best shoujos ever!!!!!!!!

it’s honestly so hard to find a shoujo manga where the guy loves the girl as much as the girl loves him and doesn’t do things like make her needlessly insecure or jealous or blackmail her. haruna and koh are genuinely one of my favorite shoujo couples in the ways they communicate with one another and love each other through all their faults and shortcomings. they make each other better people.

this was one of my first shoujos i read back in elementary and i’m so glad i did.

was annoyed w otani the entire time. half the series he leads koizumi on. even when hes realized he likes her back, he cant communicate properly and gets mad at her for thinking theyre just friends. mcs so sweet and yet she falls for an idiot who makes her feel constantly insecure. wld it kill you to be nice to your own gf? nobu sucks too for pushing mc towards him even when she wanted to move on.

did i enjoy their dynamic? yes. did i like otani? no. am i gonna put this in the list anyway? yes

nanami is a naive first year who ends up falling in love with the school’s idol, yano despite their first meeting being rocky. and it’s a slippery slope because lo and behold, pretty boy has a truck load of trauma from his ex who frequently cheated on him and died soon after. i want to say the angst and heartache is worth it, but it honestly isn’t. the way the story is dragged out was infuriating. both mcs resolve to give up on one another countless times only to crumble again. honestly peeved.

absolutely one of the worst of the worst couples to grace shoujo. kotoko may be a little slow, but her heart is always in the right place. but somehow her heart is set on irie, who is the most detestable human being who has ever been writen into existence. i hate him with every fiber of my being. he is rude, arrogant, abusive and terrible to kotoko (who BECOMES HIS WIFE BTW) throughout the entire series. he’s maybe nice to her once or twice just to keep her on her toes. i wish she left him.

erika and kyouya’s relationship starts out with blackmail—and there is no way that ends well, except somehow it does. kyouya is downright just MEAN to her for a long time, even when they begin dating for real which was annoying. but he actually does warm up to her a lot later on. points for that, but deductions for it taking so long. if you like her just… be nice to her? he makes her so insecure all the time. the ending was surprisingly cute and satisfying though! i love erika so much.

this singlehandedly changed the face of shoujo manga as we see it today. dozens of mangakas took tropes from this. call it shoujo revolution. anyways, it's your classic run-of-the-mill resilient, poor girl meets snobby rich boy. but i really did enjoy the development of their characters and relationships with not only each other, but other side characters as well. sure some of the events were questionable if not mildly triggering, but it shapes up nicely despite being utterly ridiculous.

another classic poor-girl-meets-wealthy guy arranged marriage type deal. this was an absolute train wreck of a plot. like down to every last detail. but its one of those disasters you find yourself unable to look away from. i remember being in middle school and picking this up solely for the beautiful art so theres that. points for the main couple actually being tender and in love (for the most part—like aside from the abuse and sexual harassment in the first few volumes). moderately quick read.

i liked this. i genuinely enjoyed reading this despite all of its (many) shortcomings. firstly, usagi shouldve ended up with goemon. he loved her so unconditionally and accepted her as she was. hanzo was unnecessarily cruel to her for a greater majority of the story? and i usually love female leads but usagi kinda got on my nerves a few times. she never seemed to grow as a person. her main character growth wasnt even shown because of a timeskip. it felt jarring and out of place. #teamgoemon

this one was one i didnt originally plan on rereading for the sake of this list mostly due to remembering it fondly. aside from the classic romance trope of miscommunication (which in this case didnt even bother me much) this series checked all the boxes for me. none of the characters were overly cynical or evil, just funny little high schoolers at the peak of their angst and adolescence. even though most loose ends were tied, it still felt lacking to me, which is why i would only give it a 4/5.

five stars just is not enough for this masterpiece of a shoujo. tomoe and nanami are destined. they complete each other in every way. i adore how nanami was never made out to be the weak damsel in distress. she fought her own battles—so much so that it made even the immortal and unbeatable tomoe feel like he was unreliable to her. she is by far one of the greatest protagonists in shoujo, or maybe ever. sometimes it’s silly when every character falls for the mc, but it’s truly believable for her.