Hi, I am looking for some original shoujo.I don't know about you but I'm really sick of isekai'd villainesses with evil families and timid school girls who blush too much. I really like fls who are really strong either physically and/or mentally but still have enough room for character development and don't blush every time they see a handsome man. If you have any unique/original manga that you know of please let me know! 5m1k3j

P.S
Some examples would be Crimson Karma, Apothecary Diaries, and Dictatorship.
Sorry the topic says 'unoriginal shoujos' it's meant to be original*

midnight ariadne

I understand the never-ending quest for original shoujo all too well! If you have not read them already, these might be worth a spin:

Manwha/Webcomics:
The Knight and Her Emperor - Pollyanna is top tier as far as strong female leads go.

Manga
Apothecarius Argentum - The FL is for sure a bit whiny at first, but has some stellar character development. Great if you liked the medicine aspect of Apothecary Diaries a lot.

Those are some of my top picks, I have additional stories in the vault but those are best saved for when there's nothing left in the "Exceptional" category to read first.

If you really enjoyed Apothecary Diaries, and felt like you wanted more content the web novel is excellent! Try looking on Creative Novels for it, iirc.

Quote from SureinDragon

I understand the never-ending quest for original shoujo all too well! If you have not read them already, these might be worth a spin:

Manwha/Webcomics:
Blinded by the Setting Sun - The page summary is not great, but the main character is essentially a retired hero who's still fully capable and ...

i agree with you that raise wa tanin feels very shoujo but it's actually a seinen

Apothecary Diaries is actually seinen, and Crimson Karma is labeled josei here (though it's a webtoon, so it's a bit more variable). Do you actually want just shoujo recs, or are you looking for stories with female leads?

Anyway, here's the shoujo for now...
Yona of the Dawn

Stuff that's based on webnovels that seem mostly worth it...
The Villainess Turns the Hourglass

I also wanted to rec Basara instead, though I don't find it quite as good.

There's also a few good school life and/or slice-of-life I left out since you didn't seem interested in them. If you are, let me know.

I haven't seen these before, thanks!

@SureinDragon
I'll definitely have to check iut the webnovel. Thank you for the list! These look great.

@Suxinn
Oops, I guess I didn't look at the genres well. So yeah I just basically meant manga with a female lead. And I don't mind slice of life or school life all. I'll try reading 7 seeds. I'm not really picky about the exact genre I just want a female lead with a little bit of romance and shoujo was what I could think of. Thanks for giving me tons of reading material!

Oh, well, if you're only interested in female leads with some romance, then some of my previous recs (e.g. Uchi no Shitsuji ga Iu Koto ni wa which is a mystery with zero romance and two male leads) probably won't work, but I assume you'll probably figure out what you like/dislike from checking them out yourself...

Anyway, I did a cursory search through my lists again to include all demographics with good female leads:
Your Throne

And webnovel adaptations:
Untouchable Lady