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Shoujo (lit: small woman, girl) is a genre of Japanese manga and anime aimed at girls, especially in the 11-17 bracket. Shoujo is extremely varied in the subjects and sub-genres (fantasy, modern, romance, sci-fi etc.) covered, but tends to emphasise emotional relationships and interaction more than its sibling genre, shounen (which is aimed at boys, and is thus more about not expressing your emotions while blowing stuff up). Shoujo is good stuff, covering some of the best and most acclaimed manga and anime ever, not least Rose of Versailles, Sailor Moon, Magic Knights Rayearth, X/1999, Card Captor Sakura, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Pretear, Hana Yori Dango, Fushiigi Yuugi, and Revolutionary Girl Utena (which surely must be the one everyone thinks of when reading the title of this book).
Hearts Swords Flowers (hereafter HSF) is well-written and knowledgeable. It covers all the basic requirements, from "what is shoujo" to a careful dissection of all the most common tropes in shoujo, such as romance, common character types and their likely interactions, and important themes. It is a very good how-to guide for anyone who intends to run anything with shoujo elements, or for understanding shoujo material in general. I'm sorry to be so vague, but frankly you just have to read it. The intelligent uses of examples from various anime and manga were particularly helpful, though occasionally strange choices were made (I'm really not sure that Silent Mobius is terribly shoujo, any more than Bubblegum Crisis is, but I guess if the point is illustrated well I'll just have to shrug and let it pass). Of course, all this information is system-neutral.
If that's all it was, then it would be a good alternative to HeartQuest, the main leader in this limited RPG horse-race. In fact, I'd advise anyone interested in shoujo to buy both, since there isn't too much duplication (I think the discussion and examples in HSF are generally superior, sorry Seraphim Guard) and most of the material is system-independent.
Where I think HSF goes the extra mile is in the Focus system. To model the paralyzing emotional tangles and complex motivations so prevalent in shoujo, Magnum Opus has produced a system designed to make your character list the things that are important to him or her, rate them by priority as Interests or Obsessions, and then reward role-playing around them. Now many would no doubt consider this kind of thing a number-based straitjacket cramping the freedom of their roleplaying, and I'd imageine that for many that would be true, but I think it's kinda neat. At the very least, it gives you a short worksheet of the things that matter to your character and thus what she's most likely to do, and encourages the kind of hare-brained idiocy (Fushiigi Yuugi, anyone?) so essential to the shoujo genre.
On the other side of the slate, the art is pretty dire throughout. Sorry, but it's true. OTOH, it's almost certainly better to have bad but appropriate art (which this is) rather than good but inappropriate art, or indeed no art at all.
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