✎┊ RECS [pt.1]

Hello! ♡

I wanted to share 7 manga that explore women's lives, feelings, struggles, dreams, relationships and all the little moments that make up our experiences.
Each story offers its own perspective on womanhood: sometimes tender, sometimes painful, sometimes messy but always human. I hope you find something here that speaks to your heart or simply gives you a new perspective.

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Futari Escape by Shouichi Taguchi
https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/futari_escape/

I find this manga incredibly comforting. It follows two women who basically decide that sometimes the best thing you can do is forget about your responsibilities for a little while and just enjoy life together. I love how simple and relatable it feels! Eating something delicious, staying in, going out on little adventures or simply being lazy together. It captures that very specific feeling of wanting to escape from everything for a moment and just breathe. For me the charm of this manga is really in the relationship between the two girls. It feels silly and genuinely affectionate without needing anything dramatic to make their everyday lives interesting.

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Tokyo Tarareba Girls by Akiko Higashimura
https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/tokyo_tarareba_girls_returns/
https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/tokyo_tarareba_girls_returns_2/

It follows three women in their 30s who are trying to figure out love, work, friendship and what they actually want from life while constantly worrying about what they should be doing. What I love most is how honest and messy these women are. They make mistakes, complain, have regrets, fall in love and sometimes make quite the questionable decisions. But that's exactly what makes them feel so real to me. I also love the way the manga talks about the pressure women can feel around getting older, marriage, relationships and the idea that there's some sort of deadline for having your life figured out. It can be hilarious one moment and surprisingly painful the next.

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Gisèle Alain by Sui Kasai
https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/gisele_alain/

Gisèle Alain (yes, the accent is a must!) is such a charming little gem and Gisèle herself is exactly the kind of female character I love finding in manga.
She comes from a wealthy family but instead of simply accepting the life that has been laid out for her, she chooses to leave it behind and build something of her own. She becomes a landlady and starts taking on all kinds of odd jobs, meeting new people and discovering the world along the way. What I personally adore about Gisèle is that she's confident and independent but she's not perfect. She can be naive and a little clumsy and watching her slowly learn about life makes her feel incredibly endearing. Big shoutout to the artwork! I'm obsessed with the early 20th century setting, beautiful clothes, detailed architecture and little everyday moments make this manga feel like stepping into another world. Love, love, love!!!

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Futago by Rikako Iketani
https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/futago/

We follow Yukari who is happily enjoying her single life until her twin sister Ayaka suddenly shows up with a man she met in Hong Kong and turns Yukari's peaceful life upside down. From there the story becomes this lovely sometimes messy exploration of family, love, independence and the complicated ways people can care about each other. What I especially love about it is the relationship between Yukari and Ayaka. They're twin sisters but they're also very different women with their own choices and ways of seeing life. Their bond can be frustrating, funny, tender and sometimes heartbreaking.

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Gene Bride by Hitomi Takano
https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/gene_bride/

Gene Bride is one of those manga that completely caught me off guard. At first it feels like a very intimate story about being a woman in your 30s, about being underestimated at work, dealing with unwanted attention (and harassment) and trying to make your way through a world that doesn't always treat you fairly. Ichi's frustration felt incredibly real to me. But then the story starts pulling at a thread from her past. A former classmate suddenly appears and reminds Ichi of something called "Gene Bride" which is a strange school experiment that supposedly matched them together based on their genetic information. From there, what begins as a story about everyday sexism and relationships slowly transforms into a much deeper scifi mystery involving a missing classmate and questions about identity and destiny. What I love about Takano's writing is that the scifi elements never take away from the very human emotions at the heart of the story. Ichi feels like a woman who is tired: tired of being dismissed, tired of having to navigate other people's expectations and yet still trying to understand what she actually wants for herself.
This is a manga where I was reminded that before being a woman, I am a human person.

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You Can't Live All on Your Own! by Mizoko Tsuno
https://www.mangago.me/read-manga/you_can_t_live_all_on_your_own_official/

This manga follows four women who live together in Tokyo. Each of them is dealing with something different: marriage expectations, workplace pressure, complicated relationships, money aka simply trying to figure out what kind of life would actually make them happy. What I really love is that none of them has the same idea of happiness. And I think that's what makes their friendship so special. They can support each other, annoy each other, laugh together and sometimes struggle to understand one another but they still have this little home where they can come back to each other.
A beautiful manga that reminds me that there isn't one "correct" way to live as a woman.

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Kuragehime Gaiden: Barakura Bara no Aru Kurashi by Akiko Higashimura
Not on Mangago unfortunately.

I absolutely love that Higashimura decided to give us a story about middle aged women having fun and being completely unapologetic about the things they love. This Princess Jellyfish spin off follows Chieko's mother and her group of friends: a bunch of japanese housewives in their 50s who are absolutely obsessed with korean celebrities. Their love for their idols eventually leads them all the way to South Korea where they embark on their own little adventure. I love seeing women who aren't teenagers or twenty somethings being allowed to have dreams, silly obsessions, friendships, crushes and adventures of their own. They're wives and mothers but that's not all they are. They have their own personalities and desires and Higashimura lets them be loud, ridiculous, passionate and wonderfully themselves. Trust me, this is funny and chaotic but underneath all the comedy I think there's something really sweet about watching these women enjoy life together. It reminded me that growing older doesn't mean becoming less curious or less excited about the things that make you happy.

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And that's everything for today. See you next time!