Manga like Kabocha to Mayonnaise

blue

Also known as Blue.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Kayako Kirishima and Masami Endo are about to discover that their recent friendship is turning into obsessive love. But when today’s hopes and yesterday’s dreams meet tomorrow’s problems, will they be able to continue? With clear outline and confused feelings, Kiriko Nananan demonstrates that it is possible to make a Blue manga from black and white.



Tags: Yuri , Coming of Age , Josei , School , Tragedy , LGBTQ+ Themes , Female Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Coastal , Primarily Female Cast , Age Gap , Heterosexual , Bisexual

Sayonara Midori-chan

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

At age 20, Yuko is leading a life without aspirations, what with work as an assistant in a company and her boyfriend Yutaka. Determined to give a new twist to her lifestyle, she accepts Yutaka's offer to work at his side by night as a bar hostess. But Yuko quickly becomes disenchanted: this choice brings her much more trouble than pleasant surprises, leading her to face difficult situations, even dangerous ones. And above all, she doesn't succeed in getting closer to Yutaka who remains elusive and indifferent to her signs of affection. Despite his infidelity, Yuko persists in clinging to that futile and fruitless relationship. Will she react before being unable to break the deadlock? How far will she let herself go?

Tags: Josei , Primarily Adult Cast , Nudity , Female Protagonist , Love Triangle

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 Naruo 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:
Nominated for the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan and the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.
Includes one extra chapter and one-shot "Haru yo Koi (Awaiting Spring)" first included in the October 2017 new Japanese edition.

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

Indigo Blue

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

Rutsu, a novelist, finds herself caught between her boyfriend and another woman.

Tags: Josei , Love Triangle , Primarily Adult Cast , Female Protagonist , Writing , Yuri , Bisexual , LGBTQ+ Themes , Heterosexual

pink

Also known as PINK.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama

Yumiko moonlights as a call girl because her day job doesn’t pay enough to feed her pet Croc. Haru, an aspiring writer who has nothing to say, sleeps with a woman his mother’s age not just for the money but to work on his “powers of observation.” So when Yumi’s step-mom turns out to be Haru’s sugar-mommy, it is time for shenanigans. A little bit of drinking, a little bit of blackmail and a visit with Croc is enough to change lives and maybe add some color to a comfortable but bland life. Daddy kept Keiko’s mom as a pet; she keeps Haru as a pet; I keep Croc as a pet...Is Yumiko someone else’s pet?? Is she willing to let someone care for her like that?



Tags: Josei , Prostitution , Female Protagonist , Nudity , Heterosexual , Tragedy , Urban , Primarily Adult Cast , Animals , Work , Office Lady

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 , Heterosexual , Work , Primarily Adult Cast , Nudity , Suicide

Undercurrent

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

The manga begins as Kanae Sekiguchi, proprietor of the Tsuki no Yu bathhouse, struggles to reopen her business after the unexplained disappearance of her husband...

Tags: Seinen , Primarily Adult Cast , Female Protagonist , Work , Suicide , Detective

Dousei Jidai

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

Kyouko (21) and Jiro (23) live together in Tokyo as an unmarried couple. She was a graphic artist in an advertisement agency, and he was just starting out as an illustrator. In a world on the verge of a sexual revolution, this is the story of their daily life with friends and family, and the struggles of their relationship.

Tags: Philosophy , Nudity , Heterosexual , Cohabitation , Seinen , Female Protagonist , Urban , Primarily Adult Cast , Episodic , Drawing , Tragedy , Office Lady , Pregnancy , Medicine , Psychosexual , Suicide , Incest , Sadism

Renai Anagram

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

Scarred by domestic violence and the sudden departure of her mother and her younger brother, Satsuki doesn't know how to trust people. Renai Anagram is the story of a young woman's struggles to overcome her past and learn how to accept and value herself.



Tags: Primarily Adult Cast , Josei , Female Protagonist , Tragedy , Heterosexual , Disability