We fell immortally in love with each other after sharing a glance at the school enrollment ceremony but we can never tell each other due to the writer´s lack of ability to write about a relationship so we will just stall for a few dozen volumes.

The runner up is the whole rape = love bullshit.

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Popular, 'refreshing', oh-so-perfect guys. Take Kimi ni Todoke, for example. I really like Sawako, but I I dislike Kazehaya because he, like a lot of these popular guys, is a limited, one-dimensional character.

- My most disliked cliche has to be to be harems. (I can't stand them in shounen manga either.)
That's just ridiculous. If the girl is so indecisive about who she'll choose, I really wish the guys would figure out she's not good enough for them and just move on.

- Like residentgrigo stated, rape = love.
I can't even read most smut because the authors actually think that's cute.

- The "rude, tsundere tomboy younger sister who is jealous of her polite, beautiful, and older sister."
I can almost guarantee guys will go for the polite sister over the girl who can't control her attitude.
Haha, I can't stand how shoujo manga does this. It used to be really overused back in the early 2000s if I remember correctly.

- The "perfect" guy who are as 2D in personality as you can possibly imagine. Talk about being overused.

- The helpless female lead. I don't mind if she's shy or quiet. I just hate when she can't do anything on her own.

- Tsundere female leads. I have no idea why but I can't stand them. Strangely enough, I don't mind tsundere males as much so long as the female lead as a nice/kind personality.

- Rivals. More often than not, they're handled extremely badly and they're just ridiculous. Sometimes, these fall under the harem tag.

- Oh, good LORD, the one hkanz mentioned: The guy carries the girl who scraped her knee in a bridal-style fashion to the nurse's office. Do you really think a 15-year-old is always going to be able to pick up a girl and carry her all the way to the nurse's office? Screw that though, he's a probably a 6'1" Japanese (because the Japanese are known for being tall) prince. He can do what he wants and she can't take care of herself.

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Quack, quack.

I read a lot of psychological or shoujo manga for some reason. Preferably not mixed together.

I kinda hate where the heroine makes a big deal of their first kiss. Idk. Maybe it's just me

Eugh yes- there are lots of them out there (some might even say the cliches are what help to give shojo manga its uniqueness), but those are the biggest two for me

How come you never really see a shojo romance manga where the main pair is already in love and the series develops with that in mind?

Is it because shojo readers usually don't have that kind of experience, so they can't relate?
Maybe in the Showa era, but now?

It's not the case with all shojo, but it's by far the most common.
Just once I'd like to pick up a title and not have to drop it after the first couple chapters, because the romantic tension goes on for volumes, maybe even the entire series. It's the same deal with shonen mango as well, like you said, as well as seinen, and josei to a lesser extent

Oh also, if you read all of that, here's a reward: For those who may not know (there's an anime now, so it's presumably rather popular), Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun is a rather interesting parody of some of the more puzzling shojo tropes out there. Less romance and more comedy though
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[quote]The runner up is the whole rape = love bullshit.[/quote]


I HATE this. Not even getting into what kind of message it sends to younger female readers, the way it's handled is usually incredibly poor

Even the whole "I'm forcing myself on you even though we're not well-acquainted, but I'm suave and bishie so it's ok" scene, where he puts one hand over her head and towers ominously while she looks like a helpless deer or something, is just overdone, not to mention in poor taste nowadays

Then there's the incredibly overdone 'heroine about to be sexually assaulted by a stranger but the romantic interest shows up at the last minute to save her'.
Nothing wrong with that trope by itself, but usually it's just used to create tension/drama.
The heroine never mentions the incident afterwards, shows and signs of trauma, nor does the male lead ever bring it up with her. Really bizarre

A while ago, I read System of Romance, which was an interesting, if not repulsive, take on this from a somewhat psychological pov

Last edited by user44 at 8:06 pm, Mar 25 2016

Nope, your right. Some of them act like they went on an LSD trip after being kissed

Stupid "heroine"

Seriously why can't more shojo protagonists be not stupider than dirt?

Even protagonists I like, like Tohru from Fruits Basket is really stupid. At least she's not also annoyingly cloying and boy-crazy and boy-stupid