20/07/2020: Manga we're reading at the moment

Hey guys! This week, we'll share about some of the manga we're reading now. There's no particular theme, but all of them are ongoing series that are being updated with at least some regularity (at the time of writing).

1) I Want Your Mother to Be With Me (Yutaka Tazawa)

Quite an unusual romance. A young man (who's failed to get into university for a while) has a crush on his colleague at his part-time workplace, a widow with a child. He tries to woo her, but quickly realises that she's not just a woman looking for a fling with just anyone, but a mother looking for a man who can also be a father to her son. This gives our hero the impetus to reflect on himself and work hard to become a better person who's worthy of his crush's affections. This is a great manga because it's not your standard "pretty girl takes in useless guy although he doesn't do anything because of love" but there's good character development for our hero. I also enjoyed the strong portrayal of the single mother.

2) Get Married When You Grow Up! (Fumi Mifuyu)

A pair of childhood friends promise to marry each other when they grow up. However, the boy phrased it a little differently: "I'll marry you when I get taller than you!" However, the height gap between them got even bigger and the girl is way taller than the boy, who's still pretty short. Nevertheless, the pair still have feelings for each other but the girl's too shy to admit it and the boy's too proud to confess before he meets the conditions he's set. Luckily, they're still close enough that they're together all the time and their friends and family still try to pair them up together. I like "short guy tall girl" stories like "Lovely Complex" and this is another great one - with less shoujo drama or tension bits - it's just a fun time.

3) Iwakutsuki Bukken no Yakuro-san (nnnekooo22)

A boy moves into a haunted appointment and falls in love with the long-haired ghost who lives there. Of course, she tries to scare him off but his affection is too strong and it's revealed that the ghost is really shy and just wants to make friends. This series doesn't break any new grounds but it's pretty cute and fun.

4) Pumpkin Night (Otosama)

I can't say anything about the story without giving away the story but there's a serial killer hunting down students and it turns out the students did something bad before. I'm not sure what the author was actually thinking when he wrote this, but I wouldn't be surprised if this was intended as a homage to the 80s/90s slasher movies. It's really gory and violent and the killer is pretty scary. It's good, but only if you like violent and gory and scary stuff.

5) Bad Girl Exorcist Reina (Otosama)

The transfer student is a yankee who goes around bullying students! It's up to the student council president to stop this delinquent's bad behaviour. However, she discovers that the delinquent is actually an exorcist, whose activities end up being misinterpreted as bullying or truancy. They work together to hep their friends, including a werewolf and a possession (there's a Voldermort-like face on someone's body - it's pretty great). The "ghost" incidents here are pretty unusual (I've not seen them before) and the delinquent is pretty interesting because she's not the "good girl misunderstood as a bad girl" but she's just a badass who's doing her own thing, which makes her cooler and less of a wimp like some other characters of this type.