Manga like Souin Gyokusai seyo!

COCOON

Also known as cocoon.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

A heart-wrenching chronicle of loss and resilience based on the true story of the Himeyuri corps of student nurses in WWII.

San and her best friend Mayu attend a boarding school for girls in Okinawa, but their studies are interrupted when they and the other students are recruited to help the war effort as assistant nurses. Sent to the front lines, the girls must deal with more than just the threat of enemy bombs overhead. Stuck working in the horrifying caves of a field hospital, San wishes she could wrap herself and her friends in a cocoon of protection. But invisible threads of affection are no match for the carnage that surrounds them, and day by day, more students perish. Worn down by starvation and loss, what will San and her remaining friends do when they are told to find their way home through the fields of total war?



Tags: War , Tragedy , Historical , Survival , Female Protagonist , Josei , LGBTQ+ Themes , Suicide , Gore , Rural , Primarily Female Cast , Crossdressing , Primarily Teen Cast , Medicine

Hadashi no Gen

Also known as Barefoot Gen.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

1945, Japan. Gen Nakaoka is a spirited six-year-old boy who lives with his poor yet loving family in wartime Hiroshima. As the second World War rages on, Gen's father Daikichi stands among the few outspoken who are opposed to the emperor and stand for the innocent civilians bearing the brunt of the war. However, in a society with nothing but feverous support for their nation, Gen and his family are ostracized as traitors. Unbeknownst to them, a terrible fate awaits the people of Hiroshima...

One quiet morning, the US forces drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. In an instant, the city is completely destroyed, leaving thousands dead and many more exposed to radiation. Though Gen manages to survive the blast, he finds his life irreversibly changed. Regrouping with what's left of his family, Gen must now grapple with starvation, destitution, and an unsympathetic public who see survivors as little more than disease-ridden beggars.

Based on author Keiji Nakazawa's real-life experiences, Hadashi no Gen follows Gen and his fellow survivors in their struggle to survive in post-war Hiroshima. Gen resolves to soldier on with unwavering determination, while never forgiving those who caused the atrocity, never forgetting the pain of the bomb, and never letting his spirit be broken by the tragedy.

Tags: Tragedy , Historical , Delinquents , War , Found Family , Autobiographical , Gore , Adoption , Male Protagonist , Body Horror , Coming of Age , Crime , Shounen

Nonnonba to Ore

Also known as NonNonBa.

Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life , Supernatural

Autobiographical tale in which Mizuki narrates the memories of his childhood in the decade of 1930, in Sakaiminato, a small coastal town at the southwest Japan. With nostalgia and tenderness, the mangaka narrates his first years of life within a modest family, the fights with his friends,the school and his first loves. The title character of the book, NonNonBa, is an old mystical and superstitious woman by which Shigeru discovers the world of yokai, supernatural beings and grotesque bestiary of medieval Japanese.

Won Best Album at the 2007 Angoulême International Comics Festival.

Tags: Autobiographical , Youkai , Historical , Coming of Age , Rural , Fairy Tale , Gangs , Urban Fantasy

Peleliu: Rakuen no Guernica

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

Peleliu - Rakuen no Guernica follows the daily lives of Japanese soldiers taking part in the Battle of Peleliu during World War II: a high-casualty, months-long campaign. The main character, Tamaru, dreams of returning home to become a mangaka, and sees their island outpost as a wild paradise that can one day be used as a setting for one of his stories. Most of his comrades, however, are prepared for the more realistic scenario -- that they will not be leaving Peleliu alive.

Note: Nominated to the 25th Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.

Tags: Historical , War , Military , Tragedy , Gore , Body Horror , Drawing , Disability , Seinen

Boku no Isshou wa Gegege no Rakuen da: Manga Mizuki Shigeru Jijoden

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

Shigeru Mizuki's autobiography on 1500 pages in six volumes.

Tags: Historical , Autobiographical , War , Youkai , Seinen

Showa-Shi

Also known as Showa: A History of Japan.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

When the Showa Era began, Mizuki himself was just a few years old, so his earliest memories coincide with the earliest events of the Era. With his trusty narrator Rat Man, Mizuki brings history into the realm of the personal, making it palatable, and indeed compelling, for young audiences as well as more mature readers. As he describes the militarization that leads up to World War II, Mizuki’s stance toward war is thoughtful and often downright critical – his portrayal of the Nanjing Massacre clearly paints the incident (a disputed topic within Japan) as an atrocity. Mizuki’s Showa is a beautifully told history that tracks how technological developments and the country’s shifting economic stability had a role in shaping Japan’s foreign policy in the early twentieth century.



Tags: Historical , Autobiographical , War , Educational , Politics , Non-fiction

Ginyoku: Tsubasa

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Towards the end of World War II, Japanese multiplied suicide attacks against the enemy. TSUBASA retraces the last days of one of its kamikaze drivers. A beautiful story, painful and poignant signed Ayumi Tachihara.

Source : Panini Comics

Tags: Seinen , Historical

Suna no Tsurugi

Also known as Sword of Sand.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Suna no Tsurugi is a collection of stories that take place at the end of WWII. Susumu Higa gives us an inside look at the battle of Okinawa, from the first signs to the aftermath, through different points of view of inhabitants, soldiers, Japanese and American, in this war where there is neither good nor evil, neither good nor bad, only a cruel sense of absurdity. The men are in turn overwhelmingly stupid, full of wisdom or infinitely touching by their humanity. Because Higa's work has something deeply generous, which is also felt in his simple and precise lines.



Tags: Anthology , Biographical , Historical , War , Military

Shirahata no Shoujo

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

April 1945, Okinawa. While Japan has been at war for some time now, the small tropical island of Japan still seems untouched by conflict. It is there that little Tomiko lives in joy and good humor, despite the absence of her mother. However, when the bombing begins and her father has to go to the warfront, her daily life changes. Now, she will have to survive... survive against all odds!!

Tags: War , Survival , Autobiographical , Historical , Female Protagonist , Shoujo , Gore

Kinoko Takenoko

Also known as Mushroom Bamboo Shoot.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Psychological

A war breaks out between two feuding countries.

Tags: Seinen , War , Military , Tragedy , Philosophy