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Shoujo with GRIT.

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17 years ago
Posts: 29

Whee, I'm back after a long weekend! During which I actually attempted to have a life! Now I'm back, but with tons of comments to respond to, no doubt...

I have even more recommendations to ask you for. 🙄 Yes, I know that I'm terrible and avaricious and greedy and just plain silly. But hey, I'm an otaku, right? Don't underestimate my manga-reading abilities! I really can read everything you people recommend to me!

(Wait, that's nothing to be proud of...)

Yeah. So. This time, I'd like to ask for shoujo with grit. You know, shoujo with many themes that just don't fit into the accepted definition of shoujo - bloodshed, killing, fight scenes and the like. Basically, I'm looking for shoujo with several shounen characteristics. Typically shounen ones, anyway.

Let me illustrate. Banana Fish is spectacularly gritty and has very unconventional art, but it's still classified as shoujo - I'm not sure why, but it may have to do with the fact that there are gay characters in the manga. (So what? Does gayness automatically exclude the shounen genre? Which reminds me... One day, I'll have to start a thread about shounen/seinen with prominent gay characters.) Anyway, Banana Fish is technically shoujo, but it has scenes with machine guns and blood-spattered ceilings and drug use and non-glamorized rape, so it definitely qualifies as shoujo with "grit."

Another huge, HUGE favorite of mine - seriously, I just bought all 10 volumes that have been published by Viz - is Kaze Hikaru. Yes, it has the subtlety and romantic leanings of a typical shoujo manga, but it has some extremely atypical themes, too. First of all, this is the first gender-bending manga I've read in which the girl actually shaves her head to make her disguise more believable - I love that about her! That, and she actually kills people. And follows the path of "bushi." A girl determined to be a samurai, with all the violence that entails... I'm loving this more and more. There are several scenes involving sword-fights and blazing katanas, with chopped-off heads and spurting blood and seppuku and several other very non-shoujo things. Plus, not ALL the male characters are mysteriously gorgeous; in fact, most of the men the girl encounters in her journeys are just your Average Joes, some with beer bellies and others with hairy legs. Normal guys, you know? I love that, too. It's not like men are glamorized into these... platinum bishounen archetypes. (There are bishounen, mind you, but there are plenty more guys in the manga who just aren't. And I like normal guys better, if you ask me.) Also, the historical details are pitch-perfect, and this is probably the best-researched shoujo series I've seen that deals with that particular period in the Shinsengumi's history. Shinsengumi fanboys would be happy with this; I'm not kidding.

Sure, many of these themes are somewhat shoujo-fied, but they're still surprisingly shounen in their inclinations. There are tons of internal monologues about the nature of bushido, and how honorable killing is justified whereas dishonorable killing is not, etc., etc. All the sorts of monologues you'd never expect a young girl to have in a typical shoujo manga. In fact, I'd go so far as to recommend both of the above series to shounen readers. There are plenty of grey areas between the boundaries of "shoujo" and "shounen," and I love stories that occupy those grey areas. Basara sort of qualifies, as well.

So have you read any such series? Preferably not one-shot volumes, please, unless they're really amazing. I want to read a manga that is labeled "shoujo," but features at least some fight scenes or non-prettified blood and gore. There may be some romance in it, but the plot isn't propelled forward by the romance, but by some other action-oriented struggle - maybe a war, like in Basara, or samurai politics, like in Kaze Hikaru, or the drug trade, like in Banana Fish. The story should be "gritty" in one way or another - a shoujo manga with shounen leanings.

Some of you may say that I should just do a genre search that combines "Action," "Adventure" and "Shoujo" - but any shoujo reader knows that there are plenty of shoujo adventures without any grit at all. And there are hundreds of those. So please help me with recommendations! I need to narrow down my options! Shoujo with GRIT, please.


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Read manga with the following themes...
Politics
Power Couples
Pure Subtext

Post #205686
Post #205686
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17 years ago
Posts: 169

Shoujo containing Fighting/Killing/Gore:

Ayashi no Ceres
Trinity Blood
Weiss Kreuz (I only know the anime, though)
Angel Sanctuary, Neji and other mature shoujo by Yuki Kaori
X and it's prequel Tokyo Babylon (I would also look at CLAMP's TRC and xxxHolic, even it's shounen/seinen - they crosswork the demographics a lot)

There are more but I''m a little to tired atm. CLAMP and Yuki Kaori are both well known for bloody, violent and action-packed shoujo. You need to like their style and the (light) Shounen-Ai moments/hints in lots of their series, though.

X is a classic: twisted, bloody and full of fights, but on hiatus. Still recommendable. You need TB (which is a early 90ies manga with very oldschool style and bad scanlations) to understand the background story of two important characters in X.


... Last edited by eni 17 years ago
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17 years ago
Posts: 2038

Shoujo with grit:
Vampire Game
Fairy Cube
These are the only one I truly liked, I can suggest you to try also stuff already mentioned like Ayashi no Ceres or something else from Watase Yuu like Alice 19th but they aren't really my cup of tea. However you could like them anyway, so I mentioned them too.

Manga that aren't shoujo, but that for some kind of reason reminded me of shoujo like what you're looking for:
Superior you probably already know this, otherwise you really should try it.
Gunslinger Girl ok I know I'm practically suggest this everywhere, but there is a good reason. And for some aspects it could remind of a shoujo.


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What I like in Trivial Pursuit style. Pick your category:[img]http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo233/Reid4891/Manga/trivia-1.jpg[/img]

Post #205704
Post #205704
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17 years ago
Posts: 169

Oh yes, if Superior is fine, you may want to try Chrno Crusade and Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle. All three are Shounen demographics but the overall style and feeling often causes wrong labeling.

Also, forgot D·N·ANGEL as another shounen-like shoujo.


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Sorry, I'm Late.
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17 years ago
Posts: 270

Let me illustrate. Banana Fish is spectacularly gritty and has very unconventional art, but it's still classified as shoujo - I'm not sure why, but it may have to do with the fact that there are gay characters in the manga. (So what? Does gayness automatically exclude the shounen genre? Which reminds me... One day, I'll have to start a thread about shounen/seinen with prominent gay characters.

Nope, it doesn't. For example, MW by Osamu Tezuka and Kinou Nani Tabeta? by Yoshinaga Fumi. Both titles was/is running in seinen magazine, even though they have gay men as main characters.
Banana Fish is shoujo because it was published in shoujo magazine.

My recs :
7 Seeds and Chicago by the mangaka of Basara
Yasha, and its sequel, Eve no nemuri, by the mangaka of Banana Fish. Both also feature Sing Soo-Ling from Banana Fish.
Hana no Asuka Gumi! by Takaguchi Satosumi.
Der Freischutz and Z by Aoike Yasuko. Side stories of From Eroica with Love, but they can be read as separated stories (I also highly recommend the main story), and only feature NATO's agents on their missions.
RG Veda by CLAMP. Like X, a lot of bloodshed.
Kaguya Hime by Shimizu Reiko.

Even though they are technically josei :
Gokusen by Morimoto Kozueko. Heir of Yakuza group as highschool teacher. It has plenty of action, and comedic moments.
Himitsu by Shimizu Reiko. It's not about fighting, but it does have gore moments, still beautifully drawn though

Licensed in US, dunno if the scans are available :
Ra-i and Trash by Sanami Matoh.
Jewels by PARK Sang-Sun. GORGEOUS artwork, the story is kinda similar to RG Veda though
Jyu Oh Sei by Itsuki Natsumi
The Key to the Kingdom by Shitou Kyoko
Towards the Terra by Takemiya Keiko (or it should be shounen with shoujo manga style 😀 )


... Last edited by yuuri097 17 years ago
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Crazy Cat Lady
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17 years ago
Posts: 1850

It may be more shoujo-ish than you're looking for, but Tokyo Crazy Paradise is a great series, and I seem to remember quite a bit of blood & fighting (been a few years since I read it..).


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"[English] not only borrows words from other languages; it has on occasion chased other languages down dark alley-ways, clubbed them unconscious and rifled their pockets for new vocabulary."
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Post #205868 - Reply To (#205851) by TofuQueen
Post #205868 - Reply To (#205851) by TofuQueen
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17 years ago
Posts: 2342

Quote from TofuQueen

It may be more shoujo-ish than you're looking for, but Tokyo Crazy Paradise is a great series, and I seem to remember quite a bit of blood & fighting (been a few years since I read it..).

It does and it's awesome. 😃


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AKA Roseille
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17 years ago
Posts: 326

Hmm... Lol, I actually just recommended this one, but... o_o

If you're looking for a gritty shoujo, I'd suggest Immortal Rain. It fits the shoujo demographic with the well-developed characters and generous amounts of romance, but kind of diverges from the usual with themes of the effects of death and immortality.

We get a nice pic of someone getting their heart ripped out, too, which is always fun. It has some dark themes here and there, but also a fair amount of humor. The art isn't your usual shoujo type - thin, sharp lines and bishie-infested art, but it still manages to be beautiful, and the story really hits its stride around volumes three and four.


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