No Roses Without Thorns: My Life As a Shojo Manga Assistant(2020)

Bara wa Shuraba de Umareru: 70-nendai Shoujo Manga Assistant Funtouki

What's it like to be a manga creator's assistant, when she's working on the most popular shojo manga in the country?

The 1970s were a golden age for girls manga, or shojo manga, in Japan – but what was it like to create these pages of roses, sparkles and romance? Manga artist Nami Sasou shares some of the not-so-glamorous stories from the ink-stained battlefield of... cute girls' romance manga? A highschool assistant to Suzue Miuchi, the creator of the famously popular Glass Mask, this manga about making manga tells it like it was... With a decidedly "shojo" point of view!

(Source: Udon Entertainment)

Note: Nominated for the 25th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize. Ranked #3 for female readers in the 2021 edition of Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook.