I am looking for mangas featuring a strong, non-typical main female character. Mangas along the lines of Teppuu or Choukakou. Preferably without romance (but romance is fine as well).

What I define as atypical/ strong would be along the lines of clever, strong (mentally and physically), but not one of those typical super positive shoujo girls.

Thanks!

Joou no Hana especially if you like Choukakou.
--- And Akatsuki no Yona Not at first, but there is immense character development.
ES not so much physically.
Witchcraft Works
Superior she's a demon queen.
Ciel she's beautiful, powerful and smart.
In Full Bloom
Ichi as well.
and I guess Black Lagoon. Pretty much all the female characters are badass scary.
Saver too, though I didn't really like this one. I really liked Lena, but the plot was all over the place.

Cheese in the Trap - she has great intuition and smarts. Mentally strong, but physically average. It's labelled romance, but it's not all that much.

Female Warrior (Novel) - particularly strong female lead. I should mention that The Legend of Sun Knight (Novel) is technically a sequel to Female Warrior, but it was written before it, so you can probably read either one first.

Penguin Kakumei - might fit. She's very positive, but not thoughtlessly so. Not physically strong.

Gokusen - physically and mentally very strong, and smart when it comes down to it.

Ageha wo Ou Monotachi - very clever and talented. Mentally strong, physically average.

Shitsurakuen - it's been a while, but I think this fits.

I second Gokusen, it's one of my favorites.

Medaka Box

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Thought of another: Hoshi no Samidare

I can pretty much only recommend ones with romance. Mostly shoujo. But these have female characters that I generally really liked and respected.

Tokyo Crazy Paradise Humor and and gangster action with a crazy female bodyguard
Legend of Basara An adventure epic with a female serving as hero in her brother's place. I likd her maturity.
Red River A classic. Can get annoying with certain repetitive arcs, love quadrangles, but don't let that put you off too much. Adventure time slip story.
Orange Marmalade Calm female vampire webtoon
1/2 Prince Gets a bit silly by the current volume with all the female wish fulfillment. But it starts off great. Girl is the first transgender player in a super realistic 2nd life game. She's a warrior who loves blood. Also a lot of comedy, can be on the silly side.
Hana no Kishi Female knight at a school
Doubt!! More of a typical high school dramedy, but the female lead really knows herself, which is nice.
Crimson Hero Volleyball road to the championship story
Eternal Sabbath I wouldn't say the girl is necessarily the main character, but she's primary and intelligent.
Real Clothes Girl at work story. In sales. She works hard and has a great attitude.
A Delicious Relationship Sort of similar to the above- girl decides to learn the restaurant business, but this one has a slightly naive but still hard working attitude.
Annarasumanara Calm webtoon, no real romance, sort of a slice of life/do you believe in magic thing. I just like relaxed female protagonists who don't whine.
Beauty Pop Like I wrote, relaxed stoic ladies... this one's a school life competitive hair cutting manga.
Akagami no Shirayukihime really peacefully unfolding prince love story. But the girl is a ginger royal pharmacist.

I second Battle Angel Alita literally the first thing I thought of (also one of my absolute fav's)

second Gokusen if you haven't read it yet, very good
second Ichi which I quite like (almost at it's end tho didn't make it long enough to live up to the build up honestly)

Defintely check out (i'm pretty sure this is what you want)
Confidential Assassination Troop one of my fav's even if it went on hiatus, whats out is enough for me, gorg art

Shuto Heru soo good

Shoujo Fight is probably what your looking for tho

in the maybe pile
Yotsubato! -cute/funny
Centaur no Nayami -cute/funny
Gisèle Alain
The Pale Horse (i think it gets a lot darker later on - maybe not scanlated yet tho)
Dokuhime kinda..
Subaru
Doll Star - Kotodama Tsukai Ihon


I don't want to mention any josei or shoujo other that gokusen since it seems that isn't what your looking for.. but...
kechonpa and Seigi no Mikata are too good to pass up (josei)
Hiiro no Isu
Dokebi Bride hrmm actually not really what youre looking for but yeah..

And my absolute fav that I recommend to literally everyone Ran to Haiiro no Sekai

Appleseed This one is at the top of the pile.Deunan is the first one to come to mind when this is asked. Even before GUNNM
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind You got two in this one.
Kekkaishi This one starts off with two protagonists, a boy and a girl, but around midway it starts focusing more on the boy. It's a fairly long series, so you'll still get a great read out of it.
Murder Princess it's short. Only two volumes, but it's rather good.
NOiSE
Rose Hip Rose
Saikano I don't know if this one counts, but I thought I'd add it anyway just to break your soul.
Air Master Hope you like reading moon language. Nor scared away by truly ghastly art. That aside it's actually not bad storywise.
Pumpkin Scissors groups keep dropping this and I think I got a good idea why, and yet it's so good and that just irritates me more.
The Twelve Kingdoms Yeah, okay Yoko kind of cheats, but damn you should read this. Anime also. Although if you do the anime first you gotta be in it for the long haul, because things don't get good until about episode 7 or 8
Berserk Casca. At least until that incident
Basara
Otoyomegatari
Seirei no Moribito (Novel) also has an anime and unlike 12K, it gets right into good stuff.
Zeroin

Also, try the anime Last Exile, Gunbuster 1 and 2, Mezzo DSA, Birdy the Mighty Decode, Tsukikage Ran, Revolutionary Girl Utena....
Damn, that's all I can remember right now.

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Sarcasm just doesn't work over the internet.

I keep recommending Saver because I loved the female lead despite the weak plot.

I also agree with SilentKiller on 12 kingdoms. just pass the first couple of episodes. Youko is incredible.

7 Seeds is also worthy. get past the first few hurdles and the story will pick up.
Kubera. The art is iffy for some, but the content makes up for it. Every detail is worth it and the art grows on you. Do it!!

Last edited by Paraph at 6:45 pm, Nov 13 2013

Azumi is definitely a strong female lead. not so sure how clever she is yet, i haven't read too far yet.

Corset ni Tsubasa's lead is clever.

sket dance's female lead isn't exactly clever, but she's got good common sense, or at least as much common sense as anyone in that manga has, and she's powerful.

Last Game has romance, though it's one-sided at this point, but the female lead is extremely athletic and smart, definitely not your typical upbeat shoujo girl.

Girls of the Wild's should work really well.

Shingeki No Kyojin is perfect. Mikasa, Annie, Ymir, and Hanji all fit what you're looking for. Hanji is a bit happy-go-lucky, but she definitely isn't anywhere close to typical.

Tomoe ga Yuku!
Sengoku Strays lead is strong, but a bit optimistic. I don't think I'd call her typical though..
Umi no Kishidan's lead is super strong and smart.
Mother Keeper has strong women in it.
Mother Sarah

Amakusa 1637 strong and smart lead, if you don't mind religious influences.
Joou no Hana


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