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If you're referring to my manga list, I'm afraid you won't find much except for very short pieces like one-shots. But I do have a couple of romance anthologies I liked, if you're up for that kind of recommendation? :)

Sigh...I know right. Leaving aside from my righteous frustration due to the fact that it's way past time for better content for female reader/viewership, I'm just straight up BORED of the same old tropes and cliches. I'm actually feeling more inclined to read manga these days (I have my phases lol) but it's still hard to find titles that are promising and readily available somewhere. So I'm just back to catching up on some of my old reads for now.

You're definitely better off the forums, if I may say so. I was active there for a while when I was still a newbie on this site and it was mostly a horrible experience if you have any standards at all regarding the concerns we're discussing. There's an over-abundance of the delusional and infantile who bend over backwards supporting their problematic 'opinions' with misplaced conviction. You start losing brain cells upon exposure soon enough, so I completely distanced myself from forum interactions, being only active in the recommendations section from time to time.

"the recommendations and comments and reviews you can write here are a good measure to push the good stuff" Yes! This is exactly why I was genuinely glad to see your 7Seeds review!! (Especially as I'm far too lazy to write them myself lol)

My first anime was the original FMA - I got into anime entirely because I loved it so much, and it's been a special favourite ever since. That was about 6 years ago and I enthusiastically made a MAL account soon after haha. Unlike a lot of people I hardly watched any anime as a kid, so FMA was really the first of its kind to me. Interestingly, I came across manga much earlier thanks to a friend's recommendation, though I didn't even know what it was at the time! (The manga in question was Fruits Basket, I didn't get to finish it then so I'm reading it now after many years.)

How about you? You seem to be fairly new on MAL but likely an animanga fan for much longer, I assume?

Oh I'm watching Golden Kamuy btw, up to the second season. It's been pretty enjoyable, particularly in the historical and adventure aspects, but I must say, the humour is quite odd! I'm not sure it fits the otherwise serious and intriguing atmosphere very well, as a viewer it's been throwing me off balance somewhat... Is the manga similar in that regard?

"Clearly it is unhealthy practise, but...i guess there has to be some demand at least..." Precisely. And that is more of an issue, quite frankly. You need only visit the recommendations forums to see what some people are after, one distasteful request a day is almost guaranteed. The fact that these 'demands' are largely from male demographics is a major factor in regards to the disturbing elements, because it's reflective of societies that still harbour harmful and oppressive ideologies to this day (just think of women and crimes related to sexual misconduct in today's world). That's why I find glorification of such things, whether as a fetish or forbidden appeal, unacceptable as they keep harmful notions alive in the guise of 'just fiction'.

So it's probably not too surprising that I dislike genres that facilitate this kind of thing. Romance is out, especially when it comes to animanga because the industry's rampant with exactly the type of prehistoric characterisation you mentioned. The few romances I like happen to be within works of other genres with actually well-written (female) characters and relationship dynamics. In fact, my only requirement for a good anime is good female characters. Seemingly so simple, yet it's literally the most difficult criteria to fulfil. You can always distinguish my rare few favourites from the rest by that aspect alone.

Overall, I don't really have preferred genres, though I do avoid shonen/shojo labels these days. Not a big fan of sports either, as they tend to be 'more of the same'. Action alone has never appealed to me tbh (including in western media) and most 'psychological' ones are disappointingly misleading 9 out of 10 times. Speculative genres like sci-fi, fantasy, or supernatural are a hit or miss, depending entirely on the individual title in my experience. Pretty much the same with slice of life, since it's way too broad, but I'm more inclined to try them out. I'd love historicals (potentially my fav genre) if anime didn't litter them with a hundred other random elements. I've found most seinen works alright thus far but josei would probably be the only consistently enjoyable category of any sort - but of course it literally has the The Least amount of titles in MAL database. Typical. But honestly, it all comes down to writing. Quality writing can eliminate limitations of any genre, so if I come across something interesting enough I can disregard the labels.

Art style (or animation, for that matter) is another thing I'm personally not too bothered by. As long as visuals don't get in the way, that's enough for me. Ironically the one time it did was when I started reading Basara! Oh boy...it's so funny thinking back how I struggled to make sense of things while trying not to hate the art lol. But it perfectly illustrates what I'm saying. On top of that, I've also seen/read enough aesthetically pleasing works that actually had little to no substance. I see where you're coming from though, especially with your art background, and I do prefer the clean/realistic styles myself. And I totally get your dilemma re: art vs genre, although it's more story/character related for me. For instance, I wish mature female-centric stories weren't just limited to josei, nor 'serious and deep' seinen ones having male leads by default. Not to mention the extremely skewed fanservice content according to demographics, where male viewers get the 'better' (and usually more problematic) side of the deal.

TL;DR I'm highly critical of what I read/watch and therefore super picky! (No regrets haha)

The best thing for the average consumer to do is be vocal about it, I'd say. Such as in forums or community discussions, and of course at platforms where creators can see the feedback. The point is to let both the creators and community know that female consumers aren't ok with what's being put out to encourage more inclusive content.

Fortunately, I too have found a manga app that seems to be updating the chapters (also at 161) and I'm almost afraid to be happy about it in case I jinx it haha *fingers crossed they diligently finish the project*. (Thanks, I remember Matsuri now - I actually remembered the character had curly hair even if I forgot about the rest!)

When it comes to yaoi (and yuri) I think what most disturbs me is the fetishistic aspect of it. It's marketed and consumed largely as some sort of perverse guilty pleasure, having no real representative value. And the fact that these genres, along with hentai, by their explicit nature, allow and promote highly problematic concepts like underage and noncon is the worst part of it. Sorry to rant but yeah that's my opinion.

Sigh...I know what you mean. I think I may have seen a couple volumes of Basara at a bookstore once and was so delighted I just stood there browsing through the books for like an hour lol.

I do indeed know Sakamichi - love the anime! It had such a wonderful atmosphere and music. Do you have any favourite genres when it comes to animanga?

Manga offers a lot more variety than anime, so that's a good in a way. There are so many interesting and mature titles that would probably never be animated because they're too old/short/unpopular etc. If translations weren't an issue I'd definitely seek out more manga myself.

I completely agree. There's just so much less diversity in the female-targeted content, especially in the comic/gaming community. It's bad enough in the real world as it is, but such sexism within creative industries even today seriously annoys me to no end.

Haha I get where you're coming from re: hero characters, but I find that's another aspect Tamura Yumi excels in - writing flawed, nuanced protagonists. I recall there were at least 2 other female characters I liked, Botan and Ayu possibly (but I really can't remember who Matsury is!!) This make me really want to read the manga again, but I'd feel worse if I catch up and then have no further translations so I'll control myself... :(

Oh I see, you seem to be more of manga reader than I. All my manga are mostly from favourite anime or, sometimes in extension, from the mangaka of said favourites (like 7Seeds). Not much else otherwise. I'm especially averse to reading ongoing series because of the wait for chapters, pains of finding translations (just look at the agony 7Seeds is putting me through >o<) and anxiety-inducing indefinite publication period. I used to read books a lot so I prefer my stories to come in 300+ pages of printed content lol.

Tbh I'm quite picky about what I watch/read particularly when it comes to characterisation. As you mentioned, there's an unfortunate discrepancy in the contents that target certain demographics, leaving a lot to be desired in regards to female characters, which is a big issue for me. So it's near impossible to find things that live up to my standards in animanga. That's why Tamura Yumi stands out so much, I absolutely treasure her excellent portrayal of female characters. I hope that Neverland and Kamuy don't disappoint in that regard as I'm genuinely intrigued by them (I'll probably start with the anime adaptations though).

Hmm picking favourites from 7Seeds is going to be hard...especially because I haven't read the manga in literal years! (Story time: I kept 'saving' the updates to read later because how tense and climactic those chapters (around ~147 I think) were - and then it suddenly finished publishing?! I never guessed I was so close to the end of the manga! Since then I haven't touched it, intending to ensure all the last chapters are available to me in English before starting once again from the beginning for the ideal experience!) But there are at least 2 characters I love absolutely: Hana and Aramaki. Honestly, there's hardly any that I dislike because of how well-written they all are. The sheer diversity among their characterisation, both male and female, is impressive enough, but they're also developed extremely well with care and attention. Umm as for couples...I'd be lying if I said I don't have favourites and that I'm not torn between Hana/Aramaki/Arashi because I totally am!! But there are others that I'm invested in too, though I don't remember specifics very well (like Natsu and 'the long-haired cheeky boy whose name I've totally forgotten' #badfan).

I have read Basara - many times!! It's my favourite manga to date. And since, I've pretty much tried to dig up as many of her works I could find on the internet lol. ^^ But sadly some of the shorter series (like Chicago) and one shots are still very hard to find in English. I hope Tamura-sensei and her works get the recognition they deserve from the 7Seeds anime. Maybe this is too much to ask for but I also hope for a full anime adaptation of Basara someday.

Thank for recs, I've been curious about those 2 series myself. Were you referring to the anime btw, or their respective manga? Either way, endorsement from a fellow 7Seeds fans is certainly reassuring! :)

Oh no that truly is disappointing... I couldn't help but hope you miraculously had a solution haha. If only it was licensed in English I'd totally pay for the last volumes, but I guess that's the very problem. I can only hope scanlation teams would finish it - slowly but surely, if not anytime soon. It's much too good a manga to be left interpreting by images alone (I really like Tamura Yumi's storytelling and characterisation through her expressive language so I'd hate to miss it).

Thanks for buying the manga set though, that's one more deserving support for the series! ^^
For now, I'll just have my fingers crossed for a good adaptation for the Netflix series (...dare I hope for a full adaptation!?)

Hi, I just read your 7Seeds review - thank you for writing a great, updated review on its completion! It's such an amazing manga that is criminally underrated and not nearly as well-known as it deserves to be.

May I ask where did you read the full manga, specifically the last ~20 chapters or so? I've been unable to finish it because I can't find those chapters translated anywhere.

Hello Folipurba, welcome to MAL! I hope you enjoy your time here! :)