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Princess Jellyfish Give-Away : Celebrate Josei Manga

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We here at Heart of Manga are very excited that we’ve gotten more josei titles this year, and would love to see more series get licensed. To celebrate, we’re giving away a brand new paperback of volume 1 of Princess Jellyfish by Akiko Higashimura. Akiko Higashimura is a very well-known josei manga artist in Japan. Her titles continue to sell popularly, and last year in 2015 she won the Manga Taisho award for her series Kakukaku Shikajika.

Along with Akiko Higashimura, we’ve seen josei series from Arina Tanemura and Izumi Miyazono this year. But did you know that some of our favorite shoujo mangaka from a few years ago are now writing josei series? Here are a few series you might be interested in knowing about:

Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai by Aya Nakahara

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English Translation: Please Love the Useless Me

The series is about a young woman who spends all her money on younger guys to maintain them as boyfriends and ends up being swindled. She is broke and out of work when she runs into her former boss, now running a cafe. He offers her part time work, food, and a place to stay until she gets back on her feet. Meanwhile, she’s got to learn to navigate the rocky roads of relationships again with her sense of self-judgement and trust totally busted. It’s a funny and adorable series.

Aya Nakahara was well known in Shojo Beat’s early days for her series Lovely Complex, or Love Com for short.

LC_Wallpaper05Some of you may remember that series with the super tall girl, Risa, and super short guy, Otani, that hook up. She’s currently writing this josei series for Shueisha and its running in their YOU josei manga magazine.  The series got a live action drama on Japan’s TBN earlier this year. I would love to see this series get licensed in North America.

Bread & Butter by Hinako Ashihara

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Bread & Butter is about a young woman, Yuzuki, whose life is also not going very well. She’s 34 years-old and without a boyfriend. The elementary school she works at is close to firing her, and to top it off she doesn’t know what to do with her life at all. But even when she quits her job and tries an arranged marriage, things don’t work out. Only the bread she eats at the small stationery store around the corner gives her comfort. So one day, she asks the store owner to marry her on a whim, and to her surprise, he agrees? Two strangers decide to get married for uncommon reasons. It’s an interesting beginning to a new love.

Hinako Ashihara has been previously published in North America with her shoujo series Sand Chronicles.

sunadokei_wallpaper01Some of you may remember that dramatic love triangle between Anne, Daigo, and Fuji. Ashihara’s new series Bread & Butter is currently running in Cocohana josei manga magazine.

Marmalade Boy Little by Wataru Yoshizumi

Marmalade Boy Little

Marmalade Boy Little is the sequel series to Marmalade Boy which ran in Ribon magazine in the early 90s. Marmalade Boy was published in North America by Tokyopop and has long since been out of print. It was very popular in Japan and influenced today’s artists like Arina Tanemura. Sadly, the series did not get much love here in North America. Wataru Yoshizumi has revived her beloved characters recently in a new manga that follows the younger siblings of the main characters Miki and Yuu. All former characters are reintroduced now 10 years or so after the original series. If you read the original series, then you’ll love this sequel as well. Marmalade Boy Little is currently running in Cocohana josei manga magazine.

These series are just some of the offerings of josei manga in Japan. I chose them in particular because the artists were all from the early shoujo market here in North America. There are a lot of great josei titles running in Japan. I’d like to bring some more attention to them because I feel like a large portion of shoujo manga readers that actually buy the volumes are not the targeted teen audience, but women from 25+. We are really under-serviced when it comes to manga, and some of our population end up buying more seinen manga because it is for a more mature audience. Later in May I will follow up with a post on what josei titles I’d like to see licensed for the shoujo manga readers that have grown up in the last decade. This will continue our recognition and celebration of josei manga.

Now on to the contest…

So how do I enter, you ask? Here’s the lowdown:

  1. Go to our Facebook page by clicking the link or the icon on our website header.
  2. Find this post on our Facebook page about the Give-Away
  3. Like the post or Comment with what josei series you would want to see licensed to enter.

It’s that simple! We are not collecting any other information. All entries will be recorded by woobox and a random winner will be chosen by the app. If you are the winner we will need you to contact us so we can send you your prize. Winners will have 72 hours to claim the prize until another winner is chosen. The contest begins as soon as this post goes live and will close at 11:59 pm CST on May 30, 2016.  Winner will be announced on May 31, 2016. Good luck!

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