I have never been a fan of shoujo due to the fact that the art tends to detract from the plot for me, and often the plot quality is also not that great. Does anyone know any non-neverending shoujo mangas with very good plot, good romance, and where the female characters don't look like preschoolers/primary-school-aged kids? I'm trying to broaden my manga reading horizons since I've been avoiding several genres.

The only shoujo-type manga I have enjoyed so far is Goth, but that was so depressing!

Cat Street
Mars
After School Nightmare

do you mean that they turn into chibi forms every now and then?

maybe you should try josei instead of shojo...
I've listed some mangas that are more josei rather than shojo - and I quite enjoy the art and stories...
The One
Perfect Girl Evolution - goth
Ice Forest
The Prince's Cactus
Ingenuo - does look like a lil kid but as the story goes on I think you'll hardly notice it...
100% Perfect Girl
Can't Lose You
The Snow Queen

Hope these help...

Shouldn't this be in the "I'm looking for" section?

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If I had a fantasy self, it'd be a tentacle monster.

It never occurred to me that Goth was shoujo-like. 😲

I think this thread will be helpful. Most of the suggestions are not cutesy shoujo in terms of art style and story.

Joousama no Inu-They turn into Chibi sometimes, but the art is nice and plot moves well. The heroine has a good reason to be dense >.>
Ludwig Kakumei - Fairy tales turned psychotic. Being a little scaredy cat that I am, I enjoyed this.
Uroboros no Wa - Chain Letters of dooommm!!!
Saiunkoku Monogatari - And something light hearted to set off the last two that i listed ^_^

The Other Side of The Mirror [just finished reading...]
all works by YUKI Kaori?
not really sure, but maybe Nana and Paradise Kiss

well the type of shoujo you are looking for has a different art style its closer to realistic drawings than normal kinda more mature

Thanks very much for the suggestions so far. And also, I'm only looking for scanlated manga, because unfortunately, I can only read English : (

Eternal Sabbath and everything else by Souryo Fuyumi
Kimi wa Petto

I recommended reading josei, as it is much more mature.

Also, try reading manga by Sahara Mizu and Yumeka Sumomo (There both the same person). I believe she also has shounen ai works if your interested. 🙂

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Having a good time...

Read josei. Go to Genres which should be on the side bar under the manga serach box, right above the FAQ. Click it then click then click on Advanced Search by Genre which should be above Action. If you can't find it just do a quick page find. Anyway just select josei n search n voila!

I think Kare Kano has a bit of everything and the main character isn't dumb. It actually has good character development and focuses on a whole group of ppl. I haven't finished reading it yet but I like it so far. Only down side is it's a highschool drama. But if you don't mind it's a great read!

<3P

Vampire Princess Miyu

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Reading: Kingdom, Sangokushi, Historie

Thanks heaps for the additional recs, guys. I have read some josei-- my favourites are Lady Masquerade and Ningyo Ouji, but I'm yet to come across some good stories with mature art. I've been using the genre search for ages too-- I'm looking for good shoujo (and possibly also josei) recommendations, which is why I posted this. I started off reading shounen-ai stories, and then tried to move on to other genres, but I liked the art in shounen-ai better-- especially because the women and teenage girls are drawn to resemble women/teenage girls, and not miniscule, ridiculous-looking 5 year-olds. Anyway, thanks again for the help so far!

Oh and also, I'm willing to read anything (school-life, workplace, action, fantasy) as long as there's no tragic ending, and romance is a main element in the story. : )

You could try Running Through the City In the Sunset. It's one of the a few Korean manhwa I read and definitely doesn't have babyish girls. I think perhaps shoujo/josei manhwa in general don't have girls drawn like babies (not quite sure as I haven't read many). So search from them instead of manga?