40 Fun Facts About Shojo Manga

In which shojo manga do members of the Sohma family turn into Chinese zodiac animals when hugged?

Fruits Basket follows orphan Tohru Honda, who is living alone in a tent in the woods when the cursed Sohmas take her in. The family's outcast turns into a cat, the animal left out of the zodiac.

Which shojo comedy begins when student Haruhi Fujioka breaks a vase worth eight million yen?

Ouran High School Host Club has Haruhi work off the debt by entertaining the club's clients, while the rich boys who run it at first take her for a boy.

Which artist, nicknamed the god of manga, drew the 1950s shojo adventure Princess Knight?

Osamu Tezuka drew it after an editor asked for a girls' series to match his hits for boys. His heroine Sapphire is born with two hearts, a boy's blue one and a girl's pink one.

In which shojo manga does a ten-year-old girl accidentally free the magical Clow Cards from a book?

Cardcaptor Sakura sends its heroine to recapture every card with Kero, the cards' guardian, as her guide. Her best friend films each capture and supplies the battle costumes.

Which term names the manga category aimed at adult women, the older counterpart of shojo?

Josei emerged in the 1980s, when publishers launched new magazines to keep shojo readers who had grown up. In Japan the category is better known as ladies' comics.

Sally the Witch, a 1966 pioneer of magical girl manga, took its concept from which American sitcom?

Bewitched was known to Japanese viewers by a title meaning The Missus Is a Witch. Sally's own cartoon, which followed within months, is regarded as the first magical girl anime.

Which manga artist created Sailor Moon after first drawing the one-shot Codename: Sailor V?

Naoko Takeuchi, a fan of Super Sentai hero shows, turned her solo heroine into one member of a team when an anime was proposed. The earlier story lived on as Sailor Venus's origin tale.

Which shojo manga pits Tsukushi Makino against the F4, four wealthy heirs who rule her elite academy?

Boys Over Flowers ran in Margaret for more than a decade and was remade as live-action television in Japan, South Korea, China and Thailand.

Which shojo romance stars Sawako Kuronuma, nicknamed Sadako after the ghost from The Ring?

Kimi ni Todoke traces how one kind classmate, Shota Kazehaya, helps the feared Sawako make her first friends. The series ran in Bessatsu Margaret from 2005 to 2017.

Which sport drives Attack No. 1, the 1968 shojo hit that rode Japan's Olympic gold-medal fever?

Volleyball was booming after Japan's women won Olympic gold in 1964, and Chikako Urano's manga cashed in. Its cartoon became the first televised sports anime made for girls.

The Rose of Versailles follows Oscar, a woman raised as a man who commands the guard of which French queen?

Marie Antoinette fascinated artist Riyoko Ikeda after she read a biography of the queen in high school. Her heroine Oscar ends up dying on the rebels' side at the storming of the Bastille.

Which Ai Yazawa manga follows two women who share a first name and move to Tokyo at twenty?

Nana pairs a punk singer chasing fame with a namesake chasing romance, and tests whether their friendship can survive both. It ran in Cookie magazine from 2000 until a hiatus began in 2009.

Which shojo manga is set at Cross Academy, where the Day Class never learns the Night Class's secret?

Vampire Knight follows Yuki Cross, the headmaster's adopted daughter, who serves as a school guardian so the human students never find out the truth.

In which shojo comedy does Misaki, student council president at a former all-boys school, hide her café job?

Maid Sama! has popular classmate Takumi Usui discover the secret, keep it to himself and become a regular customer. Misaki took the job to pay off the debt her father left behind.

Which all-female artist group went from self-published fan comics to Magic Knight Rayearth and Chobits?

Clamp started as a twelve-member fan circle in the 1980s and slimmed down to four women, three of whom swap drawing duties from one series to the next.

Which Kodansha monthly magazine, launched in 1954, was the original home of Sailor Moon?

Nakayoshi, whose name means good friend, took on fantasy series in the 1990s because its editor-in-chief wanted to move away from first-love stories.

In which shojo manga does homeless schoolgirl Nanami Momozono inherit a shrine and the powers of its land god?

Kamisama Kiss gives Nanami a divine job after her father's gambling debts cost her a home. The post comes with Tomoe, the powerful fox spirit who served the previous god.

Which shojo fantasy follows a princess who flees the kingdom of Kouka after her cousin murders her father?

Yona of the Dawn turns its sheltered fugitive into the reincarnation of Kouka's founding dragon king, bound by a blood oath to four dragon warriors.

Which shojo romantic comedy pairs Risa Koizumi with Atsushi Otani, a boy sixteen centimetres shorter than her?

Lovely Complex has classmates treat tall Risa and short Otani as a comedy act, nicknaming them after a real double act with a similar height gap.

In which shojo manga are five girls infused with the DNA of endangered animals to fight alien invaders?

Tokyo Mew Mew gives its leader, Ichigo Momomiya, the genes of the Iriomote cat, a rare wildcat found on a single Japanese island. The story ran in the same magazine as Sailor Moon.

Which name labels the women artists, among them Riyoko Ikeda, who transformed shojo manga in the 1970s?

Year 24 Group points to Showa 24, or 1949, the year its members were supposedly born. Only a handful of the artists given the label actually were.

Which all-female Japanese theater troupe inspired the cross-dressing heroine of the 1950s manga Princess Knight?

Takarazuka Revue shows were a childhood habit for the manga's creator, who grew up in the troupe's home city with a mother who adored it. Its women play the male leads as well.

Which shojo saga, begun in 1976, follows Maya Kitajima's drive to become a great stage actress?

Glass Mask pits Maya against her polished rival Ayumi Himekawa for the lead in a legendary play. All the while an anonymous admirer keeps sending her purple roses.

Which crime thriller about New York gang leader Ash Lynx ran in a shojo magazine from 1985 to 1994?

Banana Fish is also the name of a mysterious brainwashing drug at the centre of the conspiracy Ash uncovers. His closest ally is Eiji Okumura, a visiting Japanese photographer's assistant.

Which shojo manga follows a boy who can see spirits and returns the names his late grandmother took from them?

Natsume's Book of Friends gives its hero a bodyguard, Madara, a powerful spirit who lives as a fat cat. Madara's price is the notebook itself, to be handed over when the boy dies.

In which shojo manga does Naho Takamiya receive a letter written by herself ten years in the future?

Orange has Naho's older self ask her to watch over Kakeru Naruse, a new transfer student, and so undo the regrets she will otherwise carry for a decade.

In Hana-Kimi, Mizuki Ashiya poses as a boy to attend the school of a star in which athletic event?

High jump star Izumi Sano catches Mizuki's eye on television in the United States. She moves to Japan and enrols in disguise at his all-boys school to be near him.

Which 1990s shojo romance begins when Miki Koishikawa's parents decide to swap partners with another couple?

Marmalade Boy moves both reshuffled couples into one big house, where Miki falls for Yuu, the other family's teasing teenage son.

In which shojo manga are schoolgirls Miaka and Yui pulled into an ancient Chinese world through a library book?

Fushigi Yugi makes Miaka the Priestess of Suzaku inside a novel called The Universe of the Four Gods, which the friends stumble on at Japan's National Diet Library.

Which North American publisher launched Shojo Beat magazine in 2005 as a sister title to Shonen Jump?

Viz Media closed the magazine after four years but kept its name alive as the label on its manga for girls. Each issue had carried chapters of six series alongside fashion and culture pages.

Which shojo pioneer drew The Poe Clan, The Heart of Thomas and the science fiction thriller They Were Eleven?

Moto Hagio shared a rented Tokyo house with a fellow artist from 1971, and it became a salon where young women set out to win girls' comics some critical respect.

Which publisher, founded by Shueisha in 1973, puts out the shojo magazines Hana to Yume and LaLa?

Hakusensha made Hana to Yume its very first magazine, five months after the company was set up. LaLa followed in 1976 as a sister title.

Which Shueisha shojo monthly, first issued in 1955, ran Sally the Witch and peaked at 2.3 million copies in 1994?

Ribon simply means ribbon, and the magazine has sold more than 590 million copies since 1978.

Which Japanese term names the shojo romance staple of pinning someone by slamming a hand against a wall?

Kabedon joins the Japanese words for wall and bang. The same word also covers thumping an apartment wall to protest about noisy neighbours.

Which shojo comedy stars Takeo Goda, a muscular giant who wins a girlfriend after saving her from a train groper?

My Love Story!! flips the usual casting: until Rinko Yamato came along, every girl Takeo liked fell for his handsome best friend, Makoto Sunakawa.

Which shojo manga follows Kyoko Mogami, who enters show business to get revenge on a pop idol who used her?

Skip Beat! begins when Kyoko discovers that her childhood friend Shotaro Fuwa keeps her around only to do his chores and pay his bills while he chases stardom.

Which 1970s shojo classic follows a cheerful orphan raised at Pony's Home near Lake Michigan?

Candy Candy drew on Daddy-Long-Legs and Anne of Green Gables for its plucky heroine, and it won the first Kodansha Manga Award given for girls' comics.

Which 1990s series from a former Sailor Moon director sends its heroine into sword duels for the Rose Bride?

Revolutionary Girl Utena was made as a comic and a cartoon at the same time, with artist Chiho Saito drawing the manga for Ciao magazine while the television series took shape.

Which Io Sakisaka romance reunites Futaba Yoshioka with Kou, a first love who came back cold and distant?

Ao Haru Ride, also sold as Blue Spring Ride, has Kou return from Nagasaki under a new surname, so Futaba has to get to know him all over again.

Which shojo fantasy follows a herbalist who flees Tanbarun when its prince orders her to be his concubine?

Snow White with the Red Hair is named for the rare colouring that caught the prince's eye. Shirayuki cuts off her ponytail and leaves it behind as she goes.