15 Best Romance Manga With Strong Female Lead
Romance is a genre loved by the entire world. It would never go out of style. But most romance anime or manga have a weak female lead who’s always being protected by the Male lead. You know, the generic damsel in distress.
There are some great Romance manga with female leads strong in both body and mind. In this article, I’m going to share with you some of the best Romance Manga With a Strong Female Lead.
I’ve ranked the manga based on the anime-planet rankings. So, let’s dive into it.
1. Yona of the Dawn
Yona, the princess of the kingdom, lived a peaceful and happy life with her father, the king. Until one day, when she lost everything. A betrayal forced her to flee the castle.
Her father was removed from the king’s seat by the traitors and a new king was declared. Now, it is up to Yona to take back everything that was wrongfully taken from her.
But, she’s spent her entire life in the castle, shielded from the outside world. So, first, she must get rid of her naivety and along with her bodyguard, Hak, must find the remnants of an old legend about a dragon king and his four warriors. Maybe the legend is the key to her revenge and reclaiming the kingdom.
2. Your Lie in April
Arima was a piano prodigy who would’ve become a great piano master in the future but he had a traumatic childhood due to his toxic and cruel mother who wanted him to be the best no matter what, even if it meant making him suffer.
So, when his mother suddenly passed away, he gave up playing piano forever. Now, he’s accepted a lonely and colorless life. One day, when he meets a girl named Kaori Miyazono.
Kaori is a weird violinist with an even weirder style of playing. She has a reason to come into his life. Will she be able to bring him back to the world of music?
3. Fruits Basket
Tohru was living a good life before things went downhill. She lost her parents and had to move in with her grandfather but she even lost that when her grandfather decided to renovate the house and she had to move out.
With no place left, she ended up living in a tent but soon, she finds out that the land she set her tent on belongs to the rich Souma family. Two siblings of the Souma family find her and offer her a place to live until the renovation is over.
But she soon finds out the secret of the Souma family.
4. The Savior’s Book Café Story in Another World
Tsukina is a thirty-something years old book lover. One day, a strange orb that calls itself a god, appears before her and tells her that she is to travel to another world and bring stability to it.
She isn’t interested in any adventure like this and flat-out rejects but turns out it’s not negotiable and she is forcefully sent to the other world. When she arrives there, she decides to open a little book café instead of becoming a hero or savior.
But trouble soon comes her way as a fellow savior from another world, which might force her to become an actual hero, after all.
5. Promise Cinderella
Hayame, a normal Housewife, one day found out that her husband was cheating on her. She decided to forgive him but he asked for a divorce. She left the house with nothing but her purse but due to her bad luck, even that got stolen.
Lack of money forced her to live in a park. One day, she meets a jackass high school student named Issei who tries to flaunt his money in front of her but gets his ass whooped instead. But the next day, he makes an unexpected proposal. He offers to let her stay at his big house.
What exactly is he planning?
Looking for more Age gap manga? Check out my 11 Best Age Gap Manga Recommendations.
6. Last Game
Yanagi has it all. He’s good-looking, smart, rich, and top of the class in both academics and sports. Girls love him, and boys envy him. He never lost to anyone until a girl named Kujou joined the same primary school as him.
Kujou was the opposite of him, plain, quiet, and poor, and yet she beat him at both studies and sports. After primary school, he joined the same middle school as her but even in middle school, he couldn’t beat her. He attended the same high school and even college but the result was always the same.
If he wants to beat her, he might have to change the rules of the game itself. Will he be able to win? Find out in this story of their last game.
7. Milady Just Wants to Relax
Ronia one day woke up in the world of a novel. Even her character was that of a villainess. So, the only option she had was to make sure she doesn’t suffer the same fate as the original character.
She successfully finished her villainess role without getting killed and then decided to move to the countryside to start a coffee shop and live a normal life. But, she can’t have a normal and carefree life since all her customers want to marry her.
One day, the beast mercenary group comes into her shop and this marked the beginning of her laidback, carefree, reverse harem life with the members of the beast mercenary group.
8. Tomo-Chan is a Girl!
Aizawa Tomo is a boyish high school girl who’s had a long crush on her childhood friend Jun. One day, she musters up her courage and confesses her feelings to him.
But, her confession goes right over his head because he thinks of her as another bro. For a big part of their friendship, Jun thought Aizawa was a guy. He only found out the truth in Junior High school.
Even now, he thinks of her as a guy and doesn’t take her confession seriously. How will Tomo-chan make him see her as a girl and accept her feelings? Will she be able to win Jun’s heart?
9. Basara
In post-apocalyptic Japan, a prophecy was told. A child named Tatara will be born who will kill the king and restore peace to the nation along with wealth and abundance.
In a small village, a pair of twins are born – Sasara and Tatar. They sent people to the village and killed the boy named Tatara, supposedly preventing his death. But, his sister, Sasara, decides to disguise herself as a boy and claim to be Tatara, the boy from the prophecy.
Now, it is up to her to defeat the tyrant king and the four princes to help the people of the kingdom. Will she be able to restore hope among the masses? Or will the prophecy prove to be wrong?
10. Arte
In the 16th century Firenze, Italy, lives Arte, a sheltered noble girl, who has a great passion for art and strives to one day become a famous artist. But the views of society get in her way.
In those days, Art was a profession only for men, and women faced strong discrimination. Becoming an artist was impossible for a woman, especially a noblewoman.
But Arte is determined to break through the shackles of society and pursue her dream with determination, hard work, and a positive attitude. Will she be able to achieve her dream or will her hopes be crushed?
11. Oresama Teacher
Mafuyu is a delinquent girl who always takes charge and is hard-hitting. But these qualities of hers get her expelled from school. Tired of her daughter’s troublesome nature, her mother decides to send her to a school far off in the countryside.
Mafuyu decides to change her lifestyle and become a proper student to make her mother proud. She tries her best to become more feminine but the night before school starts, she finds a guy being beaten and helps him.
Turns out the guy she saved is her teacher and Now, he won’t let her forget her delinquent past. Will she be able to become a girly girl?
Enjoy some forbidden romance stories with our Best Teacher x Student Romance Manga Recommendations.
12. Dengeki Daisy
Teru recently lost her brother but before he passed away, he gave her a cell phone with the phone number of someone named “Daisy”. He told her that Daisy would help her whenever she need someone.
One year later, she’s received help from Daisy multiple times and continues to send him emails every so often. One day at school, she accidentally breaks a window and the janitor, Tasuku, asks her to work off the repair cost.
But she doesn’t know that Tasuku is actually Daisy, who’s been watching over her all this time. Why is he doing that? What relation did he have with Teru’s brother? Will he be able to keep his identity a secret from her?
13. Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie
Shikimori and Izumi are in a relationship. They hold hands, tease each other, and flirt with each other. But Izumi is like a magnet who always attracts trouble to himself and Shikimori’s ultra-protective of him because of this.
Shikimori is not just a cute girl. She’s good at both studies and sports. She can also be super intense when it comes to Izumi and he likes to be around when that happens as he finds it really cool.
The anime talks about gender roles and how it’s okay for a guy to be protected instead of being the protector, and how women are more than just eye candy.
14. Inu x Boku SS
Ririchiyo is the daughter of the rich and powerful Shirakiin family. Due to her family’s elite status, she’s never had any independence, which irritates her and makes her lash out at people with her sharp tongue.
Tired of living a sheltered life, she decides to move out of her house and start living at the Maison de Ayakashi, an apartment complex full of rich tenants. But her parents sent a Secret Service agent to her new home. She can stay at the apartment only if Soushi, the SS agent stays with her.
Soon, she learns the secret of all the tenants living in the apartment – they’re all half-youkai supernatural beings. And she is too…
15. How to Treat a Lady Knight Right
Leo Cornelia worked hard her entire life to become the strongest knight in all the land. Her hard work paid off and now, she’s even known as the Undefeatable Holy Blade.
But, because she spent all of her time practicing, she never had any experience with boys and love. And, no one’s ever treated her like a lady either. Until she meets sorcerer Houli Dent. He confesses his love to her out of the blue and she has no idea how to react to that.
Even though she rejected him, he keeps coming back. How is she going to handle being treated as a lady when she’s never been treated as one?
