shoujo manga - is it deep?

I was having a discussion with someone last week, about cool college courses. It started when we read that several universities in America are offering course about different aspects in the Harry Potter universe. And, we then remembered that one semester, our local college offered a course on the albums of the Beetles and how their music affect(ed) youth culture. We got to talking about cool, out there, courses we would want to teach if we were professors. I decided that I would want to teach a course on shoujo manga.


Shoujo manga is aimed for girls/women between the ages of 10-18. However, many boys/men and older women (in their 20s) read shoujo, as well. The first shoujo mangas appeared in the early 1900s (1903 was the year they were first released); they were simple one to two page stories. Over time, shoujo's have become rather cliched and most of them are about some "clumsy but good spirited" girl who falls for some handsome guy. And all the OTP interlopers, misunderstandings, family issues, and all the drama comes with them.


But. . .there are a few that deal with deeper issues, social issues - they are actually about story rather than high school romance. I'd love to teach a course about deeper shoujo mangas and how they fit into the traditional shoujo cliches and how they are more mature. Like Mars would be an example of something that is marketed as a shoujo manga, but is much more deeper and is not just about a romance. Or a lot of CLAMP stuff deals with social and psychological issues, but they are almost always marketed as a shoujo.


So, yeah. . .what are some non-cliched shoujo mangas you love?

Pictures!

I've decided to take one picture a day from now until whenever. The idea is to take a picture of something I see. It can be something I see everyday or something I'll only see once. It can be something as silly as my book shelf or as interesting as preachers on campus. Either way, it will be the picture of the day. I'll be taking these photos will my iphone, so I've decided to put them on Tumblr. (I'm also using Tumblr to store fanvids)

My tumbler is walkwithheroes84 So, check it out if you want to see my photos. And, feel free to add me if you have one.