Manga like Mikako-san

Aoi Uroko to Suna no Machi

Also known as Mermaid Scales and the Town of Sand.

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

After her normal, happy life shatters, Tokiko and her father move to a small seaside town to live with her grandmother as sixth grade starts. There, the sound of the waves brings back a distant memory from when she visited seven years ago, a memory of almost drowning in the sea and being saved by a merman. Are there really mermaids in that sea? Tokiko adjusts to her new life in the small town as she holds out hope of once more meeting the merman who saved her.

Note: Contains an extra chapter.

Tags: Josei , Rural , Coming of Age , Coastal , Iyashikei , Female Protagonist , Primarily Child Cast , Mermaid , School , Gods , Religion

Ano Ko no Ie

Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life

A slice-of-life manga that follows a little girl who leaves her childhood home to live in the woods after her neighbor is orphaned and she decides she too comfortable living her day-to-day peaceful life.

Tags: Rural , Philosophy , Female Protagonist , Family Life , Coming of Age , Animals , Seinen , Tragedy

Kodomo wa Wakatte Agenai

Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life

A narrative of self-discovery masquerading as a coming of age romance, a family composition drama, a procedural detective story, and a superpowered thriller. Sakuta Minami openly professes the many loves of her life: Matsumoto Leiji anime, her family, swimming, Magical Plastering Girl Buffalo Koteko, but the unanswered questions surrounding her mother's separation from her natural father have nagged her all her life. Moji Shouhei, an anime geek with prodigious talent for calligraphy, holds in his gifted hands both a physical key to the school roof of their high school as well as the figurative key to finally unraveling the mystery of Minami's father.

Tags: School , Swimming , Rural , Coming of Age , Calligraphy , Seinen , LGBTQ+ Themes , Cult

Kiiroi Hon: Jacques Thibault to Iu Na no Yuujin

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

This collected volume was named after the longest of the four stories that it contains: a drama about an adolescent girl who falls in love with Roger Martin du Gard’s saga, The Thibaults. The remaining stories capture various fragments of everyday life with tenderness and humor. Through the kaleidoscope of its feminine views, The Yellow Book touches the readers heart by attending to what, in sum, makes up life—the little things of our every day.



Tags: Anthology , Seinen , Female Protagonist , Classic Literature

Leviathan

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Supernatural

After a long absence, the young shaman Samizo Kohei returns from the dead with a prophecy of the apocalypse. Or part of him returns, at least - most of his body has been replaced with the transplanted body parts of his former friends, all retaining their distinctive personalities. He returns to his home in Shinjuku, where he works as a psychic surgeon in an unlicensed clinic. Here he serves as the unofficial guardian of the Shinjuku underground, solving paranormal murder mysteries, with the assistance of an assortment of other bizarre mystics and semi-human allies. Meanwhile, the others wonder exactly what Kohei has become, and whether he has returned to prevent the apocalypse, or to initiate it.

Tags: Seinen , Episodic , Dissociative Identities , Medicine , Urban Fantasy , Chimera , Demons , Werewolf , Vampire , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , Ensemble Cast , Monster Boy , Pregnancy

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.



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

Kodama Maria Bungaku Shuusei

Status: Releasing
Genres: Slice of Life

Follow the unique and intense activities of the literature club, consisting of the flawless Kodama-san, the president as well as its only member, and Fueda-kun, the promising applicant.

Note: Was nominated for the 24th Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize.

Tags: Philosophy , Seinen , School , Classic Literature , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , School Club , Iyashikei , Heterosexual , Kuudere , Primarily Teen Cast , Episodic

Koukou Kyuuji Zawa-san

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

A Slice-of-Life, Comedy, Sports manga about a girl, often called as Zawa (short for her surname, Miyakozawa), in a high-school baseball team. She's talented, but being a girl, she doesn't get to participate in any official matches, and yet she trains just as hard as the rest of the team anyway, just for her own personal satisfaction.

Chapters are short and frequently done from the perspective of some passer-by/s interacting with or even just watching and contemplating to themselves about Zawa and/or the rest of the baseball team.

Tags: Seinen , Female Protagonist , Baseball , Episodic

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

Hirayasumi

Also known as Hirayasumi.

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

With a carefree outlook on life, Hiroto knows better than anyone that slowing down is sometimes the best way to move forward.

At 29 years old, carefree Hiroto Ikuta doesn’t have a girlfriend, a full-time job, or a plan for the future—and he couldn’t be happier. Hiroto’s breezy attitude isn’t easy for everyone to understand, though. In a world filled with anxiety, confusion, and grief, Hiroto and the people who surround him are all just doing their best to figure out this thing called life.

After developing an unlikely friendship with the grouchy old granny who lives in his neighborhood, Hiroto suddenly finds himself inheriting not just her house, but some rather difficult emotions as well. His 18-year-old cousin Natsumi moves in with him, but as a struggling art student, she has her own troubles to deal with and may just put Hiroto’s easygoing lifestyle to the test.



Tags: Seinen , Iyashikei , Family Life , Urban , Primarily Adult Cast , Work , College , Drawing , Male Protagonist , Coming of Age , Ensemble Cast , Female Protagonist , Filmmaking , Love Triangle