http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/urami_koi_koi_urami_koi/ - Zodiac concept & the characters are loveable
http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/340_days/?RKJu - I love the Universe (▰˘◡˘▰)
Ironically enough, I actually love the first few shoujo works by Hino Matsuri of Vampire Knight. I wouldn’t recommend Vampire Knight if you’re looking for a coherent, wholesome shoujo romance that’s worth the emotional fulfillment vs total volumes to read, though the characters *are* pretty hawt. And vampires are my favourite trope, so it’s pretty telling that I’m not pitching for it, lmao. The two works I DO recommend are Captive Hearts and MeruPuri. Neither really feature the fantasy motifs you mentioned, but they both feature supernatural elements, and the romance definitely made my heart skip some beats and gave me that delicious chest clench :P Captive Hearts is about the inseparable bond between two families: the Kuroishi clan is compelled to serve the Kogami clan with their very mind, body and soul for one hundred generations. Fourteen years ago, the entire Kogami family mysteriously disappeared. The head butler, Yoshimi, and his son Megumi reside in the Kogami house, living a life of wealth, riches, and luxury, until one member of the family is discovered alive and well in China. Megumi is determined to refuse to serve his new mistress Suzuka when she returns, but he quickly learns that the compulsion to serve is not one he can ignore; it is a dark and evil curse. What starts off as a reluctant partnership blossoms into a genuine romance, and they two adventure off into far lands and fantastical mishaps to break the curse. For Hino’s first work, it’s written very well—Megumi is at times a ridiculous, bumbling male lead, but it makes him quite lovable and endearing. The leading pair are more nuanced and developed as characters than I think most shoujo characters are, which I loved—they were sensible, flawed, and had depth. MeruPuri, on the other hand, is about a hopelessly romantic high school girl who’s ultimate goal in life is to get married and live a nice, simple life, but her ambitions are thrown off-track when a little boy from a magical kingdom crashes into her life from an heirloom mirror. Craziness ensues in the form of magic spells, fantasy lore, an evil wizard brother, etc—unsurprisingly, they fall in love along the way. Honestly, I think the characters aren’t nearly as relatable/well-written/fleshed out as Captive Hearts, and a lot of ridiculous things happen, but I still couldn’t put the books down—the romance was really enticing and sizzling, if nothing else. Word of warning, though: the male lead Aram seems to canonically be a 7 year old boy who’s instantly aged into a high school-aged male because of some curse, and that makes it okay for him to get the hots on with our female lead, who’s like 15...? God, I don’t remembered if they tried to justify it like “Oh but he’s from a different world, what does age mean in this context anyway haha” or whatever, but it’s definitely kinda yikes if you think about it. I just ignored that fact and tried to enjoy the story irrespective of that, but if that fends you off, totally understandable. I hope you enjoy these stories or whichever ones you end up reading!! :>
Holy Jesus that took me a while to read
LMAO SORRY
Any shoujo manga that is a romance fantasy that just makes you happy. Like the plot is good, the relationship is a good build up, people are (somewhat) reasonable. Anything with gods, demons, angels, vampires, kings, reincarnation would be awesome!! Thank you so much in advance!