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[Meiko]

Scorp asked to not post anything regarding romance and so on. Since I'm a girl and I like this kind of stuff too (and I think I'm not the only one!), this thread is for posting recommendations regarding series that are more focused on romance! It can be school-life, drama, comedy, sci-fi... whatever! But has to have some romantic plot in it!

Thanks for your suggestions

[Pu the Owl]

Hmmm... Ok... here's some suggestion:

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.

Kimi Ga Nozomu Eien: well... it's the kind of series which makes you ask questions about finding yourself in certain situations. Not one of my fave things, but if you like anime that are all about tragic romance and love triangles, it could be good for you.

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.

Midori No Hibi: not sure about this one. Sure it's sweet and weird at the same time. I think it's more classic than other series, even if the way events are unfolded is very bizarre.

I'm so tired... maybe I'll post more later... now I can't even think

PS: but... you meant to post recommendations for shoujo series or for romance only series? I posted following the second option... if you want to have suggestions for shoujo in general I'll post some other title as well, since not all shoujo are about only about romance.

[Rei]

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.

Is this good? Really? Because I didn't like the screenshots of the main character (I don't know if it's the main character... looks like it is), that little girl with blonde hair.

[Pu the Owl]

Originally Posted by Rei

that little girl with blonde hair.

Hagu is not the main character and she's not a little girl. In fact at the beginning of the story, she's already 18 She's a cool character, sort of very naive girl, her ways are the ones of a child from many points of view, but she's a genius when it comes to painting.

[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.

[Pu the Owl]

Honey & Clover isn't as banal as it may seem just reading something about it or looking at the various artworks. I wasn't going to watch it since it looked so very cliché: the group of young college students, the romance etc... at the beginning the show is very confusing, since the story is not very clear, there are definitely too many characters to start with, and events are apparently not in a strict chronological or thematic order. Most of the time everything, from single facts to characters' thoughts and memories are more like a stream of consciousness. It took me a few episodes to get used to this kind of "pattern" of narration. Comedy and drama are also mixed together, sometimes you can't say what'll happen next. I like how characters are always deeply analyzing their situation. Love triangles aren't annoying because of that, because you get to know the inner feelings and motivations of each character, and in every moment you get to know why they act in a certain way (it's true some characters are more "mysterious" than others and you are left wondering what are their motivations when you compare their actions to the ones of other characters). Also, in H&C there's nothing superfluous. There's never a surplus of emotions or overreactions, so it's hardly annoying. It's all very measured. Every dramatic moment has its complement in some very funny scene or absurd situation. That gives you time to reflect on what you see without being too focused on the emotional side.
Well, at least that's how I see it

As for Aishiteruze Baby, this is a series you can watch when you don't want to be too much involved. I mean, it's nice, it's cute, it has the right amount of everything, but it's mainly good when your interest is to watch something that has a certain feeling to it without being too much absorbed. I recommend it when you want to watch something with a very optimistic message, or when you're in the mood for something cheerful with the right amount of everyday's little tragedies and misunderstandings

Regarding Hanakimi... I had an online friend who was completely in love with this series. But it was the manga. It was... 3 years ago. I didn't know they were making the anime too.

[Uchiha Sasuke]

I would advise Please (Onegai) Teacher! Its been around for a good while and I finally got around to watching it. Its an anime that really touched my heart and at some points had me really feeling for the characters more so than any series I ever watched.

Heres a summary I found

The story is about Kei, a guy who accidentally hangs out at the lake where Mizuho appears when she gets out of her spaceship. But when he thinks of it as a dream, the next day at school the woman who takes over class is the same one as the one he saw at the lake!

Utterly confused, he still thinks it`s a dream, but when she moves in as his neighbour and he helps her out, things are really getting weird and they even are forced to marry because of it. But how do you marry an alien while nobody is supposed to know about the marriage - nor the fact that the woman is both an alien and your teacher?
Not even mentioning that the teacher/alien is a gorgeous woman ... and that some classmate already has her eye on Kei.

~Will

[Rei]

Onegai Teacher is a very famous series. If you like that there's also Onegai Twins, which is linked to the series Sasuke was talking about. They have characters, bits of the story and setting in common, but I'm not sure I can call Onegai Teacher a prequel.

[Meiko]

Ok, thanks, I'll see what among these I can find.

If you have other suggestions (shoujo in general can be ok too), post more

[kupoartist]

Originally Posted by Meiko

Ok, thanks, I'll see what among these I can find.

If you have other suggestions (shoujo in general can be ok too), post more

It's a bit of a shakey recommendation to be honest, as i've only seen (part of!) the massively downsized anime OVA, and that a long time ago... but i've always been intrigued by a fairly old series called "Please Save My Earth"... it's a romance story with a sprinkling of sci-fi about a group of people, spread out over Japan who realise through their shared dreams that they were once alien scientists who watched over the earth from the moon, and that after being killed by a deadly virus, they were reincarnated on the earth that they so loved to watch over. It throws in some interesting dilemnas (one character has been reincarnated as a different sex, another managed to outlive the others so they're considerably younger than everyone else) and a few magic powers to keep things moving... Now that i'm into Manga a lot more, it won't be long before I'm buying the books off Amazon.

Another older series... Fushigi Yuugi (the Mysterious Play) is pretty cool, but hardly knock you down wonderful IMO. I recommend the Manga over the anime because a) The Manga is actually available here (£3 a volume over at amazon and in many UK bookshelves for that matter) b) the Anime skips a certain section of the adventure c) the Anime is somehow less "animated" than the Manga, coming across as a rather low budget production. It's a fantasy-romance story about possibly the world's most annoying girl (who does or says something pretty stupid at least 5 times a volume) and her band of Prettyboy warriors who're trying to summon a god in order to make 3 wishes come true. With various set backs on the way. Like having someone close to you turn against you because they're being manipulated by an evil prettyboy and his band of slightly less than pretty-boys and (shock horror) a woman (oh noes! a woman!). Uh yeah, it contains bishonen if you didn't figure that out already

Apologies for being several years off the ball, unlike Panuru and Meryl . Oh and just to be kind of irreverent, watch Kiki's Delivery Service if you haven't already. It doesn't particuarly fit any of your criteria, except perhaps that it's probably a Shojo film and it's just plain good . UK DVD re-release at the end of the month.

[merylsilverburg]

Originally Posted by Panuru

Honey & Clover isn't as banal as it may seem just reading something about it or looking at the various artworks. I wasn't going to watch it since it looked so very cliché: the group of young college students, the romance etc... at the beginning the show is very confusing, since the story is not very clear, there are definitely too many characters to start with, and events are apparently not in a strict chronological or thematic order. Most of the time everything, from single facts to characters' thoughts and memories are more like a stream of consciousness. It took me a few episodes to get used to this kind of "pattern" of narration. Comedy and drama are also mixed together, sometimes you can't say what'll happen next. I like how characters are always deeply analyzing their situation. Love triangles aren't annoying because of that, because you get to know the inner feelings and motivations of each character, and in every moment you get to know why they act in a certain way (it's true some characters are more "mysterious" than others and you are left wondering what are their motivations when you compare their actions to the ones of other characters). Also, in H&C there's nothing superfluous. There's never a surplus of emotions or overreactions, so it's hardly annoying. It's all very measured. Every dramatic moment has its complement in some very funny scene or absurd situation. That gives you time to reflect on what you see without being too focused on the emotional side.
Well, at least that's how I see it

Hmm, doesn't sound too bad...regardless, I would've given it a try anyway. Thanks for the explanation!

Originally Posted by Panuru

Regarding Hanakimi... I had an online friend who was completely in love with this series. But it was the manga. It was... 3 years ago. I didn't know they were making the anime too.

Oh no, they aren't making an anime on this, sorry for the confusion. I recommended this to Meiko as a manga recommendation because I know a little more shoujo manga than anime. Sorry again. ^^;;;

Originally Posted by kupoartist

Another older series... Fushigi Yuugi (the Mysterious Play) is pretty cool, but hardly knock you down wonderful IMO.

Oh yeah, Fushigi Yuugi is a good one, one of the old “classics” of shoujo action/adventure genre but like kupo said, it isn't exactly very, very good. Most anime newcomers would tend to watch this first.

Here's some more I remembered:

Shoujo Kakumei Utena (Revolutionary Girl Utena): Hmm, I don’t remember if you’ve already seen or heard of this, Meiko, but this story, according to some people, is the ultimate shoujo story. I guess it’s because of the majority of female lead cast and the fact that the main character, Utena, wants to be the “prince that saves the damsel in distress” while being a woman herself. Anyway, when Utena Tenjou (the main character) was a little girl her parents died, leaving her alone. She met this prince in white who cheered her up and gave her this ring with a rose crest on it. After this meeting, she wanted to become a prince herself. Now, as a teenager, she attends Ohtori Academy, dressing in the boy’s uniform and admired by all her mostly female peers. One day, her best friend gets hurt (or something like that, I’ve forgotten ^^;;; ) by someone on the Student Council, so Utena wants revenge. They end up dueling and when Utena won, she becomes “engaged” to the Rose Bride, Anthy (Anthy) Himmemiya. There is a ton of conspiracies, secrets, and more mysteries inside the Ohtori Academy and its Student Councils and duels, which makes this anime not only a shoujo but a good mystery series as well. There are a few odd relationships between the characters, some lesbianism and some sort of incest, so if you’re not really into that sort of thing, then I wouldn’t completely recommend it. This is also another one of those "newcomer" anime series.

Ayashi no Ceres (Fascinating/Ominous Ceres): If you enjoyed Fushigi Yuugi or any of Yuu Watase’s works, check this one out. It’s not as popular as Fushigi Yuugi, but some people really enjoyed it a lot. I didn’t, because her characters reminded me too much of FushiYu’s so I didn’t want to see this. But, this story is about Aya, who just turned 16 and will have a birthday party thrown for her. But, she finds out at the party that her grandfather and rest of the family wants to kill her. It ends up that she has the blood of the Ceres, this celestial being from an ancient story. Ceres is a heavenly goddess who came down to earth to bathe, leaving her robe on a tree. When she reached for her robe after finishing, she finds it stolen and the man who stolen it forced her to become his wife on earth. Generations passed and Aya now has the cursed blood and whoever has it, will be able to transform into the Ceres who wants to exact revenge and destroy the family. This plot is interesting enough and again, Yuu takes inspiration from ancient Japanese/Chinese folk tales or legends to create this series. I’d highly recommend the Japanese dialogue, if you want to watch it.

Ai Yori Aoshi (Bluer than Indigo): Okay, I saw the first episode and just hated it, but everyone has different tastes, so this may be something you’d like. This high school or college guy is on his way home from school when he comes across this girl dressed in a traditional kimono, looking very lost and bewildered. He offers to help her and somehow, they end up at his apartment/home (non-sexual). He then finds out that the girl is a girl he knew from his childhood and now she claims to be his fiancée. That’s all I can remember. Apparently, this was incredibly successful in Japan, everyone was crazy about it, a game was created, and mangas were sold off the shelves. I suppose the story can turn out sweet, but I wouldn’t exactly call it “innocent” because half of the time in magazine shots (Japanese ones), you’d see the girl (the kimonoed one) stripping or in some sort of scantily pose, which doesn’t evoke the nicest thoughts. Also, there seems to be a whole bunch of other girls who are either her friends or his friends and so the story kinda comes off as the “5-thousand-girls-chase-1-guy” sort of plot. But, check it out if you’d like.

Angel Sanctuary: This is an OVA series, so it’s a bit short. Originally a successful manga by Kaori Yuki (and those who know Yuki would know she deals with “other side” of shoujo: supernatural, incest, homosexuality, etc.), this OVA sums up the manga in a very quick fashion, so even after watching it all, not everything is clear and the end, I remember, leaves off at a cliffhanger. This boy, Setsuna, is in love with his sister, Sara (yes, incest) and while trying to deny his affections for her, he also tries to hide his supernatural power. Sara, on the other hand, is beginning to see the Angels and Demons that are appearing on earth to come after Setsuna. Okay, that’s about it because I don’t want to spoil the ending. The idea of the incest is a bit creepy, but if you can get over that, this OVA is an okay series. If you end up liking this anime but want more answers, I’d highly recommend the manga instead, for the story and art. Also, if you want more, I’d check out her recently completed Godchild manga.

Princess Tutu: Alright, so the title is a bit cheesy and yes, it’s about the ballet, but the story is incredibly sweet and enchanting, it’s a bit hard to resist. This is one of the more recent “magical-girl” series, except the heroine transforms into a ballerina. Plus, since this is geared towards more young girls, there’s nothing unusual in it. This young girl named Ahiru (Ahiru meaning “duck” in Japanese, you’ll find out why she’s named this way when you watch it) is clumsy but lovable and is an average ballerina. She falls in love with this upper classman boy, Myuto (Mute) who seems to be extremely quiet (hence his name) and possesses no emotions. It ends up that Drosselmeyer, the famous storyteller has written this story about a Prince who is fighting against this Raven. But, Drosselmeyer died before the story could be finished, so there is no conclusion. In order to seal the Raven away, the Prince decided to shatter his own heart into pieces and now the pieces are scattered around the region. Myuto is really the Prince and Drosselmeyer is now using Ahiru to help the Prince/Myuto regain his emotions/heart again. It’s a very good series with beautiful animation at times but it can be a bit repetitive, but that’s how it is with magical-girl series. The opening and ending themes were sung by Ritsuko Okazaki, who also sang the op. and en. for Fruits Basket.

Originally Posted by Uchiha Sasuke

I would advise Please (Onegai) Teacher!

Yeah, this one, like Ai Yori Aoshi, was really popular in Japan but, just like the other one, I didn't like this too much either. The main three that came out that one year (2002?) Onegai! Teacher, Ai Yori Aoshi, and Chobits were just not to my taste but everyone else loved them.