Manga like Hoero Pen

Time Paradox Ghostwriter

Also known as Time Paradox Ghostwriter.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Sci-Fi

On a cold and stormy night, I decide to give up on my dream. But lightning strikes! And now I have an issue of Shonen Jump from the future! Teppei Sasaki is a passionate rookie manga artist who dreams of getting a series in Weekly Shonen Jump. One day, he gets a copy of Jump from ten years in the future. Is it all a coincidence, or is it fate? Whatever the case, destiny is about to change... Time warps! Destinies intersected! For a tomorrow that was never meant to be! The future of Jump is here!



Note: Includes the epilogue.

Tags: Time Manipulation , Drawing , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Otaku Culture , Meta , Writing , Time Skip

Ryuu to Chameleon

Also known as Dragon and Chameleon.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Supernatural

Garyo Hanagami is a best-selling manga artist praised as a genius of the craft. Shinobu Miyama is a bitter rookie with a knack for copying other people's art styles. When an accident causes the two to switch bodies, Miyama is more than happy to take Hanagami's place, forcing the veteran to rebuild his career from the ground up. Now, the dragon must reclaim his throne from the chameleon who replaced him!



Notes:
Thirteenth place and winner of the U-Next Prize at the 9th Next Manga Award in the Print Manga Category in 2023.
Winner of the Manga Kingdom Tottori Prize at the 53rd Japan Cartoonists Association Award in 2024.

Tags: Drawing , Body Swapping , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Shounen , Otaku Culture , Work

Kantoku Fuyuki Todoki

Also known as Insufficient Direction.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy

A natural match between the manga queen Moyoco Anno and the patron saint of otaku, Hideaki Anno! When Moyoco Anno, the widely successful creator of women's manga, married Hideaki Anno, creator of Evangelion and a director known to be the very model of an otaku, she held one important doubt: "Am I really ready to be an otaku's wife?" Taking up that challenge, Moyoco Anno launched herself into the deep and beautiful world of married life. This comic essay, an account of the private lives of two of Japan's most high-profile creators, is raw, unfiltered, and unforgettably hilarious



Tags: Autobiographical , Otaku Culture , Josei , Marriage , Female Protagonist , Heterosexual , Primarily Adult Cast

Gekiman!

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Slice of Life

An autobiographical manga about the career of Nagai Go and how his most known works were born.

How a young Nagai Go, struggling to break out of his typecasting as the go-to guy for gag manga by breaking into the sophisticated world of story manga.

Note: This part of Gekiman! mostly focuses on Devilman.

Tags: Seinen , Writing , Work , Autobiographical , War , Gore , Philosophy , Nudity , Male Protagonist , Demons

"Gundam" wo Tsukutta Otoko-tachi.

Also known as The Men Who Created Gundam.

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

An fiction based story involving Yoshiyuki Tomino's trials and tribulations in attempting to create the next generation in Japanese anime. This is the story of the events surrounding the creation of the Mobile Suit Gundam series and its shaky and turbulent foundation. While this story is mainly fictional, the central elements and characters are indeed real which gives some factual basis for the story.

Was first serialized as Gundam Sousei (ガンダム創世), part of the Gundam-san series.
Also includes the side story Tomino Den (トミノ伝) and two extras.

Tags: Biographical , Work , Parody , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Adult Cast

Bakuman.

Also known as Bakuman。.

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

Average student Moritaka Mashiro enjoys drawing for fun. When his classmate and aspiring writer Akito Takagi discovers his talent, he begs Moritaka to team up with him as a manga-creating duo. But what exactly does it take to make it in the manga-publishing world?



Tags: Drawing , Work , Meta , Shounen , Educational , Writing , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Otaku Culture , Tomboy , School , Tragedy

Genshiken

Also known as Genshiken.

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

It’s spring of freshman year, and Kanji Sasahara has a difficult dilemma. Should he declare his love for manga and anime fandom by joining an otaku club, like he has always wanted to? Is he prepared to deal with the social stigma attached to being an otaku? Meanwhile, Saki Kasakabe has her own otaku conundrum. How can she turn her boyfriend, anime fanboy Makoto, into a normal guy? Kanji follow his heart as does Saki. When both Kanji and Makoto join Genshiken: The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture, Saki chases Makoto through the various activities of the club from cosplaying and comic conventions, to video gaming and anime model figures. Saki finds otaku to be more than she imagined, but not necessarily in a good way.



Tags: Otaku Culture , School Club , College , Seinen , Cosplay , Primarily Adult Cast , Ensemble Cast , Meta , Parody , Tragedy , School , Video Games

Kakushigoto

Also known as Kakushigoto: My Dad's Secret Ambition.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Slice of Life

Kakushi Gotou is a single father with a secret: he's a top-selling manga artist of a raunchy series that perhaps isn't suitable reading material for his young daughter, Hime. So he does what any doting father would do—he hides it all from her, no matter the hijinks that ensue!



Note: Chapter count includes all Issue comics (216 in total), 4 regular chapters, and the color comics included in each volume (12 in total).

Tags: Family Life , Work , Meta , Drawing , Satire , Parenthood , Tragedy , Shounen , Episodic

Uchikirare Mangaka to Doujin Onna

Also known as Axed Mangaka and Doujin Creator.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Drama

An unsuccessful mangaka, RObou-sensei, finally has his series axed... Dejected, he opens social media and discovers an account that is absolutely obsessed with his work! When he learns they plan to sell doujinshi based on his series at a convention, he heads there, hoping to meet at least one person who genuinely likes what he draws, but then...?! That hugely popular one-shot that trended on social media is now becoming a full serialization! A miscommunication comedy that explores otaku culture and depicts the realities of being a mangaka with a comedic touch! A story where the creator "god" and an otaku "believer" keep talking past each other.



Tags: Drawing , Work , Primarily Adult Cast , Otaku Culture , Writing

Shissou Nikki

Also known as Disappearance Diary.

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

In 1989, comic artist Hideo Azuma succumbs to the pressures of deadlines and tries (unsuccessfully) to hang himself using the slope of a mountain. He leaves his family, wandering as a dumpster bum looking for scraps of food, cigarette butts or discarded alcohol. After several months he is arrested as a vagrant and returned to his home. He then repeats the cycle in 1992 this time becoming a gas pipe fitter in another town. Later, in 1998, his alcohol dependence is so bad he is forced into rehab. This book is his expression of those three periods of his life told, not in a deep or depressed way but, as befits his nature, in a buoyant and cheerful cartoon art.



Tags: Autobiographical , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Rehabilitation , Non-fiction , Disability , Homeless , Food , Work , Suicide