For a very long time, the shoujo manga heroine fit a very distinct stereotype: she was small-statured, quiet, kind, and beautiful. Which is fine, the world needs as much kindness as it can get, but the shoujo was overflowing with this type of girls, and the stories felt like bootlegs of each other. So the authors started experimenting with other types of main characters, and we tried to find five distinct types in anime and manga. Some of them are becoming overused and turn into their own stereotypes, but still provide some breath of fresh air in the sea of tiny shy girls.
Tall Girl: Koizumi Risa (Lovely Complex), Koharu (Haru x Kyou), Furuya Utako (Stand Up!)
This type of girl usually brings comedy to shoujo. She's quite often loud, clumsy, and very open about her emotions — she takes a lot of space in comparison with the regular cliche, both physically and mentally. This brings a breath of fresh air to the stories, allowing the girl to be straightforward and her getting through the turmoil of love (usually for a shorter guy) has a unique spin.
But not every tall girl is like that: Furuya Utako from Stand Up!, on the contrary, is very reserved and insecure because of her height, which helps her become a bridge between the regular tall girl and regular shoujo heroine.
Creepy Girl: Nakahara Sunako (The Wallflower), Kuronuma Sawako (From Me to You)
These are the girls that no one wants to interact with because they are oozing creepiness, they seem scary and menacing, even. For Nakahara Sunako from The Wallflower, it's a conscious decision: she approached that darkness herself and embraced it, started enjoying it and flaunting it, keeping people away from her and showing her softer side only to those who dared to look behind the unwelcoming exterior. For Kuronuma Sawako from From Me to You, it's the opposite: she wants to be befriended, not ostracized, but she's too shy to do that without someone helping her take these first steps. In her case, it's that typical introvert story, where an extrovert should adopt them and show them to the world. She finds herself a bunch of lovely and lively people who are not scared of her and are willing to explore her softness and kindness.
Not Interested in Romance Girl: Hoshino Anzu (Romantic Killer), Serinuma Kae (Kiss Him, Not Me!)
Stories where the main girl is not interested in pursuing romantic relationships are always funny in this heartwarmingly cringy way. Usually, these stories are reverse harems with guys piling upon the girls just like in your regular otome game, but the lack of interest from the heroine's point of view, or actual protest against romance, gives it a unique spin and fills the plot with a lot of self-consciousness towards the cliché mechanics used in shoujo.
This self-awareness brings the specific flavor of comedy that makes the show a little bit more grounded in reality and relatable, because some of these stereotypes feel quite stupid when applied to actual living humans and not 2D characters, despite making our hearts go all doki-doki.
Tomboy Girl: Aizawa Tomo (Tomo-chan is a Girl!), Kasumi Aiko (Ai-chan's Secret), Kashima Yu (Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun)
Tomboys share some of the characteristics of tall girls: they're loud and crass and demand your attention, but do that in a different way. But they are frustrated by their tomboyishness because it tampers with their love life: their love interests just don't see them as girls.
Most of the plots with characters like these are comedy-focused, filled with shenanigans where a tomboy character is forced to do something uncharacteristically girly and show this side to those that caught their hearts. Which is concerning. Thankfully, not all series follow that plotline of forcing femininity on the tomboyish characters, and show that you can be loved even if you don't behave like a typical girl and have interests that clash with the stereotypes. Though sometimes it leaves the viewers and readers frustrated with how slow the development is.
Cold girl: Mizutani Shizuku (My Little Monster), Sengoku Mei (Mizutama Honey Boy)
Usually, the female leads in shoujo are very emotional, even if they are too shy to show it. But what happens if the lead heroine is that cold, stoic girl who appears as empathetic as a brick wall, and she gets practically assaulted by a boy who is a whirlwind of emotions? Hilarity ensues.
But that's not all to that: this contrast shows that boys are also allowed to feel (and sends toxic masculinity into the void where it belongs) and that opposites attract, no matter who is assigned these opposing traits. It feeds on shoujo stereotypes, but does it in a reverse way, and that makes the story feel fresh. It's different from the stories where the character is not simply interested in romance, because the coldness of these girls applies to the majority of their lives, not only to the relationship aspect. This approach shows a different perspective on the romance genre from the girl's point of view, as usually cold female characters are explored from the side of the boy trying to win them over. And now we can see their thought process during these advances.
You don't have to fit to be loved.
For a very long time, the shoujo manga heroine fit a very distinct stereotype: she was small-statured, quiet, kind, and beautiful. Which is fine, the world needs as much kindness as it can get, but the shoujo was overflowing with this type of girls, and the stories felt like bootlegs of each other. So the authors started experimenting with other types of main characters, and we tried to find five distinct types in anime and manga. Some of them are becoming overused and turn into their own stereotypes, but still provide some breath of fresh air in the sea of tiny shy girls.
Tall Girl: Koizumi Risa (Lovely Complex), Koharu (Haru x Kyou), Furuya Utako (Stand Up!)
This type of girl usually brings comedy to shoujo. She's quite often loud, clumsy, and very open about her emotions — she takes a lot of space in comparison with the regular cliche, both physically and mentally. This brings a breath of fresh air to the stories, allowing the girl to be straightforward and her getting through the turmoil of love (usually for a shorter guy) has a unique spin.
But not every tall girl is like that: Furuya Utako from Stand Up!, on the contrary, is very reserved and insecure because of her height, which helps her become a bridge between the regular tall girl and regular shoujo heroine.
Creepy Girl: Nakahara Sunako (The Wallflower), Kuronuma Sawako (From Me to You)
These are the girls that no one wants to interact with because they are oozing creepiness, they seem scary and menacing, even. For Nakahara Sunako from The Wallflower, it's a conscious decision: she approached that darkness herself and embraced it, started enjoying it and flaunting it, keeping people away from her and showing her softer side only to those who dared to look behind the unwelcoming exterior. For Kuronuma Sawako from From Me to You, it's the opposite: she wants to be befriended, not ostracized, but she's too shy to do that without someone helping her take these first steps. In her case, it's that typical introvert story, where an extrovert should adopt them and show them to the world. She finds herself a bunch of lovely and lively people who are not scared of her and are willing to explore her softness and kindness.
Not Interested in Romance Girl: Hoshino Anzu (Romantic Killer), Serinuma Kae (Kiss Him, Not Me!)
Stories where the main girl is not interested in pursuing romantic relationships are always funny in this heartwarmingly cringy way. Usually, these stories are reverse harems with guys piling upon the girls just like in your regular otome game, but the lack of interest from the heroine's point of view, or actual protest against romance, gives it a unique spin and fills the plot with a lot of self-consciousness towards the cliché mechanics used in shoujo.
This self-awareness brings the specific flavor of comedy that makes the show a little bit more grounded in reality and relatable, because some of these stereotypes feel quite stupid when applied to actual living humans and not 2D characters, despite making our hearts go all doki-doki.
Tomboy Girl: Aizawa Tomo (Tomo-chan is a Girl!), Kasumi Aiko (Ai-chan's Secret), Kashima Yu (Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun)
Tomboys share some of the characteristics of tall girls: they're loud and crass and demand your attention, but do that in a different way. But they are frustrated by their tomboyishness because it tampers with their love life: their love interests just don't see them as girls.
Most of the plots with characters like these are comedy-focused, filled with shenanigans where a tomboy character is forced to do something uncharacteristically girly and show this side to those that caught their hearts. Which is concerning. Thankfully, not all series follow that plotline of forcing femininity on the tomboyish characters, and show that you can be loved even if you don't behave like a typical girl and have interests that clash with the stereotypes. Though sometimes it leaves the viewers and readers frustrated with how slow the development is.
Cold girl: Mizutani Shizuku (My Little Monster), Sengoku Mei (Mizutama Honey Boy)
Usually, the female leads in shoujo are very emotional, even if they are too shy to show it. But what happens if the lead heroine is that cold, stoic girl who appears as empathetic as a brick wall, and she gets practically assaulted by a boy who is a whirlwind of emotions? Hilarity ensues.
But that's not all to that: this contrast shows that boys are also allowed to feel (and sends toxic masculinity into the void where it belongs) and that opposites attract, no matter who is assigned these opposing traits. It feeds on shoujo stereotypes, but does it in a reverse way, and that makes the story feel fresh. It's different from the stories where the character is not simply interested in romance, because the coldness of these girls applies to the majority of their lives, not only to the relationship aspect. This approach shows a different perspective on the romance genre from the girl's point of view, as usually cold female characters are explored from the side of the boy trying to win them over. And now we can see their thought process during these advances.
