Manga like Nanji, Hoshi no Gotoku

Kono Setsugen de Kimi ga Zutto Waratteirareru You ni

Also known as Snow Angel.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

Muku Shiroshika’s happy and carefree childhood comes to an abrupt end after her father’s tragic death. In the ten years since, she’s worked a thankless job as a caregiver for her dementia-suffering grandfather. Between taking care of her family, searching for a job, and enduring her grandmother’s constant criticism, Muku finds herself drowning. She’s desperate to escape, but with nowhere to go, Muku loses hope. That is, until her childhood friend Yuto appears on her doorstep one snowy day and inspires her to live for herself.



Note: Includes three extra chapters.

Tags: Primarily Adult Cast , Female Protagonist , Shoujo , Found Family , Heterosexual , Snowscape , Rural , Time Skip

Yojouhan no Ibara-hime

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance

Shinra Kobayashi is a poor girl with no parents or friends to rely on. She has given up on high school life, believing that love and youth to be unaffordable luxuries, but her life begins to change when three boys appear on the scene.

Tags: Male Harem , Shoujo , Female Protagonist , Heterosexual , Primarily Teen Cast , Urban , Tsundere , Rehabilitation

Sunadokei

Also known as Sand Chronicles.

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

After her parents get divorced, Ann Uekusa and her mother move from Tokyo to rural Shimane. Accustomed to the anonymity of city living, Ann can't get used to the almost overbearing kindness of the people in her mother's hometown. But when personal tragedy strikes, Ann discovers how much she needs that kindness.



Notes:
Won the 50th Shogakukan Manga Award for shoujo manga in 2005 and was adapted into a movie in 2008.
Includes six bonus chapters.

Tags: Female Protagonist , Coming of Age , Rural , Shoujo , Tragedy , Suicide , Heterosexual , Love Triangle , Time Skip , Unrequited Love

Studio Cabana

Also known as Studio Cabana.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Music , Romance

Yukari Maki is a high school girl who prides herself on honesty—and she’s starting to get the feeling that she and her delinquent classmate, Yusuke Kusaka, don’t have a single thing in common! But her straitlaced unwillingness to let him skate by in school earns her an almost chaperone-like reputation, and his apparent disdain. Yet, despite Yusuke’s disapproval of her hovering, Yukari refuses to let a new rumor about him spread. After following Yusuke home to discuss it, she watches him stop at a music studio. And there, Yukari sees—and hears—a side of Yusuke she had never imagined…



Tags: Band , Shoujo , Heterosexual , Age Gap , Love Triangle , Coming of Age , Unrequited Love , Female Protagonist , School , LGBTQ+ Themes , Delinquents , Nudity

Tsuka no Ma no Ichika

Also known as A Brief Moment of Ichika.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

At the age of 16, Ichika Sendawara learned that she only had two years left to live. Now a sophomore college student, she lives a busy, upbeat life, despite never knowing when the end will come.

Everything changes when Ichika meets Professor Yurugi—for the first time, she feels she has something to live for. But then Yurugi quietly leaves the university, and Ichika is left wondering why, and what could have been...

A gentle love story that grapples with the deepest existential questions we face in life. As the Shuji Terayama poem quoted in the text says, "If life is nothing but goodbyes, who needs life?"



Note: Includes two extra chapters.

Tags: Tragedy , Age Gap , Heterosexual , Philosophy , Primarily Adult Cast , Shoujo

Cappuccino

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

A bittersweet love story about the life of Kojima Ari and Fujitani Sousuke as they live together in a de facto relationship (without marriage) in modern-day Japan.



Tags: Josei , Primarily Adult Cast , Female Protagonist , Age Gap , Heterosexual

Housekibako ni Ai wo Tsumeyou

Also known as Keepsake Heartache.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Romance

At five, she started humming melodies. At ten, she found her treasure. At 14, her world lost its spark. At 17, she starts to hear the music again. Mone Tsukimori, a slightly cheeky high schooler, has someone she can never forget. What is Mone’s past that only Anji-sempai knows...?



Tags: Female Protagonist , Shoujo , Heterosexual , Primarily Teen Cast , School , Band , Tragedy

Inu to Sandbag

Also known as Dogs and Punching Bags.

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

After leaving her isolating life in Tokyo, 34-year-old Nichiko returns to her remote island hometown for her estranged alcoholic father's final days. There she meets Chimaki, an eccentric young man who stirs up old memories and feelings Nichiko had all but decided she no longer deserved. But despite his puppy-like enthusiasm for life, Chimaki's almost obsessive need to rescue people and animals seems to be compensating for an unspeakable past.



Tags: Rural , Seinen , Heterosexual , Love Triangle , Netori