Nobody said Chobits, Fruit Basket..? Maybe those are too basic! What about:

Kare Kano* Absolute Boyfriend DNA2 Marmalade Boy Kodocha Boys over Flowers* Paradise Kiss* Nana*

I starred the ones I love. Kare Kano follows a primary romance between the main characters who are both over-achievers who have to overcome problems in their lives to be their more genuine selves. Boys over Flowers starts off with an average girl taking on the school bullies, a group of rich boys from the upper echelon of Japan the infamous, F4.

ParaKiss 'plain' girl has run in with creative design students and is pulled into their world while coming out of her own shell and modeling, she finds romance with a complex boy who will go on to be a famous fashion designer.

Nana by chance or fate two young women both named Nana cross paths. One is a up and coming rock star the other becomes involved with the band as their number one fan. Follows the lives of the Nanas, members of the rival band and their friends.

Of course no one would reccomend Hana-kun to Koisuru Watashi; unless I missed it already being mentioned. You guys can see my review of that wonderful series on myanimelist if you'd like (last time I noticed it was at the top; I'm also wintear on there). It's an old review, but I still point out fairly significant things in the review. You know how in cliche shoujo manga the female lead always falls for the dark haired guy? I mean yeah I also have that preference, but if it's used almost all the time in shoujo and that's pretty vexing truthfully. Anyway. How she struggles to choose between 2 guys? How the main lead is the most "perfect" guy ever? There's a lot more where it DOESN'T follow cliches, too. I'm up to reading the raws, but to my knowledge there are 36 scanlated chapters out so far. Only one of my close friends reads shoujo manga and she also enjoys this series. We get so excited when a new chapter comes out LOL. Also according to my top 5 favorite manga on myanimelist, every other manga -isn't- a shoujo except for Hana-Kun which is ironically at the top hahah. I'd say it's an amazing manga and not at the same time. It isn't perfect, but it really is something.

Other good non-cliche shoujo manga I'd recommend are: Karakuri Odette - A great manga, but there's not a lot of romance in this. Anyone who gets to the end would understand why. Spoiler: I wish she DID get with someone at the end, but it's a kind of bittersweet ending. ; u ; Beauty Pop - This series is really good in my opinion. Orange - It's not perfect, but it's pretty close. This manga often hurts people (that includes me) because the feels are serious. orz Nineteen, Twenty-one - This one's also really good, but it's a shoujo manhwa, not manga if anyone minds that. Ao Haru Ride/Aoharaido - I noticed Strobe Edge was recommended. That one's also good, but, it's ridiculous. I don't think any girls gather up to watch a guy in school... the only way that would happen is if they were royalty or something? Anyway I have mixed feelings about Ao Haru, but it's still a really good manga.

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