A 'dark' shoujo manga like Heart no Kuni no Alice?
 

Hi all,

I almost never touch the shoujo/reverse harem genre, but I picked up Heart no Kuni no Alice and ended up really liking it. Unfortunately, it ended far too soon... so I'm wondering if there's anything else similar out there? It's hard to specify what I liked about it, but I'll try:

1) Although it was shoujo, it was also bloody and dark. People were trigger-happy, the setting was mysterious and Alice herself had an unhappy past.
2) Despite that, the characters still had lots of warm interactions which made me laugh, sort of like Ouran high school host club, another one I've really liked.
3) Alice wasn't the typical shoujo heroine - she spoke exactly what was on her mind, didn't cry too much, got mad and occasionally hit some of the guys. O_O

That's... really not much to go off, I know. And I know about Vampire Knight already - I've read most of it, but the story got too convoluted and I wanted to kill Yuuki by the end, so I've dropped it.

If anyone knows anything good, I'd be very grateful!!

It's an older series, but Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of my absolute favorite. Great music, animation, and characters.

If you want a "dark" magical girl show, there's always Shamanic Princess:

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...ime.php?id=730

Hmm... no, I'm not really into Sailor Moon-esque super girlyness. Revolutionary girl Utena looks sorta interesting...a maybe, but not exactly what I was after. I guess there's not much out there that meets such criteria in the shoujo genre? I think I was just hoping to find a female lead in a fantasy world for a change, as almost everything I read has a male lead. Maybe there's something out there in the manga-verse...?

If you want a female lead in a dark fantasy environment, read Claymore. It's not shoujo, but it fits your other requirements.

If you're looking for manga I suggest the work of Suenobu Keiko , Life and limit

Hmm... ok, Claymore looks interesting, definitely putting on my list. Thanks! I tried the first few chapters of Limit, too... but eh... too many girl issues and insecurities. I'm not identifying well with the main char, I would have just found a large stick and slapped the main antagonist right then and there. Violence solves everything! XD

Then defiantly go with Claymore :heh: , though that one is technically a shonen despite having female protagonists.