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Watching Your Lie in April is bound to land you a spot in your therapist’s office. With unrealistic or superficial plots, only a few romance anime have inspired growth in their audience outside of building romantic relationships, and Naoshi Arakawa’s Your Lie in April is still hailed as one of the most influential in the genre.

Kosei Arima and Kaori in Your Lie In April | Credits: A1 Pictures

Your Lie in April has significantly left a mark on both anime and manga fans with its heartrending story. In reality, Arakawa intentionally crafted the franchise to break your heart, leaving a scar that may never heal.

While the anime is widely loved within the community, fans might be surprised to discover that this was Arakawa’s second attempt to showcase the beauty of classical music through manga after his first project was initially rejected.

Your Lie in April Marks...

Not all mangas are action and shounen. Here are some of the best Josei mangas ever made. (Picture Credit: IMDb)

Anime and manga are incredibly diverse when it comes to their genres. Most are mixed and matched to form the most fun amalgams of pure entertainment. There are, however, some distinctive genres that are uniquely Japanese and exclusive even within these mediums.

They are primarily defined and named after the demographic they target and are known as shojo, shounen, josei, and seinen. Most of us are familiar with Shojo and Shounen, considering their absolute domination in the current anime/manga scene. However, josei and seinen may be new terms for some of us.

Josei mangas are a genre of Japanese comic books tailored specifically for young adult women. They delve into themes and subjects that resonate with this demographic, often focusing on romance, melodrama, and even slice-of-life narratives centered around relatable female protagonists.

by Sophia Ng

“You sound like one of those guys,” he spits, “Men who get girls pregnant then say ‘Oh, I understand', and sign the form like it's none of their business.” Aki says nothing to that, silently taking a gulp of water. “But I'm the one who bears the risk whether it's childbirth or an abortion.”

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In a literal reversal of roles, the 2022 comedy-drama “He's Expecting (Hiyama Kentaro ō Ninshin)”, directed by Yuko Hakota and Takeo Kikuchi, sees Hiyama Kentaro, a 33 year old cisgender man having an emotional outburst, lashing out at his female partner's apparent failure to empathize with his predicament—being pregnant and the eventual trauma his body would be put through regardless of whether or not they keep the child. Currently on Netflix, this limited series based loosely on Eri Sakai's manga 2012 series, “Hiyama Kentaro no Ninshin...

Tomoko Ninomiya’s Nodame Cantabile manga is moving to the big screen according to Variety. The story of a pianist and an apprentice conductor who have a torrid romance has already been a television series and the leads, Juri Ueno and Hiroshi Tamaki, will reprise their parts for two feature films according to Variety. Their television director Hideki Takeuchi will join them on the features.

Shooting on the first feature is scheduled to begin in May, taking the couple around Europe for five months. Toho and Ntv anticipate releasing the first in December 2009 and the second feature the following spring.

The best-selling manga led to the television series in October 2006 and has been a growing success in Janapan.

Ntv has produced a successful series of films based on Death Note and is shooting a trilogy, 20th Century Boys, based on Naoki Urasawa’s manga about “a convenience store clerk who...