Underrated Pride Book Recs
By Jake McCrea
Happy Pride month everyone, and to celebrate this pride month I am bringing a List of LGBT+ comics that I believe are underrated. The list will include a lot of manga, as that is what I mostly read, webtoons, graphic novels and children's books. I will go over what the comic is about, whether it is ongoing or completed, age rating and lastly my opinion on the book. If you want to skip all that at the very end there will be a condensed list of all the comics listed for easy access if you want to do a quick search for them yourself.
MAngas/Graphic novels
Doughnuts Under a Crescent Moon
-Manga
-Completed
-4 books total
-Age rating: 13-17
Doughnuts under a crescent moon is slice of life story about a woman named Uno Hinako, a stereotypical girly girl, throwing herself head first into how she dresses, acts and who has had bad luck in romance, seemingly never feeling comfortable in her previous relationships, and her co-worker Satou Asahi, a level headed women whose sole focus is on her work and her family, no time for painting her nails or for romance. Their love story begins when they bump into each other at night, Hinako having felt down about another break up where Asahi offers her one of the doughnuts she just bought as comfort. Their friendship begins to blossom, often meeting to share doughnuts under the moonlight and they begin to rely on each other outside of work as friends. But as their friendship develops so does their love for each other, The level-headed Asahi starts to feel less in control and things begin to click for Hinako as she realises why her previous relationships never felt quite right and she starts to live out her more authentic life. This story has inner turmoil, family confrontation and a coworker to lovers story line.
For myself personally I enjoy this book as a more upbeat story compared to some of my other reads. Some aspects of this story are left behind quite early on and may leave you with some questions later but with the way the story lines up they don’t seem quite so important to the storyline. If you prefer a lot of angst with your love story, I will say this isn’t the book for you, however, as a sucker for angst myself it makes for a nice telling of love.
I Hear the Sunspot
-Manga
-Ongoing
-Age rating: 13-17
I hear the sunspot follows the story of Kohei and Taichi, it starts off when Taichi offers to help hard of hearing Kohei by being his scribe during university classes. Taichi cuts through Kohei’s hard exterior, showing his hearing loss is not his fault nor should it stop him. As the aries progress and the two begin to fall in love we see how they have each impacted each other. Taichi decides he wants to learn sign language and pursue a career in making life easier for hard of hearing individuals, even dropping out of university to start at a company who helps big companies become more accessible for the hard of hearing community. Kohei begins to expand his friend circle and must make big decisions around his deafness, while also figuring out how he will function in life once he finishes school. There is miscommunication/misunderstanding and some hardships along their journey, but they always seek each other out in their hardest times.
Firstly, I want to explain the setup of the physical copies of the manga and there are photos in order beneath this section. When I first started this series, I accidentally bought the third book in the series because it said volume one on it. However, the first book is simply: I hear the sunspot with no number. The second Book is I Hear the Sunspot - theory of happiness, then you begin the numbered volumes with I hear the sunspot - limit 1 - 3, and recently a new part of the series started called I hear the sunspot - four seasons, which restarts at vol 1. The way the books are ordered and how it is labelled as such is the only fault I have with this manga. The aspect of adding disability to a romance story completely changes how their story takes place and presents a whole different set of hurdles for the characters to overcome but I believe it perfectly captures how a disability can affect every aspect of life and how one person can so easily impact another. It also perfectly captures the world of disability in Japan and the stigma around a person who is hard of hearing must face from everyone in their lives, including other hard of hearing or deaf individuals. Not only is this story one of my favourite LGBT+ comics but it is also one of my all-time favourite manga in general.
Our not-so Lonely Planet Travel Guide
-Manga
-Ongoing
-Age rating: 13-16
The concept of this manga is simple, a couple who decide to travel the world together and once they have, they plan to get married. Asahi, who quits his job and decided to travel the world to take a break from his usual life and his Boyfriend Mitsuki, a photographer, who wants to marry him decides to go along with him so he doesn’t have to go alone, with the added bonus that they will get married when they return. Each chapter or two we get to see the couple go to a different place, experience the food, the culture and the people they meet along the way. That doesn’t mean all is peaceful as we still see the inner turmoil, they face going through countries that are homophobic, accidentally meeting up with people from their family and even jealous after they meet another gay couple along their travels. This is often short lived as they are very open with one another, and the manga is overall a feel-good read.
I love this series, learning facts about all the place they visit and the art of these incredible cultural sites. In the first book alone, we get to see them visit 4 different countries and we learn alongside them the history, food and culture; it really makes you feel like you are going on this adventure with them, including getting lost and language barriers. Their personalities seem to thrive and stand out through this unique format of writing, and you can’t help but fall in love with the two and hope for their happiness to continue no matter where they end up and no matter what challenges they face.
I Think Our Son Is Gay
-Manga
-Completed
-5 Books total
-Age rating: 13+
If I was asked what my favourite LGBT+ books are, this book honestly often slips my mind, but not because it’s good but because the main focus of the manga is on a mother who believes her son is gay. Aoyama Tomoko, is a mother of two, her eldest son, Hiroki, being of high school and who she believes is gay. He never has never shown an interest in girls, he is obsessed with muscular older men and fits into her pre-perceived idea of what a gay man is like with is love for pop girl groups. Throughout the books we see exactly how her son acts, including a slips of the tongue when talking about a new friend and his desire to seem more like the men he talks about. Over time she learns more about the world of being LGBT+, especially when a coworker of hers comes out as a gay man and helps her understand how best to support her son, her accidental prejudice and make her husband, who accidentally makes homophobic comments about other people and Hiroki. Through er change in attitude and support Hiroki begins to open up more and so does her younger son who also express he doesn’t have any desire to date anyone no matter their gender. This series is overall about a mother’s love for her children and a desire to keep them safe but also show them that she will always support them.
This comic series has had a place in my TBR for a while, hitting the next volume periodically and has never failed to make me fall in love with the characters and have a laugh along the way. This is an extremely feel good manga and I would highly recommend if you are looking a life like but upbeat LGBT+ comic.
I Want to Be a Wall
-Manga
-Ongoing
-Age Rating: 16+
I want to be a wall is about an Asexual woman called Yuriko and a Gay man Called Gakurouta who marry each other to ease the burden of being single as they reach an age when their parents begin to pester them. Yuriko has never felt a desire or need to be in a relationship with someone and despite her attempts, when she meets Gakurouta, a gay man in love with his best friend who can’t bring himself to confess or move on so has decided to resign himself to be single. They both decide it is within their best interest to marry each other, so they are not seen as social outcast. We get to see them navigate married life to their best abilities, cooking for one another, welcoming each other home, listening to each other’s interest despite Yuriko’s estranged interest in BL manga. So far there has been very little issues in their arrangements except trying to come up with a convincing lie on how they met and fell in love.
As I am on the asexual spectrum myself it has been a joy to witness a story where they main character not only expresses no interest in being in a relationship, but the manga shows no sign of her or her husband “changing their minds” and falling in love with one another. I believe it should be mentioned that Yuriko doesn’t just show a disinterest in a sexual relationship but also a romantic relationship and would be more accurately be defined as aro ace but the manga only describes her as asexual which adds to his very underrepresented group of identities that isn’t often shown in comics never mind manga.
Life of Melody
-Graphic novel
-Completed
-Single Volume
-Age rating: 12-14
Life of melody is a fantasy world and follows the world of Razzmatazz, a fairy godmother and Bon, a beast man after they find a young human child lost in the forest. The two begin off hating each other due to their race and perceived notions of their species but neither will let the other take the child and they end up as co-parents in a temporary cottage. They try to give the child the best life possible and while slowly getting used to each other’s presence. Through the forced situation they find themselves opening up about their issues and even spending time alone without the child, and slowly a romance blossoms between them as their love for their surprise daughter grows.
This is a very cute story about found family and love in the face of hardships and discrimination. I would highly recommend this for a shorter read with a lovable set of characters. This graphic novel is quite fast pace as we see the couple over the space of a year, but there is a great attention to detail through the plot points and art. The fantasy elements throughout add to the plot and gives way to more misunderstandings but also creates a pathway for their relationship to blossom.
Our Dreams at Dusk
-Manga
-Completed
-4 books total
-Age rating: 13+
To finish off is my All-time favourite LGBT+ book and if anyone asks me to recommend only one, it would be this, it is also one of the first LGBT+ manga I ever read, and it has still remained at the top spot.
Our dreams at dusk follows mostly the character Tatsuku Kanane, a high school student discovering and trying to hide the fact he is gay while also having to deal with rumours that he is, when he feels like he can’t continue he meets a person everyone else calls “someone” who introduces him to a drop-in centre made up of people who identify as LGBT+. It is though this club he gains confidence and even confess to his crush that had been helping rebuild an old house, along the way he discovers himself and stands up for the people he cares about despite what issues may arise for himself. During the story we also get to know the other people at the social group who all identify differently creating a massive range of diversity; Shujui who is struggling with there gender identity and expression, Tchakio an older gay man who plays music on his gramophone, saki a lesbian who later gets married to her lover, Utsumi a Trans man who makes the difficult decision to stand up to those he knew in the past and finally Tsubaki, Kanane’s crush who later understands himself and realises he too likes men, even standing up for all the members of the social group in front of his father. There are derogatory terms used within the story that may be upsetting for some, but it perfectly shows the realities of identifying as queer in Japan and what all of them overcome in the end to create somewhere they can be accepted.
To start, I find it hard to describe why this series was so significant to me, perhaps it has to do with where I was in life, trying to come to terms with my own identity and how people view me, reading a comic that showed the exact same thing but also the
joy that comes with finding a group of people who you can be yourself with. The last book in particular made me cry, due to the happiness of everything that happens surrounding the wedding and some upset following a character’s story. The artwork is gorgeous, using hatching as a form of shading makes the art style feel soft and the elements of mystery and magic make the visuals all the more significant to me. A lot of the LGBT+ manga and comic I read tends to be more upbeat and doesn’t really touch on the hardship the queer community face which for the most part is very enjoyable, but the way this manga faces the hardships but shows the joy and pride queer people can have it left an everlasting impact and I will recommend it to anyone who is willing to listen to me talk about comics.
webtoons
Daybreak
Webtoon
Ongoing
Age rating: 13+
If you want a cute slice of life story with excellent representation than I highly recommend this story. Daybreak follows the life of a non-binary character called Cog and a Trans male Character called Marcus as they traverse the beginnings of their relationship and their friends. This is a very slice of life story with little to no angsty and is very cutesy. About young love, the combination of their friendship groups and the battle through stereotypical teenagers/young adults’ life.
It’s hard to describe how this comic makes me feel, it’s so sickly sweet and cute that I’m kicking my feet and giggling like a teenage girl in a classic teen flick. It’s nice to read a story where I feel represented but not having to see the complexities that come with identifying as LGBT+ and rather the complexities, if you could really call them that, which come from simply trying to navigate life in your teenage/young adult years. As this story develops, I find myself falling more and more in love with all the characters, even the minor characters who we hardly see, and the art style just brings it all home, like its wrapped in gorgeous, neat packaging. The comic has been a massive inspiration for me to experiment with my own art and to finally pursue writing my comic that I have put off for years as it is the perfect example of a storyline that doesn’t have a big plot point that grapples you in and makes you want to know what happens next, it exists purely because the creator wanted it to and has a genuinely love for their character which makes you fall in love with them as well.
Realta
Webtoon
Ongoing
Age rating: 13+
Realta was a more recent discovery depicting a world were everyone has animal qualities from their specific star sign. In this webtoon we meet Elowen, a Non-binary individual with antlers and a tail representing their sign as a Virgo. We follow Elowen as they discover the world of other signs when they leave their little cottage and discovers that the world has banned the magic use. When they meet people of different signs, they discover they are the Realta of the Virgo, giving them more abilities. This sets them on a journey with their new friends to find all the Realta’s and make the world see that magic isn’t some evil thing, while having to battle against someone who wants to destroy, he world and set the world of fae free.
This comic was really hard to describe without giving away too much of the story, but the amount of representation within this webcomic is incredible, from a non-binary main character, lesbians relationships and flirting. This webtoon creates an amazing world that you can’t help losing yourself in and the inclusivity within this comic makes the world feel more lifelike and well thought out. I have enjoyed this comic since I found it and can’t help but be entranced by the characters and how the world and the magic works. Also, the little chaotic crow, Walden, is an added bonus.
I hope you find a comic that interests you within this small collection, if I had all the space in the world I would never stop giving recommendations but for now these comics I believe are good representation and excellent reads.
List of all Books.
Doughnuts under a crescent moon – lesbians manga
Life of melody – Gay Graphic novel
I hear the sunspot- Gay Manga
Our not so lonely planet travel guide – Gay Manga
Our dreams at dusk- Queer Manga
I think our son is gay – Gay Manga
I want to be a wall – Gay and aroace manga
Daybreak – Trans and gay webtoon
Realta – lesbians and Non-Binary Webtoon