#i love shugo chara so much

[gachapains]

EVERYONE SHUT UP AND DONT TALK TO ME UTAU IS IN THE NEWEST CHAPTER OF JEWEL JOKER LIKE OKAY DIVA I SEE YOU IN A MOIVE AND OR DRAMA

[stardustizuku]

So, Gushing Over Magical Girls Is The Best Thing To Happen to Magical Girls

Gushing Over Magical Girls get this bad rep. For all the wrong reasons. I’ve seen it be called an insult to Magical Girls, I’ve seen it be called “gooner bait” a term I absolutely despise but that’s a thing for another day. I’ve seen it insulted for everything and anything under the sun.

I first got acquainted with it when I was scrolling through Twitter and I saw someone complain about the PV. However, as an avid Magical Girl Fan, I wasn’t disgusted. I was intrigued.

I decided to read the manga, and oh god.

This is one of the best things I’ve read.

The story follows Utena, a shy girl that loves Magical Girls, tricked to become the evil general that will defeat the Magical Girl team “Tres Magia”.

And it’s a delight.

I binged all the episodes available to me in the manga, and had fun in each and every chapter.

The same, however, couldn’t be said by half the people who watched the anime. And I was extremely baffled. As a queer woman, this was the first time in my life, in which I had seen something so deliberately catered towards me. I saw tell-tale signs of someone who genuinely admires the genre, and is simply using it as an outlet for exploring deeper and more interesting topics that a SFW version of it would not be able to.

Yet, I turn around and I see people calling it the most horrendous stuff, and accusing everyone who likes it of being monsters or men.

Genuinely, I’ve had enough.

Gushing Over Magical Girl is not the Devil. In fact, I think it’s the best thing to come don’t even like Magical Girls AND IT SHOWS.

PART 1: “Magical girls are for little girls!”.

The first criticism you’ll see aimed at “Gushing over Magical girl” is the amount of sexually charged content it has. And it is true. It borders on straight up porn in many instances and it just gets wilder as you go on. By chapter 30, we’re way past PantyShots. Like, I’ve seen some of these girls’ vaginas, and I’m not joking.

Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with it, but there’s people who might disagree.

“Magical Girls are for little girls” some people say “and you’re corrupting it!”

Which genuinely makes me laugh.

This is because this type of argument could only be done by someone with no real concept of Magical Girls aside from maybe Sailor Moon and Sakura Card Captor.

out of the Magical Girl genre in a WHILE (Ignoring Precure, because they just gave us a magical boy and that’s my win of the decade).

People are just, you know, stupid. And reactionary. Enough that they see a boob and lose their minds like a Karen at a Christmas Eve Mall.

My point is, I love this manga. And I’m willing to risk my reputation to defend it. Cause genuinely, half the people who are clutching their pearls over this show - Magical Girl Anime haven’t always been PG, or aimed at girls.

Cutie Honey is a great example. It’s one of the most famous Magical Girl Anime you will find - and it’s a shonen. With the protagonist, Honey, being constantly naked, groped, put in suggestive situations and have outfits that show her cleavage.

And it’s one of the most famous, most popular takes on Magical Girl there is. Yet, I never see any amount of outrage towards it. (Part of me wonders if it’s because the fan service is aimed at men, rather than involving yuri).

There’s also Lyrical Nanoha, one of the most popular serial franchises there is. It spans several seasons and spinoffs, and it’s beloved by many.

And it’s aimed at older men. Yes, it’s a Seinen.

In fact, its origins are far from PG. It’s actually a Spin-off of an erotic game named “Triangle Heart”. It was most definitely not created with little girls in mind, and themes it tackles reflect as much.

There’s Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya too, a spinoff of the Fate/Stay Night VN, very obviously aimed at older men, it’s a Seinen. It has a lot of fanservice and scenes where the characters are half naked.

Day Break Illusion is also a Shonen.

And as much as I adora Madoka - I’ve been stating for years now that it isn’t a show meant for little girls. You could argue it’s for everyone, regardless of gender, who’s a little older. But it most definitely wasn’t for little girls.

So, no. This was never an “only girls” club. Trying to paint it as such, is not only wrong but ignorant.

Magical Girl shows can be for anyone. Men, boys, girls, women and I find it infantilizing to consider it “only for little girls”.

No one says “super heroes are ONLY for little boys”

Well, some do. But they’re, you know, bigots. Who don’t want girls playing or adults o have fun.

So no, Gushing Over Magical Girls being a sexually charged anime in the Seinen category isn’t “corrupting the genre”. In fact, I would argue it’s doing exactly what the genre has done in the OVA shadows for a while.

Not to mention, many people have screamed from the rooftop how they want “more mature Magical Girl shows” referring to the success of Madoka. But as soon as an actually mature take on Magical Girls shows up, tackling issues of sexuality and love, you all don’t want it anymore.

(We all know why, though. Americans, and western culture in general, considers mature themes, only that which involves violence. Anything close to discussing issues of sex is no longer “mature” but “Pornographic” and deserving of being shoved into a corner. With all queer themes, gender studies, and any nuance that could be had regarding these issues).

And speaking of sexually charged, have you watched so called “wholesome” magical girls? They’re still very much sexy. Not in the “on the nose” ecchi way Seinen and Shonen are - but they still are.

You’ll find transformations were the girls are naked, zoom in to their breasts, you’ll have panty shots every now and then. Even themes of growing up, having crushes, and innuendos about sex. Inappropriate relationships, taboo romance, and the likes.

Sakura had Rita and a professor’s relationship (mutual in the manga), Sailor Moon had Chibiusa and Elliot’s romance, Sugar Sugar Rune even having an element for ‘lust’ and other different types of love, and let’s not forget Mermaid Melody which has several instances of the girls naked, in compromising positions with other men. And I’m pretty sure Tokyo Mew Mew likely opened a whole bunch of doors for girls to be into CNC.

This is, by the way, normal.

Completely so.

These stories often talk about the girlhood experience. And girls and teenage girls are interested in all of these things. They’re interested in sex, romance, their bodies growing up, their own sexuality and the likes. It’s no wonder same-sex relationships and romance get included, they’re part of what experiencing the world through the eyes of a young girl is like.

And subsequently, it stands to reason that as people who engaged with MG grow up - they find comfort in exploring their sexuality through Magical Girl themselves. There’s a reason why there’s a growing section of “Magical Girl” in your local hentai site.

“Men get off on corrupting this wholesome girl targeted genre” is actually TERF rhetoric sneaking through the mainstream. It ignores AFAB ppl and gender nonconforming people, who grew up with Magical Girls, simply using a medium that originally started their journey of sexual identity, to explore more “grown up” aspects of that same identity.

In particular, I’m a Cis AroAce Woman. I wrote a lot of Magical Girl NSFW when I first started writing NSFW Twitter threads. They’re bad and they’re cringey. But it was something I needed.

Magical Girls were a huge part of my childhood and early teens. When I was mentally in the space to want to engage with NSFW content: it was obvious I would turn to what first sparked excitement.

So this idea that “men are corrupting Magical Girls with their sick fantasies” is nothing more than TERF-lite propaganda. People, including women and men, have been doing this for ages; for a variety of reasons. And doing so, doesn’t rob children of their spaces - but the gentrification of the internet is a story of another day.

The other argument I have heard is that GOMG is a mockery of the genre. Which is even more laughable in my opinion.

PART 2: Parodies and why I hate Earth Defender’s Club.

Gushing Over Magical Girls loves Magical Girls. It’s a parody, in a way, but it knows very well what it parodies. It’s not surface level in the slightest. And it absolutely is not mean spirited about it.

A lot of the time, shows that reference and parody the Magical Girl genre, do so in ways that feel like they view it as a lesser genre. They take generic images of cute girls in frilly outfits, swap the colors around, and have them chant over-the-top spells. You’re meant to laugh, not only at how silly they look, but people who would love it. Especially if they’re grown ups.

I do not like “Cute High Earth Defense Club LOVE!” For this exact reason - even tho many people praise it to all heavens.

Because

1) It feels surface level in its commentary and depiction of Magical Girls and

2) More mocking towards the genre than paying homage or doing anything with it.

The continuous use of the word “Love” is a very obvious jab at Magical Girls using these words, which feels mean spirited just for the sake of it. Their outfits are almost exactly the same, save for the colors. And they all use the same sticks as weapon, with no thematic link for the shapes of the scepters. The mascot too (a wombat for god knows what reason), I think it’s meant to be a joke of some sort for how ridiculous some of the mascots for the girls get, which rubs me the wrong way.

In general, it feels shallow and mean spirited. But no one calls this an insult to Magical Girls. Because people who like it don't actually care about Magical Girls. They see cute boys doing silly things and love it. Which is kinda sad.

Now, Gushing Over Magical girls has sort of that same problem on the Tres Magias…But they’re not the protagonists. And even then, in later chapters, they get power ups that are different in design, and thematically linked.

The protagonist, and the ones we follow, are Utena and the girls. And they all have very distinct outfits, all with motifs that are tangentially thematically linked, and speak of each character’s personalities in interesting ways.

Utena in particular has THIS outfit. Which a lot of people don’t like, but I actually do.

It’s very obvious it’s taking inspo from other iconic Bad Girls in the genre. Namely, Utau, Kraehe and Devil Homura. All “Enemy characters” that have unhealthy obsessions with other characters. In particular, I think the wings and the feathers resemble Homura - THE character known to have a massive obsession with a Magical Girl (Madoka), to the point of insanity.

There’s also Magia Azure. Who’s a clear reference to the Mean Tsundere girl that is iconic to the genre. She’s also a Miko. Which is a callback to Sailor Mars, arguably THE girl who popularized this archetype.

I also love what they do with the mascots. Unlike Earth Defenders, where the mascot is you know, a mockery of the archetype of a mascot - useless, only there to give power ups, and obsessed with food - the mascots of GOMG is taking a book from Madoka.

It considers the mascots both all-too-powerful and yet limited in their reach. Which is exactly what the mascots have always been in Magical Girls. Beings so powerful they can give mythical powers to girls, yet helpless to do anything on their own. So, they use magical girls as a vehicle to achieve their goals. Most Magical girls try to paint this as a good thing, but newer genres shine light on how dangerous that can be too.

Madoka tackles it with Kyubey as the main initial mascot, only later to turn out to be the villain of the series.

And in a Post-Madoka world, trusting the mascots is just the slightest bit more difficult. That’s why, from the get go, GOMG portrays their mascots as morally corrupt. He’s not a good character, he’s malicious and doing more harm than good. But for the majority of the series, he’s painted more as a useless harmless evil than anything genuinely terrifying or worthy of concern. The attention is focused on other things.

But I love the way that it’s heavily implied that they’re not good. It’s a very interesting take on the mascot and it helps with the themes of the series. Which yes, by the way. Gushing Over Magical Girls has themes.

Which lead me to-

Part 3: Yeah, uhm, Gushing Over Magical Girl has themes.

There’s this idea that Sex is an inherently violent act. In which a man humiliates and sodomizes a woman, and therefore the woman is exploited in some way. And 10x worse is any act that involves BDSM. It’s violence; born out of hatred.

This is TERF rhetoric. I’m not joking. This line of thought leads directly to TERF ideas.

Many on the internet have pointed out as much, and BDSM members have gone to be very vocal about it. In particular, people on the role of the submissive (or the bottoms) are loudly trying to explain the contrary. How they like the act of sex, like the idea of being vulnerable, or being humiliated. There’s also plenty of LGBT+ stories that talk about it, both in western and eastern spaces. Just jump into the section of dom/sub verse at your local manga browsing website, and you’ll find something.

That said, the same is not as common for people who like to “dominate”.

I can only think of two pieces of media that argue that, whoever is the dominant or the sadist, is also a human being. That whatever they’re doing is done, not out of hatred for the submissive or an act of violence, but love.

One, is the husky and the white cat. In which Mo Ran, among other things, has to come to terms that his love isn’t “pure”. That he cannot love someone without the want to have sex, and to completely dominate that someone.

The second one is Gushing Over Magical Girls.

It’s very clear to me that Utena’s sadism isn’t a violent act. It’s an act born out of love. She genuinely loves the Magical Girls, and most girls for that matter, and whenever she is inflicting pain and fighting with them - what she wants is to ultimately help them in some way.

She wants them to “be the cutest version they can be” and wants them to shine brighter than ever.

There’s this one scene I love, around chapter 20, in which Baiser (Utena) is fighting Magia Azura. And due to Baiser going a bit too far, Azura ends up being Mind-broken. She crawls towards her, calls her “mistress” and begs to become her servant.

In any normal Hentai you’ll find, this is a good thing. This would be the ideal outcome. A character being turned into nothing but a sex slave for the enjoyment of the dominant.

Which is why I found it breathtaking when that didn’t happen.

Baiser is horrified by this. She does not want to break the girls, she wants them to be powerful. She wants them to win. With her, the evil one, being nothing more than a vehicle for them to be even stronger than before.

This is the first time I’ve ever seen dominant or sadist characters being presented both sexually, and in such a positive light. Much less a queer woman in the same position.

It doesn’t treat BDSM sex as a disgusting taboo act, but something born out of genuine love - and a want to see the other person be or feel better.

This is reinforced around chapter 25 where Leberblume and Loco Mùsica are fighting Baiser. For context, Loco Musica wanted to be an Idol, but had terrible singing. She uses her evil power to basically force everyone to listen to her sing (which is so reminiscent of Mermaid Melody btw). When they fight, Baiser wins, and is then set to use her new found power to “punish” Loco Musica.

Originally, Loco Musica points out how Baiser’s sadistic tendencies are “the same” as Lord Enorme, who we’ve seen uses sadism as a genuine form of punishment. Something to avoid. You behave well, because you don’t want to get hurt or humiliated by her.

However, when Baiser uses her own unique type of sadism on Loco Musica, something happens. Instead of causing her physical pain by beating her or using violence, she forces her to get naked and perform her idol song like that. This causes her to get extremely embarrassed. And in the process, she actually starts to sing really well.

This is important for two reasons

1) Baiser is actually taking into account who Musica is. It’s later revealed that Musica wanted a more frilly idol-like outfit but Lord Enorme shut it down, for the sake of a more ‘unified’ aesthetic. Baiser is not just throwing around the same treatment and punishment for all girls - what one might like, the other might hate.

2) At the end of the day, while she did the punishment, it was both embarrassing, but ultimately something that helped Musica and made her feel better.

And that’s really the key here, and why I love the series.

Sadism, sex and kinks in general are not tools of degeneracy. They’re treated as part of our experience.

Also, it’s just fun?

Part 4: Gushing Over Magical Girls is just extremely fun when you don’t have a dumb bitch yapping abt how unholy it is to see tiddies on a screen

Yeah, GOMG just has one of the most creative depictions of the most insane of kinks you’ll see - I could spent hour gushing over Nero Alice.

Seeing all these different kinks being depicted as powers and abilities that these characters have - and seeing how they interact with other people is just interesting.

The sex scenes are both hilarious and kinda sexy. Specially if you do like to see women all hot and bothered. Personally I’m not into girls (or anyone for that matter) but I have to admit the scenes were pretty hot. And there is no shame in admitting as much. No matter what the puritanical Christian on Twitter crying abt “god honoring lesbian sex” Will tell you.

I cannot begin to explain just how hype and relatable it was to see Magia Baiser defeat Lord Enorme with the power of straight up delusion, we STAN.

So, yeah.

It’s been a while since I last saw a Magical Girl Show so unashamed of being a Magical Girl Show. Unashamed of being weird, of praising the genre and just enjoying it.

My essay is titled, in part, as a joking reference to my much more popular series “MLB is the worst thing to happen to the magical girl series”. Which I still think is true.

And while, yeah, maybe GOMG isn’t the best thing to come out of the genre…I still think it’s good that it came out.

A lot of people say they want a more “mature” take on Magical Girls but - this proved to me that just isn’t the case.

Gushing over magical girls proves that the Magical Girl Genre Can Be so much more than what people think. More than glitter and sparkles, more than vapid action scenes, or what little girls want.

Much like any other genre, it can be raunchy, it can be messy, it can explore things outside of the status quo. But it can still deeply respect the source material, and the origins of it.

GOMG proves Magical Girls can be fun. Just. Straight up fun. Regardless of your age. They can serve and connect you to parts of yourself you didn’t realize you could connect to.

I hope it proves to more people that the genre can be so much more than “just for little girls” that parodies can be more than pointing and laughing, and that it can have themes beyond just, “friendship”.

Magical Girls can be so much more. You just, have to have an open mind about it.

[rnm-magic-space-xsd]

[magical-xirl-4]

I love Tadase so fucking much

[preluvz]

My fav month is here!! The month of love, chocolate, and most importantly my birthday🍫💚!!

[neverland-promises]

Aaahh I feel like a little kid again reading the new shugo chara sequel sobs I always felt so seen in Amu and how she is I wonder if I can still relate to her now it has been years

[akkivee]

if i’ve spent egregious amounts of time reading fics or just put in stupid time in the fandom i’m counting it as a brainrot so

pokemon

sailor moon/dbz

sonic

batman/harley quinn

naruto

anything CLAMP

fruits basket

detective conan

super smash bros/anything nintendo

shugo chara

reborn

hetalia

free

the hobbit

marvel

bnha

voltron

hypmic

daiya no ace

twst

ORV

slam dunk

[ustalav]

i decided to make an inspo board for this girl by moonlight campaign idea and...... oh my god i am rediscovering magical girl anime from my childhood i completely forgot about

sugar sugar rune......... it was the first anime i watched lol

[roobylavender]

thoughts on amu x ikuto age gap controversy? see me personally I always thought they were about the same age and so I will forever pretend it is just to save my peace 💆🏽‍♀️

honestly i never cared for their relationship in the first place so that made hating the age gap once i became cognizant of it easier 😭 like twelve and eighteen is so insane and he was showing up in her BED

[cinnominbubble]

Thinking about the implications of the Arc Eggs in Shugo Chara!... If the Hearts Eggs are the wishes of a child distilled to their purest, and X-Eggs are a corrupted dream that takes that idea of innocent passion and pushes it to self hatred and giving up, what does that mean for an artificially manufactured egg? We've SEEN one of those before, albeit on a far smaller scale, with Ikuto and the Black egg, and I would argue that it represented a caging responsibility of a dream for the Company, rather than Ikuto himself.

I think the Arc Eggs may honestly not be far from that idea on a far larger scale.

This is a middle school. Young children are encouraged to express themselves and chase dreams and believe in themselves, but middle grades are when a LOT of the pressures- both internal and external- really start to ramp up.

All of the other kinds of eggs in this series* have been a metaphorical representation, and the Arc Eggs most definitely follow suit.

The students at Arcana Academy are HANDED eggs because they’ve been GIVEN someone else’s dreams- as starts being apparent in middle grade kids. They are disheartened when they can’t live up to the potential that parents or teachers or otherwise influential figures placed on them, and the dream goes sour.

No wonder there are so many X-Egg reports, and no wonder Amu couldn't cleanse that X-Egg. Her method relies on reminding people what their dreams are in the first place, but if these AREN’T their real dreams and if they don’t know who they’re supposed to be WITHOUT the dream that has been given to them, what is she meant to be convincing them?

This whole storyline of gamifying the act of living out artificial dreams is so bleak, and I'm so excited to see how things play out!

(*As much as I love the anime, the question mark eggs feel out of place in the metaphor. Because YES, you can be confused or obsessive over a dream and it can drive you to obsession and one-track mind-ism that is unhealthy, but the active mechanics of the ?eggs are far more convoluted than the other depictions we see in the story so it's hard to bring them up in this kind of conversation)

[magicalgirlpictureencyclopedia]

I saw Cure Ice's short on Sugar Sugar Rune that addresses gender roles. It made me think about like, the several series that do address gender roles or depict unique experiences that play into this. Sugar Sugar Rune plays on the "tough girl" vs the "shy girl" roles and how society puts girls in these boxes of expected behavior. In the magical world depicted in the series Chocolat was more popular, well loved, and got the attention Vanilla could only dream of before coming to Earth. When Chocolat states how easy Vanilla has it collecting hearts, Vanilla becomes offended.

I mean, wouldn't you also be upset if you were seen as unpopular, meek, and not worth knowing and then your best friend thinks the effort you put into a task is something you've mastered? It's a very relatable feeling.

I find it fairly interesting that the magical world has the inverse of human society's preferences of girls. I see a lot of debates about more outspoken girls and women becoming more common (or even stuff like the "girlboss" narrative I see a lot), but the fact remains that in fiction and society girls who are considered more demure, nice, and agreeable are preferred. Girls who are more outspoken or blunt (like Chocola) are seen more as hindrances, often being considered headaches or "unlady-like." I do not agree with these opinion as they fall into trap holes of sexism, misogyny, and overall poor assumptions of character, but I see it a lot. In Sugar Sugar Rune collecting the hearts of boys is the objective in order to become to queen of the magic world, so this was a clever way for Moyocco Anno to explore how gender roles play into how girls are seen.

However, the short also touches on how "girls can't win", which I also find to be true. I mentioned some of Vanilla's character arc while writing the Alice 19th portion of my magical girl recommendation article, as unlike Alice Vanilla isn't a shy magical girl protagonist. However, even with being agreeable girls who are too quiet, highly introverted, socially withdrawn, or anything leaning away from extroversion are also seen as "burdens." Alice Seno is a character who is highly bullied, often for not speaking up and being in the spotlight of a much more popular older sister.

The series depicts many of Alice's struggles, but this part where she's bullied for being quiet and lacking the ability to speak up. She also goes closer to Kyo Wakamiya, her crush (yes, the guy in my profile picture.) This manga shows more proof that girls who do not fit the impossible standard of being approachable, but not too assertive never logically works out. Alice also acknowledges herself as a people pleaser, a trait shared by other girls you see in shoujo manga. In short, she swallows her feelings for others, a bit like Tohru Honda does in Fruits Basket.

Anyway, this reminded me of other shy magical girls and how those series might depict gender roles, but in my article I was addresding protagonists who are like Alice, not supporting cast members. Tsubomi Hanasaki/Cure Blossom (Heartcatch Precure!) and Amu Hinamori (Shugo Chara!) fit here, but I found Akari Sakura, the main character of Jewelpet Twinkle, to show these struggles much more that align with Alice's.

Just some stuff that's been on my mind.

[rnm-magic-space-xsd]

(Credits : _kittymofhi_ Twitter)

[ilikekidsshows]

seeing how you recommend shugo chara for ml alternative remind me of how vicious some part of the fandom is especially toward people who ship amuto, stating how problematic the ship is because Ikuto is sexual harasser and also pedophile and interestingly... I've also seen some people stating that cat noir is a sexual harasser and it just make me goes like wow... The cat boys never escape the allegation huh... And it's odd how some people can't seems to be separated fiction from reality

---

It's almost like fiction isn't a perfect reflection of reality but an exaggeration of one, especially when we're discussing a children's cartoon. It's almost like, sometimes, cartoon characters don't mind or might even like something you think they should hate. It's almost like part of the fantasy both Miraculous and Shugo Chara are selling you is the idea of a mysterious, hot guy being really into you, but respecting your boundaries enough to not push you for anything even when they remind you that they still find you attractive. This is the very point of the “hot mysterious older guy love interest” archetype we see in a lot of magical girl media that Ikuto also is an example of. The point is that nothing happens in the relationship unless the girl wants it. That safety that comes with deep, genuine respect is also exhibited by Cat Noir.

Yes, it’s a little unrealistic to expect a teenage boy with his first crush to know how to be that considerate, but that’s why it’s fiction. It's like, yeah, we can accept that this guy can turn into a cat boy with the help of a magical fairy, but we can't accept that he actually genuinely respects her enough to not push, and we definitely can’t accept that the girl rejecting him actually likes him flirting with her because she likes feeling attractive. It’s such a fantastical motivation for a teenage girl, am I right?

Seriously, I can’t emphasize enough how important the fact that Adrien doesn’t actually expect anything from Ladybug is to the wish fulfillment fantasy of Miraculous. He loves you so much that he’s happy to be your friend and just values any time you spend around him with no expectation that you’ll love him back. Sure, that would be nice, because you’re just so amazing that anyone would want to be loved by you, but it isn’t required. The point of Cat Noir's archetype isn't "the pushy guy who won't take 'no' for an answer", it's "the genuinely nice guy who will love you no matter what".

I feel like people who complain about characters like Ikuto and Adrien take the term “Nice Guy” too literally. “Nice Guy” doesn’t mean “guy who acts nice to a girl he’s attracted to”. The stereotypical “Nice Guy” is an attitude that, if you do the right things, the other person will want to date you. It’s treating relationships as transactional and always includes entitlement. Yes, there is an entitled party in the Lovesquare who only hangs out with the other person in the hopes of scoring a romantic relationship, but it’s not Adrien. Hint: it’s the girl in pigtails who constantly hatches schemes to get Adrien to fall for her and whines like a three-year-old because Adrien friend-zoned her in ‘Riposte’.

[muchadorks]

Obviously, I haven't included all of them (mainly just ones I'm decently familiar with, enough to know that the anime adaptations are completely). Some I also made executive decisions to exclude. For example, I left out the Legend of Basara and Please Save My Earth because they're less familiar to most people on here. And D.N. Angel and My Love Story!! have male MCs, so I'm not sure if they count as shoujo. And Shugo Chara technically isn't fully adapting since they made up the Party! arc after the Easter Arc (manga ending is much better in my opinion lol...)

However, I hope I got most of the popular ones! Or at least that ones that still make me sad aren't finished lol

Update: cannot believe I forgot these ones

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Princess Jellyfish

[phoenixkaptain]

I’m rereading Shugo Chara (it’s been years and the nostalgia I feel is immense) and I’ve got to be honest…

I think Amu and Ikuto is the funniest ship in the whole world.

Like, they just like each other. They like spending time with each other. Amu is genuinely comfortable around him until he starts flirting, then she’s mostly just kind of exasperated. All of Ikuto’s interactions with her are based on cats. He brings her food (human can not hunt for themself) and he lays on her (human is the most comfortable pillow) and he teases her (human must be kept on their toes). Like, he’s just a big ol’ cat and I love it.

But also, the manga is fucking hilarious.

When Kukai is graduating and everyone’s saying goodbye and Tadase asks “When I’m in trouble, can I talk to this picture I have of you?” When they’re all talking about what happens around springtime and Ikuto casually says “Being in heat. Because we’re cats.” and Amu’s respons is “Can he say that in this manga?” And Sensei… “Why are you still teaching here?” “I do have credentials.”

Ikuto is the funniest character. He brings cookies because he broke Amu’s tart. He brings ice cream because Utau dropped Kukai’s ice cream (and maybe Amu’s? I’m unclear) ((how did he even know that that happened? Does he have a sixth sense, “Someone just ruined my human’s meal. I have to fix this immediately.”)) He always shows up with a bag of food and just drops it on Amu, then leaves. He came here for one reason and one reason only, and it was to drop off food, bye.

My favourite part of the manga is Nadeshiko/Nagihiko. I love Amu’s comment early on “Nadeshiko changes so fast!” I love Temari, who just repeats “my kimono will get dirty.” And when they’re crawling through the vent or whatever, and Temari is crawling while still covering her face with her sleeve and says “my kimono is getting dirty.” Hilarious. I love Temari so much.

I love that Nadeshiko is Amu’s best friend. They are besties. The extra where Nagihiko breaks out of his house to spend time with Amu? Perfection. Nagihiko holding Amu’s hand, and when she points it out to him, he just goes “Oh yeah. I forgot I’m different today.” I love Nagihiko, he’s the best. The whole explanation is totally wild and honestly baffling, but I love Nagihiko and his weird ass family all the same.

I liked the show a lot as a kid, and I liked the manga even more. I think Amu and Ikuto are adorable. I think it’s funny that the characters don’t act like any elementary school students I’ve ever met (including the ones who were in elementary school with me). I like that Kukai is everyone’s favourite, and he’s just so chipper. I like Tadase’s wish being to conquer the world, and everyone agreeing to help him with it because “It’s fun :)” I especially like that Amu is consistently and constantly judging the capes.

Maybe it’s nostalgia colouring my view. Maybe I’m biased because it made me laugh a couple times. Maybe I just like Ikuto and Amu being comedic foils to each other. Whatever it may be, I really enjoy the manga. Would I recommend it? Yes. Would I recommend it if you’re going to be pissed by the age gap? No.

(“The age gap is so problematic!” But have you considered that they are funny?)

[asideblogofananimelover]

#he's literally an angel; truly the unproblematic fave of the series #cares about his underclassmen so much !!#best friends with tadase and nagihiko !!#a big brother figure to yaya and kairi !! #a mentor and a source of advice for amu !! #he even amuses rima and she's the queen of comedy #and his relationship with utau oh my god don't even get me started #he's so supportive of everyone that he meets like #he's a literal ball of sunshine and i wish we'd gotten sm more of him #not to mention his eye sparkles in the first chapter of encore #someone hold me he is so beautiful #four older brothers to rag on him and his soul is still eternally pure #he cares enough about utau as a friend to try and cheer her up #and when those feelings turn into something more he still puts her concerns first #he reassures her so much like we don't even need that much content to know that !! #and jglkdfsjhl the three times thing is so stupid but it's so cute kill me #i just love him so much (via shiikadai-archive)

a random thought but honestly does anyone love kukai souma as much as i do lmao i think NOT