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Dance Dance Dance ♪

It is a manga in which dance is the theme and dance appears throughout the work.
It also includes ballet and ice skating.

Basically the classic popular shoujo manga art/design style.

Number of sales and date that number was acquired from in notes for each. Some of them I have personally estimated a higher figure than the date says.

No. 162 would be Nippon no Rekishi. It's for children and I can't find it on MAL. It has 24 volumes and started in 1981, and has sold 20.2 million (March 19th, 2020).

No. 165 would be Cuffs - Kizu Darake no Chizu by Jin Tojo, and has sold 20 million (February 14th, 2022).

No. 183 would be The Tale of Genji by Waki Yamato. Couldn't find exactly which one it was she made, and has sold 20 million (May 1st, 2021).

Dancing, ice-skating, gymnastics, and so on.

These manga feature ballet dancers, and the art of ballet.

cr: animeplanet.

Stories of girls and women who pursue a passion

shoujo manga that started publishing in the 1970s or earlier

Note: Due to the number of missing manga from the database I will add the ones that would be included in the stack at the bottom of this description. And will leave room in the stack for these manga in the case that they are added in the future.

There are a number of works that I've not been able to read at all or read completely in the list so my commentary on those entries is limited, also my Japanese reading skill is limited currently so that limits some of the commentary as well. Also the list is mainly focused on the older titles as my knowledge on newer titles is relatively limited when it comes to shoujo manga.

Related links:
History of "Shoujo" Anime - https://myanimelist.net/stacks/16071
List of Shoujo manga released before 1980s - https://myanimelist.net/clubs.php?cid=84956

The beginnings of the history of girls comic magazines in Japan can be traced to the early 1900s with one of the first notable magazines "Shoujo no Tomo" gaining popularity among the female audience. The strong visual presence and the character design that are usually associated with shoujo manga draw their roots also to that period. Among the early pioneers of the visual approach "Jun'ichi Nakahara" is usually mentioned due to the influence of his design and approach to the character when it comes to shoujo manga.

This list attempts to collect some of the most important works when it comes to the history of shoujo manga, starting from the beginning. This is done so that people who are interested in or new to the history of "Shoujo" manga can gain atleast some kind of understanding of the history and the development throughout the years.

I will try to write my short spoiler free review/thoughts for each of the entries on this list to explain further why I think the entry is important as far as the history of "shoujo" manga is concerned.

Important manga missing from the database:

1957 - Shoujo Club - Fuichin-san (フイチンさん) - Ueda Toshiko (上田としこ)
https://myanimelist.net/manga/148274

Most early shoujo mangaka were men, and shoujo manga didn't have a particular "identity" in 1950s, as it was mostly just used as "a springboard" for authors aiming for the more popular shounen magazines. However Ueda Toshiko took everyone by storm as a female author with "Fuichin-san" one of the "big hits" in the evolving 1950s - 1960s shoujo manga scene.

The story focuses on the character "Fuichin" and is set on a period near WW2 in Manchuria. It is said that Ueda Toshiko drew some inspiration from her own experiences in Manchuria durin that period.

1958 - Shoujo - Tokyo Paris (東京・パリ) - Takahashi Macoto (高橋真琴)

Takahashi Macoto is often credited with popularizing the usage of glitter or star shaped visual in the eyes of the characters when it comes to the visual design of the character. The works of Takahashi Macoto usually put heavy emphasis on his detailed art and design of the characters.

1960 - Shoujo - Maki no Kuchibue (マキの口笛) - Maki Miyako (牧美也子)
https://myanimelist.net/manga/142707/Maki_no_Kuchibue

Maki Miyako drew popularity in early 1960s scene with hit works such as Maki no Kuchibue. The work features a dramatic approach to the world of "dance" and "performance". The visual approach in the art used by Maki Miyako was also emphasised in the series with intricate portrayals of fashion and passion.

The popularity of this work and her art resulted in Maki Miyako being let in charge for the original design of the Licca-chan toy doll franchise which debuted in 1967.

1962 - Shoujo - Shimai Futari (姉妹ふたり) - Maki Miyako (牧美也子)

1963 - Ribon - Chibikko Tenshi (ちびっこ天使) - Yokoyama Mitsuteru (横山光輝)

The series featured a "pair" of "angels" who were able to use magic, they came down to earth and caused all sorts of mischief with their powers. Often considered something of a precursor to the acclaimed series "Mahoutsukai Sally"

1966 - Ribon - Honey Honey no Suteki na Bouken (ハニーハニーのすてきな冒険) - Mizuno Hideko (水野英子)
https://myanimelist.net/manga/112823/Honey_Honey_no_Suteki_na_Bouken

1967 - Ribon - Sweet★Lala (スイート★ラーラ) - Kitajima Yoko (北島洋子)

1967 - Margaret - Comet-san (コメットさん) - Yokoyama Mitsuteru (横山光輝)
https://myanimelist.net/manga/139540

1969 - (Unknown) - Ballet Hoshi (バレエ星) - Tani Yukiko (谷ゆき子)
https://myanimelist.net/manga/142708/Ballet_Hoshi

1969 - Margaret - Glass no Shiro (ガラスの城) - Watanabe Masako (わたなべまさこ)
https://myanimelist.net/manga/129561

Any manga where the main plotline revolves around dance.

This list includes all types of dance, from break dance, ballet, ballroom dancing, ice dance, to modern dance.

Note: I did not include titles that revolve around gymnastics, idols, cheerleading, or acting, as they do not feature dancing as the main theme. I also did not include titles that were excessively explicit, or titles I couldn't find any information about. I also included some manwha and manhua from MAL's database.

For me, it's always interesting to see portrayal of Western countries in Asian media. Here's a list of manga in different genres and demographics that are set in or feature Western countries as important part of the plot. I was focusing on modern-ish times(70s onwards), so historical manga will be omitted.

Note: arranged in the order of release. Some of the titles are NSFW.

Work in progress!

A collection of shoujo and josei manga that focus on or have a strong emphasis on sports, be it basketball or ballet.

When people think of sports series they typically think of shounen series like Haikyuu or Kuroko's Basketball or seinen series like Real. And I have found that sports focused shoujo and josei are not as talked about outside of a few classic series and Chihayafuru.

So I have collected all the notable ones I could find for the convenience of people who want to see a feminine perspective on the sports genre. The series in this stack cover both men's and women's sports both on a professional and high school level.

I will note that some of these series are not focused on the sports themselves and have other things at the forefront.

Beautiful. No more words needed

TVM Comics, is a now defunct vietnamese manga publisher. It well known back in mid 2000's and 2010's for published many popular Shonen Jump and Shoujo series. The company founded in 2007, an obsidinary company of TVM Corp, for publishing fully license manga series.

Due to around that time, Vietnam is well known for pirate manga and books instead of fully license. Among those, popular publishers in Vietnam like Kim Đồng and Trẻ Publishing House who mostly published pirate manga around that time. But thanks to TVM Comics, it consider help other willing to license out. It also know that TVM Corp, the parent company also responsible for dubbing anime in vietnamese, many popular series such as Dragonball, Cardcaptor Sakura, Captain Tsubasa, Azumanga Daioh, etc,... This company is consider of Tokyopop/ ADV Films of Vietnam.

But unfortunately, even all of many success, the company went bankrupt in 2019. Due to poor sales and around that times where manga isn't no where near hugely popular as of now. Most of the series that they published around that time, either stop or let another company pickup to continue they left off. Even tho, they no longer exist but their legacy still lives on in many manga collectors heart.

I will pick some series that they published, either gone along with them or others pickup.

Considering MAL is missing over 80% of the ballet manga that is out there you should use some other site or list if youre actually interested in ballet manga.

Source: https://www.toshonoie.net/

This stack covers Shojo and Josei manga that have a strong emphasis on sports, whether that's men's sports or women's sports. Additionally, it includes everything from tennis to dance to things like Karuta.

Just a list of Shojo and Josei manga that began publishing before 1990 that have been officially published in english, although some are Out of Print or from defunct digital publishers and thus are no longer legally available.

I can't seem to add this one, but Sign wa V!/The V Sign! (1969) was officially published as well (https://myanimelist.net/manga/125803/Sign_wa_V)

This one isn't in the MyAnimeList database, but Pairazahda/Pairazada (1984) is legally published and available digitally in english (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07757Y1X9?ref_=dbs_m_cmx_rwt_calw_tkin_0&storeType=ebooks)

(database entry: https://www.mangaupdates.com/series/yrzhtz5/pairazada)

Some Pre-1990s Shojo stories without database entries from Moto Hagio were published in the English Anthology "A Drunken Dream and Other Stories". These include Angel Mimic/Tenshi no Gitai (1984), Autumn Journey/Aki no Tabi (1971), and Girl on Porch with Puppy/Pochi de Shōjo ga Koinu to (1971). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Drunken_Dream_and_Other_Stories)

Himitsu no Akko-chan was published in Japan in a Bilingual English edition intended to be an english-learning aide to japanese people.

The Shojo stories Plus 1 (1986) and Purple (1985) from Ciao magazine were published in english in Animerica Extra's Short Program Volume 1 Anthology which was later released in its own collected volume in the US (https://myanimelist.net/manga/1443/Short_Program).