“Everyone’s Getting Married” by Izumi Miyazono takes an interesting look at relationships and settling down.

Asuka Takanashi seems to have everything: a nice apartment, a good-paying career and a loving boyfriend. The young woman hopes that eventually she can settle down, even at her current age of 24. Sadly, things go wrong soon after she catches the bride’s bouquet at a wedding. Right when she thinks the love of her life is about to pop the question, he instead tells her they need to break up. Asuka’s life goes into disarray but she does her best to maintain stability after such a sudden shift. However new troubles arrive in the form of popular T.V. personality Ryu Nanami who returns to Japan after working in New York. While having a mutual friend, the two are near opposite, especially with the fact that Ryu hates the idea of him getting married. Yet fate has something in store for them as they keep on running into each other.

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Miyazono’s manga dives into the traditional and contemporary ideas on life and love. Some of the readers may align and note similarities between themselves and this cast of characters. Asuka strives to reach that future she longs for, while Ryu is a man of the present who thinks little of regrets. The setting and situations they deal with are also a reflection to what a number of people face within the same age group. They might be caught up in work and making a stable living for themselves, not needing to have a serious commitment with one another. Others maybe hoping to find their better half and wanting to raise a family. The dating scene’s evolution, as captured by “Everyone’s Getting Married”, shows an indictment of arranged marriages and the conservative courtships in favor of mixers and speed dating sessions. Traditional values still exist and even some of the practices, but won’t always fit with everyone. As Miyazono continues “Everyone’s Getting Married,” know that love is both beautiful and complicated.

VIZ Media’s imprint Shojo Beat will release the third volume later in December. For more information, visit VIZ’s site or your local comic vendor.