Best Shojo Manga Of All Time

Shojo manga – they’re all a bunch of fluffy love stories with the odd magical girl adventure, aren’t they? Not quite. Sure, given that many of them are aimed at young girls, they do tend to be on the cutesy, sparkly side of things most of the time. But many can offer the kind of drama, horror, and chaos that shōnen manga often only touches upon.

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In fact, without some of the best and brightest shojo manga, some of their gnarlier, more masculine rivals might not exist, as they’ve inspired creators of different media to push past their boundaries. Whether they are cuddly romances, magical girl adventures, harsh historical epics, or crime thrillers, these are just some of the best shojo manga ever made.

10

My Love Mix-Up!

A Fast-Rising Star in Shojo BL Manga

• Creators: Wataru Hinekure (story), Aruko (art)
• 9 Volumes, 39 Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Shojo Beat imprint

Even when it’s not the focus, a lot of the top shojo manga still have at least a sprinkle of romance somewhere. Though it’s not always a case of girl-meets-boy. It can be boy-meets-boy instead, as shojo magazines have featured BL tales for years. Yet one of the most highly-rated shojo BL strips around, My Love Mix-Up, is relatively new, having ended back in 2022. It started simply, with Aoki crushing on a girl called Mio.

But she had the name of their classmate, Ida, on her eraser, making him think she was taken. But Ida picked it up and thought it was Aoki’s, leading him to think he was crushing on him instead. Aoki tries to clear things up without outing Mio, and in the process ends up forming a real bond with him. It’s a romcom of errors, though one told so tenderly it caught on quickly, gaining live-action adaptations in both Japan and Thailand.

9

Hana Yori Dango

How a Floral Romance Bloomed into a Shojo Classic

• Creator: Yoko Kamio
• 37 Volumes, 244 Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media

Fans might be more familiar with Hana Yori Dango (“Boys Over Flowers”) from its anime series, its live-action adaptation, the Taiwanese series Meteor Garden, its Chinese remake Meteor Shower, and maybe even from its drama CD, which featured Takuya Kimura of SMAP and Judgment fame in his acting debut. Yet its status as an Asian phenomenon all began with the original manga.

Its story of a middle-class girl, Tsukushi, standing up to a group of bullying boys at the prestigious Eitoku Academy made it the top romantic drama manga of the mid-1990s, to the point where it became one of the best-selling manga ever made. It still holds the Guinness World Record for being the shojo strip with the most published copies by a single author.

8

Sailor Moon

The Anime Icon is Just as Strong in Print

• Creator: Naoko Takeuchi
• 18 Volumes, 61 Chapters
• Available in English via Kodansha Comics USA

Likewise, Sailor Moon has grown beyond its manga origins to become the most famous magical girl shojo franchise in the world. From its multiple animated adaptations, books, novels, stage shows, ice skating show(!), live-action shows, etc., the Sailor Guardians have become as iconic as Dragon Ball’s Goku or Mobile Suit Gundam’s RX-78-2 Gundam.

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Still, the original manga version of Usagi realizing her destiny as Sailor Moon has all the twists and turns of the anime series. It just cranked the drama up further, as the Guardians and their foes were more fleshed out in Nakayoshi‘s pages than broadcasters on either side of the Pacific could allow. Particularly Minako, aka Sailor Venus, who technically started the whole series off in her Codename: Sailor V strip.

7

Cardcaptor Sakura

Still at the Top of the Tree of CLAMP’s Shojo Series

• Creators: CLAMP
• 12 Volumes, 10 Chapters
• Available in English via Dark Horse Combos

No shojo list would be complete without a manga by CLAMP, though narrowing down which one is their best shojo work can be tricky. X/1999’s complex tale of mixed mythologies, homoerotic romance, and warfare is heavy, though incomplete. Magic Knight Rayearth is an underrated early isekai style that blends the magical girl and mecha genres. Some may even prefer the unfinished Clover and where its story could’ve gone.

Yet it’s hard to overlook Cardcaptor Sakura. Sailor Moon became more iconic, but CLAMP’s own magical girl tale became just as emblematic of magical girl and shojo series. Part of this is down to its simple premise, as seeing Sakura try to gather the Clow Cards makes it an easy read. But it took CLAMP’s strong character designs, interactions, and narrative turns that kept readers enthralled until the end and beyond.

6

Fruits Basket

More Than a Reverse Harem

• Creator: Natsuki Takaya
• 23 Volumes, 136 Chapters
• Available in English via Yen Press

Fruits Basket almost feels like the shojo equivalent of Ranma ½, in that it’s also a romcom story with multiple suitors (albeit more like a love triangle than a harem) that involves magical transformations into animals based on Chinese mysticism. It’s just a bit more direct, as the orphaned Tohru discovers her embrace can turn the male relatives of her foster family, the Sohma clan, into animals from the Chinese Zodiac.

Though while both stories are romcoms, Fruits Basket plays up its domestic drama more than Ranma ½. Tohru is isolated and ostracized by others, while the Sohma Clan is held together by both the curse that afflicts them, and the abusive manipulations of their head, Akito Sohma. But it makes their plight all the more endearing to readers, as Tohru finds her place with the Sohmas and tries to free them from their curse.

5

Skip Beat!

How Following a Dream Can Repair a Broken Heart

• Creator: Yoshiki Nakamura
• 51+ Volumes, 331+ Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Shojo Beat imprint

Love may conquer all, but spite can be a good motivator, too. In Skip Beat, Kyoko did all she could to support her childhood friend Shotaro in his dream of becoming an idol in Tokyo. He repaid her by being cold and demeaning, treating her like house help and outright calling her a “doormat.” So, in revenge, she tries to make it into the entertainment business to upstage him.

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It caught on because it foregoes a standard romcom tale to focus more on Kyoko’s growing love for performing. It would be one thing to show up Shotaro at his own game. But by regaining her joie de vivre through acting, singing, and dancing for her self-worth, it becomes something more fulfilling, and a sweeter goal than anything vengeance could offer.

4

The Rose Of Versailles

Still One of the Best Historical Shojo Stories Ever Made

• Creator: Riyoko Ikeda
• 10 Volumes, 82 Chapters
• Available in English via Udon Entertainment

The Rose of Versailles almost needs no introduction, as its tale of Marie Antoinette and her bodyguard, Oscar Francois de Jarjayes, a woman raised as a man, became the historical shojo story to read in the 1970s, and hasn’t lost its power in the past fifty years either. Its complex approach toward history, sexuality, gender expression, and French culture made it one of the most influential manga ever made.

Its gritty story showed shojo could be harsh and heart-rending, influencing people across genres to take similar directions, like Berserk’s Kentaro Miura. While its gender-bending broadened ideas of who or what a woman could be, making it a popular subject for stage plays (notably by the all-female Takarazuka Revue) and inspired later series that played with the blurred lines between gender and sexuality, like Revolutionary Girl Utena.

3

Banana Fish

A Shojo Strip Showing Hard Life on the Streets

• Creator: Akimi Yoshida
• 19 Volumes, 110 Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Pulp Graphic Novel imprint

The Rose of Versailles showed that shojo could get brutal, though given the series is fifty years old, it might be tricky to find. At least in comparison to its more modern counterparts, like Banana Fish, which skips 1780s France in favor of 1980s New York, as gang leader Ash Lynx chases down a conspiracy involving the titular drug, which brings him face to face with the mobsters who abused him.

One could almost mistake it for a shōnen/seinen story, with its largely male cast and graphic violence. Yet it doesn’t use them to make Ash look like a tough guy. If anything, it shows how much Ash suffers on his journey, what he’s lost to it along the way, and emphasizes his yearning for a normal life. It’s a rather psychological take that makes many of its shōnen rivals feel like child’s play by comparison.

2

Nana

Josei-Level Maturity in a Shojo Strip

• Creator: Ai Yazawa
• 21 Volumes, 84 Chapters (on hiatus)
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Shojo Beat imprint

Not that a shojo story needs explicit violence or mature content to be grown-up. On the surface, Nana is all about two friends, Nana O and Nana K, whose dreams of becoming a famous musician and finding love in the big city respectively end up clashing and intertwining with each other. No criminal conspiracies, no burgeoning revolutions, but it does involve fame a la Skip Beat!

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Romance is part of Nana’s appeal, but it’s also about the ins and outs of the music industry, from inter-band drama, substance abuse, and the pressure press attention can bring. This, combined with its intertwining love affairs, can make for engaging reading. While not as stark or bloody as The Rose of Versailles or Banana Fish, Nana is just as powerful in its storytelling.

1

Yona Of The Dawn

A Shojo Manga That’s Epic in Scale and Storytelling

• Creator: Mizuho Kusanagi
• 45+ Volumes, 269+ Chapters
• Available in English via Viz Media’s Shojo Beat imprint

Yona of the Dawn’s synopsis makes it seem like a simple tale of Princess Yona trying to reclaim her kingdom of Kouka from her crush-turned-enemy, Su-won. But it gets more complex than that, as Yona’s journey to bring the fabled Dragon Warriors back shows her what life outside the royal court is truly like, and that even Su-won may have had his reasons for his coup d’etat.

This nuance, among many more of its features, has made it one of the most engaging fantasy tales in print, let alone just within the shojo genre. Its broad range of characters, subplots, and themes of rebellion, upheaval and an uneasy peace have made it as epic in its storytelling as in its length. Anyone who caught its anime adaptation only got a taste of what its still-ongoing manga offers readers in full.

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