Suzuka

Today’s recommendation is Suzuka, a romantic harem manga created by Koji Seo, a true master of the genre. While Ichigo 100% was dominating Weekly Shonen Jump as a wildly popular love comedy, Suzuka was serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine and quickly became a major hit in the same romantic harem category. Koji Seo has created several hit romance manga, many of which were adapted into anime—including Suzuka, A Town Where You Live, Fuuka, and currently The Café Terrace and Its Goddesses. Suzuka is widely regarded as his breakout work. One of the biggest appeals of Koji Seo’s manga is his exceptional artwork. The female characters in Suzuka are not only adorable, but also drawn with a level of maturity that broke away from the more “childish” art style common in many shonen romance manga at the time. Despite the mature visuals, the story remains rooted firmly in the shonen storytelling style, full of youthful energy and emotional ups and downs. The charm of Suzuka doesn’t stop at the main heroine, Suzuka Asahina. Supporting characters like Moeka and Miki are also captivating, adding depth and tension to the love story between Suzuka and the protagonist Yamato. In many ways, Suzuka helped establish the template for modern romance harem manga. The story begins when Yamato moves from Hiroshima to Tokyo for high school and—somehow—ends up living in a women-only dormitory run by his aunt. While this setup is clearly unrealistic, it’s just believable enough to fire up the imagination of many male readers and draw them into the fantasy. Koji Seo has a gift for creating worlds and scenarios that perfectly appeal to male readers, blending idealized romance with grounded emotional conflict. Compared to Ichigo 100%, Suzuka contains more mature and risqué scenes, so the target audience skews slightly older. But for fans of harem-style romance manga, Suzuka is absolutely essential reading.

July 30, 2025