Manga like MONSTER

20 Seiki Shounen

Also known as 20th Century Boys.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Sci-Fi , Thriller

Humanity, having faced extinction at the end of the 20th century, would not have entered the new millennium if it weren't for them. In 1969, during their youth, they created a symbol. In 1997, as the coming disaster slowly starts to unfold, that symbol returns. This is the story of a group of boys who try to save the world.

For Kenji, a simple convenience store manager who once dreamed of becoming a rock 'n' roll musician, a host of memories from his past come rushing back when one of his childhood friends mysteriously commits suicide. Could this new death be related to the rise of a bizarre new cult that's been implicated in several other murders and disappearances? Determined to dig deeper, Kenji reunites with some of his old buddies in the hope of learning the truth behind it all.



Tags: Politics , Coming of Age , Ensemble Cast , Seinen , Fugitive , Achronological Order , Dystopian , Conspiracy , Cult , Pandemic , Time Skip , Post-Apocalyptic , Terrorism , Found Family , Male Protagonist , Detective , Musical Theater , Philosophy , Cosmic Horror , Female Protagonist , Historical , Tragedy , Dissociative Identities , Augmented Reality , Police , Robots , Transgender , Cute Boys Doing Cute Things , Nudity , Foreign , Time Manipulation , Homeless , Twins , Crossdressing

PLUTO

Also known as Pluto.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mecha , Mystery , Psychological , Sci-Fi

In an ideal world where man and robots coexist, someone or something has destroyed the powerful Swiss robot Mont Blanc. Elsewhere a key figure in a robot rights group is murdered. The two incidents appear to be unrelated...except for one very conspicuous clue - the bodies of both victims have been fashioned into some sort of bizarre collage complete with makeshift horns placed by the victims' heads. Interpol assigns robot detective Gesicht to this most strange and complex case - and he eventually discovers that he too, as one of the seven great robots of the world, is one of the targets.



Tags: Seinen , Robots , Artificial Intelligence , Detective , Police , Anti-Hero , Memory Manipulation , Tragedy , Urban Fantasy , Philosophy , Politics , Foreign , Post-Apocalyptic , Real Robot , Ensemble Cast , Conspiracy , Amnesia , War , Noir , Anachronism , Male Protagonist , Cult , Suicide , Cyberpunk , Agender

Billy Bat

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

The story is set in 1949 and follows Japanese-American comic book artist Kevin Yamagata as he draws the popular detective series "Billy Bat" for "Marble Comics." When he learns he may have unconsciously copied the character from an image he saw while serving in occupied Japan, he returns to Japan to get permission to use Billy Bat from its original creator. Upon arriving there, however, he becomes embroiled in a web of murder, cover-ups, and prophecy that all leads back to Billy Bat.

It is soon evident, however, that the truth of Billy Bat's nature is far larger than Kevin could ever guess, spanning millennia and across the world.



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

Tags: Drawing , Historical , Time Manipulation , Seinen , Philosophy , Conspiracy , 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

DEATH NOTE

Also known as Death Note.

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

When Light Yagami finds a notebook giving him power over death, will he use it for good—or evil?

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospects—and he’s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But will Light succeed in his noble goal, or will the Death Note turn him into the very thing he fights against?



Tags: Detective , Tragedy , Anti-Hero , Police , Urban Fantasy , Crime , Male Protagonist , Philosophy , Gods , Espionage , Primarily Male Cast , Time Skip , Shounen , Demons , Memory Manipulation , Amnesia , Politics

Homunculus

Also known as Homunculus.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Mystery , Psychological , Supernatural

Nakoshi Susumu, age 34, is living out of his car. Between spending his days with the homeless and his nights in his vehicle, he has little to his name–but not so little that he’ll agree to be the subject of a scientific experiment. An unnerving medical student is stalking him and offering to pay Nakoshi a significant sum to test trepanation: the ability to draw out a sixth sense by drilling into the skull. Nakoshi refuses. When Nakoshi’s beloved car is towed, though, he finally agrees to cash and the operating table. At first, the experiment seems to bear no fruit, and Nakoshi’s life is unchanged. That is, until Nakoshi realizes his vision has warped in his left eye…showing him the twisted homunculus inside every human.



Tags: Philosophy , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Psychosexual , Primarily Adult Cast , Tragedy , Denpa , Amnesia , Anti-Hero , Gore , Body Horror , Homeless , Transgender , Masturbation , LGBTQ+ Themes , Crossdressing , Heterosexual , Economics , Class Struggle , Boys' Love

Adolf ni Tsugu

Also known as Message to Adolf.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Romance

A graveyard in contemporary Israel has an unlikely visitor. The elderly gentleman from Japan, a former news correspondent, lays a bouquet of flowers at the tomb of one Adolf Kamil. For he remembers the tale of three Adolfs: Kamil, a Jew who grew up in Kobe, Japan, the son of a baker; Kaufmann, only child of a German consul stationed at that port city and his Japanese wife; and the Fuhrer with whom the Far Eastern nation made common cause.

Note: Won the 10th Kodansha Manga Award for general manga in 1986.

Tags: Historical , War , Military , Torture , Fugitive , Espionage , Tragedy , Seinen , Travel , Foreign , Time Skip , Politics , Language Barrier , Guns , Suicide , Disability

Asadora!

Also known as Asadora!.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Drama , Mystery

It's 2020 and Tokyo is on fire! A large, mysterious creature rampages through the city destroying everything in its path. Cut to 1959. We meet a spunky young girl, Asa. As one of 11 siblings, Asa is constantly forgotten. Most people can't even remember her name. So, when she is kidnapped for ransom (by a guy who mistakes her for a doctor's kid), no one bats an eye—not even when a typhoon hits! Now Asa and her kidnapper must work together to survive the brutal storm. But there's more to her kidnapper and this storm than meets the eye.



Tags: Kaiju , War , Time Skip , Aviation , Historical , Natural Disaster , Tragedy , Seinen , Female Protagonist , Urban Fantasy , Male Protagonist , Drugs , Athletics

MW

Also known as MW.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Thriller

Michio Yuki has it all: looks, intelligence, a pedigree as the scion of a famous Kabuki family, a promising career at a major bank, legions of female admirers. But underneath the sheen of perfection lurks a secret with the power to shake the world to its foundations.

During a boyhood excursion to one of the southern archipelagos near Okinawa, Yuki barely survived exposure to a poison gas stored at a foreign military facility. The leakage annihilated all of the island’s inhabitants but was promptly covered up by the authorities, leaving Yuki as an unacknowledged witness—one whose sense of right and wrong, however, the potent nerve agent managed to obliterate.

Now, fifteen years later, Yuki is a social climber of Balzacian proportions, infiltrating the worlds of finance and politics by day while brutally murdering children and women by night—perversely using his Kabuki-honed skills as a female impersonator to pass himself off as the women he’s killed. His drive, however, will not be satiated with a promotion here and a rape there. Michio Yuki has a far more ominous objective: obtaining MW, the ultimate weapon that spared his life but robbed him of all conscience.

There are only two men with any hope of stopping him: one, a brilliant public prosecutor who struggles to build a case against the psychopath; the other, a tormented Catholic priest, Iwao Garai, who shares Yuki’s past—and frequently his bed.



Tags: Seinen , Politics , Conspiracy , Crossdressing , Primarily Adult Cast , Torture , Urban , Crime , Psychosexual , Religion , Nudity , Boys' Love , LGBTQ+ Themes , Bisexual , Espionage , Suicide , Age Gap , Zoophilia , Tragedy

21 Seiki Shounen

Also known as 21st Century Boys.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Sci-Fi

War is over. The Friend is dead. Mankind no longer faces the threat of extinction. Peace has finally come to Tokyo... Or has it? The mystery still remains. Nobody knows who the Friend was and where he came from. The only clue is hidden deep within the memories—the memories of the hero Kenji. It is time to open Pandora’s Box to discover what is left at the bottom.



Tags: Conspiracy , Seinen , Cult , Ghost , Tragedy , Military , Virtual World , Augmented Reality , Robots , Male Protagonist , Nudity

Black Jack

Also known as Black Jack.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Among adult readers in Japan Black Jack is Osamu Tezuka’s most popular achievement, and perhaps the most close to the creator’s heart, as Tezuka considered entering the medical field—majoring in medicine in college—before devoting his life to comics. Black Jack is a genius surgeon who never acquired his license due to his clashes with the medical establishment. He is hired out by anyone willing to pay his exorbitant rates and is perceived as a heartless rogue because of his enigmatic nature and antisocial manner. But as readers will soon discover, that is not the whole story.



Note: Won the 1st Kodansha Manga Award in the Shounen category in 1977.

Tags: Episodic , Male Protagonist , Medicine , Work , Ghost , Disability , Tragedy , Suicide , Shounen , Meta , Philosophy , Drugs , War