Manga like Monochrome no Futari

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 , Writing , Educational , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Otaku Culture , Tomboy , School , Tragedy , Marriage , Love Triangle

Blue Period

Also known as Blue Period.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

The studious Yatora leaves a dry life of study and good manners behind for a new passion: painting. But untethering yourself from all your past expectations is dangerous as well as thrilling…



Note: Nominated for Manga Taisho Awards in 2019, Kodansha Manga Awards in 2019 and the 24th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2020. Winner of the 13th Manga Taisho Awards. Winner of the General Manga category of the 44th annual Kodansha Manga Awards.

Tags: Drawing , Coming of Age , College , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Educational , Philosophy , Primarily Adult Cast , School , LGBTQ+ Themes , School Club , Tragedy , Transgender , Bisexual , Primarily Teen Cast , Crossdressing , Suicide , Gender Bending , Nudity , Tomboy

Look Back

Also known as Look Back.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Fujino is a fourth grader who draws a manga strip for the school newspaper. Her art makes her the star of the class, but one day she's told that Kyomoto, a student who refuses to come to school, would also like to submit a manga for the paper...



Note: The one-shot was compiled in a special volume, released on September 3, 2021.

Tags: Drawing , Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Hikikomori , Coming of Age , Shounen , Work , Meta , School , Philosophy , Primarily Child Cast , Rehabilitation

BEAT&MOTION

Also known as Beat & Motion.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Music , Romance

Tatsuhiko is burned-out and grinding at a corporate job, having given up on his dreams of becoming an animator long ago. On a seemingly normal night out, he meets a wild, driven girl who bluntly inspires him to change his perspective. Will this one moment jolt him onto a new path?



Notes:
Winner of the MILLION TAG manga competition in 2021.
Includes one extra chapter.

Tags: Coming of Age , Primarily Adult Cast , Male Protagonist , Drawing , Heterosexual , Band , College , Urban , Gyaru , Shounen

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

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii

Also known as Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku.

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

Narumi Momose has had it rough: every boyfriend she’s had dumped her once they found out she was an otaku, so she’s gone to great lengths to hide it. When a chance meeting at her new job with childhood friend, fellow otaku, and now coworker Hirotaka Nifuji almost gets her secret outed at work, she comes up with a plan to make sure he never speaks up. But he comes up with a counter-proposal: why doesn’t she just date him instead? In love, there are no save points.



Notes:
Includes 29 extra chapters.
The English edition combines 2 Japanese volumes into one each (so e.g. the first two Japanese volumes are combined into 1 English volume).

Tags: Otaku Culture , Primarily Adult Cast , Office Lady , Video Games , Work , Episodic , Heterosexual , Josei , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , Office , Iyashikei , Meta , Ensemble Cast , Cosplay , Tsundere , Crossdressing , Chibi

Kakunaru Ue wa

Also known as Now That We Draw.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Ecchi , Romance

Opposites attract in this hysterical rom-com about two high school manga artists who can’t catch a break! Dweeby high schooler Uehara Yuuki has created the perfect romantic comedy heroine—she’s bashful, airheaded, and completely chaste. When an editor at Uehara’s dream publisher coldly dismisses his manga story as trite and lacking realism, it sends Uehara into a spiral of despair that pushes him into the path of his bubbly, gorgeous classmate, Miyamoto Niina—an aspiring manga artist herself! Having gotten similar feedback on her own manga, Miyamoto proposes she and Uehara engage in a fake relationship, since neither of them have any romantic experience. But Miyamoto is far from the perfect heroine Uehara’s concocted, and he certainly isn’t the cocky hero from her story either. Can their wacky relationship turn their manga dreams into reality, or will it lead to even more comic disasters?

Tags: Drawing , Fake Relationship , Writing , Heterosexual , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , Gyaru , Seinen , School , Primarily Teen Cast , Nudity , Love Triangle , Fashion

Billy Bat

Also known as Billy Bat.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Supernatural , Thriller

It’s 1949 Los Angeles, and Kevin Yamagata, a Japanese American comic book author, is drawing his bestselling character, Billy Bat: a quick-witted detective who is, unsurprisingly, a cartoon bat. Everything is going well for Kevin until he discovers an unfortunate truth: He may have unintentionally plagiarized his beloved character from a drawing he once saw in Japan. Devastated by the news, Kevin returns to war-torn Japan to find the drawing’s original artist . . . but the character’s origins turn out to be far older and more perplexing than he had ever imagined.



Note: Won the Max und Moritz Prize for "Best international Comic" in 2014.

Tags: Drawing , Historical , Time Manipulation , Seinen , Conspiracy , Philosophy , Politics , Ensemble Cast , Urban Fantasy , Travel , Foreign , Achronological Order , War , Time Skip , Primarily Adult Cast , Police , Religion , Male Protagonist , Dystopian , Ninja , Guns , Swordplay , Anachronism , Espionage , Nudity , Terrorism , Pregnancy

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 , Male Protagonist , Female Protagonist , Shounen

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Also known as Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Romance

The boy of her dreams...is a girl's manga artist?! To the eyes of high school student Chiyo Sakura, classmate Umetarou Nozaki--brawny of build and brusque of tongue--is a dreamboat! When Chiyo finally works up the courage to tell Nozaki how she feels about him, she knows rejection is on the table...but getting recruited as a manga-ka's assistant?! Never in a million years! But for someone who makes a living drawing sweet girly romances, Nozaki-kun is a little slow on the uptake when it comes to matters of the heart in reality. And so Chiyo's daily life of manga making and heartache begins!



Tags: Drawing , Parody , 4-koma , Ensemble Cast , Work , School , Heterosexual , Otaku Culture , Unrequited Love , Female Protagonist , Tomboy , Tsundere , Primarily Teen Cast , Shounen , School Club , Educational , Bisexual , College