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Shojo anime takes on a wide range of subject matter. From high school romances to crime-fighting magical girls, the genre contains some of the most colorful and interesting protagonists in anime. Shojo protagonists often share a lot of similarities, especially in their personalities and ethics, which can lead them to make the same mistakes.
While shojo protagonists are often known to be diligent, kind, and compassionate, they are often prone to misunderstand others, forget to take care of themselves, and fail to stand up for themselves. Many of the same tropes and clichés, such as miscommunication, backstabbing rivals, and enduring hardships that could just be walked away from, appear time and time again in shojo anime.
10 Shojo Protagonists Believe The Wrong People
Shojo protagonists are commonly very trusting and they try to make friends everywhere they go. Even after suspicious occurrences, they often continue to think the best of people and trust them, even when those people are lying.
Sometimes, they befriend their rival who is secretly sabotaging them. Other times, they trust a romantic candidate that does not have their best interests at heart. In shows like Peach Girl, the best friend was the main character’s worst enemy, and in Fruits Basket, a kind character turned out to be pulling the strings of all the Sohma family drama.
9 Shojo Protagonists Don’t Stand Up For Themselves
While many shojo protagonists are cheerful and charismatic, they often do not know how to handle situations where they’re being taken advantage of. They’re too nice and they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, especially if they feel they could be wrong about the other person’s intentions.
However, this often leads them to be bullied by other classmates, friends, or even love interests. Even in those situations, they often refuse to stand up for themselves, even if they would stand up for another friend. This is exactly what happened to Sawako in the school bathroom when she was cornered by classmates.
8 Shojo Protagonists Jump To Conclusions
The miscommunication/misunderstanding trope is one of the most clichéd and overused tropes in shojo. The protagonist thinks their love interest might be into someone else when they see someone confess to them. The protagonists’ friends may think the protagonist is spreading rumors about them because they overheard a conversation.
In romance-focused shojo anime, a lot of the plot is driven by misunderstandings or miscommunication, as it draws out the chase of the romance. While it’s less common in other shojo subgenres, such as magical girl anime, it is still one of the most prevalent tropes.
7 Shojo Protagonists Don’t Confide In Their Friends Enough
The nature of friendships in shojo anime is diverse, but more often than not, they take the backseat to the rest of the story’s plot. Oftentimes, the protagonists’ friendships are not shown, as the romance takes up too much of the screen time.
It’s not strange for the protagonist to struggle with the other troubles in their lives because they don’t lean on their friends for support. Sometimes, this is probably for the best, as frienemies are all too common. However, a healthy friendship should never be pushed to the sidelines.
6 Shojo Protagonists Trust Too Easily & Too Often
Trusting others too readily goes hand-in-hand with believing in the wrong people, and some shojo protagonists will continue to trust people who have shown them their true colors time and time again.
In Peach Girl, Sae was notorious for using Momo, putting her into dangerous situations, and trying to steal her friends and love interests. Tohru Honda of Fruits Baskets decided to live with a strange family that possessed a secret magical curse without really thinking twice about what she was getting herself into.
5 Shojo Protagonists Take Abuse From Other Characters
Bullying from both love interests and acquaintances is terrifyingly rampant in shojo anime. From being slapped by friends and parents to being verbally degraded by romantic partners, some shojo protagonists stay in abusive friendships and relationships despite the pain.
While sometimes the protagonist is unable to get out of those situations, the shows often have the protagonist refuse to even see these moments as abuse. Some characters even take physical abuse, blackmail, and isolation.
4 Shojo Protagonists Romanticize Abuse
On top of taking abuse from other characters, both the shows and the protagonists very problematically see abuse as humorous or light-hearted. Even overtly abusive shojo relationships somehow make it to top rankings in relationship polls.
The relationship between Erika Shinohara and Kyoya Sata of Wolf Girl and Black Prince is one such relationship that’s riddled with abuse. Not only does Kyoya dangle a power imbalance over Erika’s head, but he also verbally and physically abuses her on top of blackmailing her.
3 Shojo Protagonists Don’t Work On Their Confidence
While many shojo protagonists may be hard-working, kind, or compassionate, there’s a tendency for them to lack confidence. Learning how to be confident in oneself is often a lesson the main character learns throughout the entire course of the show, so it makes sense that their strides would be small and take a while.
However, the amount to which some of these characters allow others to influence their self-image, walk all over them, and talk down to them reflects a serious lack of self-confidence.
2 Shojo Protagonists Don’t Talk To Adults
Sometimes, shojo anime deals with serious themes or at least serious stakes. In magical girl anime, the world often hangs in the balance. In slice-of-life anime, bullying, death, and assault are often addressed. However, the protagonists often try to power through without getting help from adults who could stop some of these issues.
At times, the characters do not feel safe sharing these issues with parents, teachers, or authorities, and that’s valid. However, more often than not, these shows follow childrens’ lives, and an adult’s help or perspective could be useful.
1 Shojo Protagonists Don’t Take Red Flags Seriously
On top of ignoring or making excuses for actual abuse, shojo protagonists also often ignore other red flag behavior, especially from love interests. Fiesty banter and following one’s crush around can quickly become red flags.
For example, in Maid Sama!, Usui Takumi not only holds Misaki Ayuzawa’s secret life as a maid cafe employee over her head, but he also followed her around constantly (even when she sometimes was not aware of his presence). Often, these behaviors are painted as cute, humorous, or signs of love, but in real life, they would likely be creepy.
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