Manga like Taiyou to Tsuki no Hagane

Kasane

Also known as Kasane.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Psychological , Supernatural , Thriller

Kasane's face is so hideous, you couldn't bear to look twice at her—and her ugliness has forced her to walk a harsh path in life. But her mother left her something: a tube of lipstick. The power of this lipstick will change everything about her downtrodden life.



Note: Nominated for the 8th Manga Taishou Award.

Tags: Shapeshifting , Acting , Body Swapping , Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Bullying , Revenge , Anti-Hero , Denpa , Crime , Rehabilitation , Urban Fantasy , Torture , Disability , Primarily Female Cast , Heterosexual , Coming of Age , Incest , Primarily Adult Cast , Seinen , Magic , Survival , Philosophy , Love Triangle , Mythology , Yandere , Prostitution , Time Skip , Suicide , School Club , School

Saraiya Goyou

Also known as House of Five Leaves.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama

Masterless samurai Akitsu Masanosuke is a skilled and loyal swordsman, but his naïve, diffident nature has more than once caused him to be let go by the lords who employ him. Hungry and desperate, he agrees to become a bodyguard for Yaichi, the charismatic leader of a group calling itself “Five Leaves.” Although disturbed by the gang’s sinister activities, Masa begins to suspect that Yaichi’s motivations are not what they seem. And despite his misgivings, the deeper he’s drawn into the world of the Five Leaves, the more he finds himself fascinated by these devious, mysterious outlaws.



Tags: Historical , Seinen , Samurai , Male Protagonist , Gangs , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Crime , Detective , Fugitive , Swordplay , Found Family , Oiran , Police

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Also known as Descending Stories: Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

This multi-generational epic dives deep into rakugo, a rich form of Japanese storytelling theater. Small-time crook Yotaro has never forgotten the rakugo tale "The God of Death," which the master Yurakutei Yakumo performed for Yotaro during his time in prison. After his release, he goes to Yakumo's theater and pleads to be made his apprentice. Yakumo reluctantly accepts, but Yotaro quickly finds the world of rakugo is complex and grapples with a growing bond with Yakumo's ward, Konatsu. Meanwhile, the two young people bring reminders of Yakumo’s own inescapable past.



Note: Won the 38th Kodansha Manga Awards for Best General Manga and the New Creator Prize of the 21st Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2017.

Tags: Rakugo , Josei , Male Protagonist , Tragedy , Primarily Adult Cast , Historical , Acting , Family Life , Love Triangle , Work , Afterlife , Suicide , Yakuza , Oiran , Tsundere , Crossdressing , War , Adoption , Heterosexual , Elderly Protagonist

Touge Oni

Also known as Touge Oni: Primal Gods in Ancient Times.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Adventure , Fantasy

Long before even the distant past, the land was ruled by powerful kami, gods as widely varied in form and temper as the parishes they governed, each possessing a unique sacred instrument. Traveling between their shrines in search of divine favor, the priest En the Layman and his two assistants brave dangerous terrain, fearsome creatures, and the wrath of kami themselves!



Tags: Gods , Mythology , Seinen , Time Manipulation , Demons , Magic , Meta , Heterosexual

Sensou Kyoushitsu

Also known as The Bugle Call: Song of War.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Psychological

In Arboral Year 1294, the world is dominated by nine massive towers known as the Spires, remnants of an ancient civilization. Filled with lost secrets and powerful knowledge, nations struggle to possess them. Luca is a bugler in a mercenary company who wants nothing more than to leave the battlefield behind and become a true musician, a maestro. But marked as one of the enigmatic Branch-hexed, and gifted with the strange ability to see the sound of his instrument, Luca finds himself drawn reluctantly into a war of epic proportions!

Tags: Shounen , Male Protagonist , Tragedy , War , Super Power , Time Manipulation , Philosophy , Conspiracy , Politics , Shapeshifting , Musical Theater , Slavery , Anachronism , Clone

Hyouge Mono

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

It was the Sengoku-era, when the warlords usurped each other. There was a man whose soul was overtaken by the ways of tea and material greed, as he worked his way up toward greater power and status. His name was Sasuke Furuta, a subordinate warrior of Nobunaga Oda. With his world broadened by Nobunaga the Genius, and his spiritual insight learned from Senno Soueki the Master of Tea, Sasuke drove the road to Hyouge Mono. To live or not to live. For the power of the art. That is the question!

Note:
Won the 14th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Award Grand Prize and received the Excellence Prize in Japan Media Arts Festival (2009).


Tags: Seinen , Historical , War , Educational , Politics , Philosophy , Male Protagonist , Swordplay , Primarily Adult Cast , Tragedy , Suicide

Oooku

Also known as Ôoku: The Inner Chambers.

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

In Edo period Japan, a strange new disease called the Redface Pox has begun to prey on the country's men. Within eighty years of the first outbreak, the male population has fallen by seventy-five percent. Women have taken on all the roles traditionally granted to men, even that of the shogun. The men, precious providers of life, are carefully protected. And the most beautiful of the men are sent to serve in the shogun's Inner Chamber...



Note: Won an Excellence Prize at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival and a special prize at The Japanese Association of Feminist Science Fiction and Fantasy's fifth annual Sense of Gender Awards in 2005. Won the Tezuka Osamu Cultural the Grand Prize in 2009 and the 56th Shogakukan Manga Award in Girls' Category in 2011. Was nominated for the first annual Manga Taishou in 2008.

Tags: Tragedy , Pandemic , Matriarchy , Historical , Heterosexual , Politics , Shoujo , Male Harem , Primarily Adult Cast , Suicide , Ensemble Cast , Incest , Samurai , LGBTQ+ Themes , Royal Affairs , Swordplay , Military , Bisexual , Religion , Espionage , Boys' Love

Tongari Boushi no Atelier

Also known as Witch Hat Atelier.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Fantasy

In a world where everyone takes wonders like magic spells and dragons for granted, Coco is a girl with a simple dream: she wants to be a witch. But everybody knows magicians are born, not made, and Coco was not born with a gift for magic. Resigned to her un-magical life, Coco is about to give up on her dream to become a witch … until the day she meets Qifrey, a mysterious, traveling magician. After secretly seeing Qifrey perform magic in a way she’s never seen before, Coco soon learns what everybody “knows” might not be the truth, and discovers that her magical dream may not be as far away as it may seem...



Notes:
Nominated for the 11th Manga Taishou Award in 2018.
Won the Daruma d'Or at Japan Expo in 2019.
Won Best U.S. Edition of International Material - Asia at the Eisner Awards in 2020.
Won the Best Manga Award at the Harvey Awards in 2020.

Tags: Witch , Magic , Memory Manipulation , Female Protagonist , Teacher , Drawing , Coming of Age , Revenge , Ensemble Cast , Primarily Female Cast , School , Found Family , Conspiracy , Primarily Child Cast , Tragedy , Politics , Seinen , Disability , Philosophy , Spearplay , Rehabilitation , Foreign , Travel , LGBTQ+ Themes , Amnesia , Iyashikei , Boys' Love