Top Body Image Manga Recommendations

Helter Skelter

Also known as Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Psychological

If you are aware of fashion in Japan, you must have seen Liliko's face. For the last few years, she has been at the top of the modeling world, with her face and body promoting the biggest brands. But as everyone who is in this world admits, staying on top is a constant and never ending battle. There are always new faces introduced to the public. Younger models and new looks are brought into the fold every season. And keeping that position means learning to adapt and learning to cope with change.

To maintain her position Liliko has decided to go under the knife. This is not her first go with this service. It is yet another round of plastic surgery, all done to keep herself looking young and vibrant. However, in this case just a little nip and tuck was not enough. Liliko is bent on undergoing a full body makeover. From head-to-toe, every inch of her will undergo cosmetic surgery, and thus begins her madness.



Tags: Josei , Female Protagonist , Fashion , Primarily Adult Cast , Tragedy , Acting , Body Horror , Philosophy , Drugs , Nudity , Revenge , Idol , Police , Urban , Bisexual , Detective , Yuri , Suicide , Time Skip , Unrequited Love , Body Image

Asahina Wakaba to ○○ na Kareshi

Also known as Asahina Wakaba & Her Chubby-Chubby Boyfriend.

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

Asahina Wakaba, a girl who is a bit clumsy and not good at socializing, gets bullied into asking out the school's biggest, most despised, otaku, Haruto Iruma. However, this experience changes her pitch-black high school years into the ultimate young-love experience.



Tags: Bullying , Heterosexual , Denpa , Seinen , Female Protagonist , Rehabilitation , School , Otaku Culture , Pregnancy , Urban , Blackmail , Body Image

Shibou to Iu Na no Fuku wo Kite

Also known as In Clothes Called Fat.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

From the pen of Moyoco Anno comes a stunning tale of self-image and self-loathing. In Clothes Called Fat details the lives of young women earnestly revealing the struggles women may have with their bodies and sexuality.

Noko appears to be living a great life, she's got a good job and a loving boyfriend, but beneath a thin veneer is a young woman who is struggling with her self-image and self-confidence as she fights to keep her weight down. To Noko, being 5 pounds overweight means being miles away from happiness in her lovelife and in her work-place.



Tags: Josei , Denpa , Female Protagonist , Bullying , Work , Office , Urban , Body Image , Primarily Adult Cast , Office Lady , Nudity , Time Skip , LGBTQ+ Themes , Yuri

Pochama ni

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance

"Pochama" is someone who likes soft and squishy things or someone who likes chubby people (A LOT). [...] In the story, the issue of being fat in high school is not dealt with in the expected fashion -- girl is EXTREMELY shy and cruelly bullied by skinny girls. This is about Tsugumi's and Tagami's progress as a couple.

Tags: School , Shoujo , Bullying , Female Protagonist , Archery , Heterosexual , Body Image

Nae ID neun Gangnam Miin!

Also known as My ID is Gangnam Beauty!.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance

A new school, new friends, new romance, and a new face?! After going through major plastic surgery, freshman Mirae is ready for a fresh start. At her university, she becomes recognized as a pretty yet somewhat unnatural “Gangnam beauty.” However, all Mirae wants is to have a normal campus life without being judged by her looks. Will she be able to adjust well to the new environment and find the courage to live the life of her dreams?



Tags: College , Primarily Adult Cast , Bullying , Love Triangle , Full Color , Long Strip , Body Image

Kore wa Yuganda Shokurepo Desu

Also known as My Wandering Warrior Eating Disorder.

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

This new diary comic details the complexities of Nagata Kabi’s fraught relationship with food, from eating disorders and habits to food preparation, with unflinching and detailed honesty. This short manga was written after My Wandering Warrior Existence and was only released on digital platforms in Japan. Seven Seas will be publishing the manga in English as an ebook exclusive before the release of the book written after it My Pancreas Broke, But My Life Got Better in order to preserve the chronological timeline of new entries in Nagata Kabi’s powerful autobiographical series.



Notes:
- The series went on hiatus on April 16th, 2021 and resumed on October 4th, 2024 with a brand new name.
- Chapter count includes 3 extra chapters.

Tags: Autobiographical , Body Image , Food , Female Protagonist

Hanshin

Also known as Hanshin: Half-God.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

Conjoined twins Yudy and Yucy are as different as possible. Older Yudy is intelligent but ugly, as her nutrients are used up by her beautiful but simpleminded sister Yucy. Loving and hating so deeply, where does one girl begin and the other end?

Note: Published in English as a part of the "A Drunken Dream and Other Stories" manga anthology by Fantagraphics.

Tags: Tragedy , Twins , Family Life , Josei , Female Protagonist , Body Image , Disability

Jibun no Karada wo Yurusu made

Also known as Until I Love Myself: The Journey of a Nonbinary Manga Artist.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

A bravely blunt autobiography about confronting the tangled traumas of gender dysphoria and workplace sexual harassment.

Nonbinary manga artist Poppy Pesuyama is excited when forms offer the option to choose "neither" for gender and thrilled about their new job working as an assistant for mangaka X! But then he sexually harasses them, treating them first like a girl and then like something less than human. It only lasts a few months, but in some ways it never ends.

Born into a body they hate and still reeling from the abuse they faced seven years ago, Pesuyama begins to rail at their past, their friends, and even their mother as they try to come to terms with who they are and what happened to them.



Tags: LGBTQ+ Themes , Autobiographical , Agender , Transgender , Rehabilitation , Bisexual , Primarily Adult Cast , Bullying , Non-fiction , School , Disability , Drawing , Seinen , Work , Body Image

Cousin

Also known as Cousin.

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

18-year-old Tsubomi has a bit of a weight complex. After graduation from high school, she takes up a part-time job at a video rental store where she is introduced to another male employee, 19-year-old Shiro, whose shifts always seem to coincide with hers. Shiro casually mentions that she reminds him of someone familiar. A few days later, while on duty, she bumps into a customer in one of the aisles. He leaves, but not without dropping his membership card, and Tsubomi finds out that his name is Nasukawa, and that he is an acquaintance of Shiro's. Meanwhile, after a song for a commercial comes on, Shiro realizes that Tsubomi reminds him of a famous model in a commercial (her "eyes", at least), who turns out to be none other than Tsubomi's cousin...?!

Tags: Female Protagonist , Josei , Age Gap , Coming of Age , Love Triangle , Primarily Adult Cast , Nudity , Unrequited Love , Heterosexual , Body Image

Yeounori

Also known as The Fox Club.

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

Meet Sangmok High’s Fox Club, home to the prettiest, wealthiest, and most popular girls in school. To ordinary Onyu Park, whose most extraordinary trait is being best friends with the gorgeous Chaeri Shin, the Foxes exist in a whole other world – or so she thinks – until she and Chaeri are suddenly thrown into the Fox Club headfirst! As if adjusting to high school wasn’t hard enough, the girls find themselves surrounded by prying eyes, rumors, catty schemes, and budding romance. Will Onyu and Chaeri’s friendship survive all of the drama and secrets? Who are the Foxes, really? And does Onyu have what it takes to become one of them?



Tags: Primarily Teen Cast , Heterosexual , POV , Estranged Family , School Club , Long Strip , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Love Triangle , Unrequited Love , Body Image , Blackmail , Full Color , School , Bullying , Idol , Urban , Age Gap

Raou-kun wa Watashi ni Kamau

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance

Hino Harukaze is not confident about her appearance. Her classmates call her "ugly" and make fun of her. Then, a delinquent boy in her class, Kurobane Rao, told Hino that she is "cute"⁉



Note: Includes 2 extra chapters.

Tags: Female Protagonist , School , Shoujo , Heterosexual , Bullying , Delinquents , Primarily Teen Cast , Urban , Body Image

Iguana no Musume

Also known as Iguana Girl.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

A girl who appears to her mother and herself to be a hideous anthropoid iguana struggles to overcome her mother’s rejection and find happiness ... but her mother has a secret.



Tags: Josei , Body Image , Female Protagonist , Family Life , Coming of Age , Time Skip , Tragedy

Jibun Size de Ikou: Watashi nari no Body Positive

Also known as Embrace Your Size: My Own Body Positivity.

Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life

A love letter to those who dream of being fashionable but consider their weight as an obstacle, this uplifting comic essay by a plus-sized author chronicles her own journey with body positivity and learning to love herself as she is.



Tags: Female Protagonist , Non-fiction , Anthology , Educational , Autobiographical , Fashion , Drawing , Body Image

ROCK

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Romance

Rock and Astro meet, fall in love, and decide to marry after their first night together. Between romantic comedy and hallucinated fairy tale, Kyoko Okazaki blows a wind of hysteria in the fashion world and its nights saturated with music and drugs.



Tags: Fashion , Female Protagonist , Heterosexual , Urban , Josei , LGBTQ+ Themes , Nudity , Transgender , Marriage , Bar , Body Image , Orphan , Tomboy

Naisho no Tsubomi

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

Each volume depicts a different heroine.

Volume 1: Main character of the story is Tachibana Tsubomi (立花つぼみ), a fifth grader dealing with issues such as her mother's pregnancy, her first period, and the strange feelings she has started to get when she has been around boys.
Volume 2: Main character of the story is Kusakabe Tsubomi (草壁つぼみ), a fifth grader, who encounters an alien wanting to do research of earth. It turns out he has picked Tsubomi to be his research subject.
Volume 3: Shiina Tsubomi (椎名 つぼみ)
Volume 4: Katanashi Tsubomi (小鳥遊 つぼみ)
Volume 5: Aizaki Tsubomi (相崎 つぼみ)
Volume 6: Nike Tsubomi (仁家 つぼみ)
Volume 7: Yagi Tsubomi (八木 つぼみ)
Volume 8: Honda Tsubomi (本田 つぼみ)


Note: Won the Shogakukan Manga Award for children's manga in 2009.

Tags: Shoujo , Educational , Primarily Child Cast , Ensemble Cast , Aliens , Female Protagonist , Episodic , School , Heterosexual , Body Image , Pregnancy

Ano Ko no Uroko

Status: Finished
Genres: Fantasy , Slice of Life

When puberty hits, some people gradually turn into dragon-people. This is the story of a girl who worries about what's going to happen in such a world.

Tags: Monster Girl , School , Primarily Teen Cast , Shounen , Coming of Age , Love Triangle , Female Protagonist , Body Image

ALL BE PLUS!

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Top model Orina has gained weight from the side effects of her psychiatric medication. She is told that she'll be fired if she doesn't appear in Japan's largest modeling event "TLC" in two months, so she starts an extreme diet... but what is a "beautiful body?" What does it mean to love yourself? It's only after her body shape changed that she realizes the value of her own beauty. Find your identity and transform your life for the better, through the body image issues everyone has!



Tags: Body Image , Josei , Female Protagonist , Work , Fashion

Busu Nante Iwanaide

Also known as Never Say Ugly.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Tomoko was called "ugly" back in her school days. And what really makes her seethe is the fact that the "pretty" girl who bullied her, Rika, is now a successful beauty influencer. But Tomoko sees a whole different world reflected in Rika's eyes... These two women with different pasts, looks, and approaches both take the world head-on in this story of sisterhood and overcoming beauty discrimination!



Tags: Josei , Female Protagonist , Body Image , Primarily Adult Cast , Work , Heterosexual , Primarily Female Cast , Bullying , Fashion , Makeup

Calorie no Tsuyagoto

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance , Slice of Life

Calorie no Tsuyagoto is centered on Fuzuki Katori, a heavy-set woman who loves to eat and is sometimes ridiculed as "Calorie" by those around her. Although she is not uninterested in men, Fuzuki is shy and inexperienced in love because of her body type. However, her everyday life begins to change little by little after she meets a young university student, Shuugo Aoi, at a teishoku-ya (set meal restaurant) she happens to visit.



Tags: Body Image , Food , Josei , Heterosexual , Female Protagonist

Lingerie no Megami-sama

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Slice of Life

At Teiou Department Store, there is a goddess who is full of love for lingerie in the women's underwear section. This heartwarming story from BAILA, a fashion magazine with overwhelming support from women in their 30s, encapsulates the real worries and conflicts of working women. Every day, customers visit Ebisu Amane, a charismatic fitter, with worries about underwear selection and their body shape. At first, they are at the mercy of Amane's extraordinary words and actions, but gradually the folds in their hearts begin to unravel... Uni, a master of work-related manga, carefully depicts the feelings of adults living in the modern world, including an office worker whose boyfriend has cheated on her, and same-sex couples. Another highlight of this original manga from a fashion magazine is the detailed knowledge about underwear!

Tags: Body Image , Josei , Fashion , Female Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Female Cast , Office Lady , Work