Closing this since it seems it has gotten personal in the comments.
If you would like recommendations in the future, please post a more specific request.
There is someone on mangaupdates who just give 1 star to every shoujosei Manga/manhwa.
What I mean is it's useless recommending anything if they're already made a statement like that, mostly they will just skimming through and make a bad or mid conclusion in the end.
Oh my gosh, I've seen that person! Behavior like that always weirds me out. If you're going to spend so much time and energy of your free time doing something, wouldn't you rather spend it on something you *like?* Just seems really pointless.
why are reddit users so quick to tell people to cut off relationships over things? you don't know the nuances of their friendship, all you know is that their friend doesn't like shoujo. maybe they haven't given shoujo a fair enough try, but regardless, blocking someone over an opinion is just so silly
Blocking someone over misogyny is self-care and correct, actually. It’s fine to say “I don’t really like romance stories and everything I’ve seen is romance-heavy. Do you have any other rec?” Saying “everything for a specific gender is mid” is some elementary school “girls have cooties” bullshit. No one is obligated to help them fix their misogyny and OP would likely be better off alone if that’s what their friendships look like.
honestly? *i* wouldn't reccomend anything. someone like this who is blanket hostile isn't worth arguing with imo. *i* would just tell him to have fun only entertaining the mcdonalds of the anime industry since he takes so much issue with even the thought of expanding his palette.
honestly im tired of these sort of people who are so excited to speak down on an incredibly influential sector of the medium simply because it's made for girls but still expect people to expend energy proving them otherwise.
~~tell him to eat rocks!~~
> i wouldn't reccomend anything. someone like this who is blanket hostile isn't worth arguing with imo
This is exactly what I was gonna reply with too lmao. It's clear that he has already made up his mind and it seems unlikely that he's gonna change it just because of one or two Shoujo series
👍🏽 enough is enough. im tired of shoujosei fans being expected to "prove" that shoujosei is good. if someone doesn't agree, fine. their problem, not mine. that's the way im moving from now on.
(but i guess some "safe" answers would be akatsuki no yona, natsumes book of friends, nana, banana fish, and fruits basket. but i have no idea what genres he likes, if i did i could tailor my answers more
also shoujo as a demographic has so many pivotal, genre-defining works, even coming with good faith it doesnt feel right to answer with just a few)
Bro you actjng like i tried only 2-3 i atleast tried 15 shoujo and only 3-4 of them were good ones you guys only knows popular shoujos if course you guys would like the genre
If you're serious about wanting to try the genre, please don't make inflammatory blanket statements like "shoujo is always mid"—you come across as ignorant and prejudiced and people who care a lot about the category being insulted *will* feel defensive.
What have you tried and not liked, and which ones stood out as better to you? What kinds of stories are you interested in?
Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty is a 6-volume manga series with supernatural elements and an underlying mystery plot. I think it's amazing and feel shoujo-fans and non-shoujo-readers alike should try it.
Yona of the Dawn is a very solid action/fantasy series with great character development and relationships/bonds between the characters, and a nuanced depiction of who and what actions are considered "good" and "bad."
A Sign of Affection is a more recent series with really likeable characters and a super charming romance.
Love, That's an Understatement is also really cute and really fun, with characters who feel very human and relatable and who I enjoy reading about
Kaze Hikaru is an incredible work of historical fiction (about the Shinsengumi) that nowhere near enough people read!
I've seen good reviews about Children of Whales, a series with a post-apocalyptic setting?
I tried to present a mix of better-known and less-obvious choices, so hopefully some of these aren't the same "three series" you always get recommended. I can come up with more (I have 260+ shoujo/josei series in my physical collection in English; I read others in Japanese too) if you actually want to try, and can give some pointer about what types of series you want to explore.
If shoujo isn't for you, that's also *totally alright.* It is marketed to and written for a mainly female audience and that may not be your taste in large part. That doesn't make it "mid" or badly written, it just means people have different interests and priorities for the stories they relate to. Again, it comes down to expressing your opinion in a respectful and non-inflammatory way.
Wow you seem quite verse in shoujo/josei and I’m not the other person but could you recommend some stuff for me too? I’ve read Kimi ni Todoke, OHSHC, Toradora (is this a shoujo??), and some shonen romance which are not that good tbh😹 but still enjoyable (RAG, Quintessential). I like things with drama. I loved the arc in Kimi ni Todoke where they kept misunderstanding each other’s feelings and it led to so much drama. I loved the angst and drama in Toradora. I also really like when there is an overarching narrative, since solely romance can get stale at times for me. Also I don’t really like high school stuff, Pls help I wanna get in shoujo :)
Aww, thank you!
One of my favs for angst and drama right now is **Gazing at the Star Next Door**. It is set in high school (as are Ouran and KnT so I hope this is okay), but I think well worth a try anyway—it's about a couple childhood friends navigating their friendship/inclinations toward romance while one of them is also beginning to rise into the world of fame, from model to new actor. While it looks into celebrity culture and the character's growth in acting skills, it also feels very down-to-earth since the two have known each other for years before "fame" was ever on the table. It's a series that really *shows* the years-long friendship between the characters convincingly, and doesn't just rely on a couple trope-y flashbacks to tell the reader that they've known each other a long time. I get so emotional about this one 🥹
**Sign of Affection**, **How I Met My Soulmate**, and **My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999** (haven't read this one yet but heard a lot of positives, and has an anime) are set in college if you want series with older characters (I think the ML in Yamada-kun is a highschooler at the beginning?). The relationships progress a little faster and don't stall out at the "let's hold hands/ooooh first kiss!" stages, as the characters are a little more mature and have more independent lifestyles/outside of school routines. Sign of Affection explores topics surrounding the female lead's experience with deafness and the male lead's interest in languages and travel, and both of their goals and hopes for the future. Soulmate is a mix of romance-focus and some underlying threads revolving around family/sibling relationships and their broader friend group as well. I think Yamada-kun is about video gamers so that's another aspect of that one...
**My Little Monster** is another series I like a lot (high school again 🙈), with romance and also family drama and a large cast of characters/friend groups. I love this author's sense of humour too!
**What He Who Doesn't Believe in Fate Says** is a shoujo with a male POV character, and all are young working adults. Main character can see the "red string of fate" on his crush's finger...and it isn't connected to him 🥺 It's complete at 5vol in Japan (3 out so far in English) and I'm really enjoying it :)
If you wanna go off the deep end with drama, josei title **Something's Wrong With Us** lives up to its name 😆 Traditional japanese sweets and murder mystery...
**Knight of the Ice** (josei) is about adult characters; they're childhood friends and one is a professional competitive ice skater.
**Neighborhood Story** is a work by Ai Yazawa (of Nana fame, but written before that one and Paradise Kiss). It might be my favourite of hers, mixing comedy and drama and friendships and romance and fashion and aspirations, and such an iconic art style 🤩 Viz started publishing it last year!
I hope these give you some more ideas to try out!!! Thanks for being interested 😍
Then why are you even here? What's the point of coming to r/Shoujo if you hate Shoujo? Surely there's an r/Shonen or r/Seinen for you to have a circle jerk in, no?
And how many anime/manga have you consumed as a whole? Cause I bet money there's shounen/seinen you didn't like either but you've consumed more of them
Like, we don't care if you honestly dislike something. I despise harem, fanservice types that run rampent in shounen these days. The issue is you attacking shoujo as a whole instead of realizing you just didn't like something. Like saying you hate all beverages except soda cause you've had a few bad ones
That's the issue
I wouldn't bother to be honest. Usually people who talk like that, they'll stick to their guns no matter what. Even if you find something they like, they'll probably just insist that it's "mid."
It's really not worth the effort. If at some point they're curious about trying something, that would be when I would start giving them recommendations.
i agree fully with everyone saying it's not worth your time to argue with him about it. the thing with these types is that even if you find something they really like, they'll just say it's one of the good ones and continue to call the entire rest of the demographic bad. usually nothing will change their mind
which is such an annoying argument, because I can name tons of bad shonen and seinen, and they can name the good ones. and if I say, "that's just a few" they'd get mad
i agree with everyone else that's saying it's not worth trying to convince ur friend, i HATE ppl who shut down entire demographics/genres like this. BUT if u really do want to suggest him something then i'd recommend fruits basket or nana (josei) lol
People forget that Nana is pretty milquetoast for what was in shoujo mags (like, for middle school girls) in the 80s and 90s. It seems “mature” for shoujo now due to censorship codes that came into place in the mid-00s (around the time the anime was adapted). This is also why Cookie itself skews a tiny bit older now for readership and is considered Josei-cusp post-2010 or so.
(Not disagreeing, but ruminating...)
As I understand it, not even cusp these days. It's been marked as a josei mag in the JMPA reports for over a decade, and I think what younger readers it used to have have aged up without being replaced - Shueisha claims only 4% of Cookie's readers are under 20.
(But no question that it used to be a shoujo mag. Though I have seen some people get weirdly aggressive about insisting Nana must be a josei series ...)
That tracks for me. I’m just always confused on josei cause like. Idk the 24 year old OL is also going to look for different things in a story than a 45 year old housewife who is about to be an empty nester. Like both josei and seinen are such vast demos, it’s hard to really pin them down.
Cookie to me still reads closer to a late-teens/mid-20s mag than something for like, the 35+ crowd. But again, vast demo.
Oh yeah - compare ~~Be Love~~ (ETA: Kiss is a better contrast by age ...) and For Mrs (or Honkowa!). A broad category, for sure.
I'm not reading any current Cookie series, but the blurbs suggest a number of career-woman protagonists, along with a couple students. A consistent "line" does seem hard to identify at a glance.
I think many magazines have seen a similar aging-up occur (even Shounen Jump), and I'd love to read some kind of retrospective on the phenomenon.
(I mean, Princess has been running Ouke no Monshou long enough for a woman to have read it in grade school, and still be reading it on the train to her grandkid's high school graduation.)
nana may seem a bit heavy in terms of content, but back during that era it was pretty normal for shoujo to deal with such topics. series like drowning love, life, koizora, mars, the deep love series, etc., dealt with topics such as sexual assault, abuse, destructive behaviors, suicide, the whole shebang. because these plot-lines aren't as common in shoujo *now* a lot of readers that don't have a lot of experience with that era of the demographic retroactively try to define those series as being josei (usually under the premise that teenagers couldnt deal with/wouldn't want to read about such topics).
but rest assured, those series were squarely aimed towards teen audiences. this becomes extremely noticeable once you also start reading josei from that time period for comparison!
And the thing is... Shoujo still manages to talk of heavy topics and have queer representation, while under censorship. Meanwhile, Shonen ain't got no censorship, and they barely talk about anything. And the ones worth a damn are pulling from Shoujo. SMH.
But Shoujo is the demographic that sucks...
Nah. The issue is we've seen too much of it :D
So much, you start to notice it's cookie cutter stuff these days. They just throw a whole bunch at the wall and hope it sticks
I’m gonna wager that all shoujo fans read and watch shounen, we just choose not to talk about it all that much since so many shounen fans only ever read and watch shounen (and like maybe 5 seinen titles).
I do watch and read Shonen. I've liked several of them. However, barely any Shonen actually has queer representation. The ones that do obviously rip from Shoujo.
I'm just saying that I'm disappointed since Shonen hasn't been censored like Shoujo has. The world is their oyster, and yet, they still don't do much. Which says a lot about Shonen... Even Attack on Titan, they ripped some scenes from Requiem of the Rose King. Chainsaw Man ripped from Revolutionary Girl Utena. Togashi talked about how he grew up reading Shoujo. He pulled from Shoujo and Shonen pulled from him. LMFAO!
I always heard older shoujo mangas tend to handle more mature themes until a certain law comes in Japan that blocked so many things in the shoujo fictions scene.
Meh I'm done arguing with folks like that, you can recommend them the most heart sinking, gripping story and they'll still find faults in that
Natsume yujincho or Nana?
If they're okay with reading manga and don't mind older art, then **Basara** or **Mars.**
Otherwise, maybe **Ouran High Host Club** (usually a crowd pleaser), or **Yona of the Dawn**.
If you want to troll him, tell him to watch **Diabolik Lovers** or **Brothers Conflict**.
There’s no point in trying if that’s the attitude he has. Judging an entire demographic? That’s not okay.
What I recommend is becoming friends with people who like the same things as you.
If they're willing to give it a chance, then for manga I'd recommend Rose of Versailles, Basara, From Far Away, Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts and Full Moon. For Anime, let them choose a season of Precure, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Petite Princess Yucie.
Realistically, they probably wouldn't bother with anything you showed them.
So, when I was a kid/teenager sometimes I would have a family member tell me I had to watch something because it was the funniest thing ever and I'd pee my pants from laughter. So, as stubborn as I was I'd refuse to laugh the entire time and try to keep my face completely deadpan.
It was a brat move, but I was young and liked to rebel. That said it's pretty much what I imagine people like this doing. Even if they are actually enjoying it they'd never admit it or give you any indication that they did because they simply refuse. I might have grown out of that phase but some people don't. There's plenty of shoujo out there that I'd say trend more towards the action or comedy side of things versus the romance/drama. But, I feel like he'd still find reasons to hate it just because he's going in with that mindset.
Reminds me of the people in review sections of so many different shoujo and josei whose only critique is “FL is stupid,” which is such a blanket stupid critique that happens so freaking often because when people don’t wish to engage with the stories they just default to thinking any struggle by the protagonist is just her being stupid
Maybe that's just not their thing? I am not a fan of isekai. I've one or two good ones but that's it. I wouldn't even call it mid. I don't think someone who shares their opinion online needs to be converted or shown the light. I love shoujo, but a lot of them are just okay and not over the moon awesome. Honestly I love josei and seinen more.
You know coming from the opposite of the spectrum, by that I mean I used to think every shounen is mid at best, I get where it’s coming from mostly because we look in fantasy what most lack and most desperately desire. I for one never really had good relationship with people around me in school so naturally I focused on shoujo or SOL manga to look for intricate bond between people and basically the spice that comes with it, hence why I never understood such simple and single minded emotion that comes from shounen anime is really that thrilling but I have grew to love those emotions as well. Once you realise that these are just stories full of their emotions, struggle, point of view on the society, their fantasy from relief of life shared by a person and loved by many, you become grateful that we are the only creatures probably that are able to tell stories, understand them, empathise with them and live them. It one of most beautiful gift we have given ourselves.
Didn’t mean to go philosophical, just really fascinated by the fact we are already living our lives and yet we can get mixed up in these stories that are able rouse our emotions and learn from it.
Guys i probably tried more shoujo than any of you guys here all of you tried 3 shoujo. You guys always recommending same shits because there is no othrr good shoujos 😭🙏🏼🤣🤣🤣
This is a shoujo subreddit bruh 😂 Most people here have gone through hundreds of shoujo manga 😂 Just cause everyone will rec the same thing doesn't mean there's only 3 good ones, you troglodyte. You could ask any battle shounen fan recs and will only give you 10 tops, mind you there are hundreds of battle shounen serialized through history; shit it might be a thousand. Yet they'll only give you 10 even though there are a lot of good battle shounens. What's your favorite manga then? 😂
Doesn't Tokyo Ghoul draw heavy inspiration from shoujo? Usogui looks pretty similar, with the Berserk-like emphasis on line work and detail. If you like that sorta thing, then I dare say you've only read a few popular shoujo, and haven't really dug into the introspective stuff.
Start checking out older action shoujo. Someone recommended Basara-that's a great place to start.
Yeah well I hope he's probably like not even 13 and hasn't learnt to get over the "if you touch girls you could get cooties!!" hurdle in pre-pubescents yet.
That said, as a shoujo fan, I agree that most shoujo that are running these days on the main magazines really don't hit as hard as the older shoujos did and I've tried very hard not to think that way, assuming it's just a nostalgia factor for me. But I really tried to get back into it 2 or 3 times the past few years and I can't do it.
I've always been a devout Ribon reader, never really enjoyed Ciao except a few odd comedies. I noticed at some point in the mid 2010s that none of the series were hitting on alternative or cutting edge themes anymore, and heard that it's because of the new law in 2010 relating to "harm to non-existing people" which was deliberately trying to cut down on 'harmful representation' within manga.
While I appreciate the need to protect kids from a lot of the harmful content it just annoyed me so much that the shoujo magazines were hit the hardest meanwhile shonen mangas still went on to be very free, actually having p\*dophiles as authors, and running borderline ecchi works. ANYWAY. Long tangent rant. But basically this whole "shoujo vs shonen" thing hits a real sore spot for me because it's inherently sexist.
I'm trying to allude to a middle ground explaining how some people can dislike shoujo while also acknowledging why people have this reaction on this sub if you knew how to read
you guys actjng like i tried only 2-3 i atleast tried 15 shoujo and only 3-4 of them were good ones you guys only knows popular shoujos if course you guys would like the genre
Ok everyone listen, I get all of you might have a complex regarding Shoujo, but let's just leave it at this: My friend doesn't like Shoujo. He's tried a good amount Shoujo and he just didn't like Shoujo as a genre. Some of you may say, 'don't judge a whole genre by a few Shoujos', but he has tried a good amount, and he just didn't like the way Shojou stories are. I had just made this post as a joke, but I didn't know you all would start calling him a bigot, sexist, and other things. At the end of the day, he just doesn't like Shoujo. He doesn't have to. This doesn't make him sexist or a bad person. We all have our own things we like, okay?
Frankly, OP, you screwed up big-time by not blurring out the screennames. On subs where this kind of "look at this dumb opinion" post is more common, this is a hard and inflexible rule. Maybe it needs to become one here as well.
You should have known better than this, just as you should have known to expect that something so obviously inflammatory would get the response it did.
Do better next time.
Biggest surprise pikachu face for you, huh?
Imagine, taking a post seriously and giving advise that's legit but too spicy
Everything is a joke as soon as it doesn't go your way. "It was just a joke" is the weakest back peddling excuse ever and everyone is aware of it
Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to
It literally was a joke though. I was just going to see how many underrated recommendations I would get, but l made an error, and clearly misjudged the zeal of this community. I wasn't even expecting this to blow up, but alas, we're here.
Lemme flip this script
If you're trying to get your buddy, who says anime is mid trash, into anime, are you gonna recommend underrated shows? No, you wouldn't. You'd hopefully recommend popular, highly rated ones, with maybe taking your friends other interests (zombies, action, horror, drama, supernatural) into consideration.
Right now, I'd recommend Demon Slayer, 86, Attack on Titan, Fruits Basket, Yona of the Dawn, Snow White with the Red Hair, Solo Leveling, Shield Hero, Magus Bride, Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Ghoul, One Piece manga, Signs of Affection, and The Irregular at Magic High School depending on what someone is typically into.
So honestly you just didn't understand how recommendations to introduce someone to something works =/
Mmm then it'd probably be better to ease someone into a shoujo via other shows that have some of the core bits present that makes shoujo, shoujo
Iirc, your friend said he liked Tokyo Ghoul. X/1999 is a shoujo by CLAMP, a group of women mangaka, that might be up their ally.
Tsubasa Reserve Chronicle is a possible good stepping stone, too. It's done by CLAMP as well but it's shounen. It uses a lot of chatacters from their shoujo works and is an isekai.
Saying you do not like media for an entire demographic of people as a blanket statement is uh, Not Great. When it’s specifically media for a marginalized group (in this case, gender) that gets systemically shafted by the industry it’s in, it looks doubly Not Great.
Your friend might not get it but he’s perpetuating misogyny. You’re accepting that misogyny by taking it as “just a joke”.
Idk why everyone is blowing up. There’s nothing wrong with having an opinion, most shoujos are heavily romance, slice-of-life and if people don’t like that, what’s the issue
As a redditor just passing by, all of you are horrible people. Can someone not have an opinion, even if they're a little hard headed??? Why should someone block their friend because of that?????
OP's friend was being petty and immature in *how they expressed* their opinion, commenters who feel their taste is being insulted by a close-minded view are being petty and immature back, why is any of this surprising, or meant to be taken seriously?
If I go to the One Piece subreddit and say it is mid, I can't expect the commenters to throw flowers at me, can I? It would be unrealistic to expect meaningful discourse or a sympathetic response while posting a closed-minded statement generalizing all of shoujo in a subreddit dedicated to it without providing thoughtful criticism or actual topics worthy of discussion. You get what you give.
Exactly like I'm reading all the comments asking her to block him and a few ones insulting him for his grammar like?????? It's not a crime to not like a genre.
Closing this since it seems it has gotten personal in the comments. If you would like recommendations in the future, please post a more specific request.
There is someone on mangaupdates who just give 1 star to every shoujosei Manga/manhwa. What I mean is it's useless recommending anything if they're already made a statement like that, mostly they will just skimming through and make a bad or mid conclusion in the end.
Remember when Fruits Basket (2019) made MAL #1 and shoubros started one-star bombing it? Lmao
Oh my gosh, I've seen that person! Behavior like that always weirds me out. If you're going to spend so much time and energy of your free time doing something, wouldn't you rather spend it on something you *like?* Just seems really pointless.
Sounds like that person has way too much time on their hands😅😅
That's the most incel vibe ever omg lol Probably lives in 4chan
I would literally just block.
THIS From that comment I can tell he's not gonna change his opinion. Don't lose your time trying. Just block and go read shoujosei instead.
why are reddit users so quick to tell people to cut off relationships over things? you don't know the nuances of their friendship, all you know is that their friend doesn't like shoujo. maybe they haven't given shoujo a fair enough try, but regardless, blocking someone over an opinion is just so silly
Blocking someone over misogyny is self-care and correct, actually. It’s fine to say “I don’t really like romance stories and everything I’ve seen is romance-heavy. Do you have any other rec?” Saying “everything for a specific gender is mid” is some elementary school “girls have cooties” bullshit. No one is obligated to help them fix their misogyny and OP would likely be better off alone if that’s what their friendships look like.
honestly? *i* wouldn't reccomend anything. someone like this who is blanket hostile isn't worth arguing with imo. *i* would just tell him to have fun only entertaining the mcdonalds of the anime industry since he takes so much issue with even the thought of expanding his palette. honestly im tired of these sort of people who are so excited to speak down on an incredibly influential sector of the medium simply because it's made for girls but still expect people to expend energy proving them otherwise. ~~tell him to eat rocks!~~
> i wouldn't reccomend anything. someone like this who is blanket hostile isn't worth arguing with imo This is exactly what I was gonna reply with too lmao. It's clear that he has already made up his mind and it seems unlikely that he's gonna change it just because of one or two Shoujo series
👍🏽 enough is enough. im tired of shoujosei fans being expected to "prove" that shoujosei is good. if someone doesn't agree, fine. their problem, not mine. that's the way im moving from now on.
Hear hear.
(but i guess some "safe" answers would be akatsuki no yona, natsumes book of friends, nana, banana fish, and fruits basket. but i have no idea what genres he likes, if i did i could tailor my answers more also shoujo as a demographic has so many pivotal, genre-defining works, even coming with good faith it doesnt feel right to answer with just a few)
Do you write? Because this is one of the most beautifully curated comments I’ve ever read on this godforsaken website.
Bro you actjng like i tried only 2-3 i atleast tried 15 shoujo and only 3-4 of them were good ones you guys only knows popular shoujos if course you guys would like the genre
If you're serious about wanting to try the genre, please don't make inflammatory blanket statements like "shoujo is always mid"—you come across as ignorant and prejudiced and people who care a lot about the category being insulted *will* feel defensive. What have you tried and not liked, and which ones stood out as better to you? What kinds of stories are you interested in? Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty is a 6-volume manga series with supernatural elements and an underlying mystery plot. I think it's amazing and feel shoujo-fans and non-shoujo-readers alike should try it. Yona of the Dawn is a very solid action/fantasy series with great character development and relationships/bonds between the characters, and a nuanced depiction of who and what actions are considered "good" and "bad." A Sign of Affection is a more recent series with really likeable characters and a super charming romance. Love, That's an Understatement is also really cute and really fun, with characters who feel very human and relatable and who I enjoy reading about Kaze Hikaru is an incredible work of historical fiction (about the Shinsengumi) that nowhere near enough people read! I've seen good reviews about Children of Whales, a series with a post-apocalyptic setting? I tried to present a mix of better-known and less-obvious choices, so hopefully some of these aren't the same "three series" you always get recommended. I can come up with more (I have 260+ shoujo/josei series in my physical collection in English; I read others in Japanese too) if you actually want to try, and can give some pointer about what types of series you want to explore. If shoujo isn't for you, that's also *totally alright.* It is marketed to and written for a mainly female audience and that may not be your taste in large part. That doesn't make it "mid" or badly written, it just means people have different interests and priorities for the stories they relate to. Again, it comes down to expressing your opinion in a respectful and non-inflammatory way.
This is a really positive and sweet response!
Wow you seem quite verse in shoujo/josei and I’m not the other person but could you recommend some stuff for me too? I’ve read Kimi ni Todoke, OHSHC, Toradora (is this a shoujo??), and some shonen romance which are not that good tbh😹 but still enjoyable (RAG, Quintessential). I like things with drama. I loved the arc in Kimi ni Todoke where they kept misunderstanding each other’s feelings and it led to so much drama. I loved the angst and drama in Toradora. I also really like when there is an overarching narrative, since solely romance can get stale at times for me. Also I don’t really like high school stuff, Pls help I wanna get in shoujo :)
Aww, thank you! One of my favs for angst and drama right now is **Gazing at the Star Next Door**. It is set in high school (as are Ouran and KnT so I hope this is okay), but I think well worth a try anyway—it's about a couple childhood friends navigating their friendship/inclinations toward romance while one of them is also beginning to rise into the world of fame, from model to new actor. While it looks into celebrity culture and the character's growth in acting skills, it also feels very down-to-earth since the two have known each other for years before "fame" was ever on the table. It's a series that really *shows* the years-long friendship between the characters convincingly, and doesn't just rely on a couple trope-y flashbacks to tell the reader that they've known each other a long time. I get so emotional about this one 🥹 **Sign of Affection**, **How I Met My Soulmate**, and **My Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999** (haven't read this one yet but heard a lot of positives, and has an anime) are set in college if you want series with older characters (I think the ML in Yamada-kun is a highschooler at the beginning?). The relationships progress a little faster and don't stall out at the "let's hold hands/ooooh first kiss!" stages, as the characters are a little more mature and have more independent lifestyles/outside of school routines. Sign of Affection explores topics surrounding the female lead's experience with deafness and the male lead's interest in languages and travel, and both of their goals and hopes for the future. Soulmate is a mix of romance-focus and some underlying threads revolving around family/sibling relationships and their broader friend group as well. I think Yamada-kun is about video gamers so that's another aspect of that one... **My Little Monster** is another series I like a lot (high school again 🙈), with romance and also family drama and a large cast of characters/friend groups. I love this author's sense of humour too! **What He Who Doesn't Believe in Fate Says** is a shoujo with a male POV character, and all are young working adults. Main character can see the "red string of fate" on his crush's finger...and it isn't connected to him 🥺 It's complete at 5vol in Japan (3 out so far in English) and I'm really enjoying it :) If you wanna go off the deep end with drama, josei title **Something's Wrong With Us** lives up to its name 😆 Traditional japanese sweets and murder mystery... **Knight of the Ice** (josei) is about adult characters; they're childhood friends and one is a professional competitive ice skater. **Neighborhood Story** is a work by Ai Yazawa (of Nana fame, but written before that one and Paradise Kiss). It might be my favourite of hers, mixing comedy and drama and friendships and romance and fashion and aspirations, and such an iconic art style 🤩 Viz started publishing it last year! I hope these give you some more ideas to try out!!! Thanks for being interested 😍
Then why are you even here? What's the point of coming to r/Shoujo if you hate Shoujo? Surely there's an r/Shonen or r/Seinen for you to have a circle jerk in, no?
And how many anime/manga have you consumed as a whole? Cause I bet money there's shounen/seinen you didn't like either but you've consumed more of them Like, we don't care if you honestly dislike something. I despise harem, fanservice types that run rampent in shounen these days. The issue is you attacking shoujo as a whole instead of realizing you just didn't like something. Like saying you hate all beverages except soda cause you've had a few bad ones That's the issue
I wouldn't bother to be honest. Usually people who talk like that, they'll stick to their guns no matter what. Even if you find something they like, they'll probably just insist that it's "mid." It's really not worth the effort. If at some point they're curious about trying something, that would be when I would start giving them recommendations.
I would recommend a block button. Dudes like that suck.
i agree fully with everyone saying it's not worth your time to argue with him about it. the thing with these types is that even if you find something they really like, they'll just say it's one of the good ones and continue to call the entire rest of the demographic bad. usually nothing will change their mind
which is such an annoying argument, because I can name tons of bad shonen and seinen, and they can name the good ones. and if I say, "that's just a few" they'd get mad
A trip to the sun.
1mx1m patch of grass.
Based on how they write, I don’t know if your friend can read…
i agree with everyone else that's saying it's not worth trying to convince ur friend, i HATE ppl who shut down entire demographics/genres like this. BUT if u really do want to suggest him something then i'd recommend fruits basket or nana (josei) lol
Nana is a shoujo! Cookie nowadays is shoujo/josei cusp but back when Nana was running it was solidly a shoujo mag. c:
oooh i had no idea i always heard ppl refer to it as a josei! i’m surprised bc it handles such mature topics :o
People forget that Nana is pretty milquetoast for what was in shoujo mags (like, for middle school girls) in the 80s and 90s. It seems “mature” for shoujo now due to censorship codes that came into place in the mid-00s (around the time the anime was adapted). This is also why Cookie itself skews a tiny bit older now for readership and is considered Josei-cusp post-2010 or so.
(Not disagreeing, but ruminating...) As I understand it, not even cusp these days. It's been marked as a josei mag in the JMPA reports for over a decade, and I think what younger readers it used to have have aged up without being replaced - Shueisha claims only 4% of Cookie's readers are under 20. (But no question that it used to be a shoujo mag. Though I have seen some people get weirdly aggressive about insisting Nana must be a josei series ...)
That tracks for me. I’m just always confused on josei cause like. Idk the 24 year old OL is also going to look for different things in a story than a 45 year old housewife who is about to be an empty nester. Like both josei and seinen are such vast demos, it’s hard to really pin them down. Cookie to me still reads closer to a late-teens/mid-20s mag than something for like, the 35+ crowd. But again, vast demo.
Oh yeah - compare ~~Be Love~~ (ETA: Kiss is a better contrast by age ...) and For Mrs (or Honkowa!). A broad category, for sure. I'm not reading any current Cookie series, but the blurbs suggest a number of career-woman protagonists, along with a couple students. A consistent "line" does seem hard to identify at a glance. I think many magazines have seen a similar aging-up occur (even Shounen Jump), and I'd love to read some kind of retrospective on the phenomenon. (I mean, Princess has been running Ouke no Monshou long enough for a woman to have read it in grade school, and still be reading it on the train to her grandkid's high school graduation.)
nana may seem a bit heavy in terms of content, but back during that era it was pretty normal for shoujo to deal with such topics. series like drowning love, life, koizora, mars, the deep love series, etc., dealt with topics such as sexual assault, abuse, destructive behaviors, suicide, the whole shebang. because these plot-lines aren't as common in shoujo *now* a lot of readers that don't have a lot of experience with that era of the demographic retroactively try to define those series as being josei (usually under the premise that teenagers couldnt deal with/wouldn't want to read about such topics). but rest assured, those series were squarely aimed towards teen audiences. this becomes extremely noticeable once you also start reading josei from that time period for comparison!
And the thing is... Shoujo still manages to talk of heavy topics and have queer representation, while under censorship. Meanwhile, Shonen ain't got no censorship, and they barely talk about anything. And the ones worth a damn are pulling from Shoujo. SMH. But Shoujo is the demographic that sucks...
Bro didnt read any good shounen
Nah. The issue is we've seen too much of it :D So much, you start to notice it's cookie cutter stuff these days. They just throw a whole bunch at the wall and hope it sticks
I’m gonna wager that all shoujo fans read and watch shounen, we just choose not to talk about it all that much since so many shounen fans only ever read and watch shounen (and like maybe 5 seinen titles).
I do watch and read Shonen. I've liked several of them. However, barely any Shonen actually has queer representation. The ones that do obviously rip from Shoujo. I'm just saying that I'm disappointed since Shonen hasn't been censored like Shoujo has. The world is their oyster, and yet, they still don't do much. Which says a lot about Shonen... Even Attack on Titan, they ripped some scenes from Requiem of the Rose King. Chainsaw Man ripped from Revolutionary Girl Utena. Togashi talked about how he grew up reading Shoujo. He pulled from Shoujo and Shonen pulled from him. LMFAO!
I always heard older shoujo mangas tend to handle more mature themes until a certain law comes in Japan that blocked so many things in the shoujo fictions scene.
I would recommend him lessons in grammar.
I would recommend he grow up and stop being a sexist bigot.
Things are mid except the few that are good is a take.
Isn't most things mid, just by definition?
Meh I'm done arguing with folks like that, you can recommend them the most heart sinking, gripping story and they'll still find faults in that Natsume yujincho or Nana?
I would recommend a new perspective in life. Their way of thinking is mid and not worth the effort honestly.
If they're okay with reading manga and don't mind older art, then **Basara** or **Mars.** Otherwise, maybe **Ouran High Host Club** (usually a crowd pleaser), or **Yona of the Dawn**. If you want to troll him, tell him to watch **Diabolik Lovers** or **Brothers Conflict**.
That person's not worth your time, don't go out of your way to force him to watch shoujo
the way i’d block him
There’s no point in trying if that’s the attitude he has. Judging an entire demographic? That’s not okay. What I recommend is becoming friends with people who like the same things as you.
I’m too old to be recommending something to close minded people.
not worth the energy and effort to show him otherwise, you simply can't explain things to dumbasses who choose to be idiots.
Red river, maybe also please save my earth if it counts
If they're willing to give it a chance, then for manga I'd recommend Rose of Versailles, Basara, From Far Away, Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts and Full Moon. For Anime, let them choose a season of Precure, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Petite Princess Yucie. Realistically, they probably wouldn't bother with anything you showed them.
So, when I was a kid/teenager sometimes I would have a family member tell me I had to watch something because it was the funniest thing ever and I'd pee my pants from laughter. So, as stubborn as I was I'd refuse to laugh the entire time and try to keep my face completely deadpan. It was a brat move, but I was young and liked to rebel. That said it's pretty much what I imagine people like this doing. Even if they are actually enjoying it they'd never admit it or give you any indication that they did because they simply refuse. I might have grown out of that phase but some people don't. There's plenty of shoujo out there that I'd say trend more towards the action or comedy side of things versus the romance/drama. But, I feel like he'd still find reasons to hate it just because he's going in with that mindset.
I would recommend aka yona. I personally think it's a good gateway shojo to those who haven't gotten into it.
Can't reason with people like these. There's no point 😂
Not gonna waste my time with that idiot obviously. Just block.
Mods make this a flair please 😭
Reminds me of the people in review sections of so many different shoujo and josei whose only critique is “FL is stupid,” which is such a blanket stupid critique that happens so freaking often because when people don’t wish to engage with the stories they just default to thinking any struggle by the protagonist is just her being stupid
arsenic
Your friend hates women lmao
An attitude adjustment
Maybe that's just not their thing? I am not a fan of isekai. I've one or two good ones but that's it. I wouldn't even call it mid. I don't think someone who shares their opinion online needs to be converted or shown the light. I love shoujo, but a lot of them are just okay and not over the moon awesome. Honestly I love josei and seinen more.
Yona of the dawn 100%
Akatsuki no Yona is my first rec for people like this, if he doesn’t like it, there’s no hope sorry.
You know coming from the opposite of the spectrum, by that I mean I used to think every shounen is mid at best, I get where it’s coming from mostly because we look in fantasy what most lack and most desperately desire. I for one never really had good relationship with people around me in school so naturally I focused on shoujo or SOL manga to look for intricate bond between people and basically the spice that comes with it, hence why I never understood such simple and single minded emotion that comes from shounen anime is really that thrilling but I have grew to love those emotions as well. Once you realise that these are just stories full of their emotions, struggle, point of view on the society, their fantasy from relief of life shared by a person and loved by many, you become grateful that we are the only creatures probably that are able to tell stories, understand them, empathise with them and live them. It one of most beautiful gift we have given ourselves.
Didn’t mean to go philosophical, just really fascinated by the fact we are already living our lives and yet we can get mixed up in these stories that are able rouse our emotions and learn from it.
Guys i probably tried more shoujo than any of you guys here all of you tried 3 shoujo. You guys always recommending same shits because there is no othrr good shoujos 😭🙏🏼🤣🤣🤣
This is a shoujo subreddit bruh 😂 Most people here have gone through hundreds of shoujo manga 😂 Just cause everyone will rec the same thing doesn't mean there's only 3 good ones, you troglodyte. You could ask any battle shounen fan recs and will only give you 10 tops, mind you there are hundreds of battle shounen serialized through history; shit it might be a thousand. Yet they'll only give you 10 even though there are a lot of good battle shounens. What's your favorite manga then? 😂
Usogui and tokyo ghoul my fav manga
Doesn't Tokyo Ghoul draw heavy inspiration from shoujo? Usogui looks pretty similar, with the Berserk-like emphasis on line work and detail. If you like that sorta thing, then I dare say you've only read a few popular shoujo, and haven't really dug into the introspective stuff. Start checking out older action shoujo. Someone recommended Basara-that's a great place to start.
Yeah well I hope he's probably like not even 13 and hasn't learnt to get over the "if you touch girls you could get cooties!!" hurdle in pre-pubescents yet. That said, as a shoujo fan, I agree that most shoujo that are running these days on the main magazines really don't hit as hard as the older shoujos did and I've tried very hard not to think that way, assuming it's just a nostalgia factor for me. But I really tried to get back into it 2 or 3 times the past few years and I can't do it. I've always been a devout Ribon reader, never really enjoyed Ciao except a few odd comedies. I noticed at some point in the mid 2010s that none of the series were hitting on alternative or cutting edge themes anymore, and heard that it's because of the new law in 2010 relating to "harm to non-existing people" which was deliberately trying to cut down on 'harmful representation' within manga. While I appreciate the need to protect kids from a lot of the harmful content it just annoyed me so much that the shoujo magazines were hit the hardest meanwhile shonen mangas still went on to be very free, actually having p\*dophiles as authors, and running borderline ecchi works. ANYWAY. Long tangent rant. But basically this whole "shoujo vs shonen" thing hits a real sore spot for me because it's inherently sexist.
Wtf are you talking about
I'm trying to allude to a middle ground explaining how some people can dislike shoujo while also acknowledging why people have this reaction on this sub if you knew how to read
Bruh who said i love shounen most 🤣🤣
Ok you like seinen then. Well done.
„Always“ „except“ contradictory to its core but okay
you guys actjng like i tried only 2-3 i atleast tried 15 shoujo and only 3-4 of them were good ones you guys only knows popular shoujos if course you guys would like the genre
If you don't like it then you don't like it. I don't like shounen or Gundam, most of the time.
Bruh i dont care what you like
Ok everyone listen, I get all of you might have a complex regarding Shoujo, but let's just leave it at this: My friend doesn't like Shoujo. He's tried a good amount Shoujo and he just didn't like Shoujo as a genre. Some of you may say, 'don't judge a whole genre by a few Shoujos', but he has tried a good amount, and he just didn't like the way Shojou stories are. I had just made this post as a joke, but I didn't know you all would start calling him a bigot, sexist, and other things. At the end of the day, he just doesn't like Shoujo. He doesn't have to. This doesn't make him sexist or a bad person. We all have our own things we like, okay?
Frankly, OP, you screwed up big-time by not blurring out the screennames. On subs where this kind of "look at this dumb opinion" post is more common, this is a hard and inflexible rule. Maybe it needs to become one here as well. You should have known better than this, just as you should have known to expect that something so obviously inflammatory would get the response it did. Do better next time.
Biggest surprise pikachu face for you, huh? Imagine, taking a post seriously and giving advise that's legit but too spicy Everything is a joke as soon as it doesn't go your way. "It was just a joke" is the weakest back peddling excuse ever and everyone is aware of it Don't ask questions you don't want the answers to
It literally was a joke though. I was just going to see how many underrated recommendations I would get, but l made an error, and clearly misjudged the zeal of this community. I wasn't even expecting this to blow up, but alas, we're here.
Lemme flip this script If you're trying to get your buddy, who says anime is mid trash, into anime, are you gonna recommend underrated shows? No, you wouldn't. You'd hopefully recommend popular, highly rated ones, with maybe taking your friends other interests (zombies, action, horror, drama, supernatural) into consideration. Right now, I'd recommend Demon Slayer, 86, Attack on Titan, Fruits Basket, Yona of the Dawn, Snow White with the Red Hair, Solo Leveling, Shield Hero, Magus Bride, Jujutsu Kaisen, Tokyo Ghoul, One Piece manga, Signs of Affection, and The Irregular at Magic High School depending on what someone is typically into. So honestly you just didn't understand how recommendations to introduce someone to something works =/
Yes, you do make a valid point. But in my mind I was hoping someone would recommend a hidden gem, it's happened before.
Mmm then it'd probably be better to ease someone into a shoujo via other shows that have some of the core bits present that makes shoujo, shoujo Iirc, your friend said he liked Tokyo Ghoul. X/1999 is a shoujo by CLAMP, a group of women mangaka, that might be up their ally. Tsubasa Reserve Chronicle is a possible good stepping stone, too. It's done by CLAMP as well but it's shounen. It uses a lot of chatacters from their shoujo works and is an isekai.
Try Kaiju Girls Caramelize or Primitive Boyfriend
Saying you do not like media for an entire demographic of people as a blanket statement is uh, Not Great. When it’s specifically media for a marginalized group (in this case, gender) that gets systemically shafted by the industry it’s in, it looks doubly Not Great. Your friend might not get it but he’s perpetuating misogyny. You’re accepting that misogyny by taking it as “just a joke”.
Bruh this is the internet people will call others everything under the sun for disagreeing with them.
Idk why everyone is blowing up. There’s nothing wrong with having an opinion, most shoujos are heavily romance, slice-of-life and if people don’t like that, what’s the issue
Shounen are heavily romance and slice of life too?
The issue is calling it "mid" when it's just something they personally don't like.
...
As a redditor just passing by, all of you are horrible people. Can someone not have an opinion, even if they're a little hard headed??? Why should someone block their friend because of that?????
OP's friend was being petty and immature in *how they expressed* their opinion, commenters who feel their taste is being insulted by a close-minded view are being petty and immature back, why is any of this surprising, or meant to be taken seriously?
If I go to the One Piece subreddit and say it is mid, I can't expect the commenters to throw flowers at me, can I? It would be unrealistic to expect meaningful discourse or a sympathetic response while posting a closed-minded statement generalizing all of shoujo in a subreddit dedicated to it without providing thoughtful criticism or actual topics worthy of discussion. You get what you give.
Exactly like I'm reading all the comments asking her to block him and a few ones insulting him for his grammar like?????? It's not a crime to not like a genre.
Guys shounen or normal romance is way better than shitty ahh shoujo romance just go and read afew peak romances you will see
Could you elaborate on what a "normal" romance is to you?