[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Panuru

Honey & Clover: more mature than most romantic anime, but with some crazy stuff in it. It's really good speaking of animation, but it's even better speaking of analysis and characterization. It's also a very entertaining series, I must say. It gets some time to get used to it though.

Oh yeah, this series is insanely popular in Japan right now. I'd like to see it, but I think I won't get a chance to. I heard it's really good, but are the love triangles going on in there really annoying? And how are the characters?

Originally Posted by Panuru

Aishiteruze Baby: it's cute. But not in a silly or completely pointless way. It's about "love" according to a wider meaning of the term: love for the self, for the family, for a person of the opposite sex... It's about many ways of expressing love and respect.

A long time ago, I used to see this series on the shelves of the Japanese bookshop I go to, but it didn't intrigue me, so I never checked it out. I may take a look into it now if the anime is good.

Anyway, here are some of my recommendations, some which are not entirely romance since, as Panuru said, shoujo doesn't only relate to romantic interactions or plots.

Super GALS (Licensed): At first glance, the series might look uber-annoying, but it's really not so bad (and coming from me with a lack of tolerance and a temper, that's saying something, hehe). It's mostly about the "rebellious" girls who call themselves kogals/ko-gals (a trend in Japan around 1999 where girls dressed in clothing representing what "America" was about: Hawaiian prints, cowboy hats, bleached blonde hair, etc.) and about their daily lives in love, friendship, adventure and stuff like that. It's very silly in many ways, but it does deal with some dramatic issues involving the 3 main characters. And there is always a positive message at the end, which I feel gives girls (younger or a little older) optimism and hope and a good feeling.

Paradise Kiss (Japan NEW): I think this is the second series from Ai Yazawa (the mangaka) which is turned into an anime (the first is Gokinjo Monogatari but it's only available in Japan and it's quite old ). This series is about Yukari, your average, hardworking highschooler who is destitute with life. She then meets the "Paradise Kiss" gang, a group of 4 highschoolers who are striving to be upcoming fashion designers and go to a prestigious high school of fashion in Tokyo. For an major competition, they need a model to model their fashions, so they ask Yukari. And this is where her adventure and her new outlook on life and her future begins. It's a very nice series which I feel that girls who are unclear on life can relate to. Yukari can be a bit of those fussy, annoying type girls, but other elements and characters really make the series shine.

That's what I have for now, I have to think about it some more. I don't watch or know much shoujo series because I mostly read manga, so if you don't mind manga recommendations, here are a couple you can check out:

NANA (NANAxNANA): Okay, another one by Ai Yazawa and her current running one. I don't know why, but I just absolutely love this series to death and compared to ParaKiss, it's much better. It's about two girls named Nana (one is Nana Komatsu and the other is Nana Oosaki). Oosaki is in a punk band and the other is supposed to be an art student. After complications in their lives, they both decide to start a new life in Tokyo and while renting apartments, they happen to apply for the same one, finding out their same names. They decide to just live together and their stories start from there. It's a great series about life and love and my crappy summary does it no justice. This has been translated into English, I saw the first volume at American bookstores (maybe it's there in the UK too), so check it out if you'd like.

Hanazakari No Kimitachi E (For You in Full Blossoms): It's a very long series but it finally ended some months ago. I honestly don't know much about it because it's only in Japanese but from what I got of it, this girl named Ashiya, Mizuki decides to go to this all boys private school (I don't know why) and she develops this crush on this guy named Sano, Izumi, the dark-haired, quiet, mysterious guy in school. Of course, he didn't know she was a girl, but the truth gets revealed soon. I haven't gotten all the volumes, so I don't know why it went on for so long, but this series is one of those rare series where it has that sweet, innocent romance to it while being hilarious at the same time, which makes this series a good one. I don't think it's translated into English though.

I'll just leave it at that for now and think of some more later.