彼氏彼女の事情 [Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō / Kare Kano]

In the late 1990s, mangaka Masami Tsuda began her defining work for Hakusensha, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō—a beloved romantic comedy that ran for 21 issues across nearly a decade. The series follows two high-achieving high school students, Yukino Miyazawa and Soichiro Arima, whose carefully crafted public personas are shattered when they discover each other's true, more complex natures. Tsuda's nuanced storytelling and character-driven art elevated the shojo genre, exploring themes of identity, family trauma, and the pressures of perfection with warmth and psychological depth. It remains a touchstone for fans of thoughtful, emotionally resonant teen romance.