Here's something I bet no one has requested. Is it even possible for a mangaka to write a male-female pair without having some obligatory romance plot forced on us?

So far I haven't read a Shoujo manga that doesn't have a non-romantic pair given that the pair is the focus of the story. This has a higher rate of occurring in other genres, especially shounen.

Nulla in mundo pax sincera
"Always go too far, because that's where you'll find the truth." - Albert Camus

Quote from Wererat42

Here's something I bet no one has requested. Is it even possible for a mangaka to write a male-female pair without having some obligatory romance plot forced on us?

Probably not. Sigh...so sad! I mean, I have no interest in romance (yet) so I don't know - but is it really impossible for a guy and girl to be a team and not fall for each other? It should be possible, right?
I reckon the only way you can expect that to happen in a work of fiction is if the the two MCs are brother and sister. (And even then, incest themes are often implied - though it's usually not canon)

This has a higher rate of occurring in other genres, especially shounen.

Nah, not really. I've read plenty of shounen / seinen and even in those, if the two protagonists are of opposite genders it will surely be implied that they're romantically interested in each other. At least towards the end, they show definite signs of ending up together. The love story is not in your face like in shoujo / josei, but it's still very 'there'.

This is because everyone (except a select few people like me) wants romance. I mean, the number of comments I've read that go "If this had some romance, it would be a hit! And my rating would've been higher" are uncountable. Mangaka have to do whatever they can to get good sales, after all.

As for recs; I have high hopes for Liar Game and Reinouryokusha Odagiri Kyouko no Uso so far, but I'm not counting on it. It's best not to get your hopes up about that kind of thing 😉

The only shoujo I could think of is Gold rush 21

The main female lead works as a 'male host', she used to have a relationship with a woman. The main male lead has only one-sided crush on her. The manga still focuses on their relationship as friends.

[img]http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/6167/avvy.png[/img]
Rape is imminent.

Quote from Wererat42

Here's something I bet no one has requested.

i'm pretty sure we have this type of request b4.. if i'm not mistaken tartufo ask this once... (she got a lot of request thread) 😐

Oh yes - Gold Rush 21 is a good one. And it's not the male MC who has a crush on the female protagonist; it's a side character. As far as I could see, the male and female leads are just friends, with no unrequited love towards each other on either side.

Paranoia Street would probably work too - but only because everyone in that story is insane...

Goth is a 'maybe'; their relationship is open to interpretation and it was never quite made clear whether they were in love with each other or not. The male lead is bit too weird for anyone to expect a standard romance plot, anyway.

Definitely Yumekui Kenbun and perhaps Rozen Maiden (but in the case of the latter it depends on who you consider to be the female lead).

Sumire 16 Sai!! and Sumire 17 Sai!! also fit, if you can get past the protagonist's very odd personality.

This request was made before (but in a slightly different way) by unusuallove.

I'll list former topics made by other BU-members who share your interest (as well as the rest of us):

Best Friends of the Opposite Sex
Slice of Life about Friends of Opposite Gender
extremely close friendship "mistaken for romantic relations"
Shoujo/Josei lacking in the romance department/ or friendship manga
more than friends but less than lovers shoujo/josei manga

Liar Game