.....

Last edited by chibilin at 3:35 pm, Dec 15 2012

There's nothing in particular that I look for that makes it a good shoujo manga.
As long as it captures my interest, and is remotely original and I actually read it to the end without regretting it.

________________
♪MONSTARR~ will eat all your cookies and steal your bishies~♪ Φ_Φ

Nothing.

A shoujo could have horrible art and a corny plot, but that won't keep me from liking it. Some are a hit, while others aren't. If I could determine what it is exactly that makes a manga popular, it wouldn't matter because there are people that could hate it for those very reasons.

If I read manga while I'm in a bad mood, it will make it more difficult to enjoy it, and vice versa. Most of my favorite manga are there by default awesomeness, and no level of awesomeness in any other manga will be able to take their places. For now. And I'll continue reading it just because of that. It's a kind of stubbornness.

I guess I'll automatically like a shoujo if it has pretty or interesting art, non-submissive protagonist and no characters that annoy the piss out of me. But then again, I liked peach girl, even if it made me want to scream for dear life through a lot of it.

I've been reading My Barbaric Girlfriend and even though the story has been ticking me off for awhile now, I still read it because, again, it's that stubbornness. I don't care what the author does, I want to finish it and I'm going to finish it, even if it kills me. I'll come out of it as having it as a favorite, even if I didn't like the story. I guess it could be considered the experience you get while reading a manga that makes a person like it, rather than specific things like art or plot.

________________

The same things that make a good shounen or any other kind of manga, really. Originality in story, characters, and art; thought-provoking moments; surprises; imaginativeness; real and raw emotion; creation of mood; in-depth character development; expressive dialogue; humor, if appropriate; realism, if appropriate; balance betwen text and visual storytelling; versatility of facial expressions and body language; ability to use panels to depict motion and passage of time; detail in backgrounds; narrative coherency; pacing; point of view, etc. Of course, not all of the popular shoujos score high on these factors. Usually, for a shoujo to be popular, the most important factors seem to be pacing (i.e., the story rolls along at a pace that keeps you turning the pages and wondering what happens next), cute or pretty art, a "strong" heroine, one or more "hot" male characters, and comedy.

Last edited by Odette at 6:10 pm, Sep 6 2009

________________
Avatar by tassyn.livejournal.com

Reading: Kingdom, Sangokushi, Historie

I think pretty boys really appeal to a large audience of shoujo manga readers...and some other factors..

Good points, Odette. I hadn't thought of the art aspects very much.



Yeah, definitely. Readers want eye candy.

I also think a good shoujo shows good character growth. That is, heroine learns something about herself, matures, or is in someway changed over the manga. Well, that's probably true of any story form. No one likes a static character. All five of the mangas in the poll have decent character growth, though it's probably most noticeable in Mars and Skip Beat!.

A coherent plot is always a plus, as is one without too many holes.

Agreed.

After all, art imitates life, and manga is a form of art.
And in life, people do change everyday.

One I think there is a difference between good and popular. A popular shouji has cute boys,good art, and most of the time a clean cut easy to follow story line.
A good shouji most likely will have good character development where the main character/characters changes/grows by the end of series, has good art work, most likely has cute guys, realistic characters that can be easily related too, sometimes characters will have a complex past, well organized story that's well told and most importantly character foibles/flaws (does not need to be silly).
I frankly think Mars is good example of a good shouji and Ouran High School Host Club is a good example of a popular shouji (I think this manga is really over rated).

Good shoujo to me must at least have a hot attractive guy as the protagonist no matter what genre it is. I don't care about "heroines". It's best when females are side characters. I only care about hot guys and it doesn't have to be romance-centered (I am generally not a fan of shoujo romance). The same applies to good shounen (to me) too. And don't forget no horrible art.

By the way, I hate reverse harems, no matter which one it is.

"Good" and "popular" are not the same thing.

Last edited by base_coat at 9:27 pm, Sep 7 2009

Mars is good (I'm a huge fan of Souryou Fuyumi), but I don't think it's necessarily better than OHSHC. At first glance, OHSHC is same old, same old, but it's also remarkably clever in the way it makes fun of every shoujo cliche out there and then transforms and "owns" them, essentially outdoing the "most cliched shoujo" at its own game. Although parodies are difficult to pull off, OHSHC does it quite nicely with gentle humor and poise. If not for its lack of any deeper meanings, I would rate it as one of the most perfect shoujos. Just my opinion of course, but I've seen a lot of comments about how overrated OHSHC is, and I actually think that it's the opposite -- it's underrated among shoujo readers who generally have more discerning tastes.

Last edited by Odette at 12:38 am, Sep 7 2009

________________
Avatar by tassyn.livejournal.com

Reading: Kingdom, Sangokushi, Historie

umm, i tend to read shoujo when i saw good, pretty artwork with fulfill my personal taste. A beautiful and good detailed ones..
Then see the summary whether it's story is interesting or not.
So for me it's artwork and story.

and bishies... (they are part of the artwork).



________________

Okay a better example of a popular shoujo is Hot Gimmick.

I never read this and think the art is medicore. However, shoujo readers are obviously used to or like this type of art, unlike me. It's actually better than a lot of other shoujo's art. The story must be soap opera-y since it is this long. Correct me if I am wrong! As we know, soap opera-y stories will usually attract a female audience.

I think it's popular because it's a reverse harem and perhaps readers find the guys who romance the main girl attractive? I believe the reason why this type of shoujo is popular is very similar to why Love Hina, Ichigo 100%, To Love Ru are popular shounens (readers find the girls and the ecchi attractive). The majority of shounen/shoujo readers are assumed to be/indeed are desperate (young) readers who stereotypically identify with the main character. Sadly, gender difference as the result of socialization is very obvious to me in the readership of popular shounen and shoujo. Hot guys/girls aside, their plotlines and ways they represent relationships and teen lifestyles are very different.

Last edited by base_coat at 10:41 pm, Sep 7 2009

The shoujo just needs to keep my interest. I always want to know what happens next that I end up finishing the series.

________________
"to the world you may be one person,
but to one person you may be the world."
-unknown

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" (from Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare; Act II, scene ii)

(Even though the quote above is from Hamlet, I first saw it in a Final Fantasy Versus XIII trailer on YouTube ^o^)

actually, a lot of popular series, i actually dislike because it makes me kinda mad that something that's not that great, not that it's horrible, but that it's not THAT great is so popular.

like, vampire knight is so overrated but it's widely popular now and i just don't like the story at all; it's really not that interesting, it kept repeating itself until i hated it at the beginning and i can just go on with the list, but i'll just stop there. i personally like the artist's artwork and while i like vampires, i don't like vampire knight at all. it just can't keep my interest for some reason.

one manga i really adore is kaze hikaru, but no one seems to know what it is at all. the legend of basara is also another really good shoujo, but again, it's really not that popular. although i guess you couldn't call basara purely shoujo, it's probably more shounen too, considering it's action and adventure...etc. probably a pretty good one is skip beat! that is also pretty popular now.

but i think what makes a good manga or shoujo is the feelings that these mangas that can make a reader feel. the more it makes you think, feel and connect to the story, the better the story. the deeper and more complex the stories is also good. a manga that make you lose self-awareness or track of reality is what i define as good. if it can't make me lose myself, i don't think it's that good. also, i have to love the main two characters, or just the main character for it be considered really good. usually, if i hate the main character, i'll hate the story, no matter how interesting the plot might be.