Building A Shoujo Starter Pack

Have you watched Fruits Basket or Nana and thought "man shoujo is GOOD, but I don't know where to go from here"? Well I got you covered with this ULTIMATE shoujo starter pack.
Talking In-Depth on the Long Running Series:
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0:00 Intro
2:14 The Shoujo Anime
5:55 The Magical Girl
8:39 The High School Romance
11:20 The Drama
14:34 Sponsor
15:17 The Trashy One
19:04 The Long Running Shoujo
21:17 Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss
24:19 Pick an Arina Tanemura Series
26:57 Outro

[@PrettyTranslatorSarahMoon]

I became a shoujo fan in the 90s and it's interesting to see how the younger fans are still getting into some of the older stuff. (and yes, Arina-cchi-sensei's art is iconic.)

[@sumimaind]

Sailor Moon introduced me to the Mahou Shoujo genre

[@lxmychil]

Honestly? People SHOULD get into old stuff because most of them are still unique and some of the best works in shoujo demographic, such as Sailor Moon, Kaitou Jeanne, Full Moon, Saiunkoku, Glass Mask

[@FullmoonPhantom-dn2sr]

Fullmoon is one of my favorites!

[@squeegee-c]

When you said “drama that gives you trauma” my mind automatically leaped to orange. That shit changed me. I still cry like a baby whenever I reread or rewatch.

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

Orange is seriously traumatic 😭😭

[@WeirdAFforGooglingMe]

I cried every single episode 😭

[@DouglasMcIntosh]

I'm reading my way through Orange just now, for the first time. Need to take regular breaks due to emotional trauma!

[@AyAReI00]

Idk for me thats karekano, drama that bring me trauma hahahahaha Even tho is happy end the Journey was angsty af

[@sumitsukira]

Ik still one of my fav animes 😭😭😭

[@robinfernando5970]

Here's a list of all the mangas recommended for anyone whose adding them to their to-read list :^) The Shoujo Anime: ✦ Nana ✦ Ouran High School Host Club ✦ Kamisama Kiss ✦ Fruits Basket The Magical Girl: ✦ Tokyo Mew Mew ✦ Shugo Chara ✦ Sailor Moon ✦ Cardcaptor Sakura The Highschool Romance: ✦ Cinderella Closet ✦ Say I Love You ✦ High School Debut The Drama: ✦ Life (tw: bullying, self-harm) ✦ Orange (tw: depression) ✦ We Were There (tw: loss of a loved one/grief) ✦ Sand Chronicles (tw: loss of a loved one) The Trashy One: ✦ Vampire Knight (tw: literal incest) ✦ Hot Gimmick (tw: there’s a lot lmao) ✦ Black Bird The Long Running Shoujo: ✦ Yona of the Dawn ✦ Kimi Ni Todoke ✦ Kaze Hikaru ✦ Basara Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss: ✦ Voice Over Academy! ✦ Kageki Shojo!! ✦ Beauty Pop ✦ Kitchen Princess Pick an Arina Tanemura Series: ✦ Full Moon wo Sagashite ✦ Phantom Thief Jeanne ✦ Sakura Hime

[@killianmcclellan285]

thank you your majesty

[@sarahmundy233]

Thank you so much!!!!

[@oibafdiaz]

I'm a regular guy and I love me some standard battle shonens, but I always had an affinity for shows that as a kid I could only describe as "girly." Cardcaptor Sakura was a seminal anime for me growing up, a fact I used to hide from my friends (fortunately that insecurity is long gone). Many many years later is when I actually found out there was this thing that was called "Shoujo" and so many things clicked for me. Last year me and my girlfriend marathoned Fruits Basket, and we both loved it to death. I'm actively looking for more shoujo to watch with her, or alone! Thank you because your channel has been very helpful for that.

[@JacobMinger]

My boyfriend literally got me a replica book of Clow Cards as an anniversary present this year because he knows how much I like collecting tarot cards. This lead me to start watching Cardcaptor Sakura and I’m loving it. I’m also a huge fan of Fruits Basket.

[@animeholiczka]

Hey, if you like magical girl shoujo, aside for the ones mentioned in the video i 1000% recommend Sugar Sugar Rune. Im pretty sure it is on youtube and well, also fairly convinced there is a licensed english version either online or to be bought, but this is one of my most favourite childhood anime that i also loved rewatching as a teen and i love it now too. Story is about 2 friend witches, that are coming to Earth and pretending to be human girls while battling for the throne of Witch Kingdom by... gathering hearts of people. By evoking emotions in other humans they can accumulate points that are eventually judgment which one of them is more worthy of being the Queen. But how is it to battle your best friend and also face family pressure? Especially if life on Earth is VERY different than that in Witch Kingdom? -> it is just an amazing heart warming story about friendship, relations, with cute characters, a bit of mystery and romance and FANTASTIC clothing and character design

[@maxaroni39]

Watched this video on Patreon, and because of it I ended up getting the Viz app and started reading Basara. You were absolutely right, it's a phenomenal series! 😊

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

Let's goooo!!

[@ManicGinger416]

I feel so seen 😂 I literally laughed out loud multiple times, esp. at the “Arina Tanemura” section. I was waiting and waiting for full moon lol

[@LyraFay12]

Cardcaptor Sakura was one of my favourite shows as a kid. My twin sister and I were obessed with and we finally getting on to the manga now because we could never find volume 1.

[@theresacherco3503]

I remember that anime loved it like sailor moon

[@dieterdelange9488]

I was fortunate enough to see the entire series subbed and uncut. The voice acting for the original Cardcaptors dub was actually quite good, the problem was the ridiculous editing, scene cutting, reordering of episodes, etc.

[@LauraAGrace]

Ahhh High School Debut! I love this series so much! Totally awesome that you have the singles! BEAUTY POP!!! Such a good one!! This was a fun video!

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

I got a few of the singles before I knew it had an omnibus version lol

[@jacebudler4382]

You cannot understand the pure joy that went through my body when you mentioned Kamilaze Kaitou Jeanne (Phantom Thief Jeanne). I genuinely loved that manga and spent literal years of my life looking for physical copies for my collection. No one really knows about it. Thankfully I told my partner about it and he bought me first edition copies for my birthday.

[@CelestialAura]

God I can relate to loving Black Bird 😂 Surprised you mentioned Yona of the Dawn but not Skip Beat! I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. The characters are fantastic and the story-telling is impactful. There's even an anime, which makes up for Bad Animation by just being genuinely hilarious. It's about a girl who goes into acting to get revenge on a boy who took advantage of her heart to use her as a live-in maid. in the process she realizes she no longer knows how to love. her mentor ends up being the boy's rival, a seasoned actor who...also struggles with love. warning tho, this series focuses more on charactee development than romance so the romance, while GREAT, is slooooooow burn.

[@mystic0screams]

All throughout that section I kept saying Skip Beat.

[@Imhrien]

Holy HOT GIMMICK! 😭😱 that series is the EPITOME of the trash read, the quintessential trash read!! I never finished it myself, cause it hit a level even I couldn’t handle, but I remember reading a summary just to get some closure and then immediately regretted it, haha. I still remember the shock of “Shinogu became a WHAT?!?” So, with that outta the way, this was a very fun nostalgic trip! Anime introduction: SAILOR MOON. I ran home at full speed to catch episodes airing on TV in time. I still, to this day, have VHS recordings I made when I was 10 years old of specific episodes. Rayearth is a close second, cause they did a run of the OVA’s for a bit. The Magical Girl: REVOLUTIONARY GIRL UTENA. There were others, sure, but Utena was the one that stuck with me even as I grew up and the manga is the perfect depiction of hte feverdream that is growing up and trying to understand all the weird shit that adulthood entails. Also, a special mention to St.Tail by Megumi Tachikawa, who is responsible for my first understanding of how great the enemy-to-lovers trope could be. The High School Romance: KARE KANO, which very tragically, died with Tokyopop, but it was my favorite above all others because of how well it does an intimate character study and how carefully it follows the pains of becoming yourself. The anime was a wonderful (but too short!) adaptation. For another that I hope is still available by Viz, BEAUTY IS THE BEAST, which is a fun 5 volume series about a boarding school and the connections and friends you make when you’re on your own. It has a very sweet opposites attract kind of romance with a heroine who is a very odd duck and childish but very lovable and a broody, “dangerous”, very alluring hero. The Drama: CERES CELESTIAL LEGEND. Listen... I still have not recovered. There are two volumes I cannot bring myself to re-read. Yuu Watase had a mission to devastate, and that she did. Fruits Basket takes you by the hand and walks you through all the trauma - Ceres ties you to a chair and pours buckets of trauma over you. Highly recommend. The Trashy One: I’d have to say my first one was PEACH GIRL. I hate that series with a passion, but I bought and read every single volume because I was compelled. Sae lives with me to this day, haunts me, if you will, as the perfect depiction of a Mean Girl. But for a series that is possibly still available, I’ll agree with another comment in this thread and say ANGEL SANCTUARY. Beautiful art, messed up premise, gothic vibes, much enjoyment. Long Running Shoujo: SKIP BEAT!! Is the easy answer, haha. I’ve waited over 15 years for a love confession and I’m not at all mad about it. Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss: I’m gonna have to go with THE WALLFLOWER (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge) which is like the older, weirder and moodier sister of Kimi ni Todoke. The main heroine loves macabre things and ends up having to live with a harem of pretty boys who have to help her become “ladylike” in order to decrease their rent. 36 volumes of a lot of silliness and pretty, but also strange, art. Sadly, this was with Del Rey, so hopefully people can still find it somewhere. Any Arina Tanemura: ….I can’t believe this, but I never had a Tanemura phase 😅. I know of her series, but have never read a single one. So instead I'm just gonna say that the series I was obsessed with and defined what shoujo could be for me was KANATA KARA. Action, adventure, beautiful art, uplifting and dramatic stories with lots of Feels - I reread this series probably twice a year since I first read it back in 2007. Many thanks for this idea Colleen! I even had to go look at my older manga shelves and pulled out some series I haven’t visited in a long time. Just seeing their covers has me feeling all kinda ways. I’m really excited for the newcomers who get to experience these stories for the first time.❤

[@ladysollua]

Fruits Basket was my first big Manga that I followed start to finish. I actually watched the 2001 anime with a friend afterwards. I remember being so excited to go to Borders to get the next volume when it was released here. Also…I’m a rooster, too.

[@camifornilla]

Finding out someone else on this planet has read Black Bird is so validating

[@IsabelCarlota]

We were so lucky down here in Latin America to have gotten a very well made Cardcaptor Sakura dub. Incredibly loyal to the original Japanese, the characters' names stayed the same, the romance (ALL romance, side eye-ing Prof. Terada and Rika) also stayed the same as in the original. The only thing we missed was the first movie, but the second one, the series' finale, was a whole event. So yeah, I recommend watching the anime AND reading the manga. I even dare to say that the anime is slightly better.

[@MangaMuse]

This was pretty much my exact series for almost all of the categories mentioned too haha: -Anime that got me into shoujo and magical girl were the same one: Sailor Moon -Fruits Basket was one of the first manga series I finished in general, though I didn't watch the anime -High School Romance: recently re-read High School Debut and adored how funny and cute it was. I love Haruna 😭 My other fav before was Monkey High -high school drama that gave you trauma: Life as well, though Kare Kano is my favorite -Trashy: Black Bird I can also handle, probably due to the art. Better than Hot Gimmick or Vampire Knight. -Long running: Basara is my favorite, but the one that's been with me for almost 14 years and I also love is Skip Beat! -Career manga: also loved Kitchen Princess a ton as a kid and like Kageki Shojo now! -Arina Tanemura series: ION was the manga that got me into manga in the first place. I ended up collecting most of her series afterward, but Full Moon was my favorite (and also gave me some trauma lol)

[@kjarakravik4837]

lol same here it's been ages since I've seen Full Moon but I listened to eternal snow today and it made me cry

[@anastasiiafetisova7274]

“drama that gives you trauma” - def it will be Kagen no Tsuki for me; as for Girlboss and i'd say a bit vibe of The Trashy One but extremly stylish one - my favorite is a Paradise kiss

[@realmtreader6566]

High School Debut was one of my first and favorite romance manga that solidified my love for the romance genre. I was shocked that it wasn't adapted into an anime though as it would've been a hit

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

Its so good! Really wish it got an anime as well.

[@janiskwerner582]

It's a live action movie in that classic romcom style Japan is famous for. It was cute!

[@SariaSchala]

I would definitely second Fruits Basket, Cardcaptor Sakura, Kamisama Kiss and Yona of the Dawn recs. I also would recommend Natsume's Book of Friends, Alice 19th, The Demon Prince of Momochi House and the Pretty Cure anime franchise, especially Kira Kira Pretty Cure A La Mode and Go! Princess Pretty Cure.

[@zazenbo]

this video is so nostalgic! (I’m 29 and grew up loving Cardcaptors and always wanted to read Sand Chronicles, among others featured here)

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

same age as me so it makes sense then haha!!

[@ellapeters5188]

been watching you since your misogyny in the manga community video, it's been super cool to watch your writing and editing style come into itself since then! never would have known about the wonderful world of shoujo without your guidance 😔🙏

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

thank you so much!!

[@isabeauwolf562]

My Shoujo manga starter pack: Full Moon wo Sagashite, Magic Knight Rayearth, Black Bird, Millennium Snow, Say I Love You, and Beast Master My anime Shoujo starter: Sailor Moon, Kamisama Kiss, Fruits Basket, Air, Clannad, and Vampire Knight

[@Kurizu204]

Sailor Moon was the first I watched and Magic Knight Rayearth was the first I read cause of my local library. Though it wasn't until I started borrowing Fruits Basket from my friend in high school was I really conscious of it as a genre. (Thank you Jessica for also getting me on the BL pipeline with Gravitation lol)

[@sumimaind]

I grew up with Magic Knight Rayearth and Sailor Moon in the 90s

[@lotussong_]

Your read-more-shojosei agenda has been working on me! I preordered Do Not Say Mystery on the strength of your recommendation and it blew my mind. I had also never heard of QQ Sweeper/Queen's Quality before watching your videos and I read the first volume recently. Where has this been all my life?! Also I had been mentally trying to see if I had read manga as a teen that matched your categories and I had put down Full Moon wo Sagashite as my "drama that gave me trauma", so started laughing at your last square XD

[@remxoxo]

My gateway shojo: Tomie (saw it in a shojo list somewhere), The Poe Clan, Clover, I Hear The Sunspot (came to shojo by way of BL so it counts), My Love Story, Limit (a recommendation from Colleen), Ooku. I'm still a shojo newbie. Oh and Candy Candy, the anime.

[@Vrio_Side]

Yes! few people know Tomie was published on a shojo magazine. Another shojo recommend with depicts of horror like Tomie is Petshop of Horrors.

[@remxoxo]

@@Vrio_Side O thanks, I will check it out!

[@fann458]

My Arina Tanemura series definitely is IDOLiSH7 despite not being a franchise totally controlled by her it is still has some traces she has been there and she's the one who illustrates all the Mangas from the franchise. Great anime, great game, great manga.

[@gracequeeney3399]

Yeah it's my fav anime! And also my introduction to Arina Tanemura works! I don't want to be rude but is she that famous in shoujo community? Is she on par in popularity with Masashi Kishimoto or Oda?

[@kawaiifacemiles]

thanks to the viz app, I read through sand chronicles for the first time and I was in absolute tears. I'm so glad it was mentioned here! 😭

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

Such a good manga!!! Changed my life fr

[@patapixel]

a comment for each section: anime introduction: i'm pretty sure sailor moon was my first ever introduction to shoujo due to it's popularity along side the other monsters of stateside anime in the late 90s and early 2000s. i remember watching fruits basket later on part by part on youtube though. i think that is the peak early 2000s "i started watching anime" moment. magical girl: i recently rewatched all of cardcaptor sakura since i only watched bits and pieces as a child due to never knowing when it aired. i think it made a lot more sense why i was drawn to it now looking back as an adult. now i'm slowly collecting the manga and can't wait to read it. i do remember seeing my friend at one point own shugo chara, and remember thinking i'd read it eventually. i think i did... in like 2018. high school romance: high school debut is SUCH A THROWBACK omg. i remember thinking i should read everything with a tomboy mc because it was truly "this is me" moment. i think funny enough, absolute boyfriend was my peak high school romance series. i thought it was so GENIUS to have an ANDROID boyfriend and never have to worry about having a flesh man fall in love with me. looking back, god damn i'm so glad now that wasn't the case but it made me so hopeful for the future when i was a wee middle schooler thinking about my potential high school love experiences. drama trauma: i think i've read sand chronicles once every three years since it released in english in like 2007. i always forget that i've read it then sit down in one sitting and re-read it. it's so good that i will eventually spend the ... however amount of money for this series physically. i think this series was so important for my young brain trying to navigate the frustrations of middle school and trying to plan out the first of my life, it made me stop and realize that i never knew what others could potentially be going through. also i think this was the first media i read outside of school education about period talk and god damn it made me more comfortable with it. the trashy series: honestly i didn't realize vampire knight was super trashy until i started re-reading after it ended. i think it was on the same scale as twilight with me and not realizing the actual issues until i matured after the fact. my favorite trashy manga will always be wolf girl and black prince. i actually ENJOYED the series originally and was like holy shit i gotta read this every time a chapter releases. it's newer and i should have known it was trashy but god DAMN i can't help but love the toxicity of hot manga men. long running series: i think even though we STILL don't have the full series printed in english (thanks viz), kaze hikaru is one of the long running series i went totally out of my way to continue reading after shojo beat magazine stopped printing in 2009. it's a timeless classic. i cannot wait to finally have a completed english print series in the year 2037, when i can finally pass it down to my kids to read. i think this will also be my longest series that i own physically, with is insane to think about. my second pick would have to be nana. such another timeless classic that i can theorize the ending every single day of the week and be happy that i have been waiting for this series to return. gaslight gatekeep girlboss: voice over academy is SO good. i read it for the first time in 2020, and honestly it was such a fun read. honestly i should get more into the career tailored shoujo series, but i'm not really into cooking or beauty to make it something i could care about enough :( arina tanemura: i'm not gonna lie, i am an arina tanemura fan first, human second. she is literally my goat, and full moon is my favorite series of all time. i can go on and on about full moon in particular about how impactful the series is for anyone who read it. funny enough, i also re-read gentlemen's alliance cross recently, and i think as it doesn't hold up as well, the read is still fun as you've mentioned. it's the art man. i can't get over how fun the artwork it. now i'll go back to my waiting corner for more chapters of idol dreams. 😥 great video as always, colleen! once this goes public, i have a ton of people to send this to get them started on the shoujo train.

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

Thank you for leaving this comment! It was fun going through all your experiences too haha For the trashy one: I also am still a guilty pleasure fan of Wolf Girl and Black Prince. I never watched the anime and only ever read the manga and I actually really loved the series lol. For the tanemura one: She truly is the GOAT of shoujo. I went back and forth on if I should talk about her or CLAMP but ultimately I was like CLAMP is a universal mangaka group but Tanemura is just quintessentially shoujo!!

[@rawdasalmataman7908]

​@@ColleensMangaRecsI like the wold girl and black Prince too but I watched the anime which was actually good And I read only one chapter of the manga in the middle and I didn't like it

[@FrostCHNOS]

I'm so happy you're reading Kageki Shoujo. I went to school for dance, and worked a few jobs in entertainment, and everything about that manga feels so nostalgic for that time in my life. And watching Nacchan come out of her shell at the same time as you find out all of everyone's background drama really helps keep the balance.

[@unknownunknown2575]

I started reading manga (both shounen and shoujo) in the late 90s. I still fondly remember some of the earliest shoujo that I read: Candy Candy (Kyoko Mizuki), Hajime chan ga ichiban (Watanabe Taeko, who later wrote Kaze Hikaru, which was recommended in this video), Crest of the Royal Family (Chieko Hosokawa, started in 1976 and still ongoing), Glass Mask (Suzue Miuchi, also started in 1976 and still ongoing). They were my shoujo starter pack.

[@egotttgottt]

"Fruits Basket" was definitely my first shoujo manga series I read, but Yuu Watase and Kaori Yuki had a strangle hold on my middle school friend group. I had a subscription to Shojo Beat magazine through it's entire run, but kinda fell out of shoujo for awhile afterwards. The titles that got me back into it in my late 20s were "Rose of Versailles" and "My Love Story!!". I've now been reading a volume of shoujo manga a day, catching up on series I didn't finish or get to when I was younger and finding new series. It's been such a blast!

[@jacki8106]

Were accidentally the same person 😂 Fruba ✅ Ccs✅ High school debut ✅ And so many more.

[@otakusforlife]

This video was INCREDIBLE

[@reminiscentoss681]

the Arina Tanemura effect is so real.

[@cecillbill]

Started with: Sailor Moon. Other Favs: Black Bird, Nana, Midnight Secretary, My Special One, Ima Koi, Ao Haru Ride, Skip Beat, Kamisama Kiss, Yakuza Lover, Yona of the Dawn, Snow White With The Red Hair, Maid Sama, My Happy Marriage, Cardcaptor Sakura.

[@ziriam]

Cardcaptor(s) Sakura (thank you for singing the intro) was one of the earlier anime/manga series I got into when I was younger. It still has an incredibly special place in my heart to this day. A selection of other starter shoujo I remember reading (nearly 2 decades ago, now, wow) were Marmalade Boy, Kodocha, Furuba, Fushigi Yuugi, and Hot Gimmick. A couple of which I do need to revisit at least, if not reread. Thanks for another banger video~

[@misterratman]

oh wow... i usually come to your videos for recommendation to get back into shoujo after denouncing anything and everything ~*~girly~*~ in my late teens, but this video just reminded me of why i loved it as a child and want to get back into in the first place... i'm so glad arina tanemura got her own section. kamikaze kaito jeanne was the second ever manga series i started collecting. kkj and fullmoon are so near and dear to my heart and even if her stuff isn't really my thing anymore (my magic fridays just would not click for me) her art and writing really shaped my childhood and served as a huge inspiration when i started to pursue art more seriously. i don't really have any recommendations of my own but i gotta give a shout out to my personal trash fave gals! by mihona fujii. it is at this point the most outdated thing in existence. it deals with heavy topics but delivers its morals in this very blunt saturday morning cartoon kind of way. the ending is so kitschy and sweet it makes my teeth rot just thinking about it. and i love it dearly. the characters are charming. the shenanigans they get into are super fun and the author is a real sweetheart. honestly if for some godforsaken reason you decide to read it, do not skip the author's notes! the 20 years out of date fashion tips are an integral part of the experience.

[@peppermintfables]

Wow, i love this. I read/watched a lot of shoujo years ago and then just somehow stopped for bo particular reason. Lately Ive been wanting to get back into it, so i found this video. Realising how many of these categories i immediately remembered my version of and being reminded of the shows/manga i used to love makes me so excited to pick back up where i left of and start discorvering new series

[@ahumblecookie8997]

okay, this is the first time the sponsor from a video is EXACTLY what I've been looking for!! Literally two days ago I was looking for the English version of Marmalade Boy manga and the shipping from North America simply doubled the price :') I live in Germany but I do *not* want my manga in German lol, so this is perfect!! I have seen your channel suggested in my recs quite a few times, and now that I'm getting more into 90s shoujo anime, I figured I'd check out some of your videos. You've got a new subscriber, I love your content!

[@sadoldguy4380]

One of my first shoujo anime was Fushigi Yuugi, which was on VHS tapes. At least that lead me to Fruits Basket eventually. My current obsession is "Ascendance of a Bookworm" which starts out as a slice of life until the real plot starts in the final episode of the third season of the anime. Then we get the hot girls and guys and fantasy and girl empowerment.

[@sadoldguy4380]

I will say that I envy the Clamp fans that started with Card Captor Sakura instead those like me who started with X.

[@Imhrien]

@@sadoldguy4380 oof, yeah X is a rough starting point!

[@furihreunsicherheit3624]

The little wiggle dance I did when Colleen went off on the English dub intro to Cardcaptors! 💃✨

[@isabellas5471]

coming back to this video to say i finished sand chronicles in 2 days and it’s seriously changed my outlook on life. thank you so much for the recommendation. it’s rare for me to feel so intensely about media these days and i don’t want to let this series go yet 😭 thank you so much again!!

[@cassiedevereaux-smith3890]

I was in Vietnam this year for Tet (Lunar New Year).Everything announced the Year of the Cat. The first thing that flashed in my mind was Fruits Basket. Turns out that in Vietnam, the Year of the Rabbit is the Year of the Cat instead. I'll never see Fruits Basket the same way again.

[@Bhavna_Comics]

Fruits Basket, followed by My Little Monster were also two of my first shojou mangas that I'd gone online looking to read lol

[@No-sf4cp]

WE WERE THERE.. it has been ingrained in my brain for years i will always tear up by just looking at official art of them 😭

[@ThankNephew]

For me the first manga I read was Skip Beat after finishing the anime and dying for me. It has changed my life for the worse but I wouldn’t have it any other way

[@shelbymckinney8888]

Awesome video. I remember my first introduction to shoujo was with the magical girl genre.

[@magamen2433]

I'm proud to say I have read or watched something in all the categories (I might gather the power to write my starterpack here). I thought you caught me with the Arina Tanemura series, but then I've learnt that my short but intense obsession with Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne was thanks to her. I watched and read the whole series back in middle school and tried translating it to my mother language for an anime/manga fansite, obviously failed pretty quickly as I had no idea how to do all that. But it was so much fun! Anyways thanks for the video! Wanted to mention that I love your accessories and style! :3

[@jeannecaelum5167]

I really have to get into the classic shojo again! Vampire Knight and Ao Haru Ride were my first Shojo I read, it was a ride :D

[@sanimefreak2]

This was a great trip down memory lane

[@killianmcclellan285]

i got stupidly excited when you mentioned Kitchen Princess, it was the first shoujo i read and (years later) the first i finished and i loved the hell out of it ages ~8-13. it’s the one that made me infatuated with the genre and the art

[@princessjellyfish98]

I'm so nostalgic for Beauty Pop! They had the first few volumes in my local library when I was a kid and I loved the art so much!

[@Kaiheart]

I ate up Cardcaptors as a kid, moved on to Sailor Moon & Tokyo Mew Mew as a tween, and landed on Full Moon and Fruits Basket at the start of high school. And since I was going through A LOT from 16 to 18, I attached myself to the Fruits Basket manga - it shaped me partially growing up, especially relating to Yuki. However, I gotta throw in the anime of The Vision of Escaflowne - it so often gets tossed into the shonen category, but I personally feel it is a shoujo with mecha. I was also obsessed with Pretear, I still have both the anime dvds and the manga, and I recommend both despite the story divergence. AND PRINCESS TUTU! Please, do yourself a favor and watch the Princess Tutu anime - the mnaga isn't good, but the anime is amazing. On another note, I'm not sure where Inuyasha or Ranma 1/2 fall, cause both cross genres so often I don't think I could pin them down to shoujo, but they are definitely aimed at a female demographic to some extent. I could go on forever.... I've consumed so much manga over the last 20 years and if I keep talking I might get outside the realm of shoujo. And just to go off topic with a single recommendation: Natsume's Book of Friends - the anime and the manga - it's such a soft show that strikes your heart and changes you to some extent after experiencing it, I can't not say something about it.

[@kayleejazz1669]

I’m glad you mentioned vampire knight. Probably one of the few first anime I watched that got me into manga and anime. I’m kind of disappointed there was a twilight resurgence but not vampire knight. I mean yes, the anime and manga wasn’t perfect but I kinda of wish I’d either have a third season or update. The opening and endings were a banger and both the anime and manga had a sort of atmosphere I haven’t seen captured anywhere else

[@saundramonette4137]

wow, I honestly never thought Kitchen Princess would be mentioned here... Another great (and imo more memorable) series by Natsumi Ando is Arisa. It's about a set of twins, Arisa and Tsubasa, who were separated when their parents got a divorce. When Tsubasa visits Arisa they decide to switch lives for a day, and Tsubasa finds Arisa's life at school to be perfect. However, she finds a note for Arisa and gives it to her. Upon reading it, Arisa says something cryptic and tries to commit suicide by falling form the window (instead she goes into a coma). Tsubasa then takes it upon herself to find out what caused her sisterto take such a measure by impersonating her. It's an awesome (albeit pretty brutal) mystery series that I almost hear nobody ever mention.

[@magicalgirlmel3289]

I would also add on a Yuu Watase series. Those were the definition of my early shojo days

[@yourmomsoshi]

My first manga was Sailor Moon because a girl I was dating in 06 had it and I started it when I had to wait at her house while she was dealing with an emergency. I also ended up reading Card Captor Sakura and Dragonball at her house. It took me till 2017 to start collecting my own manga and I my journey into Shojo took a bit longer. Creators like you who showed me stuff that I thought I'd like really helped. Now my manga collection is probably around 1/3 female demographics. And yes the female demos have the best trashy stuff. You're also right about the Viz app being decent for catching up on some shojo manga. Also thank you for having QQ Sweeper volume 1 just out of the shot for this video. I get jealous every time I see that on your shelf. That's one of my favorite shojo series I own and I can thank you for pointing it out. Akiyama always makes me cry when he transforms. I love that guy. Thanks for all the good videos. They've helped me discover manga that I would have missed otherwise.

[@notrixamoris3318]

My starter pack: the wallflower/perfect girl evolution, fruits basket, card captor sakura, hanna-kimi and magic knight reyearth. As an extra chihayafuru...I believe most if not all have an anime series if you do not want to read.

[@AndreaCanton]

Two suggestions of 90s shojo that everyone should read, recently reprinted in Italy: Miracle Girls and Saint Tail

[@JohannesBee]

Hearing you mention Chihayafuru for the nth time has finally gotten to me. You've worn me down! I'll read it! (If this is your master plan it's clearly working)

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

It is indeed my master plan

[@jordanrintoul-thomas722]

Fruits Basket was my first shoujo too.

[@akscherrer]

OKAY high school me was absolutely HOOKED on Sand Chronicles and i haven’t been able to find it in ages, ty for letting me know to look again now!!

[@nashpika]

the ULTIMATE vıdeo that i ULTIMATELY needed

[@titoleon3101]

I love how Colleen looks with glass3s.

[@heidimattern6062]

I love your channel, thank you for expressing just about every opinion my 28-yo-self feels about "classic" and new shoujo titles ❤❤

[@Sweetadventureful]

I LOVE THIS VIDEO SO MUCHHH 😭💜 So happy someone has a channel talking about shoujo manga series

[@superfriendlyalpaca]

Highschool Debut was the first series that got me deep into shoujo manga!! So happy to revisit it thru this vid again hehe

[@Saikouh]

wow! i have read 95% of your list over the course of my life (i haven't read much shoujo in the last several years now but..) and absolutely agree with all of your reccs and its associated chapters in this vid!! kitchen princess was my first ever shoujo and i hope you enjoy the ending

[@simonm1233]

I got drawn to shoujo after being exposed to shonen and seinen stuff written by women and greatly enjoying how these stories and characters were written. Then running out of said works and then following the recommendations of channels like yours.

[@WeirdAFforGooglingMe]

I’ve reread high school debut so much throughout the years I fall in love with it more and more on each read 😩

[@ThatsBrutal1212]

My first shoujo was Gakuen Alice followed by Pichi Pichi Pitch. Though I didn't know what anime or shoujo was at that time and it didn't introduce me to the anime community. My older sister was the anime fan and she owned a Gakuen Alice DVD which I would secretly watch back in the early 2000s while she was still at school.

[@TheDelikizzz]

Funnily enough I got into reading Shoujo from Jdramas! When I was a freshmen in high school i started watching jdramas and kdramas which made me realize that they were all live action adaptations from mangas like Hana Kimi and Absolute boyfriend. They didnt have anime adaptations so I went from the jdrama to the manga.

[@codenamewa3144]

I became a shojo reader when I was just a child thanks to the magical girls trope, especially thanks to Magical Doremi, Pichi Pichi Pitch and the 1st gen of Pretty Cure, later I got into Sailor Moon and Sakura Card Captor and from there I got into Marmalade Boy and all the high school romance, slice of life, drama and coming of age shojo manga 🙈 also supernatural ones like Kamisama Hajimemashita or Natsume more recently. I'm almost 24 y.o now and I've been watching and reading shojo since I was on my late years of elementary school. The narrative, visuals and everything about shojo manga feel special to me. I think I have watched and especially read so much shojo (josei as well) manga that I've lost the count 🙈 I really like your videos they are very interesting and I also enjoy when you talk about female gaze and feminism regarding shojo manga, really cool and inspiring. I also have a Twitter account where I mostly talk about shojo anime/manga in Spanish ☺️

[@Katt1721]

This is such a fun exercise! Looking back, my own personal nostalgic list (with some runner-ups) would be: Anime that got you into Shojo - Fruits Basket. Also can relate to the whole "disappointing Zodiac sign match-up" discovery as an early Fruits Basket fan. Poor Ritsu has barely any screen time Magical Girl - Cardcaptor Sakura. The only piece of Sailor Moon media I watched as a kid beyond a couple of the early episodes was the movie - then localized as "The Promise of the Rose" - because I had an old copy of it from a rental store haha High School Romance - Kare Kano or Special A? Tough to narrow this down since quite a few would fit from around the same time, but those were two of the early ones for me that didn't have another genre attached to it like action or fantasy. Trauma-Drama - Tie between NANA & Please Save My Earth. Red River could also apply since I was so young when I read it, but looking back I think these two affected me way more. Trashy Binge Read - Black Bird as well... I'm not proud looking back but it was SO popular that it was hard to avoid. 😂 The other nostalgic series that come to mind aren't quite trashy enough to categorize here even if they probably aren't for me nowadays (Dengeki Daisy, Ao Haru Ride, etc...) Long-running Shojo - Right now it's definitely AkaYona (Kusanagi is really out here making me buy 30+ volumes pls), but as far as firsts go that I was also actively following the release as it was coming out, terrible raw scans and all, it would have to be Kamisama Kiss or The World Is Still Beautiful (25 vols). For longer anime specifically, Rose of Versailles or Fushigi Yugi (40+ eps) come to mind. Special Interest Shojo - Actually really struggling with this one as a nostalgic pick doesn't immediately come to mind, and the few that do are mostly josei (like Nodame Cantabile, Paradise Kiss, etc...). Kageki Shojo is SO good tho, I need to catch up! Arina Tanemura Series - Ashamed to say I haven't read any of her series in full 😢

[@Katt1721]

Okay on second thought, if Glass Mask and Swan were more accessible in the US (the later not even fully translated RIP), those are two I would add to my Special Interest Category - I gotta show some love to the classic 70s shojo

[@kev_from_work]

another banger as usual 🙌🏻 this is definitely gonna be my go to video for my customers ✌🏻 thanks again for introducing me to new titles and series to obsess over and build my library 🙃

[@bisma1352]

it makes me so happy that I share my "one magical girl anime" with colleen. I think kero and the supportive/progressive vibes pulled me in and i was an adult! In my childhood i guess there was MIRMO zebang but hardly anyone knows that one. now, we NEED a starter pack for josei!

[@kyouta6324]

I had a friend at the time in middle school that gave me a copy of High School Debut, and I loved the hell of that book.

[@THEPUFFY1231]

First off, before I go off too much: this was a great vid! I'm excited to see titles I recognize in here, along with titles that are brand new to me (I never heard of Arina Tanemura before)! Some shoujo series I read growing up that I also enjoyed but weren't mentioned in here: Land of the Blindfolded: high school romance with future/past vision that I got into when I was also deeply invested in PMD2 Explorers of Time & Darkness, so seeing another story with a character with 'ability to see the future/past' powers hyped me up like crazy MARS: this was my Traumatic read in high school lol. I did relate to the protag a lot, and I really rooted for the main couple. Kare Kano: this was my Relatable Read in high school, even as it delved into drama and Really Questionable Decisions towards the end. Peach Girl: Both my High school romance, Drama, and delving into trashy read, and then the Sae series and the bonus chapter showing the beginning of Peach Girl from Sae's perspective Deeply Touched high school me. Paradise Kiss: Probably my choice for career manga! Same mangaka as Nana, Top Tier series that's short and sweet and packs a punch My more recent delves into Shoujo manga actually came from Splatoon 2 of all things! One of the idols, Marina, makes bonus stages and in English they're puns on book titles, but in Japanese they were puns on famous shoujo titles to reflect her love of manga, shoujo in particular! Someone made a list showing all of the manga references, and I ended up trying to read as many as I could find and thinking about what Marina would find appealing about each series. Unfortunately a lot were not translated or incredibly hard to find, but some bangers I found: -The Handsome Girlfriend/Marmalade Boy: these are both by the same mangaka, and I really enjoyed how the both of them would depict a wide range of sublte emotions! Handsome Girlfriend is more of a girlboss genre (less emphasis on career specifics and just more the protag becoming more mature and serious about her work) while Marmalade Boy is more High School Romance that can delve into the trashy drama side towards the end, but still had a lot of heart. -Midsummer's Damp Breath - Pure trash, this is basically for the 13 year old girls who are extremely horny but are still scared of seeing the naked male form directly. I still laugh at Splatoon referencing this manga of all things, it's hilarious to think how this could tie back to Marina -I'm No Angel - same mangaka as Nana, but focused on High School Romance! It's so fucking good and the title drop fucks me up, I adore it -Bonus note: there were also references to series that are known for their yaoi themes, such as The Poe Clan and The Wind and Tree's Poem, choices that really makes me point straight at Marina and go 'Gay!'

[@ঐন্দিলাশাসমল]

i love natsume book of friends so much. its non classic but a great shoujo

[@shevontea]

my first manga was actually a shojo! i remember going to the library and finding an interesting story i decided to check it out, that was when my manga addiction started.

[@spwarren95]

Kitchen Princess and Fruits Basket were some of the first series I ever picked up way back in 2008. I remember liking Natsumi Ando's other series Zodiac PI as well.

[@linacaromina]

My first anime was Les Misérables, it was dubbed in a kids channel in my country but I don't remember that much about it now, I was like 4-5 when I watched it but my first animanga that I remember how I started getting interested was Chihayafuru. I got into it thanks to an amv (yes it was a Chihaya x Taichi ship edit...) and started reading the manga because anime only had one season back then... I was so obsessed with it that I searched similar stories to this (but I ended up watching and reading Nana which it became my favorite piece of media ever) and my shoujo adventure started😭 And my trashy series is Vampire Knight... I aknowledge its problematic sides and I hate them too but I can never hate it as a whole🤧My guilty pleasure

[@CaitCher]

OMG, the majority of the series you mentioned in this video were a huge part of my childhood, and yes, I do agree, these series need to be remembered fondly and continued to be read. I was really hoping for you to talk about Gentlemen Alliance Cross, but when you said you wouldn't, I legit became the saddest little bean because that was my favorite Arina Tanemura manga growing up.

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

I'm so sorry 😭 If only I hadn't re-read it again to realize I didn't like it as much as I used to. I was obsessed with it as a teen though.

[@bobpaige4029]

First shouho I have watched was Sailor Moon and Kodocha. Please Save My Earth, Gakuen Alice and Glass Mask are my favourites, though I still love Kodocha.

[@Nao-fo8sc]

For me, time stranger kyoko was one of my favorite arina tanemura series. It's so sweet, funny, beautiful and so, so heartbreaking. I remember bawling my eyes out while reading it as a kid. 🥹 I have all the art books, too! Jeanne will always have a special place in my heart just because I grew up watching the anime. And then there was d.n. Angel, which I was also completely obsessed with for years. The love triangle in this one drove me up the walls (or is it a love square...? A quintet if I count the sometimes very strong bl undertones) I don't know. Either way, it had me hooked and I don't even like love triangles. To be fair, I don't even know if I would call it shoujo but that's what it's categorized as. 😅 (it might've been a terrible manga tbh but I very clearly remember that my child brain thought dark is the hottest creature in manga land)

[@alsk20]

This was such a great video! I started reading manga with Fruits Basket in middle school and have been a fan of shoujo manga ever since. I would love to see an updated tour of your shelves at some point.

[@keeliehyppa4920]

The Lincoln Park Kyo AMVs!!!!! Holy crap I remember being in middle school just watching all of them on KZbin😭❤️

[@ColleensMangaRecs]

FINALLY SOMEONE WHO GETS ME

[@BarknoorZ]

Orange was my favorite manga of all time for a few years, and I have a feeling if I give it a 5th reread now it might still be!

[@Vantinia]

I first got into anime and manga back in 2015. I didn't realise it at the time as I was very young and didn't know a lot of the terms and wasnt online very much, but I always found myself drawn to Shoujo. Kamisama Kiss, The Wallflower, Ouran High School Host Club, Revolutionary Girl Utena. I fell out of love with anime a few years after and kinds dismissed it as a cringy pre-teen phase, but i'm recently watching all these shows I never watched and rewatching ones I loved- Kamisama Kiss at the moment! and GOD it's good. I've never seen/read Fruits Basket though, so I'm definitely going to give it a go

[@Demona9999Marluxia]

I feel like this was missing a Yu Watase series somewhere, I didnt read all of fushigi yugi for nothing XD also some cathegory of shojo that got passed down to you, because my aunt gave me her Candy Candy magazines when I was a child and welp, here we are! Altough I guess for americans that might be impossible, alas, we Europeans have loved manga for far longer than you guys have XD Candy Cnady getting published in Spain back in the day and yet the anime never getting dubbed passed episdoe 52 is quite a curious case tough... btw Im from the year of the rooster too but I like Kureno so I wasnt disappointed... maybe I, like him, have too much of a gentle soul lol

[@ChelseaFace_]

Wow, you really did hit the nail on the head with this one...here's mine from your list!! Fruits Basket, Madoka Magica, Arisa, Absolute Boyfriend, and Full moon😅

[@lxmychil]

Madoka is a seinen. I recommend reading Sailor Moon manga instead, Madoka was influenced way too much by it but people don't mention it since Sailor Moon manga isn't explored and talked enough

[@ChelseaFace_]

@@lxmychil ahh cool, I did read sailor moon, watched some too, wasn't a huge fan but I like the path it paved.

[@ladydiamond6611]

i didnt even realise black bird was trashy until you like...........just described it right now. You unlocked a core memory for me for real, I loved reading it so much. Still would, same with Vampire Knight. Something about good trash just feels like home.....

[@m.i7211]

My first encounter with shojo was “Aoharuride” by Io Sakisaka. My mom’s a fan of the actor Sota Fukushi, and since he was going to play the main love interest of the live action drama of Aoharuride, my mom had rented all of the manga from the library. I initially only picked it up out of sheer boredom and because I had nothing else to do, I expected it to not like it because my perception of shojo had always been “cheesy romcoms with no plot”… oh boy was I wrong! I got sucked into the story immediately. I still couldn’t admit that I actually enjoyed a shojo manga so I would secretly read the manga when my mom was out buying groceries or whatever. I re-read it a few years back and was a bit disappointed to find that I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I had back when I was like 9 y/o, but I still think it’s a really solid romance manga to get you into shojo.

[@amdbwajbw]

First Shoujo manga was Save me lollipop and first anime was Cardcaptors and Ojamajo doremi followed by sailor moon and fruits basket (2001)

[@personalglow]

The way i had to stop the videos because the words "Sand Chronicles" gave me flashbacks, i even mumbled to myself, "i swear to god if this woman says 'Sand Chronicles'..." AND YOU DID!!! Ive actually been thinking of this series lately. I've read it twice in my life, both before highschool. I remember hating Ann honestly lol. I couldn't understand her fixation on Daigo and was too young to understand she was dealing with depression as well as the trauma from her mothers suicide. I also never understood what Shika (thats her name right? Fujis relative) did that hurt/upset Ann so much, the big event that she apologized for in her letter to Ann. I had a complicated relationship with this manga and all i really remember is loving Fuji. Maybw re-reading it now as a 25 year old adult I'll feel differently.

[@VVVV-mn9ip]

You need to read Oboreru Knife for that drama that made you cry lol, seriously it’s so good!

[@MewWolf5]

I really enjoyed the format of this video! A lot of fun!

[@m.g.5073]

I'm going to show my age lol: my first shoujo anime is a toss-up between akazukin cha cha, fancy lala, and cardcaptor sakura (i just really don't remember, it was pre-2000's) i don't think i've been heavy into shoujo recently but i would love to start reading again magical girl: cardcaptor sakura high school romance: 'cat street' is dear to me gaslight gatekeep girlboss: 'fancy lala' the og arina tanemura: gentlemen's alliance cross is the one i've read i think

[@mynameisYumi]

My first foray into shoujo don't quite follow the same classification as yours. But the manga I do remember reading when I first got in were absolute boyfriend, otomen, faster than a kiss, dengeki daisy, and kuragehime. At this point, I don't actively seek out shoujo manga (I've kinda reached a point where I don't look at age demographics for manga anymore). But your recs serve as a great reminder that there's a lot of good manga out there so long as you give it a chance!

[@Family-rf3vm]

my first manga EVER was a shojou by the name of The Water Dragons bride. (I was... almost assuredly too young for most of the themes at the time XD) but I loved every second of it. while browsing at my local library the refreshing colors, attractive characters, and beautiful water color cover illustration caught my eye. it was unfinished at the time and when I ran out of volumes my library system held I was forced to stop reading and... I forgot about it for the most part. I can back a few years later and rediscovered it all over again. this time it had finished releasing and I was able to devour it in its entirety. I highly recommend it. this manga means so much to me XD

[@jwil1977]

Sailor Moon was 100% my gateway into shoujo. Nice selections here, and some I haven't read and want to check out.