Manga like Solanin

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

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 1 extra chapter.

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

Subarashii Sekai

Also known as What a Wonderful World!.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

A dream recaptured. A life on a new track. The absurdity of death. Laughter in the face of reality.

With this series of intersecting vignettes, Inio Asano explores the ways in which modern life can be ridiculous and sublime, terrible and precious, wasted and celebrated.



Tags: Seinen , Episodic , Philosophy , Anthology , School , Youkai , Yakuza , Suicide

Reiraku

Also known as Downfall.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Selling copies is the only thing that matters.

So what if your first series just ended and you have no idea how to start the next one, your marriage is breaking up, your pure love of manga has been destroyed by the cruel reality of the industry and nothing seems to fill the sucking void inside you...

Find the secret combo for a new hit manga series and everything will be okay.

Right?



Tags: Work , Drawing , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Heterosexual , Prostitution , Nudity ,

NANA

Also known as Nana.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Music , Romance , Slice of Life

Nana Komatsu is a young woman who's endured an unending string of boyfriend problems. Moving to Tokyo, she's hoping to take control of her life and put all those messy misadventures behind her. She's looking for love and she's hoping to find it in the big city.

Nana Osaki, on the other hand, is cool, confident and focused. She swaggers into town and proceeds to kick down the doors to Tokyo's underground punk scene. She's got a dream and won't give up until she becomes Japan's No. 1 rock'n'roll superstar.

This is the story of two 20-year-old women who share the same name. Even though they come from completely different backgrounds, they somehow meet and become best friends. The world of Nana is a world exploding with sex, music, fashion, gossip and all-night parties.



Note: Winner of the 48th Shogakukan Manga Award in the Shoujo Category in 2002.

Tags: Female Protagonist , Band , Primarily Adult Cast , Shoujo , Tragedy , Time Skip , Philosophy , Pregnancy , Found Family , Netorare , Bisexual , LGBTQ+ Themes , Love Triangle , Heterosexual , Achronological Order , Urban , Rock Music , Age Gap , Nudity , Drugs , Bar

Look Back

Also known as Look Back.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Fujino is a fourth grader who draws a manga strip for the school newspaper. Her art makes her the star of the class, but one day she's told that Kyomoto, a student who refuses to come to school, would also like to submit a manga for the paper...



Note: The one-shot was compiled in a special volume, released on September 3, 2021.

Tags: Drawing , Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Hikikomori , Shounen , Coming of Age , Work , Meta , Autobiographical , School , Primarily Child Cast , Philosophy , Rehabilitation

BECK

Also known as BECK.

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

For the first 14 years of his life, Yukio Tanaka has been one heck of a boring guy. He has no hobbies, a weak taste in music, and only a small vestige of a personality. He yearns for an exciting life, but his shy, and somewhat neurotic personality make him his own worst enemy. Little does he know that his life will be forever changed when he meets Ryusuke Minami, a wild and unpredictable 16 year-old fresh from America, who happens to be in a rock-and-roll band named after his Frankenstein-like patched dog—Beck.



Tags: Band , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Rock Music , Primarily Male Cast , Shounen , Foreign , Heterosexual , Work , Female Protagonist , Crime , Love Triangle , Bullying , School , Mafia , Guns , Swimming , Martial Arts

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 , Primarily Adult Cast , Josei , Coming of Age , Primarily Female Cast , Yuri , Philosophy , Rehabilitation , LGBTQ+ Themes

Sekai no Owari to Yoake Mae

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Collection of short stories including:
Mudai (無題, Untitled); kakioroshi
Yoakemae (夜明け前, Before Dawn); Big Comic Spirits Zoukan Casual #2007/2/15
Alfalfa (アルファルファ); Sunday GX 2005-07

4-6. Nichiyou, Gogo, 6-jihan. (日曜、午後、六時半。, Sunday, Afternoon, 6:30.); Big Comic Spirits 2006 #36+37~39
"At that time, I absolutely hated Sunday afternoons at 6:30. I hated the word 'family' to death. That's why I couldn't stand seeing them. Besides, whether or not there is an end to the escape from reality, I truly felt the visit of the tiresome days."

Chou Mousou A-ko no Nichijou to Yuuutsu (超妄想A子の日常と憂鬱, The Typical Day and Melancholy of Super-Imaginative A-ko); Sunday GX 2006-09
Kyuujitsu no Sugoshikata (休日の過ごし方, How to Spend a Day Off); Big Comic Spirits Zoukan Casual #2007/9/15
17; Big Comic Spirits Zoukan Casual #2008/2/15
Subarashii Sekai (素晴らしい世界, What a Wonderful World); Sunday GX 2008-08
Tokyo (東京); Big Comic Spirits 2008 #40
Sekai no Owari (世界の終わり, The End of the World); kakioroshi
Jikuu Taisen Snakeman (時空大戦スネークマン, Snakeman and the Great Space-time War); kakioroshi

Tags: Philosophy , Anthology , Seinen , Nudity