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If you grew up in the Philippines during the 90s to early 2000s, then there’s no doubt you were an anime-obsessed kid! Once, a specific timeslot was picked for these anime bloc slots. A particular anime genre is attached to such a time slot in the morning. And that genre happens to be shojo.
Shojo is the Japanese word for “girl,” a beloved manga and anime genre aimed at a primarily younger female target audience. When crafting a narrative, nothing else adds spice to a well-written story than a well-executed and subverted trope! A lot of the narratives in the shojo genre are focused on romance. These, however, are part of why some come to them more and more.
Some of these tropes are the enemies-to-lovers trope and, of course, the universally beloved, poor female central character trope!
This article will discuss some of the most beloved shojo anime and manga that use the poor female central character trope!
Ouran High School Host Club
Suppose there’s something the majority of the Ouran High School Host Club have in common aside from playing around with the usual shojo narrative tropes. In that case, it’d be their collective material wealth! They could win a Jili jackpot if we combined all their collective riches – save for our iconic main character, Miss Haruhi Fujioka! Our female central character, Haruhi Fujioka, has a progressive mindset, considering when the manga came out in – and she firmly believes that gender does not matter to the person. She answers to being called pretty and handsome and does not mind being called “he.” Due to these qualities, many Ouran High School Host Club fans have headcanoned Haruhi as “nonbinary.” Another trope in her is that Haruhi is not as well-off as the rest of the Ouran High School Host Club Cast.
In the series, Haruhi is a scholarship student in Ouran. At first, people belittle her because of her standing, but due to her kindness, people eventually warm up to her. Along the way, she has plenty of love interests, with the longstanding among them being the series’ main lead, Tamaki Suoh. Much to the delight of traditional tropes, her endgame is none other than him, and he is a wealthy love interest. However, Haruhi treated Tamaki like a human being and not as a prince – and with that gratitude, he fell in love with her.
In the manga, he experienced plenty of character growth to become a good partner for her.
Special A
No one else likes better rivals-to-lovers stories than the love story girlies! Kei Tsukishima and Hikari Hanazono are opposites: their fathers are best friends; he’s quiet, reserved, and calculating, while she is full of energy, kind, dense, and wears her heart on her sleeve. And most of all, Hikari is poor, but it is not a trait that defines her character. Instead, her always coming up second to him only motivates her to try catching up to him in skill. \
Special A is a loved classic, especially for those who enjoy the rivals-to-lovers tropes. It’s a harmless series about mostly rich people enjoying themselves and the simple pleasures of relationships when you’re young.
Fruits Basket
Coming out recently with the full-series adaptation, Fruits Basket comes out with Tohru Honda as its cheerful but complex central heroine. At the start of the series, she begins as a working-class heroine living alone inside a tent – until her small little tent crashes in an earthquake.
And that’s where the wealthy and elusive Sohma family comes in. They aid her and let her live inside their house. Unbeknownst to poor Tohru, however, the clan has a secret: they cannot be hugged by the opposite sex because they will turn into animals!
Maid-Sama
Last but not least, Maid-sama figures are on the list! The anime follows a working-class high school student, Misaki Ayuzawa. Aside from being the stern student council president of a formerly all-boys high school, she acts part-time at a maid cafe to support her family. While at work, she catches the attention of Takumi Usui, a wealthy boy at school.
Wrapping Up
Class differences are not an evil trope to play off. In shojo, the device works quite effectively to distinguish characters from each other. It’s also fun to subvert such a trope as well!
