Anime (and manga) aimed mainly at girls. It tends to have female leads, romantic subplots and resolutions involving personal growth. This doesn't mean {{Shojo}} is devoid of action, though. In addition to more traditional romance stories, {{Shojo}} can include tales of [[ActionGirl heroines who kick righteous butt]] -- while pursuing romantic subplots and personal growth. Alternately, {{Shojo}} stories can focus on implied or explicit homosexual relationships between men (see BoysLove for the genre, YaoiGuys for characters outside of the genre), although explicit series are more likely to be {{Josei}} (aimed at young women) -- or the romantic emphasis could also stem from [[GirlsLove relationships between women]]. Some feature all of the above, and usually feature a RomanticCeiling.

Not all romance series are {{shojo}}. {{Shonen}} romances take the boy's perspective ({{Magical Girlfriend}}s and {{Unwanted Harem}}s are both common), and focus on the boy pursuing the girl, or trying to resolve the {{Love Dodecahedron}}. {{Shojo}} romances, by contrast, frequently involve the heroine finding love early in the series, then stick around to watch the couple work through trouble in their relationship.

Shojo manga is typically drawn with thinner lines than {{shonen}} manga, with sparser backgrounds and little (if any) shading -- but, contrariwise, it frequently uses screentone patterns to set the emotional tone of a scene, and frames are rarely solely rectangular and borders are often absent. Character-designs with eyes that are even larger than those usually used in manga and anime (the infamous dinner plate size) are also usually a giveaway that the work in question is shojo--especially when the characters are not children.

{{Shojo}} is technically a demographic (usually identified by the time slot or magazine a story runs in) and shows so classified can fit into any "standard" genre, up to and including martial arts and science fiction. And even this is variable; popular female leads sometimes gain a male fan following, to the degree of the infamous [[PeripheryDemographic older men]] [[LoliCon fanbase]].

Should not be confused with {{bishoujo}}.

Note that the word is correctly romanized as "shōjo" or "shoujo".

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!!Examples:

* ''MarmaladeBoy''
* ''FushigiYuugi''
* ''KareKano'' (aka ''Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyo'', and better known in the US as ''His and Her Circumstances'')
* ''KodomoNoOmocha''
* ''SailorMoon''
* ''SuperGALS! Kotobuki Ran!''
* ''{{Maria-sama ga Miteru}}''
* ''OuranHighSchoolHostClub''
* ''VampireKnight''
* ''YamiNoMatsuei''
* ''ParadiseKiss''
* ''{{Nana}}''
* ''[[{{Saiyuki}} Gensomaden Saiyuki]]''
* Almost anything produced by the creative manga-ka team that goes by the name {{CLAMP}}. Highlights: ''CardcaptorSakura'', ''Tokyo Babylon'', ''{{X1999}}'', ''MagicKnightRayearth''. Exceptions (series aimed at boys): ''{{Chobits}}'', ''AngelicLayer'', ''XXXHolic'', ''TsubasaReservoirChronicle''.
** ''{{X1999}}'' also has a gigantic seinen PeripheryDemographic in America at least, due to the action and insanely dark story.
* ''TokyoMewMew''
* ''MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch''
* ''KamikazeKaitouJeanne''
* ''FullMoonOSagashite''
* ''FutariWaPrettyCure'', ''[[FutariWaPrettyCureSplashStar Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash*Star]]'', ''[[YesPrecure5 Yes! Precure 5]]''
* ''KaitouSaintTail''
* ''CorrectorYui''
* ''KamichamaKarin''
* ''RevolutionaryGirlUtena''
* ''AngelSanctuary''
* ''LovelyComplex''
* ''TheWallflower''
* ''CandyCandy''
* ''RoseOfVersailles''
* ''OniisamaE''
* ''FruitsBasket''
* ''SkipBeat''
* ''GlassMask''
* ''{{Simoun}}''
* ''BeautyPop''
* ''GakuenAlice''
* ''PrincessKnight'', one of the first shoujo manga if not ''the'' first. Created by the "God of {{Manga}}" himself, OsamuTezuka.
* ''PrincessTutu''
* ''DennouCoil'', which sometimes gets mistaken for {{shounen}} because of its emphasis on high-tech action scenes, but still very much fulfills the {{shojo}}-requirements.
* ''HanaYoriDango'' (Boys Over Flowers)
* ''ItazuraNaKiss''
* ''KimiNiTodoke''
* ''SpecialA''
* ''HighSchoolDebut''
* ''KedamonoDamono''
* ''{{Pretear}}''
* ''[=~D.N.Angel~=]''


!! Series sometimes mistaken for shojo

* ''MaisonIkkoku''
* ''AhMyGoddess''
* ''{{ARIA}}'' (Very mellow, but also ''very'' {{seinen}}--although some argue it is {{shonen}}).
* ''KashimashiGirlMeetsGirl'' (Even though the premise is very {{shojo}}-like, the execution is typically {{shonen}}).
* ''StrawberryPanic'' (Well, perhaps for the first half of the first episode)
* ''YokohamaKaidashiKikou''
* ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''
* ''SuzumiyaHaruhi''
* ''IchigoMashimaro'' ([[http://www.amazon.com/Strawberry-Marshmallow-Cute-Does-Vol/dp/B000F3AAMK Amazon.com]] even goes so far as to say that it's obviously targeted at adolescent girls and that boys and older viewers will find it cloying.)
* ''AzumangaDaioh''
* ''LuckyStar''
* ''NodameCantabile''
* ''ShakuganNoShana''
* ''SakuraWars''
* ''{{Clannad}}''

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