Your Taylor Swift Era, Your Anime/Manga

Are You a Swiftie Struggling to Pick Up Your Next Series? 

I've got you! Pick your Era and I'll Give you a series💗

Here are the albums I'll be covering:

• Debut

• Fearless

• Speak Now

• RED TV

• 1989

• Reputation

• Lover

• folklore: 

• evermore 

• Midnights

• Tortured Poets Department

Debut

Lovely Complex

This Era was genuinely the hardest for me to think of a rec for. Cowgirl Yearning and Anime don't go together easily, who would've thought? So, I decided to relisten to the album and go purely on vibes. I'd say the aura of this album is Friends to Lovers. There's this sense of yearning in an annoying, aggressive, but earnest way. The way you can only do when you're a teen. Who's got that fun friends to lovers energy. That desperate, honest, silly, and occasionally annoying love. Otani and Risa from Lovely Complex! Risa is the defintion of a debut girl. The pull of this anime is the way her and Otani truly match eachother's freak so to say. It's very Our Song. The way she yearns and Laments is "Tear Drops on My Gutiar". Debut is defintely a Lovely Complex Watcher.

Songs: "I'm Only Me When I'm With You", "Our Song"

Fearless

Futarijime Romantic 

This manga is so underrated and and an obvious pick for Fearless. Kokomi is the embodiment of Fearless, she's a hopeless romantic who believes in princes, white horses, and fate. She's very "Today Was a Fairy Tale". 

In the manga, Her most cherished memory is her first kiss in kindergarten, so what happens when she runs into a boy who has the same name as the boy from her precious memory? Worst of all this guy is the opposite of her memory, he's dry, sassy, and worst of all.... a realist. I'm not a huge fan of this trope tradionally, but this one is a short and incredibly fun ride. Despite the realist vs. romantic dichotmy of these two, they have you feeling like you're listening to "Fearless". Also, no spoilers but there's a "The Way I Loved You" moment in the manga. 

Songs: "The Way I Loved You", "Today Was A Fairy Tale", "Fearless"

Speak Now 

Blue Spring Ride 

Did Taylor Swift not watch Blue Spring Ride right before she wrote "The Story of Us" I am so sure she did. If you've seen blue spring ride you know the ANGST that is so bittersweet heart break of when it seems like someone loves you, but also has retreated from you. "I'm Dying to Know if It's Killing You Like it's Killing me" & " A simple complication, miscoummincations lead to fall out... so many walls up I can't break through"... If you resonate with those lyrics and haven't seen the series you should defintely go put it on ASAP.

Songs: "The Story of Us"

Studio Cabana

Heads up this one is a bit heavier in its themes, and I absolutely love it. If you're a sucker for complex characters and semi-tortured male leads, then this is the series for you. This series is like if you took blue spring ride and put it on angst steroid. Maki is a hardworking diligent lead. So, what happens when she befriends the brooding truant boy in her class? And more than that what happens when she discovers he's secretly in band (where he uses his beautiful voice to write haunting songs)? Heads up there’s a Dear John back story, some Haunted at play, and defintely a Sparks Fly romance that's starting to develop.

Songs: "Dear John", "Haunted", "Sparks Fly"

Red

My First Love With You Again

My First Love with You Again is the best manga you've never heard of. If you plug in your wired headphones and let yourself get lost in Red, you'll feel what reading this manga is like. For me, RED is the album that makes you yearn for a second chance romance you don't know if you should rekindle. "Moving on from him is impossible, when I still see him burning red". Our female lead in this manga is haunted by memmories of her near perfect first love. A gentle boy who she shared all of her first with. A boy who she let haunt her heart and mind after he disappeared. What happens when they reunite and he's a jaded player? If you don't like this manga's male lead you should defintely stick with it because we get some serious backstory. 

Songs: "Red", "Begin Again", "State of Grace"

 First Love, Worst Love 

This one is pretty similiar in it's premise to My First Love with You Again. Again we are introduced to a first love couple that got sepreated suddenly, but reunited in college. After getting into two different high schools, our male lead fundementally disappears on our female lead. When they reunite in college it seems like everything has changed, and our male lead is desperate to worm his way back into our female lead’s heart. While he's shouting Stay Stay Stay she's defintely (hestintaly) giving we are never getting back together. I'm charmed by the male lead in this one.

Songs: "Stay Stay Stay", "We are Never Getting Back Together"

1989

Skip Beat

What better pick for a girl chasing her claim to fame than the album that blasted Taylor Swift into her highest peaks of stardom. Skip Beat tells the story of Kyoko a girl who follows her childhood friend Sho Tokyo to support him as he pursues music. After being betrayed by Sho, Kyoko makes it her mission to get back at him by beating him at the very thing he is chasing..fame. In her pursuit of fame through acting, we watch Kyoko find a new found passion. We also get to see one of my favorite enemies to lovers archs with Ren, the starlet of Tokyo. Ren is such a complex and well written lead, he's not just your typical heart throb. 

1989 encapsulates both relationships in Kyoko's Life. All You Had to Do Was Stay, with the lyrics

"This is what you wanted, you were all I wanted" / "people like you always want back the love they gave away" gives Kyoko and Sho's relationship. And oh my god Bad Blood clearly makes so much sense for them.

"Style" is so Kyoko and Ren's relationship. The song has a sexy, and alluring, but fun
presence. "You got that James Dean daydream look in your eyes". That's the perfect depction of Ren and his effervescent charm.  "This Love" also foreshadows some of the development and creation of their love "clear water/this love came back to me". Also all the driving motifs in this album, match how Kyoko and Ren seem to always be commuting together for some reason. 

This one's a bit of a dark joke, but there's a lyric in Out of the Woods that reminds me of our male lead Ren's backstory. If you know you know.

Can you tell this is my favorite anime.

Songs: "Style" (Ren), "This Love" (Ren), "All You Had to Do Was Stay"(Sho), "Bad Blood (Sho)

Reputation

Why Raeliana Ended Up in The Duke's Mansion.

Someone once told me "reputation is acutally a love album with a revenge plot". Why Raeliana Ended Up in The Duke's Mansion is aptly described by this same sentence. Honestly, any and all Villianess Manwha and Anime can be pretty well represented by Repuation. "End Game" is the biggest encapsulator of this anime "Big reputation, big repuation/ oh, you and me, we got big reputations". When a girl with a grudge meets a cunning man of course you've got two clever, big repuations at play. 
"Getaway Car" perfectly represents the female lead's use of the male lead as a "Getaway Car" from her life threatening perdicament. Sexy, clever, manuiplative, and romantic.

Songs: "End Game", "Getaway Car", "Ready For It", "Gorgeous", "Dress"

Lover

selfish romance

Okay, okay, this isn't a manga or anime, but a manwha. Trust me you'll thank me later even though I'm slightly breaking the rules. Selfish Romance is an absolute masterpiece with two of the best written (and gorgeous) leads I've ever read. I could not put this masterpiece down and finished it today. Meet out male lead, rough around the edges, chef with a a hidden heart break. Our female lead, fresh out of a break up where she heard the love of her life say "I don't think I've ever been attracted to her, but I'll still marry her if that's what she wants". From these two heart breaks a fake dating pact is born. One that's not cliched or silly, but one which allows us to discover the pasts of each of our leads. 

Watching our female lead grieve what seemed like a perfectly peaceful love is so "Death by A Thousand Cuts". It's a perfect fit. "I see you everywhere/the only thing we share is this small town". If you want a little sampler of our leads relationship "Daylight" and "False God" is what you should listen to. I'm not sure if the lyrics match, but the energy is a perfect fit is "Cruel Summer". The lyrics “ I don’t want to keep secrets just to keep you” kind of hint at our male leads backstory. 

Songs: "Cruel Summer", "False God", "Daylight", "Death by a Thousand Cuts"

Folklore

Skip and Loafer

If your favorite songs are "mirror ball", "this is me trying", and "seven" this anime is definitely for you. You're probably someone with a gentle heart who feels profoundly broken. This anime is for the people who give everything their all and the one's who feel altered by life. This show is a character study and means so much to me. Our female lead is an earnest and honest go-getter who moved to Tokyo to pursue her dreams of becoming mayor of her small town. On her first day, she runs into her polar opposite, a kind but unmotivated boy. How will these two fill each other's faults, what do they have to learn from each other? In the weirdest way possible I think both of our leads, despite being opposites, encompass the energy of mirrorball and this is me trying. Also the ensemble cast is just as complicated and worth getting to know. This anime is a masterpiece. Also we get seven energy from of female leads hometown on the shore and the childhood trauma from our lead.  If you get to the manga there's some Betty in the cast's plot without cheating. "I'm only seventeen/ I don't know anything/but I know I miss you".

Songs: "Mirrorball", "This is Me Trying", "Seven"

You Might as Well be the One

How are you and that situationship from hell? Oop. Sorry, acutally not sorry. If you like the tortured romance aspect of Folklore. If limerence is less of a word and more of a lifestyle, then this manga is for you. Meet our female lead, a flashy girl, with a heart of gold. Our male lead, an all american, honest looking boy, who claims he only has casual relationships. What happens when a friendship forms between the two and they begin to challenge eachothers notions of love? I think their realtionship is defintely a more mild version of "August", "illicit affairs" and "peace".I could never give you peace/your integrity makes me look smal”  is defintely the male lead’s mantra. You can make space for a complex album you can sit with some morally gray characters.

Songs: "August", "illicit affairs", "peace"

Evermore

Nana

If you've read or watched this one you know it’s got the complexity of Ms. Swift's album Evermore. Meet our two leads, two girls named Nana who meet on a train to Tokyo. Nana O is a rock and roll singer heading to pursue her dreams in music while Nana (Haichi) is a frills and bows girl chasing her boyfriend. Two girls trying to figure out their twenties in the big city, and the foreboading hearbreak that looms over their happy world together. If you like homoerotic friendships that hold a fish on a line you'll never get, you'll love this one. Nana and Nana's frienship is so deeply dorthea coded. "It's never too late to come back to my side" is a giant theme of this whole series. We also get to meet Nana, her band, and the rock and roll lover who haunts her narrative. Her relationship is extremely "Cowboy Like Me" coded if you like that energy. We also get to explore the themes "Tolerate It" and "Champagne Problems" with Nana (haichi). Go watch if you want to suffer queens!

Midnights

Yona of the Dawn

Midnights is a Lover Girl turned Introspective Badass Album in my opinon. Who do I think fits this description well? Miss. Yona from Yona of the Dawn. Meet our sheltered beautiful princess and after a shocking reveal, she's put out with her personal guard Hak. In her new life, Yona must discovers how to stand on her own. Her self growth is entirely self motivated and thrilling. If you want a taste of the plot twist that alters her life "Would've, Could've, Should've" is a pretty good hint. "I can't let you go/I see you in my sleep/If clarity is in death then why won't this die/ give me back my girlhood it was mine first" Her story as a whole is a combination of "You're on Your Own Kid" and "Vigilante Shit" if that's something you'd be interested in. The main romance we get to see threaded through this adventure story is very "Snow on the Beach". We also get to explore some interesting Anti-Heroes here. Please go watch this.

Songs: "Would've Could've Should've", "You're on Your Own Kid", "Snow on The Beach"

Tortured Poets Department

Paradise Kiss

This anime is so TTPD, If you like the Tortued Poets Department you love evil tortured artist men. What better than an anime with an evil tortured artist of a man. You're gonna love this anime. Meet our female lead a serious girl who gets pulled into the world of fashion when she's made to model for a designers dress (our male lead). We watch her get caught in throws of being loved in a messy way. "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" and "I Can Fix Him, No Really I Can" captures there realtionship so well unfortuntaely. 

Songs: "Down Bad", "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys"

I'm No Angel

This is another Ai Yazwa piece worth reading (with alot less angst) if that's what you're into. In this manga we follow our dim witted but sweet female lead as she chases her crush to the student council. Typical Ai Yazwa yearning, hearbtreak, misunderstanding, and mess ensues, but it’s very fun and high school. The art may be a little off putting to new manga readers and the male leads hair might give you nightmares if you're not a a grease fan. Still it might be for you if you love the lyric "I love you it’s ruining my life" from Fortnight.

Songs: "Fortnight"

Here's the comprehensive list in a more concise place

• Debut:  (lovely complex)

• Fearless (futarijime romantic) (Tamon's B Side)

• Speak Now: (Blue Spring Ride)

• RED TV:  First Love Worst Love

• 1989:  Skip Beat

• reputation: Why Raeline Ended Up

• Lover: Selfish Romance

• folklore: (skip to loafer)

• evermore (nana)

• Midnights: (yona)

Thank you so much for reading let me know what you picked and what you feel about your anime or manga!