What I'm looking for isn't just a strong and confident girl, but also a capable, self-assured heroine. I'm looking for a girl who knows when and how to put up a fight in her own way, and most importantly, isn't reduced to a mess of tears over stupid love triangles and dilemmas that could easily be solved if she could just think. I'd love to be able to read a manga where she's in a superior position over the male hero.
Examples that I've read and loved:
Hellsing : Sir Integra Wingates Hellsing
The chairman of the Hellsing organization, and shares a relationship with the King of all vampires, Alucard, under her hand. This relationship is a wonderful play of tension, power struggle, understanding and respect... and perhaps something more.
Gokusen : Yankumi
The granddaughter of a renowned Yakuza who enrolls in a school as a teacher. Her street fighting skills are legendary and she has the most notorious class in school under her control. Of all the people, she treats Shin, the student leader of the gang, as her confidante and equal. He falls in love with her along the way but makes absolutely no mention of it, and helps her out in any way he can. Where her fighting skills are far superior, he makes up for it by being more perceptive.
Aflame Inferno : Gehenna
Now this is what I'm talking about. One of the immortal emperors guarding the East, she is extremely sharp, knowledgeable and also sexy.
She is one of the most powerful figures in this manga, very interesting in that the closer she becomes with the main character, the more awkward she is at portraying her feelings, which is a far cry compared to the beginning when she thought of him as no more than a useless bug. Aside from the fighting, there's also a bit of a harem going on, but it seems like the odds are greatly favoring her, which is a pleasant surprise considering her character type never sees the light of the day!Iryuu - Team Medical Dragon : Dr. Katou
One of the main characters of this famous medical manga, she is the driving force behind the team. She's somewhat cold (not stereotypically cold like you see in most shounen/harems) but just that the basis of her beliefs are grounded in facts, which makes her a very serious person in general. There are very little things that crack her barrier, but when it does, she's just a normal woman inside beneath the doctor exterior, as the other male hero finds out. (Note : This isn't romance, (yet?) but as she was a large inspiration for this thread, I thought it would be good to include her as well.
)Until Death Do Us Part : Haruka
Here's a different type of heroine, but fits the requirements just as well. Haruka is twelve, is able to see the future, and also is able to predict that she'll be the wife of the main character (who's, like, twenty years older than her, but make no mistake, this is no pedophile manga, and you'll see why.) Despite her age, she doesn't think twice about jumping straight into danger if she sees that she can be of help to Mamoru, or for other people in general. In fact, her spontaneous trait can be considered her flaw, as she doesn't seem to be aware that she's constantly putting her life on the line, but perhaps she's used to it as she had been running away from her enemies for a long time.
I've also read:
Skip Beat : Good heroine, bad male lead. (I have a feeling people are gonna mention this.
)To summarize
- A heroine capable of demonstrating leadership.
- A confident and capable woman.
- Is able to hold her own against her male love interest.
- Is in a superior/higher position than the male.
Last edited by jadey at 4:16 pm, Jul 6 2009
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My Other Manga Threads
Search for these threads as links would kill my sig limit.
- Middle School Heroine Love Stories
- Older, Gentle Male Love Interests
- Romance with Capable Women/Heroines
- Wise Male Mentor x [DECENT] Heroine
- Gangster/Physically Strong Main Heroines
- Romance with Stubble Chinned Guys Because It's Sexy
- Love Triangles Involving Male Teachers
My threads are as specific as they can; it's good if they can help you out!
