Manga like Hirayasumi

Skip to Loafer

Also known as Skip and Loafer.

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

Excellent student Iwakura Mitsumi has always dreamt about leaving her small town, going to a prestigious university, and making positive change in the world. But she’s so focused on reaching her goals that she’s not prepared for the very different (and overwhelming) city life that awaits her in a Tokyo high school. Luckily, she makes fast friends with Shima Sousuke, a handsome classmate who’s as laid-back as she is over-prepared. Can this naive country girl make it big in Tokyo with Sousuke by her side?



Notes:
Nominated for the 2020 Manga Taisho Award.
Winner of the 47th Kodansha Manga Award in the Best General Manga category in 2023.

Tags: Coming of Age , Female Protagonist , School , Primarily Teen Cast , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Rural , Iyashikei , Seinen , Urban , LGBTQ+ Themes , Acting , Transgender , Love Triangle

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou

Also known as Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou.

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

Set hundreds of years in the future after an environmental catastrophe, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (also known as Yokohama Shopping Log) centers on the simple life of Alpha, an android who runs a small coffee shop in coastal Japan. Alpha stands witness to chronicle the end of humanity’s days with coffee, a slice of watermelon, and the sound of her moon guitar backed by distant seagulls. Quiet and bittersweet, this tale is about the melancholy beauty that can be found even as the end approaches.



Note: Includes four extra chapters.

Tags: Iyashikei , Female Protagonist , Post-Apocalyptic , Coastal , Philosophy , Coming of Age , Rural , Robots , Lost Civilization , Seinen , Time Skip , Artificial Intelligence , Episodic , Travel , Work , Mopeds , Yuri , Family Life , Restaurant , Motorcycles , Nudity

Metamorphose no Engawa

Also known as BL Metamorphosis.

Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life

Ichinoi, a 75-year-old woman living a peaceful life, unwittingly buys a Boy's Love manga one day…and is fascinated by what she finds inside. When she returns to the bookstore to buy the next volume, the high school girl working there–Urara, a seasoned BL fan–notices a budding fangirl when she sees one. When Urara offers to help Ichinoi explore this whole new world of fiction, the two dive into BL fandom together, and form an unlikely friendship along the way.



Notes:
Winner of the New Face Award from the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival Awards in 2019.
Nominated for the 12th and 14th Manga Taisho Award in 2019 and 2021.

Tags: Otaku Culture , Female Protagonist , Josei , Primarily Female Cast , Boys' Love , Iyashikei , Coming of Age , Drawing , Elderly Protagonist , Urban , Heterosexual

Tokyo Alien Brothers

Also known as Tokyo Alien Bros..

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

Fuyunosuke’s been living the good life in Tokyo. In fact, he’s almost got the whole “being human” thing down. His brother Natsutaro, on the other hand, can’t figure out the first thing about blending in on this strange planet. There’s still a lot they don’t know about humans, but with any luck, Fuyunosuke might just be able to show his bro that life on this little blue ball isn’t so bad after all.



Tags: Aliens , Seinen , Shapeshifting , Urban , Crossdressing , Primarily Adult Cast , Nudity , Memory Manipulation

Yotsuba to!

Also known as Yotsuba&!.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Slice of Life

Hello! This is Koiwai Yotsuba, Yotsuba Koiwai...um, YOTSUBA! Yotsuba moved with Daddy to a new house from our old house waaaaaaay over there! And moving's fun 'cos people wave! (Ohhhh!!) And Yotsuba met these nice people next door and made friends to play with (one of 'em acted like one of those bad strangers Daddy told Yotsuba not to go with, but it was okay in the end). I hope we get to play a lot. And eat ice cream! And-and-and...oh yeah! You should come play with Yotsuba too!



Notes:
Includes an interlude.
Won the Excellence Award for Manga at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006 and the Grand Prize of the 20th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize in 2016.
Was nominated for the Manga Taishō award in 2008 and for the 12th and 20th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize in 2008 and 2016.
Was nominated for the Eisner Award in the "Best Publication for Kids" category.

Tags: Family Life , Iyashikei , Episodic , Female Protagonist , Parenthood , Slapstick , Shounen , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , Rural , Adoption , Primarily Female Cast , Tomboy , Fishing

Ikoku Nikki

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

The manga centers on 35-year-old novelist Makio Koudai and her 15-year-old niece Asa, who live together under one roof. Makio took Asa in on a sudden impulse after Asa's parents, which included Makio's older sister, passed away. The next day, Makio returns to her senses and remembers that she does not do well in the company of other people. So begins their daily life, as Makio attempts to acclimate to a roommate, while Asa attempts to get used to an adult that never acts like one.



Note: Includes 3 extra chapters.

Tags: Josei , Female Protagonist , Family Life , Adoption , Coming of Age , Writing , Estranged Family , Primarily Female Cast , Parenthood , LGBTQ+ Themes , Yuri , Food , Primarily Adult Cast

Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia

Also known as Insomniacs After School.

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance , Slice of Life

Nakami is a studious but cranky and antisocial high schooler who gets on his classmates' nerves. However, his bad attitude comes from the fact that he has a sleeping disorder, and frequently spends nights on end without a single minute of sleep. During the preparations for the school festival, he is begrudgingly sent to the school's astronomy observatory to gather cardboard boxes, a place which is said to be haunted by the dire happenings of the now defunct Astronomy Club. He finds the isolated place a haven ripe for him to sleep, but while rummaging around, he stumbles upon his classmate Magari Isaki sleeping inside a toppled-over locker.

Isaki, unlike him, is a personable and popular girl at class, but who also hides her own problems with insomnia. Looking for a middle ground, they find that there's comfort and ease in sleeping together, so they resort to make the observatory their own private cubby to sleep... Have they found the comfort they're looking for?

Note: Nominated for the Tsugimanga 2020 Award in the Manga Category.

Tags: Coming of Age , Astronomy , Iyashikei , Heterosexual , School , School Club , Photography , Seinen , Disability , Male Protagonist , Female Protagonist , Outdoor Activities , Camping , Time Skip , Tomboy

Neko no Otera no Chion-san

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

A romantic comedy about a high school boy named Gen and an older girl named Chion who is living at Gen's family's temple in the countryside.

Tags: Rural , Iyashikei , Age Gap , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Religion , Female Protagonist , Tsundere , Time Skip , Love Triangle , Disability , School , Mopeds , Trains

3-gatsu no Lion

Also known as March Comes in Like a Lion.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Rei Kiriyama is a child prodigy. Rei Kiriyama is also an orphan who lives alone in an empty apartment. Rei Kiriyama is a teen working in an adult's world. Life is complicated for Rei. He's an up-and-coming shogi player on the verge of turning pro, but he has no homelife, or much of a life period, outside his board game, but thankfully with the help of some life-long friends he has an opportunity start all over again.



Notes:
Winner of the Grand Prize at the 4th Manga Taishou Award in 2011.
Winner of the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in 2011.
Winner of the Grand Prize at the Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2014.
Winner of the Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2021.

Tags: Coming of Age , Family Life , Philosophy , Rehabilitation , Seinen , Shogi , Found Family , Male Protagonist , Bullying , Iyashikei , Board Game , Food , Heterosexual , Tragedy , Age Gap , Adoption , School Club , Love Triangle

Umi ga Hashiru End Roll

Also known as The Credits Roll into the Sea.

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

Umiko, a grandma, realizes that she has the same desire to make movies as university student Kai—and soon she enrolls in Kai's film school!

"It's not the movies you like…you like watching the people watching the movies."

Just what are you going to do with the rest of your life? It's the question you'll always have to answer, no matter your age. Umiko Chino is a 65-year-old retired woman in mourning for her late husband. Remembering how they used to watch films together, Umiko goes to the movie theater for the first time in years, where she meets Kai, an attractive, ambiguous young man who studies filmmaking at a nearby art school.

They would seem to have nothing in common, except for this—both of them sometimes like to look more at the way the audience reacts to a movie than the movie itself. Kai believes Umiko has the same deep desire he possesses to experience how people respond to something they made… and challenges her to stake the rest of her life discovering that thrill.

Soon Umiko surprises herself by enrolling in the same film school as Kai. But sailing into this new sea, she's suddenly inside the currents of her fellow students' lives, a much younger generation that she struggles to understand, driven by their own passions and their own relationships. Who's really experienced at life, and is it old age or observation that brings wisdom? And does what you're looking for change when you look with your eyes instead of through a camera lens…?



Tags: Female Protagonist , Filmmaking , Elderly Protagonist , Photography , Primarily Adult Cast , College , Shoujo , Iyashikei , LGBTQ+ Themes , Asexual , Aromantic