Manga like Saraiya Goyou

Takemitsu Zamurai

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Early one New Year's morning, the rounin Senou Souichirou appears in Edo's Katagi tenements.

Initially, the inhabitants regard him with fear and suspicion: Kankichi, the carpenter's son, thinks he may not be human; the neighbourhood cats remark that he reeks of blood. But soon Souichirou pawns his sword, and, with a bamboo replica at his waist, settles down to a quiet life as the neighborhood school-teacher.

Months pass, and all appears to be well. But trouble will not leave the Katagi tenements alone...

Notes:
Won the Grand Prize at 15th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2011. Includes 1 extra chapter.

Tags: Seinen , Male Protagonist , Swordplay , Samurai , Historical , Ghost , Coming of Age , Martial Arts

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka

Also known as ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Department.

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

The kingdom of Dowa, which is subdivided into 13 states, is celebrating its monarch's 99th birthday. These thirteen states have many agencies that are controlled by the giant organization known as ACCA. Within ACCA, Jean Otis is the second-in-command of the inspection agency. His agency has 10 people placed in each of the 13 states, with a central office in the capital city. They keep track of all the activities of ACCA across the kingdom, and keep data on each state's ACCA office flowing towards the central office. Jin also often has business trips from the capital to the other districts, to check on the situation and personnel there.

Tags: Male Protagonist , Politics , Seinen , Police , Detective , Conspiracy , Primarily Adult Cast , Family Life , Royal Affairs

Hyouge Mono

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

It was the Sengoku-era, when the warlords usurped each other. There was a man whose soul was overtaken by the ways of tea and material greed, as he worked his way up toward greater power and status. His name was Sasuke Furuta, a subordinate warrior of Nobunaga Oda. With his world broadened by Nobunaga the Genius, and his spiritual insight learned from Senno Soueki the Master of Tea, Sasuke drove the road to Hyouge Mono. To live or not to live. For the power of the art. That is the question!

Note:
Won the 14th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award Grand Prize and received the Excellence Prize in Japan Media Arts Festival (2009).


Tags: Seinen , Historical , War , Educational , Politics , Philosophy , Male Protagonist , Swordplay , Primarily Adult Cast , Tragedy , Suicide

Oooku

Also known as Ôoku: The Inner Chambers.

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

In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Redface Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the shogun's Inner Chamber...



Note: Won an Excellence Prize at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival and a special prize at The Japanese Association of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy's fifth annual Sense of Gender Awards in 2005. Won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural the Grand Prize in 2009 and the 56th Shogakukan Manga Award in Girls' Category in 2011. Was nominated for the first annual Manga Taishou in 2008.

Tags: Tragedy , Historical , Politics , Pandemic , Heterosexual , Shoujo , Matriarchy , Primarily Adult Cast , Male Harem , Suicide , Incest , Ensemble Cast , Samurai , LGBTQ+ Themes , Royal Affairs , Military , Bisexual , Religion , Espionage , Swordplay , Boys' Love

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Also known as Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

This multi-generational epic dives deep into rakugo, a rich form of Japanese storytelling theater. Small-time crook Yotaro has never forgotten the rakugo tale "The God of Death," which the master Yurakutei Yakumo performed for Yotaro during his time in prison. After his release, he goes to Yakumo's theater and pleads to be made his apprentice. Yakumo reluctantly accepts, but Yotaro quickly finds the world of rakugo is complex and grapples with a growing bond with Yakumo's ward, Konatsu. Meanwhile, the two young people bring reminders of Yakumo’s own inescapable past.



Note: Won the 38th Kodansha Manga Awards for Best General Manga and the New Creator Prize of the 21st Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2017.

Tags: Rakugo , Josei , Male Protagonist , Tragedy , Primarily Adult Cast , Historical , Acting , Family Life , Love Triangle , Work , Afterlife , Suicide , Yakuza , Oiran , Tsundere , Crossdressing , War , Adoption , Heterosexual , Elderly Protagonist

Mushishi

Also known as Mushishi.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Mystery , Slice of Life , Supernatural

Some live in the deep darkness behind your eyelids. Some eat silence. Some thoughtlessly kill. Some simply drive men mad. They are known as mushi—creatures that came into being shortly after life emerged from the primordial ooze. They still exist parallel to our own lives and can only be seen by a select few. As a mushishi, Ginko is one of the few who are aware of their existense, and this young man with a sardonic smile roams from place to place with the knowledge and skill to aid those unwittingly affected by mushi.



Note: Won the Excellence Prize for Manga at the 7th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2003 and the Kodansha Manga Award for General Manga in 2006.

Tags: Seinen , Episodic , Environmental , Youkai , Mythology , Rural , Urban Fantasy , Travel , Iyashikei , Philosophy , Male Protagonist , Tragedy , Historical , Work , Demons

Taiyou to Tsuki no Hagane

Also known as Steel of the Celestial Shadows.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Drama , Romance , Supernatural

It is said that a samurai’s spirit rests in their sword—and Konosuke can’t even pick one up thanks to a cruel curse that repels anything made of metal that gets near him. Destitute and hopeless, he decides to end it all. But when a beautiful and mysterious woman saves his life and his soul, it is the beginning of Ryudo’s journey into a strange world of magic that exists a step away from his own.



Tags: Samurai , Seinen , Primarily Adult Cast , Historical , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Urban Fantasy , Super Power

Yuki to Matsu

Also known as Yuki and Matsu.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

On a dark and snowy night, Sho-an drags home what he believes to be the corpse of a beautiful man. But, even though Sho-an is ready to reduce the body into medical supplies, he is dismayed to discover the body lives. Sho-an names his corpse-cum-patient Yuki and gains a houseguest that eats his food and keeps his bed warm throughout the year.



Tags: Boys' Love , Nudity , Historical , Primarily Male Cast , Yakuza , Food , Samurai , Rural , Primarily Adult Cast , Crossdressing , Martial Arts , Medicine , Transgender , Male Protagonist , Age Gap , Psychosexual , Swordplay , Agender

Nobunaga Concerto

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Drama , Romance

History classes have never interested Saburo. He never saw the point of learning something that happened in the past, let alone a few hundred years ago. But when he falls off a wall, he travels through a wormhole and ends up in 16th century ancient Japan. He meets a very young Oda Nobunaga, one of the most influential figures in Japanese history, who turns out to be identical in appearance as Saburo. The real Nobunaga, sick of the castle life and wanting to travel, orders Saburo to take his place. Without knowing how to get back to his time, Saburo tries to make sure history isn’t rewritten for the infamous Oda Nobunaga.



Note: Won the 57th Shogakukan Manga Award for shounen.

Tags: Shounen , Historical , Anachronism , War , Time Manipulation

Kaijuu no Kodomo

Also known as Children of the Sea.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Supernatural

When Ruka was younger, she saw a ghost in the water at the aquarium where her dad works. Now she feels drawn toward the aquarium and the two mysterious boys she meets there, Umi and Sora. They were raised by dugongs and hear the same strange calls from the sea as she does.

Ruka's dad and the other adults who work at the aquarium are only distantly aware of what the children are experiencing as they get caught up in the mystery of the worldwide disappearance of the oceans' fish.



Tags: Philosophy , Mythology , Environmental , Seinen , Swimming , Female Protagonist , Cosmic Horror , Ensemble Cast , POV , Astronomy , Kaiju , Male Protagonist , Urban , Scuba Diving , Amnesia , Monster Boy , Coastal , Educational , Animals , Ships , Body Horror , Cannibalism , Primarily Teen Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Heterosexual , Work , Nudity