Manga like Mushishi

Natsume Yuujinchou

Also known as Natsume's Book of Friends.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Supernatural

When Reiko was Takashi's age, she bound the names of demons and spirits in her Book of Friends, enslaving them to her capricious whim. Now Takashi is the owner of the book, and the creatures will do anything to get their names back.



Tags: Youkai , Male Protagonist , Iyashikei , Adoption , Outdoor , Shoujo , Rural , Episodic , Primarily Teen Cast , Primarily Male Cast , Estranged Family , Found Family , Shapeshifting , Orphan , School , Rehabilitation , Gender Bending

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

Sousou no Frieren

Also known as Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Fantasy

The adventure is over but life goes on for an elf mage just beginning to learn what living is all about.

Elf mage Frieren and her courageous fellow adventurers have defeated the Demon King and brought peace to the land. With the great struggle over, they all go their separate ways to live a quiet life. But as an elf, Frieren, nearly immortal, will long outlive the rest of her former party. How will she come to terms with the mortality of her friends? How can she find fulfillment in her own life, and can she learn to understand what life means to the humans around her? Frieren begins a new journey to find the answer.



Notes:
Winner of the Grand Prize at the 14th Manga Taisho Awards.
Nominated for the 25th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
Placed 3rd at the 7th Annual Next Manga Award.

Tags: Magic , Elf , Travel , Philosophy , Female Protagonist , Time Skip , Episodic , Demons , Kuudere , Tragedy , Iyashikei , Shounen , Asexual , Fairy Tale , Dungeon , Time Manipulation

ARIA

Also known as Aria.

Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Fantasy , Sci-Fi , Slice of Life

On the planet Aqua, a world once known as Mars, Akari Mizunashi has just made her home in the town of Neo-Venezia, a futuristic imitation of the ancient city of Venice. In pursuit of her dream to become an Undine — a gondolier who leads high-end tours around the city — Akari joins as a trainee with the Aria Company, one of the three most prestigious water-guide companies in Neo-Venezia. There, she explores the beauty of the city and the world along with other trainees from Aria and rival companies, working hard for her dreams and making new friends along the way.



Tags: Iyashikei , Primarily Female Cast , Coming of Age , Female Protagonist , Work , Ensemble Cast , Philosophy , Urban Fantasy , Episodic , Foreign , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , Shounen , Heterosexual

Omoide Emanon

Also known as Memories of Emanon.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Sci-Fi , Supernatural

The year is 1967, and a young Japanese man is thinking about the future. On one side of the water, the war is raging in Vietnam; far away on the other side, the Apollo Project has just met with disaster as three astronauts die in a capsule fire. And here and now, on a long nighttime ferry ride back home, he will meet and fall in love with a mysterious young woman who carries a past deeper and more profound than his dreams and fears of tomorrow. Her name, she jokes, is no name—Emanon, and she can never be forgotten, any more than she can forget.



Tags: Seinen , Philosophy , Female Protagonist , Memory Manipulation , Reincarnation , Heterosexual , Historical , Amnesia , Time Skip , Travel , Environmental , Nudity , Ships , Super Power , Autobiographical

Mononoke

Also known as Mononoke.

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

The story is about a man who is a medicine seller. He hunts mononoke (demons) and kills them by using a sword. However, before unsheathing his sword he first needs to learn of the form (katachi), the truth behind the human tragedies (makoto) and the reason behind the evils (kotowari) that gave birth to it before killing the demon.

Tags: Seinen , Historical , Demons , Swordplay , Oiran

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

Tongari Boushi no Atelier

Also known as Witch Hat Atelier.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Fantasy

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: she wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch … until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem...



Notes:
Nominated for the 11th Manga Taishou Award in 2018.
Won the Daruma d'Or at Japan Expo in 2019.
Won Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia at the Eisner Awards in 2020.
Won the Best Manga Award at the Harvey Awards in 2020.

Tags: Witch , Magic , Memory Manipulation , Female Protagonist , Teacher , Drawing , Revenge , Coming of Age , Ensemble Cast , Primarily Female Cast , School , Primarily Child Cast , Conspiracy , Tragedy , Politics , Disability , Philosophy , Seinen , Spearplay , Rehabilitation , Foreign , Amnesia , Travel , LGBTQ+ Themes , Iyashikei , Boys' Love , Found Family

Fumetsu no Anata e

Also known as To Your Eternity.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Fantasy , Psychological , Supernatural

A lonely boy wandering the Arctic regions of North America meets a wolf, and the two become fast friends, depending on each other to survive the harsh environment. But the boy has a history, and the wolf is more than meets the eye as well …



Tags: Tragedy , Shapeshifting , Coming of Age , Philosophy , Time Skip , Outdoor , Ensemble Cast , Dissociative Identities , Survival , Urban Fantasy , Ghost , Cosmic Horror , Denpa , Shounen , Agender , Travel , Gore , Yandere , Bullying , Suicide , Age Regression , Male Protagonist , Language Barrier , Animals , LGBTQ+ Themes , Nudity , Urban , Female Protagonist , Boys' Love

Suiiki

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

In the midst of a blazing hot summer beset by water shortages, middle-school girl Chinami faints from heat exhaustion. Upon waking up, she finds herself in a mysterious town by a beautifully pristine river whose waters hide many secrets...



Tags: Seinen , Rural , Time Manipulation , Ghost , Historical , Female Protagonist