Love Roma

Love Roma (ラブロマ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Minoru Toyoda. It was serialized in Kodansha's magazine Monthly Afternoon from 2003 to 2005 and published in five volumes.

Plot
In the middle of class, Hoshino asks Negishi to go out with him. Negishi refuses, so they settle on walking home together, to the amusement of the class. The next day, Negishi asks Hoshino to go out with her.

Characters

 * Hajime Hoshino (星野一)
 * An honest guy who always says what he thinks. He has loved Negishi since the first moment he saw her, but he did not have the courage to act upon according to his feelings; from that moment on, he decided he would always be honest.


 * Yumiko Negishi (根岸由美子)
 * The girl Hoshino loves; she has more common sense than he does, and thus she often slaps or punches him out of embarrassment. She gets embarrassed when their relationship is put on display to the high school public. Negishi is a horrible cook who can barely make any edible food.


 * Yoko Meguro (目黒陽子)
 * Negishi's best friend. She often thinks of absurd plans for Hoshino. Despite this, she supports their relationship.


 * Toshio Tsukahara (塚原敏男)
 * Hoshino's best friend. Unlike Hoshino, he tends to be rational in his decision-making. Although he generally sees through Yoko's pranks he stays silent, preferring to be the onlooker.


 * Wada (和田さん)
 * A member of the Occult Research Club.


 * Yoshitsune (水元義経)
 * A member of Tsukahara's band and Hoshino's classmate.

Publication
Written and illustrated by Minoru Toyoda, the series originated as a one-shot that won the Afternoon Shiki Award's Grand Prize. The one-shot was turned into a full series, which began serialization in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon in 2003. The series completed serialization in 2005. Its individual chapters were collected into five tankōbon volumes. In 2012, Shogakukan began re-releasing the volumes.

In February 2005, Del Rey Manga announced that they licensed the series for English publication.

Reception
Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network described it as a "warm, honest adolescent love story", while also stating that it can be repetitive at times. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly expressed similar opinions on the story as Kimlinger. They also compared the illustrations to those of John Porcellino and Jeffrey Brown. In Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson wrote that the artwork, which he felt was similar to indie comics, complemented the story well.