Ugh, who is this girl?, I thought.  With her cloying sweetness and submissive nature I couldn’t understand why any teenager would want to read her story or worse, emulate her behavior.  After all, this was America.  Where our women kick ass, take names and would stomp all over Kyo the minute he pulled his pay attention to meeeee routine.  Yet, for some reason, I couldn’t give up on Tohru anymore than she could give up on Kyo.

After a few volumes, I wasn’t just hooked on Fruits Basket, I was hooked on the shojo heroine.  A couple years later when I first served on the Great Graphic Novels for Teens committee I would go to bat for women like Nana’s Hachi.  The yasashi girl.   I would admire these qualities in the young women that attended my monthly anime club meetings.  They were a new generation, defining feminism and rearranging the cultural norms to fit their ideals.

So what makes the yasashi or “don’t rock the boat” girl so unappealing to our American sensibilities?  Is it the idea that by bending to those around her she somehow gives up her individuality?  But, these days, how overrated is individuality anyhow?  What I notice is a woman who takes her strength from herself then offers that to her friends, her lovers, her parents and her community at large.  The shojo heroine consciously makes the choice to be better every day.

It doesn’t always have the most obvious benefits to the character.  Hachi’s romance with that jerk Takumi is an example of an unhealthy relationship perpetuated by Hachi’s “weak” sense of self.  Yet, she stays for her child which is a much better reason than that of “strong” Nana who stays with her trainwreck Ren simply out of fear.

When standing beside a shojo heroine the ultimate goal is happiness for everyone.  If they are happy, so will she be happy.  And that, is not a bad thing.  Yes, there are complications with the formula and I would have a hard time telling anyone to be as submissive as some of these characters are – yet, I can see how the shojo heroine would thrive in America if she were just given a chance.  How her spirit can help pull others up and challenge everyone to be their best.

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I knew there was a reason I left Colorado.

To ride the ‘let’s list stuff cause it’s really really fun and everyone loves lists’ wave – started by John Jakala, then David Welsh – here’s my top 5 Addictive Shojo Manga:

1.  Fruits Basket – this is or should be on everyone’s list, it’s like crack.

2. Absolute Boyfriend – I know a lot of people thought this title wasn’t very good but I couldn’t get enough of Night and Soshi.  They adorn my cubicle walls like Zac Efron in a middle school locker.

3. Sand Chronicles – the plot seems so simple but there’s something about this touching manga that makes me flip the pages of Shojo Beat to read it first.

4. Ouran High School Host Club – It’s basically the same thing volume after volume and yet, I still laugh.

5. Chobits – ok, I don’t know if this technically counts as a shojo title but it’s close enough.  I secretly reread the volumes then pretend to be shocked at the chauvenism.

Whew! That was fun and made me want to read some shojo.  Oh, here’s some honorable mentions that are actually manhwa:

Bride of the Water God – sooo pretty

Two Will Come – I like the jerky/sweet player character