What is this genre all about? Beam me up, Scotty! Space stations (think Death Star) also count. Basically, this category is to tell if the setting takes place onboard a spaceship in space. This category is not applicable if the spaceship lies on a planet and never actually gets into space.
We present you the list of Shipboard manga you should read right now.
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Top 19 Shipboard manga you should read right now. [2026 List]
- 19. Uchuu Kyoudai
- 18. Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen-mochi Datta no de, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei Toshite Jiyuu ni Ikitai
- 17. Leviathan
- 16. Sidonia no Kishi
- 15. Babylon made wa Nankounen?
- 14. Kanata no Astra
- 13. Doraemon Long Stories
- 12. Planetes
- 11. Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Manga
- 10. Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen-mochi datta no de, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei Toshite Jiyuu ni Ikitai
- 9. 11-nin Iru!
- 8. 2001+5
- 7. Level E
- 6. Moonlight Mile
- 5. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
- 4. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
- 3. Star Trek: The Manga
- 2. Five Star Stories
- 1. 2001-ya Monogatari
19. Uchuu Kyoudai
Two brothers looked to the starry skies as children and made a promise ... Now, in the year 2025, the younger brother, Hibito, is carrying his out. He is an astronaut who has been selected as a crew member for mankind’s first long-term base on the moon. Meanwhile, the older brother, Mutta, has just been fired from his job and is unemployed, but decides to trust himself just one last time. A text message from Hibito sends him applying to be an astronaut too and shooting for the stars …
Notes:
- Nominated for the 2nd and 3rd Manga Taisho Award
- Won the 56th Shogakukan Manga Award
- Won the 35th Kodansha Manga Award in the General Category.
Space Brothers is currently publishing and has Chapters. It is also Known as: 宇宙兄弟, Uchu Kyodai
18. Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen-mochi Datta no de, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei Toshite Jiyuu ni Ikitai
When I woke up, I found myself inside a spaceship.
I guess you guys think I’m talking nonsense here, but I also have absolutely no clue about what exactly happened to me.
I was really close to completely losing it, but fortunately, I managed to notice that this place was really similar to the world featured in a game I was playing recently.
Am I dreaming? Nope, it’s no dream. Maybe I actually got sent to a different world or something?
But didn’t those things usually involve getting sent to a magical world with elves, dwarves, dragons and whatnot?
In any case, I don’t know what caused this, but I guess I’ll just have to suck it up and live properly in this world from now on.
It’ll be okay. I got my trusty spaceship so I can probably make some money. It’ll work out! It has to!
This is the story of a man abruptly thrown into space along with his private spaceship. He runs around with it and saves damsels in distress along the way, flirts with said damsels, earns money as a merc-for-hire and uses his gaming knowledge to work his way into living freely and easily.
When I Woke Up, I Got the Strongest Equipment and a Starship, so I Went and Became a Mercenary in Order to Live as I Please while Aiming for a Detached House is currently publishing and has Chapters. It is also Known as: 目覚めたら最強装備と宇宙船持ちだったので、一戸建て目指して傭兵として自由に生きたい, Я очнулся, будучи пилотом сильнейшего космического корабля, а потому решил стать межгалактическим наёмником, When I Woke Up, I Got the Strongest Equipment and a Spaceship, so I Went and Became a Mercenary in Order to Live as I Please while Aiming for a Detached House, Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship!
17. Leviathan
In the depth of galaxy, the Leviathan, a huge spaceship, floats adrift. When wreckstrippers get isnide, they find a diary of a schoolboy, Kazuma, relating the events that happenned in the guts of the ship... While reading it something seems obvious : a survivor from the disaster is hiding somewhere in the maze of the ruins !
Years before, the young Kazuma was in a middle of a schooltrip to Earth. The party comes to an end when unknown explosions destroy a part of the hull of the vessel ! Now the passengers are trapped in the middle of nowhere... The teenager and his friend Fubata then assist to a conversation between their teacher and a maintenance robot : the supplies in oxygen is not enough to make it until help arrives... The only hope for survival is a cryogenic chamber in the heart of the metal giant. However, it wan only contain one person... Unfortunately for the students, the teacher quickly understands that he has been heard. It is the beginning of a bloody fight to keep the secret !
Leviathan has finished publishing and it has 15 Chapters. It is also Known as: リバイアサン, Leviathan (KUROI Shiro)
16. Sidonia no Kishi
Outer space, the far future.
A lone seed ship, the Sidonia, plies the void, ten centuries since the obliteration of the solar system. The massive, nearly indestructible, yet barely sentient alien life forms that destroyed humanity’s home world continue to pose an existential threat.
Nagate Tanikaze has only known life in the vessel’s bowels deep below the sparkling strata where humans have achieved photosynthesis and new genders. Not long after he emerges from the Underground, however, the youth is bequeathed a treasured legacy by the spaceship’s coolheaded female captain.
Meticulously drawn, peppered with clipped humor, but also unusually attentive to plot and structure for the international cult favorite, Knights of Sidonia may be Tsutomu Nihei’s most accessible work to date even as it hits notes of tragic grandeur as a hopeless struggle for survival unfolds.
Knights of Sidonia has finished publishing and it has 78 Chapters. It is also Known as: シドニアの騎士, Knights of Cydonia, Cydonia no Kishi
15. Babylon made wa Nankounen?
Follow the intergalactic adventures of a man traveling the stars with a mission: to bone the hottest girls the universe has to offer while uncovering the mysteries of his forgotten past.
(Source MU)
How many light-years to Babylon? has finished publishing and it has 32 Chapters. It is also Known as: バビロンまでは何光年？, Babylon made wa Nankounen?
14. Kanata no Astra
What starts as a pleasant class trip to a planet five light-years away becomes a nightmare survival trip to get back home.
In the year 2063, interstellar space travel has become the norm. What sort of adventure awaits on the new frontier?
It's the first day of Planet Camp, and Aries Spring couldn't be more excited! She, along with eight other strangers, leave for Planet McPa for a weeklong excursion. Soon after they arrive, however, a mysterious orb appears and transports them into the depths of space, where they find an empty floating spaceship…
Astra Lost in Space has finished publishing and it has 49 Chapters. It is also Known as: 彼方のアストラ, Kanata no Astra
13. Doraemon Long Stories
"Doraemon" is a series about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time from the 22nd century to help a schoolboy named Nobita Nobi. Aside from the normal manga books, their great adventures to different places are specially described in Doraemon Long Stories books.
Doraemon Long Stories has finished publishing and it has 126 Chapters. It is also Known as: Daichouhen Doraemon, 大長編ドラえもん, The Adventure of Doraemon
12. Planetes
Haunted by a space flight accident that claimed the life of his beloved wife, Yuri finds himself six years later as part of a team of debris cleaners on a vessel called the Toy Box charged with clearing space junk from space flight paths. The team consists of Hachimaki, a hot shot debris-man with a sailor's affinity for the orbital ocean; Fee, a chain-smoking tomboy beauty with an abrasive edge; and Pops, a veteran orbital mechanic whose avuncular presence soothes the stress of the job.
Planetes has finished publishing and it has 27 Chapters. It is also Known as: プラネテス ΠΛΑΝΗΤΕΣ, Planetes
11. Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Manga
TNG Goes Manga! Untold stories from one of the most renowned science fiction franchises in history, interpreted through Japanese-style sequential art, truly takes the crew of the USS Enterprise where they've never gone before!
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Manga has finished publishing and it has 4 Chapters. It is also Known as: Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Manga
10. Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen-mochi datta no de, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei Toshite Jiyuu ni Ikitai
Sato Takahiro was an ordinary office worker and hobbyist gamer until the day he woke up on a spaceship–one that strangely resembled a craft from a favorite space-shooter game. With a decked-out ship, a crew full of babes, and a fantastic universe to explore, he’s going to make the most of his good luck and create the life he’s always dreamed of!
Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship! is currently publishing and has Chapters. It is also Known as: 目覚めたら最強装備と宇宙船持ちだったので、一戸建て目指して傭兵として自由に生きたい, When I Woke Up, I Got the Strongest Equipment and a Spaceship, so I Went and Became a Mercenary in Order to Live as I Please While Aiming for a Detached House
9. 11-nin Iru!
The elite Cosmo Academy attracts applicants from every stellar nation in the galaxy. One young hopeful is Tadatos Lane, an orphan esper from Terra. The final stage of the academy's entrance exam is a perilous mission simulation aboard an actual derelict starship. The applicants depart for the ships in groups of ten, but when Tada's crew arrives on the Esperanza, they are horrified to discover that they now number eleven. As the test progresses, things go awry and the atmosphere grows increasingly tense. The crew members begin to suspect sabotage, and Tada appears to be the likely culprit.
They Were 11 has finished publishing and it has 4 Chapters. It is also Known as: 11人いる!, They Were Eleven!, Juuichinin Iru!, Unicorn no Yume, 6-gatsu no Koe, 10-gatsu no Shoujo-tachi
8. 2001+5
Hoshino add 5 new stories to his space saga.
1. Yoru no Taikai no Naka de (2001 Ya Monogatari Bangaihen)
Spinoff of the famous 2001 Nights.
2-4. Arthur World (STARSHIP ADVENTURE Star Field)
5. Sarari-za no Akai Hoshi (STARSHIP ADVENTURE Star Field)
6. Ikari no Utsuwa
7. Ougon no Wakusei (Space Fantasy Part1)
8. Dollmen (Space Fantasy Part2)
9. Kyokuten e no Tabi (Space Fantasy Part3)
10. Phobos Daimos
11. Kiri no Wakusei
2001+5 has finished publishing and it has 11 Chapters. It is also Known as: 2001+5
7. Level E
Tsutsui Yukitaka was a freshman who had just entered a high school, and he was hoped to be a good baseball player. When he moved to a new apartment, there was a man in the room. He said he was an alien and lost his memory.
Actually, he was the first prince of Planet Dogra, and he was the man who had the best brain and the worst nature.
Level E has finished publishing and it has 16 Chapters. It is also Known as: レベルE, Level E
6. Moonlight Mile
Gorou Saruwatari and Lostman are mountain climbers who have ascended some of the highest mountains around the world. At the peak of Mount Everest, they see the ISA Space Station in the sky above and become determined to go into space. At the same time, NASA begins a program to research and obtain a new energy source which has been discovered on the moon. Gorou and Lostman attempt to join the program through different approaches: Lostman becomes a pilot and Gorou takes a job as a construction worker.
Moonlight Mile has finished publishing and it has 206 Chapters. It is also Known as: MOONLIGHT MILE, Moonlight Mile
5. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
In humanity's distant future, two interstellar states—the monarchic Galactic Empire and the democratic Free Planets Alliance—are embroiled in a never-ending war. The story focuses on the exploits of rivals Reinhard von Müsel and Yang Wen Li as they rise to power and fame in the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes is currently publishing and has Chapters. It is also Known as: 銀河英雄伝説, Legend of the Galactic Heroes, LotGH
4. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
The story is staged in the distant future within our own Milky Way Galaxy, approximately in the 35th century. Unlike other science fiction stories, there are no alien civilizations. A portion of the galaxy is filled with terraformed worlds inhabited by interstellar traveling human beings. For 150 years two mighty space powers have intermittently warred with each other: the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance.
Within the Galactic Empire, based on 19th century Prussia, an ambitious military genius, Reinhard von Müsel, is rising to power. He is driven by the desire to free his sister Annerose, who was taken by the Kaiser as a concubine. Later, he wants not only to end the corrupt Goldenbaum dynasty but also to defeat the Free Planets Alliance and to unify the whole galaxy under his rule.
In the Free Planets Alliance is another genius, Yang Wen-li. He originally aspired to become a historian, and joined the military only because he needed money for tuition. He was rapidly promoted to an admiral because of his demonstrated excellence in military strategy. He becomes the archrival of Reinhard, though they highly respect one another.
As a historian, Yang often narrates the rich history of his world and comments on it. One of his famous quotes is: "There are few wars between good and evil; most are between one good and another good."
Besides the two main heroes, the story is full of vivid characters and intricate politics. All types of characters, from high nobility, admirals and politicians, to common soldiers and farmers, are interwoven into the story. There is a third neutral power nominally attached to the Galactic Empire called the Phezzan Dominion, a planet-state (city-state on a galactic scale) which trades with both warring powers. There is also a Terraism cult, which claims that humans should go back to Earth, gaining popularity throughout the galaxy. The story frequently switches away from the main heroes to the Unknown Soldier fighting for his life on the battlefield.
Contains 10 main volumes and 4 prequel volumes, as well as 5 uncollected short stories.
Volumes 1-10 are entitled: Dawn (黎明篇); Ambition (野望篇); Biding His Time (雌伏篇); Strategem (策謀篇); A Hero's Chance (風雲篇); Soaring High (飛翔篇); Great Upheaval (怒濤篇); Chaos (乱離篇); Resurgence of Power (回天篇); Sunset (落日篇) (unofficial English translations, edited by MAL)
Prequel Volumes 1-4 entitled: The Star Crusher (星を砕く者); Julian's Iserlohn Diary (ユリアンのイゼルローン日記); Hundred Billion Stars, Hundred Billion Lights (千億の星、千億の光); Spiral Labyrinth (螺旋迷宮)
Short Stories:
The Record of the Battle of Dagon (ダゴン星域会戦記)
The Silver Valley (白銀の谷)
Disgrace (汚名)
Morning's Dream, Evening's Song (朝の夢、夜の歌)
Golden Wings
Won Seiun Award (Japanese science fiction award voted by fans) for Best Novel of the Year 1988.
(Wikipedia)
Legend of the Galactic Heroes has finished publishing and it has 132 Chapters. It is also Known as: 銀河英雄伝説, LoGH, LotGH, GinEiDen
3. Star Trek: The Manga
A collection of stories in which the crew of the Enterprise faces many challenges, including warrior-robot pilots turning to pillaging for thrills and machinery attempting to take control of the Enterprise.
Source: Tokyopop
Star Trek: The Manga has finished publishing and it has Chapters. It is also Known as: Star Trek: The Manga
2. Five Star Stories
The Five Star Stories takes its name from the Joker Star Cluster where the stories take place. The star cluster is made up of four stars: Eastern, Western, Southern and Northern. The "fifth star" is a large comet named Stant that passes through that sector of space every 1,500 years pulling with it its own collection of orbiting planets.
In the distant past the Farus Di Kanon Empire, now commonly known as the "Super Empire", controlled all 4 solar systems of the Joker Cluster. They enjoyed a level of technology much higher than is currently known and sent explorers to the far reaches of the Joker Galaxy. Around the year 9000 AD (Ammon Duul) the empire collapsed due to internal strife. The explorers were called home and what remained of civilization focused mainly on survival. Much technology and knowledge was lost by the time the imperial families of Amaterasu, Fillmore and Hathuha gathered and established the JC era. JC stands for "Joker Calendar" and was meant to give a common frame of reference to all nations to help foster a lasting peace. The JC calendar was adopted but the dream of peace was never realized.
The first story of The Five Star Stories begins in JC 2988. At this time interstellar travel is common and genetically engineered "fatimas" are well established as necessary co-pilots of the fearsome mortar headds that dominate the battlefields. Warfare between nations is commonplace and few still hope for peace.
Five Star Stories is currently publishing and has Chapters. It is also Known as: ファイブスター物語, FSS, Five Star Monogatari
1. 2001-ya Monogatari
A collection of short stories that look to mankind's exploration of space, and examine the possibilities that we could face when we decide to take those first fateful steps into the unknown.
2001 Nights has finished publishing and it has 20 Chapters. It is also Known as: 2001夜物語, 2001-ya Monogatari
