When speaking of the spring 2008 show Itazura no Kiss, the way I and others describe it as “so very 90s shoujo.” And it’s true. The show, even animated in 2008, screams the conventions of shoujo from that decade, which is no surprise seeing as the manga is from the 90s.

But then, I thought, what if someone had no idea what 90s shoujo was like, and that description was therefore useless? How could I accurate convey the properties which make up 90s shoujo?

This is the challenge I’ve set out for myself, and I have to admit, I have no idea how this will turn out.

Visually, 90s shoujo is all about clean, almost cartoonish designs for characters. Girls are much more cute than sexy, but it’s not the type of cute one expects to moe or fawn over immediately. Guys are certainly bishounen, but rarely do they look completely feminine. Line work tends to be very simple, giving 90s shoujo a very flat look, but not so flat that the reader or viewer becomes distinctly aware of it.

The melodrama dial isn’t cranked up nearly as high as it is in 70s shoujo, where characters’ emotions hit harder than a train filled with lead, but characters are affected strongly by the small events around them. There is suffering, but it tends to be a beautiful sort of suffering where you can tell that the characters will recover from whatever their problems may be.

90s shoujo is innocent. This doesn’t mean that it’s devoid of sex. Far from it, in fact. The difference is that there is not much venom (or lead poisoning) between characters. The drama is strong but fairly civilized, and characters generally do not end up wanting to kill each other. Love triangles do not end in ridiculous tragedy.

90s shoujo is pleasant in a way that shoujo from other eras is not. It’s about 50/50 escapism and realism, and is almost always uplifting.