Just when you thought you've seen everything possible in shojo manga, along comes a story like Portrait of M & N. Sure, there are lots of odd couples in manga, but Mitsuru and Natsuhiko are a pretty unique pair.
Mitsuru is pretty and refined, so she's got all the guys checking her out on her first day of school. Few of her classmates would think that she'd have anything in common with studious and serious Natsuhiko - but these dysfunctional teens have a secret that they dare not reveal to their classmates. Mitsuru is an extreme masochist, and Natsuhiko is an obsessive narcissist.
Now, before you think this is a BDSM comic, guest reviewer Shaenon Garrity gave this early series by Higuchi Tachibana (creator of Gakuen Alice) a read, and found that this unconventional love story to be actually kind of sweet, charming and even chaste. Check out Shaenon's review of Portrait of M & N Volume 1, and find out why she found it to be kinda kinky and yet... kinda not.
Portrait of M & N was one of my ten picks for Strange Shojo Manga Love Stories - see what the other nine oddball romances were, including stories about dog-girls, reincarnated lovers and mail-order android boyfriends.
Image credit: © Higuchi Tachibana / HAKUSENSHA
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