It is?!?!?!?!??! 
ngl, I totally assumed it and was too lazy to check that out. 
2 Likes
I’ve been enjoying ふらいんぐういっち (Flying Witch). It is a pretty slow-paced, country living slice-of-life manga with supernatural elements. It has grown to be one of my favorite series. The level of Japanese is not too far away from Yotsuba levels, if that is a concern.
10 Likes
i second this!! the anime was so good. i read half of the manga, nice pacing. light read.
i suggest tonari no kaibutsu-kun, a nice shoujo \o/ i watched the anime and finished the manga. very niceeee.
2 Likes
I just started reading this online and it’s been brilliant so far. I just wonder if I’ll actually be able to read it in Japanese though. 
1 Like
I’d like to recommend Midori Days - Midori no Hibi (Midori Days) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net
A 17 year old guy who gets into fights a lot wakes up one day and his right hand has been replaced with a miniature girl who confesses to having had a crush on him for years. Apart from the bonkers premise, it’s very much a slice-of-life high school comedy and it’s very very funny. I’m just re-reading it online and I think I just woke my wife up with my laughing. Oops.
3 Likes
Some miscellaneous recommendations from my MAL manga history
Kimi ni Todoke
uronuma Sawako is completely misunderstood by her classmates. Her timid and sweet demeanor is often mistaken for malicious behavior. This is due to her resemblance to the ghost girl from “The Ring,” which has led her peers to give her the nickname Sadako. Longing to make friends and live a normal life, she is naturally drawn to Kazehaya Shouta, the most popular guy in class, whose “100% refreshing” personality earns him great admiration from Sawako. So when Kazehaya starts talking to her, maybe there is hope for the friendships Sawako has always longed for. Maybe…there is even a little hope for some romance in her future.
I love this one. Sweet and slow paced. I’ve seen both seasons of the anime multiple times, but the manga has the advantage of going well beyond the end of the anime.
Cat Street
The story centers around Keito Aoyama, a former famous child actor. Due to a childhood incident, she retired from her career early and withdrew from normal society. Now 16, she passes her days in boredom and without purpose. But one day she runs into a stranger who takes her to El Liston—a free school for high school students like herself, who don’t have a place where they belong. Though hesitant at first, Keito decides to enter El Liston and subsequently, she begins a new stage in her life. With the help of her only remaining childhood friend, Taiyou, and her new classmates Rei, Momiji, and Kouichi, Keito slowly finds the courage to open up to others and to accept their support. Will Keito return to acting? Will she find true friends? Love?
I don’t remember too much about this, but it’s the only manga that I marked both “Completed” (as in I finished reading it) and 10/10 so it’s gotta be good.
Kingyosou
During springtime in their second year of high school, Asuka fell in love with Masami after seeing him play the Harmony Drums during the festival. However, Masami is deaf, and in his own soundless world, he has closed his heart. With this, their miraculous but painful love quietly begins. A pure midsummer love story that will warm your heart. Fujitsuka Yuki’s long awaited debut comic!
I remember this being nice.
Girl Friends
When it comes to grades, bookish high school student Mariko Kumakura is at the top of her class. Socially, however, she is shy and lonely, typically eating lunch by herself. Enter the charismatic and beautiful Akko Oohashi, whose goal is to befriend Mariko and burst her out of her introverted shell.
In the process of transforming Plain Jane Mariko into one of the cutest, most popular girls in school, deep feelings begin to emerge that suggest something deeper than friendship. Will these feelings destroy the budding relationship between Mariko and Akko, or will it turn into something else?
This is a nice slice of life romance, but it’s about two girls, so I don’t think there are any handsome guys.
Here, have a handsome guy
(That’s Yato from Noragami)
5 Likes
Welcome to the NHK is a slice of life about a hikkikomori (shut in) who, by the help of a friend, slowly comes out of his shell.
2 Likes
I still have to finish the first volume… 
2 Likes
Waaaaaah, even more?!?!?! I already bought the first volume of three different ones (Flying Witch, Orange, and Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu.) yesterday and all of Usagi (I actually read up on the strange manga ending because I don’t care about spoilers, but whether I like it or not, the used set was cheap enough that I don’t care).
Thanks everyone.
@Darcinon I really appreciate handsome guys, but I appreciate a good/great manga more. Your recommendations is making me want to run back to Amazon and order some more manga…
Also, I wanted to really add another thanks for all the completed series that everyone have recommended (most of the recommendations) because being so out of the loop I have only heard about the really famous manga/animes and they tend to go looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong and never end. And I want the full arch.
Preferably while I’m still alive (criteria one), while I’m still interested (criteria two), and even better while I’m still actively reading it (criteria three) (and not to mention I want it to actually end and not just get abandoned or a rushed ending). Also when they get that long they tend to be rambly and lose sight of the story for several volumes in a row and that is when I give up on them.
(Which is why I’ve only read/watched some of Naruto, One Piece, and Bleach, for example. For some reason I’ve never had friends gush about shoujo manga/anime which is why I asked for that too instead of shounen, I’ve been burned a few too many times by shounen 
.)
*Gets off soap box*
4 Likes
There’s also 放浪息子, which some of us are reading on the forums in an unorganized way. It’s a bit long at 15 volumes, but I’ve read 6 so far and it’s really good. It’s definitely not 少女 at all and it has a very unique premise, but otherwise it meets your criteria.
2 Likes
March Comes in Like a Lion is seinen but the protagonist is still in high school, and it has some excellent arcs in school settings. While the main character is a shogi player, playing shogi is kind of a background for his actual story–recovering from grief and depression. The cast is made up of characters from a variety of ages and backgrounds, and written in a way that even side or one-off characters are given depth and feel human. Because of how it’s written, I like to say the manga is really about examining the ways humans hurt and heal each other with their choices.
I also like Silver Spoon, which takes place in an agricultural high school, but I’d forewarned it’s on indefinite hiatus. It’s funny and touching while giving an interesting look at the rural Hokkaido life, since the author uses her own experiences on Hokkaido farms for inspiration.
Neither are shoujo, but they’re both written by women (Silver Spoon of Fullmetal Alchemist fame) and have something of a shoujo touch with the emotional touches to the story and characters.
3 Likes
Sket Dance is one of the funniest manga I’ve read. A lot of cross over jokes from other Jump comics which is always fun. It’s honestly just awesome. I’m re-reading it now haha
2 Likes
One manga I really like and I think would match your criteria is Twin Spica by Kou Yaginuma. The original Japanese edition has 16 volumes, but the English translation comes in 12 fairly normal sized ones, so it isn’t really too long. And I totally get you about not wanting something too long. While I get that sometimes more volumes (or episodes, in the case of anime) can mean more depth, I really like it when something good is achieved in a more succinct manner. And length often does end up meaning filler, unfortunately, instead of depth.
Anyways, Twin Spica is about a girl who wants to become an astronaut, and so applies for the Tokyo Space School after middle school. However, the attitude of people in this Japan set not too far in the future (i.e. it isn’t futuristic) isn’t so enthusiastic in light of a recent accident that occurred when a Japanese rocket ended up crashing during lift off.
It’s quite slice of life, although there are some science fiction and supernatural elements to it. I also really like the art–the backgrounds are great and also there’s no same-face-syndrome! And parents, and adults in general, actually feature in the story in a realistic way! Maybe this hasn’t bothered you so much, but I’ve always been annoyed when in shoujo manga there’s no parents to be found. It’s so unrealistic like that, and therefore so hard to identify with.
It’s a rather touching manga, in my opinion, and I found the main cast all very enjoyable.
There’s also a lame anime adaptation of the first few volumes. Don’t watch it. It’s lame. And it doesn’t reflect the manga’s quality.
2 Likes
Oh yeah, I love Twin Spica. (Got so many manga on my shelves that I wouldn’t have thought to pick it out as a suggestion, but then, I’m not generally good a picking out suggestions.)
On the volume counts, the English print of the manga was the same as the Japanese edition for volumes 1-6, but from volume 7, they started printing nine chapters per volume instead of six (so EN 7-8 = JP 7-9, EN 9-10 = JP 10-12 and so forth) and for volumes 11 and 12, they had twelve chapters per volume (so EN 11 = JP 13-14 and EN 12 = JP 15-16). Still no idea why. Makes them a bit chunkier than normal manga volumes, but still not quite the ridiculous 3-in-1 tomes that some manga series get released in English as.
Ah, it’s not bad. It just could have been more. There’s also a live-action series, which isn’t too bad either, although it does completely remove Lion-san from the story…
2 Likes
Yay, a fellow Twin Spica fan!! It unfortunately seems to be rather unknown, so finding other people who’ve read and liked it has been pretty rare for me.
What I didn’t like about the anime was that its visuals were not the best–the colours were kind of clashing and simplistic at times and I didn’t quite like how the character designs got translated over into the anime version. I guess because I liked the art in the manga so much, having it be slightly sub-par bothered me more than usual. I also didn’t like how it was cut so much shorter than the manga, though I get that that often happens in anime adaptions. The shorter story meant they had to tie the story up quicker, which in turn meant it ended up being sappier, and I didn’t like that.
But because the source material was good, yeah, I guess you could say that the anime wasn’t really so bad. I think it did follow the manga fairly closely.
Oh, I didn’t know about that. But considering that I don’t think I’ve ever liked a live-action adapation of an anime, I’m pretty sure I’ll find something annoying with it. (^_^;) And to be honest, with what you mentioned in the spoiler blur, I’m at a wonder how the story could even make sense. Lion-san was one of the few people encouraging Asumi to pursue being an astronaut! He provided so much support to her throughout the series, training her when she was little, comforting her and giving her advice when she was older. And then we wouldn’t have that bittersweet story with Asumi’s elementary school teacher, Miss Suzunari.
2 Likes
I confess I don’t entirely recall how the series works without him - been a while since I watched it. I guess she just inspires herself? I do seem to recall that they increased Kiriu’s antagonism to the point where he’s practically a card-carrying villain…
1 Like
Ohh, noone’s mentioned Yuru Camp (aka Laid-Back Camp) in this thread yet.
Read it, you won’t regret it. 
5 Likes
Cat Street is indeed very good. I think the fans of Nana would especially like it.
4 Likes
Oh wow, I read that like 10 years ago and was easily one of the best manga I’ve ever read. My eyes were sweating so much. I got to re-read it, thanks for reminding me of it.
2 Likes
Truth be told, I’ve re-read it last week in one go. And it was awesome!
1 Like