In the current anime landscape, most popular shows target male audiences, while the diverse and multifaceted shojo genre often gets undeservingly bad notoriety. Despite many current shojo titles still providing the fans with novel, captivating narratives, the genre lost its once indisputable stardom. The renaissance of shojo anime transpired during the '90s and '80s. At the time, classic shojo titles triggered a massive cultural shift and impacted the industry trends.6

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The iconic shojo anime of the past introduced many new fans to the medium. Moreover, they remain universally beloved even today. Those nostalgic shojo anime continue to make the admirers revisit their absorbing stories. From historical dramas to subversive romance, the legacy of shojo left its unerasable print in anime history.

10 Whisper Of The Heart Is An Unconventional Addition To Studio Ghibli's Library Of Work

Shizuku And Seiji look at each other in Whisper of the Heart.

The classic coming-of-age movie Whisper of the Heart was the only directorial work of Hayao Miyazaki's rumored successor, Kondo Yoshifumi. Despite Kondo's untimely passing in 1998, his directorial debut became a timeless classic of shojo musicals. The movie's protagonist, a bookish girl Shizuku, searches for a mysterious boy who seems to borrow the same books as her from their local library.

Determined to meet someone who shares the girl's passion for literature, Shizuku joins forces with a peculiar cat, who leads her to an unorthodox antique shop. There, she finds her new friend Seiji, and the relationship between the two helps Shizuku find the confidence to pursue her dreams.

9 Magic Knight Rayearth Predicted The Rise Of The Isekai Genre

Magic Knight Rayearth

CLAMP's 1994 epic Magic Knight Rayearth was a revolutionary series for its time. The show combined multiple genres, some of which saw reigned supreme only decades later — fantasy isekai, magical girl shojo, and mecha. Such an intriguing combination of tropes was elevated by the series' impressive character writing.

Magic Knight Rayearth focuses on three middle school girls transporting to a magical land, the Cephiro, and looking for a way to return to Tokyo. All three heroines of Magic Knight Rayearth are complex, distinctive individuals whose adventures inspired generations of fans.

8 Kodocha Was A Pioneer Of Situational Comedy In Shojo

sana kurata from kodomo no omocha

Kodomo no Omocha, more commonly known as Kodocha, started its run in 1996 and became an immediate romance classic due to the popularity of its original manga. The story of Kodocha revolves around an energetic and eccentric child actress Sana Kurata and her trials and tribulations with her class's leading troublemaker, Akito Hayama.

The opposition of ideals results in a bitter rivalry between the two, which carry a substantial portion of the show's quirky comedy. Nevertheless, Akito and Sana continue to learn more about each other as the series progresses, ending up helping their peers and one another through the difficulties of adolescence.

7 The Story Of Perrine Is One Of The Best-Regarded Installments Of The World Masterpiece Theater

The Story of Perrine

The Story of Perrine was the fourth installment in the legendary Japanese World Masterpiece Theater production, a series dedicated to animating classical literature stories from 1969 to 1997. The anime was based on a French children's book En Famille by Hector Malot. The tragic tale of hardship follows Perrine, a daughter of a French father, Edmond, and an Anglo-Indian mother, Marie.

After Edmond's passing, the family travels to his hometown, run by Perrine's unwelcoming grandfather. Unfortunately, Marie falls ill during the trip, forcing Perrine to sell all their possessions and, eventually, work in her grandfather's factory after her mother's passing.

6 Marmalade Boy Is A Timeless Classic Of Tender Shojo Romance Stories

Miki and Yuu from Marmalade Boy

The bizarre tropes in the romance shojo genre were popular for as long as it existed. The heroine of the classic 1994 series Marmalade Boy  Miki, is looking for something to spice up her monotonous routine. However, she never expected that change to be her parents getting divorced. Even more, after a trip to Hawaii, Miki's parents have settled on swapping partners with another couple they met during their vacation.

Meeting her new parents was a challenge for Miki, yet the real shock came from laying eyes on the other couple's son, the dreamy boy Yuu. What follows this eccentric premise is one of the sweetest shojo romances that holds up even today.

5 Sailor Moon Never Lost Its Dedicated Fanbase

sailor moon looks concerned usagi

Sailor Moon is a shojo title that doesn't require an introduction, as it has permanently influenced anime fans both in Japan and worldwide. The original Sailor Moon TV show started airing in 1992, and the franchise has massively expanded since then, producing countless sequels and reboots.

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The upbeat adventures of Usagi Tsukino and the Sailor Soldiers introduced fans to the shojo genre and made them fall in love with the magical girl subculture. To this day, Sailor Moon continues to be a fantastic source of childlike excitement for nostalgic fans, bringing them back to the time when they first discovered anime.

4 Ouran High School Host Club Was A Cultural Phenomenon Of The Early 2000s

Cast of Ouran High School Host Club posing together

Ouran High School Host Club shaped the shojo scene of the early 2000s and was considered an astonishing phenomenon in the anime community at the time. The surprisingly smart and heartfelt reverse harem plotline follows an androgynous girl Haruhi, a scholarship student studying in a prestigious Ouran Academy surrounded by spoiled rich kids.

After accidentally destroying an antique vase owned by the school's famed host club, Haruhi has to join their ranks to repay her debt. The series deserves its worldwide success, as it manages to make the audience fall in love with its witty humor and brilliant characters effortlessly.

3 Cardcaptor Sakura Integrated Intricate Character Development Into Its Monster-Of-The-Week Formula

Cardcaptor Sakura Tomoyo And Sakura

The iconic magical girl series Cardcaptor Sakura is one of the most well-regarded shojo franchises in anime history. Despite its simplistic premise and rather repetitive episodic plots, the show triumphs in creating an authentic, intriguing, character-driven storyline by paying close attention to details.

Sakura's magical adventures can appeal to almost any audience member. The series managed to break away from conventional kids' show tropes by incorporating overarching character arcs into its narrative. As a result, Cardcaptor Sakura has become a worldwide success and a timeless classic of the genre.

2 Kare Kano Does Realistic Romance Right

Yukino and Soichiro holding hands

The shojo genre, especially nowadays, is notorious for making love a difficult obstacle for its characters. Between the delayed confessions and constant misunderstandings, the shojo romance protagonists rarely get to have a realistic, grounded relationship. The iconic creator behind Neon Genesis Evangelion, Hideaki Anno, decided to break away from tiresome romance tropes in his take on the genre, Kare Kano.

RELATED: 10 Romance Anime From The 90s Everyone Needs To See

The series follows the authentic development of a relationship between two successful high school rivals, Yukino and Soichiro. Their example proves that the real struggles and the real rewards of a relationship only start after the initial confession.

1 Revolutionary Girl Utena Has Something Different To Say With Every Rewatch

Utena Protects Anthy In Revolutionary Girl Utena

Successful deconstructions of familiar genres and tropes are always intriguing to witness and analyze. They strive to say something different about their medium, resulting in a complex commentary that substantially affects how the fans and critics perceive the genre. Revolutionary Gitl Utena was that monumental deconstruction for the magical girl shojo, taking every classic trope of the genre and spinning it on its head.

Utena became a symbolical abstraction of the classic shojo themes, reimagining the genre's gender norms, conventional tropes, and metaphorical ideas. As a result, it became the show that revolutionized the medium and made every fan think about shojo differently.

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