Please help me find manga that satisfies ALL of the following requirements!

Requirements:

MUST be shoujo (or at most josei).

MUST have some romance (if not as the main theme, then at least a minor theme).

MUST be at least 2 volumes long.

MUST be historical fantasy, i.e. a recognizable historical touch but not based on actual history.

MUST be set pre-industrialization, i.e. before electricity, mechanized transport or factories.

MUST NOT have an Asian setting, i.e. nowhere that looks like Japan, Korea, China, etc.

MUST NOT have an Asian protagonist, i.e. no Japanese, Korean or similar Asian protagonists.

MUST be a self-contained world, i.e. NO world-hopping or time-traveling. (So no modern girls being sent back in time or being transported to another world, or something!)

Examples:

Absolute Peace Strategy
Apothecarius Argentum
Blue Ramun
Dawn of the Arcana
Knight Princess
Lizard Prince
Red-Haired Snow White
The Bride of Adarshan
The Flower Crown Madonna
The Scarlet Chair
The Substitute Count Adventure
Two Flowers for the Dragon

Exceptions:

No ecchi/smut, please.

Thanks in advance! I really hope that I can harvest some recs here! <3

I was thinking of Basara and Anatolia Story, but those both have asian protagonists... this is hard...

I think these might work
Otoyomegatari
Evyione

Why not try searching through mangaupdates for Historical and not include anything you don't want in there? That's how I found these two. I recommend Evyione, and I like the art of Otoyomegatari.

I searched with yes for Historical, and no for Doujinshi, Ecchi, hentai, Horror, Lolicon, Mecha, Shotacon, Shoujo Ai, Shounen Ai, Yaoi and Yuri to get these two works.

________________
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I'm not your type. I'm not inflatable.

Cry me a river, build me a bridge and get over it.

Everyone is entitled to be stupid but you're abusing the privilege.

Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film.

Nishi no Yoki Majo. You may watch the anime.

BTW, Otoyome-gatari is still set in Asia (Central Asia).

Last edited by coffee_11 at 12:19 pm, Jul 1 2010

I second the Astraea Testament series. (At least the anime.)
Ashita no Nadja - manga is 2 volumes, but I only watched the anime version so I don't know about the manga. It's somewhat magic shoujoish with a mystery twist to it.
Candy Candy - classic infamous shoujo. Never read/watched it, but I think it should be pretty decent good due to its reputation.
A Kiss to the Prince - In spite of all the Korean names, it's still set in that kind of European setting. =__= I think it's just ok though. Even right down to the ending. (And wow.. One of the reviewers says "read for the art"? What...)
Happy Talk - This looks very cute.. Er, yeah. I'm recommending this one without reading it, but I might just read it after this. But, it's not done in scanlation so... =_= ...

You might also want to check out works by SAITOU Chiho, mangaka of the Revolutionary Girl Utena series. Her style/storytelling screams a lot of European influence.

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You can try Princess

Hikari no Panji
Legend of Nereid

Hanatsukihime is a great read, highly recomended, and Himitsu No Himegimi Uwasa No Ouji (this one is not finished, though...)

________________
"I am a colorful fantasy born on dark nights; a delusion of black and bottomless minds; a thought that dies in the morning reborn by moonlight. What am I?"
- A Night of a Thousand Dreams

Dear my Girls? I can't remember if they ARE in asia... but I'm pretty sure they aren't.

________________

dear my girls is in europe

also savage garden its really good!!!!!!!

I felt almost pervertedly satisfied when you said that - I couldn't be a sadist, could I? Lol...

Otoyomegatari isn't shoujo (or non-Asian), but Evyione does qualify! Thank you so much for putting in the effort to find me recs! I've never read Evyione so am quite excited about starting that one.

And I should probably clarify this, but I'm actually ok with, say, shoujo-ai and shounen-ai as long as it's part of a shoujo manga. Like Golden Days, which doesn't actually qualify for my thread for other reasons (contains time-travel and some industrialization), but if not for that, it would - even though it's shoujo AND shounen-ai.

@tgirl, I'm REALLY grateful to you for pulling so many recs out of your magic hat! <3

Thanks also to everyone else! I think all of your recs do in fact qualify, except The Good Witch of the West, which is categorized as shounen, not shoujo. I'm also somewhat concerned about the Korean-style naming in A Kiss to the Prince, but I'll accept that one, tgirl, as it seems to be a matter of translation choice on the behalf of the scanlators (I mean, the names sound like they could probably be Korean takes on Western names? I think! "Sei-Ann" sounds kinda Europeanish to me, what with the "Ann" - who knows, maybe it was meant to be Seyanne or Sienna, or something).

I'd like to add Ludwig Revolution to the list of recs!

Maybe Cantarella? It might be more historical than you prefer (there are actual historical figures), but from what I can tell, the similarity between the characters and the historical figures starts and ends with their names.

Also, there's a European Ambient tag that may be of interest to you.

Girl Queen -- the story can be a bit confusing and disjointed, but June is a brilliant character XD
Ciel -- I don't know if it's too industrialized, since there's a train... but the art is beautiful and I love the main character, she's amazing XD
Dokuhime -- it's an interesting story and I like the style it's told in
Antique Romance
Versailles no Bara
Crystal Dragon

Stuff by Yuki Kaori like Ludwig Kakumei, Ningyou Kyuutei Gakudan, Sareki Oukoku, God Child, Hakushaku Cain Series

(Edited in a few comments after I realized there was one train scene in Ciel XD)

Last edited by magical_poof at 8:15 pm, Jul 1 2010

I think the Good Witch of the West does qualify. The light novel is shoujo. The magazine used to try to be both shoujo and shounen, now is only shounen. That's why the manga is labeled shounen (please take the context into consideration before being judgemental). I recommend the anime, not manga. It's not an anime you should miss out on if you like this genre.

Last edited by coffee_11 at 12:30 pm, Jul 2 2010

No prob. ^^;

About A Kiss to the Prince, it's nothing to do with the scanlations. Even in the official licensed translation, they are all Korean names. I think it has something more to do with the Korean language. Unlike Japanese language where they're based on romanization so you can easily pronounce a Western name like "エミリ (Emily)", Koreans have a different system. The most modern manhwa Western name that I've seen has been spelled "Barbie" (O.o) in the manhwa, Chocolat. Which probably rolls off pretty well on a Korean tongue.

Buuuuut, I have seen a manhwaga use European names in The Queen's Knight (which falls out of your requirements because it deals with "another world travelling"). So, *shrugs*.. I suppose a lot of Korean manhwagas are more comfortable dealing with less foreign pronounciations, but some aren't afraid.

And like coffee_11 says, don't be fooled by Astraea Testament. At least, just watch the anime version. When I watched it many years ago, I had no clue about how its manga version was catergorized. I always believed it (the anime) to be shoujo so assumed the manga was the same too. It just had a lot of action in it due to its setting...

Also want to throw in another manga recommendation if you haven't read it yet, which is Reimei no Arcana. The forced royal marriage that was made to end a war. It has that Lizard Prince and Akagami no Shirayukihime feel to me. Even with dog ear people. (And if you haven't read Lizard Prince, I highly recommend that one!! ^_^)

________________
- Looking for memory related manga/manhwa? -> click me
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Zero-Sum manga fix status (-super thank you, admins-) -> http://bit.ly/1mTntim

Crookclock - I think it's pre-industrial...
Legend of Nereid
Crystal Dragon
Lineage
The Descendant of the Dynasty
Wanted
Hiiro no Isu
Doors of Chaos
Arcana
Absolute Witch
Angelique
Bara no Maria
Crimson Empire
Fushigi no Kuni no Senichiya
Hana to Akuma
Hanatsukihime
Hitomi kara Destiny
Kara no Teikoku
Kyuuketsu Yuugi
Little Witch's Diary
Paros no Ken - GL, but one of my favorites.

I lot of these I haven't read, but I think they fit. Some have a sort of Central Asian setting.

Last edited by akari_mizunashi at 9:15 pm, Jul 2 2010