Top Dancing Manga Recommendations

Boy meets Maria

Also known as Boy Meets Maria.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Romance

Taiga dreams of becoming an actor, so the first thing he does upon entering high school is join the drama club. There, he meets the beautiful, enigmatic Maria and immediately falls in love with her. Not long after, Taiga is told that she is actually a boy—but is that all there is to Maria's story? This beautifully illustrated, single-volume tale explores the nature of personal expression and the fluidity of the power of love.



Note: Volume contains an extra chapter.

Tags: LGBTQ+ Themes , School , Crossdressing , Acting , School Club , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Teen Cast , Boys' Love , Male Protagonist , Agender , Philosophy , Tragedy , Bisexual , Coming of Age , Dancing

Ballroom e Youkoso

Also known as Welcome to the Ballroom.

Status: Hiatus
Genres: Drama , Romance , Sports

Fujita has drifted through middle school aimlessly, unable to find friends or anything that can hold his attention. Then, one day, he's attacked by a gang and saved by a mysterious man. But this isn't a karate master; it's a ballroom dance instructor! Reluctantly, Fujita takes a few beginner's classes, only to find his inspiration... an entrancing, teenage dance prodigy named Shizuku. It's Fujita's first step into the high-octane world of competitive dance!



Note: Nominated for the 6th and 8th Manga Taisho Award.

Tags: Dancing , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Heterosexual , Ensemble Cast , School

Akebi-chan no Sailor Fuku

Status: Releasing
Genres: Slice of Life

Komichi Akebi lives out in the countryside with her family. She's won entrance to the prestigious Roubai Academy middle-school for girls and now she wants only two things -- to wear the school's sailor uniform and to make a hundred friends!

Tags: Female Protagonist , Iyashikei , Cute Girls Doing Cute Things , School , Primarily Female Cast , Coming of Age , Yuri , Seinen , LGBTQ+ Themes , Dancing , Acrobatics , Athletics , Orphan , Tragedy , Acting

Tetsugaku Letra

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

In middle school, Ichinose Kimitaka taught his friends how to play basketball. Despite his experience with the sport, his friends quickly outmatched him in skill. After an incident brought on by his frustration and jealousy, he was crushed to overhear those same 'friends' discussing how they wished he'd just kill himself.

On his way to toss out his special basketball shoes, he met a girl who was just as frustrated, throwing her own dancing shoes away. She was so tall, and her hands and feet are so large, that she had been rejected from her chosen hobby of Spanish dancing. He urged her to give basketball a try, and the two exchanged their shoes instead of throwing them away.

As he enters high school, Kimitaka learns that meeting him changed that girl's life for the better, and she is now a happy, social basketball player. Will Kimitaka be able to find the courage to make new friends and pursue his own talents?

Tags: Coming of Age , Dancing , School , Shounen , Male Protagonist , Bullying , Basketball

Jing Jiu

Also known as Pirouette into My Heart.

Status: Finished
Genres: Romance , Sports

Known as “the little swan” of his ballet studio, Shen has big dreams of leaving the humble farming town he grew up in and shooting to stardom. Though soft-spoken and timid, he meets his match in the stoic, wealthy, and equally as intense Jinyi, who pursues boxing next door. An unlikely pair, they cheer each other on and raise each other up through thick and thin. Determined to achieve their separate ambitions in the midst of their personal troubles, will their deep connection be strong enough to endure the journey and take flight?

Note: Season One has 74 chapters, plus prologue and two extras. Season Two has 69 chapters, plus prologue, extra, and three epilogue chapters, followed by a 10-chapter side story.

Tags: Boys' Love , Dancing , Full Color , Boxing , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Urban , Rural , Foreign , Time Skip

WonDance

Also known as Wandance.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Sports

Kaboku Kotani is starting high school, and he plans to do what he’s always done: go along with his friends, keep quiet, and not draw too much attention to himself. After all, it’s hard enough to get by with a stutter like his— why make things worse by standing out from the crowd? But then he sees another first-year, Hikari Wanda, dancing like no one is watching—or like she doesn’t care who sees her. It makes Kaboku wonder: Could he reach that same freedom? To find his way to Wanda, he does something he never thought he could: He joins the dance club. After all, every routine begins with a single step, right? Join Kaboku and Wanda as they freestyle their way to life and love!



Note: Nominated for the Tsugimanga 2020 Award in the Manga Category.

Tags: Dancing , Male Protagonist , Female Protagonist , Disability , School Club , Seinen , School , Primarily Female Cast

Kimi wa Pet

Also known as You're My Pet.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance

Life was good for Sumire Iwaya... until the day she discovers her boyfriend is cheating on her, she gets demoted at work, and her life spirals toward the dumps. Things take a turn for the better when she crosses paths with Momo, a homeless guy with a colorful past who puts a bounce in her step and a shake in her hips. It takes two to tango, but when Sumire's first love reappears in her life, will this be the last waltz?



Note: won the 27th Kodansha Manga Award for shoujo (2003).

Tags: Primarily Adult Cast , Female Protagonist , Josei , Work , Human Pet , Love Triangle , Heterosexual , Tsundere , Age Gap , Office Lady , Nudity , LGBTQ+ Themes , Dancing , Homeless , Unrequited Love

Angou Gakuen no Iroha

Also known as Cipher Academy.

Status: Finished
Genres: Mystery

Iroha is an average student newly enrolled in Cipher Academy, a Spartan school where students must crack code after code after code with barely enough time to catch their breath! Then a mysterious person named Kogoe gives Iroha an unusual pair of glasses with a crazy secret behind them!



Tags: School , Male Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Shounen , War , Conspiracy , Primarily Teen Cast , Femboy , Slavery , Dancing , Crossdressing

Dance Dance Danseur

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

Junpei is happily snoozing away during his sister's ballet recital when a male ballet dancer steps onto the stage. Moved by the strength and skills the dancer displays, the boy discovers his love for this art.

But after a certain tragedy happens, he vows to leave his past behind and turn into the epitome of manliness. What will he do when his love for ballet reignites?!

Tags: Dancing , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Foreign , Heterosexual , School , Disability , Amputation , Crossdressing , Love Triangle , Primarily Teen Cast

Double Arts

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

A boy and a girl are forced to join hands for all eternity!?
In a land ravaged by an epidemic known as "Troy", the only people with healing arts capable of stopping the seizures caused by the disease are the Sisters. Although they have a high resistance to the disease, they are searching for a person who is truly immune, so that they can find a cure. The main character is Sister Elraine, one of the Sisters who becomes infected with Troy. But, when she touches Kiri, a seemingly ordinary boy, her seizures stop. Could he be the one!?

Included one-shot:
Volume 1: Island

Tags: Pandemic , Martial Arts , Shounen , Super Power , Primarily Teen Cast , Dancing , Heterosexual

Iseong Yeon Aebagsa

Also known as The Love Doctor.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Romance

Jung Erae has no clue about relationships and men to the point where she drives every man away. Desperate, she seeks help and ends up contacting a love doctor, Cha Yoon. Strangely enough, Erae starts developing newfound feelings for this so-called doctor.



Tags: Yuri , Full Color , Age Gap , Primarily Female Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Female Protagonist , LGBTQ+ Themes , Dancing , Love Triangle , Disability , Bullying , College , School

Odoriba ni Skirt ga Naru

Status: Releasing
Genres: Romance

Kiki Haruma always dreamed of doing ballroom dance as the feminine "partner" role, but as she aged she grew taller and taller, eventually causing her to give up ever looking good in a dress or anything girly. Now in the second-year of high school, she specializes in the masculine "leader" role—until one day, her partner suddenly leaves her. When Michiru Toribami, a petite and pretty first-year student, comes to join the ballroom dance club, Kiki asks her to be her new partner, but Michiru told her that she only dances the leading role—and she wants none other than Kiki to be her partner.

Tags: Yuri , Dancing , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , LGBTQ+ Themes , School , School Club , Primarily Teen Cast , Love Triangle , Unrequited Love

10 Dance

Also known as 10 Dance.

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

Shinya Sugiki, the dashing lord of Standard Ballroom, and Shinya Suzuki, passionate king of Latin Dance: the two share more than just a first name and a love of the sport. They each want to become champion of the 10-Dance Competition, which means they’ll need to learn the other’s specialty dances, and who better to learn from than the best? But old rivalries die hard, and things get complicated even further when they realize there might be more between them than an uneasy partnership …



Tags: Dancing , Bisexual , LGBTQ+ Themes , Male Protagonist , Boys' Love , Primarily Adult Cast , Foreign , Seinen , Primarily Male Cast

Girl Crush

Also known as Girl Crush.

Status: Hiatus
Genres: Drama

Tenka Momose, a high school freshman that can sing and dance... she's pretty and smart to boot! She's good at everything but love. One day she meets Erian Satou, and was pulled in by her passionate dedication to becoming an idol. This is the story about two young girls chasing after their K-Pop idol dream!!



Tags: Female Protagonist , Dancing , Idol , Shoujo , Fashion , School Club , School , Foreign , Heterosexual , Urban , LGBTQ+ Themes , Agender , Language Barrier

Cheonchijeonneung

Also known as Flawed Almighty.

Status: Finished
Genres: Fantasy , Supernatural

Do good or go to hell. The conditions of his new curse seem simple enough for once-hopeful hoodlum Jeon-Ji Kim. Or so it seems when his perky guardian angel shows up on his doorstep one day and heals his limp. But will simply going through the motions of helping people be enough to appease a petty god with a grudge?



Tags: Angels , Full Color , Male Protagonist , Rehabilitation , Delinquents , Religion , Demons , Bullying , Gods , Anti-Hero , Suicide , Agender , Primarily Adult Cast , VTuber , Dancing , Cult , Curses

Subaru

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Sports

A small five-year-old girl named Subaru no longer has time for friends and play. Why is this? Her twin brother Kazuma is dying...and gradually forgetting everything. Even Subaru. And so the girl visits him every day, talking with him and dancing for him, trying to make him remember her. And he always does by the end of the day. Encouraged by a friend to join ballet classes, the girl does so and falls in love with the dance.

Tags: Seinen , Dancing , Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Time Skip

Uma Musume: Cinderella Gray

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Sports

Uma Musume Cinderella Gray is a spin-off title of the Uma Musume project by Cygames. It follows Oguri Cap through her time at Kasamatsu Training Center Academy and on her journey of becoming a legendary horse girl.

Tags: Athletics , Female Protagonist , Primarily Female Cast , Kemonomimi , Anthropomorphism , Seinen , Dancing

Nabillera

Also known as Navillera: Like a Butterfly.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

After the funeral of an old friend, Deok-Chul Sim resolves to pursue something he had always wanted to try: ballet. Much to the surprise (and maybe~ horror) of his wife, children, and other acquaintances, this 70-year-old throws himself into following his heart and his passion. With the help of his young instructor Chae-Rok and others hoping for their own ambitions to take flight, Deok-Chul shows the importance and joy of pursuing one's dream… even in the face of hardships and our own mortality.



Tags: Dancing , Family Life , Disability , Iyashikei , Primarily Adult Cast , Amnesia , Full Color , Male Protagonist , Time Skip , Foreign , Elderly Protagonist

Sesuji wo Pin! to: Shikakou Kyougi Dance-bu e Youkoso

Also known as Straighten Up! Welcome to Shika High's Competitive Dance Club.

Status: Finished
Genres: Sports

Masaharu Tsuchiya is as dorky as they get and is determined to make high school different than elementary school. But can he keep his inherent awkwardness from ruining his first day? Furthermore, what club will he join? Surely not something like...dance club?

Note: Winner of the 2016 Next Manga Award in the Print Manga category.

Tags: School , Dancing , Shounen

Kenrantaru Grande Scène

Also known as The Magnificent Grand Scene.

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

Kanade, a girl gifted with an observing eye and an ability to get things done. This is the story about her journey discovering the beauty of classical ballet and the joy of dancing. From the popular author that brought us Vanitas, comes a romantic story that makes the beauty of classical ballet come alive.



Tags: Dancing , Coming of Age , Primarily Female Cast , Female Protagonist , Shounen , Foreign , Travel , Language Barrier , Classic Literature