Why are romance manga so... bad?

[MadMage]

So my title is a bit misleading; rom-coms are my guilty pleasure. I love them despite being completely out of the target demographic.

However, I just finished HoriMiya. And it's not a BAD series, I don't want to dump on it or anything because they all have the same issue: the authors don't know where to go with the story after the MCs get together. And I don't understand why they're ALL like this - it's like the old Disney 'they lived happily ever after' nonsense, but why is this so prevalent? There is SO much more story that could be told there, why aren't we seeing couples go into college or the workforce? It's like the only plot device they can think of is goofy misunderstandings based on teenage angst. I've been fuming on this for a while now as I blow through more and more stories only to find the same brick wall of plot development and I just need to know WHY. Why do these authors just write the same stories over and over again?

And I mean, sure there are some cultural differences here but you can't tell me the domestic audiences don't have the same gripes about stories spending forever in plot limbo.

 

[TestAddress]

If it is straight to the point, it is hentai.

 

[solstice258]

Personally, I don't care much about reading a story about a couple's lovey dovey life (I'm aware that this is a very unpopular opinion lol). That's because I can't (or don't want to) relate to dating life. Probably something similar in the Japanese audience.

 

[Hitspark]

So my title is a bit misleading; rom-coms are my guilty pleasure. I love them despite being completely out of the target demographic.

However, I just finished HoriMiya. And it's not a BAD series, I don't want to dump on it or anything because they all have the same issue: the authors don't know where to go with the story after the MCs get together. And I don't understand why they're ALL like this - it's like the old Disney 'they lived happily ever after' nonsense, but why is this so prevalent? There is SO much more story that could be told there, why aren't we seeing couples go into college or the workforce? It's like the only plot device they can think of is goofy misunderstandings based on teenage angst. I've been fuming on this for a while now as I blow through more and more stories only to find the same brick wall of plot development and I just need to know WHY. Why do these authors just write the same stories over and over again?

And I mean, sure there are some cultural differences here but you can't tell me the domestic audiences don't have the same gripes about stories spending forever in plot limbo.

So this is actually something that has been changing a bit as of late, you're finding more and more stories actually trying to go beyond the "will they/won't they" trope and show them dating. Nagatoro (is getting there) Uzaki-Chan is already there, it's the entire point of Kanan-sama, Arakure Ojousama, and the list goes on. It seems that people have been sharing your sentiment that it's dumb for a story in a genre called ROMANCE to end before the actual romance and have begun to create a slow but steady stream of "Dating" manga.



I also want to point out that romance stories that went beyond dating isn't new, just much harder to find previously as the reason behind it was pretty much widespread across the world Mexican Soap Operas, Western Novels etc. It just seemed to be how the genre of Romance ran globally. I couldn't tell you why other than trying to hook you on a hope and a dream and turn you into a forever consumer.

 

[SilkTouchPickaxe]

So my title is a bit misleading; rom-coms are my guilty pleasure. I love them despite being completely out of the target demographic.

However, I just finished HoriMiya. And it's not a BAD series, I don't want to dump on it or anything because they all have the same issue: the authors don't know where to go with the story after the MCs get together. And I don't understand why they're ALL like this - it's like the old Disney 'they lived happily ever after' nonsense, but why is this so prevalent? There is SO much more story that could be told there, why aren't we seeing couples go into college or the workforce? It's like the only plot device they can think of is goofy misunderstandings based on teenage angst. I've been fuming on this for a while now as I blow through more and more stories only to find the same brick wall of plot development and I just need to know WHY. Why do these authors just write the same stories over and over again?

And I mean, sure there are some cultural differences here but you can't tell me the domestic audiences don't have the same gripes about stories spending forever in plot limbo.ess most aren't really interested in the dramatic stuff that happens in a lot of those romances tbh, so I can't really say it's a point of comparison. I think it's just a thing with the genre. In general. In and out of manga.

So my title is a bit misleading; rom-coms are my guilty pleasure. I love them despite being completely out of the target demographic.

However, I just finished HoriMiya. And it's not a BAD series, I don't want to dump on it or anything because they all have the same issue: the authors don't know where to go with the story after the MCs get together. And I don't understand why they're ALL like this - it's like the old Disney 'they lived happily ever after' nonsense, but why is this so prevalent? There is SO much more story that could be told there, why aren't we seeing couples go into college or the workforce? It's like the only plot device they can think of is goofy misunderstandings based on teenage angst. I've been fuming on this for a while now as I blow through more and more stories only to find the same brick wall of plot development and I just need to know WHY. Why do these authors just write the same stories over and over again?

And I mean, sure there are some cultural differences here but you can't tell me the domestic audiences don't have the same gripes about stories spending forever in plot limbo.

I think this is a thing with the romance genre in general, not even just animanga. Romance focuses on mostly one relationship at a certain point in time, so they focus mostly on the relationship between those characters and once it's resolved it's solved forever.
Most aren't really coming of age stories as much as they are will they won't they (they will)

However I think that shoujo and josei have a lot of really good romances, and though most are drama the romances are kind of slightly handled differently (though the whole teenage angst thing might still pass through). Not that shonen romances are bad though, Nagatoro changed my type in men forever for example. if you really like romcoms and you haven't read it yet, i do recommend wotakoi which is void of all that teenage angst stuff (though you've probably read it lol)

i think it comes with the genre in general though. That's kind of the whole appeal of romance for the primary audiences, in a sense.

 

[PantsMan]

I'm with Hitspark on this one. Yours is a common point people will often bring up, but there's been a big push this past decade towards avoiding last-minute confession endings. We're actually smack in the middle of a big boom of "romance fluff" manga that focus almost entirely on post-confession dating and lovey-dovey fluff without much of a story, with at least as many of these as there are "will they or won't they" plots out there. Hell, it feels like there's a lot more manga now that skip the sexual tension and don't wait long to have the couple outright hook up.

I don't think that this has particularly revolutionized the genre the way people who used to talk about how easy it was to "fix" romance by "just for once" showing dating/married life. Same as with will-they-or-won't-theys, there's good dating fluff and there's a lot of bad dating fluff. I think the problems that separate good romance manga from the bad run deeper than that sort of quick-fix, but there's a place for both approaches when handled well.

 

[Angry_Panda]

So endeth this chronicle. It being strictly the history of a boy, it must stop here; the story could not go much further without becoming the history of a man. When one writes a novel about grown people, he knows exactly where to stop--that is, with a marriage; but when he writes of juveniles, he must stop where he best can.

--Mark Twain, conclusion to Tom Sawyer, 1876 (italics in the original, underlining mine for emphasis)

The problem was apparent to at least one great author a hundred and fifty years ago, and not much has changed in the meantime. If the author set out to write the story of a pursuit, that story ends once the quarry is caught. There seem to be comparatively fewer authors who aim to write the story of a relationship from the outset. To Mr. Twain's broader point, once an adolescent falls in love, they become an adult in some sense, and it seems many of these authors are writing stories of adolescents.

 

[kayzark]

I agree with this, to an extent. (I gave up on Horimiya shortly after the romance was resolved, because I got bored.) Here's my theory.

I think this relates to the "initial premise" of the manga, set up in the first few chapters. If a manga is purely slice of life, then the initial premise might be "here are some characters in a setting, aren't their mundane interactions compelling?" And I think that can go on indefinitely without issues, because there is no initial promise.

But very often the first chapters set up some kind of question that burrows itself into the reader's mind, that keeps them reading. For example: how will the good guy defeat the bad guy? Or, for romance, will these two get together, and how? If that premise has a shelf life, then things can go wrong, because either the author can extend it until it becomes tired, or they can resolve it. But once it's resolved, what replaces that question? If the manga transitions into slice of life at that point, then the reader will not be getting the same experience from pursuing the story. (I think of it like a song where the bassline cuts out part of the way through). So they need to ask another question.

I think for romance, if you want to keep the same main characters, the key question is: is there a secondary question lurking, i.e. how are these two going to work as a relationship? If the two MCs are obviously compatible and the reasons they are not together are somewhat artificial (misunderstanding etc) then I think this will fall flat once they get together. The key combination is (a) the two characters have some reason they don't immediately get into a relationship, (b) that reason must also extend into the relationship itself, and suggest more ongoing conflict/tension/storylines. (This is tricky because for it not to be contrived, it must all be present from the very initial chapters!)

That can lead into cliche, of course. The most obvious one is "we got into a forbidden relationship, we must hide it from everyone...". A more promising avenue is "we come from two very different worlds, how do we navigate being in each other's life?" I think if the author is clever, they can (and should) be sowing the seeds of the second story as they are writing the first. But given that few mangaka have the security of knowing that they will even be able to resolve their first storyline before being axed, it's not too surprising that they sometimes lose direction somewhat once the confession occurs.

 

[Siquall]

Because most of them only have a interesting starting idea/concept, but try to extend it forever with fillers or/and harem to milk the story, or else it would end 5/10 times faster (hello rent a girlfriend).

Same problem with slice of life manga/romance, who most of time are way too slow for progress (hello komi-san) with xx chapters you dont care for at all.

You can find good romance manga, but it's harder these days, especially with the one page "manga" we get a lot recently.

 

[TestAddress]

NTR became popular because romance manga are tasting very awful recently.

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[darktennisball]

NTR became popular because romance manga are tasting very awful recently.

Especially UB FB XB BBC NTYYYYYyy670ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo



















































































































































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This is the best answer thanks

 

[kohelemon]

I get that sort of, growing up, being that kid who couldn't really go to bed right away. I would be with my mom watching Rom-Coms all the time. I suppose that's where I get my own Rom-Com elements from in my stories.
Though I've never either really enjoyed the "Game of it". You know, the hesitation, the betrayals, or the mustering of courage. But, that's the point of Romantic Story, isn't it? To explore the process of romance, of two people eventually coming together (pun unintended).
I myself don't enjoy that game, but that's why I don't read such stories sadly. I write my own little romances into larger stories, but their not so complex. At least not in face value. There's always definition, both parties understand what they want from one another. I just jazz things up by adding an incredible obstacle! But, that's not really conventional, sadly. Nor fun I guess to the masses!

 

[dorisquestion]

Here's my opinion: if what you want to see doesn't exist, make it yourself.

I'm serious. If you have an idea for the ideal rom-com for a manga, I think it would actually do you some good to try and write it out. I'm not at all saying you have to literally self-publish a manga; simply fleshing out the ideas is cathartic. If it all works out, it'll be both enjoyable for you and something you can present to others. What's a rom-com story that you would love to read?

It could just be a list of all the things you'd love to see in a rom-com. It could take pre-existing characters for a fanfic, or it could start with a fun premise that you made up or heard from somewhere else. Who knows? You might accidently make gold, and others might really like your ideas!