Hi, I'm new to this side of the internet in general and I'm looking for non romantic "indie" manga. I really like manga with a lot of scenery or that tells a story within the setting. To clarify I don't mind romance of any type, I just prefer for it to have a deeper meaning in a context with a deep setting, if that makes sense. I like to focus more on the story. If the manga is the "cake", then the romance added is "frosting." In my case, I only like a little or no frosting.

Some manga that I like in this category are Otoyomegatari, Usuzumi no Hate, and Kanda Gokura-chou Shokunin-Banashi.

What is this genre of manga called? And if so, what will be a good place to find similar titles? The closest word I can find to this in English are "slice of life" but that doesn't seem so fitting.

Thank you very much for the help. I am a new user to this site so I'm excited to learn more terminology and the culture here.

for tags for scenery i think the tags "Travel" "Journey" or "Highly Visual Narrative." on the topic of your listed manga, i think slice of life might be fitting, but i believe pairing it with any combination of these genres "adventure" "fantasy" or "historical" might have things you're looking for? the "philosophical" tag tend to have manga with pretty art/focus on scenery.

recommendations:
Tongari Boushi no Atelier
Mushishi
Zi Bu Yu
Hoshitabi Shounen
Tenju no Kuni (bit similar to otoyomegatari?)
Vinland Saga
Sousou no Frieren (the anime is better for scenery)

you can make your own tags or add already existing ones onto manga if you feel something is missing. though you don't have to look though all the existing tags because it's too much, you can do a quick search through the existing categories/tags for similar tags that already exist. for advanced search, don't search for manga with the "female protagonist" or "male protagonist" tags because they're new tags that numbers only to about 2000 when there are obviously much more manga on here. feel free to add those tags yourself for series that you see that don't have those two tags if you want.

I think what you're looking for might also fall under "slow life" lol

Maybe you'd enjoy
Sekai no Owari ni Shiba Inu to
Henkyou no Roukishi - Bard Loen
Totsukuni no Shoujo
Taihai no Hanauri
Hakumei and Mikochi
Somali to Mori no Kami-sama - this one got cancelled, but I heard the author is getting support to bring it back I'm not too sure though
Heterogeneous Linguistics

Also I second Frieren, same vibes

Also from your examples it seems to me you enjoy world building more than plot lol so maybe look into the world building category?

Last edited by F_J at 1:33 am, Mar 28 2024

Hate no Shoutsuushin
MagMell Shinkai Suizokukan

Lots of the ones mentioned above are good and here are a couple more you might like. Thanks for recommending Usuzumi no Hate, I hadn't heard of it before and it's really good.

Last edited by Alimeru at 1:11 am, Mar 14 2024

hi MaskingTape,

Thank you for the recommendations. I really liked Tongari Boushi no Atelier, Mushishi, and Tenju no Kuni. Thank you for the advice on how to refine my searches in the future. 😀

@F_J
Ah, "slow life," I see! Thank you for the recommendations. I'm still working through your recommendation list, but I've read Heterogeneous Linguistics before and forgot to include it on the list. I really liked that one as well. Thank you very much for the help!

Last edited by lambchopsil at 1:22 pm, Mar 27 2024