The loud bombast of the shonen genre may be all well and good with its martial arts, explosions, and world-shattering power levels. However, what if some people want something a little less shouty? Something where the planet may not be at stake, but the interpersonal drama and emotional peaks make it just as shocking, nerve-wracking, and engaging.
Despite not getting as much focus as their largely boy-focused counterparts, shojo manga is no less important. Whether it’s the magical girl adventures in Cardcaptor Sakura, the family struggles in Fruits Basket, or Skip Beat’s tale of revenge and pop idols, the genre offers sugar-sweet artwork with plenty of twists along the way. Unfortunately, not every shojo manga got to complete their stories. Here are the best examples that were sadly left unfinished.
5 ChocoMimi
Starting with the simplest one, ChocoMimi wasn’t an epic tale of love, heartbreak, and shocks. 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. 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. While it didn’t have an overarching story, it went on hiatus when creator Konami Sonoda’s health faltered. It turned out she had been suffering from breast cancer during the manga’s last run. Sonoda sadly succumbed to the disease in August 2019, with the last ChocoMimi strip appearing in Ribon’s September 2019 issue.
4 Clover
Clamp are famous for series like xxxHOLIC, Chobits, and the aforementioned Cardcaptor Sakura. Though not all their series get finished. Like Clover. It was about a futuristic world where magical children called ‘Clovers’ would be picked up by the military. ‘Sue’ was special as her powers went above and beyond the usual flying or teleporting. To keep Sue under the control, the government keeps her isolated from others to keep her emotions suppressed.
She's left feeling lonely as a result, but while she's her country's '4-Leafed Clover', she gets lucky when she's assigned an escort; a man called Kazuhiko. He may be the partner she's been after for so long. The strip was published in Kodansha’s Amie magazine and was brought to a sudden end when that magazine was canceled in 1999. Clamp’s head writer Nanase Ohkawa said it would need two further books to be completed, but after 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 (aimed at grown women) than a shojo one (for young girls). Nonetheless, Tobe’s soft art style and endearing family story fit the genre’s bill and has moved many readers. The manga followed Sachiko Azuma as she learns her young boy Hikaru is autistic. Despite the ignorant jibes from those around her, she remains determined to raise her boy into a ‘cheerful and working adult’.
The series began in For Mrs magazine in 2000 and won the Excellence Award at the 2004 Japan Media Arts Festival. It also got a TV drama series adaptation that won multiple prizes at the Television Drama Academy Awards. The strip went on hiatus in January 2009 when Tobe fell ill with cancer. Unfortunately, she passed away in 2010, with her last works compiled as With the Light’s last volume.
2 Itazura Na Kiss
Created by Kaoru Tada, Itazura na Kiss was a romantic comedy of errors published in Bessatsu Margaret. Kotoko Aihara, the school ditz, confesses her love for the super popular Naoki Irie. He rejects her offhand, only for fate to have other ideas. After Kotoko’s family home is wrecked by an earthquake, her father’s old best friend invites them all to live with him until their home is rebuilt. Surprise! He’s Naoki’s dad! Now Naoki has to live with Kotoko. However, as clingy, and silly as she can be, Naoki begins to see something in Kotoko he hadn’t seen before.
The series started in 1990, and inspired a TV drama, an anime series, a live-action film trilogy, and multiple international adaptations across Asia. Unfortunately, Tada only lived long enough to see the 1996 TV drama. She passed away in 1999 after an accident at home while her family was moving house. Her widower Shigeru Nishikawa gave permission for her work to be republished, which has kept the series in the public eye up to this date. The closest the series got 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 has been quite a sad list, so let’s end with a little hope. Ai Yazawa’s 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) was working on her band's musical career. From there, they connect and clash over a number of events, from Nana O’s band rivaling her ex-boyfriend’s own rock act Trapnest, 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 films across 2005 and 2006. But the manga itself went on hiatus in 2009, right as Nana K and friends were going to jet off to England to find Nana O after she disappeared one day. Yazawa fell ill and was hospitalized up to 2010. Thankfully, she is still around and has work on a few projects over the years. Whether she'll get to complete Nana in one form or another is still up in the air. Regardless, what’s already in print is a testament to her skill and storytelling.