now...now ive read it all. and all of W Juliet 2 that i could find..
...now what do i read?
OH CRAP IM ASKING FOR MANGA RECS, SHOOT ME NOW.
*also, apologies for the upcoming spam. i have picspams to do.
I have been looking for good manga too, since I found my one lovely one. *sighs* I have not found any that I superlike yet.
*sniff*
W. Juliet was cute, although I never managed to get through all of it (the back and forth within the first three volumes drove me crazy).
OH CRAP IM ASKING FOR MANGA RECS, SHOOT ME NOW.
SKIP BEAT! SKIP BEAT! Kyoko is your typical doormat, working herself to the bone to support her self-involved best friend/love interest, Sho, as he tries to become Japan's #1 male celebrity. And then! She finds out that he's just been using her as a maid! Kyoko snaps, and vows revenge: she'll become a bigger star that Sho has ever dreamed of!
I love crazy, evil Kyoko. I love how many *women* there are in the series. I love that Kyoko has a best friend (female) and that their interactions have nothing to do with the men in their lives. And! The end romance *isn't* Kyoko/Jerkface who broke her heart. There's an anime version.
The WALLFLOWER (aka PERFECT GIRL EVOLUTION) This one can drag, because every step forward is immediately followed by a couple of steps back. I still love it though. Sunako is a horror obssessed girl who has given up on all things feminine after being cruelly rejected by her high school crush. Her aunt gets the four super-hot guys renting rooms in her mansion to give Sunako a makeover (either they make her a lady, or the rent skyrockets! If they succeed, they get to go rent free). Sunako doesn't want a makeover, thank you very much. She and Kyohei, the head super-hot guy clash, and bond through snark and violence. There's an anime version that you should avoid.
OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB. Haruhi is a poor girl at a super rich school. She doesn't have the money, or the inclination, to take care of her looks--and so is often mistaken as a boy. She gets sucked into the school's host club after breaking an expensive vase. Chaos follows. You may need to have a few shoujo series under your belt for this one to be funny, as it pokes fun at shoujo conventions. There's an anime version.
FRUITS BASKET is perhaps *the* shoujo manga. Sweet girl Tohru moves into the Sohma family's home after the death of her mother (and a brief stint living in a tent in the woods). It turns out that the Sohma family is under a curse: certain members of the family turn into zodiac animals when they're hugged by the opposite sex! The series starts off very fluffy, and gets darker and darker as it goes along. There's a wide variety of supporting characters, and they are all awesome. There's an anime version, although it ends pretty early in the manga's run.
ONE PIECE is the only shonen title in this list. It's LONG, but I love it to bits. It's funny, and touching, and I've seriously cried over certain chapters. Like most shonen, there are a *ton* of fight scenes--but they're some of the easiest to follow I've yet to see. There's an anime version, although you should avoid the 4Kids dub at all costs.
*goes to find Skip Beat!*
I'm strangely okay with that. *g*
I do hope you like Skip Beat! The manga isn't for everyone, but it's been my number 1 shoujo manga for a few years now. It takes a few chapters to really hit it's groove; I was definitely in love by the princess revolution arc.
If you end up enjoying the series, I have fic recs.
I'll second the recommendations for Ouran High School Host Club & Fruits Basket - they're both excellent. But not much in the gender bender dept. Ouran's just straight up insane (this would make an awesome jdrama!) & Fruits Basket is more introspective.
I also highly recommend MeruPuri if you don't mind that the main guy love interest is technically a 7-year-oldish boy who transforms to 18ish when exposed to the dark. (I could never make my mind believe it - it felt more the reverse to me so I didn't get an squicky feelings)