Summary
2024 has been a pretty good year for manga and anime, particularly for fans ofFrierenandDelicious in Dungeon. The former sold strongly on the manga front, coming second only toJujutsu Kaisen’s long-awaited finale, while the latter got an anime adaptation that essentially became the breakout anime series of the year.
This year also saw a range ofnew shojo manga make their debut, be they rising stars catching people’s attention, or popular strips finally reaching the West via official translations. Still, whether fans caught them through scanslation or bought them off store shelves,these shojo manga stood out the most in 2024.
10Tomie: Control
MyAnimeList Score: 6.60
Junji Ito does shojo strips?! Surprisingly, yes. Modern horror manga actually evolved from strips published in shojo magazines. Fans can get a taste of what these early horror strips were like through Kazuo ‘Umezz’ Umezu’sMy Name is Shingo, which got its official English translation this year via Viz Media.
However, if those fans want something modern, Ito released a new installment of hisTomieseries this year inTomie: Control. This one-shot brings the nigh-on immortal succubus back via a fungal form that turns one friend on another. It’s short, creepy, and showcases one of Tomie’s new powers; one that suggests Ito might’ve been inspired byThe Last of Uswith its use of the infamous cordyceps fungus.
9The Twilight Princess And The Amorous Raven
MyAnimeList Score: 6.95
Better known by its Japanese title,Kurahime to Koikurasu,The Twilight Princess and the Amorous Ravenis another one-shot that caught readers’ attention in 2024. It’s pretty beefy for a one-off story too, as it has plenty of lore to go along with its premise. It follows Asaki, the ‘twilight princess’ of the Hibana clan,a prestigious line of exorcists.
She can see things that others can’t, but it also makes her a social outcast. To quit being an exorcist, she must capture her clan’s enemy, the Yatagarasu. This is when Amabara Ten, one of her classmates, says he’s the Yatagarasu, and that he’ll help her out in return for her (inadvertently) saving his life. Though she went looking for an enemy, she may have ended up finding a friend instead.
8Uesugi-Kun Wants To Quit Being A Girl
MyAnimeList Score: 7.00
Uesugi-kun Wants to Quit Being a Girlputs Keisuke Uesugi in a difficult position. He wants to hang out more with his childhood friend, Noel, but things have changed since they were little kids. Noel seems happier with her female friends, while he’s overshadowed by his male friend, Eito, who is smarter, more handsome, and way taller, while Uesugi still looks like a little kid at best, or a girl at worst.
To make things better, he goes to the local shrine to make a wish. He makes many of them, including one he says as a joke: “I’d rather be a girl, just to talk to Noel normally.” Unfortunately, the shrine deity wasn’t kidding and granted it. Now he must live as a literal girl until he can find a way to change back. In the process, he might learn more about himself and his friends as they adjust to his new gender.
7Magical Girl Dandelion
MyAnimeList Score: 7.24
It’s not enough to just be a standard tokusatsu hero or magical girl in manga today. There’s got to be some intriguing twist to the formula to get readers' attention, like the grim horror stripMagical Girl Siteand the ecchi yuri comedyGushing Over Magical Girls.Magical Girl Dandelionfalls in between these two in using the genre to tell a domestic drama.
It follows Tanpopo, a young girl who’s been looked after by Shade, a phantom spirit, since she was a child. Upon turning 16, she was approached by the magical girl organization Butterfly to join their ranks, but if she does, she’ll be forced to destroy Shade and other phantoms like him. With her powers awakened, she’s forced to choose between following her destiny or finding a way for both sides to coexist.
6Otaku Vampire’s Love Bite
MyAnimeList Score: 7.39
Japanese speakers (or readers of scanslations) have been checking outOtaku Vampire’s Love Bitesince its debut in 2022. However, people who grew to love the strip can now support it monetarily as Viz Media began releasing its official English translations back in October 2024. It follows Hina Alucard, a shut-in vampire who sticks to consuming blood bags over living humans.
Her father introduced her to anime via a boxset of the series ‘Vampire Cross.’ She falls in love with the show, and goes to Japan where she presses a human called Kyuta into living her ‘otaku dream.’ It helps that he looks likeVC’s handsome hero, Mao, but he’s much pricklier, and not so keen on tastingVC-brand food for her. However, in time, they could become friends.
5Belladonna’s Lover
MyAnimeList Score: 7.47
As soft and sparkly as the shojo genre looks, it’s producedsome tense and tender talesin its time. One of the more striking shojo one-shots of 2024 wasBelladonna’s Lover, a girls’ love story where romance has more forbidding it than just prejudice. It sees Bella cursed with a poison that will kill anyone she touches. The only way to break this curse is for her to find true love.
Her curse made her more hated by the villagers, leading her to live in seclusion in the woods, becoming known as the ‘Poisonous Witch.’ However, hope comes her way in the form of Anna, a painter who gets lost in the forest. Bella takes her in, where she learns Anna isn’t scared of her, nor of her poison. Their chance encounter becomes the start of a beautiful friendship, and then something more.
4Koi no Iroha wo Oshiete
Anime-Planet Score: 3.77/5 Stars
Romance is shojo’s bread and butter, andKoi no Iroha wo Oshieteis serving it straight with a trainee relationship that threatens to become real. It sees Rin left heartbroken when her boyfriend dumps her after just one week of dating. He says she’s too uptight and guarded for him, leaving her in the lurch.
However, she finds an unlikely confidant in Matsukaze, one of the most popular seniors at school. After she expresses her plight, he offers to become her ‘practice partner.’ That way, she’ll learn the fundamentals of love and be able to break out of her shell. It’s a very sudden start for the young newbie, and she’s got a lot to learn.
3The Young Lady Of House Finlanz
Anime-Planet Score: 3.85/5 Stars
There are almostas many reincarnation storiesas there are isekai and villainess ones. Some predate the boom for both other-world fights and calculating lady crims, but it does seem like the three genres have been marching arm-in-arm in print media for a while.The Young Lady of House Finlanzsticks to reincarnation alone for its lead, Lizbeth Finlanz.
She was born into a noble family and married off to Crown Prince Reinhardt in a political arrangement. Feeling lonely, she wrote messages to friends abroad, which were used to frame her for a crime she didn’t commit. She died alone in prison, only to reawaken as a 7-year-old in her old house. Now she can live comfortably and use her old memories to prepare for the future.
2Kimi ni Todoke: From Me To You – Soulmate
MyAnimeList Score: 7.79
It can take a while for a strip to get an official Western release.My Name is Shingoended way back in 1986, but didn’t get an official translation until 2024, but that’s a niche horror strip.Kimi ni Todoke: From Me to You – Soulmatefollows the beloved mangaKimi ni Todoke, and didn’t get picked up by Viz Media until April 2024, two years after its Japanese finale.
Luckily, it was a short series and was fully translated by October 2024. This time, it sees Sawako’s enemy-turned-friend Kurumi looking for love. She gets a persistent suitor who happens to look like the gloomy Sawako. He turns out to be her cousin, Eiji, and when she gives him a chance, she feels more drawn to him. By chance, she might’ve just found what she was looking for.
1My Love Story With Yamada-kun At Lv999
MyAnimeList Score: 8.16
Readers who have been missing the geeky joy ofWotakoi: Love is Hard for Otakulikely foundMy Love Story with Yamada-kun at Lv999turning up in their recommendations. The series hasbeen ongoing since 2019and has received digital translations via Mangamo, but they finally began being converted into physical volumes starting in May 2024 via Penguin Random House.
It sees Akane taking out her frustrations on some in-game monsters after she discovered her boyfriend was cheating on her with another player. Just as she is ready to dump gamer boys in the bin, she comes across Yamada, a gamer who managed to reach max level in-game but is hopeless at love. Drawn to him, she tries to see if she can match his in-game skills, and move his heart at the same time.
