Best Josei Manga

[destiny4ever]

Nodame Cantabile

Amatsuki

Honey & Clover

Kuragehime

Mukashi no Hanashi

All the nominees are great series and they should all be read both by girls and boys; unfortunately there can be only one winner. And the MangaHelpers Award for Best Josei goes to:

Nodame Cantabile

Congratulations to Nodame Cantabile for winning this award category! Tomoko Ninomiya-sensei was extremely success in creating a story about music that transcends the musical notes to touch the hearts of the people who reads it. Nodame Cantabile is such a fantasy story that it reminded its readers of how wonderful classical music can be.

The series is a perennial best-seller in Japan: the first 16 volumes sold over 19 million copies as of January 2007, and the series sold 2.8 million copies in 2008, making it the 8th best-selling manga series in Japan that year. Volume 17 was the third best-selling manga on the Oricon charts for 2007, and volumes 20 and 21 were the 6th and 7th best-selling manga on the Oricon charts for 2008, respectively, selling 1.2 million copies each. According to an Oricon survey men and women aged 10–40, Nodame Cantabile was the second "most interesting" manga series published during 2008. The series and its associated music albums are credited with increasing sales of classical music in Japan.

The MH STARs recognized how incredible Nodame Cantabile is, that is why they chose it as one of the winners for this award category. However, they think Nodame Cantabile should share the honor of winning this award with Honey & Clover.


The MH moderators think Nodame Cantabile and Honey and Clover are magnificent series as well; but they consider Mukashi no Hanashi just as great and that is why all three should be the winners for this category.

Thank you to all the members who participated by voting for their favorite series and for helping us choose the best josei for this award category!

[HegemonKhan]

Unfortunately, I don't know any of these, so I'll have to abstain from voting for this category.

[zelllogan]

Unfortunately, I don't know any of these, so I'll have to abstain from voting for this category.

I don't think you're the only one. I never read a josei in my life. Is this far from a seinen ? Or closer to shojo ?

[Roflkopt3r]

I don't think you're the only one. I never read a josei in my life. Is this far from a seinen ? Or closer to shojo ?

To my knowledge - which isn't much either - it is partially overlapping with Seinen, but almost only in parts of the slice of life genre. That again is only because Seinen includes so many genres. Seinen, Josei and Shojo can all overlap to a certain degree, but Josei probably just is less idealistic than Shojo in terms of romance, yet not too far away in terms of general topics.

[saladesu]

I think most people, girls included (well I'm a girl ), stick mainly to Shounen and maybe Shoujo because those are all the popular ones like One Piece, Naruto, Fruits Basket...

Anyway, I guess you could say Josei would be to Shoujo what Seinen is to Shounen. It's targeted at young women. Maybe this thread will be able to shed some light on this for you

[Roflkopt3r]

Anyway, I guess you could say Josei would be to Shoujo what Seinen is to Shounen

The interesting part about that relation is, that the relation of Shonen to Seinen is anything but obvious. Instead of just showing the same stuff as Shonen in a more mature way, it's rather an explosion of topics, Seinen includes a lot of genres which are practically non-existent in Shonen at all.
Demographicwise, obviously Shounen - Seinen is the same as Shojo - Josei: Same gender, older age group. But topicwise, these relations are almost non existent.


However, to get a first impression I'll just start reading Honey & Clover

[Ustegius]

Same here, never read any josei. Expect two volumes of NANA, but that is in a shoujo magazine so...

I however have heard of Nodame Cantabile, Honey & Clover and Amatsuki. But not enough to vote, but based on the very little I know Nodame Cantabile sounds the most interesting since it's about classical music. Honey & Clover being the close second, telling about a bunch of art students. I was however under the impression, that Amatsuki was a shoujo? However it's historical, so that doesn't sound too bad either.

It's just that there is much more of seinen and shonen that seems interesting, so those josei aren't too high on my to-read-next-list.

[Zeltrax]

I don't watch or read this genre much. So the only one I did watch was Nodame and Honey and Clover.
Nodame inspires me to actually find something I'm talented in but sadly, I'm not really a fan of orchestra. But I like them, they're my study music.
Oh, the romance is Nodame is also really cute IMO.

Honey and Clover on the other hand, teaches me how to deal with my life. But I guess that is what Seinen is, they are mature manga and let you think deeply about life. The anime teaches me what unrequited love really is and where to go in your life when you're lost. It has a lot of mature elements in it.
After watching Honey and Clover, I felt a surge of energy and alot of inspiration, so my vote goes to it.

[Farfalla]

How come Nana is not on this list? ;-;
It's a very popular serie around the world ;-; Two years ago, I guess, it only sold less than One Piece in Japan ;-;

I haven't read a lot of Amatsuki, I know it's considered as Josei all over, but I couldn't find Josei elements on what I read of it xD Guess I should go back on reading this serie^^

[M3J]

How come Nana is not on this list? ;-;
It's a very popular serie around the world ;-; Two years ago, I guess, it only sold less than One Piece in Japan ;-;

I haven't read a lot of Amatsuki, I know it's considered as Josei all over, but I couldn't find Josei elements on what I read of it xD Guess I should go back on reading this serie^^

Nana's been stated to be a shoujo, even if it's josei, due to the fact that it appeared in a shoujo magazine, but I'm not sure on this. I was told by a Nana fan.

[Kaiten]

I don't think you're the only one. I never read a josei in my life. Is this far from a seinen ? Or closer to shojo ?

A lot depends on what series you read. There are some very dark josei, Mukashi no Hanashi (from this poll), Rivers Edge, and Helter Skelter come to mind. There are many that have a subject matter teens might not care about, collegiate angst in Honey and Clover might not appeal to a 14 year old. And there is plenty of smut, of course

Everyone who voted for Kuragehime: we has a thread for the manga. Come, talk to me there. I am lonely. Even if it's not about the chapter, come talk about the art, or the movie references. Or whatever. If you watch the anime but not the manga, read it!

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How come Nana is not on this list? ;-;
It's a very popular serie around the world ;-; Two years ago, I guess, it only sold less than One Piece in Japan ;-;

I haven't read a lot of Amatsuki, I know it's considered as Josei all over, but I couldn't find Josei elements on what I read of it xD Guess I should go back on reading this serie^^

Nana's been stated to be a shoujo, even if it's josei, due to the fact that it appeared in a shoujo magazine, but I'm not sure on this. I was told by a Nana fan.

M3J is right. Nana was serialized in Cookie, a shojo magazine. Demographic is based on what magazine a series is serialized in, content or genre doesn't matter.

[M3J]

I don't think you're the only one. I never read a josei in my life. Is this far from a seinen ? Or closer to shojo ?

As mentioned, josei is to shoujo as seinen is to shounen. Shoujo is targeted at young girls like shounen is targeted at young boys; josei is targeted at teenagers and adults like seinen is targeted at teenagers and adults. Like seinen, josei can be pretty dark, smutty, and etc and can be far more serious than shoujo, but it depends.

Josei is almost definitely more mature than shoujo (I say almost definitely because I've read few josei <_<).

[Farfalla]

It's still not in shoujo's part xD I mean, of MH award.
I was just surprised. I think it's a pretty good serie^^

[Googlez_kun]

Even though it is the only josei i read,i voted for Nodame Cantabile.It became one of my favourite manga in an instant,so while i did not read the other nominations,i feel comfortable voting Nodame Cantabile.

[Mr. Prince]

Even though it is the only josei i read,i voted for Nodame Cantabile.It became one of my favourite manga in an instant,so while i did not read the other nominations,i feel comfortable voting Nodame Cantabile.

Your vote is certainly not wasted with Nodame. (Though that's coming from someone who also just read like what? 30 Josei series or so... therefore, I'm far from being a connoisseur.)
The only title from the list I didn't read yet is Mukashi no Hanashi, which is actually a shame. I remember that kaiten being quite into the series... I guess, I'll definitely have to check it out some time in the future then.^^


Honey & Clover is a brilliant and monumental title for this demographic. It's often praised and its contents and themes are well-portrayed. Plus, it's from Chica Umino who also created 3gatsu no Lion later on which is also just so damn good...

Amatsuki has the nicest artwork out of the bunch IMO. I'm also really into the historical and fantasy elements of the manga.

Kuragehime is probably the funniest series out of the bunch... I love its nerdiness/otakuness! Though I have to say I also just know the anime, so don't know if the manga is on the same level. Yet I really loved the anime, it was my highlight of the line-up at that time!

Last but not least: Nodame Cantabile! I also picked this title because it is and probably always will be my most favorite manga targeted at female audience. Such an intelligent and well-written piece of art. I'm also quite a huge classical music nerd, so that's another big plus.