• Our spoiler embargo for the non-DLC content for Pokémon Legends: Z-A is now lifted! Feel free to discuss the game freely across the forums without the need of spoiler tabs, and use content from the game within your profiles!

The Shoujo Anime discussion thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
Almonds

Almonds

Lovely
Scorbunny Fan
Joined
Jul 12, 2011
Messages
14,622
Reaction score
4,578
Why don't we talk about Shoujo anime? Girly-girl's anime mostly focused on Romance, Magic, and Friendship. Some also include Stage-related themes as well as Cooking. What was your favorite?
 
If magical girl anime counts, then I have to say that Shugo Chara! is a favorite. ^^ I can't even put my finger on why, but I love that series. Tadase, Kukai, Ikuto, and Kairi are all so adorable.

Also, Kitchen Princess. That's one shoujo manga that needs to be adapted into an anime, because I would really like to see it.
 
I actually haven't watched a lot of Shojo anime. The only ones I have seen are Fushigi Yugi, Fruits Basket, Pretear and Princess Tutu. Out of the few that I have seen, I think Pretear is my favorite one. The storyline is pretty basic with a mix of Snow White and Cinderella in magical girl form and only a handful of characters are actually developed. Even so, it's just really engaging, with a likable female lead, great buildup and tension throughout the climax and a really satisfying conclusion. I think it could have been better if it had twenty-six episodes instead of thirteen and if they toned down a bit of the comical bits, but it's still a great series.

Princess Tutu is easily the best in terms of overall quality out of the four series and it could easily become my favorite after I give it another watch, especially when I felt a bit different towards Pretear after I watched it a second time. The storyline is really creative and interesting with a couple of likable main leads and complex villains. I think that the second half was better because of how it did more than the villain of the week format and explored the characters a bit more, but the first half was still really good. It does have one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen in an anime as well.

Fruits Basket is a nice slice of life series. Toru is inhumanly selfless and kind, but she's still likable. I liked the character interactions, Yuki was easily my favorite character for his growth during the course of the series, there were a ton of funny moments and while it didn't resolve or cover much information about what the curse really was about, although I've heard that they did that in the manga, it came to a really good stopping point by the end. I haven't watched it in awhile, but it was really fun.

I think that Fushigi Yugi was the first Shojo series that I saw completely. I saw Sailor Moon when I was little, but I barely remember any of it. While it does have its flaws, such as Yui's reason for becoming the villain feeling rather forced, a good portion of the main cast being completely forgettable and the second half of the series being a bit too dark at times, the dramatic tension really works nicely. Even when I was watching the series a second time, there were still times where I still wanted to watch the next episode right away, despite knowing what would happen. I also never really had much of a problem with Miaka, despite how she tends to be brought up when people talk about annoying female leads. I'm not a huge fan of her character and she isn't one of the better female leads I've seen, but she was fine for me for the most part. I've seen all of the OVAs as well. The first one was okay, but it felt really unnecessary when it basically brought us back to where the series officially ended. The second OVA was much better with a more engaging storyline, better climax and a more satisfying finale than the first one. That's really should have been the last one not only because that's where the manga ended from what I've heard, but also because Eikoden was just flat out terrible. The new lead character was completely annoying and unlikable, the story was weak and rushed near the end and it was just so unnecessary. There were a few nice moments here and there and seeing an older Tasuki, my favorite character for his likable and fun personality, was cool, but it wasn't worth the rest of the OVA.

The only Shojo manga I've read are Sailor Moon and Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden. Sailor Moon is much more fun and engaging than I thought it would be and I'm eagerly awaiting the new anime series coming out next year. I've only read the first four volumes though, but it's still a great read. I've only read the first two volumes of Genbu Kaiden, but I love it so much. Takiko is a such a great lead character, as she does have more emotional and personal conflicts to deal with than Miaka did. I like how being a Celestial Warrior is handled differently here than in the first series and the storyline is pretty engaging. I would love for it to be adapted into an anime and it possibly could once the series finishes up, even though that probably wouldn't be for a few years given how it's updated only monthly or so.
 
I love Shugo Chara, Otomen, Hana-Kimi, Vampire Knight, Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Millennium Snow, MeruPuri, and probably others I'm forgetting at the moment...
 
I forgot to mention that I also read the Pretear manga that the anime is adapted from. While I don't think it's as good as the anime, as I thought the villains were less interesting in the manga and the ending was no where near as satisfying, there are a few events and details that I wished were kept in the anime to give a bit more development to one of the characters and add a few more nice moments between the main couple.
 
Ah, how could I forget to mention Fruits Basket? It's one of my most favorites. I love the story and the characters.
 
The thing that bothers me about Fruits Basket is that Tohru is an incredibly boring lead character. She's too nice to the point that she is dull, and it drags down the entire series for me.
 
FinalArcadia said:
The thing that bothers me about Fruits Basket is that Tohru is an incredibly boring lead character. She's too nice to the point that she is dull, and it drags down the entire series for me.
Click to expand...

I agree that Tohru is extremely nice to inhuman levels, but I don't know if that makes her a boring lead character for me. I can see why they made her so incredibly kind for the story and I think it works for what they're going for, but it does prevent her from being more engaging and interesting if she wasn't so nice and understanding all of the time.
 
I used to be really really into shoujo when I first got into manga in middle school, devouring stuff like Tokyo Mew Mew, Sailor Moon and Marmalade Boy. As I've gotten older, my tastes have shifted more toward seinen/josei and the more mature shonen series, and yuri (both the kind aimed at dudes - but not the porny kind - and aimed at queer girls like me) but I still enjoy a good, fluffy shoujo romance from time to time.

But when I was at the "sexism in anime" panel at Otakon, one girl brought up something that's always kind of bugged me about shoujo: compared to shonen, it really doesn't have as much variety, at least in terms of what makes its way over to the U.S. Most of it's either a) formulaic slice-of-life romances, or b) formulaic magical-girl series. It seems like every time I find something I like that I think is shoujo, like Azumanga Daioh or Puella Magi Madoka Magica, I found it technically falls into a different demographic (according to Wikipedia, they're shonen and seinen, respectively).

Oh and I tried Fruits Basket back when it was first getting popular, but as interesting as the Zodiac thing was to me (my final piece for my computer music class was about how the cat was shut out of the Zodiac, in fact, even if it was just a flimsy way to make a narrative out of a bunch of clips of my cats meowing), the fact that Tohru is kind of a boring protagonist like people are saying made it hard for me to get very far with it. From what I remember, she seemed like a cipher for the girls reading, sort of like Bella from Twilight (and I hope that's the last time I ever compare Fruits Basket to Twilight).
 
Last edited:
By the way, if you like the Zodiac theme of Fruits Basket, there's a really cute shoujo series based on the Western Zodiac called Zodiac P.I. I'm not sure if it's still available since it was a Tokyopop series (and this was like 10 years ago when I read it), but it's about a girl who solves mysteries by finding out people's signs and accessing these spirits associated with them. It sounds silly, but it's a lot of fun and can even be pretty dark from time to time, especially toward the end of the series. It's a pretty quick read, too.

ETA: A quick search of Amazon has confirmed that all the volumes are still available. Yay!
 
I always wanted to try Zodiac P.I., but I could never find it in book stores. I should buy it online then. X3
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom