Have you been feeling like the trendy Shojo offerings aren’t your cup of tea (e.g. A sign of affection, In the Clear Moonlit Dusk, etc)? Chances are, you just don’t vibe with the style of story that is coming out of Dessert Magazine. Instead, you need to look at other magazines to find stories that fit the vibe you want. 

Often times, if you want to find manga similar to what you liked previously, your best bet is to look at other works by the same author (many classic authors are still active and publishing new stories!). However, another great way to discover new titles that fit your interests/mood is through specific manga magazines, which tend to sub-specialize in certain themes/topics/styles generally (there will always be certain titles that are exceptions too of course). I wanted to put together this small beginner’s guide (along with the Magazine cover photo collection) to indicate the tone/style of story coming out of different major Shojo and Josei manga magazines to help readers navigate finding titles they want to read. 

A little bit of everything magazines:
- Hana to Yume
- Lala
- Betsuhana (Bessatsu Hana to Yume)
- Flowers
- Be-Love

Action/fantasy/sci-fi-oriented magazines:
- Asuka
- Mystery Bonita
- Wings
- Lala dx
- Aria
- Princess
- Comic Avarus
- Nemuki+ :horror
- Halloween :horror
- B’s Log-Comic: your one stop shop for some pretty decent isekai and villainess manga
- Comic Itan
- Comic Zero-sum
- Comic Tatan: grittier titles with some nostalgia titles thrown in
- Horror M: horror
- Comic Gene (they’ve called themselves “shonen for girls”, so do with that what you will)

Slice-of-life/coming of age/Drama/Romance-focused magazines:
- Betsuma: romance-heavy
- Dessert: Romance-heavy
- Margaret: romance-heavy
- Betsucomi: more mixed between SOL, romance, and fantasy
- Betsufure (Bessatsu Friend)
- Sho-comi: this is where you’ll find spicier MLs and romances, along with more diverse stories with fantasy, action, etc
- Cheese!: Another location of spicier (non-smut) romance titles with a more diverse array of settings
- Melody: has some nice non-romance options
- Kiss
- Hatsu Kiss
- Feel Young: tends to have a lot of non-romance options
- Petit Comic
- You
- Young You
- Cookie

Shojo magazines for Younger elementary/early middle school girls:
- Nakayoshi (has skewed older as of late and can trend spicier than expected)
- Ribon
- Ciao

(I don’t speak any Japanese, so I have relied on Google translate and anglophone resources to compile this list and thus may have missed certain nuances). 

A Beginner’s Guide to Manga Magazines (and how to find the types of manga that you enjoy)