An area of anime history that often goes overlooked by the loudest voices in Western anime fandom is vintage shojo, or, girl’s anime from before the year 2000 that had a profound impact on almost everything that came after it.
Here at The Beat, we’ve made a list of the absolute best classic shojo animes that still hit today! Check them out below!
Dear Brother⸺While the anime adaptation of Rose of Versailles is a beloved classic, its successor Dear Brother has steadily built a cult audience abroad since its translation by Anime Sols and later re-release on the RetroCrush streaming platform. There’s a reason for that too: as a late-career work by director Osamu Dezaki, it expands and reimagines Ikeda’s original three-volume series into an epic melodrama with images that will stick in your mind forever. Even if the show is dated in some respects (particularly the ending) you can’t beat the craft. ⸺AW
Anne of Green Gables⸺Before there was this year’s Anne Shirley, there was Anne of Green Gables, perhaps the most beloved entry in the World Masterpiece Theater franchise. Directed by future Ghibli auteur Isao Takahata, the series adapts Lucy Maud Montgomery’s original novel with an eye for the psychology of its heroine. The animation can’t compare with its predecessor Heidi of the Alps; that show’s secret weapon, Hayao Miyazaki, left Anne early in production. As a portrait of one woman’s growth from childhood into adulthood, though, Anne is tough to beat.⸺AW
Cipher the Video⸺Let’s hear it for the boy! Let’s give the boy a hand. Let’s hear it for my baby! You know you gotta understand. Maybe he’s no Romeo, but he’s my lovin’ one man show. Whoa, whoa, whooaaahhh!⸺AW
Revolutionary Girl Utena⸺What else can be said about this anime that hasn’t been said already. Once you watch it, you’ll see its influence everywhere. ⸺E.B.
Fushigi Yuugi ⸺Okay, I’ve only seen like two episodes of this so far, but even that was enough to have me and my girlfriend go “I was not familiar with your game.” Before I watched it, the only thing I knew about Fushigi Yuugi is that it was an old, long-running shojo, and that it was one of the first real isekai manga and anime out there. Before Sword Art Online, there was Fushigi Yuugi, about two ordinary schoolgirls who get pulled into the Ancient China-inspired fantasy world of a book they stumble on randomly. And here’s why it slaps: Miaka is a fantastic heroine, fun and plucky but also ready to FIGHT right off the bat. She’s easy to root for, the animation is well-done, and the jokes in the first few episodes still land surprisingly well even 30 years later. I will be watching more of it! But also if it gets really bad later pretend I never said this. ⸺MZ
Kare Kano ⸺What do you do after creating a genre redefining, once in a generation science fiction phenomenon? If you’re Hideaki Anno, your follow up is a shoujo comedy adapting Masami Tsuda’s manga. Kare Kano follows the romance that blossoms between top high school students Yukino Miyazawa and her rival Soichiro Arima. The beauty of Kare Kano is the attention to comic detail Anno and the animation team Gainax use. This is a supremely silly series. Yukino presents herself as the perfect student, but at home she’s a total slob. And how they render her as one, versus her prim school look, remains comic perfection. When Soichiro discovers her true self continues to be one of the great reveals in anime. But the joy of the show comes in how the two characters bring out the best in each other. How their similarities allow for both drama and hilarity. Kare Kano marked a turning point for the legendary studio. It was their first adaptation of a manga, and their first intentionally comedic series. This pivot allowed the studio to show their range leading to shows like FLCL and Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt. Evangelion may have been the success story for Gainax but Kare Kano allowed the studio to move in exciting new directions. ⸺DM
Forgot to mention your fave? Let us know what we missed in the comments!
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