#zoehanges

seishun kouryakuhon is the manga i shove into everyone's faces, it's so great and i love this one a lot!! it’s centres around a group of four boys in their last year of high school and is about making the most of your time with your friends, your youth, your life. you’ll get really nostalgic, teary eyes every chapter, beautiful relatable characters, v full of heart, reread forever, 11/10 highly recommended (it’s also only two volumes)

your comment was re: men’s kou - it’s about a bunch of kids at an all boy’s school, it’s also about high school life (as is the majority of the mangas that will be on this list) and tackles similar themes but in a really different way. it’s absolutely hilarious, it really shines in the comedy and i would read it for that. there are also lots of heartfelt arcs (the main protag and his ex-gf comes to mind) and it was overall a really enjoyable read. some slightly incestuous themes b/w a character and his sister and also age gap b/w another character and school nurse for cw tho

LAST GAME IS A DEFINITE REC i would say this is my favourite currently-running shoujo (idk why i put it here it was meant to be first) (okay well now that orange is running again… but they’re really different and so hard to compare) the premise is that from kindergarten to university this boy is always trying to compete with the girl in academics sports etc and she just never notices him and so in his own mind he wants to play the titular ‘last game’ with her where he tries to get her to fall in love with him (he’s liked her for like ten years). okay i know this sounds like a really bad cliched rip-off of S.A. but it’s pretty much never brought up again and the two just go on with their daily lives in uni which is really what the manga’s about (IT’S SET IN UNIVERSITY HOW GREAT IS THAT. HOW MANY MANGAS DO YOU SEE SET IN UNI you should read it just for that). this manga and the main couple is so ridic i s2g but it’s really great. the main male lead is a giant dorklord but he really respects and genuinely admires the female lead. they’re both inspired by each other and continuously trying to better themselves and stand on even ground with the other and they help each other in their endeavours and there are some nice cliches thrown in and i just really love this manga (on the other hand i don't want to talk it up too much in case you end up not liking it SETTLE YOUR EXPECTATIONS ANGIE)(i hoarded the male lead's url that's how much i like this manga)

tomodachi no hanashi is gr8 for a short read it's a one volume manga which focuses on friendship between two girls? and doesn't downplay its importance and make boyfriends more important than friends?? praise the lord

taiyou no ie is one i think you might really like angie - the main character mao is a girl who lives with her father and stepmother and stepsister and her father like hates her. her childhood friend hiro who's like seven years older than her and in the workforce is trying to piece back his family after his parents died in a car crash and his siblings were sent to live with relatives. he's living alone in his old house and bc of lots of reasons mao (who has a crush on him) comes to live with him. it's a really sweet story, the art is v charming and the characters are gr8

horimiya is really addictive + good art + v funny + popular girl and unpopular guy who are both really different outside school (there's so much more but that's the premise in a nutshell... i'm just getting lazy...) super popular on mangafox

usotsuki lily is about a girl and her crossdressing boyfriend. it's hilarious and never takes itself too seriously so there's lots of jokes that break the fourth wall which i love, i laugh every chapter when i read this and it always cheers me up. there's a vibrant cast of secondary characters who all get their days in the limelight. there are certain ideas i don't agree with but this series is really special to me bc i've been following this since yr11 through to the most stressful period of my life i.e. hsc lyfe. it lightened my mood a lot and even though there are manga i'm currently reading that i started before this (e.g. pandora hearts) this is the one currently-running manga i have been following consistently, reading every chapter as it came out), the longest so it holds a special place in my heart. i'm gonna stop now bc this is getting cheesy

akagami no shirayukihime is by the same mangaka as seishun kouryakuhon. it's fantasy and the world is really fun. also has amazing heroine back when this kind of heroine was a rarity in the shoujo world and a great male love interest back when this kind of love interest was also a rarity in the shoujo world.

eng scans for kimi to boku was halted for ages but it's started up again. it's a calming high school slice of life but also really funny and entertaining. the story takes a while to pick up but it has two anime seasons which i really liked. i own a couple of volumes in japanese which goes to say how much i like it. this is my go-to feel-good series.

scans for flat seems to be permanently stopped so idk if i should be reccing this but it's really cute and also has suprising depth and very quality. i love what it has to say about friendship and connecting to other people.

land of the blindfolded and penguin revolution are older than 90% of the series on this list (and unlike 70% of them they're both completed) but they're some of my all-time favourites and tsukaba sakura who wrote both is on the whole probably my favourite mangaka. i would say land of the blindfolded (about a group of people who can see others' past and future) is superior but penguin revolution (which focuses on hijinks in the entertainment world) is really entertaining as well.

following on from mangas about the entertainment world, charming junkie is about a boy who crossdresses as a female idol and a girl who wants to become an idol. this is just ridiculous shoujo fun, also gr8 cast of friends and family who steal the show a lot. also complete.

dengeki daisy is about a girl and hacker guy who also happens to be the janitor at her school and also her dead brother's surrogate brother who he tasks with watching over his sister after he dies

gakuen babysitters is about an orphan kid and his brother adopted by a school principle working in the school daycare. cute art tons of adorable children really funny

hiyokoi is seemingly cliched story about a really shy small girl falling for popular tall guy but this is framed as a chance for her to actively try to better herself and it cute

strobe edge is by ao haru ride's mangaka and is basically an ahr style shoujo but 100x better bc it doesn't fall into stupid tropes like evil female rival etc. also completed. scans for some chapters are really bad but legible i guess

chihayafuru is josei but the anime basically got me back into animangoes after several very trying, studious years so how can i not mention it. YOU'LL LOVE THIS it's the best of both worlds bc it's about incredibly intense card games that plays out like a sports manga so lots of chapters are incredibly high tension. the cast is amazing, the main trio is super amazing, chihaya is an amazing female lead, arata is gr8, i love taichi and have lots of opinions on him that i won't share here but he is my son despite his numerous faults.

edit: i forgot cat street BUT I REALLY LOVE THIS. it's about finding your way in life again, picking yourself up after failures, IT'S GREAT.

edit again: TETSUGAKU LETRA IS AMAZING and really heartwarming and the grandpa is so great i love him a lot. it's about picking yourself up again after being bullied. but so many trigger warnings for this tho: bullying, suicidal thoughts, eating disorder, depression, deathwishes and im sure im leaving out more. 

tl;dr IF YOU'RE STILL WITH ME HERE top quality recs would be chihayafuru, land of the blindfolded, seishun kouryakuhon, cat street. would be top recs if not for lack of good/eng scans are kimi to boku, flat, strobe edge. trashy but incredibly enjoyable shoujo goodness - last game and usolily. maybe also men's kou.