Heartbreaking but make it cute

Usually, shoujo mangas have a cute exterior where you could see a smiling main character who is a happy go lucky high school girl who is set to out to pursue her own dreams while on the side is the two male leads who are in love with her and will do their best to support her as much as possible. 

However, for some stories those cute exterior is a trap and you won't even realize you purchased a trip to bawling your eyes out at late night with how heart breaking some of these stories are. So, here's some recommendations to stories that are sad but cute. 

1. Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya [Completed]

This one takes the cake to feels train. The manga follows orphan Tohru Honda who has no place to live in because her grandfather's house has some renovation going on and being the optimist my baby girl is, she just made a home of herself—a tent in the woods. All is good but she finds herself tangled up with the Sohma family because she found out their secret. 

This manga is basically a free therapy session with Tohru. My baby girl always drop some wisdom that somehow cures my worries and depression. Natsuki Takaya has a way in writing where she introduced the story into something comedic but as we delve more to the manga—the way she fleshes out each characters, and reveal the sad situation of the characters is just really good and somewhat, heartbreaking because:

What is Natsuki Takaya's business and why is she hurting me this way?

What's heartbreaking in this manga is the whole situation of the characters, and how their own thoughts is born from their situation and honestly, you couldn't really hate anyone. Except Shigure. Fck Shigure. Anyways, this manga already has a new anime adaptation and its second season will arrive this 2020 and thankfully, they will stick to the manga unlike the 2001 adaptation.

2. Gakuen Alice by Tachibana Higuchi [Completed]

I remember watching the anime and it was cute and all, however the anime finished open-endedly so I have to read the manga. During that time, I didn’t know the roller coaster of emotions I will get into because I remember the manga started out optimistic and comedic because Mikan is what...how you say, “air head”.

Mikan is a happy go lucky elementary student who follows her childhood friend to Alice Academy where she finds out all the students have alice, basically like a quirk in Hero Academia and she, too also has an alice! The manga focuses on Mikan’s life in the Alice Academy and as the manga progress, it gets deeper and sinister.

What I find heartbreaking in this manga is Natsume’s situation, then Mikan and Natsume’s situation and the sad situation behind students who have alices that could be classified dangerous. I recommend reading the manga because of the back stories of these characters are sad. 

Moreover, what I like about this manga is most of the characters’ motivation is to make Mikan smile more because yep, I totally can get on with that. 

Mikan is just heartbreakingly good and she doesn’t deserve most of the shts she experienced because come on, she’s just a child for god sake. Someone really needs to fund these children some therapy.

3. Toilet-bound Hanako kun by Iro Aida [On-Going]

Have everyone tried Hanako kun? Please do because it’s so interesting and Iro Aida has such a beautiful art and color schemes. I’m a sucker for good art. 

The manga follows Nene Yashiro who made a wish to Hanako in the girl’s toilet but the thing is, there’s always an equivalent exchange with a wish. The story focuses on Nene’s adventures with Hanako-kun, the earth bound spirit she awakened with her wish in solving the mysteries of their school and fulfilling her duty as his servant. 

The manga is mixed with comedy, cute romance and a dark past that reveals in crumbs as we delve more to the manga. Also, there’s a twist that Iro Aida dropped that makes the story more heart breaking. 

You know what’s heart breaking about this manga is the looming angst that we, readers will experience. Like it’s not there yet, and Aida has just shown us some crumbs of angst but I just know the author will just hit us with that angst and right now, I’m already imagining the future scenarios and my heart breaks.

However, please do read and suffer with me.

4. Kitchen Princess by Miyuki Kobayashi and Natsumi Ando [Completed]

Now, this manga has no business to be this sad. It’s a cooking manga for crying out loud! So, the story follows Nijika, baby girl is a good cooker and she’s resourceful with her ingredients. This girl has such a heart of gold, and what irks me the most is why home girl have to suffer so much. Girly just wants to find the boy who touched her heart! It’s not like she took a one way ticket to drama.

The manga has recipes so you could try it on your own and I love how this manga is illustrated, it just fulfills the shoujo aesthetic boner I have. 

The most heart breaking thing in this story is Nijika is not at fault in whatever that happened, people who surrounds her is just shitty as fuck and I really want to protect her at all costs. So, please find the time to read the manga and suffer with me.

5. I Am Here! by Ema Toyama [Completed]

Oh you guys remembered this manga? Now, this manga I have no interest in reading this again because I am not that much of a masochist! 

The manga is about a girl named Hikage Sumino where she’s invisible to her classmates and she has no confidence to make herself visible, good thing she has her virtual friends and the popular kid who has some interest to her. 

The story discusses Sumino’s struggles in how she’ll make herself visible to people who doesn’t even sense her presence and yeah, self growth mother fuckers!  It’s an emotional roller coaster ride because there’s this thing in shoujo manga problem tropes about how popular people should not interact with people who are not popular. It’s also frustrating ride to know Sumino’s virtual friends. Everything comes good tho, it’s just gonna make you cry and have this urge to protect Sumino at all costs.

6. Shinshi Doumei Cross by Arina Tanemura [Completed]

So, the story follows Hane who was sold to Otomiya Family and became a part of the student council in Imperial Academy which is a prestigious school and although, she is yeah...like have the proper lineage to be on the council...she has a hard time adjusting because elitism. So, it just follows this girly named Haine who adjust herself to this elitist academy and how her life is tangled up with this boy who is called the emperor.

Arina Tanemura’s works are always visually stunning, from the way she draws her characters (especially the males) to her aesthetic in her manga. It’s just beautiful but Tanemura also writes heart breaking stories, they are always presented in a light hearted way so the blow isn’t really that bad but once you deep it and realize the situation of the characters—it’s just heartbreaking.

Disclaimer: I won’t be able to include Full Moon o Sagashite because I haven’t read that and I don’t know why but yeah, based from what I’ve heard that fcker also hurts. 

Okay, back to gentleman’s cross—So, I can’t really say what’s heart breaking in this manga because it’s a huge spoiler but once you read the story and learned its twist and how that twist affected the characters, it’s just so damn heart breaking and leaves you asking Tanemura why the fck is she making her children suffer? Like seriously, just read most of her works and she just makes her children suffer before making them happy.

7. Kobato by CLAMP [Completed]

Kobato is a happy go lucky girl who has a mission: she must fill healed hearts in her jar so she could fulfill her wish to go to a certain place. So, the story follows Kobato meeting different characters who have their own problems—small or big, and Kobato tries her best to help them and heal their hearts. 

Honestly, I didn’t read the manga because back then, I was more into its animation counterpart and I remembered watching this because I was curios and it looks cute and fun but yeah, it is fun but also heart breaking. However, I cannot discuss it because it is also a major spoiler in the story but I remembered crying at the end and to triple the hurt, I read the manga and how it differed. Yeah...never doing that again.

Man, the one thing that gets me in these shoujo mangas is how an author fleshes out these happy go lucky and bubbly girls into something more. Sometimes, they are not that happy and they conceal their pain in making people happy—that really just makes me bawl. To add to that, when an author draws these girls smiling while crying. Whew lawd..I am. In. Pain.

Anyways, please read! or watch, Clamp is a group of female writers that are just so good in what they’re doing. Women’s literature is the best! 

Final Notes:

This is not the entirety of all the shoujo mangas I’ve read that appears cute but is actually heart breaking. There are so many other shoujo mangas but for now, this is what I highly recommend to soothe your masochistic heart. I was about to add a one shot but maybe, I’ll put into another blog where I’ll be recommending some one shots I’ve come across. 

Feel free to recommend me some and I’ll tell you..... I won’t read it immediately, I’ll probably read when I feel like I want to hurt myself emotionally. Lmao