I’ve been watching anime and reading manga since I was a child, starting with famous titles like Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2 or Dragon Ball Z. With time, I started getting really annoyed at some recurring problems in Japanese pop culture (at least, what was imported) and felt like no manga or anime were really meant for me as I grew up.

Just to name a few issues: lack of female gaze and female experiences, useless nudity and fan service (showing nudity in scenes or universes where it doesn’t belong, just for the pleasure of the audience, at least part of it…), unrealistic bodies, lolicon complex (very young girls that are sexualized)…

I’m glad the last years brought some very good titles that are more in line with my expectations of good media. Manga and anime finally started showing strong female leads (that are not just love interests or a princess to save), stories starring strong independent girls or women, realistic representations of womanhood, non erotic LGBTQ+ stories, handicapped heroes, and media without fan service and other cringe aspects.

Here’s the list of manga and anime that I liked recently, please share your other recommendations in the comments!

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The inclusive characteristics and representations I search for in manga and anime

• Female gaze, female experiences
• Strong independent female heroes, women helping each others, no mean girls
• Reflecting on social inequalities
• LGBTQ+, queer characters
• Feminist
• Body neutral, showing people with diverse and realistic bodies
• Handicapped characters
• Positive representations of aged women in active roles
• Neurodiversity, TSA, ADHD, HP

Those characteristics might be the main topic of the story or represented by some characters.

I didn’t mention anything related to fan service, lolicon and useless nudity as I only share manga and anime that don’t have any. What I call useless nudity is for example female warriors fighting in a bikini, surrounded by fellow male warriors in armor, or unrealistically huge breasts and impossible cleavages, showing underwear… when it doesn’t bring anything to the story (that’s… almost always the case).

Titles are presented alphabetically based on the usual title in English speaking countries.

A sign of affection

• Manga : still running, 15 volumes in the original Japanese version
• Anime : 1 season covering chapters 1 to 12 (no season 2 announced)
• Style : slice of life, romance
• Inclusive characteristics: handicapped lead (deaf)

The lead girl, Yuki, is a deaf university student. She meets Itsuomi, a fellow male student who travelled a lot across the world and invites her in a world of discovery. I’ve only seen the anime so far and it’s really sweet.

As I only watched the anime so far, if you read the books and noticed any red flags please let me know!

Ascendance of a bookworm

• Manga : 7 volumes; also primarily published as a Light Novel in 33 volumes
• Anime : 1 season
• Style : isekai, fantasy
• Inclusive characteristics: strong female lead, female experience, social inequalities

Urano is a book lover and dreams of becoming a librarian, until the day she dies crushed by a book pile. She reincarnates as a frail 5 year-old girl, Myne, in a medieval world. As a peasant, she doesn’t have access to books and will try anything to make her owns. The anime starts off slowly and looks quite linear at first, but the story suddenly takes another turn, pointing inequalities between people who were born as peasants and people raised in rich families, as well as the greed of the church leaders, taking advantage of poor people and not applying much of what they preach.

Myne will reach her goal by playing smart and getting acquainted with the right people. Although she’s a frail girl and must rely on some allies, she’s strong willed and manages to have impact in a world that was not meant for her.

I’ve heard the Light Novels are way better than the anime.

Bocchi the rock!

• Manga : 7 volumes in the original version
• Anime : 1 season, season 2 was announced
• Style : slice of life, music
• Inclusive characteristics: introvert lead with social anxiety, female experience, women helping each others

Hitori Goto, later nicknamed Bocchi, is an introvert girl suffering from social anxiety. Barely capable of speaking to other students at school and stressed by any public appearance, she’s secretly dreaming of becoming a rock star to finally shine and be liked. In the meantime, she’s playing the guitar by herself and posts anonymous videos on the Internet.

She comes closer to her dream when she ends up in a girls rock band and start playing at a local club, but it also means she has to find a way to balance her insecurities and anxiety with the demanding public life of a wannabe rock star.

I loved it as an introvert with social anxiety, as I could really relate to the lead character but also found the show really funny. Another great aspect is the women helping each others and accepting their friends’ quirks.

Cat + gamer

• Manga : 8 volumes (finished)
• Style : slice of life
• Inclusive characteristics: female experience

Kozakura is the perfect employee, but she always clocks off exactly at 5 and runs home to live her passion: playing video games. Her routine gets shaken by the adoption of a stray cat, which she doesn’t know anything about. Raising her kitten becomes a new quest in her gamer’s life.

I liked that it showed a young woman who’s great at her work but refuses to participate in any extra activity outside of her 9-5 and resists social pressure (like unpaid overtime or social gatherings with colleagues), to spend her free time exactly as she pleases. She’s very talented at video games and doesn’t act as a support for male leads.

Do it yourself!

• Anime : 1 season
• Style : slice of life
• Inclusive characteristics: strong female leads, female experience, women helping each others

A group of girl students learn to DIY together at a dedicated school club. A heartwarming show with quirky characters working on common projects, some of them being more clumsily than others.

Laid back camp (yuru camp)

• Manga : finished in 17 volumes
• Anime : 3 seasons, 4th season announced
• Style : slice of life, travel
• TW: a few scenes in onsen where we see women partly naked
• Inclusive characteristics: strong female leads, female experience, women helping each others

Several students become friends thanks to their passion for camping and take us on a tour of some of the most beautiful camping destinations with views on Mount Fuji. They learn together and help each others, discover the do’s and don’ts of camping and turn problems into solutions. They even do solo camping.

Unlike other titles about camping (like Solo camping for two, which is really close to a mansplanation show and where there is an obvious love story between people with a big age difference cooking…), girls in Laid back camp are growing together, by themselves, by experimenting and by helping and teaching each others. It’s also a girls and women only experience.

Natsuko no sake

• Manga : finished in 6 volumes (equivalent to 3-4 normal volumes each)
• Style : slice of life
• Inclusive characteristics: strong female lead, female experience, social inequalities

In this manga from 1988, Natsuko is a young woman who decides to come back to the countryside to manage the family kura (sake brewery) after her bother dies. As a woman in a men’s world, she faces obstacle after obstacle, especially when she decides to grow pesticide-free rice at a time where all farmers are relying on heavy treatment of cultures.

This series is especially interesting for those with at least a little interest in brewing, sake or agriculture. It tells the story of a woman who wants to run a company in a male-dominated field, at a time where all women were expected to mary and stay at home. It also explains a lot about how pesticides and industrial fertilizers are making our soil poor and our cultures fragile. I found Natsuko really annoying at times, but the story itself is really rich and educational.

She loves to cook, and she loves to eat

• Manga : still ongoing, 5 volumes in the original version
• Style : slice of life, romance
• TW: toxic family relationships, food disorders
• Inclusive characteristics: strong female characters, female experience, social inequalities, LGBTQ+ (lesbian love story), body neutral, women helping each others

First of all, this manga is great for Japanese food lovers. But there’s more to it. It starts following the relationship between two neighbor women, one who loves to cook but has a small appetite, and another who loves to eat but doesn’t really take time to cook. Through this common passion, they develop a friendship that quickly grows into more than that.

We discover other characters who join the group progressively, from which a woman who’s asexual. Some difficult topics like eating disorders and anxiety, or emotional neglect from the family, are also mentioned. The female experience is rich, there’s no taboo about periods for example.

Zatsu tabi – That’s journey

• Manga : 13 volumes, publication started in 2025 on BookWalker under the name “Zatsutabi”
• Anime : 1 season
• Style : slice of life, travel
• TW: a few scenes in onsen where we see women partly naked
• Inclusive characteristics: strong female characters, female experience

Suzugamori is a manga author, but she can’t find inspiration anymore. Her editor pushes her to do something other than writing and drawing to unstuck her creativity. She decides to travel across Japan and lets her social media contacts vote for her next destination.

She starts traveling on her own but is soon joined by fellow female manga authors. I liked the representation of women traveling together or even alone, following their inspiration, being spontaneous about it. All characters have different personalities and experiences, and it’s never about men or love stories.

As a bonus, it makes you travel in Japan.

A few other manga or anime without fan service

Here are a few more recommendations in different styles, that are not especially inclusive but don’t have fan service or lolicon.

Gintama

• Manga : finished in 77 volumes
• Anime : finished in 8 seasons (382 episodes)
• Style : shonen, fighting, fantasy, humour
• TW : there are very few fan service scenes and they’re treated as a way to make fun of other titles of the genre (however I haven’t seen/read everything yet and sometimes skip some fillers so let me know if you notice anything problematic)

Gintama is a totally marginal classic* shonen manga and anime, the humor is an acquired taste, the universe is a mix of medieval Japan and futuristic world, samurais walk next to aliens, recurring characters are more than quirky, main characters are professional freelancers who’d do anything no to work…

In the lead trio, Kagura is a woman who takes part in fights and is actually really powerful, not a supporting role for the male lead. Women have very unusual personalities and roles, a lot of them display physical strength, and they’re dressed as normal woman (no cleavage, no underwear showing…).

(*those who read Bakuman will get it)

Jujutsu kaisen

• Manga : finished in 30 volumes
• Anime : 2 seasons and a movie, 3rd season announced
• TW : male nudity (torso), one incestuous scene
• Style : shonen, action, dark fantasy

One of the very few action shonen where female characters are not sexualized. Apart from this, it has everything you’d expect from the genre: great fighting scenes, (dark) magic, lead character development, good vs bad, enemies who get more and more difficult to defeat. It gives me a strong Bleach vibe but in a more modern (and shorter) version.

Nyaight of the living cat

• Manga : still ongoing, 7 volumes
• Anime : 1 season airing
• Style : horror, post-apocalyptic, humor

A virus spreads through the feline population. It doesn’t turn people into zombies… but into cats! A few people managed to survive the furry attacks and try to make it to a safe place, resisting the urge to pet the cute but infected mammals. I love the manga version as the drawing is really mimicking the typical style of horror comics, and uses the codes of the genre very well. Except there is no blood, guts or zombies. Cats just attack by being cute and calling for hugs. I love the absurd humour!

Orange

• Manga : finished in 7 volumes
• Anime : 1 season
• TW : grief, suicide, depression
• Style : drama, romance

Naho receives a letter from future-self asking her to follow some instructions, or she will regret it in the future. Her first task is not to invite the new student to hang with her and her friends on his first day at school. She ignores the first instruction and realizes that the letter was telling the truth. With very little time-travelling mentions, this manga is above all a very moving, emotion rich story.

Parasyte: The Maxim

• Manga : finished in 10 volumes
• Anime : 1 season
• Style : science-fiction, gore

A masterpiece for sicfi lovers! Aside from the main science-fiction story and the gore scenes, it also has a great message about speciesism.

Skip and loafer

• Manga : still ongoing, 12 volumes
• Anime : 1 season
• TW : alcool (not much)
• Style : slice of life

Mitsumi is finally leaving the countryside to start life as a student in Tokyo! The capital city and the school are different from what she expected, but she keeps moving with candor and makes friends who will support her in this adventure. I liked the representation of the “clumsy”, naive girl from the countryside who finds support and kindness in her new environment, even among the cool kids.

Spy x family

• Manga : still ongoing, 15 volumes
• Anime : 3 seasons and a movie, 4th season announced
• TW : the adult female lead has a dress that shows cleavage during her missions
• Style : spying, humor

In a fictional country based on 50’s Germany, Twilight is a spy whose mission is to prevent war by getting closer to a dangerous politician. To complete this mission, he has to make up a family as a cover, and ends up with a daughter who can read minds and an assassin for hire wife, although he ignores all of it.

The lead trio is made of a man but also a girl and a woman who all have active roles. Also, Yor, the fake wife, is using Twilight as a cover for her own activities, making it a balanced relationship. Anya is hiding her gift, playing her parents to live spy adventures at their sides.

Their situation creates a lot of funny quiproquos.

Yatagarasu: The raven does not choose its master

• Manga : no manga but a Light Novel in 6 volumes
• Anime : 1 season
• TW : one scene with prostitutes in light clothes (but no sex scene)
• Style : fantasy, political drama, gore

Yatagarasu starts as a political drama with a really similar setting to The Apothecary Diaries (rivalry between women, murders, mysteries…), but with a fantasy dimension. Contrary to the Apothecary Diaries, the story doesn’t revolve only around the four ladies competing to become the wife of the next emperor, but it also shows the story of a male servant and guard of the mysterious imperial prince.

The first part of the anime is mostly a political drama with little fantasy, but then takes a very dark and gore turn with the fantasy aspect getting more developed.

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