Manga like Kaze Hikaru

Rurouni Kenshin: Meiji Kenkaku Romantan

Also known as Rurouni Kenshin.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Romance

One hundred and forty years ago in Kyoto, with the coming of the American "Black Ships," there arose a warrior who, felling men with his bloodstained blade, gained the name Hitokiri, manslayer! His killer blade helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu era and slashed open the progressive age known as Meiji. Then he vanished, and with the flow of years, became legend.



Included one-shots:
Volume 1: Rurōni -Meiji Kenkaku Romantan- (second one-shot for the series, which Watsuki calls a "side-story")
Volume 3: Rurōni -Meiji Kenkaku Romantan- (first one-shot for the series, which Watsuki calls the "pilot")
Volume 6: Sengoku no Mikazuki (Nobuhiro Watsuki's debut one-shot)
Volume 28: Meteor Strike

Tags: Swordplay , Historical , Samurai , Shounen , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Martial Arts , Ninja , Assassins , Tragedy , Gore , Military , Urban Fantasy , Love Triangle , Cultivation

Saiunkoku Monogatari

Also known as The Story of Saiunkoku.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Romance

Shurei Hong, destitute but of noble birth, has always dreamed of working as a civil servant in the imperial court of Saiunkoku, but women are barred from holding office. The emperor Ryuki, however, refuses to take command, leaving everything to his advisors. Shurei is asked to become a consort to the emperor to persuade the ne’er-do-well ruler to govern.

Shurei enters the palace as Ryuki’s consort, but he has yet to seek her out. It is rumored that men, not women, share the emperor’s bedchamber. Shurei must think of a way to stop the emperor from shirking his responsibilities, but she has to find him first!



Tags: Historical , Foreign , Unrequited Love , Ancient China , Kingdom Management , Work , Shoujo , Female Protagonist , Politics , Male Harem , Royal Affairs

BASARA

Also known as Basara.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Fantasy , Romance

Basara is a post-apocalyptic fantasy adventure series and one of the most popular shoujo manga of the 90s in Japan. It is the story of how a young girl becomes "the child of destiny" and finds the strength to free her people and seek revenge for the death of her brother.



Note: Won the Shogakukan Manga Award for the shoujo category in 1992.

Tags: War , Twins , Shoujo , Politics , Post-Apocalyptic , Dystopian , Female Protagonist , Crossdressing , Coming of Age , Revenge , Fugitive , Slavery , Class Struggle , Royal Affairs , Conspiracy , Heterosexual , Travel , Tragedy , Swordplay , Military , Philosophy , Kingdom Management , Lost Civilization , Archery , Pirates , Disability , Desert , Tomboy , Animals , Espionage , Ships , Prison , LGBTQ+ Themes , Astronomy , Bisexual , Suicide , Martial Arts , Nudity , Prophecy

Ou no Kemono: Enpei no Arcana

Also known as The King's Beast.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Mystery , Romance , Supernatural

In this kingdom, Ajin are considered no better than beasts. The men are sent to war, the women serve in brothels. Those who are lucky enough to live to old age spend their last years doing degrading, menial work. Boys who show signs of magical ability must serve the imperial family in the palace. Rangetsu's twin brother is sent to the palace to serve the Prince Tenyou, but he only lasts a short time before he is murdered. Rumors say his master was the one who aimed the blade, and Rangetsu decides to puts aside her femaleness in order seek revenge. After years of excelling on the battlefield, she has finally found her way to Prince Tenyou's side. But he isn't what she expected, and the webs of intrigue in the palace is more tangled and venomous than she imagined. Can Rangetsu find her vengeance before she too falls prey to palace plots, and will her inconvenient feelings for the Prince Tenyou be a hindrance or a help?



Tags: Shoujo , Crossdressing , Revenge , Female Protagonist , Kemonomimi , Super Power , Politics , Heterosexual , Martial Arts , Twins , Foreign , LGBTQ+ Themes , Dissociative Identities , Slavery , Royal Affairs , Primarily Male Cast , Class Struggle , Tragedy , Time Skip , War

Seirou Opera

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

Set in the Yoshiwara pleasure quarters during the Edo period of Japan. Akane, the daughter of a samurai family, has lost all of her living relatives and has to sell herself to a brothel. A courtesan of that brothel tells her to go attract a customer, and as a result she ends up getting involved with a strange man who asks the brothel to buy her freedom...

Tags: Historical , Shoujo , Oiran , Female Protagonist , Revenge , Politics , Tragedy

Versailles no Bara

Also known as The Rose of Versailles.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

Oscar François de Jarjeyes is a young noblewoman raised as a son by her father. As commander of Marie Antoinette's palace guard, Oscar is brought face-to-face with the luxury of King Louis XVI’s court at Versailles. Joined by her servant André, Oscar is privy to the intrigue and deceit of France's last great royal regime.



Note: Volume 10 includes the Gaiden chapter The Countess in Black (黒衣の伯爵夫人の巻), and the one-shot Shiroi Egmont (白いエグモント)

Tags: Shoujo , Class Struggle , Foreign , Historical , Politics , Tragedy , Coming of Age , Female Protagonist , Crossdressing , Heterosexual , Gender Bending , Love Triangle , Philosophy , Royal Affairs , Military , Swordplay , LGBTQ+ Themes , War , Bisexual , Arranged Marriage , Kingdom Management , Unrequited Love , Suicide , Medieval

Namida Ame to Serenade

Also known as Rainy Day Serenade.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance , Supernatural

On rainy days, Hina has dreams about her younger self playing with a mysterious boy in a garden she's never seen before—until, by chance, she stumbles upon the place. There's a young man there, Takaaki, who mistakes Hina for his fiancée Hinako. He whisks her back to what he thinks is her home, where Hina's doppelganger is waiting, and Hina realizes this isn't the Tokyo she left behind but Japan in the year 1907! Is this all a dream or something much stranger?



Tags: Josei , Historical , Time Manipulation , Heterosexual , Female Protagonist , Crossdressing , Love Triangle , Suicide , Torture , Circus , Arranged Marriage

Kanata Kara

Also known as From Far Away.

Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Fantasy , Romance

On her way home from school one day, Noriko is unexpectedly plunged into a strange and extraordinary fantasy world. Her troubles compound exponentially when she is rescued and befriended by a handsome young man by the name of Izark. He may be brave and courageous, but inside Izark lurks the darkest evil imaginable. And according to an ancient prophecy, Noriko possesses the power to unleash that evil. Now, inexorably bound together, these two unlikely allies must navigate a world both wondrous and hostile.



Note:
Includes four extra chapters.
Includes a sequel one-shot for "Onnanoko wa Yoyuu!" titled "Mata Ashita!" (また明日!)

Tags: Female Protagonist , Shoujo , Heterosexual , Isekai , Language Barrier , Demons , Fugitive , Politics , Magic , Swordplay , Travel , Martial Arts , Male Protagonist , Monster Boy , Henshin , Body Horror , Gore

Oooku

Also known as Ōoku: 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...



Notes:
Won an Excellence Prize at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival
Won 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.
Nominated for the first annual Manga Taishou in 2008.

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

Ashi-Girl

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Fantasy , Romance

Hayakawa Yui is totally a unmotivated, lazy girl who loves sleeping and eating. She's 16 but looks like a boy from elementary school; her one and only talent is to run really fast. After accidentally switching on the time machine which her younger brother made she travels to the Sengoku period, where luckily she joins retreating foot soldiers using the name Yuinosuke. Then she eats some amanitas and meets the man of her dreams.

Note: Includes 6 extra chapters.

Tags: Josei , Historical , Female Protagonist , Time Manipulation , Time Skip , War