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ojuzu asked me to list my top five shoujo manga.

Which, as with the top five Magical Girls question, is difficult because - while I've seen a fair amount of shoujo anime - I don't think I've actually read five shoujo series. You guys keep exposing my ignorance! I have been reading and loving lots more manga this year, but most of it has been shonen (FMA, Pumpkin Scissors), seinen (everything Urasawa and, weirdly, Emma and Yotsuba&!, both of which I thought might be shoujo but apparently not) or josei (Gokusen, apparently, which I would have thought was shonen or seinen. SHOWS WHAT I KNOW).

So you guys are going to get my top three shoujo series, which are also my only three shoujo series (discounting After School Nightmare, which I can't really judge yet on the basis of one volume).

1.

Still reading my way through the manga version of Ouran! STILL LOVING IT. For anyone who does not know, Ouran focuses on Haruhi Fujioki, a sort of accidental cross-dressing girl who also happens to be the only middle-class student in a super-elite high school. Through a series of wacky mishaps, she ends up posing as a guy and joining a group of extravagantly posturing bishonen as a member of their host club. HIJINKS ENSUE.

My favorite thing about Ouran is the way the series is constantly playing up, lampshading, and subverting ALL THE TROPES. All the characters except for Haruhi are thoroughly self-aware caricatures of their "type" who gradually get developed into three-dimensional people; meanwhile, Haruhi herself is one of the most amazingly unflappable and long-suffering heroines I have ever encountered. Also, it is so hyperactively enjoyable that even when it does something that would be annoying in any other manga, you just can't stay mad at it! (At least up through volume 10 or so, I can't speak for the rest yet.)

2.

Angel Sanctuary was actually the very first manga I read all the way through. THANKS SHATI. (

shati was also the reason that Utena was my very first anime. There may be a trend here.) On the bright side, everything after this seemed much easier to follow . . .

So Angel Sanctuary focuses on Setsuna, who is an Ordinary High School Boy, except actually he is a REBEL who is IN LOVE WITH HIS SISTER, except ACTUALLY he is the reincarnation of the rebel archangel Alexiel and everyone is really disappointed to find out he's a boy now, and then a whole bunch of angels and demons are after him to either kill him or make out with him OR BOTH, and then the world basically ends in Volume 3 and everyone spends the rest of the series making epic field trips to heaven and hell, and everyone is either a reincarnated angel or reincarnated sword or reincarnated Lucifer or ALL OF THE ABOVE, and some people turn into cannibalistic zombies and other people turn into tentacle monsters and still more people are killed by exploding cake and at some point there's a destructive rain of angry flying fetuses, and it's either amazing or terrifying OR BOTH. And I still have no idea what happened at the end. Maybe it's better that way.

3.

I enjoy Hana-Kimi, but it can't really compete with the joy that is Ouran or the glorious WTF that is Angel Sanctuary. It's still a lot of fun, though! Another cross-dressing manga, this one features Mizuki, a very determined girl who cross-dresses and goes undercover at an all-boy's boarding school in order to get closer to her idol, a basketball player who quit the game due to backstory angst. Cue the inevitable hijinks and gender and sexuality confusion!Hana-Kimi isn't anywhere near as subversive as Ouran, but it's clearly having so much fun with itself and its premise that you can't help but have fun with it too - at least as far as the first four volumes go, which are all I have read because

jothra has yet to live up to her promise to visit and bring me more.

SO, you know what is coming next: guys, rec me shoujo manga!

You probably have a pretty good idea of my tastes already, but for the record, some things I like: cross-dressing and more general gender-role subversion, awesome ladies who are recognized as awesome, cracktastic plots, general hilarity! Some things I do not like: jerktastic alpha male heroes, endless pointless love triangles, everyone dying in the end from cancer. (If everyone dies from a rain of flying angel fetuses I'm probably okay with that.)

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I'm not up on current series, so be warned that even though these manga have been translated into English they may be out of print or otherwise hard to find:

(1) Sailormoon. Eighteen volumes of pretty sailor-suited soldiers punishing various supernatural and alien villains in the name of the Moon! I'm fairly sure that it's out of print, but it's possible to track down legit or fan translations.

(2) Magic Knight Rayearth: One of the classic CLAMP standards, in which three girls get zapped away from Tokyo Tower in the middle of a school field trip and dropped into another world to save its princess...or so it first appears. Came out in a total of six volumes, now out of print, but according to Amazon is set to be released in two omnibus editions early next year.

(3) Library Wars: Love & War: The shoujo manga version of Toshokan Sensou, now being translated. It's a relatively faithful adaptation of the light novels and enjoyably illustrated, though it does ratchet up the Iku/Doujou UST to unexpectedly high levels. At the end of the most recent volume, they've just introduced Tedzuka's brother, so there's still a lot of material to cover.

(4) Kodomo no Omocha (Child's Toy): A cracktastic series involving the hyperactive 11-year-old Sana Kurata, a popular child actress who declares war on her sullen, monosyllabic classmate Akito Hayama after he and his friends take their teasing too far one day. Has a great cast of characters and fun storylines, with plenty of realistic pre-teen and early-teen drama. (I have VHS fansubs of the anime, and am about to have them ripped to DVD, so I intend to inflict this on you at some point, anyway.)

Other than that...I am drawing a blank, at least on series that I've personally read and like enough to own.

I am still definitely planning to *ahem* Sailor Moon from Feather next time I see her! I feel it is a NECESSARY CLASSIC for my education.

. . . I have never actually heard of that last one, but I in no way object to having this inflicted on me. :D

SKIP BEAT.

Dear god I cannot recommend it enough. The first chapter is difficult because it seems like it will be TERRIBLE, but then it hangs a giant lampshade on itself and subverts a really awful shoujo trope (bad boyfriend).

The heroine is one of my all-time favorite female characters. She is a DETERMINATOR who decides to get revenge on her ex-boyfriend by becoming a bigger star than he is. So she gets into acting, and scares the everloving crap out of people when she gets cast as terrifying (yet awesome) characters. Also it is all about GIRLS BEING AWESOME and BEING AWESOME TOGETHER (seriously like every girl ends up becoming BFF with her).

There is a LITTLE crossdressing, since she plays a boy at one point... but not much, sadly! But it is filled with a lot of crack and funniness and she makes awesome faces everywhere (that would be her in my icon).

SO highly recommended.

Awesome determinator ladies with goals bonding and being awesome together? GIVEN THAT, I think I can live without the crossdressing in this instance. Thank you! :D

To give you a hint of what you're in for, here is one of the best anime music videos in existence.

Note: None of the footage is speeded up. That is exactly what the series is like.

EXCELLENT. Saving for when I am home from work!

Okay. Okay. I'm going to need a minute here, shoujo is my favourite of all genres and there are currently too many possibilities running through my head to count. S_S

Well I will start by saying I second the rec for Skip Beat! It's one of the only series I buy regularly because it is AWESOME and there is nothing in the world more satisfying than reading about Kyoko terrifying the universe with her amazing powers of revenge and determination. Also charming most of the universe! Kyoko has never met an evil rival she did not win over within a volume. =D

For awesome ladies and crossdressing I recommend Basara! It’s set in a post-apocalyptic Japan where a pair of twins are born under a prophecy that one of them will be the Child of Destiny, leading their people out from oppression. Everyone figures this is the boy twin Tatara and are all about waiting for him to grow up and do his thing. Which makes it a bit unfortunate when the Red King (see oppressive monarchy needing liberation from) comes by their village to murder him! Luckily Sarasa is perfectly willing to go about crossdressing and leading the revolution in the name of great justice and excellent adventures.

It is my favourite manga of ALL TIME. Sarasa is awesome and she goes through so much growth in the course of the story. Plus there's an enormous ensemble cast full of characters who are all memorable and interesting if not always likeable (mostly likeable though!). It takes a few volumes to hit its stride but once it does it's excellent. I've heard some people say they couldn't get into it because of the art style but YMMV. I personally like the art quite alot, it's very distinctive. Plus the story is totally worth it even if you don't like the art style. I should know, I made it my life mission in high school to convert people into fans regardless of protest. =D I still feel one of the best things I did in twelfth grade was convince my librarian to buy the first five volumes for the library. A LEGACY THAT WILL LIVE ON BEYOND ME. 8DDDD

I'm also pretty fond of Never Give Up. It's a bit like Hana Kimi in terms of being a crossdressing story starring high schoolers except the crossdressing is actually convincing (Kiri makes a hot guy, I have never met anyone who disagreed with this assessment) and is set in the crazy world of manga-style modeling! Where moms head modeling agencies and blackmail their daughters into modeling their male line by recruiting their crush. 8D

Fruits Basket is excellent and is of the adorable characters who all have some sort of traumatic past school. Only better than most of them. I love the heroine Tohru, she's an utter sweetheart and ends up helping out pretty much every member of the Sohma family (see: traumatic past) just by being herself. She also gets her own character arc which shows signs of being planned from the very beginning! (I went back to reading the first volume and I was like wow, this mangaka actually knew what she was doing, she set up all her pieces from the very start! Natsuki Takaya, you are awesome. \o/) Also uhh the family she lives with are cursed to turn into various animals from the zodiac whenever they're hugged by someone of the opposite sex. So, y'know, you've got your cracktastic plot device there from the start. xD

I like Crimson Hero for being one of the few sports mangas centered on girls. It follows Nobara Sumiyoshi, a young lady determined to play volleyball no matter what! Her mother is utterly opposed, wanting her to follow in her footsteps as the hostess of their family inn? Fine, she will move out of the house and get work as a den mother in the school she's transfering to! The girls volleyball team at her school has been defunct for years? Not if Nobara has anything to say about it! She will recruit with the power of LOVE AND PASSION. Oh so she's got her team together but the school reserves all of their resources for their famous boys volleyball team? Well she challenges them to a match for shared gym time! It does, unfortunately suffer from a stupid romance plot (they can’t be together! Because they’re both sports players and role models and apparently people really disapprove of sports players having a personal life outside of their sports! Seriously I have no idea what's going on with it, I've been a bit peeved at the latest volumes for spending too much time on the romance when all I want is to watch Nobara and her girls band together to make it into the next volleyball tournament).

And now that this comment's gotten ridiculously long and I'll probably have to split it into two I think I shall stop. But I have tons more recs to give so if you're ever looking for more shoujo hit me up! I can ramble about shoujo manga for much longer than most people are willing to listen. xD

I am of no help in this instance... but I am totally planning to steal some of these recs. :D

THANK YOU FOR THIS LIST. :D :D :D :D These all look awesome. (I am totally cool with ridiculously long comments that are full of great recs!)

Okay, question: which of these are completed series, and which are still ongoing?

You say that like I fall in love with something I won't just shove it in your face all the time anyway.

You... might only get it out from the library and thus taunt me with babbling about it? Um.

Fruits Basket and Basara are completed, Never Give Up and Crimson Hero are ongoing. I'm a bit behind on Never Give Up because Tokyopop makes bad decisions and dropped the series after volume 8 (WHY? D=) but it looks like it's still getting scanlated online. Crimson Hero currently has 14 volumes out in the licensed translations, I'm not sure about its online status. New volumes come out every five months or so which is not too bad for VIZ.

I think Gokusen is classified as josei because sweet little girls are not supposed to like all that fighting stuff and hardcore little boys are not supposed to like all that non-fanservice-based romance stuff. Personally I would give it to any 13-year-old-and-up regardless of gender, but hey. As for why Yotsuba&! is seinen...the world is a mysterious place.

I myself just got the first-four-volumes omnibus of Cardcaptor Sakura, only having seen the anime, and it is just as sweet and charming. It is also girly as fuck, seriously the main character changes into different cutesy outfits every time she goes up against an opponent of the week, although that is more the fault of her fashionably inclined/canonically-crushing-on-her best friend. Also, 3/4ths of the main male cast is either gay or bisexual. (The fourth is her dad.) All in all, if you're looking for shoujo, it's hard to beat one of the classics.

Yeah, I think both Gokusen and Yotsuba&! both have a pretty universal appeal - something for everyone! or in the case of Yotsuba, overwhelming adorable for everyone, whatever - but the specific classifications sometimes puzzle me! I guess they puzzle the mainstream manga magazines in Japan too . . . (The classification of Emma as seinen I find even weirder, given that its subtitle is A VICTORIAN ROMANCE. I mean, it's a lot more low-key than most shoujo Victoriana, but seriously now.)

I have a disc-ful of Cardcaptor Sakura anime waiting for me in my apartment! Which I should be getting around to watching now that I've finished the Utena rewatch. I AM EXCITED.

This actually does seem plausible. But I'm not lending you any more manga until you finish Pumpkin Scissors anyway, so also besides the point. *dignity*

*makes notes* Dropped series are the most frustrating thing! Thank goodness for scanlations.

EXCELLENT. The anime is actually a bit better at setting up the series than the manga is--the manga starts after she's already caught her first card, then gives a somewhat hurried backstory that made me wonder if I'd accidentally missed the first volume somewhere, so it might be confusing to people who don't already know the backstory. Whereas the anime starts from the proper beginning. After that they are pretty much the same, though, at least for the first four volumes.

Confusing? CLAMP? SAY IT AIN'T SO.

Well at least it isn't as confusing as the xxxHolic/Tsubasa crossovers...? (actually CCS is better than Tsubasa in a lot of ways, ~Real Drama~ does not make up for turning your female protagonist from a determined little girl who does stuff and regularly beats the male protagonist to a determined little girl who spends the first few volumes unconscious and the rest of them being nothing but a damsel in distress even if they technically are not the same character, but um yes anyway ignore my issues.)

(I suspect these issues would be mine if I wanted to pick up Tsubasa. Fortunately I have no real interest in picking up Tsubasa! Despite the lure of cracktastic plot. TOO MUCH DENSE UNIVERSE MYTHOLOGY, TOO LITTLE TIME.)

but the specific classifications sometimes puzzle me! I guess they puzzle the mainstream manga magazines in Japan too

Most of the time, yep. ^_^ Series classification depends entirely on where it's published, not by its content. That's why you sometimes get series that started out as anime or light novels and end up with two different releases -- Escaflowne and Toshokan Sensou, for instance, have both shoujo and shounen manga releases.

Though Emma is an interesting example. It originally came out in Comic Beam, which Wikipedia helpfully describes as an 'alternative' manga magazine with a tiny but loyal following that includes 'manga-literate hipsters'. So presumably, it can run series that might not fit into the broader seinen classification.

Always glad to come to your aid with shiny Shojo manga! WITH CROSSDRESSING!!

I actually made a few posts a couple of months ago on Tumblr reccing Hayley 5 Shojo Manga, so I WILL JUST LINK YOU TO IT, and add a few more series JUST IN CASE. Here it is. Featuring hopefully intriguing summaries BY ME of W-Juliet, Kaze Hikaru, Lovely Complex, Basara and Ninohime no Monogatari.

(Be back after dinner WITH MORE!)

Hah, I saw that description too when I was checking, and was extremely curious about whether they meant 'manga-literate hipsters' in the US or in Japan!

I KNEW I COULD COUNT ON YOU! *____* So much crossdressing, I don't even know where to start!

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