Hello guys,
this time I have a much broader request. I'm basically looking for any romance of short/medium length that has
at least one strong point: interesting plot, nice characters, pretty art,
the last being the weakest factor of interest. Especially anything new would be great, you know, those things that are appearing out of nowhere like Horimiya, Hibi Chouchou, Last Game.

Important is that, even though only one point has to stand out, the rest should at least not be terrible. (I can live without a plot in slice-of-life)

Required:* romance

• short/medium length

Redeeming points:* interesting plot

• nice/diverse characters
• pretty art, good, touching scenes

Cons:* sports

• music
• love triangles, harem, reverse-harem

Excluded:* sexual content - this includes: hentai, smut, mindless ecchi poured into the story for no reason (plot-wise)

• shoujo-ai, shounen-ai, yaoi, yuri
• extreme violence/gore
• one-shots

You can also check my lists.

thanks in advance!

PS: I don't mind generic shoujos, but I do mind average shoujo art with non-existent plot, and overly generic characters. There has to be something good about it.

List of all recommendations

in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

Tomodachi no hanashi
Tetsugaku Retora
Kyou mo Ashita mo
Ikoku Meiro no Croisée
Hirunaka no Ryuusei
Ah! Itoshi no Banchousama
Kurenai Ouji
Migawari Hakushaku no Bouken
My Hero!
Nijiiro Joker
Ore Monogatari!!
Otomegatari
Otome Youkai Zakuro

these are all still ongoing manga so I'm not sure if they fit the short/medium length requirement, but since the other ex. (horimiya, hibi chouchou) are also ongoing, I thought you might be interested to try these out. Hope these helps you 🙂

I'll go from the best to worst imho. Keep in mind that some of them I don't like them at all. The last ones are pretty much your generic rom-com with no redeeming quality imho, but you gave a good votes to even worse one imho, so I'm at least gonna mention them, up to you what to do with my recs. You can pretty much guess by what I wrote and their position what I'm strongly insisting on you to read it. You can easily miss the ones below Koi Kaze and don't miss anything in your life probably. 😉

Otoyomegatari MASTERPIECE ALERT!
Molester Man Masterpiece alert!
Mahoraba ---> biggest classic romance shounen miss on your list? 😛
Love Roma --> biggest classic romance seinen miss on your list? 😛
Kodomo no Omocha
Vampire Juujikai does it count as a romance? I say yes, so I'm listing it.
Toradora! isn't there because you read the novel? 😕
Watashitachi no Tamura-kun some thing as Toradora!... or do you have something against Takemiya-sensei? 😀
Fruits Basket
Aishiteruze Baby
Gosick
Koi Kaze if you can tolerate incest, this is very good
NHK ni Youkoso! ecchi, but it's good imho.
Let's Lagoon
Need a Girl I find it too funny to avoid mentioning it. But it's a very ecchi story.
Ciguatera this is very crude sometimes, I'm not sure if I should have mentioned it or not, so I'm mentioning it and giving you a warning. It's not very graphic though, at least imho, it's more that it gives you a big sense of discomfort. If you don't mind a big spoiler

at a certain point of the story a guy give a sleeping drug to the main heroine and rape her, almost nothing it's shown and nobody realize it. It's still a very disturbing scene that turned off a lot of people. As a said before it's a story that become very twisted in some point, but I still consider it a good manga .
Nyan Koi!
Koe de Oshigoto! too ecchi maybe?
Akuma Jiten
Yasashii Sekai no Tsukurikata didn't read enough though to be sure though.
Unbalance x 2
IO
Kanojo o Mamoru 51 no Houhou
Miman Renai kind of lolicon
Prunus Girl
Countrouble

Should have they been completed? Because I didn't get that.
Do you include novel?

What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category:[img]http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo233/Reid4891/Manga/trivia-1.jpg[/img]

thanks
and I don't mind ongoing, in fact I'd prefer it this way, as long as it isn't on permanent hiatus or the translation takes ages.

@reid1:
I pretty much don't care for the medium (manga/manhua/manhwa/novel). Though I have my problems with korean art styles, web-comics are ok though...

so, I added each one that looked interesting to me and skipped the rest, there were a few that I came across before and decided not to read, and that didn't change but most of them should be nice, thanks again.

if there is anymore feel free to add 🙂

in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

Then:

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (Novel) best light novel ever. Don't mind the current description which basically say nothing about the story.
Toradora! (Novel)
Gosick (Novel)
Gekkou (Novel) very peculiar and enjoyable
NHK ni Youkoso! (Novel)
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (Novel) not so much romance imho, but there is a tag. It's also something pretty famous.

For those of them that I listed the manga, obviously I recommend the novel instead.

What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category:[img]http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo233/Reid4891/Manga/trivia-1.jpg[/img]

I skimmed through your wish list and saw.... Boku no Chikyuu o Mamotte. Please, please, please do read it. The few first chapters may be a bit slow but it is so goooood!!

On your wish list as well: Nodame Cantabile: very funny and refreshing. Out of the box characters, great plots. This centered around music but this is so awesome, I can't help but to recommend this

Others:
Yeonmo I'm currently addicted to this. The push and pull in the relationship is just too much. If you're not into gender bender, this is still enjoyable as the story is not about some stupid girl chasing after a guy at an all-boys school or inserts whatever (mindless) necessary situation

Cat Street this was a popular manga when it was first scanlated. The story is great. One of my favorites

Help! I'm looking for... manga with dangerous guys [url]http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=39874&page=1#post594033[/url]

I think you and I have similar tastes, except I don't read much shoujo.

Here's a few discrepancies between our lists:

Accel World
Looks promising: Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou
Kono Oneesan wa Fiction desu!? (contains ecchi)
Let's Lagoon
Musunde Hiraite (MINASE Mayu)
Nana to Kaoru (lots of ecchi, but it's not mindless)
Renai Shimasen ka?
Seiken no Katanakaji
Yasashii Sekai no Tsukurikata
Yesterday o Utatte (warning: slow)

Complete:
Ashita Dorobou
Bakuman (long)
Velvet Kiss (borderline H, but no story like it)

accel - unfinished because of the huge gap between anime and manga
nana to kaoru - on hold until it is finished
seiken no blacksmith - currently following
yesterday o utatte - dropped
ashita dorobou - currently on wish list with high priority

but yeah, I think I'll take a look at the others.

musunde and yasashii look interesting. biblia seems like that kind of manga that needs time to develop, so I'll only mark this for now.

thanks

@reid1: yeah I think I saw you recommend these a few times already. thanks again.

@cliff: both of them were on my wish list for quite a while, thing is I didn't have much time, but I guess I should start soon. thanks.

in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet

I'll have to second:

Nana to Kaoru - thinking on it more, I actually don't consider it ecchi because I've never felt like there was any fanservice in it. the things they do are actually for character development and helps progress the romance (which is slow but satisfying).
Renai Shimasen ka? - it seems refreshing - has all trappings of a cliche manga but doesn't really go there, moves along nicely doesn't have stupid characters

Since you were asking for new series:

Hataraku Maousama - looks promising, there's also an anime in the making
Yaotsukumo - horror genre, but nothing too extreme really; only on chapter 2 so can't say much about the romance yet
Evergreen - currently on hiatus, but will be continued soon. The romance looks good and what I really like about this manga is the good development of the support characters.
Sakura Sakura - has ecchi but it is really worth it. Fast romance. Bonus if you like tsunderes.
Juukinzoku Kanojo - contrary to what the tags say, there's no ecchi. Again, bonus if you like tsunderes.

Also, not new, but apparently not on your list: Ginen Shounen - one of the only pure childhood friend romances in manga without female love rivals

[img]http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/a8ee/v1c0uzwpt6cdtcbfg.jpg[/img]

Have you tried reading Yome ga Kore na Monde. ?

Kuragehime

Cheese in the Trap

Liar x Liar

Pink Lady

49

Ore Monogatari!!

Here are a few things!

Tada, Kimi o Aishiteru - Amazing

Tetsugaku Letra - I think the first person who responded tried to suggest this but the link didn't work right and the second word was spelled in a way that nothing comes up when you search it...Anyways, I have a huge crush on the author so I wanted to be sure this was recc'd. 🙂

Ashita no Ousama - Not new whatsoever...but I really liked the series, so it is worth mentioning.

Joou no Hana - Really great so far!

Koi dano Ai dano - This as well as its prequel are great.

I probably have mentioned these before:

Kore wa Koi no Hanashi
Shigeshoushi
Yume no Shizuku, Ougon no Torikago
Evyione
Sekine-kun no Koi
Natsuyuki Rendezvous
Otoko no Isshou

Authors like Ogura Akane, Hibiki Wataru or Kusanagi Mizuho should work too. Need to check my own records.

soo I added most of the recs, I think I can start with them next week. If there's still missing anything important, feel free to add more.
thanks again!

in need of romance?
uncommon, sad, sweet