Slice of life / modern day / school mangas

I’m looking for recommendations of mangas that are slice of life, school, and/or even just modern day (aka living in our times with cell phones and computers, and pretty ordinary, although touches of fantasy/sf would be okay like Death Note). Preferably already finished ones (if they have a story line so a finite number of volumes) or something that is coming out right now (so I can easily pick it up in any bookstore). (I’m more into shoujo manga than shonen. Handsome guys always a big plus. :wink: )

I already have some of the mangas from the book clubs, but was thinking of maybe picking up something to read by myself. I hope you guys have lots of recommendations because I’m so out of the loop on manga that I don’t even know where to start looking.

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Usagi Drop → Incredibly heartwarming story :slightly_smiling_face: (Slice of Life)

Sakamichi no Apollon → school life… jazz … Kyushuu (though based on the 60’s).

That’s it… I haven’t read anything else :sweat_smile:

By the way both got made into anime and movies. Maybe you could check those first and decide :wink:

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Hmm. :thinking:

So preferably nothing too out there…

First, I’ll say too many people seem to have a problem with Usagi Drop, so not trying to spoil, but it may not be your thing.

I mean, there’s Yotsuba to! (Yotsuba&!) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net, but I don’t know if you have that from the bookclub. :stuck_out_tongue:

Beck (BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is a great music / SoL / drama.

Nazo no Kanojo X (Mysterious Girlfriend X) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is great romance / school / SoL. (for me)

Prunus Girl | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is school, more leaning towards Comedy/Romance than SoL. (gender bender warning)

Fujimi Lovers (Undead Lovers) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is great romance with some supernatural elements.

Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is a seinen SoL with fantasy (?) elements, not modern day, but I thought I’d add it in here since it’s great.

Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net Gender bender / school / drama / SoL.

Solanin | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is a seinen SoL, pretty good iirc.

Game Over | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is a pretty simple romance SoL.

You can never forget about Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso (Your Lie in April) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net, it’s a pretty good school music drama.

Isshuukan Friends. (One Week Friends) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net great school / SoL.

ReLIFE | Manga - MyAnimeList.net has all the good stuff.

Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san (Teasing Master Takagi-san) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is one you just have to read.

I’ll stop here for now. :sweat_smile:

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What do you mean? What kind of problems? :astonished:

I went with the anime first and to my surprise it felt real, which I greatly apretiated since I was having trouble finding something actually engaging. The plot is amusing in the sense that the story is mundane, real problems, like real people, no need to add anything else than life itself and still comes SO good. :relieved: … the music is a big plus too. I’m still humming that piano song they used in the hectic scenes. And by the way the artwork … I was forgetting about those waterpainted animations … :heart_eyes: … (oh but this of course is the anime… :sweat_smile:)

In any case the target audience are adults, even though the little girl on the cover can give the impression that maybe could end up resembling Yotsuba in the plot, is nothing like that. Actually I would like to find more manga like this one. Does anyone know of any other one among this lines??

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Anime first, or anime only? Some people hate the manga ending.
Like, “I can’t believe it.” sort of hate.

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spoiler :scream::scream::scream: … haven’t finished … :persevere::persevere:

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Can’t really rec the manga, then. :joy: Sorry about that.

If you’ve only watched the anime, there’s nothing wrong with it. Because the anime covers only the first four volumes of the manga.

After volume four, there’s a timeskip, and… well, what I’m trying to say is, it’s such a shame they only ever released four volumes of it, because I would have liked to read more.

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Was the manga dropped? Or what do you mean? .-.

I mean there’s only four volumes in the sense that there was only one Matrix movie.

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Haven’t watched any, but I see what you mean now.
I disagree, but I always try to keep that to myself. :joy:

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The “real problems, real people” part reminds me of Bartender | Manga - MyAnimeList.net, Shigeshoushi (The Embalmer) | Manga - MyAnimeList.net, basically josei/seinen slice of life. :stuck_out_tongue:

Asano Inio is good on that, on his less psychological manga, Planetes | Manga - MyAnimeList.net is also good with that, even though it’s SF.

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Orange is also a pretty good story. Also has an anime. About a high school girl who gets a letter from her future self, telling her to invite the new kid to hang out.

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Thanks!! I’ll add those to my list then :+1:

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I really liked Dai-Tōkyō Binbō Seikatsu Manual when I was reading the book Japanese the Manga way. Haven’t read the manga yet, but the strips in the book always seemed funny.

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Orange definitely fits the criteria very well. I read it in English, but it was very good.

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I’d recommend Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san. It’s a middle school “yet to admit” couple that spend their time trying to tease one another. The one that blushes first, loses. The girl always wins. It’s very very cute, and I got a couple of laughs out of some teasings.

The cool thing is that there’s no need to wonder if they’ll end up being a couple. The author made Karakai Jouzu no (Moto) Takagi-san which shows us a world where they’re married and have a daughter together.

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It’s a different author. :open_mouth:
But, yeah. That series is really good, it’s just so peaceful.

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I can never recommend “Komi-san wa, komyushou desu” enough. One of the best, heartwarming, wholesome manga I’ve read in my life.

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Thank you everyone! @Ncastaneda, @Kazzeon, @Saida, @Gabrielmpf, @seanblue, and @jprspereira, @jneapan !

So many good options to choose from now. Too many that seem good! ^_____^

Keep them coming since I’m sure there are many people who wouldn’t mind getting good recommendations. As for me, I will be so poor so very soon, and overwhelmed with 難しいマンガ. :sweat_smile: (In the best way.)

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