Manga like River's Edge

Hibari no Asa

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

Teshima Hibari is a 14 year old girl with a body that is more sensual than most girls her age. Her story includes the opinions and reactions of all of the people around her, as well as the actions of her own life. The chapters explore the thoughts and feelings of classmates and adults, men and women. The males often have romantic or sexual feelings for Hibari, while the women sometimes have feelings of inferiority or jealousy. Whether positive or negative, it seems everyone has a reaction to Hibari.



Tags: Josei , Tragedy , Coming of Age , Female Protagonist , POV , Philosophy , Psychosexual , Bullying , Survival , School , Ensemble Cast , Suicide , Urban , Heterosexual

not simple

Also known as not simple.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Ian, a young man with a fractured family history, travels from Australia to England to America in the hope of realizing his dreams and reuniting with his beloved sister. His story unfolds backwards through the framing narrative of Jim, a reporter driven to capture Ian’s experiences in a novel: not simple. A story within a story, a book within a book, a tale about the search for family, for an emotional home.



Tags: Tragedy , Coming of Age , Achronological Order , Seinen , Foreign , Writing , LGBTQ+ Themes , Travel , Boys' Love , Estranged Family , Male Protagonist

My Broken Mariko

Also known as My Broken Mariko.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

Tomoyo Shiino has stood by her friend Mariko through years of abuse, abandonment, and depression. However horrific her circumstances, their friendship has been the one reassuring constant in Mariko's life-and Tomoyo's too. That is, until Tomoyo is utterly blindsided by news of Mariko's death. In life, Tomoyo felt powerless to help her best friend out of the darkness that ultimately drove her over the edge. Now, Tomoyo is determined to liberate Mariko's ashes for one final journey together... to set free her dear, broken Mariko.



Notes:
Includes the one-shot "YISKA".
includes the extra "Home Sweet Home!".

Tags: Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Suicide , Yuri , Josei , Primarily Adult Cast , Coming of Age , Primarily Female Cast , Philosophy , Rehabilitation , LGBTQ+ Themes

pink

Also known as Pink.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama

Pink is a manga about a Japanese girl named Yumi, a beautiful girl in her early 20s. During the day, Yumi works as a regular office lady, but by night, she works as a prostitute. Yumi needs her two jobs to make ends meet. She also needs the extra income to feed her unusual pet, a crocodile, which she keeps in her apartment. Working in an office is quite normal for young Japanese women, but keeping a pet crocodile, and being a prostitute makes Yumi stand out. In truth, few girls are like Yumi, however, many readers can empathize with her. Young women love their "something," symbolized by her pet crocodile, and they can also identify with Yumi's "wild at heart" nature.

Tags: Josei , Prostitution , Female Protagonist , Nudity , Tragedy , Heterosexual , Urban , Primarily Adult Cast , Animals , Office Lady , Work

Aku no Hana

Also known as The Flowers of Evil.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance

The story opens as middle school student Takao Kasuga receives an F on a math test. But he doesn't even seem to notice because he's too engrossed in surreptitiously reading Beaudelaire's The Flowers of Evil. And the day goes downhill from there. In a moment of weakness, he finds and takes home the gym clothes belonging to sweet, pretty Nanako Saeki on whom he has a major crush. Unfortunately for Takao, there's a witness to the theft: Nakamura, who has a huge chip on her shoulder and a sadistic streak.

As the saga unfolds, we see Takao struggling to decide whether to confess or cover up his misdeeds at the same time that he tries to win over the girl of his dreams, and avoid the blackmail attempts of Nakamura, his new ”BFF.”

Smart, funny, and emotionally engaging, The Flowers of Evil introduces a character who's not a hero, but just an ordinary teenager in search of true love and real friendship.



Note: Includes 1 extra chapter.

Tags: Coming of Age , Psychosexual , Philosophy , Denpa , Love Triangle , School , Rehabilitation , Classic Literature , Tragedy , Time Skip , Shounen , Male Protagonist , Sadism , Bullying , Suicide , Female Protagonist , Writing , Rural , Urban , Heterosexual , Blackmail , Nudity , Crossdressing

Nijigahara Holograph

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

Even as butterflies ominously proliferate in town, the rumour of a mysterious creature lurking in the tunnel behind the school spreads among the children. When the body of Arie Kimura's mother is found by this tunnel's entrance, next to apparently human traces, the legend seems to be confirmed. Is the end of the world coming? In order to appease the wrath of the beast, the children decide to offer it a sacrifice: The unfortunate Arie, whom they believe to be the cause of the curse, is shoved into a well that leads to the Nijigahara tunnel—an act that in turns pushes Komatsuzaki, the budding thug who has carried a torch for Arie for a while already, entirely over the edge.

But this is only the beginning of the complex, challenging, obliquely told Nijigahara Holograph, which takes place in two separate timelines and involves the suicidal Suzuki; Higure, his stalker-ish would-be girlfriend; their teacher Miss Sakaki, whose heavily bandaged face remains a mystery; and many more―brothers, sisters, parents, co-workers, teachers, aggressors and victims who are all inextricably linked to one another and all will eventually―ten years later―have to live with what they've done or suffered through.



Tags: Achronological Order , Denpa , Philosophy , Seinen , Tragedy , Ensemble Cast , Coming of Age , Religion , Suicide , Crime , Bullying , Male Protagonist , Adoption , Twins , Nudity , Heterosexual , Police , Detective

Nora to Zassou

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

Following the death of his daughter, Assistant Inspector Yamada Hajime has lost hope in everything, and jobs like closing under-aged prostitution rings don't exactly help matters. But there he meets a girl who looks alarmingly like his late daughter. Her name is Umino Shiori, a runaway girl who's desperate enough to sell herself to escape her house but won't tell anyone why.

Tags: Coming of Age , Seinen , Survival , Female Protagonist , Tragedy , Police , Fugitive , Drawing , School , Crime , Found Family

Oyasumi Punpun

Also known as Goodnight Punpun.

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

Meet Punpun Punyama. He’s an average kid in an average town.
He wants to win a Nobel Prize and save the world.
He wants the girl he has a crush on to like him back.
He wants to find some porn.
That’s what he wants, but what does he get…?



Tags: Coming of Age , Seinen , Tragedy , Philosophy , Denpa , Suicide , Psychosexual , Urban , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Anti-Hero , Time Skip , Fugitive , Surreal Comedy , School , Cult , Meta , Work , Nudity , Gods , Body Horror , Love Triangle , Ghost

Zankoku na Kami ga Shihai Suru

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

Jeremy, a sensitive but outgoing 15 year old, is delighted to hear the news of his neurotic and excitable mother's remarriage to a wealthy British man. However, much to his horror, his sweet-talking new step-father Greg, soon begins to exhibit a disturbing trait...he is a sadistic pedophile and loses no time in making Jeremy his target. Zankoku na Kami ga Shihaisuru portrays the tale of two stepbrothers - Jeremy and Ian - as they each pursue their separate paths towards redemption.

Tags: Foreign , Tragedy , Revenge , Family Life , Josei , Suicide , Inseki , Philosophy , Urban , Denpa , Body Horror , Torture , Blackmail , Male Protagonist , Drugs , LGBTQ+ Themes , Nudity , Boys' Love , School , Detective , Marriage , Boarding School , Incest , Rehabilitation , Bisexual