Looking for recommendations! My personal pick would be Blooming Love (MangaPlus) for being a very wholesome and somewhat realistic romance manga featuring actual adults.
Zombiepowder by Kubo. It was cancelled but I wholeheartedly believe it deserves not only to be resurrected, but animated as well.
I don’t really have a great sense of if something is underrated or not, but here are some great series that I don’t see mentioned a lot here:
- Sweat and Soap - This might not qualify as underrated, but it is a fantastic love story between adults
- Love After World Domination - This one was cancelled after the anime didn’t drive sales, but I absolutely loved this series and would revive it if I could
- Love’s In Sight - A fantastic story about two outcasts from normal society falling for each other.
- A Story About a Droid - This one was dropped by the author (it was a Twitter series), but I really enjoyed what exists.
- Ubunchu - An old series that was published in the Ubuntu magazine in Japan. I find it hilarious, but you probably need to fit my exact demographic profile and linux experience for it to hit as hard.
- Slime 300 - I am not fully up to date on this series, but it is a great, slow-life isekai. There are never any stakes and is just a comfy time. Season 2 of the anime is coming this fall iirc.
Top 3 entries from some of my MangaDex 10 / 10 lists (based on difference between my rating of 10 and the actual rating), with shitty descriptions:
Completed
A Complicated Sibling Relationship 4-Koma
- rating: 7.79 (difference: 2.21)
- greatest trainwreck I have read
I Guess I Became the Mother of the Great Demon King’s 10 Children in Another World
- rating: 8.16 (difference: 1.84)
- MC pops babies out like nobody’s business to save the world; the kids are cute though
I Decided to Fake a Marriage with My Junior to Shut My Parents Up
- rating: 8.20 (difference: 1.80)
- MC turn lesbian to stay with her roommate
Ongoing
- rating: 8.12 (difference: 1.88)
- MC awakens to something on his way to save the world
- rating: 8.37 (difference: 1.63)
- title describes itself
The Gals Who Always Say Insane Things: My Daily Life at a Private Paranormal High School
- rating: 8.44 (difference: 1.56)
- gals use superpowers for random BS
Kinda NSFW
Don’t Call Me a Naked Hero in Another World
- rating: 7.09 (difference: 2.91)
- MC gets isekai-ed with only her bath towel
- rating: 8.84 (difference: 1.28)
- most sexually deviant manga I’ve read
no third entry due to a lack of 10s
I Decided to Fake a Marriage with My Junior to Shut My Parents Up
I have this one bookmarked to come back and read when I get a chance. Looking forward to it!
Naked Hero
I read the first couple chapters a while back and it was pretty funny, but dropped it for time. I might have to pick this one back up after I get back from vacation.
Here’s a list of the stuff I tend to link from time to time. They’re not perfect and vary on how underrated they are but all of them managed to stay with me in one way or another so that’s something.
- Sui and Neri of the Twilight Planet - a cute (and short) slice of life series about a girl and a talking sloth running an inn on a dying Earth. Art reminds me of Girls’ Last Tour (also read that if haven’t and want some post-post-post apocalyptic adventures).
- Satellite Coin Laundry - sci-fi comedy about a space laundromat. It has some great panels as well as interesting aliens and ideas. Translation doesn’t update particularly often unfortunately.
- Traveling Gyaru - fun travel story about a gyaru who decided to bike through a good chunk of Japan for her friend’s wedding while knowing nothing about traveling on a bike. Nice art, interesting trivia about traveling and locations but not fully translated (last mangadex updated was over 2 years ago).
- I also like your flaws - an awkward boy and an amputee girl meet during their first day at school, start hanging out. It’s a oneshot and could use a serialization to expand on the characters but it’s a neat read.
- Pen Pal at the End of the World - another oneshot, this time about a young girl and a former artist exchanging letters in a post-apocalyptic setting.
- The Boy Who Collects The Stars - a short, magical story about a search for a mythical six-legged deer.
- The Unwomanly Face of War - World War II stories from a perspective of women who served in the soviet army. A unique look at a “overplayed” topic. Based on a book with the same title.
- Kowloon Generic Romance - romance, drama, sci-fi? It’s a slow burn series about life in modern day Kowloon. It has both goofy and striking panels, some a bit more risque but don’t expect a lot of fan service. It also has an official English release.
Finally, read Girls’ Last Tour everyone. It’s good. Read it.
The Voynich Hotel is a wonderful manga that i never see talked about. An ex-yakuza goes to a small island to escape his past and stays in the titular hotel. It’s a slice of life manga in a world that is very weird.