Manga like Ao no Hako

Kaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku

Also known as The Fragrant Flower Blooms With Dignity.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance

This story takes place in a particular town with two infamous schools in constant dispute: Chidori High, a boys' school predominantly attended by low-class students with damning grades, and its neighbor Kikyo Girls' High, with most of its female students coming from wealthy and prestigious families. One day, high school second-year Rintaro Tsumugi, a fierce-looking but gentle-minded student at Chidori, is helping at his family's patisserie when he encounters a female customer by the name of Kaoruko Waguri. Rintaro enjoys his time with Kaoruko, as she doesn't judge him for his appearance, but this blissful peace is quickly disturbed when Rintaro makes the discovery that Kaoruko is actually a student at Kikyo. This revelation marks the beginning of the two's strenuous tale, as they fight against the limitations placed upon them by their schools and surroundings in an attempt to find their own path!



Tags: Heterosexual , Iyashikei , Primarily Teen Cast , School , Male Protagonist , Female Protagonist , Shounen , Urban , Coming of Age , Delinquents , Food

Baby Steps

Also known as Baby Steps.

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance , Sports

Eiichiro Maruo is a straight-A student who decides to take up tennis as a side hobby upon entering high school. At the tennis school he runs into Natsu—a bit airheaded, but nobody can beat her in passion for the sport. Soon Eiichiro gets addicted to tennis...and when he applies his academic skills to improving his game, the results will change his life forever!



Tags: Shounen , Tennis , Male Protagonist , School , Primarily Male Cast , Foreign

Chihayafuru

Also known as Chihayafuru.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance , Sports

Chihaya is a girl in the sixth grade, still not old enough to even know the meaning of the word zeal. But one day, she meets Arata, a transfer student from rural Fukui prefecture. Though docile and quiet, he has an unexpected skill: his ability to play competitive karuta, a traditional Japanese card game.

Chihaya is struck by his obsession with the game, along with his ability to pick out the right card and swipe it away before any of his opponents. However, Arata is transfixed by her as well, all because of her unbelievable natural talent for the game. Don't miss this story of adolescent lives and emotions playing out in the most dramatic of ways!



Notes:
It won the 2nd Manga Taisho Award and the 35th annual Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shoujo.
It was nominated for the 20th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2016.

Tags: Karuta , Josei , Female Protagonist , Coming of Age , School Club , Unrequited Love , Card Battle , Love Triangle , POV , Primarily Teen Cast , Educational , Ensemble Cast , School , Tomboy , Heterosexual , Bullying , Slapstick

Horimiya

Also known as Horimiya.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Romance , Slice of Life

At school, Kyouko Hori is known for being smart, attractive, and popular. On the other hand, her classmate, the boring, gloomy Izumi Miyamura tends to get painted as a "loser fanboy." But when a liberally pierced and tattooed (not to mention downright gorgeous) Miyamura appears unexpectedly on the doorstep of secretly plain-Jane homebody Hori, these two similarly dissimilar teenagers discover that there are multiple sides to every story...and person!



Notes:
-Includes 20 extra chapters.
-The 17th volume got released on July 18, 2023. This was 2 years after its original ending. This new volume included 10 extra chapters.

Tags: Heterosexual , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Tsundere , School , Family Life , Coming of Age , Ensemble Cast , Slapstick , Episodic , Shounen , Love Triangle , Bullying , Urban , Time Skip

Haikyuu!!

Also known as Haikyu!!.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Sports

A chance event triggered Shouyou Hinata's love for volleyball. His club had no members, but somehow persevered and finally made it into its very first and final regular match of middle school, where it was steamrolled by Tobio Kageyama, a superstar player known as "King of the Court." Vowing revenge, Hinata applied to the Karasuno High School volleyball club...only to come face-to-face with his hated rival, Kageyama! A tale of hot-blooded youth and volleyball from the pen of Haruichi Furudate!!



Notes:
Winner of the 61st Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shounen Category in 2017.
Chapter count includes 2 extra chapters.

Tags: Volleyball , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Coming of Age , School Club , Primarily Male Cast , Ensemble Cast , Time Skip , Primarily Teen Cast , School , Philosophy , Twins

Hanninmae no Koibito

Also known as Blooming Love.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Romance

One day, when I was making school supplies in the art room, a very scary-looking girl was staring at me...!? Crafts girl vs. art boy romantic comedy!!

Tags: Heterosexual , Iyashikei , Male Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Female Protagonist , Drawing , Family Life , College , Time Skip , School , Shounen , Chibi , Classical Music , School Club , Slapstick

Fujiyama-san wa Shishunki

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Ecchi , Romance

Fujiyama-san is 181 cm (Approx. 5' 11'') and she is the ace player for her school's volleyball team. Kanba-kun is 160 cm (Approx. 5' 3") and has known Fujiyama since their preschool years. With his prankster friends, Kanba peaks into the girl's locker room right when Fujiyama is undressing. From then on, he could not get the image of Fujiyama out of his mind, so he decides to ask her out. She says yes. Enjoy their naive and secretive relationship as Kanba ogles his tall girlfriend in many different situations.

Tags: School , Seinen , Iyashikei , Coming of Age , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Female Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Volleyball

Cross Manage

Also known as Cross Manage.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Romance , Slice of Life , Sports

Despite Sakurai’s multiple refusals, Toyoguchi won’t take no for an answer when it comes to recruiting him to manage the girls’ lacrosse team. What’s more, her boundless enthusiasm is starting to win Sakurai over…



Tags: Lacrosse , School Club , Shounen , School , Heterosexual , Tanned Skin , Tomboy , Teacher , Athletics , Male Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Primarily Teen Cast

Touch

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance , Slice of Life , Sports

The story centers around three characters - Uesugi Kazuya, his twin older brother Tatsuya, and Asakura Minami. Kazuya is the darling of his town as he's talented, hardworking, and the ace pitcher for his middle school baseball team. Tatsuya is a hopeless slacker who's been living the life of giving up the spotlight to Kazuya, despite the fact that he may be more gifted than him. Minami is the beautiful childhood girlfriend and for all intents, sister from next door who treats both of them as equals. Society largely assumes Kazuya and Minami will become the perfect couple, including Tatsuya. Yet as time progresses, Tatsuya grows to realize that he's willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of his brother, except at the expense of giving up Minami to Kazuya. And thus the story is told of Tatsuya trying to prove himself over his established younger brother, how it affects the relationship between the three, and both brothers' attempts to make Minami's lifelong dreams come true.

Tags: Baseball , Coming of Age , School , Shounen , Twins , Primarily Teen Cast , Heterosexual , Boxing , Athletics , Tragedy , Love Triangle

Parasol Doumei

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Romance

A boy who is a twin lags behind his overachieving brother in both academics and popularity. He proposes to the girl he likes, herself a twin, but had confused her for her twin sister. Embarrassed and in a compromising position, he agrees to help her to win the affections of the boy she likes, his brother, lest she leaks his botched confession to her sister, hampering his chances with his crush.

Tags: Love Triangle , Male Protagonist , Female Protagonist , Twins , Heterosexual , Primarily Teen Cast , School , Shounen