This is hard. 7 Seeds, Nodame Cantabile, Cheese in the Trap, and Sakamichi no Apollon were all good series. I choose Nodame in the end because well, it's Nodame. Surprised to see 07-ghost as second most popular, since it is the least josei out of all the series.

I'm a little surprised that I've never actually read any of these series (barring 07-Ghost, which I dropped several chapters in because of how stale and generic it felt). Too bad Karneval didn't make the cut; that might just be my top josei at the moment.

I'm also a huge Zero-Sum fangirl and their (more modern) style of josei, as I've always been an action/fantasy/mystery kind of girl as opposed to a slice of life/romance/comedy fan. (Maybe oddly enough, I tend to gravitate more toward romance/comedy in shounen and seinen series and action/fantasy in shoujo and josei series. I guess it's just interesting to see how those genres are presented for the more "unexpected" demographics?)

7 Seeds has been on my wishlist for awhile, but I've been so hesitant to start it despite the great things I've heard because I was completely and utterly turned off by the author's Chicago and how confusing and unengaging I found it. It was quite awhile ago that I read it, but the experience was apparently so horrible that I get this haze of foreboding every time I think about it. -shudder-

Bokura no Kiseki is also on my wishlist and sounds right up my alley, so I should probably get a start on that. 😛 Nodame Cantabile sounds cute but is... so... freaking... long!! And I'll admit, I'm sort of turned off by long-running comedy series, as oftentimes, without a strong overarching plot, they tend to wear thin rather soon (see: Ouran High School Host Club). I've heard a lot of great things about Cheese in the Trap as well, and since I'm already on a webtoon binge lately...

But anyway, no vote from me this time because I haven't read any of these series. 🤣

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Quote from Sorcha

Surprised to see 07-ghost as second most popular, since it is the least josei out of all the series.

That's probably why it's so popular -- it has cross-demographic appeal and also appeals to girls who like to see more plot and action in their stories.

Quote from TKS

Quote from calstine

Well, my vote goes to 07-Ghost, hands down. I've never even read any of the others, though 7 Seeds, Sakamichi no Apollon and Bokura no Kiseki have been on my 'to read' list for a while now. Generally I prefer Comic Zero-Sum josei, since they tend to be less like josei and more like shounen/seinen wi ...

This makes me think you haven't actually read much shounen and seinen. At all.

I've read plenty of shounen and seinen, thank you. But I did make a mistake: I should have specified that I meant action shounen and seinen, rather than the mystery, psychological, etc. ones. Obviously, seinen in particular does much more satisfactorily on those fronts than shoujo or josei ever will.

Whoa. Someone sure is butt-hurt about the perceived insult to their favourite demographic! And hmm, I think you're the one who's "getting on a morality high horse," not me, seeing as I only said I personally dislike constant sexualisation of the female body (in non-sexual situations), while you decided to use the idea that "they're full of fujoshi bait" (where fujoshi bait = guys who're actually good friends as opposed to only ever rivals or enemies, which is what there is in Zero-Sum, though I don't read much GFantasy or Fellows and therefore can't comment on them) as the grounds to dismiss 3 whole publications. Oh, well. Whatever makes you feel better, man 🤣

07-Ghost is the runner up for the exact reasons you (or i) mentioned i never said that i have a favorite demographic (go back to my last poll). I actually criticized the 2 (!) male one´s way harder than you did and said nothing positive about them now that i look back 😉 .

I just looked at our Comic Zero-Sum listing and i still consider the magazines to be boring. Husk Eden seems to be the lone manga i can recommend (i mentioned it in your topic) but it also feels misplaced. (Tales of Zestiria going Josei makes sense but what is Xenosaga doing here?) I never really commented on GFantasy but i also consider it to be highly bland as it´s way to focused on selling video games (even more "Tales of" advertisements eh?) and LNs but i do like the DRR adaptations.
Looking at the 2 listings gave me even more evidence that Josei manga have as much in common with Shounen publication as with Shoujo. Fellows! lastly only got praise from me. I though can´t see it surviving much longer in printed form but their customers are certainly loyal. A Noitamina adaptation or 2 would be nice but that (Josei) block has lost it´s way...
On to the next poll and is anyone surprised that this poll has the least posts out of the 4?

I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
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