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We all know when the cliché moments are gearing up in our favorite shoujo manga series. Perhaps the characters are at the school festival or trip, or maybe a new character has arrived to stir up trouble and fall in love with our main character, Heroine-chan.

It can be easy for a series to fall into the same patterns as those that came before. Honestly, the common clichés in shoujo come into play because they easily create drama and cliffhangers. I’m not one to hate on the typical plot device, but the manga that really stand out to me are the ones that take a situation that usually leads to a cliché and make it completely original. As I may have indicated, the unique shoujo manga is my favorite source of entertainment, and many of them become unique by changing up the patterns.

Read on for my top 5 shoujo clichés turned on their heads.

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I am not a big fan of the Mary Sue.  This dislike is probably due to my exposure to strong heroines in literature and due to Skip Beat and Host Club being the first manga series I ever read.  I seek out characters that are strong and enjoy the series that contain them so much more because of the interesting perspectives of strong females.  These girls make you feel inspired and excited because their stories don’t follow a typical pattern.  They don’t need saving, they do the saving.

If you enjoy a good tough gal, sit back and enjoy my top 5 list of strong shoujo heroines.

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We’ve all found ourselves in a place where we are happily enjoying the wonderful fluff of our favorite shoujo series and we suddenly choke on our nearly consumed sour patch kid as an extremely unwelcome and annoying character intrudes on our experience (okay, maybe the sour patch kid is just me).  Introducing the shoujo manga tool: that dude who always seems to ruin all of your well laid out plans and makes you want to throw your computer against the wall.

Some of the guys on this list may be a bit obscure, but they all have one thing in common: they make me want to scream in anger and throw stuff.  I hope you enjoy some heavy tool-bashing!

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Ah, love!  An emotion so essential to human existence that it permeates all forms and genres of media and entertainment.  Even mystery novels and superhero movies have a hint of that sweet stuff.  I, like most young women, am an absolute lovestruck fool; in love with love.  And when I want love, I always go to my shoujo manga.

But which ones? Find out my top five (probably lesser known) shoujo manga picks below!