I remember reading Kaze Hikaru on the Shojo Beat magazine 15 (!!) years ago. I can’t believe they haven’t finished localizing it.💀💀 They’re literally over a decade behind?!
it's so annoying the way Viz treats it, but they've never really been kind to shojo :( here's hoping that it won't take another 15 years to get the rest of the series.
Wow this is why I gave up on translated manga stuff for females tends to get ignored in favor of shounen and I use to buy quite a few now I troll scanslation sites for my fix.
Some of the fight scenes in Yona (Hak scenes) reminded me of Guts Berserker Armor fights, then I remember Kentaro Miura actually loved Yona and made two promotional pictures for it 😭. I don't doubt Kusanagi was a huge fan of Berserk as well
Even as a longtime shoujo fan, I'd been on the fence about picking up Sacrificial Princess. But now knowing it's similar to Ancient Magus Bride which I absolutely adore, and even play in a DnD campaign inspired by it, I'm definitely gonna have to give it a read. EDIT: I'm returning to this comment to say that I just finished the entirety of Sacrificial Princess and I have no regrets. That was such a beautiful story and heartwarming romance
Same. I saw it and was like I can either see this being amazing or horrible but knowing it’s similar to ancient magus bride and just everything about it, I really want to pick up the manga. I was planning on watching the anime anyway but I’m really excited for it now.
I'd guess an even better comparison would be One Piece x Basara I mean "a story abt a young hero whos is in a way or another the embodiment of liberation, travelling to and freeing places while gathering allies and admirators (who might follow them bc of a prophecy or not) until they put down the ultimate opressor" is basically both of them, right? At least from where i am in Basara it checks. Plus they both got all the ~feels~ and awesome worldbuilding. Still i get Yona being the one since its gotta be accessible 🥲 Huge comeback, so happy to get all these recs
“This is not a recommendation - this is a CALL TO ACTION!” 😂 Thank God someone else is saying this. 15 YEARS!!! FIFTEEN!!! I’ve already been reading this thing for 10 years and I have to double that to finish it??? PLEASE EVERYONE READ KAZE HIKARU IT’S SO GOOD!!
I am collecting Noragami and that manga only gets 1 volume per year, because we have caught up to the Japanese release. But damn, having to wait as many years as there are volumes really sucks. Yona is a monthly release but we still get a volume almost every month or so. I can tell you, that it would not take that long if the series came out in Germany. German manga releases are one volume every 2 months usually, so if Kaze Hikaru came out here, it would probably finsih its release in only 8 years or so. That is less time than having to wait for the last volumes of the English release. And us Germans have pretty much everything release physically. I feel for the US Manga fans.
And it's even worse because it's a manga with so much political and historic context that those volume gaps really kill your abillity to be immersed. I've forgotten the last volume by the time the new one comes out! I'm a few behind and need to catch up, but probably won't bother sitting down and reading them until we catch up in.... lmao 15 years, since at this point I want to start over from the beginning.
Yona of the Dawn and One Piece are my top 2 and the way you explained the similarities definitely explains why!! Loved seeing this series on tik tok. I’m happy you brought it on to here! 🥰
Omg what a ride! I LOVE this video. I found you here on YT so I wasn’t aware this series was a thing. I like the comparisons and I hope we get another installment 😇
Hoejo signing in. i literally just started Yona of the dawn hours before this video dropped, and i'm already loving it. just finished inuyasha too, absolutely slaps, perfect comfy series to have on in the background, i could immediately see why it got so popular. rumiko takahashi is an absolute GOAT. i hope we start getting more josei in english soon.
I absolutely loved this! The format, the way you describe the recommendations, and the mix between well-known and lesser-known series was perfect. This channel feels like such a happy, safe space to celebrate shoujo manga and I'm so glad you started it!
Sacrificial princess is getting an anime! I was so surprised when I found out. Already more than halfway through the manga, because you recommended it so interestingly 🌼
So glad the series is back! I found it around the time it was ending so with you bringing it back (and on RU-vid) I’m very excited! :D my fave recommendation was Jigoku No Enra, it was a short, sweet and straightforward manga which is different from the ongoing Toilet Bound Hanako-kun manga series but still a great rec :)
I LOOOOOOVE Special A!!! 😭😭😭 I'm SO glad you mentioned it 😀 I feel like this story started my love for rivals to lovers (which to me is a superior trope to any romance trope ever) and I alsooo really like the other romantic developments with other characters, not to mention it is funny as heck 😄
Another masterpiece! Also- thanks for subbing a more accessible series for Blue Box- super helpful! I loved Making the Shounen Jump To Shoujo when you were making them so thanks for making another great comparison video! ❤️
Of course!! I got lucky that I was also reading Waiting For Spring for the first time (well kinda because I read some of it back in college) so I had another basketball romance on the brain.
Same ahaha I remember reading it years back and laughing in the middle of the night as I was reading it. I must have been laughing so much because my mum had a scare thinking there was a robber in the house 😂😂😂
You always have the best recommendations, so I'm very glad I watched this! Ancient Magus' Bride and Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun are two of my favourite shonen series, so I will definitely be checking out Oresama Teacher and Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts!
Ancient Magus' Bride is shonen? I actually didn't know that. I assumed it was the same category as Pandora Hearts which was neither shonen nor shojo. It's one of the ones I can never remember the category name for. Interesting to find out.
@@julieannefowler5768 Ancient Magus' Bride is one of those manga that straddles the line between multiple genres. It's technically a shounen due to the magazine it's printed in, but if I remember correctly it's written by a female mangaka and the fanbase is actually predominantly female by a small margin.
1. Yona of the dawn. My first reaction when you mention this series I thought it sounds familiar then I realize it's Akatsuki no Yona lol I recognize the Japanese name than the English one lol but seriously this series is so good that I cried they didn't make a second season in the anime. The show has Fusho gi Yugi (Mysterious Play) kinda vibes as well and one of my favorite anime of all time. 2. Ore-sama sensei. One of the best genderbend manga that I read. It's very fun and quirky, not one chapter that I'm laughing out loud then crying on the next. This series and Skip Beat are one of my favorite top genderbend manga series in all time! 3. Waiting for spring. I haven't read that despite my friends been recommending me to read that series, the only reason I haven't because of the love triangle plot, I kinda hesitated. Will probably gonna try this. 4. Kaze Hikaru. Another good recommendation genderbender manga. The only hate about the series is she got bald in top of her head TnT and I understand why, cause it's part of being a samurai. 5. Special A. My childhood memories with me and my friends watching this every afternoon after school. One of the best anime I've watch but havent read the manga. 6. Sacrificial Princess. Omg I haven't heard of this series on a long time lol it brings a lot of memories of me reading this back then feeling I've read something taboo hahaha then realize beauty and the beast exsist so yeah got over it easily XD gonna read this again.
I think my first shojo after years of watching Naruto and reading Shonen Jump was Vampire Knight. Really interested in Oresama Teacher now, thanks for the cool video!
Aaaaah Girl Got Game..... The looks of suspected impending insanity I got reading that series.... I could just randomly burst out laughing when reading that.... I have the full series (brags).
This is such a great idea! It's not easy to find shoujo resources, especially when you don't look for it. This will definitely encourage me to read more shojo manga
This is my first time with “shonen jump to shoujo” and love the idea. Although most titles are either I watched/watching or never watched in past 20+ years/will never watch( aka one piece) I am excited that this video will help Shoujosei genre to get its hay day back.
@@ibii1124 technically I did watch one episode when I was about 14 maybe( I am 33 now), the art and story nothing drew me in and since then I don’t think I will take on this ever😅 its sure epic though, the number of characters and chapter.
Oh, this is perfect. My history with manga is exclusively collecting shonen as a teenager and in my early 20s to way more recently (now in my 30s) collecting mostly seinen books. I've been meaning to look into more shojo and josei, especially since literally the only shojo in my collection is Magic Knight Rayearth. This is a huge blind spot in my collection and I just have trouble finding things that would fall into my area of interest.
It was sooooo good!!! I need to reread it again since it's been awhile but man it is hard to find those physical copies and the scans online are kinda bad quality lol
I would say Yona is also very humorous and fun at times. Especially during the slice of life moments. It's just been more serious as of lately since we're in a war arc. Much like how OP got more serious after time skipping.
Honeslty, I’d love a recommendation for Katelyo Hitman Reborn. It was my fav as a youth and I’d love to get back into things. I think I fell out of anime and manga because the stories no longer appealed to me in the same way, and I didn’t like the direction some things were going 😅 But! Stories that have beautiful art, wacky concepts, and pretty boys 🥹
Okay YES. The Kaze Hikaru situation is SO STUPID, like obviously fans will quickly lose interest in the series/not bother starting to collect it when it takes that long to release. I truly don't understand it, it doesn't seem to make a ton of business sense for Viz either compared to other "still-slow, but at least a bit more timely" releases. Also, while the One Piece/Yona connection makes sense on their action/adventure genre + worldbuilding aims alone, my biggest connection between the two was that I used to always joke that Hak was basically just Zoro with a shoujo bent (i.e. more emotional development esp with various character relationships) and an actual romantic bone in his body, as slight as it may be lmao. This comparison may or may not have been due to Zoro being an early childhood crush way back when US Monthly Shonen Jump was a thing haha
I have to add another great rivals to lovers series is Last Game, which unfortunately doesn't have physicals, but at least it finally has an official release. It's very similar in premise to Special A but at least it has a satisfying conclusion to it's romance story.
I love how u explain the plot and themes of each manga or concept. I always find myself coming back to ur vids for recommendations or for guilty pleasure. Ur personality is also a vibe I can just hang with. Subbed 😌
I wasn't aware of this series of yours, and it's funny, because growing up I only watched anime, and when the first part of the anime for Fairy Tail ended, in 2013, I just needed more, so I tried out the manga. I was only a pre-teen, though, and not really used to any sort of comics, much less ones with fight scenes, so it was extremely hard for me to follow what was happening in the FT manga, so I stopped and decided to wait for the anime to return. A while later, I got into shoujo manga, and I'm positive that's the only reason I was ever eventually able to read FT when I picked it back up on manga again. So I guess I did this the other way around haha. I haven't yet read Yona of the Dawn, though, despite it being on my radar. I'll definitely be reading it soon, now :)
Great idea for a series! I actually picked up the first volume of Waiting for Spring a few weeks ago because I also love basketball, so I'm glad to see it being recommended here.
Vanitas no Karte already has a lot of cross-demographic appeal but I’d love to hear your take on a similar shoujo (because I’m desperate). Personally, the Yonagi and Chiyoko rivalry had me in a chokehold back when Act-Age was still a thing. I’d recommend Glass Mask as a good shoujo equivalent with the Maya vs Ayumi rivalry they had, but it’s also unlikely to ever be completed with the author having gone off into a cult and everything. I’ve also seen people recommend Skip Beat but I’d personally say Skip Beat’s more similar to Oshi no Ko with the broader focus on showbiz and both the MCs being driven by revenge + having more romance.
@@bhavya5692 - _The Case Study of Vanitas_ is actually a shounen manga serialized in the same manga magazine as _Akame ga Kill, Kakegurui,_ and _Happy Sugar Life._
I've seen you mention Yona of dawn in some of your videos and I highly recommend Color cloud palace/ The story of Saiunkoku. It's got similar political aspects Yona has and amazing world building and the main character is written so well I can't recommend this series enough!!
I first watched this video a few weeks ago, but am just now deciding to comment. I’m glad the algorithm pushed this video into my feed. Yona Of The Dawn just appealed to my tastes so much. I just learned there is an anime of it and it is on Crunchyroll. Looking to see how I enjoy the story as an anime before I consider picking up the Manga Volumes for it.
@@ColleensMangaRecs After the first episode, I got the impression they did the same thing as the original Sailor Moon anime and tried to make it have a broader appeal when the manga was a straight Shoujo. I would also like to say that this video being a recommendation list also inspired me to make a video I'm working on recommending some short-lived Shonen Jump series that I think people would enjoy.
Any good horror shoujo along the lines of Jujutsu Kaisen? Loved this video, I already read Yona and I'm looking forward to picking up Sacrificial Princess!
I love your channel so much! I was so excited to see you had a RU-vid channel after finding you on TikTok! Keep up the great work! And for recommendations, Witch Hat Atelier!
This video popped up in my recommended, and wow! What a great premise for a series. I might check out Sacrificial Princess. I've never watched your TikToks, but do you have a recommendation for Beastars? That would be my pick!
If you don't wanna wait until my next round of this series, I have my thread of old episodes linked in my description! It has Beastars in it. Otherwise I'll make sure to add it next time around too.
Kare Kano was always one of my favorites so I'm intrigued by Special A, since it seems like it might take inspiration from Kare Kano. I think the comedy of Kare Kano kept up the pace if the romance was a slower burn.
this is a really cool recc list; i'm definitely going to be checking out some of them :0 (for the "can you do a comparison in an upcoming youtube video" thing, might i request Ayashimon, Bungou Stray Dogs, and Black Clover?)
A shojo counterpart to a shonen Hmm 2 Manga series I really enjoyed so far is chainsaw man & ragna crimson , does would be my 2 picks & love the start of this video 👍
Hi Colleen I was wondering if you could make a video with recommendations on any good short manga series? I know there are a lot of people like myself who have subscribe to your channel with an interest in getting into shojo manga however a lot of us don’t have The time to read 20+ manga volumes. So if you could make a video Recommending some shorter series that you think are really good I know a lot of viewers including myself would really appreciate that!
Just found this video. I'm curious if you ever recommended QQ Sweeper/Queen's Quality? It's by the author of Dengeki Daisy and honestly deserves more attention/could be a great gateway series. I feel it's comparible to Bleach or Inuyasha. Also even though I came for the Yona to One Piece comparison (both are some of the greatest), I really appreciate your recommendations with Sakamoto Days and Love is War. I was recommended Special A before so it's great to have that reference point as Love is War is one of my all time favorites. Update: just saw the top 15 manga video... 😂
I wonder if there's anything like Masamune Shirow's work. His actual manga like Appleseed, Dominion Tank Police, Ghost in the Shell, not the erotic art he's been doing since about 2000. Should ask that on a more recent video maybe.
I would probably never do their series since I tend to stick to more "popular in America" shonen/seinen titles but I think what you may be looking for is X/1999 by CLAMP or maybe even Ceres by Yuu Watase.
While I adore both One Piece and Yona, I personally would not recommend "if you like one, try the other" (I never got into FT, so I cannot speak for that one). I think what sets those 2 series too far apart are their tones. One Piece falls very much into, imo at least, absurdist fiction, while Yona doesn't. And absurdism is quite a polarizing tone for many people. If I was the one to make a comparison, I'd say "If you like Naruto, try Yona", since Naruto and Yona both deal heavily with the trauma of war, have zero-to-hero protagonists who are in the beginning hated by the general population through no fault of their own, both are historical-inspired and have that more serious tones to them :)
Honestly, this video might just my favorite of yours so far. Mostly because I have no frame of reference whatsoever for good entries in the shoujo manga market. I have not really read any shoujo manga, outside of starting but not actually finishing for reasons I can't remember Sailor V/Moon. I don't have any disdain for the... genre? demographic? Just ignorance of it since the manga communities I've been in basically never talk about 'em. Not even negative statements, just nothing. Which almost seems worse to me somehow.
Don’t think the jump from Shouen/Seinen to Shoujo is possible? Worry not, I made the jump from Ancient Magus Bride to Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts & survived ;) Lol! But for real Colleen, thank you for once again talking about Sacrificial Princess and singing it’s praises ^^! A possibly challenging from Shouen to Shoujo jump idea to tackle for you if you are doing this again: The Tale Of Outcasts and it’s possible Shoujo equal that’s not Sacrificial Princess:) Since Tale of Outcasts has completed its run in Japan and it’s getting an anime adaption, I figured it would fun to suggest this recent title:) If you can’t, then don’t worry about it:) Keep making the videos you wanna make and have fun^^! It’s so incredibly odd to me after reading Tale of Outcasts so far that it’s a Shouen, I figured it would be at least a Seinen or Shoujo, or rather it should have been a Seinen or a Shoujo based on its characters and the goals of the story. The only Shouen things about it are the art style, it’s focus on male characters first and lack of development/handling of its female characters, and it’s priority focused on action first.
i believe that every fan that has not made the jump to other genres are going to get bored if they dont pace themselves.At my age i had to shift genres, languages, eras, demographics and mediums while pacing myself to steel myself for the future.It does not look good.
