Any easy (up to say level 26) romance manga recommendations? BL / yuri / shoujo - whatever comes to mind as either exciting/fun or emotionally fulfilling (like say 薫る花は凛と咲く 1 | L20 - so wholesome).
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Easy(ish) but no furigana
If you haven’t read 気になってる人が男じゃなかった | L24 (the green yuri) def do that
僕らの食卓 | L20 probably my favorite currently running BL. It’s the sweetest most wholesome story and I cannot hype it enough
あの頃の青い星 | L22 Very wholesome yuri and also free on Amazon. I’d happily pay money for it
Furigana
僕の心のヤバイやつ | L23 def one of my favorites right now. The first few chapters are not at all reflective of the rest of the series (the MC is a little edgelord, but he starts on his character arc very quickly). Beware this has a lot of slang.
はなにあらし | L18 very cute yuri.. I’ve gotten a few non Japanese speakers into the translation of this and they all love it too.
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Thanks for the recs! This was the last push I needed to get that green yuri 
僕らの食卓 | L20 and はなにあらし | L18 both look so soothing!
Me, dropping the anime after the first episode because the MC annoyed me: ah, oops?
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He’s much much better after a few eps (def within the first volume of the manga). I also don’t think I would have stuck it out without the warning. But it’s a really sweet story of friendship, and a little later on, romance. Despite what first episode Kyotaro is up to 
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- 夢でフラれてはじまる百合 | L17 - very easy, cute yuri manga. Only downside is the mangaka is really slow so volume 4 is taking forever to come out. I wouldn’t say this one is super deep, but I think it’s fun.
- 不可解なぼくのすべてを | L21 - LGBT coming of age story that has some romance
- 現実もたまには嘘をつく | L21 - About a high school age boy and girl who meet from online gaming and decide to meet in person. It’s in full color and one of my favorites!
- 君に紡ぐ傍白 | L21 - College yuri, also full color!
- 青のフラッグ | L23 - Another coming of age story with romance being a big part
- 君は放課後インソムニア | L24 - Two highschoolers connect over their shared chronic insomnia.
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@Kroki
I second 僕らの食卓. Very heart-warming.
https://learnnatively.com/book/63097ed7db/
I’ve read this three winters in a row. I hate winter, but this manga always makes me feel better about it. It’s a cozy little slow burn. At the same time, the leads are slowly working through their own personal issues. So it’s also emotionally fulfilling.
https://learnnatively.com/book/6e5015c741/
The relationships in the story develop around a group of kids’ goal to give one unlucky guy a normal high school experience. It’s both sweet and funny. It’s romance, but the friendships are fleshed out. Also, don’t let the cover full you, there’s nothing dark about it.
Based on your favorites, you might not want something explicit? This one is spicy. The main character is hilarious. It’s just a silly guy x serious guy tumbling through life kind of thing.
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+1, especially to “the first few chapters are not at all reflective of the rest of the series”. Back then I almost dropped the anime after watching the first episode, and then it quickly became a favourite when all that edgelord garbage somehow never came up again?! I really have no idea what they were thinking when they made that beginning…
Haha. Are you me? 
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I wonder if they got reader feedback during serialisation of the manga and course corrected accordingly…
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The publication of volumes #1 and #2 are 20 months apart, that seems to be sufficient.
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If so, praise be for reader feedback.
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I get the impression that the publishers are also quite alive to reader feedback during the chapter at a time serialisation in the weekly/monthly magazines.
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IIIIIIIIIIIII just realized I haven’t selected anything for the “Seeking Recommendation” square on my bingo card and the year ends in 13 days! My personal challenge this year (…and next) is burning down my manga 積読 pile, so I pulled 5 from the lower levels that looked interesting. Would you recommend any of these?
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voters
- ふらいんぐうぃっち 2 - I really enjoyed the first volume! I think I have the first three from some promo/discount. I enjoy magic slotting into the regular world.
- のんのんびより 2 - Liked the slow pace and rural setting, albeit I can’t say anything stood out in particular. It was a super fast read.
- やがて君になる 1 - Bought this one so long ago I don’t even remember the premise!
- 雨でも晴れでも 1 - Pretty sure I bought this one on recommendation? Another that I don’t recall much about. I am seeing a pattern on these yuri book covers though
- 黄泉のツガイ 1 - The same author as Fullmetal Alchemist, a series I dearly love. I’ve heard her new series is good so I bought the first volume on sale a while ago, but haven’t read it yet
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I voted for the only one that I know!
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Thanks!
Thanks to everyone, I’m going with ふらいんぐうぃっち 2, and adding the others to my 2026 積読 list.
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For anyone familiar with the book 人間失格, is there a particular version you would recommend?
When I looked it up on Amazon, there are a bunch of different versions by various publishers, sometimes with different page length listed. I know it’s on Aozora, so this might be just some cosmetic stuff, like different covers and font size, but I felt like it was worth asking, just to be sure I’m not missing anything before buying a physical copy 
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The Bunko version I have has 208 pages, was printed in 2005 (says it’s the 27th printing, I think) and has almost no Furigana but does have some photo pages at the start of the author and some others.
ISBN - 9784087520019
I didn’t choose the version for any particular reason, just it was on my list to get and that was what popped up.
The last 40 pages are extras (a glossary, commentary, appreciation and notations), the main story ends on page 167
Edited to add:
The differences seem to be limited to the following yet the core text remains the same.
- Cover art and design: Different publishers use distinct cover art, often reflecting contemporary design trends or featuring classic imagery related to Dazai.
- Introductions and afterwords: Editions from major publishers like Shinchosha, Iwanami, or Kadokawa often include unique essays, commentary, or analysis from different scholars, literary critics, or other authors, providing varied perspectives on the work’s themes and Dazai’s life.
- Supplementary materials: Some editions may include different footnotes to explain potentially dated vocabulary or historical context, or brief biographical timelines of Dazai’s life.
- Format: The novel is available in various physical formats, including small paperback bunkoeditions (which are common in Japan), larger hardcover versions, and even bilingual versions with English translations.
- Target audience variations: Specific publications might be geared towards different demographics (e.g., student editions with study guides, or deluxe editions for collectors).
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The other thing that can sometimes differ between different publishers’ versions of this kind of “classic” novel is the amount of furigana. When we read 風立ちぬ in the WK book club, it turned out that the Kadokawa edition was quite generous with furigana, another publisher’s edition a little less so, and the Aozora text had very little furigana. If there’s an Amazon or Bookwalker text preview it might be possible to assess furigana usage.
The end of text essays and analysis are sometimes mildly interesting but also definitely skippable; I suspect they partially appear because many of these older novels are shorter than the modern norm and the publishers want to pad out the page count. Explanatory endnotes vary: some of them are providing a gloss of an obscure word that you probably did a dictionary lookup for anyway. Named historical figures often get an endnote saying who they are, which is not very helpful for major Western figures with katakana names but more useful for semi obscure figures and for Japanese or Chinese poets/playwrights/etc. How many notes and how much you want them depends on the text – I just read Dazai’s 斜陽, which had a few pages of endnotes that were nice but not necessary; on the other hand 吾輩は猫である is stuffed full of offhand references to major and minor figures in the Western, Japanese and Chinese canon and you will miss a lot without the notes.
Side note: when I was sampling various Bookoff stores across Japan last year, 人間失格 was by far the most common classic novel in them – it seemed like every shop had half a dozen copies in various editions…
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Thank you both for the insight! Notes are very much appreciated, and I don’t mind a good analysis or lack thereof. Obviously I haven’t read the story yet, but from what I’ve gathered it’s pretty intense, so I was just afraid I’d end up buying a censored or water down version meant for younger readers by mistake
I’ve managed to find a second hand 新潮文庫 copy with basically no furigana or sign of usage here in Europe, and for a very nice price too (about 5€, not quite as low as Bookoff prices, but a steal compared to the 20€ minimum on Amazon)
Having 192 pages and published in 2006, it shouldn’t be too different from the one you got, @CatDQ
Although I have to say your cover art is way cooler
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I have the same book and iirc I paid the same price, and it’s still waiting on my stack. Btw, the last still unread book that I bought before I registered at Natively.
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I kinda like the abstract design on yours. I originally wanted the anime style cover as shown in the Natively entry.
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