Seventh anything by Moto Hagio. There is a new collection of her stories that was recently published in English (Drunken Dream and other stories), but she also did a lot of other work. I think that 11nin iru! (We were eleven), was published in English, but is long out of print. If you can get it, it is a really good sci-fi story with some transgender elements.
Eighth, though not really a manga, the Akage no Anne, Kaze no Shoujo Emily and Wakakusa Monogatari anime series. There are adaptations of foreign novels for girls, respectively Anne of the Green Gables, Emily of the New Moon and Little Women. As one of the biggest fans of Lucy Maud Montgomery I know, I have to recommend this. (Okay, Little Women are not LMM and I don't really like the book, but it was rather important in development of shoujo in Japan.) I think all the series can be found in English.
Ninth, Ribon no Kishi by Osamu Tezuka (translated as Princess Knight). A country can only have male heirs, so when a girl is born, she is brought up as a boy and made to always act like a boy. She also fights crime and practices some recursive crossdressing, where she pretends to be her own twin sister, so she can have romance with a prince. The main conflict is between the role of prince and princess and it had a lot of influence on Utena. I think the English translation is out of print. There is also an anime series, but I know nothing about it.
Tenth and last, Aoi Hana, but only because I need to round up my Top Ten Shoujo Recommendations and Shimura Takako is always good. It is a yuri series, where the main character moves back to the town where she grew up to start high school. She reunites with her childhood friend, who goes to a neighbouring high-class school and falls in love with an upperclassman who unwittingly uses her to avoid some issues she has about her former teacher marrying her sister. (I should probably tidy up the pronouns in the sentence, but this list is going on for too long and I'm getting tired.) That's the plot of the first story arc, which is also covered in the anime series. Manga is still not finished, but all chapters published until now can be found around the Internet. Anime is also available in English.
Oh, and seconding the recommendations of Sailor Moon, Rayearth, Card Captor Sakura and Skip Beat.
no subject
Eighth, though not really a manga, the Akage no Anne, Kaze no Shoujo Emily and Wakakusa Monogatari anime series. There are adaptations of foreign novels for girls, respectively Anne of the Green Gables, Emily of the New Moon and Little Women. As one of the biggest fans of Lucy Maud Montgomery I know, I have to recommend this. (Okay, Little Women are not LMM and I don't really like the book, but it was rather important in development of shoujo in Japan.) I think all the series can be found in English.
Ninth, Ribon no Kishi by Osamu Tezuka (translated as Princess Knight). A country can only have male heirs, so when a girl is born, she is brought up as a boy and made to always act like a boy. She also fights crime and practices some recursive crossdressing, where she pretends to be her own twin sister, so she can have romance with a prince. The main conflict is between the role of prince and princess and it had a lot of influence on Utena. I think the English translation is out of print. There is also an anime series, but I know nothing about it.
Tenth and last, Aoi Hana, but only because I need to round up my Top Ten Shoujo Recommendations and Shimura Takako is always good. It is a yuri series, where the main character moves back to the town where she grew up to start high school. She reunites with her childhood friend, who goes to a neighbouring high-class school and falls in love with an upperclassman who unwittingly uses her to avoid some issues she has about her former teacher marrying her sister. (I should probably tidy up the pronouns in the sentence, but this list is going on for too long and I'm getting tired.) That's the plot of the first story arc, which is also covered in the anime series. Manga is still not finished, but all chapters published until now can be found around the Internet. Anime is also available in English.
Oh, and seconding the recommendations of Sailor Moon, Rayearth, Card Captor Sakura and Skip Beat.
(I think I lost all my manliness with this list.)