That’s not to say they lack drama. The likes of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō and Girls’ Last Tour took place either during or after the fall of civilization. But life goes on even during the direst situations, so this melancholy air actually aids the therapeutic part of the story. Still, while those manga got turned into anime, these remain on the page for now.
8 Giant Spider & Me: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale
Kikori Morino’s story from 2018 might perplex people, especially if they have arachnophobia. Asanagi, the titular Giant Spider, is a fairly realistic-looking arachnid, complete with multiple eyes and pincers. So, it may make some readers blanche. Yet both it and its human friend Nagi make for a nice duo, as they make a living after the end of the world.
The two live a cozy, self-sufficient life in the mountains as they cook up a range of delicacies and go on picnics through the woods. Even when they get into trouble, there’s nothing a good meal can’t fix. It’s available in English via Seven Seas Entertainment, provided readers can handle the spider.
7 Little Forest
Daisuke Igarashi’s strip for Monthly Afternoon never got an anime, but it got a 2-part duo of live-action films across 2014 and 2015. Then it received a Korean film in 2018 and a TV series in the following year. So, there’s definitely an audience for it. The original story, released between 2002-2005, was about a young girl called Ichiko.
She returned to her hometown in the Tōhoku region of Japan after her attempts to make it in the big city faltered. While initially unhappy, she finds joy in keeping her old family house in shape and farming the land. Through the friends she makes and the fruits of her labor (figuratively and literally), she discovers fulfillment can come from the humblest places.
6 Tamamo-chan’s a Fox!
If country life isn’t enough for readers, Ray Yūki’s story will bring them back to the big city. It’s about another young girl who moves from a secluded area to a high school in the middle of Tokyo. The difference is that the girl is actually a fox in disguise! She’s from Kyoto’s famous Fushimi Inari Shrine, but she yearned to have a more exciting life like the high school students she often saw at the shrine.
Using her magic, she takes on a human form and the name ‘Fushimi Tamamo.’ Even though the surrounding adults don’t notice anything, her classmates can see her furry snout, fox ears, and tail all too clearly. Nonetheless, they help keep her secret and adjust to the life of an ordinary high school girl. The strip was originally published in Comic REX and is still in serialization. But its volumes can be found in English via Seven Seas Entertainment.
5 Kotonoba Drive
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō is a popular entry in the iyashikei genre, as was its anime adaption. But it wasn’t the only entry into the genre that creator Hitoshi Ashinano created. He also made Kotonoba Drive for Afternoon magazine from 2014 to 2017, which was itself a spin-off from his PositioN manga from 1999.
It follows a girl called Suu-chan, who simply travels about on her bike, either to her part-time job or just to explore her surroundings. Sometimes she daydreams about the sights she sees and imagines a livelier scenario, like sailing through the sea instead of riding the road. It’s as gentle as a manga can be.
4 Yankee & Little Girl
AKA ‘Tale of a Girl and a Delinquent Who’s Bad With Women’, Marumikan’s story for Gangan Online was originally a webcomic released on Twitter across 2018-2020. Then it got spruced up for serialization in both Gangan and in books for Square Enix. It’s perhaps a little bolder than the other entries, given one of its leads is a brash blonde punk (or ‘Yankee’ in Japanese).
But Masaru Kumada has a weakness: women. He freezes up and bellows at them until they leave. Then, one day he meets Sayaka Uzuki, a fellow high schooler who looks more like an elementary school kid. She isn’t afraid of him like the other girls, and she’s happy to tutor him for his classes. Maybe she’ll be able to help him get around his weakness too.
3 Kabu no Isaki
Heading back to Hitoshi Ashinano, while Kotonoba Drive has its fans, Kabu no Isaki is regarded more highly. Published in Monthly Afternoon magazine from 2007 to 2013, it’s about a young man called Isaki and his Piper Super Cub airplane. It actually belongs to his neighbor, Shiro, but Isaki carries out errands for her and others in exchange for flying around in it.
Through this arrangement, he learns adulthood comes with extra responsibilities but also greater freedoms. He still has bills to pay and people to help, but the reward is getting to roam the skies above the Miura Peninsula with his younger sister and fellow pilot Kajika. It has its mysteries and exciting visuals, yet the storytelling makes it as easy and relaxing a read as Ashinano’s best work.
2 The Walking Man
Just because a work is old doesn’t mean it won’t receive an anime adaptation in time. It took over 20 years for Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (outside of Stardust Crusaders) to get animated. But Jiro Taniguchi’s manga for Morning Party Zōkan was published over 30 years ago in 1990, then in English way back in 2006. Plus, its premise is rather calm compared to the bombast of a shonen series.
It’s about a nameless man who walks around his neighborhood, taking part in little things like retrieving a child’s toy from a tree, returning seashells to the beach, or just strolling on by. Its soft simplicity was enough to earn it an Eisner Award nomination back in 2007. As far as iyashikei goes, The Walking Man may be the best of the bunch at being an easy-going, non-threatening tale.
1 Yotsuba&!
Still, there’s another story that’s tantalized readers more than The Walking Man, possibly because it was created by Kiyohiko Azuma, the man behind Azumanga Daioh. Yotsuba&! follows Yotsuba, a 5yr old girl, as she learns more about the world around her with her adoptive father, friends, and neighbors. Originally part of a one-shot called Try! Try! Try! it was adapted into a full manga in Dengeki Daioh in 2003, then published in English via Yen Press. It’s still being published today too.
Like The Walking Man, it earned an Eisner Award nomination, on top of an Osamu Tezuka Culture Award nomination and an award at the Japan Media Arts Festival. But the closest it’s been animated was a series called Nyanbo, a cat-based version of Yotsuba’s cardboard robot Danbo. Azuma himself said the strip wasn’t suited for animation, so unless things change, it may stay as a manga until its end.
More: The Best Visual Novels for Fans of Slice of Life Anime
