Manga like Hikari no Machi

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

Sekai no Owari to Yoake Mae

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Collection of short stories including:
Mudai (無題, Untitled); kakioroshi
Yoakemae (夜明け前, Before Dawn); Big Comic Spirits Zoukan Casual #2007/2/15
Alfalfa (アルファルファ); Sunday GX 2005-07

4-6. Nichiyou, Gogo, 6-jihan. (日曜、午後、六時半。, Sunday, Afternoon, 6:30.); Big Comic Spirits 2006 #36+37~39
"At that time, I absolutely hated Sunday afternoons at 6:30. I hated the word 'family' to death. That's why I couldn't stand seeing them. Besides, whether or not there is an end to the escape from reality, I truly felt the visit of the tiresome days."

Chou Mousou A-ko no Nichijou to Yuuutsu (超妄想A子の日常と憂鬱, The Typical Day and Melancholy of Super-Imaginative A-ko); Sunday GX 2006-09
Kyuujitsu no Sugoshikata (休日の過ごし方, How to Spend a Day Off); Big Comic Spirits Zoukan Casual #2007/9/15
17; Big Comic Spirits Zoukan Casual #2008/2/15
Subarashii Sekai (素晴らしい世界, What a Wonderful World); Sunday GX 2008-08
Tokyo (東京); Big Comic Spirits 2008 #40
Sekai no Owari (世界の終わり, The End of the World); kakioroshi
Jikuu Taisen Snakeman (時空大戦スネークマン, Snakeman and the Great Space-time War); kakioroshi

Tags: Philosophy , Anthology , Seinen , Nudity

Subarashii Sekai

Also known as What a Wonderful World!.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

A dream recaptured. A life on a new track. The absurdity of death. Laughter in the face of reality.

With this series of intersecting vignettes, Inio Asano explores the ways in which modern life can be ridiculous and sublime, terrible and precious, wasted and celebrated.



Tags: Seinen , Episodic , Philosophy , Anthology , School , Youkai , Yakuza , Suicide

Nijigahara Holograph

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

Even as butterflies ominously proliferate in town, the rumour of a mysterious creature lurking in the tunnel behind the school spreads among the children. When the body of Arie Kimura's mother is found by this tunnel's entrance, next to apparently human traces, the legend seems to be confirmed. Is the end of the world coming? In order to appease the wrath of the beast, the children decide to offer it a sacrifice: The unfortunate Arie, whom they believe to be the cause of the curse, is shoved into a well that leads to the Nijigahara tunnel—an act that in turns pushes Komatsuzaki, the budding thug who has carried a torch for Arie for a while already, entirely over the edge.

But this is only the beginning of the complex, challenging, obliquely told Nijigahara Holograph, which takes place in two separate timelines and involves the suicidal Suzuki; Higure, his stalker-ish would-be girlfriend; their teacher Miss Sakaki, whose heavily bandaged face remains a mystery; and many more―brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, teachers, aggressors and victims who are all inextricably linked to one another and all will eventually―ten years later―have to live with what they've done or suffered through.



Tags: Achronological Order , Denpa , Philosophy , Seinen , Tragedy , Ensemble Cast , Coming of Age , Religion , Suicide , Crime , Bullying , Male Protagonist , Adoption , Twins , Nudity , Heterosexual , Police , Detective

Solanin

Also known as Solanin.

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

College graduates struggle to cope with the real world. Music offers refuge in this modern manga with an American attitude. Meiko Inoue is a recent college grad working as an office lady in a job she hates. Her boyfriend Shigeo is permanently crashing at her apartment because his job as a freelance illustrator doesn't pay enough for rent. And her parents in the country keep sending her boxes of veggies that just rot in her fridge. Straddling the line between her years as a student and the rest of her life, Meiko struggles with the feeling that she's just not cut out to be a part of the real world.



Notes:
The chapter count contains an epilogue published in October 2017 as part of the new Japanese volumes edition release.
It was nominated for the 2009 Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan.
It was nominated for the 2009 Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.

Tags: Coming of Age , Band , Seinen , Tragedy , Heterosexual , Found Family , Primarily Adult Cast , Female Protagonist , Family Life , College , Urban , Rock Music , Office Lady , Nudity

Satougashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai: A Lollypop or A Bullet

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Thriller

Yamada Nagisa is a bored teenager who finds everyday life extremely unappealing: thus her plans to join a military academy as soon she graduates. On the last term of middle school, a strange girl named Mokuzu Umino, who claims to be a mermaid, transfers into Nagisa's class and, much to her bewilderment, begins to follow her around incessantly.

An annoyed and discomfited Nagisa initially strives to avoid these encounters, but then she begins to catch glimpses of the pain...

Tags: Tragedy , Female Protagonist , School , Primarily Child Cast , Bullying , Hikikomori , Shounen , Rural , Disability , Yuri , LGBTQ+ Themes , Class Struggle

Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction

Also known as Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Sci-Fi , Slice of Life

The Japan Self-Defense Forces are still looking for a way to combat the alien threat, but so far conventional weapons have had no effect. Maybe it’s time to try something unconventional.

Meanwhile, Kadode Koyama and her best friend avidly track the aliens’ movements on social media and less enthusiastically study for college entrance exams. When the end of the world looms overhead, you learn to take things one step at a time.



Notes:
Winner of the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category.
Includes 1 extra chapter.

Tags: Seinen , Aliens , Female Protagonist , Alternate Universe , Primarily Female Cast , Politics , Military , Time Manipulation , Bisexual , Coming of Age , Dystopian , Denpa , Language Barrier , Philosophy , Tragedy , Suicide , School , Otaku Culture , Anti-Hero , Post-Apocalyptic , Gore , Satire , Video Games , Cosmic Horror , Yuri , Love Triangle

Ozanari-kun

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

Ozanari-kun is a story in the style of traditional gag manga about the titular character's adventures working in the sales promotion department of Murakami Co.

A different take on the classic office atmosphere, his boss, section chief Yabusaka has to endure Ozanaris physical and verbal abuse every day. Within his lonely heart, complicated feelings start to bloom.

Tags: Slapstick , Seinen , Work , Band , LGBTQ+ Themes , Boys' Love , Surreal Comedy , Satire , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Male Cast

Reiraku

Also known as Downfall.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Selling copies is the only thing that matters.

So what if your first series just ended and you have no idea how to start the next one, your marriage is breaking up, your pure love of manga has been destroyed by the cruel reality of the industry and nothing seems to fill the sucking void inside you...

Find the secret combo for a new hit manga series and everything will be okay.

Right?



Tags: Work , Drawing , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Heterosexual , Prostitution , Nudity ,