Don't Cry, Girl! (Rank 2.5)

Publisher: JManga

Volumes: 1/1 (Complete), (Digital Only) (see notes)

Shoujo

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Age-Gap Romance

Summary: Taeko’s parents were incompetent, and so she was sent to live with a friend of her father’s named Matsuda. She knocks on the door only to discover that her new roommate and guardian is a shameless Nudist! As Taeko struggles to adapt to her bizarre twist of fate and hide the truth about her living situation, she is determined to be strong. Can they reach some understanding? 

Includes an unrelated short story: 3322: Kanako told her father she wants to drop out of high school. He suggested she spend her summer break at an acquaintance’s place, a motherly older woman’s place deep in the boonies. Will she change her mind while she’s there?

Review: I debated whether to review this title, because JManga is now a dead publisher and their releases were only digital in the first place, so there aren’t even any used books available to buy. That being said, I did want to do a sort of post-mortem on dead manga publishers as well as highlight the more unique titles in their catalog. And although these titles are no longer available legally, they are still available in some form or another, if you search for it.

The beginning starts off with quite a lot of crude humor, mostly in the form of dick jokes. Honestly I was shocked to see a Shoujo manga written by a woman having this many dick jokes, but it was actually surprisingly funny. Then after about halfway through it turns into a weird romance. The most obvious weirdness is that he’s her guardian, and almost double her age (16 vs 30 something). But the weirdest part is that it’s left somewhat ambiguous whether they both actually like each other or whether it’s some weird joke that got taken too far. And then it ends fairly abruptly. All in all not bad for a short one volume story, but it could have easily been a short series, and I would have liked a more concrete ending.

As for the short story 3322, it was surprisingly good for a short serious story, but it reads like a failed pilot for a new series. I would have liked it to have had a more concrete ending as well.

Recommended: TLDR; It’s a short and funny read for the first half of the story, at least if you don’t mind some crude humor, mostly in the form of dick jokes. But honestly the romance part was kind of weird and I wished it had stayed a comedy for the whole thing. 

Age Rating: Older Teen, a lot of male nudity but all tastefully censored with convenient angles. But the humor is probably more on the adult side.

Other Works from this Mangaka in English (from most to least popular):

• Dining Bar Akira (Yaoi)
• Yes, It's Me (Yaoi) (digital only)
• I Want a Love Story (Yaoi) (digital only)
• Black-Winged Love (Yaoi)
• The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window (Yaoi)
• Mo-some Sting (Yaoi) (digital only)