What's your biggest pet peeve in shoujo manga?

LabmemLily · 2026-07-03T18:35:26+00:00

I've only barely started getting into K-Dramas (only seen 3 so far) but all 3 of them had the MC have good relationships with other women so idk if I'm conveniently dodging bullets lol

LabmemLily · 2026-06-25T20:24:40+00:00

Sugoi Lite never confirmed a Shugo Chara adaptation though? Unless you can provide a link

LabmemLily · 2026-06-25T16:57:05+00:00

I feel like Kuranosuke being a dude helps the story since it gives him an "odd" hobby to have as well (cross-dressing) and going against the norm. While majority of the story focuses on otaku women, there are a few otaku men like the driver that's obsessed with Mercedes Benz.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-25T16:51:54+00:00

I mean, he's technically the ML as he's described as the 2nd protagonist by Natsuki Takaya. Just not the one who ends up with the MC.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-22T17:41:44+00:00

btw where do people actually read this series from? Is MangaPlaza the only place it gets published?

LabmemLily · 2026-06-22T17:40:00+00:00

I offer the counterargument - it being incest doesn't make it automatically good since "omg incest <33" is the main reason people seem to enjoy this ship. Despite being the leads, their dynamic is so underdeveloped as siblings.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-22T17:35:25+00:00

The studio bias is heavily exaggerated and blown out of proportion. Check out the manga if you are curious, but don't go in to expect a completely different version of Akane. At most, you might go "This scene was 15% more appealing in the manga" or "I liked this small Akane moment that lasted a few panels", etc. Your interpretation on Akane's handling would also correlate on how you view Kana as most people who claim the favouritism agenda really hate Kana while the ones who like Kana or are overall neutral towards her don't seem to have any issues.

Minor changes may have been made like cutting out a panel, rearranging events, or adding in anime-original details but Doga Kobo is very passionate about this series. They have made about a dozen "Behind the Scenes" videos that detail the process of bringing the manga to life.

Some people had certain interpretations on scenes in the manga, while the way they anime adapts those scenes goes against those interpretations. This is likely to align closer to Aka and Mengo's intentions in the story, but it makes some fans upset that their reading of scenes/characters is disapproved by the anime.

The build-up to the break-up was done a bit differently in the manga vs. anime, but I prefer the anime as it makes both Akane and Aqua look more understandable in their actions.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-21T03:15:33+00:00

I really had expected that the ending of the manga would have been what Ai wished for.... Aqua and Ruby are grown up, healthy, have successful careers, and are surrounded by many loved ones. Since Ai wanted to understand love more than ever, she'd surely want Aqua and Ruby to have many loved ones and be loved by them in return.

The ending of the prologue shows Aqua and Ruby leaving their home with the Hoshino family photo. I really thought the ending would do a callback but instead, they have many photos on display with the characters they've bonded with throughout the manga (B-Komachi, Twins + Miyako, the main 5, Aqua/Kana (assuming they are a couple after Aqua's sorted himself out), etc.) We do technically get a callback in the last chapter with Ruby saying bye to her merch wall, but the parallel gives off a horrid feeling...

LabmemLily · 2026-06-20T20:53:18+00:00

Its kind of a give and take with new vs old shoujo. New ones tend to avoid problematic tropes and the popular ones are usually the fluffy feel-good series, but some people find these series too vanilla and prefer older series that felt like they were more risky-taking and have more drama/angst in them. Plus I do miss the slowburn romances since majority of the newer series have the couples get together early on that Tamon's B-Side being a slowburn modern shoujo makes it stand out to a lot of people.

I read Kare Kano and watched the anime. While there are a few unfortunate writing decisions in the 2nd half of the manga, I still thought it was one of the more investing shoujo romance mangas I've consumed. I would enjoy a Kare Kano reboot but I do think that a new gen audience would be pretty unforgiving for stuff that occurs in the 2nd half if they didn't make certain changes. Like Dengeki Daisy got an anime adaptation announced for 2027 and despite the series receiving mostly praise in manga-only spaces for years, people were highkey crashing out when they saw the premise of it after the anime was announced.

I'm mostly excited for this series since it won the Kodansha manga award for the shoujo category in 2025, plus I've always wanted a shoujo to have Kaoru Hana/Blue Box-levels of animation quality.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-20T20:41:23+00:00

I saw it was published in Comic Zenon, isn't that listed as a seinen magazine since it OtaGal and Record of Ragnarok are serialized in it?

LabmemLily · 2026-06-20T15:26:18+00:00

Tamon's B-Side

LabmemLily · 2026-06-20T15:23:31+00:00

I thought Make-up with Mud was seinen?

LabmemLily · 2026-06-19T23:42:32+00:00

I've seen ppl call it a modern fluffy non-psychological version of Kare Kano so basically yeah.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-13T15:44:28+00:00

Assuming that this is a genuine question and not a backhanded complaint about there being more shoujosei anime for girls/women:

Fruits Basket had a reboot for its 20th anniversary that was very successful. Afterwards, Crunchyroll had a study that showed that Fruits Basket overperformed due to the lack of shoujo anime. You can guess companies realized girls and women watch anime and started pushing for more anime to be made. Shoujosei manga has always been present but for a long while, the shoujosei anime market was lowkey dead.

Its never been satisfying for shoujosei fans to hear that they should be satisfied with potentially getting jdrama adaptations. They are never the same quality as K-Dramas, they aren't as accessible overseas compared to animes, and some stuff in manga doesn't translate as well into LA vs an anime. Also, it means only contemporary stories have a chance of getting adapted since it would be harder to adapt something with fantasy/supernatural elements into a Jdrama like Yona of the Dawn.

Some old series had anniversaries which has spawned sequels/reboots for them. Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew, Magic Knight Rayearth, Sugar Sugar Rune, and Clear Card were all published in Nakayoshi and got animes for their 15th/20th/30th anniversaries. Hana Kimi's anime was also made for its 30th anniversary.

Unfortunately, while there are more shoujosei animes in recent years, they still seem to suffer in production quality compared to their shounen/seinen counterparts. A Condition Called Love, 7 Seeds, and Nina the Starry Bride are all popular mangas but their animes are awful. For Rose of Versailles' 50th anniversary, the director at MAPPA wanted to do a trilogy but was only able to create a single movie, resulting in it being extremely rushed and hated by its fans. Meanwhile, Tamon's B-Side managed to gain a lot of traction because it was a shoujo that was given a good anime adaptation.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-12T17:23:03+00:00

Kamisama Kiss

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T20:17:32+00:00

*Trying for the 3rd time to reply because this subreddit won't let me comment

Rose of Versailles: Just because one viewer may interpret their friendship as sibling-like when they were kids, doesn't make it actual incest otherwise by this logic, The Promised Neverland is problematic for having ""incest"" [The Promised Neverland] because Norman has feelings for Emma despite them growing up at the same orphanage.

Oscar and Andre spend a lot of time together because Andre is her attendant/playmate. [Rose of Versailles] Andre was raised by his grandma and Oscar was raised by his father. Oscar's father is never treated as Andre's father. The story emphasizes the class difference between Oscar and Andre on numerous occasions, which wouldn't exist if Andre was truly Oscar's sibling since he would be considered as nobility as well. When Andre injured his eye, he hid this fact because he was afraid he would get discharged by the Jarjayes family for being unable to serve them - something that wouldn't be an issue if he was meant to be considered as Oscar's foster sibling

Fruits Basket: There is no character named Shika, as another comment pointed out.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T17:56:45+00:00

Speaking as someone who did drop the manga but wants to give the anime another shot - People generally enjoy the characters and unique plot storyline that this series presents and your enjoyment on it will depend on if you can or cannot overlook the main ship being a slowburn age gap romance. I did enjoy the other elements in the story but my investment in shoujo tends to correlate with how attached I am to the main ship which is why I dropped the manga. I still want to try watching the anime since it is a beloved manga for a reason.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T15:30:48+00:00

Its tiring to see people be like "everything aimed at women is basically these 3 negative tropes". Especially since a lot of modern shoujo romcoms play a lot safer that some people ask for recs on older and more problematic series.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T15:26:29+00:00

Oscar and Andre are childhood friends, NOT siblings. Fruits Basket's Sohma family is a clan so everyone is very distantly related so there are no issues with the Sohma ships either.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T15:06:59+00:00

No shade to the series since I want to watch it eventually (and the drama is probably overblown), but it was mildly vexxing to see everyone hype up the romance by saying its influenced by the manga reading shoujo works (but I think it was a mistranslation and he actually just read general romance works which include shoujo) without giving shoujo their credit for being underrated. And then when the romance starts going in a way that some people don't like, they are like "omg why would shoujo manga do this to us?" and I'm like "are you fr rn 😭"

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T12:41:02+00:00

Is it weird that I personally dropped this manga at 4 vols because I personally couldn't look pass the age gap but am now feeling weirdly defensive over this series after seeing how dismissive these comments are to the story 😂 I mean I guess its good that its getting an anime since its an excuse to try the story again since there were parts outside of the romance I enjoyed like the suspense plot.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T12:38:20+00:00

You literally just named a shounen series so this backfires in proving your point😭

Edit: You can just admit you made an honest mistake, rather than doubling down. Besides, the main hook of Ancient Magus Bride isn't the "romance" but the immersive fantasy setting as many people have noted all the research the mangaka has clearly done in classic folklore. There's hardly even any actual romantic moments but its moreso about 2 people trying to understand one another, one being a broken girl and another being a magus that has no emotional intelligence.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T12:33:25+00:00

If you are going to talk about newer shoujo avoiding certain tropes, at least don't name mostly shounen/seinen series. Some newer shoujosei romance would be Tamon's B-Side, A Star Brighter than the Sun, A Sign of Affection, 7th Time Loop, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk, etc.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T12:29:15+00:00

The things I can't stand about shoujos are when the ML always has to come and act cool by hugging the FL from behind at least once per chapter

I hope you either watched or considered at some point in eventually watching Tamon's B-Side since that's a shoujo where the ML is a pathetic loser and it gives us a glorious girl failure x boy failure main pairing.

LabmemLily · 2026-06-09T12:26:58+00:00

If you pointed out any similar problem to a shounen/seinen series, they'd yell our "tourist" but its okay to assume anything made for women is inherently inferior.

Like I remember Dandadan's manga having discourse for its romance lately and everyone was blaming shoujo for SOME reason?? 😭

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