Melinda (Manga Bookshelf) Beasi comes up with a fun feature, “3 Things Thursday.” The inaugural focuses on a category near and dear to my heart, shôjo manga. Melinda asks for folks to contribute their three favorite current shôjo series and three of their all-time favorites. Easy as pie!
Here are my current favorites (as of this moment, mind you, and depending at least partly on what I’ve been reading lately):
Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You (Viz), written and illustrated by Karuho Shiina: very funny look at an outwardly ominous young woman coming out of her shell without sacrificing her individuality.
Natsume’s Book of Friends (Viz), written and illustrated by Yuki Midorikawa: really charming supernatural, episodic storytelling about a kid who sees demons and tries to help them.
V.B. Rose (Tokyopop), written and illustrated by Banri Hidaka: great character interaction and romance set in a high-end wedding-dress salon.
And now for the “classics.”
Fruits Basket (Tokyopop), written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya: this was a best-seller for the simple reason that it was brilliantly written and really plumbed some serious emotional depths.
Imadoki! Nowadays (Viz), written and illustrated by Yuu Watase: a fun, frisky, fish-out-of water story that’s probably my favorite work by the prolific, uneven Watase.
Paradise Kiss (Tokyopop), written and illustrated by Ai Yazawa: it’s criminal that this tale of first love and high fashion is out of print. Criminal.
