Slice of Life Manga Reviews

295 reviews in this genre

Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouenmae Hashutsujo
Comedy

Kochikame Review — 40 Years and 200 Volumes of a Cop in Katsushika Who Would Rather Be Gambling

by Osamu Akimoto

Osamu Akimoto's *Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kouenmae Hashutsujo* (mercifully shortened to *Kochikame*) ran in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1976 to 2016 — 40 years, 200 volumes (plus a standalone 201st in 2021), making it Jump's longest-running serialized work. Ryotsu Kankichi is the cop. Gambling and money-making schemes are his main interests. Police work is somewhere distant. Unlicensed in English.

★★★★Completed
Dr. Koto Clinic
Medical / Drama

Dr. Koto Clinic Review — A Brilliant Surgeon Becomes the Only Doctor on a Remote Japanese Island

by Takatoshi Yamada

Kensuke Gotoh is a brilliant surgeon from a prestigious Tokyo hospital. He arrives on Koshiki Island — a remote Japanese island with no hospital, no specialists, and a population that has stopped expecting medical care — and becomes its only doctor. Takatoshi Yamada's medical manga has won the Shogakukan Manga Award, sold 12 million copies, and been adapted into multiple dramas and a 2022 film. The manga has been on author-illness-related hiatus since 2010 at 25 volumes.

★★★★★Hiatus
Odd Taxi
Mystery / Drama

Odd Taxi Manga Review — Every Passenger Has a Secret, and the Walrus Driving the Cab Knows All of Them

by Takeichi Abaraya (art) / Kazuya Konomoto (story)

Hiroshi Odokawa drives a taxi in Tokyo. He looks like a walrus. He has no friends, no romantic interests, and a memory good enough to recall every conversation in every fare he's driven. A teenage girl is missing. Every passenger Odokawa picks up turns out to be connected to her disappearance — and to each other. Kazuya Konomoto's mystery thriller was an anime first; the 5-volume manga adaptation by Takeichi Abaraya is being released in English by Denpa starting in 2026.

★★★★★Completed
Dragon Zakura
Drama / Education

Dragon Zakura Review — A Former Biker Lawyer Tells Five Delinquents They Can Pass Tokyo University's Entrance Exam

by Norifusa Mita

Kenji Sakuragi is a former biker-gang member turned lawyer. He arrives at Ryuzan High School — a struggling Tokyo prep school facing bankruptcy — and announces his plan: he will get five of its worst students into Tokyo University. Norifusa Mita's 21-volume manga (2003–2007) made Japan rethink its entrance exam system. A sequel ran 17 volumes (2018–2021). Both Hiroshi Abe TV drama adaptations were ratings hits. Unlicensed in English.

★★★★Completed
Yo-kai Watch
Slice of Life / Comedy

Yo-kai Watch Review: When Your New Friend Is a Ghost and That Is Completely Normal

by Noriyuki Konishi

Yu's review of the Yo-kai Watch manga — elementary schooler Nate Adams finds a capsule machine containing Whisper, a ghost butler who gives him the Yo-kai Watch; the device lets him see Yo-kai, Japanese spirits who cause everyday human problems; a comedy series for younger readers that draws on Japanese folklore while being consistently funny for adults too.

★★★☆☆Completed
Maicchingu Machiko-sensei
Comedy

Maicchingu Machiko-sensei Review — The 1980 Ecchi School Comedy That Was the Anime Phenomenon of Its Era

by Takeshi Ebihara

Takeshi Ebihara's 1980 comedy manga about a young elementary school teacher whose male students try various schemes to embarrass her. The manga was 8 volumes; the 1981–1983 Studio Pierrot anime adaptation (95 episodes, TV Tokyo) became one of the defining ecchi anime of the early 1980s. The catchphrase 'maicching!' entered Japanese vocabulary. Unlicensed in English; content is significantly dated.

★★★☆☆Completed
Tonde Saitama
Comedy / Parody

Tonde Saitama Review: The Most Absurd Satire of Regional Snobbery Ever Committed to Paper

by Mineo Maya

Tonde Saitama is a satirical comedy where Saitama Prefecture residents are treated as second-class citizens by Tokyo residents — forced to produce their Saitama identity card at the prefecture border, denied fine dining, and generally persecuted for the crime of not being from Tokyo — a 1982 parody that became a 2019 box office hit through sheer absurdist commitment.

★★★★Completed
Houchounin Ajihei
Slice of Life / Action

Houchounin Ajihei Review: The 1973 Manga That Invented Cooking Battles

by Gyu Jiro (story) / Big Joe (art)

Houchounin Ajihei (1973) follows Shiomi Ajihei, the son of a master chef who walks away from haute cuisine to cook for ordinary people. Serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump, it is the manga that invented the cooking-battle genre — and its Curry War arc, with the addictive Black Curry, is still one of the most insane things ever printed in a food manga.

★★★★Completed
A Witch's Printing Office
Slice of Life / Fantasy

A Witch's Printing Office Review: A Modern Woman Brings Mass Production to a Fantasy World's Magical Festival Circuit

by Mochinchi / Yasuhiro Miyama

Yu's review of A Witch's Printing Office — Mika is a modern Japanese woman who worked at Comiket (the giant doujinshi convention) and wakes up in a fantasy world where magical festivals share printed pamphlets; using her knowledge of convention organization and printing logistics, she builds a business that transforms how the fantasy world shares information.

★★★★Completed
WataMote: No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular!
Slice of Life / Comedy

WataMote Review: A Socially Failed High School Girl Tries Every Strategy to Become Popular and Fails at All of Them

by Nico Tanigawa

Yu's review of WataMote — Tomoko Kuroki is convinced she will be popular in high school because she has extensive experience with otome games; she is not popular; every attempt to change this makes it worse; the manga is simultaneously the funniest and most painful depiction of teenage social isolation in manga.

★★★★Ongoing
Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out!
Slice of Life / Romance

Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! Review: A Loud, Enthusiastic Junior Who Will Not Let Her Senpai Be Alone

by Take

Yu's review of Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out! — Hana Uzaki decides that her college senpai Shinichi Sakurai is too much of a loner and takes it upon herself to insert herself into his life constantly; Sakurai wants to be left alone; the series follows their evolving relationship from workplace annoyance through something neither of them initially wanted to admit.

★★★★Completed
Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless
Slice of Life / Comedy

Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless Review: A High Schooler Who Has Perfected the Art of Doing Absolutely Nothing

by Nozomi Uda

Yu's review of Tanaka-kun Is Always Listless — Tanaka is a high school boy whose entire being is devoted to doing as little as possible; his best friend Ohta carries him when necessary; the series follows Tanaka's profound listlessness encountering the energetic, enthusiastic people around him without disturbing his fundamental peace.

★★★★Completed
Sweat and Soap
Slice of Life / Romance

Sweat and Soap Review: A Man Who Loves Scent Falls for the Woman Whose Sweat Smells Perfect to Him

by Kintetsu Yamada

Yu's review of Sweat and Soap — Asako Yaeshima sweats profusely and has always been ashamed of it; Kotaro Natori works in product development for a hygiene company and has an extremely sensitive nose; he encounters Asako and finds her natural scent extraordinary; what follows is an adult romance about two people whose specific qualities fit together in an unexpected way.

★★★★Completed
Someday's Dreamers
Slice of Life / Fantasy

Someday's Dreamers Review: A Girl from the Country Comes to Tokyo to Become a Mage and Discovers What Magic Costs

by Norie Yamada / Kumichi Yoshizuki

Yu's review of Someday's Dreamers — Yume Kikuchi comes to Tokyo from her small hometown to become a licensed mage under the guidance of Masami Oyamada; the series follows her apprenticeship and her growing understanding that granting wishes is not simple, that magic cannot solve everything, and that some things people want cannot be given.

★★★★Completed
Shimeji Simulation
Slice of Life / Surreal

Shimeji Simulation Review — Tsukumizu's High School Manga Where a Girl Emerged From the Ground and No One Mentions It

by Tsukumizu

By the creator of Girls' Last Tour. Shijima emerges from a hole in the ground and goes to high school. Mushrooms grow from her head. Her friend Majime has a fried egg on hers. Their classmates are subtly wrong. The teachers don't ask questions. The world is ending or has already ended or maybe was never started. Tsukumizu's 5-volume follow-up to Girls' Last Tour is complete in English.

★★★★Completed
Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei
Slice of Life

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei Review: A Profoundly Pessimistic Teacher and His Pathologically Optimistic Student Navigate Modern Japan

by Koji Kumeta

Yu's review of Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei — Nozomu Itoshiki is a Japanese teacher whose name, written horizontally, reads 'despair'; his approach to life matches; he is constantly in despair about modern society; his student Kafuka Fuura is pathologically optimistic and refuses to accept any negative interpretation of anything.

★★★★Completed
Sabagebu! —Survival Game Club!—
Comedy / Slice of Life

Sabagebu! Review: A Girl Joins a Survival Game Club and Discovers She Is a Natural at Fake Violence

by Hidekichi Matsumoto

Yu's review of Sabagebu! — Momoka Sonokawa joins the Survival Game Club at her new school after being rescued by its president Miou; she discovers she has immediate talent for mock combat and a personality that is significantly less heroic than her appearance suggests; the series follows the club's survival game activities with absurdist comedy.

★★★☆☆Completed
Restaurant to Another World
Slice of Life / Fantasy

Restaurant to Another World Review: A Western Restaurant Has a Door That Opens Into a Fantasy World Every Saturday

by Junpei Inuzuka (story) / Katsumi Enami (art)

Yu's review of Restaurant to Another World — Western Restaurant Nekoya is a small Tokyo restaurant that, every Saturday, has a door that opens from various locations in a fantasy world; fantasy world inhabitants enter and encounter Japanese Western food for the first time; each chapter follows a different customer and the dish that changes them.

★★★★Completed
Piano Forest
Slice of Life

Piano Forest Review: A Boy Who Grew Up with an Abandoned Piano in the Woods Discovers He Has a Gift That No One Expected

by Makoto Isshiki

Yu's review of Piano Forest — Kai Ichinose grows up poor in a forest community and has been playing an abandoned piano in the woods since childhood; when the talented but pressured Shuhei Amamiya moves to his town, their friendship and their different relationships with music begin a story about what playing truly means.

★★★★★Completed
Phantom of the Idol
Slice of Life / Comedy

Phantom of the Idol Review: A Lazy Idol Gets Possessed by a Dead Idol's Spirit Who Just Wants to Perform One More Time

by Hijiki Isarbi

Yu's review of Phantom of the Idol — Yuuya Niyodo is an idol who hates performing and tries to be fired; Asahi Mogami is the ghost of an idol who died before she could reach her dreams; when she possesses Yuuya during a performance, they strike a deal — she performs through his body, he reaps the rewards.

★★★★Completed
Outbreak Company
Slice of Life

Outbreak Company Review: An Otaku Is Sent to a Fantasy Kingdom to Spread Japanese Pop Culture

by Ichiro Sakaki / Yui Haga

Yu's review of Outbreak Company — Shinichi Kanou, an extreme otaku who failed to leave his room for years, is hired by the Japanese government to spread otaku culture in an alternate fantasy world accessed through a portal; the manga adaptation of Ichiro Sakaki's light novel comedy about cultural exchange through manga and anime.

★★★☆☆Completed
O Maidens in Your Savage Season
Slice of Life / Romance

O Maidens in Your Savage Season Review: A Literature Club of High School Girls Confronts What They've Been Reading and What They Feel

by Mari Okada / Nao Emoto

Yu's review of O Maidens in Your Savage Season — five high school girls in a literature club encounter adult themes through their reading and must suddenly reckon with their own desires, confusion, and the specific terror of not knowing what you want or whether what you feel is acceptable.

★★★★★Completed
Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy!
Slice of Life

Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy! Review: A Manga Artist Eats Her Way Through Tokyo

by Fumi Yoshinaga

Yu's review of Not Love But Delicious Foods Make Me So Happy! — the protagonist is a manga artist who won't date but will eat anything; she navigates Tokyo restaurants with friends, colleagues, and editors; Fumi Yoshinaga's semi-autobiographical restaurant guide manga that doubles as character comedy about a woman who prioritizes food over romance.

★★★★Completed
not simple
Slice of Life

Not Simple Review: A Man's Entire Life Told in Reverse, and What It Meant to Someone Who Loved Him

by Natsume Ono

Yu's review of not simple — Ian is an English young man whose life has been defined by loss, abuse, neglect, and a desperate search for his sister; the manga tells his story in non-linear fragments, assembled by a journalist writing a novel about Ian's life, asking what it means to witness someone's suffering and what fiction can do with it.

★★★★★Completed
New Game!
Slice of Life / Comedy

New Game! Review: A Game Developer Fresh Out of High School Learns What Making Games Actually Looks Like

by Shotaro Tokuno

Yu's review of New Game! — Aoba Suzukaze joins Eagle Jump, the game company that made her favorite childhood game, as a character designer; the series follows her first year in professional game development alongside an all-female team; a workplace slice-of-life that treats game development with genuine procedural interest.

★★★★Completed
My Roommate Is a Cat
Slice of Life / Heartwarming

My Roommate Is a Cat Review — A Recluse Mystery Writer and a Stray Cat Tell the Same Story From Both Sides

by Minatsuki / As Futatsuya (art)

Subaru Mikazuki is a young mystery novelist who lost both parents recently and has stopped going outside. He finds a stray cat at his parents' grave and takes her home for research. She names herself Haru. Every chapter is told twice — once from his perspective, once from hers — and the gap between those two readings of the same scene is the manga.

★★★★★Completed
My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness
Slice of Life / Memoir

My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness Review: A Candid Memoir About Mental Health, Sexuality, and Finding Yourself

by Nagata Kabi

Yu's review of My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness — Nagata Kabi's autobiographical manga about her experiences with depression, an eating disorder, her difficult relationship with her parents, and her gradual understanding of her own sexuality and loneliness; one of the most honest mental health memoirs in manga form.

★★★★★Completed
Moyashimon: Tales of Agriculture
Slice of Life / Comedy

Moyashimon Review — An Agricultural College Student Can See Microbes, and They Are Cute

by Masayuki Ishikawa

Tadayasu Sawaki has been able to see microorganisms with his naked eye since childhood — they appear to him as cute deformed cartoon characters who talk to him in cheerful voices saying things like 'Let's brew!' (kamosu). He enrolls at a Tokyo agricultural university. The first thing his fermentation professor wants is access to Sawaki's ability. Masayuki Ishikawa's 13-volume manga (2004–2014) is a comedy-education hybrid about microbiology, agriculture, and college life. A sequel ('Moyashimon+') started January 2025.

★★★★Completed (with 2025 sequel)
Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun
Slice of Life / Comedy

Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun Review: The Girl Who Confesses to Her Crush Accidentally Becomes His Manga Assistant

by Izumi Tsubaki

Yu's review of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun — Chiyo Sakura confesses to her crush Umetaro Nozaki and he hands her his autograph; she discovers he is the author of a popular shojo manga and accidentally becomes his assistant; the series is a comedy about manga creation that uses the genre conventions of shojo manga as its comedic material.

★★★★Ongoing
Minami-ke
Slice of Life / Comedy

Minami-ke Review: Three Sisters Navigate High School, Middle School, and Elementary School With Chaotic Family Logic

by Coharu Sakuraba

Yu's review of Minami-ke — three sisters at different schools (eldest Haruka in high school, middle Kana in middle school, youngest Chiaki in elementary) share an apartment and their daily life generates endless comedy from their completely different personalities and the rotating cast of friends, admirers, and chaos that follows them home.

★★★★Completed
It's Not Meguro-san's First Time
Slice of Life / Romance

It's Not Meguro-san's First Time Review: Two Adults Who Are Not Inexperienced Navigate Romance With Surprising Honesty

by Tamifull

Yu's review of It's Not Meguro-san's First Time — Seiya Furutachi confesses to Ryo Meguro, an unusual woman at his workplace who doesn't fit the typical romance heroine template; both of them are adults who have had previous relationships, which makes their developing relationship proceed differently than the typical manga romance.

★★★★Completed
Maria Watches Over Us (Marimite)
Slice of Life

Maria Watches Over Us Review: Quiet All-Girls School Life and the Rituals of Belonging

by Oyuki Konno / Satoru Nagasawa

Yu's review of Maria Watches Over Us — Yumi is a first-year student at the Lillian Girls' Academy, a Catholic school with a tradition of 'soeur' relationships between older and younger students; she is noticed by the beautiful third-year Sachiko; Nagasawa's adaptation of Konno's beloved light novel about ritual, belonging, and the specific intensity of all-girls school friendships.

★★★★Completed
Maison Ikkoku
Slice of Life / Romance

Maison Ikkoku Review: A Failing Student Falls in Love With His Building Manager and Spends 96 Volumes Figuring Out What to Do About It

by Rumiko Takahashi

Yu's review of Maison Ikkoku — Yusaku Godai is a ronin student living in a boarding house called Maison Ikkoku; when the new building manager Kyoko Otonashi arrives, a young widow, he falls in love; the series follows their relationship across years of misunderstandings, interference from neighbors, competing love interests, and the specific difficulty of two people who both want the same thing failing to communicate it.

★★★★★Completed
The Demon Girl Next Door (Machikado Mazoku)
Slice of Life

The Demon Girl Next Door Review: A Very Weak Demon vs. A Very Cheerful Magical Girl

by Izumo Ito

Yu's review of The Demon Girl Next Door — Yuko Yoshida wakes up one day with horns and a tail, awakened as a descendant of a demon clan; her clan's curse can only be lifted by defeating a magical girl; she confronts her school's magical girl, Momo Chiyoda; the magical girl turns out to be friendly, competent, and far stronger; Izumo Ito's comedy manga about the most gentle rivalry.

★★★★Ongoing
Kageki Shojo!!
Slice of Life / Drama

Kageki Shojo!! Review: A Performing Arts Manga Where the Stage Is the Easy Part

by Kumiko Saiki

Yu's review of Kageki Shojo!! — Sarasa Watanabe, a tall girl pushed out of kabuki as a child, enters the Kouka School of Musical and Theatrical Arts dreaming of playing Oscar from The Rose of Versailles. Her roommate is Ai Narata, a former JPX48 idol who fled an abusive past into all-female spaces. A Takarazuka-inspired drama about what performance costs the people who carry damage onto the stage.

★★★★★Ongoing
Is the Order a Rabbit?
Slice of Life / Comedy

Is the Order a Rabbit? Review: The Café Comfort Manga Where the House Rabbit Is Someone's Grandfather

by Koi

Yu's review of Is the Order a Rabbit? (Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu Ka?) by Koi — Cocoa Hoto moves to a European-styled town and ends up boarding at the Rabbit House café, where she meets quiet barista-in-training Chino and a small circle of friends who slowly become family. A CGDCT comfort manga where the house Angora rabbit, Tippy, carries the spirit of Chino's grandfather.

★★★★Ongoing
Interviews With Monster Girls
Slice of Life / Comedy

Interviews With Monster Girls Review: The Monster-Girl Manga That Forgets to Be Fanservice

by Petos

Yu's review of Interviews With Monster Girls (Demi-chan wa Kataritai) — biology teacher Tetsuo Takahashi interviews four demi-human students and colleagues about their daily lives. A vampire, a dullahan, a snow woman, and a succubus teacher turn a monster-girl premise into one of the gentlest, most thoughtful slice-of-life manga out there. Complete at 11 volumes from Kodansha USA.

★★★★Completed
If It's for My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord
Slice of Life / Fantasy

If It's for My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord Review: The Parent Is the One Who Gets Saved

by CHIROLU (original), Hota (art), Truffle / Kei (character design)

Yu's review of the If It's for My Daughter, I'd Even Defeat a Demon Lord manga (art by Hota, original by CHIROLU) — a young adventurer named Dale finds an abandoned demon girl named Latina in the forest and raises her at the Dancing Ocelot tavern, and discovers that being her father is the thing that saves him, not her.

★★★★Hiatus
The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague
Slice of Life / Romance

The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague Review: The Office Romance Where He Literally Can't Hide His Feelings

by Miyuki Tonogaya

Yu's review of The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague (Kōri Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Dōryō Joshi) — Himuro-kun, a descendant of the yuki-onna snow spirit, sprouts snowmen and miniature blizzards whenever he feels something, which makes hiding his crush on his quiet coworker Fuyutsuki-san completely impossible.

★★★★Ongoing
Ichigo Mashimaro
Slice of Life

Ichigo Mashimaro Review: The Comedy Where a British Girl Forgets Her Own English

by Barasui

Yu's review of Ichigo Mashimaro — Nobue Itoh and the four grade-schoolers around her (her sister Chika, the chaotic Miu, the timid Matsuri, and British transplant Ana Coppola) drift through ordinary days in suburban Hamamatsu. Barasui's long-running deadpan comedy is built on Miu's relentless schemes and the cruel running joke of Ana forgetting her own English.

★★★★Ongoing
I Want to Eat Your Pancreas
Slice of Life / Drama

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas Review: A Dying Girl Picks the One Classmate Who Won't Pity Her

by Yoru Sumino (original story) / Idumi Kirihara (art)

Yu's review of the I Want to Eat Your Pancreas manga — Idumi Kirihara's adaptation of Yoru Sumino's novel. A withdrawn boy finds classmate Sakura Yamauchi's secret diary and learns she's dying of a pancreatic illness. She chooses him precisely because he won't treat her like a dying girl. Seven Seas collected the two Japanese volumes into one English omnibus.

★★★★★Completed
Hyouka
Slice of Life / Mystery

Hyouka Review: An Energy-Conserving Boy Solves Mysteries That Carry No Crime, Only the Weight of Why

by Honobu Yonezawa (original novels) / Task Ohna (manga art)

Yu's review of the Hyouka manga — Hotaro Oreki lives by the motto 'if I don't have to do it, I won't; if I do have to do it, make it quick,' but Eru Chitanda's 'I'm curious!' keeps dragging him into the small mysteries of the Classic Literature Club. Adapted by Task Ohna from Honobu Yonezawa's novels.

★★★★★Ongoing
I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying
Comedy / Slice of Life

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying Review: A Marriage Where Half the Sentences Don't Land and the Love Still Does

by Coolkyousinnjya

Yu's review of I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying (旦那が何を言っているかわからない件) — a 5-volume 4-koma comedy by Coolkyousinnjya about Kaoru, an ordinary office worker, and Hajime, her shut-in otaku-blogger husband. Their marriage works precisely because she doesn't always get the reference.

★★★★Completed
Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
Slice of Life / Comedy

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu Review: The Most Charming Depiction of Social Anxiety in Manga

by Katsuwo

A review of Katsuwo's Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu — 9 volumes in Monthly Comic Alive. Bocchi Hitori starts middle school with a mission to make friends with everyone in her class; she is so socially anxious that she faints, vomits, and freezes up at the slightest interpersonal challenge. Yen Press's English edition is complete.

★★★★Completed
Himouto! Umaru-chan
Slice of Life / Comedy

Himouto! Umaru-chan Review: The Perfect Student Who Becomes a Hamster-Hoodie Gremlin the Second She Gets Home

by Sankaku Head

Yu's review of Himouto! Umaru-chan — Umaru Doma is the school's flawless honor student, but the moment she's home she shrinks into a chibi gremlin in a hamster hoodie demanding chips, cola, and games from her tired brother Taihei. Twelve complete volumes from Seven Seas, and the warmth under the gags is what kept me reading.

★★★★Completed
Grand Blue Dreaming
Slice of Life / Comedy

Grand Blue Dreaming Review: The Diving Club That Drinks More Than It Dives

by Kenji Inoue (story) / Kimitake Yoshioka (art)

Yu's review of Grand Blue Dreaming — Iori Kitahara moves to a coastal town expecting a relaxed seaside college life and a diving hobby, but the dive shop above which he lives is run by a club that spends far more time drinking and stripping naked than underwater. A raucous college comedy with real diving woven through the chaos.

★★★★★Ongoing
Gabriel DropOut
Slice of Life / Comedy

Gabriel DropOut Review: Heaven's Best Student Comes to Earth and Becomes a Gaming Shut-In

by Ukami

Yu's review of Gabriel DropOut — Gabriel White Tenma graduates top of her angel class, gets sent to Earth to guide humans toward happiness, discovers online games, and rots into a slovenly NEET. Her demon classmate Vignette is the responsible one; demon Satania keeps losing her melon bread to a dog; angel Raphiel just enjoys watching everyone suffer.

★★★★Ongoing
Drops of God
Slice of Life / Drama

Drops of God Review: The Wine Manga Where a Beer Salesman Has to Out-Taste a Prodigy to Inherit His Father's Cellar

by Tadashi Agi / Shu Okimoto

Yu's review of Drops of God — Shizuku Kanzaki, a young beer-company salesman who hates wine, has to identify the twelve 'Apostles' and a final wine called the Drops of God from his late father's will to inherit a legendary cellar, racing the adopted wine prodigy Issei Tomine. Written by Tadashi Agi, drawn by Shu Okimoto, complete in English from Kodansha.

★★★★★Completed
Otaku Elf (Edomae Elf)
Slice of Life

Otaku Elf Review: A 600-Year-Old Goddess Who Won't Leave Her Shrine Because a Kid Made Fun of Her Ears

by Akihiko Higuchi

Yu's review of Otaku Elf — Elda is a 600-year-old elf summoned to Japan by Tokugawa Ieyasu and enshrined as a goddess at Tokyo's Takamimi Shrine, but she's become a video-game-loving shut-in. Sixteen-year-old miko Koito Koganei tries to coax her out of her shell. Akihiko Higuchi's cozy comedy from Kodansha, in English from Seven Seas.

★★★★Ongoing
Disappearance Diary
Memoir / Slice of Life

Disappearance Diary Review — A Working Manga Artist Drew His Two Homelessness Episodes and His Alcoholism as a Comedy

by Hideo Azuma

Hideo Azuma was a popular comedy and ero-manga artist in 1970s–80s Japan. He left his life twice without telling anyone — once to live as a vagrant in winter forests, once camped under a Tokyo bridge. He developed severe alcoholism. He drew all of it as a gentle comedy. Disappearance Diary won the 2005 Osamu Tezuka Cultural Prize and the Bungeishunjū Manga Prize. Complete in a single volume, available in English from Fanfare-Ponent Mon.

★★★★★Completed
Detroit Metal City
Comedy / Slice of Life

Detroit Metal City Review: The Gentlest Boy in Tokyo Is Also the Most Brutal Death Metal Demon Alive

by Kiminori Wakasugi

Yu's review of Detroit Metal City — Soichi Negishi moved to Tokyo to write gentle acoustic pop about kisses and raspberries, and ended up as Johannes Krauser II, the demonic frontman of a death metal band the fans believe murdered his own parents. He hates it. He is incredibly good at it. That gap is the whole joke, and it never stops being funny.

★★★★Completed
Dagashi Kashi
Slice of Life / Comedy

Dagashi Kashi Review: The Candy-Obsessed Girl Who Treats a Convenience-Store Snack Like Sacred Scripture

by Kotoyama

Yu's review of Dagashi Kashi by Kotoyama — Kokonotsu Shikada wants to draw manga, but his father runs a rural dagashi (cheap candy) shop and wants him to inherit it. Then Hotaru Shidare, the candy-obsessed heiress of a confectionery company, shows up to recruit his father and turns each cheap snack into a passionate lecture. A slice-of-life comedy about Japanese childhood candy culture.

★★★★Completed
Cells at Work! CODE BLACK
Slice of Life / Sci-Fi

Cells at Work! CODE BLACK Review: The Same Biology Lesson, But Now the Body Is Killing Its Workers

by Shigemitsu Harada (story) / Issei Hatsuyoshiya (art) / Akane Shimizu (supervision)

Yu's review of Cells at Work! CODE BLACK — the seinen spinoff that takes the same cute cell premise and drops it inside an unhealthy adult body that smokes, drinks, and overworks. Red blood cell AA2153 and neutrophil U-1196 fight to keep a dying man alive, and one death changes everything.

★★★★Completed
Bunny Drop
Slice of Life

Bunny Drop Review: The Best Parenting Manga Ever Written, Until It Decided to Become Something Else

by Yumi Unita

Yu's honest review of Bunny Drop (Usagi Drop) by Yumi Unita — bachelor Daikichi adopts Rin, his late grandfather's young illegitimate daughter, on impulse and learns to parent. The first half is some of the best family manga ever made; the second half time-skips and turns into something many readers reject. I tell you exactly what happens so you can decide.

★★★★Completed
Black Jack
Drama / Medical

Black Jack Review — The Greatest Surgeon Alive Doesn't Have a License, and He Charges What He Wants

by Osamu Tezuka

Black Jack is an unlicensed surgeon of impossible skill who lives on a cliff, charges fees that would bankrupt corporations, and decides which patients are worth saving. Osamu Tezuka — the God of Manga, who was himself a trained doctor — spent ten years and 242 standalone chapters on him. Vertical Inc.'s 17-volume English edition is complete.

★★★★★Completed
Nagi's Long Vacation
Slice of Life / Drama

Nagi's Long Vacation Review — A 28-Year-Old Office Worker Quits Everything and Learns Who She Is When No One Is Watching

by Konari Misato

Nagi Oshima is a 28-year-old office worker in Tokyo who has spent her life reading the air for everyone else. She has a salaryman boyfriend who treats her as background. She has coworkers who use her without acknowledging her. One day at the office, she collapses. She quits everything, moves to a tiny apartment in Tachikawa, embraces her natural curly hair, and starts over. Konari Misato's 12-volume josei manga concluded in 2025. Unlicensed in English.

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