Manga like Barbara Ikai

Terra e...

Also known as To Terra....

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

A few days before Atalaxian Jomy Marcus Shin's Awakening Day, he has a strange dream of a young blue-haired man. This young man is Soldier Blue, the leader of a group of psionic humans called Mu. The Mu have been fighting for generations for the right to survive against the humans who want them all killed, and have been dreaming to go back to the old homeland - Terra - the old Earth. Little does Jomy know that his awakening is the Mu's last chance - can he unlock his own powers and lead the Mu back to Terra?



Tags: Space , Fugitive , Space Opera , Artificial Intelligence , Shounen , Male Protagonist , Super Power , Reincarnation , War , Tragedy

Boku no Chikyuu wo Mamotte

Also known as Please Save My Earth.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Romance , Sci-Fi

Life's hard when you're shy, harder still when you move from your quiet hometown to the bustle of a big city and a new high school. Poor Alice also has to cope with being regularly harassed by the bratty neighbor boy, Rin. Her life turns upside-down when she's stuck babysitting Rin and the annoying chore ends in unexpected tragedy. What Alice doesn't realize is there could be a greater force at work than unhappy chance!



Tags: Space , Reincarnation , Shoujo , Body Swapping , Aliens , Female Protagonist , Amnesia , Urban Fantasy , Philosophy , War , Super Power , Heterosexual , Age Gap , Tragedy , Boys' Love , Urban , Environmental , Revenge , Unrequited Love , Nudity , LGBTQ+ Themes

A: A'

Also known as A, A'.

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

A volume of short sci-fi shoujo stories all featuring a new race of humans called Unicorns. The major theme in all of the stories are about human emotions. As the characters in the story try to interact and relate to these Unicorns who lack a lot of the natural emotions humans normally feel.

The story A, A' raises a troubling question: how would you feel if your lover died—and was replaced by a clone? Could you recreate your relationship with someone who was physically exactly the same but didn't share any memories of your life together?

In 4/4, teenaged Mori flunks out of an ESP training program. But when he meets Trill, a beautiful Unicorn, his latent abilities begin to blossom...

In X+Y, Hagio uses science fiction to explore questions of gender and sexual identity. Time has passed, and once again, Mori finds himself inexorably attracted to a member of the unicorn race - but this unicorn is male... and so is Mori.

Tags: Shoujo , Gender Bending , Clone , Space , Tragedy , Super Power , Anthology , Boys' Love , Bisexual , LGBTQ+ Themes

Star Red

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

At the end of the 23rd Century, a girl stares at a red star in the sky. Her name happens to be Red Star, born on Mars. The series tells of Red's adventures at the center of the Milky Way.

Note: Won Seiun Award 1980 in manga category.

Tags: Shoujo , Space , Female Protagonist , Ensemble Cast , Tragedy , Gender Bending , Reincarnation , Super Power

11-nin Iru!

Also known as They Were 11!.

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

They Were 11 is about ten Galactic University recruits who have passed many levels only to be given one final test. They are told to travel to an ancient spaceship and live there, together, for fifty-three days. This is not a problem until the ten recruits, hailing from diverse backgrounds and planets, discover that there are actually eleven of them on the ship. In fact, this problem turns out to be the test, as they have to trust each other in order to survive, even though one of them is an impostor.



Note: Won the 21st Shogakukan Manga Award for Shoujo in 1975.

Tags: Shoujo , Space , LGBTQ+ Themes , Survival , Aliens , Agender , Primarily Male Cast , Ensemble Cast , Transgender , Memory Manipulation , Adoption

Himitsu: Top Secret

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

It's the 2060s, and Japan has perfected the "MRI System," a piece of neurotechnology that, when given the brain of a person who died within the past 48 hours, can analyze the visual memories contained within; even being able to give scientists a look into what the deceased saw in their final moments. Needless to say, this is a highly regarded – and greatly feared – method that has been placed under stringent restrictions and is only authorized for use by a special police unit, Section Nine, for the investigation of baffling or high-profile crimes.

Aoki Ikkou is a talented newbie who has just been assigned to Section Nine. He initially has qualms about delving into people's most private moments and analyzing their darkest fears and fantasies, but as he settles in with his teammates and warms up to his boss, the highly intelligent Maki Tsuyoshi, he becomes more and more competent at his job.

Though quick to develop pride in his career, Aoki still struggles to balance his family relationships and love life with his demanding workload, further complicated when he's drawn into the dark past and murky circumstances surrounding the outwardly cool and self-controlled but internally tormented Maki.

Note: Won an Excellence Award for manga at the 15th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2011.

Tags: Tragedy , Shoujo , Police , Primarily Male Cast , Detective , Crime , Male Protagonist , Episodic , Conspiracy , Gore , Espionage , Suicide , Nudity , Primarily Adult Cast , Urban

Marginal

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

In the year 2999, only eleven cities still survive on Earth. The climate has changed drastically, and a biochemical apocalypse has made women extinct. For centuries, the male population of Earth has survived by depending on only one woman, called the Holy Mother, whose ova are harvested to create genetically engineered children. By now, any concept of a world in which women exist as ordinary people is long gone. Society has re-structured itself around all-male families, and gay relationships have become the norm.

At the beginning of Marginal, the Holy Mother is assassinated by a terrorist known as Grinja. The government in power doesn't want to start a mass panic, so it pretends that the Holy Mother has only shed her vessel, and that she will be miraculously "reborn" in the near future. The public, which is superstitious and devout, believes this easily. Only government officials know that behind the scenes, there is a frantic effort to create a new being with an XXY chromosome -- a male capable of giving birth. (This is a BL misrepresentation of an actual phenomenon known as Klinefelter's Syndrome.)

The manga's story revolves around one such boy -- Kira, the product of a genetic experiment, who becomes involved in a three-way relationship with Grinja, the aforementioned terrorist, and Ashijin, a young man who calls himself Kira's owner. A complex plot and flawless world-building make the story irresistible, and Kira's search for freedom is as symbolic as it is gripping.



Tags: Dystopian , Boys' Love , Primarily Male Cast , Post-Apocalyptic , Terrorism , Shoujo , Clone , Slavery , Amnesia , Religion , Nudity , Desert

Limbo the King

Also known as King in Limbo.

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

It's been eight years since the pandemic in which a deadly sleeping sickness claimed millions of lives. After a serious injury cost him a leg (and, nearly, his life), Petty Officer Adam Garfield retires from active service in the U.S. Navy. But his plan to focus on his family and physical therapy is shattered when he receives secret word that the sleeping sickness has returned, and it's his job to bring back the mysterious man who helped cure it by diving into people's memories—a man known by the codename "King."



Tags: Josei , Male Protagonist , Pandemic , Foreign , Military , Disability

Kanata no Astra

Also known as Astra Lost in Space.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama , Mystery , Sci-Fi

Itʼs the first day of Planet Camp, and Aries Spring couldnʼt be more excited! She, along with eight other strangers, leave for Planet McPa for a weeklong excursion. Soon after they arrive, however, a mysterious orb appears and transports them into the depths of space, where they find an empty floating spaceship…



Notes:
Includes 4 sets of bonus pages, where each set is considered a chapter; Volumes 2 - 5 each contain a set.
Won the Manga Taisho Award 2019.
Nominated to the 23rd Annual Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.

Tags: Space , Conspiracy , Survival , Found Family , Ensemble Cast , Coming of Age , Clone , Shounen , Transgender , Tragedy , LGBTQ+ Themes , Aliens , Alternate Universe , Agender , Adoption , Nudity