Manga like Watashi no Shounen

Shounen wo Kau

Also known as Taking in a Stray.

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

Ai Morikawa lives for her work. Pulling overtime and getting home past midnight is business as usual for this Tokyo career woman. She barely has time to catch the last train every night, let alone go chasing after a potential husband. One night, an extraordinarily pretty 16-year-old boy named Nagisa shows up on Ai's doorstep, and she takes him in. Her acquaintance with Nagisa, a boy as eccentric and aloof as a cat, slowly begins to change Ai's routine... This unconventional family drama is guaranteed to soothe your heart!



Tags: Age Gap , Iyashikei , Heterosexual , Drawing , Seinen

Koi wa Ameagari no You ni

Also known as After the Rain.

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

Akira Tachibana. 17 years old, high school junior. Akira, awkward when it comes to expressing her feelings, finds herself secretly falling for the manager of the family restaurant where she works, one Masami Kondo, age 45. The curtain rises on the small love story that begins to unfold between Akira, stuck standing on the crossroads of adolescence, and Kondo, at the turning point of his own life…



Notes:
Includes one extra chapter.
Won the 63rd Shogakukan Manga Award in the General Category.
The publishing rights of the manga got acquired by Shueisha on 2025, and the first volume of its Shinsouban got published on April 17th, 2025.

Tags: Age Gap , Work , Athletics , Rehabilitation , Coming of Age , Writing , Female Protagonist , Seinen , Unrequited Love , School Club , Heterosexual , Restaurant , School , Tragedy , Classic Literature

Rental Onii-chan

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

After the death of her parents, Kanami Tachibana's once kind older brother suddenly changes for the worse, leaving her to fend for herself. When Makoto Asahi finds her like this, he offers up to become a brother to her. Kanami, feeling the kindness she once felt with her brother and scared to forget her sibling, offers to pay him money for this deed. As their bond strenghtens and Kanami gets to see more of the world than ever, will she get back the kind brother she once loved?

Tags: Tragedy , Family Life , Hikikomori , Female Protagonist , Rehabilitation , Male Protagonist , Bullying , Found Family , Shounen , School

Musume no Tomodachi

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance , Slice of Life

Kosuke has lived to play the ideal self as a father at home and as a manager at work. However, his life changes 180 degrees when he meets his daughter’s friend. In front of her, Kosuke was able to be his real self and his worn-out heart was healed. However, he knows that these are feelings that should never be held. The story of the middle-aged man meeting a young girl, presented to the modern people who suppress themselves in society, begins.

Tags: Age Gap , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Estranged Family , Female Protagonist , Philosophy , Heterosexual , Tragedy , Work , Office , Urban , Hikikomori , School , Primarily Female Cast , Primarily Adult Cast

Shounen no Ato

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

A woman bad with kids, and a boy bad with people, find themselves living together after losing their "Beloved". Living out in the boonies in a snow-covered village, they only have each other to hold on to in their comisery, despite the friction between them. And when the boy, Fuusuke, asks Suzuka for "Blood"...



Note: Chapter count includes 3 extras.

Tags: Vampire , Age Gap , Rural , Adoption , Tragedy , Snowscape , Bisexual , Female Protagonist

Yankee Shota to Otaku Onee-san

Also known as YanOta: The Delinquent and the Otaku.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Romance

Saeki Kazuko is your average adult otaku who also happens to dislike men and delinquents. Yet her neighbor, Aikawa Ryuou, is a delinquent grade schooler who won't leave her alone! Her peaceful otaku days are in danger, but is there a reason for it?

Tags: Age Gap , Otaku Culture , Delinquents , Heterosexual , Tsundere , Shoujo , Slapstick

Asako

Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life

“Asako” depicts the relationship between an 11-year-old boy living in a seaside fishing village, Masashi Aoshima, and a mysterious beauty, Asako, who came to stay at his guest house from Tokyo.

Tags: Seinen , Age Gap , Coming of Age , Bullying , Nudity , Heterosexual , Rural , Time Skip

Asper Kanojo

Also known as That's My Atypical Girl.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance , Slice of Life

Yokoi is a manga artist who spends his nights delivering newspapers just to make rent, since his original works just don’t seem to sell. Suddenly, one day he gets a visit from Saito-san, a self-proclaimed fan of Yokoi’s work who made the long journey to meet him. Yokoi quickly realizes that the things Saito-san sees, feels, and thinks about are different from most people… These two struggle together to find a place to belong in this unique slice-of-life!



Note: Original serialization ran for 123 chapters. These were then combined to make up 100 chapters in the volume releases.

Tags: Primarily Adult Cast , Rehabilitation , Disability , Suicide , Bullying , Heterosexual , Seinen , Philosophy , Psychosexual , Drawing , Male Protagonist , Writing , Estranged Family , Female Protagonist , Language Barrier , Tragedy

Natsu no Zenjitsu

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

The only thing in Tetsuo's mind is art. The beauty, the nature, and the quality of art. One woman watches him handle his art. Her name is Akira. She watches as he constantly tries to draw day after day, and she oversees the completion of his work at a local art exhibition. Akira apparently has become interested in Tetsuo's love for art and his work. One rainy night, Tetsuo notices that Akira left her umbrella and he decides to deliver it to her. He finds her and gives her the umbrella and doesn't use it as he claims that the umbrella isn't his. As Tetsuo leaves, Akira tells him to wait. He turns around and finds Akira bringing her lips towards his... Love has bloomed in the middle of a rainy night.

Includes bonus chapters for each volume:
Volume 1 has a 3 page extra.
Volume 2 has extra "A Manga Artist's Cruel Tale"
Volume 3 has extra "Nyatsu no Zenjitsu" (にやつの前日)
Volume 4 has side story "Kirei na Keshiki Misete Ageru!" (きれいな景色見せてあげる!, I'll Show You A Beautiful Landscape) and extra "Catering To Each Other's Fetishes".
Volume 5 has an omake and two side stories, "Toshikoshi no Omoide" (年越しのおもいで, Memories of New Year's) and "2-gatsu 14-nichi no Omoide" (2月14日のおもいで, Memories of February 14th).

Tags: College , Drawing , Work , Seinen , Age Gap , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Nudity

Otoyomegatari

Also known as A Bride's Story.

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

A Bride’s Story tells the tale of a beautiful young bride in nineteenth-century Asia. At the age of twenty, Amir is sent to a neighboring town to be wed. But her surprise at learning her new husband, Karluk, is eight years younger than her is quickly replaced by a deep affection for the boy and his family. Though she hails from just beyond the mountains, Amir’s clan had very different customs, foods, and clothes from what Karluk is used to. As the two of them learn more about each other through their day-to-day lives, the bond of respect and love grows stronger.



Note: Won the Prix Intergénérations ("Intergenerational Award") at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2012 and the 7th Manga Taishou award in 2014.

Tags: Ensemble Cast , Historical , Marriage , Female Protagonist , Heterosexual , Travel , Seinen , Foreign , Indigenous Cultures , Arranged Marriage , Iyashikei , Desert , Environmental , Family Life , Age Gap , Educational , War , Cohabitation , Rural , Matchmaking , Middle East , Military , Food , Religion , Unrequited Love , Language Barrier , Twins , Archery , Nudity , Animals , Female Harem , Polyamorous , LGBTQ+ Themes , Large Breasts