renaissance poisson

Yeah, I'm not saying it's uncommon in unlicensed stuff, but the stuff that non-Japanese fans tend to be aware of (and thus reccing and talking about) is overwhelmingly that type, whereas most of the shoujo I love has not been published in English, either officially or in scanlations.

I like sweet shoujo with strong female friendships, and aside from Kimi ni Todoke, my favorite authors for that are Mizusawa Megumi and Kawahara Kazune. They both have a ton of stuff and nothing of Mizusawa's is available in English. Kawahara's Koukou Debut has been published in English, but her other series, Sensei! and Aozora Yell have not. I also like Yoshizumi Wataru a lot. Some of her stuff is more well-known in English (Marmalade Boy, Ultra Maniac), but she's another very prolific author whose style is similar.

Oh, and Yazawa Ai! Nana is not in the "sweet and innocent" category, but it is all about strong female friendships and the guys are not asshats (well, some are, but the text acknowledges them as such). It's very complicated and messy and I love it. I also love her older works, especially Tenshi Nanka ja Nai.

Nagata Masami's Renai Catalogue is one of my favorite shoujo series. Again, it's romance and friendship of sweet variety, and while the main couple is pretty standard fare, I love what the author does with some of the supporting couples.

Oh, and Ashihara Hinako's Sunadokei is an excellent series about a girl whose mother commits suicide and how that fucks her up.

If you liked Boku no Chikyuu wo Mamotte, there is a sequel currently running called Boku wo Tsutsumu Tsuki no Hikari. I also loved Global Garden and Mirai no Utena, both of which have similar themes to PSME.

I also love Tamura Yumi's awesome post-apocalyptic series 7 Seeds, and to a lesser degree Basara (also post-apo, but of a different sort). There is some romance in both, but they are more action-adventure.

That's off the top of my head. As I said, a lot of those authors are very prolific and I recommend all their stuff, plus some are very long series, so that should give you a lot to look into.

If you want links to raw scans, let me know. I can hook you up.