Well. Yeah, pretty much the above. Oh, but it really all doesn't matter if the shoujo is predictable. Not that it wouldn't be good, but if you want to wow me with a shoujo, it'd better not be predictable.

As long as the main character isn't one of those people that can't follow through on what they feel because it makes me think that they don't have real love for the other person or because they "can't do it" (If you say you're going to do something, try and make it happen! ) EXAMPLE: A-chan likes B-kun, B-kun also likes A-chan, C-kun likes A-chan but despises B-kun and can't stand the thought of the two together, and A-chan doesn't have feelings for C-kun but wants to cling to that friendship with C-kun so she doesn't want to be with B-kun to keep everything the way it is. Yeah, I really hate heroines like this can't decide for themselves to go with the one they love because of the fear that they'll ruin friendships whereas if the friendship is supposedly STRONG ENOUGH, they'll live through it. A solid shoujo, in my eyes, has characters with their own rock-solid convictions that won't change unless there is a big hole in any one of them, dynamic personalities, and eye-opening perspectives.

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Alice came to a fork in the road.
"Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."
~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

No weak female lead. Period.

For me, lovable characters does the trick.


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I ♥ Shoujo!

Good characters and it has to be real.
Also I prefer a complex, thought provoking kind of shoujo with a real message.
Rather than butterflies and rainbows and OMG HE DOESN'T LOVE ME.

What I think makes a good shoujo is the main character(s). In the case of a main female character, she needs to have a strong will, not a dumb a** crybaby, can stick up for herself, and doesn't feel like she HAS to be in love and have a boyfriend. I also really don't like the girl who can't decide which guy she likes. Other than that I'd like the girl. In the case of the male main character, he can't be an overly possessive / abusive guy who thinks it's alright to punish / "rape" a girl if she does something he doesn't like. These kinds of guys care more about themselves than their love interest. A good main male character would love only his love interest and not play around with other girls, and respects his love interest.

A good shoujo manga doesn't need to have great art to be a good story, but it doesn't mean that I don't get bothered by it sometimes. If the art is so bad, It might take away from the story. And vice versa, really really good art can enhance a good story, or make a horrible story seem better than it really is.

Some examples of shoujo manga with bad / mediocre art but have a great story... Tokyo Crazy Paradise , Sora wa Akai Kawa no Hotori (Red River), and Kanata Kara (although the main character from Kanata Kara was a little too weak and crybaby-ish, the overall plot helped make it one of my favorites.)

And all that ties in with a good plot, even it the characters have good personality and good art, if the story doesn't have a good plot, it won't last long, and if does last long, it'll just feel dragged and boring. A good plot is one that is well thought through. One that has things mentioned in the beginning that ties in to later parts of the series. Not one that seems like the author is just making up the series as she/he goes along. The best ones make you go back and say "oh, I get it all now". Well, this kind of thing is what I like about shounen manga too. Hmm, but In shoujo, I like their to be a good sustainable romance, one that feels like "they are meant for eachother". If a couple feels like they are fated to be together, I like the serious more. The shoujo manga that I tend to dislike are the ones where it feels like the main girl and guy could have fallen in love with anybody, meaning that they you could easily see them losing interest with eachother and getting together with someone else after the end of the series.

Well, I'm done now. I'm not sure how much of that you could understand.

No weak female lead (OF COURSE!)
Good sense of story telling
No cliches (A MUST!)
Realistic approach to the character
Meaningful love story (no rushing needed!)
Good character art (No big puppy eyes!)
The story plot shouldn't be OBVIOUSLY predictable

Most importantly, the story should be have a good and meaningful message to all readers.