A topic about shoujo manga in a shounen manga forum site?!

[Aerylith]

This is Aery's lame attempt at trying to get this part of the forums going again! :D

I've been looking around for good recent shoujo manga for a while now, but have been unsuccessful save for one or two. The better ones (I think) include:

Nakamura Yoshiki's Skip Beat
Motomi Kyousuke's Dengeki Daisy
(maybe CLAMP's Kobato... but that's taking foreverrrr)

I've also read stuff by Tanemura Arina (including Shinshi Doumei Cross and others) but I find her characters look so much alike that half the time I can't tell who's who. I find that to be a common problem in many/most/all shoujo manga.

There's also Special A (by Maki Minami), which I believe was a pretty big hype up until its ending. I read that because my cousin showed me the anime, but the jokes got pretty repetitive after a while...

And I actually own a full set of CardCaptor Sakura, and that will forever hold a special place in my childhood memories (lol I'm so lame :D)

Maybe it's the fact that shoujo is all lovey dovey, and that in itself kills a lot of the cooler elements that exist in awesome shounen manga like FMA (:D) but I dunno. Arakawa-sensei seems to do fine mixing subtle romantic elements into her works, so...

A recurring situation in almost all shoujo manga is when a main character decides to sacrifice everything he/she has for the wellbeing of the one he/she loves, as if there could be no other way out of the situation. The people in these stories are never frank with their significant other, and that really, really, really bugs me. But then I read on anyway. XD

This sounded like a big rant about shoujo manga but it really isn't! I do love most of the lovey dovey scenes (and yes, I squeal when something exceptionally cute happens) and yep, these manga appeal to my girly side very muchly so.

Anyone have any recommendations? I don't mind oneshots or already-ended manga because those I can read when I have a bit of spare time and I don't feel like studying. Plus, those don't make me angry for having to wait another week/two weeks/month before the next chapter is released. XD

Or thoughts about shoujo manga in general?! Guys are allowed to participate too? I won't judge you, I promise :D
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"If we didn't stick together, you and I, we'd be very lost indeed."

[RoyxRizaFan]

*wanders in*

I never look at this part of the forum...

My favorite romance is all in FMA, because it isn't so...cliche, but there are other shojos that I love...

I used to only read shojo manga, but then I began to recognize patterns and, soon enough, I couldn't find much that was original, and tried out shounen manga instead. Big eyes, sparkles, hearts flying left and right, Mary Sues and Gary Stus...I've become picky with my shojo. Unless it has something original to offer, I probably won't bother with it.

Here are all the shojos I can think of off the top of my head:

First and foremost, Ouran High School Host Club MANGA. Anime was funny, but if you're looking for an interesting, unique shojo, read it. It's hilarious, but the characters actually develope throughout the story, and it gets deeper, while remaining funny. It's also the cutest shojo romance ever XD It's great because it's a sattire of shojo, that is, at the same time, an amazing shojo itself!!! Haruhi is such a great heroine, too, since she's far from cliche, and just amazing.

I don't think I even have to say why Fruits Basket is amazing, and I'm sure you've read at least part of it, nearly everyone has. I know everyone says they love it, but that's because it's really, really good. It was cutsey and really sweet, then got suspensful, deep, and dark, before having an amazing ending. It's really an amazing story when you finish it, and look back at everything the characters went through.

I loved Pita-Ten when I read it, and I still adore it. Kamichama Karin was good overall, though it had it's really lame moments, and then Kamichama Karin Chu SUCKED, since Karin went from being a feminist to a Mary Sue. SCAAAARY...

Vampire Knight isn't worth it. It had amazing art and SO much potential, But then it failed. But I think you may have read that before, anyway, I can't remember...

I know this is going to sound weird, but Chobits was an amazing manga, even if it's not necessarily shojo. Once you got past the first few volumes, it was a really sweet romance story (CLAMP tried to make it for guys, but in the end it turned into a total shojo, I swear...too bad they didn't just make it that way from the beginning. None of my friends will bother reading it because the first few volumes are so damn perverted...)

My friend loves Skip Beat, too, but I never had the time to read that. Same with Special A.
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RoyxRizaFan, aka Yumi


THE ULTIMATE QUESTION ANSWERED!!!!
RIZA TOPS ROY!!!!!!!

[Anubis]

I ditto what RxR said about Ouran and VK, that's pretty muck the best way to sum up those two XD

First off, I must admit that I can only read shoujo manga a little bit at a time before it gets too overwhelmingly sappy (I'm the same way with chick flicks and romance novels, if a guy wants to take me out for dinner and a movie it had better be a horror film or I'll dump his ass, lol). I prefer series where the plot drives the relationships as opposed to relationships driving the plot (if that makes any sense).
Shoujo that I do read can be a little obscure (but not always), but I found all of them on One Manga.

Angel Sanctuary: Although I hate the two main characters with the passion of a thousand burning suns, this is one of my favorite series. I STRONGLY advise only reading this series if you are not religious or a very open minded Christian that likes some controversy (it can be very though-provoking). The final fight in the series is the biggest "OMFG, WTH" kinda thing if you step back and look at what's going on.

Ludwig Kakumei: Done by the same author and one of my all time favorite manga series. It's one of those twisted fairy tale things where you follow the prince in the stories instead of the princess. It is a dark series, but there is plenty of humor.

Dokuhime: This a new series with incredible potential, falls into the horror genre because it talks about female assassins that seduce kings in opposing kingdoms. How do they kill, you ask? Their entire bodies give off poison, so coming in direct contact with one can be lethal. Yeah, it's good.

07 Ghost: Another of my HOLYFUCKINGSHITYES series. It's good and difficult to briefly describe the plot, but take my word for it. The only problem with it is that if you so much as blink the plot can go flying past you. I had to reread a bit of the beginning just to double-check if I caught all of the plot points.

I read other good shoujo that I forgot the names of ^^; but they were good, trust me. Other times I found total crap and stopped reading to protect my sanity.
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[Aerylith]

Dokuhime really stood out from your list... lethal female ninjas, wow xD

I've heard Ouran was amazing too, I think I'll finally give it a try, and woot, new shoujo to explore~~ :DDD
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"If we didn't stick together, you and I, we'd be very lost indeed."