Roses are red

Violets are blue

Shojo is sweet

Here are strange ships

Happy Valentine’s Day! Here’s a bonus episode where we asked various people to answer this question: If you could ship any characters across shojo series, who would you ship and why? The answers may surprise you. Especially since Ashley cheats and takes protagonists from a shonen manga instead.

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Comments, questions, concerns? Want to let us know who you would ship across shojo canons? Have a suggestion on what to do for a special White Day episode? Email shojoandtell [at] gmail.com, leave a comment on the episode page, or tweet us.

Covers all 9 volumes of TOKYO TARAREBA GIRLS by Akiko Higashimura

This episode, Ashley and Amelia discuss a josei series for the first time on the podcast. What if, what if, we told you “Tokyo Tarareba Girls” is one of the best manga of the decade? What if, what if, you’ve never read a more relatable manga than this in your life? What if, what if, we told you to stop lollygagging around and read this manga right now? As you’ll find out from our heartfelt and earnest discussion, this story about women looking to settle down before they reach 40 will hit you hard in the feels. Also KEY SUCKS, Team Hayasaka forever!

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Comments, questions, concerns? Want to gush about your OTP and favorite series? Have suggestions for the show? Email shojoandtell [at] gmail.com or simply leave a comment on the episode page.

Covers all of MILLENNIUM SNOW by Bisco Hatori

In the 10 years between the publication of the second and third volume of “Millennium Snow,” Bisco Hatori went off and wrote this little-known manga called “Ouran High School Host Club.” How did that affect this short and sweet four-volume manga? How does this vampire and werewolf love triangle compare to the infamous Twilight Saga? (Hint: It's much better.) How does it handle the themes of morality and time? Ashley and Caitlin discuss all that, and much, much more.

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Comments, questions, concerns? Want to gush about your OTP and favorite series? Have suggestions for the show? Email shojoandtell [at] gmail.com or simply leave a comment on the episode page.

All four volumes of MERUPURI are discussed.

Ashley and Loyola discuss a short manga from Matsuri Hino, the creator of Vampire Knight. It’s the first manga covered on the podcast that doesn’t have an anime adaptation, and given its strange mashup of Japanese, German, English, and random symbols, neither Ashley nor Loyola ever figures out how to pronounce ANYTHING! (as-tale? UH-stale? Who knows? Do you know?) There’s talk of tattoos and taboos, mirrors reflecting the past and the present, and fanfiction written about main character Airi’s favorite show, “Tales of Marriage on the Plains.”

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SHIPPING CORNER

Most popular combos (according to poll in the manga, volume 4, pg 67)

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Comments, questions, concerns? Want to gush about your OTP and favorite series? Have suggestions for the show? Email shojoandtell [at] gmail.com

Vol 10-18 of Maid-sama! (end of the series)

Asher and Ashley are back to discuss the second half of Hiro Fujiwara’s modern masterpiece about Maid Latte. As promised, the Ashes discuss Maid-sama!’s portrayal of social class and the tension between the aristocracy and the meritocracy, lament that some characters end up in problematic pairings, and gush about how cute Misaki and Usui were during the hot springs trip (and later, when they exchange scarves — too freakin’ cute!).

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Covers: MAID-SAMA! Vol. 1-9

After doing two classic shojo series, we’re finally covering Ashley’s favorite manga of all time: Maid-sama! Yes, Ashley’s favorite manga is about working in a maid cafe. Asher and Ashley discuss how liking a manga about maids is okay (also discussed: whether this manga is actually about maids), what this battle of the sexes story has to say about gender roles, and whether Misaki Ayuzawa and Usui Takumi make a good couple. Mostly, Ashley just rants about how Misaki is the greatest.

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Jess and Ashley discuss Cardcaptor Sakura vol. 7-12, plus the first volume of the new CCS: Clear Card manga! There's a debate about the merits of passive versus active heroism, Ashley likes Ruby Moon while Jess crushes on Yue, they take a very definitive Teen Vogue quiz to assess if Sakura and Syaoran are ready for their long-distance relationship, and — wait a second, there are like four student/teacher romances in this manga?! Oh, CLAMP.

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Kyahhhh! It’s time to release the first episode about one of the most iconic shojo series ever! Ashley and Jess cover volumes 1-6 of Cardcaptor Sakura and discuss who is the best character (hint: Toya, but also maybe all of them?), how CCS represents every type of love you could think of (for better or worse), and come up with an excellent marketing plan to help CLAMP’s iconic series take advantage of the collectible card genre.

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Ashley and Rose discuss how divergent the manga and anime of Revolutionary Girl Utena are, debate whether the manga is still a deconstruction of the shoujo genre, figure out which Disney prince Utena is, and ponder whether Kill la Kill is an homage to Utena. Somehow, even though Ashley’s middle name is Rose and she was talking to someone named Rose, jokes about being the Rose Bride don’t happen. Oops?

Click here for a transcript of this episode

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• Buy Utena from Viz!
• Cited interviews with Chiho Saito
• Kill la Kill Wiki
• Which Disney Prince Are You? Quiz
• Further Reading: The Four Horsemen of the Patriarchy
• Follow Rose: @composerose on Twitter
• Check out Rose’s book on Cowboy Bebop and Yoko Kanno
• Follow the podcast: @shojoandtell on Twitter

A teaser of the Revolutionary Girl Utena and Cardcaptor Sakura episodes, plus some info on the format and vision of the podcast.