Looking for manga/manhwas with good FMCs

[Unparalleled_Overlord015]

Bored as hell and starting to feel like I've turned every stone.

Anything goes*, scifi/fantasy, drama or action, otome/villainess stuff, shoujo or josei (or neither), it doesn't matter. I don't mind yuri, genderbending or LGBTQ themes/content. Erotica is fine too, as a long as it has a good story and interesting characters attached I don't mind seeing the FMC being gang banged by werewolves every chapter or whatever else booktok gals are into these days.

*What I don't want to see:

• Stories where the FMC is a doormat without agency waiting for the love interest(s) to advance the plot for her.
• A plot-less, meandering slice of life purgatory.
• A gaslight torture dungeon like Princess Lessons. And if it starts off as one, the FMC better be having most if not all the LIs strapped to a guillotine by the end of the story.
• No Usagi Drop shit, shota or loli, IDGAF, eff off with that shit. I like stories that revolve around mentor/found family relationships, but I fucking hate that too many of these devolve into predatory, grooming BS.
• No harems, in either direction. Unless it's being played straight, and its a well executed melodramatic shit-show. You know, one of those where the harem members are constantly trying to assassinate each other and shit.

All I want are stories with strong and relatively well written FMCs. Also, if it has an anime adaptation there's a 75% chance I've already read it (or attempted to). Feel free to shoot a rec though, it might help someone else.

Bonus points if the story is about territory/kingdom/nation building, and/or has in-depth politicking. And if you can somehow find me a techno thriller I will build you a shrine in my apartment.

For reference, here are some recent reads I've enjoyed:

• I Was Forced to Become the Princess of a Strange World?
• The Eccentric Duchess (Favorite)
• Philomel the Fake
• I Picked Up This World's Strategy Guide
• Reiri (Favorite)
• I'm the Queen in This Life (Favorite)
• Miharu no Senju (Favorite)
• Sengoku Komachi Kurotan (Favorite)
• I'll be the Matriarch in this Life (Favorite)
• The Broken Ring: This Marriage Will Fail Anyway
• The Villainess Is a Marionette
• Slime Seijo
• The Otome Heroine's Fight for Survival (Favorite)
• I'll Become a Villainess Who Goes Down in History. . . (fucking LN titles)
• The Flower That Wields a Sword
• Forget About My Husband, I'd Rather Go Make Money

(Doesn't have to be on this site, just drop the name instead of a link.)

 

[undeed]

Hmm... this is difficult.
I don't read much shoujo manhwa,
and on your list, some I really liked, some I didn't, so our tastes don't really align.
I mean, I've said many times that Bertia isekai is one of my favorites, but I don't think you'll like it.
Also skipping things like Shirayuki and Yona who are already popular.

From what I see, you don't like MCs who are too meek, you want someone who can punch back a little bit
so on top of my head... let's see... (recency bias on the work here) have you read
The Holy Grail of Eris
Seijo ni Uso wa Tsuujinai
Belle Poupée no Supadari
Kaiki shita Akugyaku

next is that I doubt you'll like, but I'll just throw them in anyway
Shinigami ni Sodaterareta
Tefuda ga Oome no Victoria
Tendou-ke Monogatari
Futsutsukana Akujo

 

[Unparalleled_Overlord015]

Hmm... this is difficult.
I don't read much shoujo manhwa,
and on your list, some I really liked, some I didn't, so our tastes don't really align.
I mean, I've said many times that Bertia isekai is one of my favorites, but I don't think you'll like it.
Also skipping things like Shirayuki and Yona who are already popular.

From what I see, you don't like MCs who are too meek, you want someone who can punch back a little bit
so on top of my head... let's see... (recency bias on the work here) have you read
The Holy Grail of Eris
Seijo ni Uso wa Tsuujinai
Belle Poupée no Supadari
Kaiki shita Akugyaku

next is that I doubt you'll like, but I'll just throw them in anyway
Shinigami ni Sodaterareta
Tefuda ga Oome no Victoria
Tendou-ke Monogatari
Futsutsukana Akujo

I've read these two, good reads.

The Holy Grail of Eris
Belle Poupée no Supadari

These other two, I've also read, I liked them too, lol. I'm pretty open minded. If the author does a good job with it, I'll have a good time. So don't hesitate send anything else. Doesn't have to be shoujo, just needs a compelling FMC. Though I like strong FMCs in the literal sense, strong of character but physically weak is fine too. As long as they have agency in the story ofc.

Shinigami ni Sodaterareta - (tried to find a way to buy the novel when I started reading this one too, lol)
Futsutsukana Akujo

Haven't read these, I'll check em out thank you.
Seijo ni Uso wa Tsuujinai
Kaiki shita Akugyaku
Tefuda ga Oome no Victoria
Tendou-ke Monogatari

I appreciate the input.

 

[panzerkampfwagyu]

Moi recommendaciones:
Any Uma Musume&Touhou manga
Waiting for the sunlight
It's time for torture, princess
Magilumiere
Kino's journey
Apothecary Diaries
Power Antoinette
Re Cervin
World End Solte
Ryuu to Yuusha to Haitatsunin
Soukon no Shoujo to Sourei no Tabi
Housekeeper
Sekai Oni
Hero Union BBS(Not all, but some of the focal characters for a chapter are female)
Ningyohime no Gomen ne Gohan
Tensei Shitara Ken deshita
Fushigi no Kuni no Bird
Warera Contactee

 

[Basic_human]

wont give you much because giving you too many rec will only confuse people

my recommendation is "Kōshaku Reijō no Tashinami (Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter)"

thats it for now

 

[Unparalleled_Overlord015]

wont give you much because giving you too many rec will only confuse people

my recommendation is "Kōshaku Reijō no Tashinami (Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter)"

thats it for now

It's not like you're giving me a verbal rec, having it posted on here should give me or anyone else plenty of time to digest whatever other recommendations you may be willing to post.

That being said, I'm also familiar with Accomplishments of the Duke's Daughter, that and Doctor Elise were my gateway drug into Otome stuff. I enjoyed reading them, though in hindsight I would prob nitpick them to death if I were to re-read them nowadays. The territorial development angle in Duke's Daughters is way too rushed, and how little resistance her reforms get early on is borderline immersion breaking. And with Elise the problem is that I've just read waaay too much western Mil-SciFi and alt-hist stuff so when the war arc hits I just start getting migraines. Especially considering that the story seems to be based on the Crimean war.

 

[Hicleric]

Chihiro. Because everyone needs Chihironevermind, you said no SoL so you're missing the bulk of truly strong women

The One Within the Villainess is a pretty nice read. Short and (not so) sweet with some fantastic art and catharsis

Also gonna throw out https://mangadex.org/title/dc935f08-da21-44a6-ba57-ddfade8216d0/kaijuu-jieitai, the first arc at the very least has some pretty badass moves by FMC and a grandma worthy of a 21-gun salute

 

[Unparalleled_Overlord015]

Chihiro. Because everyone needs Chihironevermind, you said no SoL so you're missing the bulk of truly strong women

The One Within the Villainess is a pretty nice read. Short and (not so) sweet with some fantastic art and catharsis

Also gonna throw out https://mangadex.org/title/dc935f08-da21-44a6-ba57-ddfade8216d0/kaijuu-jieitai, the first arc at the very least has some pretty badass moves by FMC and a grandma worthy of a 21-gun salute

Just read Chihiro, the episodic structure is def a minus in my book. Despite that, the character writing hard carries the work, it definitely won me over. I really appreciate the rec. I also became a Chihiro stan pretty quickly.

I've read the other two. "The one within the Villainess" was a fun read, I really enjoyed it.

I'm more mixed on Kaijuu Jietai though. It started really well, but I started to sour on it once the author started to slip in some Gate-tier nationalist nonsense by the time the not-delta force US SOF dudes were introduced.

I don't necessarily mind "US bad" takes, or jingoistic stuff. I've previously read some enjoyable old school manga that really laid it thick with this stuff.

But there you could tell the author knew his stuff and actually had some interesting stuff to say about US-Japan relations.

This was not the case here by the time I dropped it. The author only seems interested in furiously masturbating while a bass-boosted version of Battotai plays in the background.

Real shame, because the work is otherwise a pretty good read if you ignore the braindead nationalist crap.