The
demographic category of 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
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
Boys' Love Genre for the genre,
Yaoi Guys for characters outside of the genre), or the romantic emphasis could also stem from
relationships between women. Some feature all of the above, and usually feature a
Relationship Ceiling.
Although series with explicit sexuality are more likely to be
Josei (aimed at young women), some Shojo may have considerable sexual content; a subgenre called
Teens Love (by analogy to Boys Love) features erotic romance between heterosexual couples, with much the same narrative conventions (
abusive boyfriends,
sexual coercion, and
Angst; or, alternately,
shmoopy romance,
ecstatic lovemaking, and
Happily Ever After). This stuff tends to snuggle up as close to the "Restricted" (18+) category as it can, and so isn't often licensed for translation.
Not all romance series are Shojo.
Shōnen romances take the boy's perspective (
Magical Girlfriends and
Harem Series are both common), and focus on the boy pursuing the girl, or trying to resolve the
Love Dodecahedron. If it doesn't have that, a
Shōnen romance tends to
end with a declaration of love and its acceptance. 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
older men fanbase. Anything
Magical Girl is usually Shojo by default.
But there are exceptions, specifically made for said lolicon fanbase.
Should not be confused with
bishoujo. Or the
Order of the Stick character of the same name.
Note that the word is correctly romanized as "shōjo" or "shoujo".
Examples:
- Almost anything produced by the creative all-female mangaka team that goes by the name CLAMP. Highlights:
- Cherry Juice
- The Cherry Project
- Chibi Maruko Chan
- Corrector Yui
- Crown
- Cute X Guy
- Crescent Moon
- Dengeki Daisy
- Dennou Coil, which sometimes gets mistaken for shounen because of its emphasis on high-tech action scenes, but the manga adaptation ran in a shoujo magazine.
- Desire Climax
- Devil And Her Love Song
- D.N. Angel
- Fairy Navigator Runa
- Faster Than A Kiss
- From Far Away
- Fruits Basket
- Full Moon O Sagashite
- Fushigi Yuugi
- Futari wa Pretty Cure
- Gakuen Alice
- GDGD-DOGS
- Gensomaden Saiyuki - technically only the sequel, as the original is shounen
- Girl Got Game (Power!!)
- Glass Mask (Glass no Kamen), one of the Long Runners in shoujo manga, having been there since 1976.
- Gokinjo Monogatari
- Haikara San Ga Tooru
- Hakuouki
- Hana No Kishi
- Hana No Ko Lunlun
- Hana No Namae
- Hana To Akuma
- Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers)
- Haou Airen
- Hibiki No Mahou
- High School Debut
- Honey Honey No Suteki Na Bouken - one of the first shojo manga series that became successful, being written by a woman.
- Honoo No Alpen Rose
- Hot Gimmick
- I'm Here!
- Immortal Rain
- ION
- Itazura Na Kiss
- Kaichou wa Maid-sama!
- Kaitou Saint Tail
- Kamichama Karin
- Kamikami Kaeshi
- Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
- Kamisama Kiss
- Karakuri Odette
- Kare Kano (aka Kareshi Kanojo no Jijyo, and better known in the US as His and Her Circumstances)
- Kare wa Tomodachi
- Kedamono Damono
- Kilala Princess
- Kimi ni Todoke
- Kirarin Revolution
- Kitchen Princess
- Kodomo no Omocha
- Koko Ni Iru Yo
- Koko Wa Greenwood - Subverts the standards by having an all-male lead cast despite not being a Boys' Love Genre series. In addition, the major romance between the main protagonist and a secondary female character is told from his point of view.
- Kurobara Alice
- Kyou Kara Maou
- Life
- Love Celeb
- Lovely Complex
- Mademoiselle Butterfly
- Magical X Miracle
- Mamotte Lollipop
- Magical Pokémon Journey'
- Magic User's Club
- Maria-sama ga Miteru
- Marmalade Boy
- Mars
- Mekakushi no Kuni
- Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch
- Monkey High!
- My Heavenly Hockey Club
- Musashi Number Nine
- Nana
- Neo Angelique
- NGLife
- Nine Puzzle
- Noein - Like Dennou Coil, it has important action components, but the emphasis of the series remains on the friendships and relationships between Haruka's friends and the time-travellers.
- Nurse Angel Ririka SOS
- Oke No Monshou - Along with Glass Mask, this manga is among the longest runners in here, since it has been around ever since 1976.
- Oniisama e...
- Ore-sama Teacher
- Otomen
- Ouran High School Host Club is both an example and an Affectionate Parody of the genre.
- Papa no Iukoto o Kikinasai!
- Penguin Revolution
- Pixie Pop
- Plain Love
- Pretear
- Princess Ai
- Princess Knight (AKA Ribon no Kishi), one of the earliest shoujo manga, but not the very first. Created by the "God of Manga" himself, Osamu Tezuka.
- Princess Tutu
- Private Actress
- Psychic Detective Yakumo
- Pure Trance
- Reimei No Arcana
- Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Rose Of Versailles
- Sailor Moon
- Seiho Boys High School
- Seimaden
- Seiyuu-Ka!
- Sensual Phrase
- Shinshi Doumei Cross
- Shiro no Eden
- Shugo Chara!
- Silver Diamond
- Simoun
- Skip Beat!
- Sora Log
- Special A
- Stardust Wink
- Strobe Edge
- Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran
- Swan
- Sweet Black
- Tail of the Moon
- Tenshi Nanka Ja Nai
- Ten Yori Mo Hoshi Yori Mo
- Time Stranger Kyoko
- Tokimeki Tonight
- Tokyo Mew Mew
- Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
- Towa Kamo Shirenai
- Until The Full Moon
- Usotsuki Lily
- Vampire Knight
- Vassalord
- Venus Capriccio
- The Wallflower
- Watashi ni XX Shinasai!
- Wild Ones
- Wedding Peach
- W Juliet
- Yami No Matsuei
- Yumeiro Patissiere
- Zettai Heiwa Daisakusen
Series sometimes mistaken for shojo:
- Ah! My Goddess- Living out little boys' fantasies = seinen
- ARIA is hard to pin down; it contains some definite shojo elements, but also some of seinen and josei, considering the more thoughtful subjects it sometimes touches upon. Still, it first got published in a shonen magazine, so the general consensus is to label it as such.
- Azumanga Daioh: Like Lucky Star, it's a shonen.
- Clannad: Another seinen. (Fanservice = for boys)
- Vision of Escaflowne: actually a mix of both Shojo and Shonen genres, it features a Shojo heroine and a Shonen hero.
- Eureka Seven It jumps into several genres with such frequency that pinning it down is nearly impossible, but it ran in Shonen Ace and is therefore officially shonen.
- Haruhi Suzumiya
- Honey and Clover - Like Nodame Cantabile below, it's actually josei, and they lump it in with shoujo.
- Ichigo Mashimaro - very moe seinen (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.)
- Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl (Even though the premise is very shojo-like, the execution is typically shonen).
- Lucky Star- Even though most main characters are girls and dealing with "girly" subjects, it's still a shonen.
- Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha (Again, despite being a Magical Girl show, fanservice = for boys)
- Maison Ikkoku: Rumiko Takahashi is known for her cross-genre appeal to both shojo and shonen fans, but this one ran in a seinen magazine.
- Nodame Cantabile - Close, but it's actually josei. Most Westerners haven't heard of josei, so they lump it in with shojo so they don't get confused.
- Pita-Ten
- Sakura Wars (It's based on a Dating Sim. What do you think?)
- Shakugan No Shana
- Strawberry Panic! (Despite having "strawberry" in the title which is typical of shojo, TOW says it's a seinen.)
- Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou
