Forum - View topicThe Rise of Reiwa: Romance Manga's Current Era Explained
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garfield15
 Posts: 1535 |
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For oldheads like me who suffered through the Heisei era's will-they/won't theys, fireworks interruptions, density more than a neutron star and the like for years, the Reiwa era meme is a literal godsend. I had to get my fix for consistent relationships from shoujo (though that had issues on its own). So glad this is so widespread to the point that the story is about after the confession
I remember a great pre-Reiwa example of this was Jitsu wa Watashi wa. One of the best comedy manga. |
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Utsuro no Hako
Posts: 1052 |
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Should probably specify this is a shounen phenomenon since shoujo romances have been doing it for at least the last decade -- My Little Monster, Say "I Love You" and My Lovestory all get the main couple together in the first volume.
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lys
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 1017 Location: mitten-state |
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I'd not yet heard of the term "reiwa/reiwa energy" as applied to this trend in romance manga. But the idea of this article, that modern romance series are moving the confessions earlier and making the story about the relationship that develops after, is something I've noticed becoming more common in recent shoujo romance manga too, and I am super here-for-it. At first I thought this article was going to look at both, but it seems exclusively focused on shounen romance. (which is fine, it just could've been made clearer that was the focus, or maybe given a single line of recognition to shoujo romance like BL and GL got...
 ) Anyway, it was an interesting read since I'm less familiar with shounen manga and didn't realize the trend I'd noticed in shoujo had such a parallel development there too. I'm happy for all of us who look forward to vicariously enjoying the love-lives of our favourite manga characters!
edit:
Yeah, I was trying to think about when exactly I started noticing more of this in shoujo. I do agree that we've had a handful of series like this for a while now (and some like High School Debut, Kimi ni Todoke, Cheeky Brat, etc in which the leads don't start dating immediately, but the series still run a good length post-confession and show more of that relationship development), but I also do think that it's becoming even more common lately. |
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R. Kasahara
 Posts: 711 |
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Glad to see that I wasn't the only one noticing the lack of shoujo in the article, which was especially odd since yaoi/BL gets a mention. |
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meruru
Posts: 476 |
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Imo letting the characters get together early is both a blessing and a curse. Most are familiar with the good examples like My Love Story because the good ones are what gets made into anime. There are tons of bad examples though, at least in shoujo manga. They are super bland, generic, and boring. They get together quickly, then go on all the same dates that very much feel like you've read it before. They have all the same minor relationship speed bumps that very much feel like you've read it before. It's hard, I think, to come up with conflicts in a story about two characters dating where it's a unique and interesting conflict, while not making the audience feel like this relationship is no good, and they should just break up. With the will-they/won't-they style, there's a conflict built-in to keep audiences interested (if frustrated.)
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moozooh
Posts: 151 |
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It's just a meme. The romance genre (comedic or otherwise) had been changing since the late 2000s, give or take, and yeah shoujo authors were pioneering the change back then, along with the popularity of "real accounts" that gave rise to megapopular stories like Densha Otoko. Shounen light novels (under the towering influence of Monogatari) then picked up the momentum in the 2010s.
The meme may have started with Kaguya but the transformation had long been underway by then. Kaguya is amazing at exposing and satirizing the tropes, however. |
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garfield15
Posts: 1535 |
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Yeah, in my post I said shoujo anime was good at avoiding the annoying push and pull but that came with its own drama that can be poorly executed. You summed it up well. |
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residentgrigo
 Posts: 2617 Location: Germany |
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Reiwa: Romance meme has no rooting in reality whatsoever and is diluted by which manga get scaned or translated. I could list endless manga that reached international markets, Kare Kano, Mars or Nana come to mind, that explore relationships throughout but exactly one should end the debate immediately. Sailor Moon. Usagi getting her guy early-ish is why arcs 3 and 5 got, interestingly enough female, "love rivals". Or why her kid from the future could be introduced and stick around. 46 million copies sold and counting.
There are tons of manly men action series where the protagonist is motivated by protecting their lover. Berserk (they were together for like one week of course), Gantz, etc. Most of the bestselling manga rn that are marketed around the titular couple, My Dress-Up Darling or Spy X Family, are also doomed to be stuck in the will they or won´t they mode till the very last volume. I strongly suspect that there is a financial incentive to keep things in the air as long as possible. No romance curse was broken or needed to be broken. Step away from MAL popularity rankings and top 20 sales charts and look at the wider market and you shall either find a sea or a trash pile of what you want from before half the ANN userbase was born. Harem ain´t going anywhere either and the bestselling Shoujo ever is a reverse harem. Boys Over Flowers. Like Shooting Stars in the Twilight (it´s mid) began in 1996 and is on Vol 68 and counting. It´s about middle-aged and senior citizens dating. It won an award and was adapted into a drama but not a single chapter has left Japan. I rest my case and relationship exploration manga tend to get live-action adaptations. Hello Sweat and Soap. The anime market is failing us here and no one else. |
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lys
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 1017 Location: mitten-state |
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Okay so, like I wrote in my comment, many of us know there have long been "exceptions to the rule" of holding off on a confession/relationship till the end of the series. As much romance gets written, there will always be some series trying out novel and fresh directions, mixed into the many that follow the more expected, tried-and-true path for that moment. But as one reader consuming a lot of romance manga (in both English and Japanese), I do think there is merit to the suggestion that trends are shifting and we are in a moment with more romance series focused on fulfilling and exploring the relationship, and not just the "will-they-won't-they get together." Maybe we need to get someone to map out a scatterplot of past and current romance series and which volume the characters start going out (/what % of the way through the series that happens) to see measurable, scientific results but anecdotally, I can vouch for it feeling like a noticeable jump.
Also, series that aren't specifically romance focused (where action plots or saving the world are more "the point" of the series) will often handle the romance differently, depending on the needs of the broader plot points. So I think series like Gantz and Berserk are probably outside of this discussion. |
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ThrowMeOut
Posts: 265 |
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Yeah no, this is definitely a new trend. Yes there's always been exceptions to the rules, but I have also been independently thinking about how many more romance anime/manga go past the hookup and into the relationship than before.
I'm loving it. I still think back to Ranma 1/2 doing the will they/won't they dance for 38 mother-loving volumes and even then it never, actually concluded. |
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Zalis116
Moderator
 Posts: 6902 Location: Kazune City |
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There have also been some "artificial/imposed relationship" stories like A Couple of Cuckoos, Love and Lies, and More than a Married Couple but not Lovers in recent years. Love and Lies especially got the nonexistent memo, as its premise is explicitly about addressing the birthrate crisis. |
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Pedram
Posts: 83 |
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I can only say that I'm loving it and it's very refreshing to see we moving past those annoying will they/won't they era ....
I grow up in that era, stuff like Inuyahsa, Ranma or that even older one from the same author, or stuff like To Love Ru and Zero No Tsukaima and so much more story all dragging the damn thing for volumes after volumes.... I was so damn tired of it already by around 2011~2012. So tired of it that when I saw in Sword Art Online Kirito & Asuna got together and fudge in the first volume basically I was shocked and in disbelief but also extremely exhilarated and excited as it was almost the very first story I read that had such a early progress at the first volume which still had many volume to come. and Believe me... I read over hundreds of story before that. Sadly. at least in the more shonen'ish and fantasy genre I prefer, these were still extremely rare at that time, There was the Chivalry of a Failed Knight too which came a while after with early relationship progress but they were all always exceptions and rarity. this whole ever increasing annoyance of mine toward to dragged out plot of any romance progression in stories almost made me stop / reduce my reading and watching anime/manga/novels for many years... I even went and start reading more Western or Chinese novels, starting with Coiling Dragon on the Chinese side, it didn't matter to me all that much if the story was that good or not... but just seeing a non cliched non dragged for tens of volume relationship or real polygamy harem with drag and bait happening, made me enjoy and reduce my long year of saved up frustration over the heisei era stuff Anyway, Long story short, I'm always happy to see the will they or wont they BS is going away and replaced by more better and maybe a bit more realistic relationship progression lol |
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asura_wings
Posts: 31 |
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I think we are slowly getting back the 1980s and 1990s tropes back which got phased out in favor of the ones that were popular after 9/11, I think that started in 2010s but did not get mainstream until 2020s.
I think also it is good that the 80s nostalgia that we had since the 2000s is getting watered down. Last edited by asura_wings on Tue Aug 08, 2023 9:33 am; edited 3 times in total |
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#Animaje1996
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I wouldn’t take the whole Reiwa era thing too seriously if I were you. In reality, there really hasn’t been any shift in terms of storytelling when it comes to the romance genre in manga just because Japan had a change in emperors. People like to bring this up thinking there has been a shift when there really hasn’t.
Look hard enough, and you’ll find plenty of “Heisei” era manga that have the same traits as the Reiwa era manga that people love to gush on about. Heck, two manga that people in the anime/manga community keep bringing up that they believe imbue “Reiwa energy” are Kaguya-Sama and Tonikaku Kawaii. Thing is, these two manga are technically Heisei era manga. The reverse is true as well. Given enough time, the Reiwa era will produce its fair share of manga with “Heisei energy” wherein it would take dozens of chapters for the main romantic leads to confess or start dating. Heck, it already has produced such manga. Some of them already have anime adaptations. One example of this is Couple of Cuckoos, which is very much a Reiwa era manga but it’s a manga that is very much hated by both a lot of people in the manga and anime community because of how “slow” it is and how it lacks development. Long story short, just ignore the whole Reiwa energy/era thing since it’s just an inside joke within the anime/manga community that has overstayed its welcome. |
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DamianSalazar
Posts: 776 |
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Now, I don't mind slow burn "will they/won't they" romances. In fact some of my favorites are slow burn romances like Mikadono Sanshimai wa Angai, Choroi.
The Reiwa era meme seems to have been made with the idea that majority of romance anime/manga before the Reiwa Era (c. 2019) is slow burn. As in, it focuses on developing characters before/without developing the relationships those characters have with one another. I also think that the Reiwa Era meme was made in response to series like Rent-A-Girlfriend (a.k.a the Internet's favorite manga to rip on), due to that series' perceived lack of any significant progress, telling people that "This era of romance anime and manga is crazy! You don't have to stay reading R-A-G! There are plenty of other romances you can enjoy that aren't slow like You and I Are Polar Opposites for example!". |
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