Manga like Planetes

Uchuu Kyoudai

Also known as Space Brothers.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Sci-Fi , Slice of Life

Two brothers looked to the starry skies as children and made a promise ... Now, in the year 2025, the younger brother, Hibito, is carrying his out. He is an astronaut who has been selected as a crew member for mankind’s first long-term base on the moon. Meanwhile, the older brother, Mutta, has just been fired from his job and is unemployed, but decides to trust himself just one last time. A text message from Hibito sends him applying to be an astronaut too and shooting for the stars …



Notes:
Nominated for the 2nd and 3rd Manga Taisho Award
Won the 56th Shogakukan Manga Award
Won the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in the General Category.

Tags: Space , Educational , Seinen , Work , Astronomy , Ensemble Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Male Protagonist , Foreign , Tragedy , Aviation , Time Skip , Episodic , Iyashikei , Nudity

Vinland Saga

Also known as Vinland Saga.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Adventure , Drama

As a child, Thorfinn sat at the feet of the great Leif Ericson and thrilled to wild tales of a land far to the west. But his youthful fantasies were shattered by a mercenary raid. Raised by the Vikings who murdered his father, Thorfinn became a terrifying warrior, forever seeking to kill the band's leader, Askeladd, and avenge his father. Sustaining Thorfinn through his ordeal are his pride in his family and his dreams of a fertile westward land, a land without war or slavery … the land Leif called Vinland.



Notes:
Won the Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival in 2009.
Winner of the 36th Kodansha Manga Award in the General category in 2012.

Tags: Historical , Coming of Age , Vikings , Rehabilitation , Foreign , Male Protagonist , Philosophy , Seinen , War , Revenge , Tragedy , Travel , Found Family , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Male Cast , Slavery , Time Skip , Gore , Politics , Swordplay , Ships , Parenthood , Anti-Hero , Rural , Pirates , Agriculture , Environmental , Achronological Order , Religion , Language Barrier , Heterosexual , Adoption , Nudity , Tomboy , Medieval , Archery , Transgender , LGBTQ+ Themes , Wilderness , Indigenous Cultures

Sayonara ga Chikai no de

Also known as For Our Farewell Is Near.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama

"This whole thing about killing, living and dying, do you think you really need to have a reason?"

This story is located in the historical period known as "The Boshin War" (戊辰戦争, Boshin Sensō, "War of the Year of the Dragon"), or Restoration, during the years 1868 and 1869. This civil war had as actors main, on the one hand, to the defenders of the Shogunate Takegawa or Bakufu, and on the other to the Ishin-shishi, who wished to restore the authority of the Emperor, who had subordinated himself to the Shogun since the battle of Sekigahara, in the year 1600.

The Shogun was supported by many Samurai groups, the most famous being the Shinsengumi, originally created to ensure safety within the city of Kyoto.

This story revolves around Okita Soji, member of the Shinsengumi; One of the most famous swordsmen in Japan. The historical facts that are mentioned in this manga are real.

Tags: Seinen , Historical , Samurai , War , Primarily Adult Cast , Tragedy , Male Protagonist

Dosei Mansion

Also known as Saturn Apartments.

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

Far in the future, humankind has evacuated the Earth in order to preserve it. Humans now reside in a gigantic structure that forms a ring around the Earth, thirty-five kilometers up in the sky. The society of the ring is highly stratified: the higher the floor, the greater the status. Mitsu, the lowly son of a window washer, has just graduated junior high. When his father disappears and is assumed dead, Mitsu must take on his father's occupation. As he struggles with the transition to working life, Mitsu's job treats him to an outsider's view into the various living-room dioramas of the Saturn Apartments.



Tags: Seinen , Space , Coming of Age , Found Family , Class Struggle , Work , Male Protagonist , Ensemble Cast , Iyashikei , Episodic , Urban Fantasy

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 , Male Protagonist , Aliens , Alternate Universe , LGBTQ+ Themes , Adoption , Agender , Wilderness , Nudity

Kokou no Hito

Also known as The Climber.

Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Psychological , Sports

On his first day of transferring to a new high school, a loner named Mori Buntarou, is cajoled by a classmate into climbing the school building. Despite knowing that one misstep could send him spiraling to his death, he moves forward, and upon finally reaching the top, Mori experiences a sense of fulfillment. That feeling, which seems to be telling him, "You're alive!" gives birth to an adrenaline for rock-climbing.

Tags: Outdoor Activities , Coming of Age , Seinen , Tragedy , Travel , Mountaineering , Male Protagonist , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Survival , Hikikomori , Wilderness , Time Skip , Fitness , Suicide , Anti-Hero , Dissociative Identities , Foreign , Delinquents , School , Nudity , School Club

2001-ya Monogatari

Also known as 2001 Nights.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Sci-Fi

A collection of short stories that look to mankind's exploration of space, and examine the possibilities that we could face when we decide to take those first fateful steps into the unknown.

Tags: Space , Seinen , Primarily Adult Cast , Philosophy , Astronomy , Artificial Intelligence , Environmental , Politics , Educational , Tragedy , Terrorism , Nudity , Heterosexual , Time Skip , Religion , Time Manipulation , Space Opera

Futatsu no Spica

Also known as Twin Spica.

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

In a Tokyo of the not-too-distant future a young girl looks up to the stars with melancholy in her heart and hope in her eyes. Thirteen-year-old Asumi Kamogawa’s life has been tied to those stars; her future may very well be among them. And she is not alone... Asumi is one of many young people with ambitions to some day head off to space for Japan’s first manned mission.

Before liftoff, like any true astronaut she must show the right stuff and overcome odds to pass numerous physical and mental trials if she even wants to be considered in the running for a rare spot in the elite Tokyo Space School.



Tags: Space , Coming of Age , Female Protagonist , Astronomy , Tragedy , Ghost , School , Afterlife , Seinen , Clone

Stardust Memories

Status: Finished
Genres: Sci-Fi

Stardust Memories is a short story compilation of human beings in the distant future where we have traveled deep into space. Each story describes a moral dilemma that people traveling in space may experience which is something that we have yet to determine in the current world.

Stardust Memories talk about such problems as the implications of having people travel for years, even decades, in the cold, quiet and endless universe. A different story tells on how human presence in a foreign galaxy will affect the environment. The topics the author decides to write about are interesting and makes you wonder about the future.

Tags: Anthology , Space , Seinen , Philosophy , Astronomy , Aliens , Cosmic Horror , Nudity , Space Opera

Jupiteria

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

Tags: Seinen , Space