I was thinking... all the girls I know who read manga are more into shounen manga than shoujo... it might because I've always been drawn to tomboys but that's beside the point. What I'm asking is are there any shoujo that a guy can pick up and get into?

The main points that I dislike about most shoujo are 1.) Over-idealized relationships. Also one thing I noticed when reading is that the girl gets the guy surprisingly early in the story, whereas a shounen lead would take the entire series just to get to 1st base.

2.) The art style. While I realize there's probably no avoiding this, I'm not a big fan of it.

I should probably mention the only shoujo manga I have finished is Card Captor Sakura.

hmm well heres a few i liked, but they arent like explicitly hardcore shoujo, just shoujo-ish
the day of revolution(short but a good trippy gender bender)
[m]mint no bokura[/m](about young characters, but still a cute romance)
Aishiteruze Baby(the toddlers in this one are cute as f man)

Tokyo Crazy Paradise is shounen-ish, I guess, but definitely shoujo (one of my favorites, actually). You could also try Here Is Greenwood, another shoujo that isn't typical. Hmmmm.... Skip Beatis quite good as well, and while the art in Basara may take some getting used to, but the story is really something. These are all manga that my brother or my 11-year-old sons have read & enjoyed.

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I definitely recommend Kodomo no Omocha.

Also check out Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou. They, Too, Love is a manga that reminds me of Kare Kano, but too bad the mangaka stopped the series without an ending.

You can try reading Kimi Shika Iranai, which is one of the few shoujo manga I remember with a male lead.

I thought Mars was pretty good, but it might be too typical shoujo for you.

Ah, Cardcaptor Sakura...and that's only the beginning There are many great CLAMP shoujo manga that a guy can easily get into Like Wish or Suki, Tsubasa (shoujo? ) and Chobits (although it is pretty ecchi, I still get a shoujo feel from it), but when I first read the thread title, Nodame Cantabile came to mind. Any guy can enjoy it And the main character is a guy, if that helps any.

Fruits Basket, Lovely Complex, Vampire Knight, Nana, Beauty Pop, Alice 19th, and Imadoki! are all great stories and visually pleasing. Ouran High School Host Club is just as good as them, but if you're picky with the art, then you might not enjoy the manga as much as you would the anime (I think the art of the anime is better, but I love both very much anyway ).

Fruits Basket, Lovely Complex, Nana, Chobits, and Nodame Cantabile all have anime, so I'd suggest you check those out too, if any of them sound really appealing to you

If it helps any, my older brother watched/watches the animes Nodame Cantabile and Fruits Basket, and he enjoyed them a lot. And FYI, he's straight for those who automatically thought "he's probably gay >.>..."

I second that suggestion of Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou! More commonly known as Kare Kano or His and Her Cirumstances, it also has an anime (but I've heard it doesn't really have an ending, the same with the Fruits Basket anime)

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I'm a self professed Nodame addict that show is awsome but I 'm have a difficult time with the manga (Mainly because I'm attempting it in Japanese) but it should avoid most of the pitfalls you dislike. Personally as a guy I have to say I find it a bit suprising just how far some shojo mangas go with love scenes, granted I broke my self in on Love Monster so... but I find them just as enjoyable as any shonen stuff once you get used to them.

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Gokusen. Any guy's bound to like this! It features an ass-kicking teacher and loads of yakuza fights...

It's josei, though, not shoujo.

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ummm... maybe vampire knight? thats a bit of a dark one from what I've read

Also maybe please save my earth and Angel Sanctuary? Theres action in both of these, and both are shoujo. Though if you don't like taboo kind of stuff, Angel sanctuary might not be a good one (it has incest, cross- dressing and stuff). But if you can get over that, I'm sure it would be the type a guy would like.

ah, yes, also try Perfect Girl Evolution, I'm reading that at the moment, and it's one of the funniest mangas I've come across (it's about a goth girl and four guys who try to make her into a lady to get free rent, it's so funny!).

Last edited by melee86 at 1:41 am, Jun 23 2007

Loving Hana Kimi at the moment.

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Well... I generally wouldn't recommend over-shoujo-ish manga like Vampire Knight, Merupuri, Ayashi no Ceres, Love Monster etc etc.

Definitely try Tokyo Crazy Paradise, Skip Beat for shoujo which aren't too shoujo (if you get what I mean). They have romance in them which is crucial in every shoujo manga, but it gives just the right dose of both romance and humor/action, although the art in TCP might take a little getting used to and well... it's a gender bender so it may not be to your taste.

Hot Blooded Woman is also pretty good, it's not overly saccharine, although there are times where it goes a tad overboard on the romance part. But when it doesn't focus on the romance, it really is a good read.

Another good one to try is Nana, very very good josei. The art style may be shoujo, but it's not sparkly and typical. The plot itself is very realistic, as well as the characters. In fact I highly recommend this series if you haven't read it yet.

Considering that you finished CCS, I would say that you pretty much adapted to shoujo, because I personally dislike CLAMP stuff. I forced myself to finish Chobits, Wish etc etc and never ever picked any of those again due to its saccharine and unbelievable ideas (who the hell wants to stay with a robot and never have sex forever?) Sorry to all the CLAMP fans out there, but that's what I feel.

Fruits Basket... umm... I suppose it's enjoyable, although it's not something I would recommend. The heroine is just too horribly perfect for me to like. Think of it as a shoujo version of Ranma 1/2 with a harem of hot guys falling for the protagonist (maybe a little like Ichigo 100% for girls?)

Perfect Girl Evolution is pretty hilarious, although it doesn't have much of a plot which might bore some. I had a friend who rated PGE pretty low, but have others who love it so it depends on your taste.

Yamada Tarou Monogatari is a good one, male protagonist, not much romance per se; shoujo minus all the sickeningly sweet stuff which goes with it. Drawing style might be a bit old-ish, not to everyone's taste.

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@otakubaybay, Chobits is certainly not shoujo...

@liquid_hell, lol... That's exactly how I feel about CLAMP... (But who knows for Hideki, he may be able to install an extension on her?)

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Well on topic, I myself have yet to meet a shoujo I really liked, and it's not because I haven't tried. I already checked most of the manga suggested here.
But well among those I read, I can say there are some that made me want to bang my head on the wall.
ex: Fushigi Yuugi, Ayashi no Ceres, even Please Save My Earth at some points, and some more I probably don't remember because of excessive head banging (and because they where short compared to these last 3)

But there where others that where actually interesting. They weren't the best thing I read, but they where entertaining enough.
ex: Kare Kano: I didn't finish it yet, but up to where I read it was a cute story
Perfect Girl Evolution: It is very funny, well the art is annoying imo and the "bishies" even more (I hate all of the 4 main guys...). But Sunako is awesomely funny.
Fruits Basket: It's not really good, but since one of the main character could transform into a cat... my cat mania took over my brain and I was rooting for him till the end.
Vampire Knight: The girls could think this doesn't give so much of a shoujo feel maybe, but I assure you this is the typical shoujo. Nothing much to see here, I don't exactly know why I keep reading it now.

Well... I guess my main problem with shoujo is that I'm not interested in romance at all. And It's probably impossible to find one that doesn't have that. (I also hate all the misfortunes that are supposed to happen to the poor helpless saintly heroine)

Tokyo Crazy Paradise, Skip Beat, Vampire Knight and Ouran Host Club.

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I second that!

I second Princess Princess too, as liliy mentioned!

@Stealth--->I know, but you still kinda get a shoujo feel from it, or at least I do

Last edited by otakubaybay at 5:31 pm, Jun 23 2007

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Watashi no Messiah Sama (I really like this one)
Basara
Tokyo Crazy Paradise


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Demon Sacred by Itsuki Natsumi is quite good.

It doesn't focus on all that mushy-mushy romance stuff or on gender stereotypes. However, if you don't like the art, you can try and wait for Son of the dawn as I heard in2k2 is releasing it soon. Son of Dawn is more like Seinen and also by the same mangaka.

Then again, to the original poster, you DO realise that there are plenty of seinen manga with "girlish" art, right? It's just that they haven't been scanlated before. "Girlish" as in excessive screentones, tons of sparkles, wide-eyed characters and chibi-chibi characters. Edit: Such manga would be called Shoujo if they had been published in a Shoujo magazine.

Also, I'd like to point out that there's likely a lot more interesting shoujo on the Japanese market, except that they haven't been scanlated since it involves a lot of work to translate and maintain character consistency, etc. Your best hope is to wait for some group to do something interesting.

Also, other recommendations:

Tsubasa wo Motsu Mono, Home, and Genyou no Meizu(going to be released soon). All by k2less.

And then, Darling wa Namamono ni Tsuki if you like smutty manga with comedy. By Shoujomagic.

And then, Himitsu which deals with murder, mystery and science-fiction with fantasy elements. By Dragonvoice . I would not really recommend Kaguya Hime by the same mangaka 'cos it's pretty draggy.

Kodomo no Omocha is also good and funny but touching. If you like it, you can then get Partner which is way darker and more twisted(done by Omanga and Shoujomagic)

My mother and the game-room guest is extremely funny and quite twisted. By MegKf.

Eensy-weensy Monster is also pretty funny although the manga starts off with a bump. By Entropy

Also, Vitamin(shoujo) version which deals with a girl who's being bullied in high school. Trust me, it's REALLY good!

And actually, you ought to try be a bit more detailed in your request because we can only make a guess as to what you might and might not like.

Maybe telling us what type of seinen and shounen you like to read, might provide some clues as to the details of the plot you'd like.

Finally, I strongly suggest that you start off with Shoujo which contains less sparkles and screentones, and less big eyes, etc. like Tokyo Crazy Paradise. Then when you've got used to it, progress to the ones with big eyes and sparkles, etc. (like Basara). That way you'll get less of a fright.

Last edited by yuri21 at 9:10 pm, Jun 23 2007