Manga like Dousei Jidai

Sekishoku Elegy

Also known as Red Colored Elegy.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Seiichi Hayashi produced Red Colored Elegy between 1970 and 1971, in the aftermath of a politically turbulent and culturally vibrant decade that promised but failed to deliver new possibilities. With a combination of sparse line work and visual codes borrowed from animation and film, the quiet melancholy lives of a young couple struggling to make ends meet are beautifully captured in this poetic masterpiece.

Uninvolved with the political movements of the time, Ichiro and Sachiko hope for something better, but they're no revolutionaries; their spare time is spent drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and sleeping--together and at times with others. While Ichiro attempts to make a living from his comics, Sachiko's parents are eager to arrange a marriage for her, but Ichiro doesn't seem interested. Both in their relationship and at work, Ichiro and Sachiko are unable to say the things they need to say, and like any couple, at times say things to each other that they do not mean, ultimately communicating as much with their body language and what remains unsaid as with words.

Red Colored Elegy is informed as much by underground Japanese comics of the time as it is by the French Nouvelle Vague, and its cultural referents range from James Dean to Ken Takakura. Its influence in Japan was so large that Morio Agata, a prominent Japanese folk musician and singer songwriter, debuted with a love song written and named after it.

"I wanted to live like Sachiko and Ichiro; to have aspirations even while living stoically and humbly." --Morio Agata



Tags: Seinen , Drawing , Work , Nudity , Heterosexual , Suicide , Primarily Adult Cast

Rikon Kurabu

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Yuko, known as "Mama", is only 25 years old. She ties her hair to look older and more credible in her role as a hostess bar owner in Ginza, a suburb of Tokyo. Despite her youth, she has been divorced for two years and has a baby girl, Asako, whom she has placed with her mother in the countryside. Regularly harassed by her ex-husband, she must also manage the excesses of her employees, the indelicacy of the customers, her attraction to Ken-Chan, her bartender, and financial problems at the dawn of a major economic crisis.

Tags: Seinen , Female Protagonist

Shin Kirari

Also known as Talk to My Back.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

A celebrated masterwork shimmering with vulnerability from one of alt-manga's most important female artists.

"Now that we've woken from the dream, what are we going to do?" Chiharu thinks to herself, rubbing her husband's head affectionately.

Set in an apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo, Murasaki Yamada's Talk to My Back (1981-84) explores the fraying of Japan's suburban middle-class dreams through a woman's relationship with her two daughters as they mature and assert their independence, and with her husband, who works late and sees his wife as little more than a domestic servant.



Tags: Female Protagonist , Family Life , Josei , Parenthood , Episodic , Marriage , Philosophy , Animals

Kyoujin Kankei

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

Edo period, a young draftsman, Sutehachi, arrives at Katsuhika Hokusai's house, the genius of the print and his daughter O-ei. If the boy's passion for drawing does not give way to that of the master, haunted just like him by the passion of the print, he is also very attracted by the world of pleasures.

Tags: Seinen , Historical

Itezuru

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

O-Tsuru (the crane), named because she used to stand on one foot to warm the other, was sold by her parents to become a geisha. She will begin as a shikomikka (apprentice) in an okiya: the house where the geisha live. By doing the commissions of his elders, Tsuru will discover the life of these women. Finally, one day, her turn arrives. She goes to her benefactor's room. Who, by paying the ceremony fees, will bring it into the world of geisha. Tsuru will then take the name of Tsurugiku and become a famous geisha in the world of pleasures.

<i<>Note: It was first collected in a volume in 1992.

Tags: Seinen , Historical , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast

Kabocha to Mayonnaise

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

Miho and Sei are living together. She works at a boutique while he tries to make it as a songwriter and musician. Even though Miho still can’t forget about Hagio, her ex-lover, she is happy in her relationship with Sei.

However, all is not well for the young couple. Struggling to make ends meet, Miho decides to take a second job as bar hostess. As she becomes increasingly desperate for money, Miho eventually gives in to one of her client’s sexual advances. When Sei finds out about this he begins to distance himself from her. Things get even more complicated for Miho when Hagio suddenly reappears in her life.

Tags: Josei , Primarily Adult Cast , Cheating , Heterosexual , Female Protagonist

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 , Psychosexual , Suicide , Urban , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Time Skip , Fugitive , Surreal Comedy , School , Cult , Meta , Nudity , Work , Gods , Body Horror , Love Triangle , Ghost

Nagai Michi

Also known as Long Road.

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

A worthless husband and his carefree wife. 54 short stories of their heartwarming, funny, and sad life. Winner of the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and Japan Media Arts Festival grand prize Kono Fumiyo gives us this heartfelt short comedy.


Tags: Anthology , Primarily Adult Cast , Heterosexual , Family Life