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introduction
originally i was going to make this about being "crazy" as a critique of, or maybe more as a response, to (against) societal norms. but trying to define what i meant by "crazy" was getting too involved... i still am kind of framing it this way, just without trying to invent some kind of unnecessarily specific identity. what i'm trying to say is: the violent and ableist usage of the word crazy is all wrong for reasons better explained elsewhere by people smarter than me. i'm using crazy to mean how the characters below do weird things that an “average” person would find “crazy”, and how intolerance for anything outside of the norm means you must be "crazy". i think because of this, "craziness" is something thrust upon a person who is figuring out a life outside of what's normative; against whatever challenges they have to face. typically, when these characters are being "crazy", they are only just being unconventional, uncomfortable or irreverent, hedonistic, emotional, unfiltered, off-putting, selfish, earnest and so on. things that are just a part of being alive.
i know this is just a manga list so it's like what exactly does that have to do with anything? well i love manga and i find how people construct and consider their own lives and relationships very interesting. and as a late 20-something (as of the time i'm making this list anyways) i'm always trying to figure out what the fuck i'm doing with my life. and i have very strong opinions on our world. so manga where characters struggle to figure out their own lives and live in conflict with what's expected of them really appeals to me. i read a lot of josei manga for that reason because a lot of it is soothing to me in its straightforward commentary on being a weird woman, which i am sometimes, but most of the manga i'm recommending isn't officially josei. i'm just personally redefining josei to mean manga i find good where anyone is fumbling through life as they try to figure out how it is they want to live. because josei usually has that going on anyways and because i want to, so this was also originally going to be a "josei manga list". of course you could make the argument that most media is about people fumbling through life, but i do have certain criteria. my own tastes, obviously, but also there must be zany behaviours, selfish desires, feelings of alienation, varied relationships, being/attempts at being unique, repeatedly failing over and over again but still trying because that's just life, earnestness and heart, making bad decisions, relishing in bad decisions, everything going wrong, it all being about love. josei is the best genre for this because while slice of life has the quirkiness and the mundanity it's not messy enough; shoujo is similarly too clean, and shounen has too much honour and bravado and formulaic story beats. everything listed here is about just trying to get through life in some way. a good josei is where it's all about making a life.
manga list
you can click the links for a basic synposis courtesy of myanimelist, or read my hopefully short thoughts on each series. where applicable you can highlight where i've blacked out the text to see a list of content warnings. or not if you'd like to avoid knowing such things before reading. most of these are pending a reread because i have a job unfortunately and actually want to give my real thoughts on why these are some of my favourite series, but i wanted to at least post the list already!!!!!
i want to hold aono-kun so badly i could die
i usually introduce this as my favourite manga...! and it finished recently and i haven't finished it yet, but you should really read it if doing anything for love is your favourite thing ever like it is mine.
content warnings: a suicide attempt by cutting in the first chapter, body horror, child abuse and what i would describe as depictions of sexual assault
i like this manga because it shows the really weird rituals a person can have to get through something. the main character's thoughts and actions aren't always understandable to others or are what's good for her, they're just what she needs to carry her to the next moment. like her level of self-soothing is formidable. she can hinge her happiness on anything. she is a constant mess, and i like how short-sighted so much of what she does is, because that's often what life can look like with the view behind the wheel. i also like how this manga portrays relationships. relationships are confusing, they require a lot of managing and negotiation. but that doesn't automatically mean people are villains. everyone on earth is going through something and it may hurt you but it often has nothing to do with you, because understanding oneself might be even harder. i think self-soothing is one of the easiest ways people convince themselves of farces about their own lives, so it's often hard to do things that are good for you because you don't even know what those things are. everyone is just stumbling around and bumping into each other all the time. what makes this manga not annoying about it by the time it finishes is that becoming aware of this and being responsible for it is its point. it's also really ridiculous... like so absurd. the point is also that the main character does things that are just so strange.
chainsaw man (part one)
i'm currently rereading it. i actually wrote a short essay on it a while back but it's not very good so i'm not linking it anywhere. chainsaw man is so good though. giving content warnings for it seems a bit impossible and kind of besides the whole point of the thing so i'm actually not going to bother for this one. you might know already because it's so popular. i will be surprised if i don't reread it and attempt that essay again.
pink
pink is a bit too cynical. there's a kind of unflinching stubborness in the "realness" (cruelty) of the world. it's also pretty misogynistic. both of these things are kind of common to the time period to me, like that irreverence towards the increasingly consumerist (and thus homogenising) glam gloss that was being painted over everything during the late 90s and early 2000s, even though a lot of its expression required that same obsession with products (apparent in all of kyoko okazaki's works and also manga like nana by ai yazawa, really just things from this time period). it was like a sort of "rebellion" in the same way that tv shows for young girls at the time always had that hyper-femimine mean girl you were supposed to hate, while the main characters were back on earth. where being different from all the other supposedly airheaded women around you was a virtue, however you wanted to spin it, but of course you still had to be feminine. this is all just my disclaimer. i still like pink a lot. it's just a shame that while the women are purposefully atypical, part of the reason why is a specific misogyny that requires making enemies out of other women, and relationships with men who subject them to violence but are left totally absolved. oh well... what i like most about this manga is how zany it is, as well as how random and casual the events are. everything kind of just flows along. it makes me wish life was way less regimented and could be lived in the same way. not for my lack of trying. it's the kind of life everyone who is obsessed with the 2000s like me wishes wasn't trapped in artifacts from the past. i also love the slight unreality, like the plum flower or the domesticated crocodile. even though everyone is struggling and it's all kind of harsh everyone still has dreams. i feel like i'm reading about sprouts trying to poke through the dirt. even the mom is trying to hold onto something. and i really like how quickly things change.
kurayami dance
one of the best manga ever. i really mean like ever. i thought i took more notes on it when i reread it last year (2025) than i did but apparently i didn't? but it's the kind of thing where it's probably better i don't attempt to wrangle the meaning too much into words anyways. i think if i wanted to it'd have to be much longer than what would be appropriate here. you really just have to read it. but if i had to say: aside from liking things that are really unique and don't worry too much about making sense, i like the main character's journey to understand himself and his struggle with how he wants to live his life. not just understanding himself, but finding out how to like himself. i liked how his attitude seemed very much like he was just constantly rolling with punch after punch, but there was this something simmering underneath. i also like how important his connections to others were, like how much they would shape his journey. you can't make a life without others. it's constantly being shaped and informed by others.
tetsugaku letra
pending a reread (´・ω・`)...
content warnings:from what i remember, fatphobia, eating disorders and self harm