Like the title says, I am looking for manga which features and develops the platonic friendships between two people of the same gender. As in:

1) No heterosexual romance which overrides platonic love between two bros or gals... Actually, I DONT want any romance at all in the manga.

2) The platonic love is between the 2 MAIN CHARACTERS

3) The strong bond between these characters must be an integral part of the manga. It doesn't need to explicitly focus on the friendship, but it must play an important role in the story.

Once again, I am looking for bromance AND sisterhood.

Rant: The sad thing about the sisterhood is that it is hard to find manga which develops or centres around two females, let alone their strong bond. I don't think there even is a word which is the equivalent of 'bromance'- sisterhood is the closest I can find. See, some manga may feature moments of genuine feminine affection and love, however it remains undeveloped or glossed over in favour of stupid prepubescent romance with other boys... It is frustrating. I believe platonic and friendship is more important than the so called romance with a 'cool handsome bad boy'.

Examples of bromance:
Bananafish
Golden days
Get backers
Hunter x hunter
... Pretty much every sports manga created.

Examples of sisterhood:

I haven't found anything that encapsulates the genuine affection and love between females. It is hard to find manga which centres around 2 main female characters, let alone focussing on friend ship instead of romance (het) love...

Strong moments of feminine friendship:
Kubera- but the romance is overriding the friendship between kubera and asha
Chang ge xing - unfortunately, the friendship between the main character and a slave girl was way too short lived...

Thankyou for reading. I'd appreciate it if people took in mind the criteria when reccing, namely: no het romance and friendship between the MAIN characters.



________________
Simply another normal human being...

Sisterhood: there's the manga Tomodachi no Hanashi, which I really enjoyed.

Bromance:
Basically all of Jojo no Kimyou na Bouken series

Sisterhood:
Satougashi no Dangan wa Uchinukenai
Aria and its prequel Aqua

Bromance and Sisterhood all at once:
Ame Nochi Hare (Bikke)

Sisterhood: Life (unfortunately, man I wish they hooked up)

Womance (that is ... bromance but between women) without it turning in yuri or romance interfering is rather hard to find in manga, at least for me, but then I don't read much shoujo/josei so I might be wrong.

Here are a few to check though :

Yuujou Survival! Exactly what you want, sadly it's not completely scanlated.
Cheeky Angel The lead and her childhood best friend. There's a slight romance plot but it's mostly for comedy.

Bromance is a lot easier to find but if you want something different you could try Welcome to Room #305!

And if you don't mind bonds with non-human characters a la Natsume Yuujinchou you should definitely check the anime : Kemono no Souja Erin, 50 episodes where the focus is almost entirely on the friendship/bond between the leads. It's based on a novel and a manga also exists (Kemono no Souja) but not much has been scanlated.

Last edited by oneeyed at 12:37 am, Dec 20 2014

@geometry + jedinat: about to start cotton and tomodachi no hanashi... But I think tomodachi is classified as romance?

@ kamfreto: yes, I've read the Jojo series, it is... Really homoerotic, actually. The covers have them pressing their crotches against each other!! Haha it can't get more bromance than that.
Oh I've always glossed over Aria, but I guess I'll start it now!
I REALLY LOVE AME NOCHI HARE. Lots of bromance and womance... It can go any way- I can't quite tell which characters are going to end up together, even.

@ caozhi: will try Life, though I'm pretty sure the straight romance ends up overriding the friendship?

-@oneeyed: oh so it was called womance? Sounds really... Weird. It's not a popular term, I guess.
I will try yuujou survival, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of chapters...
I've read Cheeky Angel- yes, I think the lead and her best friend match each other! But I'm pretty sure the lead ended up with the delinquent guy...
Welcome to room #305 is AMAZING- I wish it could be fully scanlated...
I've read Natsume Yuujinchou- it really could be the epitome of bromance
I will try reading kimono no souja; I prefer manga over anime


Thanks for the recs guys
please keep in mind i don't really want boy-girl romance in the manga at all, unless it's between the bros/gals
... Any more recs?


________________
Simply another normal human being...

I'm not sure if it really is prominent, but Tower of God? I love the bromance between Baam and Koon. I'm such a huge sucker for bromance

Bromace:
- Saiyuki and its myriad sequels are chockful of bromance between the four main guys. It's weird since they're very much found family but it's also hella borderline gay. Pretty much no romance, mostly because there are maybe four named female characters in the whole series.
- Spirit Circle kind of has a continuously reincarnating ménage à trois bromance going on and it makes me tear up just thinking about it. Het romance present in force though, fwiw.
- Apocalypse no Toride between unrelenting horror there's a lot of like, blood brothers to the end type stuff there. Three of the four main characters have been friends in juvie for ages so they're about as close knit as you can get in a zombie apocalypse.
- Switch is pretty classic bromance between two detectives who are partnered up, somewhat unwillingly.
- 20th Century Boys in which a group of childhood friends who took very different paths in life reunite only to find that they have to save the world from the mess they created when they were still kids. Romance is minimal iirc, or at least it never made a huge impression on me.

Womance:
- (G) Edition is an ecchi series but I feel like the female friendships there are kinda rare to see in manga, since they're all aspiring mangaka who support each other's work even with their vastly different tastes. Mostly incredibly silly but a quick read. In spite of the ecchi there's pretty much no romance.
- Otoyomegatari is more an ensemble, rotating cast so the main character role moves around but one of the main focuses in the series is relationships between women, and this cuurrent arc especially deals with two women in crazy platonic love with each other. Emma, by the same author, also has a lot of meaningful female friendships, most prominently the intergenerational friendship between Emma and her employer. Both are reaaally heavy on the het romance too, but I think the writing and stunning artwork might swing it for you?
- Also maybe too much of an obvious one but Crimson Hero is a fun manga about a girls' volleyball team. The ending's kind of a drag but I like it regardless.
- Sasameki Koto is all girls, all the time (well and one crossdresser). It is yuri tho, so the main two are kind of will they-won't theying for the whole manga. Still I mention it because I think they have nice relationships with the other female students in their school and their own friendship, while rocky, is also very moving.

A little of both:
Bokura no Kiseki, partly because of its enormous cast and partly because the main character was a woman in his past life, has a slew of strong same sex friendships between characters. There is het romance drama going on but those issues are sort of separate from the friendships (no love triangles or petty choose me or your friends plots) and it's just a pretty great series.

Last edited by deshabille at 11:32 pm, Dec 20 2014

Seconding Aria and Aqua! The author also has another work: Amanchu!
And yes, the latest arc of Otoyomegatari has great "sisterhood."

Adding:
- Saint Young Men: Jesus and Buddha as best buddies on Earth.
- Ciel: Yvienne and Lariatte have the most Perfect friendship going on. Though uh... stuff happens.
- Sanctuary: two friends decide to change Japan, one in the field of politics, the other from the underworld.

@tinny: yes! Tower of god is full of bromance!

@deshabile: I've read saiyuki, apocalypse no toride, switch and 20th century boys- I love them! The funny thing about 20th century boys is that I was so focused on the plot and mystery that I never noticed the bromance... I'm debating whether or not I should reread it.
I haven't read spirit circle, but eh it's tagged as romance.... I'll try a few chapters
Wow I haven't read any of those womance series! Thanks! I've put them on my reading list.
Bokura no kiseki looks good, thanks.

@mizura: Saint young men is amazing! It's so sacriligeously funny. Indeed... They have the Supreme (godly) Bromance.
I'll try Ciel. Sanctuary looks intriguing.

Thanks for the recs guys!
Some underrated Supreme Bromance series I've recently found which you might not know:

Shounen hakaryuudo - sparkly nymphs (what more can I say)?
Mahou Tsukai no Neko - cute fantasy... Cats and magic contracts lol
Boku wa ne - endearing family (babysitter) love
Kizu (kiyohara hiro) -darker overtones
Lucky dog 1 Blast -action: prison escape... based off a yaoi visual novel
Tactics -a bit of a master/slave relationship
Teen spirit -bunch of cute boys in a band

I've noticed a lot of the series with josei, action genres have extreme bromance going on...

Supreme Womance:
Teppuu - so addicting, pretty much an all female cast!! the main character is so underhanded, violent and morbid- it's refreshing. It's great to see a manga centred on females- even better to see that it focuses on martial arts YES~





________________
Simply another normal human being...

I second:
Kemono no Souja Erin and Cheeky Angel
third
Tower of God

Sakamichi no Apollon has a great bromance

Edit: there is romance in it between one of the main guys and a girl, but the relationship between the main two guys is more focused on

I have no idea whether the OP even reads this thread any more, but for the sake of those people (few and far between though they may be) who love close platonic relationships, I'm going to list as many as I can remember (which is a lot).

Bromance

07-Ghost -- Several lovely platonic relationships.
Adekan -- The epitome of bromance, this one.
diece
Danshigurashi -- The main story has been completely scanlated; the 'incomplete' status is because of a couple of unrelated oneshots, asfaik. Not a 'cute' one, because this is more realistic than typical bromance stories.
Junjou Karen na Oretachi da!
Haikyuu!!
Ookiku Furikabutte
Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru
Tomodachi Game
Liberté
Hakkenden
Pet Shop of Horrors -- Very much so. Not the sequel, though.
Karneval
Hoshi no Ame Tsuki no Geboku
Samurai Drive
Yasha
Kyou kara Ma no Tsuku Jiyuugyou! -- I wouldn't recommend the anime (despite the irregular and out-of-order manga scanlations), because apparently it's out-and-out BL.
Waltz
Ilegenes and its sequel.
Sougiya Riddle
Yakumo Tatsu is a great one, too bad it's been dropped.
Hakudatsu no Masquerade
Akaya Akashiya Ayakashi no -- Not 100% certain.
Demon Diary
Hard Romantica
Butterfly -- If you don't mind them having quite the age gap. The kid is very mature, though.
Tenshi Tokei
Hyakki Yakoushou -- Human/non-human, may be overshadowed by romance in the future.
Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist
Himitsu -- Is in scanlation limbo hell, unfortunately.
Kaizoku to Ningyo
Hetalia - Axis Powers -- Probably best to try the anime, since the manga isn't scanlated and Tokyopop is defunct. But this is gag, so the bromance isn't actually serious, despite playing a pretty important role in the plot.
Servamp
Shirogane no Ou and its sequel, Shirogane no Ou - Fenrir Craft
Saraiya Goyou -- Also has an anime.
Hinatama
Hatarake, Kentauros! -- Human/non-human
Do Whatever You Want
Ping Pong -- This is a realistic one, so not a very nice/heartwarming best friendship, but it still counts, imo.
Count Cain + God Child -- What's with the shounen-ai tag, anyway? This isn't BL.
Gin no Yuusha
Chronos - Deep
RustBlaster -- Maybe. Being ages since I read this, so memory's a bit hazy.
Kaine -- The title story only.
Watashi no Kakurega e Douzo -- Not BL, despite the genre tag.
Kimi to Boku
Wild Adapter -- I'm pretty sure the series has been discontinued, but it's worth reading what's out for the excellent bromance. It's not BL (at least between the main duo), though -- tags be damned.


Womance (I dislike this word, since it just doesn't have a nice ring to it like the male equivalent, but, well...)

Hayate x Blade -- Can't believe no one's mentioned this before, actually.
Taiho Shichau zo
Alyosha! -- More of a communal thing between the female MC and her 3 classmates, one of whom is a boy, but still fits pretty well.
Shirley
Dear Friends
Kagen no Tsuki -- No worries about the romance; this is actually a story about how friendship and family can help you get over a broken relationship. Another big age gap, though.
Mars no Kiss
Watashi no Taisetsu na Tomodachi
Venus Versus Virus -- Not 100% sure


There's more, but their scanlations have been defunct for years.

This is probably the longest rec post I've ever made I doubt there's anyone in the world more passionate about this topic than I am, though, so it makes sense.

Last edited by calstine at 8:55 am, Mar 14 2015