Manga like Chi no Wadachi

Aku no Hana

Also known as The Flowers of Evil.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance

The story opens as middle school student Takao Kasuga receives an F on a math test. But he doesn't even seem to notice because he's too engrossed in surreptitiously reading Beaudelaire's The Flowers of Evil. And the day goes downhill from there. In a moment of weakness, he finds and takes home the gym clothes belonging to sweet, pretty Nanako Saeki on whom he has a major crush. Unfortunately for Takao, there's a witness to the theft: Nakamura, who has a huge chip on her shoulder and a sadistic streak.

As the saga unfolds, we see Takao struggling to decide whether to confess or cover up his misdeeds at the same time that he tries to win over the girl of his dreams, and avoid the blackmail attempts of Nakamura, his new ”BFF.”

Smart, funny, and emotionally engaging, The Flowers of Evil introduces a character who's not a hero, but just an ordinary teenager in search of true love and real friendship.



Note: Includes 1 extra chapter.

Tags: Coming of Age , Psychosexual , Philosophy , Denpa , Rehabilitation , Love Triangle , School , Classic Literature , Tragedy , Time Skip , Male Protagonist , Bullying , Sadism , Suicide , Writing , Shounen , Urban , Heterosexual , Blackmail , Female Protagonist , Rural , Nudity , Crossdressing

Oyasumi Punpun

Also known as Goodnight Punpun.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Slice of Life

Meet Punpun Punyama. He’s an average kid in an average town.
He wants to win a Nobel Prize and save the world.
He wants the girl he has a crush on to like him back.
He wants to find some porn.
That’s what he wants, but what does he get…?



Tags: Coming of Age , Seinen , Tragedy , Philosophy , Denpa , Suicide , Psychosexual , Urban , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Time Skip , Anti-Hero , Fugitive , School , Surreal Comedy , Cult , Meta , Work , Nudity , Gods , Body Horror , Love Triangle , Ghost

Hurejasik

Also known as Bastard.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Mystery , Psychological , Romance , Thriller

High school life is hard enough, but it’s even harder for Seon Jin. A sickly disabled boy, Jin might as well be invisible. No one ever pays attention to him, except for the bullies who prey on him for being weak. Jin, however, keeps a very dark secret—there’s a serial killer in his house…and it’s his father!



Note: Includes the prologue.

Tags: Crime , Tragedy , Male Protagonist , Gore , Bullying , Anti-Hero , Full Color , Coming of Age , Disability , Noir , Heterosexual , Delinquents , Suicide , Philosophy , Memory Manipulation , School , Assassins , Amnesia

Shounen no Abyss

Also known as Boy's Abyss.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance

In a town with nothing, in the middle of a daily life with seemingly no signs of change, high schooler Reiji Kurose was "just" living. Family, dreams for the future, childhood friends. All of them were binding him down to that city. He thought he would "just" keep on living like that. Until he met her. Is there hope in living? Is there light waiting ahead? It's the start of a boy meets girl series which reflects the "now".

Note: Includes 2 extra chapters.

Tags: Tragedy , Suicide , Seinen , Coming of Age , Psychosexual , Male Protagonist , Love Triangle , Crime , Yandere , Age Gap , Heterosexual , Nudity , Teacher , Idol , Female Harem , LGBTQ+ Themes , Ensemble Cast , Rural , Bullying , Incest , Marriage , Hikikomori , Time Skip , Natural Disaster , Boys' Love , Transgender

Homunculus

Also known as Homunculus.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Mystery , Psychological , Supernatural

Nakoshi Susumu, age 34, is living out of his car. Between spending his days with the homeless and his nights in his vehicle, he has little to his name–but not so little that he’ll agree to be the subject of a scientific experiment. An unnerving medical student is stalking him and offering to pay Nakoshi a significant sum to test trepanation: the ability to draw out a sixth sense by drilling into the skull. Nakoshi refuses. When Nakoshi’s beloved car is towed, though, he finally agrees to cash and the operating table. At first, the experiment seems to bear no fruit, and Nakoshi’s life is unchanged. That is, until Nakoshi realizes his vision has warped in his left eye…showing him the twisted homunculus inside every human.



Tags: Seinen , Philosophy , Male Protagonist , Tragedy , Amnesia , Primarily Adult Cast , Denpa , Anti-Hero , Gore , Homeless , Body Horror , Psychosexual , Transgender , LGBTQ+ Themes , Masturbation , Crossdressing , Heterosexual , Economics , Boys' Love

Shinai naru Boku e Satsui wo Komete

Also known as My Dearest Self With Malice Aforethought.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Mystery , Psychological , Slice of Life , Thriller

Eiji the college-age virgin dreams of someday having a girlfriend...until he wakes up one day with his "girlfriend" in his bed with him! Not only that, his buddy tells him he got in a fight...and that three days have passed that Eiji doesn't remember? What dark secrets are being hidden...by Eiji himself?



Note: Includes 1 epilogue chapter.

Tags: Dissociative Identities , Revenge , Crime , Seinen , Amnesia , Police , Denpa , Fugitive , Yandere , Detective , Torture , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Prostitution , Suicide , Gore , Gangs , Adoption , College , Time Skip , Orphan , Tragedy , Nudity , Body Horror , Guns , LGBTQ+ Themes , Transgender

Sayonara Eri

Also known as Goodbye, Eri.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

With his mother dying, Yuuta attempts to capture her last days on his phone. After her death, Yuuta heads to the roof of the hospital to commit suicide, but a meeting with a strange girl leads him on the path to making a movie.



Note: The one-shot was compiled in a special volume, released on July 4, 2022.

Tags: Meta , POV , Filmmaking , Coming of Age , Tragedy , Male Protagonist , Acting , Female Protagonist , Suicide , Vampire , Family Life , Time Skip , Shounen , School , Primarily Teen Cast , Disability

Happiness

Also known as Happiness.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Supernatural

Nothing interesting is happening in Makoto Ozaki’s first year of high school. His life is a series of quiet humiliations: low-grade bullies, unreliable friends, and the constant frustration of his adolescent lust. But one night, a pale, thin girl knocks him to the ground in an alley and offers him a choice. Now everything is different. Daylight is searingly bright. Food tastes awful. And worse than anything is the terrible, consuming thirst. The tiny shames of his old life have been replaced by two towering horrors: the truth of what will slake his awful craving and high school itself.



Tags: Vampire , Tragedy , Primarily Teen Cast , Gore , Cult , Time Skip , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Torture , Cannibalism , Urban Fantasy , Body Horror , Urban , Shounen , Delinquents , School , Bullying , Religion , Nudity

Musume no Tomodachi

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance , Slice of Life

Kosuke has lived to play the ideal self as a father at home and as a manager at work. However, his life changes 180 degrees when he meets his daughter’s friend. In front of her, Kosuke was able to be his real self and his worn-out heart was healed. However, he knows that these are feelings that should never be held. The story of the middle-aged man meeting a young girl, presented to the modern people who suppress themselves in society, begins.

Tags: Age Gap , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Tragedy , Primarily Female Cast , Work , Heterosexual , Primarily Adult Cast , Hikikomori , School

MONSTER

Also known as Monster.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Thriller

Everyone faces uncertainty at some point in their lives. Even a brilliant surgeon like Kenzo Tenma is no exception. But there’s no way he could have known that his decision to stop chasing professional success and instead concentrate on his oath to save peoples’ lives would result in the birth of an abomination. The questions of good and evil now take on a terrifyingly real dimension.

Years later, in Germany during the tumultuous post-reunification period, middle-aged childless couples are being killed one after another. The serial killer’s identity is known. The reasons why he kills are not. Dr. Tenma sets out on a journey to find the killer’s twin sister, who may hold some clues to solving the enigma of the “Monster.”



Tags: Seinen , Conspiracy , Tragedy , Philosophy , Twins , Amnesia , Fugitive , Noir , Foreign , Male Protagonist , Memory Manipulation , Primarily Adult Cast , Historical , Detective , Ensemble Cast , Police , Medicine , Time Skip , Crossdressing , Suicide , Achronological Order , Adoption , Assassins , Torture , Gore