Hi and thanks! I formally studied Japanese for 3 years while attending university in a fairly intensive program. I would have gone longer, but my main studies (not Japanese!) completed. Since then, I learn more naturally by reading manga and playing games raw.

I don’t claim to be knowledgeable on licensed titles, so here’s some that I personally know. I repurchased most of these in English despite already owning them raw.

For josei: Suppli (not finished), Love Song (Nishi Keiko short stories), Ristorante Paradiso, Ooku (some odd translation choices, but it’s a good story overall) and anything else by Yoshinaga Fumi are good choices.

Shounen ai? Most of my favorite licensed titles I can think have some element of sex in them. SuBLime has a lot of good, tame titles (His Favorite keeps most all messing around off screen). Otherwise, stick with the classics like Tokyo Babylon and Heart of Thomas. Rin! was also good and not graphic from what I remember. Silver Diamond didn’t get very far into the story unfortunately. The out of print and unfinished Shout Out Loud! was also very good. All the Yoshinaga Fumi BL are excellent, but I don’t remember which had sex in them. Well, Ichigenme, Gerard & Jacques, and Lovers in the Night definitely did—that shit was hot~

Slice of life: not simple or Danza by Ono Natsume and any Yoshinaga Fumi titles available.