Manga like Secchan

Solanin

Also known as Solanin.

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

College graduates struggle to cope with the real world. Music offers refuge in this modern manga with an American attitude. Meiko Inoue is a recent college grad working as an office lady in a job she hates. Her boyfriend Shigeo is permanently crashing at her apartment because his job as a freelance illustrator doesn't pay enough for rent. And her parents in the country keep sending her boxes of veggies that just rot in her fridge. Straddling the line between her years as a student and the rest of her life, Meiko struggles with the feeling that she's just not cut out to be a part of the real world.



Notes:
Nominated for the Eisner Award for Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Japan and the Harvey Award for Best American Edition of Foreign Material.
Includes one extra chapter and one-shot "Haru yo Koi (Awaiting Spring)" first included in the October 2017 new Japanese edition.

Tags: Coming of Age , Band , Seinen , Tragedy , Primarily Adult Cast , Heterosexual , Found Family , Female Protagonist , Family Life , Urban , Rock Music , College , Office Lady , Nudity

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 , Psychosexual , Suicide , Urban , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Time Skip , Surreal Comedy , Fugitive , School , Gods , Meta , Cult , Work , Nudity , Body Horror , Love Triangle , Religion , Ghost

Dead Dead Demon's Dededededestruction

Also known as Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction.

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

The Japan Self-Defense Forces are still looking for a way to combat the alien threat, but so far conventional weapons have had no effect. Maybe it’s time to try something unconventional.

Meanwhile, Kadode Koyama and her best friend avidly track the aliens’ movements on social media and less enthusiastically study for college entrance exams. When the end of the world looms overhead, you learn to take things one step at a time.



Notes:
Winner of the 66th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category.
Includes one extra chapter.

Tags: Seinen , Aliens , Female Protagonist , Alternate Universe , Politics , Primarily Female Cast , Military , Time Manipulation , Bisexual , Coming of Age , Dystopian , Denpa , Philosophy , Language Barrier , Tragedy , Suicide , School , Otaku Culture , Anti-Hero , Post-Apocalyptic , Gore , Satire , Video Games , Cosmic Horror , Yuri , Crossdressing , Love Triangle

ROCK, MONEY & EDUCATION

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

The book "Rock, Money & Education" collects two short stories by Noriko Nakayama.

Tags: Shoujo , Heterosexual

Sekishoku Elegy

Also known as Red Colored Elegy.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Seiichi Hayashi produced Red Colored Elegy between 1970 and 1971, in the aftermath of a politically turbulent and culturally vibrant decade that promised but failed to deliver new possibilities. With a combination of sparse line work and visual codes borrowed from animation and film, the quiet melancholy lives of a young couple struggling to make ends meet are beautifully captured in this poetic masterpiece.

Uninvolved with the political movements of the time, Ichiro and Sachiko hope for something better, but they're no revolutionaries; their spare time is spent drinking, smoking, daydreaming, and sleeping--together and at times with others. While Ichiro attempts to make a living from his comics, Sachiko's parents are eager to arrange a marriage for her, but Ichiro doesn't seem interested. Both in their relationship and at work, Ichiro and Sachiko are unable to say the things they need to say, and like any couple, at times say things to each other that they do not mean, ultimately communicating as much with their body language and what remains unsaid as with words.

Red Colored Elegy is informed as much by underground Japanese comics of the time as it is by the French Nouvelle Vague, and its cultural referents range from James Dean to Ken Takakura. Its influence in Japan was so large that Morio Agata, a prominent Japanese folk musician and singer songwriter, debuted with a love song written and named after it.

"I wanted to live like Sachiko and Ichiro; to have aspirations even while living stoically and humbly." --Morio Agata



Tags: Seinen , Drawing , Heterosexual , Work , Nudity , Suicide , Primarily Adult Cast

River's Edge

Also known as River's Edge.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Haruna Wakakusa and Yamada become friends after she saves him several times from her boyfriend's constant bullying. Through him she gets to know Kozue Yoshikawa, a fellow student who also models professionally. The three emotionally stunted teens' lives briefly yet intensely intertwine for one semester before splintering from the aftereffects of one disastrous night. For both Wakakusa and Yamada, their emotional awakening fosters an unlikely friendship between the two battered souls.

Tags: Coming of Age , Tragedy , LGBTQ+ Themes , Josei , School , Female Protagonist , Bullying , Primarily Teen Cast , Nudity , Bisexual , Cheating , Drugs , Gore , Heterosexual , Yuri