Top Non-Fiction Manga Recommendations

Sabishisugite Rezu Fuzoku ni Ikimashita Report

Also known as My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness.

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

A hugely popular comic on Pixiv, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness offers readers an honest and heartfelt look at one young woman’s exploration of her sexuality, mental well-being, and growing up in our modern age.



Note: Includes 1 extra chapter.

Tags: Autobiographical , Non-fiction , Coming of Age , Female Protagonist , Family Life , LGBTQ+ Themes , Rehabilitation , Yuri , Disability , POV , Psychosexual , Philosophy , Drawing , Primarily Adult Cast , Primarily Female Cast , Survival , Achronological Order , Urban , Nudity , Full Color , Denpa

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

Ningen Shikkaku

Also known as No Longer Human.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Horror , Psychological

Mine has been a life of much shame.

I can’t even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.

Plagued by a maddening anxiety, the terrible disconnect between his own concept of happiness and the joy of the rest of the world, Yozo Oba plays the clown in his dissolute life, holding up a mask for those around him as he spirals ever downward, locked arm-in-arm with death.

Osamu Dazai’s immortal—and supposedly autobiographical—work of Japanese literature, is perfectly adapted here into a manga by Junji Itou. The imagery wrenches open the text of the novel one line at a time to sublimate Yozo’s mental landscape into something even more delicate and grotesque. This is the ultimate in art by Itou, proof that nothing can surpass the terror of the human psyche.



Tags: Tragedy , Philosophy , Classic Literature , Nudity , Seinen , Suicide , Biographical , Family Life , Primarily Adult Cast , Drugs , Body Horror , Urban Fantasy , Non-fiction

Hitori Koukan Nikki

Also known as My Solo Exchange Diary.

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

Struggling with the idea of living alone and adjusting to the effects of her previous book’s success, this follow-up to the award-winning autobiographical comic continues the author’s quest for self-acceptance and love.



Note: Includes 3 extra chapters and the one-shot “Chika-chan no Yuuutsu”.

Tags: Autobiographical , Female Protagonist , Rehabilitation , Non-fiction , Coming of Age , LGBTQ+ Themes , Family Life , Yuri , Primarily Female Cast , Primarily Adult Cast , Suicide , Drawing , Disability

Kamigami no Itadaki

Also known as The Summit of the Gods.

Status: Finished
Genres: Adventure , Drama , Mystery , Psychological , Sports

In a small Nepalese shop, Makoto Fukamachi, photographer for a Japanese expedition to conquer Mt. Everest, stumbles across a camera which may well be that of George Mallory, the celebrated mountain climber who was the first to attempt conquering Everest.

Mallory disappeared along with Andrew Irvine during the course of their ascent in 1924, without leaving any indication of whether they reached the summit or not. So, what if it was only on their return trip that they had their fatal accident?

Tags: Seinen , Male Protagonist , Philosophy , Mountaineering , Outdoor Activities , Primarily Adult Cast , Historical , Primarily Male Cast , Tragedy , Non-fiction , Fitness

Itou Junji no Neko Nikki: Yon & Mu

Also known as Junji Ito's Cat Diary: Yon & Mu.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Slice of Life

Hell-o-kitty!

Master of Japanese horror manga Junji Ito presents a series of hissterical tales chronicling his real-life trials and tribulations of becoming a cat owner. Junji Ito, as J-kun, has recently built a new house and has invited his financée, A-ko, to live with him. Little did he know … his blushing bride-to-be has some unexpected company in tow—Yon, a ghastly-looking family cat, and Mu, an adorable Norwegian forest cat. Despite being a dog person, J-kun finds himself purrsuaded by their odd cuteness and thus begins his comedic struggle to gain the affection of his new feline friends.



Tags: Animals , Autobiographical , Family Life , Male Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Non-fiction , Seinen

Yomawari Sensei

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Psychological

The author, a high school teacher, recounts his 12 years on "night patrol" in Yokohama City, where he comes face to face with youth dealing with issues ranging from self-mutilation to drug abuse.

Tags: Rehabilitation , School , Tragedy , Non-fiction , Philosophy , Teacher , Biographical , Episodic , Seinen , Male Protagonist

Boku ga Otto ni Deau made

Also known as Until I Meet My Husband.

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

From school crushes to awkward dating sites to finding a community, this collection of stories recounts the author’s “firsts” as a young gay man searching for love. Dating isn’t ever easy, but that goes doubly so for Ryousuke, whose journey is full of unrequited love and many speed bumps. But perseverance and time heals all wounds, even those of the heart.



Tags: LGBTQ+ Themes , Autobiographical , Boys' Love , Male Protagonist , Coming of Age , Non-fiction , School

Genjitsu Touhi Shitetara Boroboro ni Natta Hanashi

Also known as My Alcoholic Escape from Reality.

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

Nagata Kabi’s downward spiral is getting out of control, and she can’t stop drinking to soothe the ache of reality. After suffering from unbearable stomach pains, she goes to the hospital, where she is diagnosed with pancreatitis—and is immediately hospitalized. A new chapter unfolds in Nagata Kabi’s life, as she struggles to find her way back to reality and manga creation in the wake of her breakdown.



Note: Includes the prologue.

Tags: Autobiographical , Rehabilitation , Disability , Non-fiction , Female Protagonist , Medicine , Josei , Drawing , Drugs , Philosophy , Yuri

Hanayome wa Moto Danshi.

Also known as The Bride Was a Boy.

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

Drawn in the style of diary comics with an upbeat, adorable flair, this is a charming tale about Chii, a woman assigned male at birth. Her story starts with her childhood and follows the ups and downs of exploring her sexuality, gender, and transition–as well as falling in love with a man who’s head over heels for her. Now they want to get married, so Chii’s about to embark on a new adventure: becoming a bride!



Tags: LGBTQ+ Themes , Transgender , Educational , Autobiographical , Josei , Female Protagonist , Non-fiction , 4-koma , Family Life , Primarily Adult Cast , Chibi , Heterosexual

Meisou Senshi Nagata Kabi

Also known as My Wandering Warrior Existence.

Status: Finished
Genres: Psychological , Slice of Life

The newest diary manga from the Harvey Award-winning creator of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness.

Nagata Kabi’s groundbreaking autobiographical work has captivated audiences around the globe, starting with the viral online comic about identity that would become the graphic novel My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness. Readers from all backgrounds have been moved by the author’s ability to capture complex emotions through her art and text, giving insight into feelings they may have struggled to articulate themselves. Nagata Kabi’s memoirs, including the Eisner-nominated My Solo Exchange Diary and new release My Alcoholic Escape From Reality, have explored themes of physical and mental illness, sex and sexuality, family, and independence. Follow the newest installment of this trailblazing series with My Wandering Warrior Existence, Nagata Kabi’s exploration of longing for love and marriage.



Tags: Autobiographical , LGBTQ+ Themes , Non-fiction , Female Protagonist , Primarily Adult Cast , Rehabilitation , Agender , Nudity , Family Life

Gekiga Hyouryuu

Also known as A Drifting Life.

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

Over four decades ago, Yoshihiro Tatsumi expanded the horizons of comics storytelling by using the visual language of manga to tell gritty, literary stories about the private lives of everyday people. He has been called "the grandfather of Japanese alternative comics" and has influenced generations of cartoonists around the world. Now the visionary creator of "The Push Man and Other Stories" and "Good-bye" has turned his incisive, unflinching gaze upon himself. Over ten years in the making, "A Drifting Life" is Tatsumis' most ambitious, personal, and heart felt work: an autobiographical bildungsroman in comics form.Using his life long obsession with comics as a frame work, Tatsumi weaves a complex story that encompasses family dynamics, Japanese culture and history, first love, the intricacies of the manga industry, and most importantly, what it means to be an artist. Alternately humorous, enlightening, and haunting, this is the masterful summartion of a fascinating life and a historic career.



Tags: Autobiographical , Historical , Drawing , Non-fiction , Tragedy , Work , School , Seinen

Showa-Shi

Also known as Showa: A History of Japan.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama

When the Showa Era began, Mizuki himself was just a few years old, so his earliest memories coincide with the earliest events of the Era. With his trusty narrator Rat Man, Mizuki brings history into the realm of the personal, making it palatable, and indeed compelling, for young audiences as well as more mature readers. As he describes the militarization that leads up to World War II, Mizuki’s stance toward war is thoughtful and often downright critical – his portrayal of the Nanjing Massacre clearly paints the incident (a disputed topic within Japan) as an atrocity. Mizuki’s Showa is a beautifully told history that tracks how technological developments and the country’s shifting economic stability had a role in shaping Japan’s foreign policy in the early twentieth century.



Tags: Historical , Autobiographical , War , Politics , Educational , Non-fiction

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

Shissou Nikki

Also known as Disappearance Diary.

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

In 1989, comic artist Hideo Azuma succumbs to the pressures of deadlines and tries (unsuccessfully) to hang himself using the slope of a mountain. He leaves his family, wandering as a dumpster bum looking for scraps of food, cigarette butts or discarded alcohol. After several months he is arrested as a vagrant and returned to his home. He then repeats the cycle in 1992 this time becoming a gas pipe fitter in another town. Later, in 1998, his alcohol dependence is so bad he is forced into rehab. This book is his expression of those three periods of his life told, not in a deep or depressed way but, as befits his nature, in a buoyant and cheerful cartoon art.



Tags: Autobiographical , Male Protagonist , Seinen , Rehabilitation , Non-fiction , Disability , Homeless , Food , Work , Suicide

Hattatsu Shougai to Issho ni Otona ni Natta Watashitachi

Also known as My Brain is Different: Stories of ADHD and Other Developmental Disorders.

Status: Finished
Genres: Slice of Life

This intimate manga anthology is about the struggles and triumphs of individuals learning to navigate daily life with a developmental disorder. The comics follow the stories of nine people, including: a junior high dropout finding an alternate path to education; a former "troublesome" child helping kids at a support school; a so-called problem child realizing the beauty of his own unique quirks; and a man falling in love with the world with the help of a new medication. This inspiring volume illustrates their diverse anxieties and finding self-empowerment in a world not quite built with them in mind.



Tags: Educational , Autobiographical , Disability , Biographical , Rehabilitation , Non-fiction , Anthology , Hikikomori , Suicide , School

You to Bakemono ni Naru Chichi ga Tsurai

Also known as A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad's an Alcoholic.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

Mariko Kikuchi tells the painful story of her father’s alcoholism and her own journey through guilt to understanding her father’s illness. She rejects the common belief that family members can and should be forgiven for anything they do, no matter how much harm they cause.



Note: Includes the epilogue.

Tags: Autobiographical , Family Life , Drawing , Non-fiction , Estranged Family , Female Protagonist , Josei , Tragedy , Time Skip , Suicide

Jitsu wa Watashi Sexless de Nayandemashita

Also known as Secretly, I've Been Suffering About Being Sexless.

Status: Finished
Genres: Comedy , Slice of Life

Married life isn't all lovey-dovey, or ooh-la-la steamy--not when you and your partner have opposing sex drives. When a married woman with a raging libido can't find the satisfaction she needs from her tame, lackluster husband, she's left with no choice but to get her fix elsewhere...



Note: Includes the epilogue.

Tags: Female Protagonist , Non-fiction , Seinen , Autobiographical , Heterosexual , Family Life , Marriage , Primarily Adult Cast

1F: Fukushima Daiichi Genshiryoku Hatsudensho Annaiki

Also known as Ichi-F: A Worker's Graphic Memoir of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Status: Finished
Genres: Drama , Slice of Life

On March 11, 2011, Japan suffered the largest earthquake in its modern history. The 9.0-magnitude quake threw up a devastating tsunami that wiped away entire towns, and caused, in the months afterward, three nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. Altogether, it was the costliest natural disaster in human history.

This is not the story of that disaster.

This is the story of a man who took a job. Kazuto Tatsuta was an amateur artist who signed onto the dangerous task of cleaning up the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant, which the workers came to call “Ichi-F.” This is the story of that challenging work, of the trials faced by the local citizens, and of the unique camaraderie that built up between the mostly blue-collar workers who had to face the devious and invisible threat of radiation on a daily basis. After six months, Tatsuta’s body had absorbed the maximum annual dose of radiation allowed by regulations, and he was forced to take a break from the work crew, giving him the time to create this unprecedented, unauthorized, award-winning view of daily life at Fukushima Daiichi.

“I drew this manga because I wanted people to see what day-to-day life at the nuclear power plant is like. Because I believe that’s essential to the future of our country.”
-Kazuto Tatsuta



Tags: Seinen , Educational , Work , Non-fiction , Autobiographical , Historical

Seibetsu X

Also known as X-Gender.

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

At 33 years old, Asuka Miyazaki realizes that they like women! Asuka, however, is neither a woman nor a man–instead, they’re X-gender, which is a non-binary identity. Follow Asuka through the pages of this autobiographical manga as they record the ins and outs of their journey to finding love with a woman.



Tags: LGBTQ+ Themes , Transgender , Autobiographical , Agender , Primarily Adult Cast , Coming of Age , Non-fiction , Seinen , Educational , Pandemic , Disability , Suicide , Drawing , Bar