Review: YAKUZA FIANCE

 Perhaps the hardest thing about this month is finding romance manga that are messed-up enough to fit the theme but aren't awful.  

This year, I managed to find one.

YAKUZA FIANCE (Raise wa tanin ga Ii), by Asuka Konishi.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2022.

PLOT:

Yoshino is the granddaughter of an Osaka-area yakuza clan, but all she wants is a normal life.  That's why she's so frustrated when she learns from the local tabloids that she's being engaged against her will to Kirishima, the grandson of a Tokyo clan.  

At first, Kirishima seems too good to be true: handsome, polite, and attentive.  Then the mask slips and the real Kirishima is revealed, a cold, cruel, sadomasochistic enforcer.  At first Yoshino is frightened, but then resolves to scare him off with a stunt of her own.  Who could have guessed that it would backfire and that Kirishima would end up genuinely smitten with her as a result?

Review: RIZELMINE

Don't think we're ignoring shonen romance, as here's a wretched little one-shot example from the creator of D.N. Angel.

RIZELMINE (Rizerumain), by Yukiru Sugisaki.  First published in 2001 and first published in North America in 2005.

PLOT:

Tomonori Iwaki is having a very bad day.  It began when he learned that the teacher he's been crushing on is getting married.  It only got worse when he came home, only to find a tiny, obnoxious little girl named Rizel claiming to be his wife.  Rizel is a secret government experiment, a being who needs to learn about love to further her development, and her "dads" (who are totally not government spooks) easily bribe convince his parents to go along with it.  Rizel loves her new husband, but Tomonori wants nothing to do with her and his rejections come with explosive results.  Things only get more chaotic from there, as some of Tomonori's classmates, an American-made knockoff of Rizel, and a coma threaten to part the unwitting couple.

Review: DON'T TOY WITH ME, MISS NAGATORO

 It was inevitable that I would have to grapple with the series that gave us the go-to user icon/Favorite Anime Girl of online chuds everywhere.

DON'T TOY WITH ME, MISS NAGATORO (Ijiranaide, Nagatoro-san), by Nanashi.  First published in 2017 and first published in North America in 2019.

PLOT:

It began in the library, when Naoto accidentally dropped the manga he had been drawing in his spare time in front of a bunch of gyarus.  They all mocked it for a bit and then left...except for Hayase Nagatoro.

Despite being a year younger than him, she knows weakness when she sees it.  She needles him for ages, until he's on the verge of tears.  After that, it seems like she goes out of her way every day to tease him as he blushes and freezes.  Is it mere bullying, or something more complicated between them?  Naoto isn't sure, but neither can he quite gather up enough courage to make her stop.

Review: I WANT TO ESCAPE FROM PRINCESS LESSONS

 It's time for another Bad Romance Month, where we cover a selection of some of the worst and weirdest romances to grace manga.  We're starting with a fairly recent title that's in the same vein as all those villainess stories, but no sausage-curled ojou-sama could devise a torment as bad as the one this story's heroine receives.

I WANT TO ESCAPE FROM PRINCESS LESSONS (Kisaki Kyoiku kara Nigetai Watashi), based on the light novels by Izumi Sawano and illustrations by Miru Yamasaki, with art by Uri Sugata.  First published in 2020 and first published in North America in 2023.

PLOT:

When Leticia was seven years old, she was engaged to the crown prince Clarke.  This meant she was torn from her family home and forced to undergo a decade's worth of lessons in deportment, etiquette, history, dancing, and more, all for the sake of a boy she barely knew and a role she never asked for.

One day she finds another woman on his arm and presumes she is free at last from her unwanted engagement.  She immediately runs off the countryside to play, roam, and do all the un-ladylike things she's been forbidden from doing for years.  Unfortunately, Clarke does not want their engagement will end and he will do anything to keep Leticia by his side, including stopping her many attempted escapes.