Anyways it's become a habit of mine to shun all manga which are heavily(or even not so heavily set these days, but barely any feeling of being) set on the path of romance since most of those have such stupid and annoying, not to mention so unrealistic characters and romance settings, and even if they are well made they are rarely well executed that it feels like just the same old crap over and over again.
I believe that a lot of people reading this know of what I'm talking about but still just to make sure lert me make this clear that for shounen /seinen please no stories where the guy gets jumped by all the gorgeous girls even tho he is an indecisive wimp with barely any redeeming features and no character or determination to be shown for him to attract all these strong, mature and beautiful(almost perfect) girls.
Strangely tho almost the same thing for shoujo/josei [who says men and women don't think alike obviously hasn't gone over enough modern rubbish we call books/movies/manga etc. (basically any kind of modern media)] where an indecisive and "lost" girl with again barely any redeeming features gets swept away in a romance where all the "hunks" are going after her and similar patterns of the same old....

WHAT I am looking for is something real, something normal that leaves with you a sense of fulfillment after reading it, it doesn't have to be a story mainly focused on romance(it can be mainly focused on adventure, fiction, action, slice of life) but I want something normal and real no lame and absurd complications that make it more a fantasy then any other fantasy genre out there. Anyways hopefully there are at least a few good one's out there that fit this criteria since I'm out of hope of finding them in modern romance....
NOTE doesn't have to be just manga/hwa/hua but also LNs and other novels and books in english that get the criteria right

I am going to recommend some shoujo and josei for you that hopefully meets your criteria

Cappuccino
Kuragehime
Mademoiselle Butterfly
Hotaru no Hikari-I feel the female lead is relate-able

Here are a few others that have romance as a secondary plotline, but are great slice of life

My Girl (SAHARA Mizu)
Komatta Toki ni wa Hoshi ni Kike!-This one is shounen ai, but it really doesn't focus on that...as mentioned, I think this is a great slice of life series

Last edited by himexcherry at 7:04 am, Mar 14 2013

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My Blog: http://himexcherry.blogspot.com.au/

hm I can see your problem with shoujo/shounen but I didn't really encouter that with seinen...

well here are a few (not every one is realistic but they dont have those annoyning parts you pointed out):
Bonnouji
Billionaire Girl
Horimiya
Densha Otoko
Molester Man modern densha and more vulgar
Bitter Virgin
Chokotto Sister
Usagi Drop maybe

And the stuff strix posted is really good

Last edited by Lorska at 7:25 am, Mar 14 2013

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in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

It would help us if you can make your lists visible^^


Onani Master Kurosawa Romance isn't the main focus.
Byousoku 5 Centimeter I suggest movie as well.
Spice & Wolf (Novel) Pretty realistic in a fantasy story.
Melo Holic Seinen/Romance......and -----



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Love Roma
Molester Man highly second this one.
Shi ni Itaru Yamai
Otoyomegatari
Mahoraba this is better for comedy than romance, but it got the sweetest ending ever so I'm gonna recommend it since that's rare in manga.

LN (most of them have manga too but as always LN > manga)
Spice & Wolf (novel)
Gosick (novel)
Seikai no Monshou (Novel) more space adventure than romance, you could watch the anime instead of reading the novel because the anime goes forward with the story (and the romance part).

For something more "extravagant" Kaiba is probably my favorite romance adventure. It's really worth a watch.

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What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category:

Kieli (Novel) Fantasy/action
Meiji Hiiro Kitan Josei historical
Yajirobee romance shoujo
Kore wa Koi no Hanashi romance shoujo
Meteor Methuselah once published by Tokyopop, but no longer existing. Action romance fantasy
Heaven's Door (HONGOU Ranko)drama romance
Ojousama no Untenshuromance historical
Boku no Kan de Bansan odrama romance fantasy

Hopefully you'll find these suggestions useful.



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Please buy the manga your reading online when it becomes available in your area, cos if you don't it just fu**$ us all :].

Ha ha ha ha ha, your looking for this in manga. It is a rarity.
I look for strong characters who are emotionally intelligent more than realistic romances, so, I hope you do find these acceptable. At the very least you can be sure that the guy and the girl aren't going to be useless. I ask read quite allot of fantasy, so I hope they are ok as well.

Manga.

Kanata Kara
Kare First Lover
Mars
Sora Log
Cat Street (maybe)
Strobe Edge


I much prefer reading books, and here are my absolute favourites.

By Juliette Marillier. These all have strong female leads and strong male leads, in a setting of Irish folk lore mixed with history. The writer is Australian.
Daughter of The Forest
Son of The Shadows
Child of Prophecy
Heir to Sevenwaters
Child of Prophecy
Seer of Sevenwaters
Flame of Sevenwaters.
Hearts Blood.
The Dark Mirror
The Blade of Foritue (not sure of this ones spelling, but it is the same series as The Dark Mirror. This one and the Well of Shades are brilliant.)
The Well of Shades.

This sounds strange, but if you find the right one, I have found that some Youi are much more bearable romance wise than many shoujo romances. Dear Green: Hitomi no Ounowa is the first I read and is quite good.

Hope they help, happy reading.

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We work in the dark, we do what we can, we give what we have, out doubt is our passion and our passion is our task, the rest is the madness of art. Henry james

thank you very much, I've read a huge amount of those already or am in the processing of reading or in some kind of list, I guess I should have opened up my lists. Anyway I did get a few new from himxcherry and negalisticblast, while most others were kinda surreal when it comes to romance a bit too perfect and/or complicated....idk maybe it's just me XD
still though thank you all very much would love a few more western book recommendations since I'm a huge fan of reading and @rattix empire I've already read most if not all of them can't remember all of the names, anyways try Iron Druid Chronicles, it's kinda cool too with strong male and female characters and the Irish folklore , tho it's a bit more manly XD

And as for the novels am I the only one who noticed that when coming from binge reading European and American books and novels Japanese LNs are kinda flat and prosaic with complete lack of any descriptions at all and are kinda like picture books with facts and pictures to supplement them. I don't know if you've noticed it but anyways it's kind of smt that's bothering me nowadays with LNs for some reason they feel kinda dull and adjectiveless(if that's even a word).