I'm a fan of Shakespeare, and I'm rather curious to see if he's had any influence on the manga world (and I'm not talking about those manga versions of Shakespeare you can get in English stores, which I have looked at and frankly find weird).

So basically, I'm wondering if anyone has read any manga that are based on Shakespeare's work - comedies, tragedies, histories, anything. Except Romeo and Juliet, as I'm kind of sick of that story and I'm not really in the mood for tragic love. Preferably the manga should be directly and intentionally based on a play, but if that's impossible, it's acceptable to recommend a manga which you feel has strong plot similarities to a Shakespeare play. (For example, I suppose you could claim with a bit of a stretch that Hana Kimi resembles Twelfth Night, with the cross-dressing love-complication stuff).

Anyway, I'm not sure what I can expect from a request like this, but I'd appreciate whatever you can give me.

Well, the only one I can think of is Romeo x Juliet, unfortunately, but it's a bit different from the traditional Shakespearean plot as it has a supernatural bent to it. Sorry, I'm not sure of any others. Not something that I've really run across.

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Glass Mask has an arc where they perform a comical parody of A Midsummer's Night Dream (I love that book), the scan group even took the actual book's script for the translations of what the character's were saying during the play. Maya stars as Puck.

Thank you for your efforts, I appreciate them. Unfortunately I've already tried Romeo x Juliet and didn't particularly find it to my liking, and it's sort of the same with Glass Mask, although I may go back and try that one again sometime. But thank you very much anyway - I realize that this is an odd and difficult request and I wasn't expecting many replies.

If any more ideas pop up, please share them; I'm still interested! Remember, I also wouldn't mind hearing about any manga that have some plot similarities to Shakespeare's works, even if they're not actually based on his stuff.

Once again, thanks!

Rough is a good one

hope these are ok, Im making a large stretch with these ones but its suprisingly hard to find manga based on shakespeares stories.

Basara has the whole Romeo/ Juliet thing going on. but so do a lot of other manga like.

I guess also, if Hana Kimi fits the bill a little with 12th night. Tokyo Crazy Paradise might fit alittle.

Are you ok with shounen-ai?? Boy Princesskind of reminds me of the King Lear story with the screwed up family dynamics going on (fights for the throne, sibling rivalry attempted poisoning etc etc). still thats making a large stretch and it also kinda has the whole romeo/ juliet thing going on still (except its between guys).

1001 nights again, shounen-ai so might not be what youre looking for but basically...

Although this one is also based on a legend that was told way before shakespeare. I think.

meh... Im making a big stretch with all of them. but hopefully they help a little.

Snow Drop is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet story.
You can tell from the summary.

Berserk is supposedly based on Macbeth, but I'm still not sure I believe this.

Pretty sad how popular Romeo and Juliet is, huh?

If you don't want to read all of Glass Mask, you can just start at volume 21. I think I'm in imminent danger of rereading it, though, after looking that up.

I haven't read Twelfth Night, so I don't know if Tokyo Crazy Paradise is like it or not, but I'm recommending it on general principles.

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