Top Body Image Manga Recommendations

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 , Female Protagonist , Denpa , Bullying , Office Lady , Primarily Adult Cast , Nudity , Time Skip , LGBTQ+ Themes , Yuri , 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

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

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

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

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

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

Busu Musou: Otoko wa Minna Watakushi no Toriko

Also known as Ugly but Charming: All Men are Captivated by Me.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Thriller

"He's already crazy for me. "

Someone's hot CEO boyfriend was stolen by a plump, ugly woman?! Even though Kaori Ichijo is plump and ugly, she constantly has men wrapped around her finger. At first glance, men think Kaori's unattractive; and yet, her amazing skills have them at her mercy, bewitched and sucked bone dry... Just who is this Kaori, and what in the world is her motive?!



Tags: Netori , Female Protagonist , Body Image

Diet-reul Geumandueotda

Also known as Goodbye, Dieting!.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Loving yourself is never easy.

There are countless ways to diet. So why are there no ways to quit? An intimate, cheerful tale of growth about a woman who has long struggled with body image issues and eating disorders.



Tags: Body Image

Matsuko, 32-sai Shojo.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

Matsuko has her first experience with sexual service for women.

Tags: Body Image , Prostitution , Virginity , Heterosexual