Shojo anime is a genre of anime that is, by definition, catered to young female viewers. Oftentimes, the story involves a plot that is less violent and action-packed than the genre's male counterpart, shonen. Usually, the main character is a young teenage girl whose life is filled with romance and typical high school shenanigans.
However, within this genre, there are a number of anime series that would also fall into the category of fantasy, where the story is set in a world based on folklore or even contains magic, supernatural events, and otherworldly abilities. This list just a handful of the fantasy shojo genre that everyone should watch.
10 Fushigi Yugi Transports The Audience To An Ancient World
Fushigi Yugi details the adventures of two girls, Miaka Yuki and Yui Hongo. The two are middle schoolers who are magically pulled into a novel they find in the library, into an ancient Chinese setting. Miaka becomes a priestess in this fictional world, while Yui appears back in the real world rather quickly. Yui comes back eventually to bring her best friend back home while multiple conflicts between the girls as well as magical forces attempt to get in the way.
9 Vampire Knight Presents A Dire, Mythic Love Triangle
Vampire Knight shows Yuki Cross, a young schoolgirl, torn between two boys she has known most of her life. In the world that Yuki lives in, vampires and humans attend the same school, one that her adopted father is the headmaster of.
Since Kaname, a pure vampire and her longtime crush, saved her once as a child, Yuki has been a tireless advocate for the virtue of vampires. Her other childhood friend and love interest, Zero, has had a hated of vampires his whole life. Yuki learns more about her past and truths about the vampires as the series progresses.
8 Cardcaptor Sakura Is An Iconic Magical Girl Anime
Cardcaptor Sakura is a story filled with magical forces and battles revolving around Sakura Kinomoto, a 10-year-old living in Japan. She finds a book in her basement that releases a set of cards that hold mystical powers. During the course of this classic magical girl series, Sakura realizes she herself has magical abilities and searches for the cards, battling each one in turn in order to gain control over them and seal them up once and for all.
7 Natsume Yuujinchou Has A Mysterious, Ghostly Air
In this supernatural anime series, Takashi Natsume is a boy who is able to see spirits. He is given the Book of Friends by his grandmother after her death, a woman who could also see spirits. The book is filled with spirits that Takashi's grandmother had essentially enslaved; thus, it is a highly sought-after possession, and Takashi decides to embark upon a mission to release every spirit in the book. Along with Madara, his spirit bodyguard in the form of a cat, Takashi makes both friends and enemies in his adventures.
6 The World Is Still Beautiful Is A Comedic But Heartwarming Love Story
The World Is Still Beautiful is a fantasy anime often overlooked, but the plot filled with magic kingdoms is one to watch. Nike Lemercier, who is the youngest princess of the Rain Dukedom, is forced to travel to the Sun Kingdom and marry the Sun King after losing a game of rock, paper, scissors with her sisters.
Nike, who has the power to call forth the rain when she sings, soon realizes that the king, Livius I, is actually a boy two years younger than her. The story has its fair share of funny banter between the forcibly engaged pair, but the development between the two is slow and incredibly sweet to witness.
5 Snow White with the Red Hair Sets Its Characters In A World Of Folklore
Snow White with the Red Hair is very loosely based on the classic fairytale of nearly the same name and is centered upon the main protagonist, Shirayuki, who has rare, almost mythical red hair that attracts attention too easily. A young herbalist, Shirayuki eventually finds herself as the royal pharmacist in the kingdom of Clarines, where Prince Zen Wisteria has brought her to. Throughout the series, Zen and Shirayuki's relationship progresses, as well as Shirayuki's skills and renown as the effortlessly kind and talented court herbalist.
4 Sailor Moon Has A Classic Squad Of Magical Girls
Perhaps one of the most popular anime featuring magical girls, Sailor Moon depicts Usagi Tsukino and a group of female allies who are constantly at odds with villainous characters, striving to protect all that is good in the world. Usagi makes many friends and accomplishes many daring feats, throughout the entire franchise, all while the show juggles comedy and romance along with the action. Despite its age, Sailor Moon is still wildly popular among its loyal fans.
3 Yona of the Dawn Creates A Powerful Female Lead Amongst A Band Of Dragons
Yona of the Dawn was only given a singular season of its anime, but many have showered praise upon the show for its plot and the development of the titular character, Yona.
She is first seen as weak and soft-minded, but with the help of her childhood friend, Hak, as well as the four inheritors of the dragon spirits, Yona becomes a force to be reckoned with, both mentally and physically. Romance is involved but tends to take more of a backseat in this action-packed, heavily plot-centric series.
2 Fruits Basket Brings The Chinese Zodiac Animals To Life
Fruits Basket originally had an anime series in the early 2000s, but its 2019 reboot is where the series truly took off. The series follows the life of Tohru Honda, arguably one of the kindest and most caring characters in all of shojo, who is taken in by members of a clan with the ability to turn into animals of the Chinese zodiac, the Somas, after the death of her mother. The supernatural elements of the show only add to the emotional trauma many of the characters endure, and the complexity of every character and relationship is lauded greatly by viewers of the series.
1 Kamisama Kiss Brings The Supernatural Into The Life Of A Normal Girl
Nanami Momozono was a perfectly normal, albeit homeless girl due to her father's absence during their eviction. That is until she is turned into a land god by her predecessor. Kamisama Kiss paints Nanami as a funny, kind, and dedicated girl who is reluctant to take on such a role at first, but eventually, she becomes a well-respected and skilled god. Her relationship with her familiar, Tomoe, is fawned over a great deal by fans, and her character itself is widely beloved for her sweet nature along with a sassy and stubborn side, giving her a more realistic and relatable personality.