skygiants

What? Nobody did recommend any shoujo from the seventies? That must be rectified.

First Oniisama E...: A series about a sweet, young girl who enters a prestigeous all-girl school only to discover that everybody there is absolutely horrible. There is drug use, terminal diseases, illicit love affairs, suicides and generally everything to make the series more dramatic. I think the manga is not fully translated into English, but the subbed anime can probably still be found somewhere.

Second Rose of Versailles: Has crossdressing. A French nobleman needed a son to succeed in his position of head of the Palace Guards, so when the eighth or so daughter is born, he cracks and begin to bring up Oscar as a son. He succeeds at everything, Oscar becomes head of the Palace Guards, except that everyone knows she's a woman and no-one seems to mind much. Oh, and there's Marie-Antoinette and French Revolution, so saying that everyone dies cannot be really considered a spoiler. Like Oniisama E, manga is not completely in English, but anime is. Is also pretty much the midpoint between Ribon no Kishi and Utena in regards to shoujo series with crossdressing heroines.

Third Eroica yori ai wo komete (From Eroica with love): Yaoi is subgenre of shoujo, so this totally counts. Dorian Earl of Gloria, is a gay gentleman thief. Klaus Heinz von dem Eberbach is a intelligence officer. They have a lot of sexual tension in a spy comedy. Not all is in English, but the older chapter, which are also the best, are.

Fourth Hi Izuru Tokoro no Tenshi: Prince Shotoku, one of the most important figures in Japanese history is made into a "a scheming, cross-dressing homosexual with psychic powers". I have actually not read this, but one of my teachers highly recommends it and I have currently borrowed the first volume from her. I don't know if it is actually available in English.

Fifth: Only technically shoujo, based on magazine it ran in, but Hana no Asuka-gumi! Asuka is delinquent fourteen year old, who spends most of her time fighting an evil underground organization bent on complete domination of Japan's middle schools. I don't really know what more to say about it, except that it is awesome. Again, I know of only few chapters that are translated into English.

Sixth: Again shoujo only technically. Sukeban Deka. Asamiya Saki is delinquent schoolgirl, who is forced by the government to serve as an undercover agent, fighting crime at schools. Is from the era, when significant part of shoujo manga revolved around violence, also known as the eighties. I don't know if any part of the manga is translated into English, but the live action movies are and they are awesome. (Though the two ones from the eighties follow a continuity of the TV series, which was also never translated into English, but they feature a nefarious plan to take over Japan by using high-schoolers trained to be killing machines.)

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