What releases are you most excited for? Did any of these surprise you?

She is best known for her work “Beyond Twilight” which runs in Nemuki+ for which she won the Japanese Media Arts Festival’s excellence award in 2006. Beyond Twilight has received 2 stage plays, a 1 season live-action andaptation, and a short-form anime adaptation. The series has sold 6 million copies as of June 2025.

Exhibit link:https://www.koshibun.jp/en/?tid=101098

Ima’s Wikipedia page:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ichiko_Ima

We talk a lot about the big English manga publishers, but there are some smaller publishers putting out hidden gems in print as well! Companies for these 9 titles include Crossed Hearts, Denpa, Living the Line, Titan comics, One Peace Books, eManga/DMP, and Star Fruit Books/Glacier Bay Books (who took over Star Fruit’s catalog when its founder passed away).

Others smaller manga publishers (even if they’re part of larger companies) not featured here include Udon, Aloha Comics, Kodama Tales, Kana, Uncivilized Books, BDP Press, Inklore, Harper Alley (very large company but only 1 manga license so far), and Manga Mavericks!

What are the Shojo/Josei titles from smaller publishers you feel are underrated/lesser-known? (please try to avoid highlighting the titles that are already perennial favorites😉)

Here are my other themed posts about this:

Viz: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vdo639/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Yen Press: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vjqzy5/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Seven Seas Entertainment: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vg9jbr/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Tokyopop: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vnaunx/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Kodansha/Vertical Print: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vp4syq/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Kodansha/Vertical digital dungeon: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vq03ko/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Since I posted about the Kodansha/Vertical print releases last time, now it’s time to give the titles that are digital-only their own spotlight!

What are the Kodansha/Vertical DIGITAL ONLY Shojo/Josei titles you feel are underrated/lesser-known? (please try to avoid highlighting the titles that are already perennial favorites😉)

Here are my other themed posts about this:

Viz: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vdo639/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Yen Press: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vjqzy5/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Seven Seas Entertainment: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vg9jbr/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Tokyopop: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vnaunx/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Kodansha/Vertical Print: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vp4syq/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

It’s very rare in Japan for women to hold senior positions at companies like editor-in-chief, so I just wanted to highlight some of the Shojo and Josei magazines who DO have them. I don’t claim that this list is exhaustive, but the major Shojo/Josei manga magazines I’m aware of which currently have female editors in chief include Melody, Comic Zero Sum, Cocohana, and most recently Sho-Comi got a female editor-in-chief in 2025!

Comic Zero-Sum: Ayako KiMishima

Melody: Naoko Takeda

Cocohana: Mariko Kono

Sho-comi Junko Kanai

What are the Kodansha/Vertical print Shojo/Josei titles you feel are underrated/lesser-known? (please try to avoid highlighting the titles that are already perennial favorites😉)

Here are my other themed posts about this:

Viz: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vdo639/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Yen Press: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vjqzy5/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Seven Seas Entertainment: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vg9jbr/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Tokyopop: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vnaunx/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

The anthology consists of several romance short stories published in Melody and Rakuen Le Paradis set in and around railways.

The digital license will seemingly still be valid.

What are the Tokyopop Shojo/Josei titles you feel are underrated/lesser-known? (please try to avoid highlighting the titles that are already perennial favorites😉)

Here are my other themed posts about this:

Viz: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vdo639/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Yen Press: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vjqzy5/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

Seven Seas Entertainment: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1vg9jbr/underrated_shojojosei_titles_english_publisher/

playbill article: https://playbill.com/article/sophia-anne-caruso-will-lead-new-duncan-sheik-manga-musical-memoirs-of-amorous-gentlemen

Musical’s official website: https://www.memoirsmusical.com

Here’s the musical synopsis:

WHAT MAKES YOU LAUGH? WHAT MAKES YOU CRY? WHAT DO YOU LONG FOR?

At the Night Egg, a humble Paris maison close, Colette would do anything to fulfill her clients’ desires. But when asked to write her own story, her words transform her from the observed to an observer. As the young dreamer turns perversions into art, chronicling the fantasies, confessions, and private sorrows of friends and customers, she becomes torn between her destructive attachment to a toxic love and her blossoming independence.

Starring Sophia Anne Caruso as Colette and based on Moyoco Anno’s award-winning manga, Memoirs of Amorous Gentlemen is a daring new musical by two-time Tony Award® winner Duncan Sheik and Peabody Award winner Leah Nanako Winkler, directed and choreographed by Tony winner Rob Ashford. This fall, slip into the decadent underworld of fin de siècle Paris in a brand-new theatrical space, the Night Egg, former home of Sleep No More

Sorata Akizuki debuted as a manga artist in a magazine in December 2002 (the January 2003 issue of Lala DX) with her work “Utopia”. She held an exhibition celebrating her 20 years as a manga artist beginning in 2023 and closing in 2025, and it’s amazing to think about how Snow White with the Red Hair has been running for 20 years itself now (with some hiatuses taken in that time frame of course).

This is one of my all-time favorite manga, and if you’re looking for a healing slice-of-life fantasy with interesting characters and doses of action and intrigue sprinkled in, this is perfect for you! Whenever I’ve had a stressful week, Snow White with the Red Hair always makes me feel better.

Sorata Akizuki debuted as a manga artist in a magazine in December 2002 (the January 2003 issue of Lala DX) with her work “Utopia”. She held an exhibition celebrating her 20 years as a manga artist beginning in 2023 and closing in 2025, and it’s amazing to think about how Snow White with the Red Hair has been running for 20 years itself now (with some hiatuses taken in that time frame of course).

Prince Freya is such an underrated long-running High Fantasy Shojo manga with cool politics and interpersonal relationships ships running in the background! Although Freya is mostly traveling around with her general and guards, the female characters she encounters will get some awesome aura and build-up of their own!

Here’s a recommendation post I made for it a while ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/shoujo/comments/1mr2jsl/a_dead_king_bloody_conflicts_and_a_country_girl/

What are the Shojo/Josei you feel are underrated or rarely talked about by Anglophone fans from yen press?

Since Shueisha’s Manga Million 100th anniversary free manga project reminded me we also had Shiina’s “Crazy for You”, I wanted to make a post dedicated to listing out all of her works we have available in English!

Gusts and Beats (ongoing - simulpubbed on Manga+ for $2/month subscription and physically licensed by Yen Press)

Kimi ni Todoke and Soulmate (completed - available on Viz app for $2/month and physically from Viz)

Crazy for You (completed - digital-only from the Viz Select ebook line, available for free from Shueisha for a limited time for their anniversary)

I tried to choose titles that were NOT translated by Flitto or Blue Horizon.

I really really would like people to check these titles out while Manga Million is free as it’s highly likely traditional English Publishers will use the readership metrics from this manga project for physical licenses, and all of these titles deserve that type of release in English. This may be the most accessible opportunity to use real metrics to convince publishers to license these physically, so while Manga Million is still free please do check these titles out.

I fear this is one of the only opportunities for a 20 volume figure-skating Josei manga like THE MOMENT to get a physical license🥲

Here’s a comprehensive list of the previously unlicensed Shojo and Josei manga available through this event:

https://myanimelist.net/stacks/88989

https://myanimelist.net/stacks/89028

https://myanimelist.net/stacks/89038

What are the Shojo/Josei titles you feel are underrated or rarely talked about from 7 seas?

For a variety of reasons from copyright issues to tech limitations to simple licensing agreements, these are the Shojo and Josei manga that only ever received physical releases from Viz (to the best of my knowledge).