Manga like ZERO

Ping Pong

Also known as Ping Pong.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Sports

Makoto “Smile” Tsukimoto and his friend Yutaka “Peco” Hoshino have been playing table tennis since they were kids, but as they enter high school, they find that the game has changed. Seeing potential in them that they themselves don’t fully realize, the coach recruits them for the school team. Bringing out their best will mean challenging the top players from rival schools in the summer tournament, including an ace Chinese exchange student who almost made the Olympic team. With the pressure on, can Smile and Peco take the heat and make it into the finals?



Tags: Table Tennis , Coming of Age , Seinen , Philosophy , Male Protagonist , School Club , Teacher , Primarily Male Cast , School , Tragedy , Primarily Teen Cast , Bullying , Time Skip

Ashita no Joe

Also known as Ashita no Joe: Fighting for Tomorrow.

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

Joe Yabuki is a troubled young man who runs away from an orphanage. Wandering through the Tokyo slums, he meets former boxing trainer Danpei. Joe is later arrested and goes to a temporary jail where he fights Nishi, his future best friend, ​and leader of a group of hooligans. He and Nishi then go to a juvenile prison miles away from Tokyo. There Joe meets Rikiishi, a former boxing prodigy, and a rivalry develops between them. They face each other in a match in which Rikiishi dominates Joe until the latter hits him with a cross-counter, resulting in both being knocked out. This inspires the other prison inmates to take up boxing. Joe and Rikiishi vow to fight again.



Tags: Tragedy , Boxing , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Rehabilitation , Orphan , Urban , Athletics , Class Struggle , Shounen , Primarily Male Cast , Delinquents , Prison , Foreign , Yakuza , War

Shamo

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

At the age of sixteen Ryo Narushima was a genius and looked to have no trouble of getting into Tokyo University and joining the elite of society. However, that summer something cracked inside Ryo's head. With a small knife he brutally murdered both of his parents only leaving his sister alive and cowering in a corner. It is at this grotesque incident that our story begins.

Note: At volume 20, the series changed publishers, which created a restart of the chapter numbers. Starting from chapter 61 in volume 26, the first chapter from when the series returned from a long hiatus, the series has been completely written & drawn by Tanaka Akio. While Hashimoto Izou did write the series in the beginning, he had been doing less and less work starting from volume 4. Tanaka and Hashimoto reached a settlement and Shamo continued.

Tags: Martial Arts , Anti-Hero , Rehabilitation , Seinen , Tragedy , Male Protagonist , Survival , Gore , Boxing , Coming of Age , Prison , Gangs , Yakuza , Swordplay , Delinquents , Triads , Bullying , Drugs

Ao no Senshi

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Sports

The story tells of Reggae, a young boxer devoted to alcohol, known as "King of defeat", a nickname he earned by a great number of lost matches. But the boy has a primordial ferocity and a talent that former middleweight champion Dreddy D'Angelo notices immediately.

Tags: Male Protagonist , Seinen , Crime , Noir , Primarily Adult Cast , Boxing

Haisha

Also known as Ashen Victor.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Mecha , Sci-Fi , Sports

Meet Snev, a hapless motorballer nicknamed the "Crash King." Ever since a traumatic accident on the racetrack, Snev has been running on the edge of sanity. Only his best friend, a beautiful prostitute, still believes in him. Then, when Snev discovers his employers' ulterior motives for keeping him on the motorball circuit, he must muster the courage to confront both them and his inner demons!

Tags: Gore , Dystopian , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Drugs , Cyborg

Rikudou

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Drama , Sports

Riku experienced a lot of pain and tragedy in his early life. After his father's death, a former-boxer Yakuza man taught him how to do a basic punch, and that punch saved his life when he had to defend himself from his mom's drug dealer. He ended up taking the drug dealer's life, marking him as a killer. Criminals continued to come after him, leading to more tragedy for the people who attempted to care for him. All of this drove him to ask that same former boxer to teach him to become stronger, which led him to a rundown gym, his door to the world of pro boxing!

Tags: Boxing , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Primarily Male Cast , Ensemble Cast , Tragedy , Prostitution , Yakuza , Gore , Time Skip

BLACK-BOX

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Sports

His father is doing time for murder. His brother was arrested for murder. The second son of the family, Ryoga Ishida, is under suspicion of being involved with his brother. Under his fathers order he takes on his boxing pro test.

Tags: Seinen , Boxing , Primarily Adult Cast

Aoi Haru

Also known as Blue Spring.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

This dark and intense drama is set in a boy's high school where Kujo becomes the official leader of a gang. Kujo must constantly defend his position by playing a dangerous rooftop game with the other boys vying for his position. This manga has also been made into a film which has shown in various festivals throughout the world.



Tags: Delinquents , Coming of Age , Gangs , Yakuza , School , Seinen , Anthology , Guns , Mahjong

Hajime no Ippo

Also known as Hajime no Ippo: Fighting Spirit!.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Comedy , Drama , Sports

Makunouchi Ippo has been bullied his entire life. Constantly running errands and being beaten up by his classmates, Ippo has always dreamed of changing himself, but never has the passion to act upon it. One day, in the midst of yet another bullying, Ippo is saved by Takamura Mamoru, who happens to be a boxer. Ippo faints from his injuries and is brought to Takamura boxing gym to recover. As he regains consciousness, he is awed and amazed at his new surroundings in the gym, though lacks confidence to attempt anything. Takamura places a photo of Ippo’s classmate on a punching bag and forces him to punch it. It is only then that Ippo feels something stir inside him and eventually asks Takamura to train him in boxing. Thinking that Ippo does not have what it takes, Takamura gives him a task deemed impossible and gives him a one week time limit. With a sudden desire to get stronger, for himself and his hard working mother, Ippo trains relentlessly to accomplish the task within the time limit. Thus Ippo’s journey to the top of the boxing world begins.



Tags: Boxing , Shounen , Male Protagonist , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Ensemble Cast , Coming of Age , Heterosexual , Bullying , Delinquents

Bakudan

Also known as Bakudan.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Sports

The story follows Baku Ryosuke, also known as "Bakudan" a fresh-out-of-juvy punk and a dangerous street-fighter who is scouted by a yakuza syndicate and dreams of becoming the greatest yakuza in Japan. However, to teach Bakudan a lesson, the yakuza send him to the gym of a retired heavyweight boxer named Ken Tamaki to get him to sign away his property. But after fighting Bakudan for the property, Tamaki becomes impressed by Bakudan’s fighting skills, and from then on devotes himself to helping Bakudan follow his true destiny… to become the first heavyweight world champion boxer from Japan!

Tags: Shounen , Language Barrier , Male Protagonist , Yakuza , Boxing