Highlights
- Some manga series may never be completed due to health issues of the creators and publishing challenges, leaving fans disappointed.
- Series like Iris Zero, Glass Mask, and Clover have been put on indefinite hiatus or ended prematurely, leaving their stories unresolved.
Not every work gets completed. Even the biggest projects get scuppered by things out of the creator’s control. Paintings get left as sketches because either the painter moves on, the model leaves, or, in the case of "The Tennis Court Oath," its figures ended up on the guillotine before it could be finished. If anything, it's a wonder any piece of work gets finished at all.
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In the intensive, high-demand world of making manga, it’s not a surprise that some strips end up just stopping instead of reaching their conclusion. Rival projects, health issues, and worse have brought many comics to either a long pause or a premature end. As such, it's unlikely these romance manga will ever be completed.
1 Iris Zero
MyAnimeList Score: 7.93
- Written by Piroshiki.
- Illustrated by Takana Hotaru.
- 2009-2019.
- 8 Volumes, 44 Chapters.
- Available in English via Digital Manga Publishing.
Making manga at the pace most publishers demand in Japan can take a serious toll on the creator’s health. As much as hiatuses are disappointing for fans, it’s better than wrecking oneself for their art.
This was the case for Iris Zero, a story about a powerless boy in a world full of super-powered teens, whose insistence on keeping to himself ("low exposure") gets tested when the most popular girl in school, Koyuki, confesses to him. It began in 2009, took a break in 2012 when artist Takana Hotaru had health issues, then went on indefinite hiatus in 2019 when those issues flared back up. At this stage, no one knows when or if it will come back.
2 Glass Mask
MyAnimeList Score: 8.48
- Written & Illustrated by Suzue Miuchi.
- 1976-2012.
- 49 Volumes, 382 chapters.
- Fan Translations only.
Despite its sugary and soft image, shōjo manga, romantic or otherwise, can be very complex and intriguing. For example, the long-running dramatic strip Glass Mask sees two actresses compete for the lead role in the play "Kurenai Tennyo" (Crimson Goddess). Everyone expects the prettier and multi-talented Ayumi to succeed, but Maya is more driven and passionate, giving her performances more feeling.
From there, the girls’ lives get further entangled, as Maya gets the attention of a mystery fan known only as "The Purple Rose," and her mentor fights to keep hold of the play’s performance rights. The manga had been going on continually since 1976, with the occasional brief pause here and there. Suzue Miuchi planned to gradually end the series from 2009 onward but put it on hiatus in 2012. After just over a decade, only time will tell if it’ll return.
3 Clover
MyAnimeList Score: 7.54
- Written & Illustrated by CLAMP.
- 1997-1999.
- 4 Volumes, 20 Chapters.
- Available in English via Kodansha USA.
CLAMP is one of the most famous groups of mangaka in the medium’s history, though they’re no strangers to putting works on hiatus, like X/1999 and xxxHOLIC: Rei’s irregular schedules. But their longest hiatus likely goes to Clover. It followed Sue, one of a few kids with magical powers known as "Clovers." She’s kept in isolation by the military to keep her from developing feelings.
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That way, she won't be swayed in one way or another that could threaten the nation. But she is regularly escorted by a soldier called Kazuhiko, where the two end up bonding. The two could’ve formed a deeper romance, but the magazine Clover was being published in shut down in 1999. CLAMP writer Nanase Ohkawa said it just needed two more books’ worth of chapters to finish the story. However, as of 2023, those books haven’t been written yet.
4 Nana
MyAnimeList Score: 8.79
- Written & Illustrated by Ai Yazawa.
- 2000-2009.
- 21 Volumes, 84 Chapters.
- Available in English via Viz Media.
CLAMP is a big deal, but so is Ai Yazawa and her seminal shōjo stripNana. It followed two friends, both called Nana, as they moved to Tokyo to achieve their goals. Nana O wants to take her band to the top, while Nana K wants to reunite with her boyfriend. Things only get more complicated there as their friendship is tested to the brink. The manga left off with Nana O having died following the death of her ex-boyfriend.
It turned out she was alive but fled to England for some peace of mind. Nana K and her friends went to follow her trail, then…nothing. Yazawa fell ill in 2009 and had to be hospitalized. She recovered the following year but has since stuck to smaller illustrative projects. Her condition wasn’t disclosed, except that it made larger projects difficult to work on. Yazawa has said she doesn't want to leave Nana unfinished, but it may take a while for its conclusion to come.
5 Shindere Shōjo to Kodoku na Shinigami
MyAnimeList Score: 7.56
- Written by Masaki Himura.
- Illustrated by Yoshie Katō.
- 2011-2013.
- 3 Volumes, 20 Chapters.
- Fan Translations only.
Things start normal for Akira. She’s just a schoolgirl in a sleepy island town prepared for another dull day in school when the teacher introduces a new student called Nishigami. He’s an edgelord, deliberately alienating himself from his classmates because he says that anyone who gets too close to him dies. But Akira ends up close enough to become co-class president with him, and the two fall in love, leading to her death.
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She gets revived and finds out there is more to him and her connection to the divine, hence the title: Shindere Shōjo to Kodoku na Shinigami ("The Dying Girl and the Forlorn Death God"). However, her strip was suddenly put on hiatus in 2013 when Masaki Himura got a cancer diagnosis. After two years of treatment, she sadly passed away. Rather than continue the strip without her, Yoshie Katō would move on to other works like Assassins Pride.
6 Itazura Na Kiss
MyAnimeList Score: 7.44
- Written & Illustrated by Kaoru Tada.
- 1990-1999.
- 23 Volumes, 100 Chapters.
- Available in English via Digital Manga Publishing.
Technically, Itazura Na Kiss has been told in full. Its TV drama and anime adaptations had definitive endings, as did its live-action movies, and its Korean, Thai, and Taiwanese versions. Whether it was called "Mischievous Kiss," "Miss In Kiss," "It Started With a Kiss," or by its direct translation as "Playful Kiss," the clingy, childish but sweet Kotoko managed to find love with the stuck-up pretty boy Naoki.
Forced to co-habit after an earthquake destroys Naoki’s home, Naoki looks past Kotoko’s flaws, works on his own, and falls for Kotoko. However, creator Kaoru Tada never came up with an ending for her original manga. She died suddenly in 1999 following an accident, bringing the strip to a premature end. The 2008 anime used Tada's notes to create its conclusion, though whether she would have stuck to it for the manga will sadly never be known.