Well, I haven't read everything, only some parts of your post
But my sister told that kare First Love is very good (she already read the complete manga) and I am reading it too! I am loving this shoujo manga *__*

Karekano's anime is good, but it ends in the beginning of the manga! The manga is more complete and doesn't have much funny as the anime, plus the focus change to others couples, making the history be complete. The end is very nice! I recommend Karekano for your reading ^_~

One of the hard things to accept about shoujo manga would be their pacing, but it can also be what makes or breaks a series. Any good story that rushes in (almost blindly) would most likely have to be a one-shot, and any long drawn-out stories could be serialized endlessly. But that's also a flaw found in shounen manga as well.

It's hard to recommend a shoujo manga based on pacing alone, although many people prefer that. What makes it more difficult though, is what's considered "popular."

All the popular shoujo manga are either drawn-out angst and drama heavy, or so absolutely comical that few characters can be taken seriously until their character-building/definition story arcs come to pass.

The only way to roughly pick out a manga that won't fall into one of these two categories is to choose a recommended manga that tends to fly under the radar.

There's a korean manwha which I found to be well paced and entertaining, it ends in just eight volumes, shows both progression and character growth well, and ends happily. The only problem might be hating the main character at times, but they are few and far between, and I'm probably just picky. It's called Cutie Boy and can be found with a quick Google search.

Akuma to Dolce is also a sweet (pun intended) and amusing on-going series with a sometimes annoying heroine, and demons.

If one is into the twisted and somewhat macabre not-so-much-about-romance-as-about-hot-bishounen-lead-on-quest-for-wife, then you can take a glance into the dark world of messed up Grimm's Fairy Tales in Ludwig Kakumei (on-going but nearly finished).

And then there's the fairly well known, but still a good read, Love Monster, a wildly entertaining and hilarious read, on-going and quite lengthy, but there's not much left to be desired in their love story besides a conclusion.

Googling any of these titles will most likely take you to a site full of many other shoujo manga in nearly every flavor.

:D

Allow me to add Victorian Romance Emma and Ai Yori Aoshi to the recommendations.

The first one is set in victorian era England (hence the title) and is basically about the developing love between a maid and a man from the upper class (and the many obstacles they face) nice read and concluded in 7 books.

The latter one is set in contemporary Japan, a young man (already student at Tokyo U) meets his fiancé (something their families had set up way back, he had already forgotten but she didn't), and some other girls also meddle a bit around.
Sometimes compared with Love Hina, but it stays on a realistic level (no supernatural/weird science stuff etc.) and not as much accidentally stumbling across the girls while bathing/changing/whatever.

I like those romantic mangas ^^ But I'm really sad if someone dies in the and and I'm chewing over it for a month ... T_T
even if the ending is happy T_T

No thread mining please.
Your comment has nothing to do with the actual discussion and is just reviving an old thread in which nobody posted since 4 weeks.