Summary
Manga are full of big action stories. Whether it’s shōnen, shōjo, seinen, josei, or otherwise, there are plenty of strips where people’s lives, or even the entire world or universe, are on the line. The stakes get high and only get higher as the story goes on. This can be intense. Perhaps too intense for people who want something more grounded.
Slice-of-life manga can make humbler yet more relatable experiences feel as exciting as a shōnen fight, as tense as a global threat, and as tearful as a shōjo romance. They’ve produced some big names in the medium too, likeYour Lie in AprilandKaguya-sama: Love is War. Now these strips will join them, as these are the best slice-of-life manga that ended in 2023.
8Aikagi-kun to Shiawase Gohan
MyAnimeList Score: 7.11
Slice of life manga have their ups and downs, but some can rival iyashikei manga in how gentle and easy-going they can be. For example,Aikagi-kun to Shiawase Gohan(“Happy Meals with Aikagi-kun”) is about a young man and an older woman bonding over food. Nagisa, an office lady pushing 30, finds herself in an arrangement where she “almost” lives with Hiro, aka “Aikagi-kun,” a long-distance driver.
She appreciates his company, as his big appetite seems to make each mealtaste better than the last, making each day more colorful. There are a few comic misunderstandings, but no heavy drama. Just a burgeoning romance over munchies. The strip reached its conclusion back in March 2023, so readers can see how far Aikagi-kun and Nagisa’s meals took them.
7I Want To Be A Wall
MyAnimeList Score: 7.46
LGBTQ love can be complicated.I Want to Be a Wallcranks things up a touch by putting an asexual woman with a gay man in an arranged marriage. The latter, Gakurōta, would rather be with his childhood friend and crush Sōsuke. While the former, Yuriko, has no amorous feelings at all outside her interest inBL (Boys’ Love) stories.
Nonetheless, the two manage to form a bond despite their differing orientations. Through Gakurōta, Yuriko gets an up-close view of what love can be like outside her stories, as if she were a wall in his room, while Gakurōta gets a sympathetic shoulder from Yuriko. Love can be more sore, bitter, and heartbreaking, but it can come in many forms, and bring two otherwise very different people together.
6When Will Ayumu Make His Move?
MyAnimeList Score: 7.51
When Will Ayumu Make His Move?Chances are he’s finally made it, as the manga reached its conclusion in November 2023. Originally published as a webcomic calledShōgi no Yatsu(“Shōgi Guy”), the series was picked up by Kodansha in 2019, given its new title, and became a regular feature inWeekly Shōnen Magazine. It was about Ayumu, a member of his high school’s unofficial shōgi club.
He’s in love with the club’s president, Urushi, but he vowed he wouldn’t confess his feelings for her until he beat her at the game. Considering she’s a master, and he’s a beginner, he hasn’t much luck there. But no matter how much Urushi puts him in checkmate, he’s kept his word as he’s a harder nut to crack outside the game. But now readers can see if he finally won, or if she made him spill the beans early.
5I Married My Female Friend
MyAnimeList Score: 7.59
The genre has a lot of stories that could count as romances, but they can have a few twists of their own.I Married My Female Friendputs its own right in the title, as friends Kurumi and Ruriko promised to marry each other if they were still single after five years. That time passed, so the two fulfilled their promise. From there, Kurumi logs their experiences as a married couple in a regular column for a newspaper’s lifestyle column.
It’s not a romance in the sense of making readers wonder if the girl will get the girl at the end. Instead, it’s more about what it takes to make a marriage work, and if Kurumi and Ruriko work as a married couple or if they should’ve stuck to just being friends. In other words, can the girl keep the girl? Now complete, readers can find out the answer for themselves.
4Life So Happy
MyAnimeList Score: 7.75
Life So Happyis the sequel toLove So Life, where orphaned high-school girl Shiharu became the babysitter to toddler twins Akane and Aoi. Through them and their uncle Seiji, she finds a family she could belong to. Then, through Shiharu, the twins get the motherly love and care that they’ve missed since their mom passed away, and Seiji finds a partner he could raise the children with.
The sequel shifted the focus to the twins, now five years old and living with their long-lost father and their grandparents from their late mom’s side. Through all the challenges they face, they still remember Shiharu and her teachings and put them into practice to get by. Readers don’t have to check outLove So Lifefirst to enjoyLife So Happyas it provides enough background detail, but it’s worth checking both strips to get the full, sweetly told story.
3Teasing Master Takagi-san
MyAnimeList Score: 8.09
Teasing Master Takagi-sancaught on pretty well throughout its decade-long run. The series receiveda three-season anime adaptation, and four spin-off series, two of which are still running and continue where the main manga left off. This is odd as the sequel spin-off,Teasing Master (Former)Takagi-san,started back in 2017, way before the original strip ended.
Nonetheless, if readers want to see how Takagi-san started teasing, they can now start right from the beginning. As the title suggests, Takagi is excellent at pranking her classmate Nishikata, flustering him to no end as she pushes all of his buttons. He tries to get back at her, but she always seems to get around his teases. No matter what he does, he’s got an uphill struggle against a teasing master.
2Shimeji Simulation
MyAnimeList Score: 8.44
Being a slice-of-life story doesn’t mean it can’t get fanciful or allegorical. It can feature all sorts of sights, like a girl growing mushrooms out of her head.Shimeji Simulationsees the former hikikomori Shijima finally return to the outside world and school. But on her first day, she discovers a shimeji mushroom sprouting from her head. Unable to remove it, she tries to keep to herself to avoid any awkward encounters.
But then she meets Majime, a girl with a fried egg on her head. The two become friends and find out high school is much stranger than whatever’s on their heads. From their alcoholic art teacher totwo familiar-looking girlsfrom Shijima’s apartment complex, it’s a fun, gentle, if surreal piece of fun.
1Barakamon
Lastly,Barakamoncontinues the cultural focusby following Seishu Handa, a young calligrapher who’s considered a prodigy in the profession. That is until he causes a scene by punching out an elderly curator for calling his work “bland” and “like a textbook.” To put his son right, Handa’s father sends him off to the Gotō Islands, a remote chain of islands that run off the Western coast of Kyūshū, Japan’s biggest southern island.
With few creature comforts around him, Handa decides to use his “banishment” to focus more on his calligraphy. But as he gets to know the locals, particularly a brash young girl called Naru, he learns there’s more to calligraphy than just writing kanji. There’s an art to it that Gotō’s culture helps him expand his skills. In the manga’s nearly 15-year run, it gained a prequel (Handa-kun), a live-action TV drama, and two anime based on itself and its prequel.
MORE:Slice of Life Manga You Should Read (Now That They Are Complete)
