Top Boarding School Manga Recommendations

Boku no Hero Academia

Also known as My Hero Academia.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy , Drama , Fantasy

Middle school student Izuku Midoriya wants to be a hero more than anything, but he hasn’t got an ounce of power in him. With no chance of ever getting into the prestigious U.A. High School for budding heroes, his life is looking more and more like a dead end. Then an encounter with All Might, the greatest hero of them all, gives him a chance to change his destiny…



Note:
- Winner of the 1st Next Manga Award in the Print Category in 2015.
- Nominated for the 8th Manga Taisho Award in 2015.
- Nominated for the 40th Kodansha Manga Award in the Shounen Category in 2016.
- Chapter count includes a bonus chapter included in volume 10 “Tsuyu-chan no Kerokero Nikki“.

Tags: Superhero , Super Power , Shounen , Male Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Boarding School , Ensemble Cast , Terrorism , School , Urban Fantasy , Cultivation , Coming of Age , Crime , Anti-Hero , Criminal Organization , War , Revenge , Primarily Male Cast , Urban , Tragedy , Politics , Gore , Drugs , Age Regression , Heterosexual , Body Horror , Fugitive , Animals , Guns , Tomboy , Bisexual , Yandere , Yakuza , Nudity , Robots , Memory Manipulation , Rescue

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Also known as Classroom of the Elite.

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

Students of the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School are given remarkable freedom—if they can win, barter, or save enough points to work their way up the ranks! Ayanokoji Kiyotaka has landed at the bottom in the scorned Class D, where he meets Horikita Suzune, who’s determined to rise up the ladder to Class A. Can they beat the system in a school where cutthroat competition is the name of the game?



Includes Volumes: 4.5, 7.5, 11.5
Included Chapters: 14 Prologues, 13 Epilogues, 1 Extra

Tags: School , Primarily Teen Cast , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Battle Royale , Ensemble Cast , Politics , Revenge , Fugitive , Survival , Heterosexual , Denpa , Coming of Age , Boarding School , Classic Literature , Conspiracy , School Club , Bullying , Disability , Athletics , Torture , Delinquents , Martial Arts , Rehabilitation , Tragedy , Love Triangle , Female Harem , Kuudere , Tsundere , Suicide , Board Game , Yandere , Teacher

Kuroshitsuji

Also known as Black Butler.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Action , Fantasy , Mystery , Supernatural

In Victorian era Europe, a young boy loses everything he once held near and dear to a vicious plot. In his moment of death, he strikes a deal with a demon: his soul, in exchange for revenge. Ciel Phantomhive is now the head of the Phantomhive corporation, handling all business affairs as well as the underground work for the Queen of England. His new partner is a demon butler, Sebastian Michaelis, whose prowess as a butler is only surpassed by his strength as a demon.

The story follows the two along with their other servants, as they work to unravel the plot behind Ciel's parents' murder, and the horrendous tragedies that befell Ciel in the month directly after.

Tags: Demons , Revenge , Tragedy , Crime , Historical , Butler , Anti-Hero , Male Protagonist , Orphan , Twins , Royal Affairs , Foreign , Cult , Detective , Shounen , Steampunk , Magic , Found Family , Circus , Mythology , Maids , Assassins , LGBTQ+ Themes , Travel , Medicine , Zombie , Fugitive , Anachronism , Transgender , Crossdressing , Boarding School , Estranged Family , Musical Theater , School , Torture , Swordplay , Witch , Disability , Idol , Urban Fantasy

Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet

Also known as Boarding School Juliet.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Comedy , Romance

At Dahlia Academy, a prestigious boarding school attended by students of two feuding countries—the eastern Nation of Touwa, and the Principality of West—Romio Inuzuka, leader of the dorms’ Touwa first-years, wishes for a romance that can never be. For his ladylove is none other than his arch-enemy, Juliet Persia, leader of the dorms’ West first-years! Is Inuzuka ready to risk it all to confess his feelings? And even if Persia somehow agrees to go out with them, how long can they keep a forbidden relationship under wraps?!



Note: Includes an epilogue and bonus act.

Tags: School , Gangs , Boarding School , Heterosexual , Shounen , Foreign , Female Protagonist , Slapstick , Male Protagonist , Politics , Swordplay , Crossdressing , Time Skip , LGBTQ+ Themes

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e: 2-nensei-hen

Also known as Classroom of the Elite: Year 2.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Thriller

Students of the prestigious Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School are given remarkable freedom–if they can win, barter, or save enough points to work their way up the ranks! Ayanokouji Kiyotaka started at the bottom in the scorned Class D, where he met Horikita Suzune, who was determined to rise up the ladder to Class A. Who can beat the system in a school where cutthroat competition is the name of the game? The second year of this intense school drama begins now!



Includes Volumes: 4.5, 9.5, 12.5
Included Chapters: 15 Prologues and 15 Epilogues.

Tags: School , Male Protagonist , Anti-Hero , Ensemble Cast , Boarding School , Philosophy , Conspiracy , Heterosexual , Coming of Age , Survival , Primarily Teen Cast , Battle Royale , Politics , Fugitive , Bullying , Revenge , Classic Literature , Delinquents , Card Battle , Orphan , Seinen , Torture , Martial Arts , Disability , Dissociative Identities , School Club , Athletics , Tsundere , Calligraphy , Love Triangle , Kuudere , Female Harem , Suicide , Yandere , Maids , Tragedy

Vampire Knight

Also known as Vampire Knight.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Fantasy , Mystery , Romance , Supernatural

Cross Academy is attended by two groups of students, the Day Class and the Night Class. At twilight, when the students of the Day Class return to their dorm, they cross paths with the Night Class on their way to school. Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu are the Guardians of the school, protecting the Day Class from the academy’s dark secret—the Night Class is full of vampires!



Note: The chapter count includes 15 extra chapters.

Tags: Shoujo , Vampire , Heterosexual , Love Triangle , Tragedy , Tsundere , Twins , Kuudere , Urban Fantasy , Incest , School , Male Harem , Adoption , Amnesia , Female Protagonist , Memory Manipulation , Ojou-sama , Gore , Boarding School , Time Skip , Conspiracy , Suicide

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Also known as Classroom of the Elite.

Status: Hiatus
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological

Koudo Ikusei Senior High School, a leading prestigious school with state-of-the-art facilities where nearly 100% of students go on to university or find employment. The students there have the freedom to wear any hairstyle and bring any personal effects they desire. Kōdo Ikusei is a paradise-like school, but the truth is that only the most superior of students receive favorable treatment.

The protagonist Kiyotaka Ayanokōji is a student of D-class, which is where the school dumps its “inferior” students in order to ridicule them. For a certain reason, Kiyotaka was careless on his entrance examination, and was put in D-class. After meeting Suzune Horikita and Kikyō Kushida, two other students in his class, Kiyotaka’s situation begins to change.

Tags: School , Anti-Hero , Battle Royale , Seinen , Boarding School

Kimi ga Shinu made Koi wo Shitai

Also known as I Want to Love You Till Your Dying Day.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Fantasy , Romance

At the mysterious orphanage where Sheena lives, death is nothing new to its residents—girls who no longer have families of their own, who are raised as weapons of war, taught to kill and take the lives of others without batting an eye. Everyone, that is, except Sheena, who wishes for nothing more than the growing conflict around her to end. On the night of her roommate's death, Sheena meets a strange girl covered in blood, who smiles despite the turmoil surrounding them. The next day, the girl appears as a new student in Sheena's class and introduces herself as Mimi. Initially thought to be a school myth, there are now whispers in the orphanage's halls that Mimi is their secret weapon—an immortal who cannot die. When Mimi is later assigned as Sheena's new roommate, Sheena's world grows even more complicated when she begins living with someone who loves and welcomes death, when all Sheena wants to do is stop it…



Tags: Tragedy , Magic , Yuri , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , War , Dystopian , LGBTQ+ Themes , School , Primarily Teen Cast , Boarding School , Gore , Body Horror

Gakuen Alice

Also known as Gakuen Alice.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Fantasy , Mystery , Romance , Supernatural

Young Mikan runs away to Tokyo to follow her best friend, Hotaru, who has been enrolled in an exclusive, secretive private school for geniuses. But it turns out that Alice Academy is a lot more than meets the eye. If Mikan wants to stay by Hotaru's side, she has to both pass the strange "entrance exam" and face the even greater challenge of befriending her very odd new classmates. Whether it's Hotaru's gift for inventing gadgets, the cranky Natsume's fire-casting ability, or Professor Narumi's control of human pheromones, everyone at the school has some sort of special talent. But what ability, if any, does Mikan possess? Mikan is going to have to rely on her courage and spunk if she's going to stay in school, or even stay alive!



Volume 9 contains a side story;
Volume 10 contains the side story "Ibara no Sono" (いばらの園);
Volume 17 contains the side story "Hoshizora Obake" (星空おばけ).

Tags: Female Protagonist , Tragedy , Magic , Primarily Child Cast , Shoujo , Tsundere , Boarding School , Super Power , School , Time Skip , Age Gap , Adoption , Conspiracy , Yuri , Crossdressing , Love Triangle , Urban Fantasy

Hirano to Kagiura

Also known as Hirano and Kagiura.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Romance , Slice of Life

Basketball players. Bad boys who aren’t really bad boys. Roommates. Senpai-kouhai BL romance. It all started when Kagiura moved into the school dorms with what seemed to be a bad-boy upperclassman. But after he’s left in the tender care of his mother hen of a roommate, Hirano, it’s too much to ask for Kagiura not to fall in love…right?!



Tags: Boys' Love , LGBTQ+ Themes , Primarily Teen Cast , Male Protagonist , Unrequited Love , Primarily Male Cast , School , Basketball , School Club , Josei , Chibi , Boarding School

Jishou Akuyaku Reijou na Konyakusha no Kansatsu Kiroku.

Also known as An Observation Log of My Fiancée Who Calls Herself a Villainess.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Fantasy , Romance

Crown prince Cecil was so brilliant that everything in life was easy to the point of boring him, then one day, his fiancée Bertia suddenly said "Prince Cecil, I am a villainess!" Claiming that this world is the same as that of an "otome game" from her past life and that she is playing the role of the "villainess" in it, she aims to play her part well and have their engagement annulled. With that goal in mind, she sets about causing turmoil in Cecil's daily life. Note: Chapter count contains 4 extra chapter.

Tags: Villainess , Reincarnation , Isekai , Ojou-sama , Kuudere , Shoujo , Yandere , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Magic , Acting , Boarding School , Royal Affairs

Tai-Ari deshita.: Ojou-sama wa Kakutou Game Nante Shinai

Also known as Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games.

Status: Releasing
Genres:

Kuromi Girls’ Academy is a refined, elegant school that expects the very best in deportment from its young ladies. Aya got into this peerless rich-girls’ institution on a scholarship, and hopes to grow as lovely as her fellow student and idol Shirayui. But Shirayui hides a terrible secret: she’s a trash-talking, combo-chaining, newbie-stomping, ruthless hardcore gamer! Could a mutual indulgence in no-holds-barred video game combat grow into a deeper rapport between these two girls?



Tags: Female Protagonist , Video Games , Primarily Female Cast , School , Ojou-sama , Otaku Culture , E-Sports , Yuri , Seinen , Boarding School

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e

Also known as Hana-Kimi: For You in Full Blossom.

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

Japanese-American track-and-field star Mizuki has gotten herself to transfer to a high school in Japan...but not just any school! To be close to her idol, high jumper Izumi Sano, she's going to an all-guys' high school...and disguising herself as a boy! But as fate would have it, they're more than classmates...they're roommates! Now, Mizuki must keep her secret in the classroom, the locker room, and her own bedroom. And her classmates--and the school nurse--must cope with a new transfer student who may make them question their own orientation...



Included one-shots:
Volume 1: Natsu no Ori (The Cage of Summer)
Volume 4: Kawaki no Tsuki (The Thirsty Moon)

Tags: Male Harem , Crossdressing , Shoujo , Female Protagonist , School , Gender Bending , Love Triangle , Athletics , LGBTQ+ Themes , Heterosexual , Primarily Teen Cast , Time Skip , Boarding School

Ore ga Ojousama Gakkou ni "Shomin Sample" Toshite Rachirareta Ken

Also known as Shomin Sample: I Was Abducted by an Elite All-Girls School as a Sample Commoner.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Ecchi , Romance

In a hidden school surrounded by mountains, young ladies of good families are taught everything a high class lady needs to know. They are also completely cut off from the outside world, keeping them sheltered and innocent. However, a problem has come up recently-- more and more graduates are failing to cope with the modern world after graduation. To deal with this problem, they've decided to kidnap a male commoner student, and enroll him as a student. They hope that this will be a gentle way to introduce the girls to the outside world.

Kagurazaka Kimito is chosen for this dubious honor, mostly because he seems utterly average. However, the school leaders also seem to have concluded he's a homosexual with a muscle fetish. When Kimito hears that the alternative may be castration (to protect the girls' purity), he eagerly plays along with this misconception. Now he'll just have to survive the attention of many high class young ladies that are completely out of touch with the world!



Tags: Female Harem , School , Male Protagonist , School Club , Tsundere , Primarily Female Cast , Maids , Meta , Shounen , Boarding School

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 , Bisexual , Rehabilitation

Jibi Eopseo

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

Hae-Jun Go, who ran from home, and Eun-Yeong Baek, the problem child who lives in a tent. These two, who met under terrible circumstances, are forced to live together in an abandoned dormitory. This is a story of difficult growth between two people who hate both the dorm and each other.



Tags: Primarily Teen Cast , Homeless , Ensemble Cast , Full Color , School , Coming of Age , Found Family , Boarding School , Tragedy , Estranged Family , Male Protagonist , Delinquents , Bullying , Ghost , LGBTQ+ Themes , School Club , Long Strip

Kaze to Ki no Uta

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance

Serge Battour is the son of a French viscount and a Romani prostitute, and despite his kind nature and academic talent, is shunned by his family and his peers due to the color of his skin. He begins to attend Lacombrade Academy, his father's alma mater, in the hopes that there he will find a place to belong.

Gilbert Cocteau is, like Serge, the orphaned son of a wealthy family, and is infamous at Lacombrade for his beautiful and delicate appearance, lack of dedication to schoolwork, and habit of prostituting himself to other students. He has no intention to connect with any of his classmates, instead devoting himself to his uncle Auguste.

Due to a shortage of living space, Serge and Gilbert become roommates even though Gilbert's antisocial nature has in the past made it impossible for him to room with anybody. Serge, being sociable and idealistic, is determined to be friends with Gilbert; Gilbert is only interested in either being able to manipulate Serge or push him away entirely. To the surprise of both of the boys, however, the two eventually form a deep, albeit generally dismal, bond that leads to a romantic connection.

Tags: Boys' Love , Tragedy , Historical , Coming of Age , Sadism , Suicide , Shoujo , Incest , Primarily Male Cast , School , Drugs , LGBTQ+ Themes , Male Protagonist , Foreign , Nudity , Boarding School

Tasogare Outfocus

Also known as Twilight Out of Focus.

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance

Film enthusiast Mao Tsuchiya and his lone wolf roommate Hisashi Otomo make three promises:

(1) That Mao will never tell anyone that Hisashi is gay and has a boyfriend,
(2) That Hisashi will never approach Mao "in that way," and
(3) That they’ll respect each other's "private time."

The second-years' ground rules should ensure a peaceful life together in their dorm, but reality is never as simple as it seems in the movies, and some things are not so easily promised...



Tags: Boys' Love , School Club , Male Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Primarily Male Cast , LGBTQ+ Themes , Acting , Nudity , Filmmaking , Boarding School , Anal Sex , Virginity , Bisexual , Estranged Family , Age Gap

Akuma no Riddle

Also known as Akuma no Riddle: Riddle Story of Devil.

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

At Myojo Private School, an elite all-girls boarding academy, the Class Black is comprised of thirteen students, twelve of whom are assassins. Their prey is the thirteenth student, Haru Ichinose, an upbeat girl who vows to survive school and graduate unharmed! Enter Tokaku Azuma, a cold-blooded killer who transfers from another school to kill Haru.

What should have been a routine hit turns into a far more complicated affair as Tokaku is unable to pull the trigger on Haru. As Tokaku copes with her budding feelings, will she decide to protect Haru's life from the other assassins or to end it before they do?



Tags: Assassins , Seinen , Battle Royale , Yuri , School , Dissociative Identities , Primarily Female Cast , Female Protagonist , Boarding School , Survival , Death Game , Primarily Teen Cast

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

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

Kanda Sorata is a second year high school art student who was recently kicked out of the school's dorm because he was found keeping a cat in his room. Sorata begins to live in the apartment house "Sakurasou", infamous for its eccentric residents. Here, Sorata is asked to take care of one of his classmates, Shiina Mashiro. Although she is a brilliant, world-class painter, she is extremely clumsy and lacking in common sense. And thus begins the story of the master and his pet.

Tags: Coming of Age , Drawing , Kuudere , Female Harem , Boarding School