Junjo Romantica: Pure Romance (純情ロマンチカ/ピュア ロマンス) is a Japanese boys love manga series by Shungiku Nakamura. It focuses on four storylines: the main couple, which comprises the bulk of the books, and three other male couples that provide ongoing side stories ("Junjo Egoist", "Junjo Terrorist", and "Junjo Mistake"). It has expanded into several CD-dramas, a manga series running in Asuka Ciel, a light novel series titled "Junai Romantica" running in The Ruby magazine, and a 37-episode anime series. Shungiku Nakamura has written a spin-off of Junjou Romantica titled Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi (lit. "The World's Greatest First Love") focusing on a shōjo manga editor and his first love, which was also animated by Studio Deen in 2011.

Characters

Junjo Romantica

Junjo Egoist

Junjo Terrorist

Junjo Mistake

Media

Manga

Written by Shungiku Nakamura, Junjo Romantica: Pure Romance began serialization in Asuka Ciel in 2002. The individual chapters have been compiled into twenty-nine tankōbon volumes by Kadokawa Shoten. The first volume was released on June 2, 2003; as of August 30, 2024, 29 volumes have been released. The series was licensed for an English-language release in North America by Blu Manga, an imprint of Tokyopop, until Tokyopop's closure in May 2011. As of April 2011, 12 English volumes have been released. An attempt to gauge relative sales of manga titles by online vendors (based on publicly available "bestseller" listings) suggests that Junjo Romantica was the best-selling yaoi manga series of 2008 among online vendors. Volume 10 was #6 in the manga category of the New York Times "Graphic Books" weekly bestseller list for July 11, 2009, and volume 12 was #4 on the same list for September 10, 2010. In 2017, Viz Media stated at Yaoi-Con that they received requests to re-license the series, but they decided against it due to the series being too long.

Volume listing

Anime

Studio Deen produced an anime adaptation based around the manga series. Premiering in Japan on TV Hokkaido on April 10, 2008, the series' first season ran for twelve episodes until its conclusion on June 26, 2008. A second season premiered on the same channel on October 12, 2008, it also ended after twelve episodes. On March 28, 2012, a new anime adaptation of Junjo Romantica was announced to be in the works, which has been revealed as an OVA to be released with the limited edition Volume 16 on December 20, 2012. On August 29, 2013, it was announced that more anime for the series is in production. On July 30, 2014, it was confirmed that the series had been green-lit for a third season, which premiered on July 8, 2015. The anime series is licensed for release in North America by Kadokawa Pictures USA; Season 1 was released on May 4, 2010. The series has not been dubbed for English audiences, but released in Japanese with English subtitles. Per their website, they may be releasing the series under the name "Romantica: Pure Love". Anime OVA in bundled with volume 16 is released on December 20, 2012. Nozomi Entertainment re-released the series on Blu-ray on July 17, 2017. On July 9, 2015 at 1:05 am in Japan, the third season of the show was released and was credited as a sequel to the previous seasons.

Reception

Junjo Romantica became the first yaoi (boys' love) title to enter the New York Times Manga Best Seller list when it debuted in week 28. According to Oricon and DVD sales data from Animesuki, the first DVD for the Junjō Romantica anime adaptation was released on July 25, 2008 and it became a hit, selling 8,406 copies in its first week. It is currently the fourth best selling debut DVD for an anime series of 2008, just after Gundam 00, Macross Frontier and Aria the Origination. It continued to dwell on the Oricon anime DVD charts for the second week charting on the top 5 with total sales for the first DVD at 10,986 copies. With those sales, it is currently ranked at number 1 for the shōjo category on DVD sales for the year 2008. According to Oricon sales for the past 5 years, it is the best selling BL (Boys Love) anime so far and has performed the best on the charts. The second season's DVD sales have performed extremely well as well, selling an average of 7,000 to 8,000 copies, which makes it one of the most profitable anime series of the year. It is constantly ranked very high on Amazon Japan for the DVD category as well. Fan reviews and the responses were positive. Jacob Chapman of Anime News Network noted that the series focuses on three couples, with superficial connections between characters, with no "crossover relationships" between the couples. However, he said that this is a "prime specimen" when it comes to yaoi works, but that the story's main couple is problematic, because there is rape involved, even though the two other couples in the series have consensual relationships. He also praised the anime's art and said that the show is a "feast for the fanbase with a few...ideas outside of its...main pairing."