Great shojo manga that never ended
The loud bombast of the shonen genre may be all well and good with its martial arts, explosions, and earth-shattering levels of power. However, what if some people want something less noisy? Something the planet might not be at stake, but the interpersonal drama and emotional climaxes make it just as shocking, nerve-wracking, and captivating.
Though they don’t get as much focus as their largely boy-focused peers, Shojo manga is no less important. Whether it’s the magical girl adventures in Cardcaptor Sakurathe family struggles in fruit basketor Skip a bar‘s tale of revenge and pop idols, the genre offers saccharine works of art with plenty of twists along the way. Unfortunately, not every shojo manga has been able to complete its stories. Here are the best examples, which unfortunately remained unfinished.
5 ChocoMimi
Starting with the simplest ChocoMimi was not an epic tale of love, heartbreak and shock. It was a 4 panel comedy series in Ribon Mascot Comics. It followed best friends Choco and Mimi, their families and friends in their daily lives. Choco is well mannered but stiff, and Mimi is creative but spacey. As different as they are, they go together like peanut butter and jelly.
The manga inspired a drama CD and a live-action TV series and ran for 16 years. Though it didn’t have an overarching storyline, it was interrupted when creator Konami Sonoda’s health faltered. It turned out that she was diagnosed with breast cancer during the last edition of the manga. Sonoda sadly succumbed to the disease in August 2019, with the last ChocoMimi Strip appearing in the September 2019 issue of Ribon.
4 shamrock
Clamp are famous for series like xxxHOLIC, chobitsand the above Cardcaptor Sakura. Although not all of their series will finish. As shamrock. It was about a futuristic world where magical children named “Clovers” would be apprehended by the military. “Sue” was special as her powers went beyond the usual flying or teleporting. To keep Sue under control, the government isolates her from others to quell her feelings.
As a result, she feels lonely, but despite being her country’s “4-leaf clover,” she’s lucky when she’s assigned an escort. a man named Kazuhiko. He could be the partner she has been looking for for so long. The strip was published in Kodansha’s Amie magazine and ended abruptly when that magazine shut down in 1999. Clamp’s head writer Nanase Ohkawa said two more books would be needed to complete it, but after more than 20 years only four volumes and an old music video are available.
3 With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child
Keiko Tobe’s story is more of a josei story (for adult women) than a shojo story (for young girls). Nonetheless, Tobe’s soft drawing style and endearing family history fit the genre and have moved many readers. The manga follows Sachiko Azuma as she learns that her little boy Hikaru has autism. Despite the ignorant taunts of those around her, she remains determined to raise her boy into a “happy and working adult.”
The series started in for mrs Magazine in 2000 and won the Excellence Award at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival. It also received a TV drama series adaptation, which won several awards at the Television Drama Academy Awards. The strip was interrupted in January 2009 when Tobe was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly she passed away in 2010 with her final works being compiled as With the lightthe last volume.
2 Itazura Na kiss
Created by Kaoru Tada, Itazura on Kiss was a romantic comedy of mistakes published in Bessatsu Margaret. Kotoko Aihara, the school lady, confesses her love for the super popular Naoki Irie. He immediately rejects her, only for fate to have other ideas. After Kotoko’s family home is destroyed by an earthquake, her father’s old best friend invites them all to live with him until their house is rebuilt. Surprise! He is Naoki’s father! Now Naoki has to live with Kotoko. However, Naoki, clingy and goofy as she is, begins to see something in Kotoko that he hadn’t seen before.
The series began in 1990 and has inspired a TV drama, an anime series, a live-action film trilogy, and several international adaptations across Asia. Unfortunately, Tada only lived long enough to see the 1996 television drama. She died after an accident at home in 1999 while her family was relocating. Her widower, Shigeru Nishikawa, gave permission for her work to be re-released, which keeps the series in the public eye to this day. The closest the series came to an ending was in the 2008 anime, which used Tada’s original notes to give Kotoko and Naoki their long-awaited closure.
1 Nana
This was a pretty sad list, so let’s end with a little hope. Ai Yazawas Nana focused on two friends in Tokyo who share the same first name. Nana ‘Hachi’ Komatsu (Nana K) wanted to move in with her boyfriend while Nana Osaki (Nana O) worked on her band’s musical career. From there they bond and clash over a series of events, from Nana O’s band competing with Trapnest, her ex-boyfriend’s rock act, to Nana K leaving her cheating boyfriend for Trapnest’s bassist.
Nana ran in Ribon Mascot Comics’ Cookie Magazine. The series got an anime in 2006 and two live-action movies in 2005 and 2006. But the manga itself was put on hiatus in 2009, just as Nana K and her friends were about to fly to England to find Nana O after she went missing Day. Yazawa fell ill and was hospitalized until 2010. Luckily she’s still around and has worked on quite a few projects over the years. Will she make it? Nana still up in the air in one form or another. Regardless, what has already been printed is a testament to their skill and storytelling.
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