November 11 is packed with reasons to celebrate, from Pocky Day snack runs to Bass Day tributes (because “11/11” looks like four strings, naturally). But, it’s also Singles’ Day: an invitation to celebrate independence, carve your own path, and ignore arbitrary societal timelines.
Whether you’re happily solo, coupled up, or somewhere in the messy middle, adulthood rarely looks the way the rulebook promised. Here are a few fantastic manga celebrating the late bloomers, the misfits, and the art of growing into yourself on your own terms.
Tokyo Tarareba Girls
A sharp new comedy about female friendship from the creator of Princess Jellyfish! Rinko has done everything right. She hustled her way through her 20s to make it as a screenwriter, renting her own office in a trendy Tokyo neighborhood. Everything should have gone according to plan … So at 33, she can’t help but lament the fact that her career’s plateaued, she’s still painfully single, and she spends most of her nights drinking with her two best friends in their favorite pub. One night, drunk and delusional, Rinko swears to get married by the time the Tokyo Olympics roll around in 2020. But finding a man—and love—may be a cutthroat, dirty job for a romantic at heart.
Don’t forget to check out Tokyo Tarareba Girls RETURNS when you’re done!
The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today
Saku is an ordinary young woman who works long hours and lives alone with her cat, Yukichi. Yukichi, however, is not an ordinary house cat. For one, the temperamental feline towers over Saku and walks around on two legs. Instead of playing with toy mice, he scours supermarket flyers for good deals and keeps the house spotless. With a pet like that, it’s hard to tell who’s taking care of who!
Princess Jellyfish
Tsukimi Kurashita has a strange fascination with jellyfish. She’s loved them from a young age and has carried that love with her to her new life in the big city of Tokyo. There, she resides in Amamizukan, a safe haven for girl geeks who regularly gush over a range of things from trains to Japanese dolls. However, a chance meeting at a pet shop has Tsukimi crossing paths with one of the things that the residents of Amamizukan have been desperately trying to avoid—a beautiful and fashionable woman! But there’s much more to this woman than her trendy clothes! This odd encounter is only the beginning of a new and unexpected path for Tsukimi and her friends.
Sweat and Soap
Don’t miss a romcom manga like no other! In an office romance, there’s a fine line between sexy and awkward … and that line is where Asako—a woman who sweats copiusly—met Koutarou—a perfume developer who can’t get enough of Asako’s, er, scent. Asako’s living her dream, working at the toiletry maker Lilia Drop. Little do her coworkers know, the reason she loves the company so much is that she’s ashamed of her body odor, and their soap is the only thing that does the trick. So when the company’s lead product developer, a perfuming genius, approaches her in the lobby and wonders what “that smell” is, she’s terrified … but could it be … that he likes it? And, even more surprising to Yae … does she like him?
Space Brothers
Two brothers looked to the starry skies as children and made a promise … Now, in the year 2025, the younger brother, Hibito, is carrying his out. He is an astronaut who has been selected as a crew member for mankind’s first long-term base on the moon. Meanwhile, the older brother, Mutta, has just been fired from his job and is unemployed, but decides to trust himself just one last time. A text message from Hibito sends him applying to be an astronaut too and shooting for the stars …
Life Lessons with Uramichi Oniisan
Uramichi is a 31-year old children’s TV host who leads physical exercises and teaches life lessons colored by one main theme: adulthood sucks. Alongside mascots played by a couple of bushy-tailed millennials, and a singing duo whose music embodies the notion of being kicked while you’re down, Uramichi wades through the misery of working life, one sardonic comment at a time…
