Top Educational Manga Recommendations

[Oshi no Ko]

Also known as [Oshi no Ko].

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Supernatural

Gorou is a gynecologist and idol fan who’s in shock after his favorite star, Ai, announces an impromptu hiatus. Little does Gorou realize that he’s about to forge a bond with her that defies all common sense! Lies are an idol’s weapon!



Notes:
- Nominated for the 14th and 15th Manga Taisho.
- Nominated for the 26th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize.
- Nominated for the 67th Shogakukan Manga Award in the general category.
- Nominated for the 46th Kodansha Manga Award.
- Winner of the 7th Next Manga Award in the print category.
- Chapter count includes 2 extra chapters.

Tags: Revenge , Idol , Acting , Reincarnation , Tragedy , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Twins , Detective , Time Skip , Work , Otaku Culture , Age Gap , Love Triangle , Female Harem , Heterosexual , Anti-Hero , Suicide , Bullying , Educational , Urban Fantasy , Denpa , Tsundere , Primarily Female Cast , Primarily Teen Cast , Urban , Pregnancy , Filmmaking , VTuber , Cosplay

Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru

Also known as My Dress-Up Darling.

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

Traumatized by a childhood incident with a friend who took exception to his love of traditional dolls, doll-artisan hopeful Gojou Wakana passes his days as a loner, finding solace in the home ec room at his high school. To Wakana, people like beautiful Kitagawa Marin, a trendy girl who's always surrounded by a throng of friends, is practically an alien from another world. But when cheerful Marin--never one to be shy--spots Wakana sewing away one day after school, she barges in with the aim of roping her quiet classmate into her secret hobby: cosplay! Will Wakana's wounded heart be able to handle the invasion from this sexy alien?!



Tags: Cosplay , Otaku Culture , Fashion , Female Protagonist , Male Protagonist , Gyaru , Makeup , Heterosexual , Primarily Teen Cast , Seinen , Photography , Educational , Primarily Female Cast , Crossdressing , School , Drawing , Unrequited Love

Dr. STONE

Also known as Dr. STONE.

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Adventure , Comedy , Sci-Fi

One fateful day, all of humanity was petrified by a blinding flash of light. After several millennia, high schooler Taiju awakens and finds himself lost in a world of statues. However, he’s not alone! His science-loving friend Senku’s been up and running for a few months and he's got a grand plan in mind—to kickstart civilization with the power of science!



Note: Shueisha published its 27th volume on April 4, 2024. This volume contains the one-shot Dr. STONE: TERRAFORMING and the mini-series Dr. STONE 4D SCIENCE.

Tags: Post-Apocalyptic , Survival , Ensemble Cast , Educational , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Lost Civilization , Travel , Philosophy , War , Environmental , Time Skip , Kingdom Management , Space , Primarily Male Cast , Tragedy , Espionage , Ships , Adoption , Food , Asexual , Bisexual , Time Manipulation , Guns , Wilderness

Blue Period

Also known as Blue Period.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

The studious Yatora leaves a dry life of study and good manners behind for a new passion: painting. But untethering yourself from all your past expectations is dangerous as well as thrilling…



Note: Nominated for Manga Taisho Awards in 2019, Kodansha Manga Awards in 2019 and the 24th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2020. Winner of the 13th Manga Taisho Awards. Winner of the General Manga category of the 44th annual Kodansha Manga Awards.

Tags: Drawing , Coming of Age , College , Seinen , Male Protagonist , Educational , Philosophy , Primarily Adult Cast , LGBTQ+ Themes , School , School Club , Tragedy , Transgender , Primarily Teen Cast , Bisexual , Crossdressing , Gender Bending , Suicide , Nudity , Tomboy

Shokugeki no Souma

Also known as Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Drama , Ecchi

Yukihira Souma's dream is to become a full-time chef in his father's restaurant and surpass his father's culinary skill. But just as Yukihira graduates from middle schools his father, Yukihira Jouichirou, closes down the restaurant to cook in Europe. Although downtrodden, Souma's fighting spirit is rekindled by a challenge from Jouichirou which is to survive in an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. Can Souma survive?



Included side stories:
Volume 1: Shokugeki no Souma (pilot).
Volume 3: Kimi to Watashi no Renai Soudan.
Volume 8: Natsuyasumi no Erina.
Volume 13: Shokugeki no Soma X Isobe Isobee Monogatari.
Volume 13: Betsubara! #1 & #2 (counts as one chapter).
Volume 15: Betsubara! #3 & #4 (counts as one chapter).
Volume 20: Betsubara! #5.
Volume 21: Betsubara! #6 & #7 (counts as one chapter).
Volume 31: Kareinaru Bansankai.

Tags: Food , School , Male Protagonist , Shounen , Nudity , Educational , Time Skip , Tsundere , Incest , Desert

Golden Kamuy

Also known as Golden Kamuy.

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

In the early twentieth century, Russo-Japanese War veteran Saichi “Immortal” Sugimoto scratches out a meager existence during the postwar gold rush in the wilderness of Hokkaido. When he stumbles across a map to a fortune in hidden Ainu gold, he sets off on a treacherous quest to find it. But Sugimoto is not the only interested party, and everyone who knows about the gold will kill to possess it! Faced with the harsh conditions of the northern wilderness, ruthless criminals and rogue Japanese soldiers, Sugimoto will need all his skills and luck—and the help of an Ainu girl named Asirpa—to survive.



Note: Won the 9th Manga Taisho Award in 2016 and the 22nd Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2018. Nominated for the 20th and 21st Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize and the 40th Kodansha Manga Awards in 2016.

Tags: Historical , Conspiracy , Military , Outdoor Activities , Seinen , Politics , Ensemble Cast , Educational , Surreal Comedy , Food , Travel , Found Family , Gore , Primarily Male Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Survival , Guns , Revenge , LGBTQ+ Themes , Language Barrier , Anti-Hero , Slapstick , Cute Boys Doing Cute Things , Crime , Male Harem , Snowscape , Trains , Prison , Animals , Male Protagonist , Nudity , Swordplay , Disability , Archery , Suicide , Tanned Skin , Transgender , Twins , Cannibalism , Zoophilia , Heterosexual , Yakuza , Time Skip , Dissociative Identities , Crossdressing , Wilderness , Indigenous Cultures , Gender Bending

Bakuman.

Also known as Bakuman。.

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

Average student Moritaka Mashiro enjoys drawing for fun. When his classmate and aspiring writer Akito Takagi discovers his talent, he begs Moritaka to team up with him as a manga-creating duo. But what exactly does it take to make it in the manga-publishing world?



Tags: Drawing , Work , Meta , Shounen , Writing , Educational , Coming of Age , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Otaku Culture , Tomboy , School , Tragedy

Holyland

Status: Finished
Genres: Action , Psychological

Yuu is a high school kid who doesn't really fit anywhere. To find a place he can belong, be accepted, he will do anything. However one thing leads to another and he is forced to fight to keep his place, his holyland.

Tags: Martial Arts , Gangs , Delinquents , Philosophy , Boxing , Coming of Age , Primarily Male Cast , Bullying , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Educational , Drugs , Suicide , Tragedy , Meta

Otoyomegatari

Also known as A Bride's Story.

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

A Bride’s Story tells the tale of a beautiful young bride in nineteenth-century Asia. At the age of twenty, Amir is sent to a neighboring town to be wed. But her surprise at learning her new husband, Karluk, is eight years younger than her is quickly replaced by a deep affection for the boy and his family. Though she hails from just beyond the mountains, Amir’s clan had very different customs, foods, and clothes from what Karluk is used to. As the two of them learn more about each other through their day-to-day lives, the bond of respect and love grows stronger.



Note: Won the Prix Intergénérations ("Intergenerational Award") at the Angoulême International Comics Festival in 2012 and the 7th Manga Taishou award in 2014.

Tags: Ensemble Cast , Marriage , Historical , Female Protagonist , Heterosexual , Travel , Seinen , Foreign , Arranged Marriage , Iyashikei , Desert , Indigenous Cultures , Family Life , Rural , Matchmaking , Age Gap , Educational , Cohabitation , War , Food , Religion , Unrequited Love , Language Barrier , Twins , Archery , Nudity , Animals , Female Harem , Military , LGBTQ+ Themes

act-age

Also known as ACT-AGE.

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

Lights! Camera! ACTION! Kei Yonagi wants to be an actress! But an already-difficult dream to achieve has become much harder since her father left and her mother died. She's now taking care of her two little siblings on her own.

Without much money left, will she have to give up her dream?!



Tags: Acting , Work , Female Protagonist , Coming of Age , Filmmaking , Shounen , Philosophy , Educational , Primarily Adult Cast , Twins

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun

Also known as Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Comedy , Romance

The boy of her dreams...is a girl's manga artist?! To the eyes of high school student Chiyo Sakura, classmate Umetarou Nozaki--brawny of build and brusque of tongue--is a dreamboat! When Chiyo finally works up the courage to tell Nozaki how she feels about him, she knows rejection is on the table...but getting recruited as a manga-ka's assistant?! Never in a million years! But for someone who makes a living drawing sweet girly romances, Nozaki-kun is a little slow on the uptake when it comes to matters of the heart in reality. And so Chiyo's daily life of manga making and heartache begins!



Tags: Drawing , Parody , 4-koma , Ensemble Cast , Work , School , Heterosexual , Otaku Culture , Unrequited Love , Tomboy , Tsundere , Female Protagonist , Primarily Teen Cast , Shounen , School Club , Educational , Bisexual , College

Planetes

Also known as Planetes.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological , Sci-Fi , Slice of Life

Haunted by a space flight accident that claimed the life of his beloved wife, Yuri finds himself six years later as part of a team of debris cleaners on a vessel called the Toy Box charged with clearing space junk from space flight paths. The team consists of Hachimaki, a hot shot debris-man with a sailor's affinity for the orbital ocean; Fee, a chain-smoking tomboy beauty with an abrasive edge; and Pops, a veteran orbital mechanic whose avuncular presence soothes the stress of the job.



Tags: Philosophy , Work , Environmental , Space , Seinen , Educational , Politics , Family Life , Terrorism , Primarily Adult Cast , Heterosexual , Male Protagonist , Episodic , Iyashikei , Tragedy , Nudity , Time Skip

Chihayafuru

Also known as Chihayafuru.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Romance , Sports

Chihaya is a girl in the sixth grade, still not old enough to even know the meaning of the word zeal. But one day, she meets Arata, a transfer student from rural Fukui prefecture. Though docile and quiet, he has an unexpected skill: his ability to play competitive karuta, a traditional Japanese card game.

Chihaya is struck by his obsession with the game, along with his ability to pick out the right card and swipe it away before any of his opponents. However, Arata is transfixed by her as well, all because of her unbelievable natural talent for the game. Don't miss this story of adolescent lives and emotions playing out in the most dramatic of ways!



Notes:
- It won the 2nd Manga Taisho Award and the 35th annual Kodansha Manga Award for Best Shoujo.
- It was nominated for the 20th Tezuka Osamu Cultural Prize in 2016.

Tags: Karuta , Josei , Female Protagonist , Coming of Age , School Club , Unrequited Love , Card Battle , Love Triangle , POV , Primarily Teen Cast , Educational , Ensemble Cast , School , Tomboy , Heterosexual , Bullying , Slapstick

Gal Gohan

Also known as Gal Gohan.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Ecchi , Romance

Okazaki Miku is a “gal”: a fun-loving high school student who expresses herself through bleached hair, sexy clothes, and heaps of accessories. Unfortunately, she’s also flunking every class. When she asks her Home Economics teacher, Yabe Shinji, to help her bake bribery cookies for her disappointed teachers, she finds a new excitement in that small success–and Shinji is moved by her enthusiasm. Shinji decides to start a cooking club to better connect with his students, and Miku is first in line to join!



Includes 1 bonus chapter.

Tags: Gyaru , Food , School Club , Teacher , Age Gap , Seinen , School , Heterosexual , Love Triangle , Primarily Female Cast , Tanned Skin , Primarily Teen Cast , Female Harem , Educational , Time Skip

Meitantei Conan

Also known as Case Closed.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Adventure , Comedy , Mystery , Romance

Precocious high school student Jimmy Kudo uses his keen powers of observation and astute intuition to solve mysteries that have left law enforcement officials baffled. Hot on the trail of a suspect, Jimmy is accosted from behind and fed a strange chemical which physically transforms him into a grade schooler! Taking on the pseudonym Conan Edogawa, he attempts to track down the people who did this to him. But until he finds a cure for his bizarre condition, Jimmy continues to help the police solve their toughest cases. Can you crack the case before Conan does?



Note: Won the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shounen category in 2001.

Tags: Detective , Crime , Age Regression , Police , Male Protagonist , Conspiracy , Tragedy , Episodic , Shounen , Heterosexual , Educational , Ensemble Cast , School , Guns , School Club , Magic , Mahjong

Koko wa Ima kara Rinri desu.

Status: Releasing
Genres: Drama , Psychological

"Ethics" is the path of humanity, a principle that becomes the norm of morality. Learning is not a problem in the future. But this class is filled with the truth of life. Cool ethics teachers Takayanagi confronts the problems of students and their own stance. New Age, teacher story!!

Tags: Philosophy , Teacher , School , Educational , Episodic , Seinen , Bullying , Suicide , Crime , Delinquents , LGBTQ+ Themes , Yakuza , Drugs , Nudity , Disability

Hidamari ga Kikoeru

Also known as I Hear the Sunspot.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Because of a hearing disability, Kouhei is often misunderstood and has trouble integrating into life on campus, so he learns to keep his distance. That is until he meets the outspoken and cheerful Taichi. He tells Kouhei that his hearing loss is not his fault. Taichi’s words cut through Kouhei’s usual defense mechanisms and open his heart. More than friends, less than lovers, their relationship changes Kouhei forever.



Tags: Male Protagonist , Disability , Boys' Love , College , Primarily Male Cast , LGBTQ+ Themes , Primarily Adult Cast , School , Educational , Food , Coming of Age

Mata, Onaji Yume wo Miteita

Also known as I Had That Same Dream Again.

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

An unhappy girl who engages in self-harm, a woman ostracized by society, and an old woman looking to live out her twilight years in peace–what could three such different people have in common? That’s what grade schooler Nanoka Koyanagi is trying to find out. Assigned by her teacher to define what “happiness” means to her, Nanoka tries to find her place in the world by exploring her relationships with these three strangers, and through them, comes to know herself.



Tags: Educational , Female Protagonist , Philosophy , Bullying , Time Manipulation , School , Seinen , Drawing , Tragedy , Suicide , Time Skip

Gin no Saji

Also known as Silver Spoon.

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

Defying the expectations of family and teachers, Yuugo Hachiken chooses to leave the city and enroll at Ooezo Agricultural High School. Having always been at the top of his class, Yuugo assumes a rural school will be a breeze, but mucking out stables, gathering eggs, and chasing errant calves takes a lot out of him-and fills him with something he's never experienced before. Surrounded by endless fields and fresh air, Yuugo discovers a new connection to the land and to life... Springtime begins at Ezo AG!!



Tags: Rural , School , Coming of Age , Agriculture , Animals , Educational , Primarily Teen Cast , Shounen , Food , School Club , Male Protagonist , Heterosexual , Environmental , Time Skip , Baseball , Ojou-sama , Cultivation , Economics , Rehabilitation , Primarily Male Cast

Kakukaku Shikajika

Also known as Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

High schooler Akiko has big plans to become a popular mangaka before she even graduates, but she needs to get much better at drawing if she ever wants to reach her goal. Looking for an easy fix, she signs up for an art class, thinking all her problems will soon be solved. She’s in for a surprise: her new instructor is a sword-wielding taskmaster who doesn’t care about manga one bit. But maybe this unconventional art teacher is just what she needs to realize her dreams!



Notes:
- Kakukaku Shikajika is an autobiography detailing the life of author Akiko Higashimura.
- The manga won the Grand Prize at the 8th Manga Taisho Award in 2015.

Tags: Drawing , Coming of Age , Otaku Culture , Teacher , Autobiographical , Josei , Female Protagonist , Tragedy , Non-fiction , College , Time Skip , Meta , Work , Writing , Primarily Adult Cast , Rural , Swordplay , Philosophy , Educational , Mopeds