I've always liked romance, and I remember reading Kimi no Iru Machi a long, long time ago. This was the manga where I began to notice two trend. First, japanese mangakas struggle to make satisfying endings, especially for dramas. I'd wager it's because of the format of publication, that allows less control on the story overall. The second was : the more fleshed out heroines rarely win, which is often annoying, because you'll get more attached to character with screentime. Seo Kouji's work is especially guilty of this. Though less prominent in your selection, when it comes to adult romance stories from the early 2000's, Asian authors in general have this strange fascination for hard to reach, borderline cold characters that are insufferable and hard to get attached to. It's getting a lot better these past years with the recrudescence of short stories on Twitter that popularized more gimmicky characters, but I remember that back then, mature romance that reached the international market was always cut from the same kind of cloth, making it a pretty uninteresting genre.
Yeah pretty spot on with your take. I'd also point out with your second trend that some mangakas do this so they can divert expectations; not all heroines with the most screen time necessarily win, and perhaps they wanted to make the "end girl" more unpredictable, but who knows. I agree with your first point also - and the publishers having more say in what they want happening in the story (like with Fuuka) also probably plays a role.
I've already read 2,3,4. Domestic Girlfriend's ending is just as bad as everyone else says. Seo Kouji's works aren't the best but he draws beautiful girls so the art is very easy on the eyes. Never heard of ReLife, I'll give it a look. I've had The World God Only Knows on my backlog for quite a while now. Once I'm done reading Golden Kamuy I think I'll start that one.
Yeah Seo Kouji has made some questionable plot decisions and his stories are always a bit inconsistent. But agreed I love his art, also a reason why I like reading his stuff
I've always liked romance, and I remember reading Kimi no Iru Machi a long, long time ago.
This was the manga where I began to notice two trend.
First, japanese mangakas struggle to make satisfying endings, especially for dramas. I'd wager it's because of the format of publication, that allows less control on the story overall.
The second was : the more fleshed out heroines rarely win, which is often annoying, because you'll get more attached to character with screentime. Seo Kouji's work is especially guilty of this.
Though less prominent in your selection, when it comes to adult romance stories from the early 2000's, Asian authors in general have this strange fascination for hard to reach, borderline cold characters that are insufferable and hard to get attached to.
It's getting a lot better these past years with the recrudescence of short stories on Twitter that popularized more gimmicky characters, but I remember that back then, mature romance that reached the international market was always cut from the same kind of cloth, making it a pretty uninteresting genre.
Yeah pretty spot on with your take. I'd also point out with your second trend that some mangakas do this so they can divert expectations; not all heroines with the most screen time necessarily win, and perhaps they wanted to make the "end girl" more unpredictable, but who knows. I agree with your first point also - and the publishers having more say in what they want happening in the story (like with Fuuka) also probably plays a role.
I've already read 2,3,4. Domestic Girlfriend's ending is just as bad as everyone else says. Seo Kouji's works aren't the best but he draws beautiful girls so the art is very easy on the eyes. Never heard of ReLife, I'll give it a look. I've had The World God Only Knows on my backlog for quite a while now. Once I'm done reading Golden Kamuy I think I'll start that one.
Yeah Seo Kouji has made some questionable plot decisions and his stories are always a bit inconsistent. But agreed I love his art, also a reason why I like reading his stuff