Before shojo manga are collected into volumes—or tankobon as they are known in Japan—they are typically serialized chapter by chapter in monthly shojo magazines. Popular series often run for years at a time. The current longest-running shojo series is Glass Mask, which has been running since 1976.

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Some of the most popular shojo magazines include Hana To Yume, Lala, Nakayoshi, Dessert, and Bessatsu Margaret. Despite the shojo demographics' overwhelming popularity, the genre tends to get the short end of the transformation wand to anime adaptions, especially compared to popular shonen manga, which often receives anime adaptations.

10 Hanazakari No Kimitachi E — Always A Live-Action Drama, Never An Anime

Protagonists of Hana Kimi, Ashiya, Sano and Nakatsu huddled together.

As fans affectionately know it, Hana Kimi is called Hanazakari No Kimitachi e, which translates to For You In Full Blossom. Serialized in Hana To Yume from 1996 to 2004, Hana Kimi, the classic gender bender, tells Japanese-American female transfer student Ashiya Mizuki. Mizuki secretly enrolls as a boy at an all-boys school to help her crush, Sano Izumi, become a high jump champion again. Mizuki must hide her true gender while making friends with dorm mates such as Nakatsu.

Although the beloved manga has received nearly half a dozen live-action action adaptions, including two different Japanese iterations, as well as a Korean adaptation titled To The Beautiful You, the series and its Nakatsu vision have never been animated.

9 Kitchen Princess — Najika Chases Her Culinary Dreams While Searching For Love

shojo - Kitchen Princess

Kitchen Princess ran in Nakayoshi from 2004 to 2008. Nakayoshi is also the magazine that serialized Sailor Moon as well as Shugo Chara. In Kitchen Princess, Najika is a 13-year-old who enrolls at the prestigious culinary Seika academy while searching for her so-called flan prince.

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Shortly after becoming an orphan, Najika is saved from drowning by a boy who gifts her flan to cheer her up. She goes to the academy in Tokyo searching for him, often competing in. culinary competitions and working part-time in a small diner.

The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross Student Council

Chronicled In Ribon from 2004 to 2008, The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross is the story of Haine, the former delinquent who, after being sold to the Otomiya family in exchange for a loan, finds herself saved by the kind words of Shizumasa Togu. Determined to win his love, she enrolls at his high school. Haine discovers that there has been an identity swap between Shizumasa and his twin brother Takanari and a love triangle ensues.

The mangaka Arina Tanemura, whose other works include Full Moon O Sagashite and Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne, each received an anime adaptions in the early 2000s. The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross is the mangaka's best-selling series in Japan, and the U.S. Arina Tanemura also cites it as her personal favorite of all her works so far.

7 Dengeki Daisy — A Unique Age Gap Romance With A Cyber Hacking Sub-Plot

Dengeki Daisy Protagonists

Dengeki Daisy was published in Betsucomi from 2007 to 2013. Teru is an orphaned 16-year-old girl who, after losing her older brother to cancer, falls under the protection and guidance of a mysterious hacker known only as Daisy.

As she enters high school, Teru has come to rely on Daisy's kind words and encouragement. After an altercation that leads to Teru accidentally breaking a school window, Teru must work with the seemingly grumpy 24-year-old school janitor Kurosaki. Teru gets closer to the mystery surrounding her brother's death, as well as getting closer to Kurosaki, who does not want Teru to find out his identity as Daisy.

6 Strobe Edge — The First Of Io Sakisaka's Youth Trilogy

Strobe Edge Protagonist Ninako

The first manga from mangaka Io Sakisaka would later be called her "youth trilogy," Strobe Edge ran in the magazine Bessatsu Margaret from 2007 to 2010. The trilogy also includes Blue Spring Ride, which did receive an anime adaption, and Love Me, Love Me Not, which received both a live-action and an anime film.

In Strobe Edge, high school freshman Ninako who has never fallen in love finds herself head over heels for classmate Ren, who is already dating the older sister of Ninako's childhood friend Daiki. Throughout the series, several love triangles occur, including one between Ninako, Ren, and Ren's best friend, Ando.

5 Colette Wa Shinu Koto Ni Shita — A Young Girl Becomes Hades' Doctor

Colette and Hades Hug

Colette Wa Shinu Koto Ni Shita is currently running in Hana To Yume magazine as of 2013. Colette is a young doctor who is fed up with being the only doctor in town. One day, after feeling as if she was at her wit's end, Colette jumps into a well. Instead of dying or being injured, she finds herself in the underworld.

Even in the underworld, Colette finds no rest as she finds herself at the beck and call of Lord Hades as his doctor. For its mythology meets Isekai level shenanigans, Colette deserves a shot at the small screen.

4 Waiting For Spring — A Love Story With A Basketball Backdrop

Cover of Waiting For Spring 13

Featured in Dessert magazine from 2014 to 2019, Waiting For Spring is the story of shy high school freshman Mitsuki and her unlikely friendship with four school basketball team members. Reminiscent of the shojo classic Hana Yori Dango, which had the F4 as rulers of their school. Waiting For Spring refers to Towa, Rui, Kyosuke, and Ryuji as Seiryo high school's "four heavenly kings."

The four boys stop by the cafe where Mitsuki works one day, and she quickly finds herself getting along with the four basketball stars. Hoping earnestly to make friends, although never expecting to be center stage, Mitsuki might find love amidst her new friends. Will Mitsuki and Towa break all the rules?

3 My Boyfriend In Orange — Because Firefighters Are Always Cool

My Boyfriend In Orange has been published in shojo magazine Dessert as of 2016. Transfer student Moe is the daughter of a firefight. Moe, her mom, and little brother find themselves in a new town after her father's death. After accidentally being "rescued" by tough yet kind-hearted firefighter Ebihara Kyosuke, Moe finds the courage to break out of her shell.

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Moe soon finds herself jumping at every opportunity to spend time with Kyosuke. Kyosuke finds himself constantly rescuing Moe, whether he likes it or not. Will Moe be able to save her knight in Orange from the shadows of his past? Cute firefighters and a girl stubbornly in love has the potential for a great anime.

2 Drowning Love — The Perfect Preteen Melodrama

Drowning Love volume 6 Cover Image

Drowning Love was featured in Bessatsu Friend magazine from 2004 to 2013. Natsume, a 6th-grade model, moves from Tokyo with her family to a small town where she meets a boy named Kouichirou, unaware of the true name and nature of the two falling in love.

Exploring mature themes, including Natsume's run-in with an overzealous fan who kidnaps her against her will, Drowning Love takes the school-aged idol premise in a new and unexpected direction. With all the depth and heartache that first love often entails.

1 A Sign Of Affection — Disability Representation With A Mutually Respectful Romance

A Sign Of Affection, or Yubisaki To Renren as it is known in Japan, is an ongoing series featured in Dessert as of 2019. Yuki is a 19-year-old college student who uses sign language to communicate because she is deaf. On the train one day, she can meet with the globetrotting fellow student Itsuomi who helps her when a tourist tries to ask her for directions.

Yuki quickly begins intrigued and smitten with Itsuomi, whose world seems to be so much bigger than her own. For Itsuomi, the feelings are mutual as he strives to learn Yuki's language and be let into her world. With realistic disability representation similar to that of A Silent Voice, A Sign Of Affection could be the breath of fresh air shojo anime fans have been looking for.

NEXT: 10 Shojo Villians Who Were Right All Along