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. Mezametara Saikyou Soubi to Uchuusen-mochi Datta no de, Ikkodate Mezashite Youhei Toshite Jiyuu ni Ikitai
- 18. Uchuu Kyoudai
- 17. Leviathan
- 16. Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Herlock
- 15. Babylon made wa Nankounen?
- 14. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu
- 13. Kanata no Astra
- 12. Planetes
- 11. Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Manga
- 10. Sidonia no Kishi
- 9. Mirai no Futatsu no Kao
- 8. Doraemon Long Stories
- 7. Five Star Stories
- 6. Space Ship EE
- 5. 11-nin Iru!
- 4. 2001-ya Monogatari
- 3. Tokeijikake no Ringo
- 2. Terra e...
- 1. A-A'
19. 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!
18. 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 has finished publishing and it has Chapters. It is also Known as: 宇宙兄弟, Uchu Kyodai
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. Uchuu Kaizoku Captain Herlock
In the future, humanity has achieved a vast starfaring civilization, but is slowly and steadily succumbing to ennui or despair, often due to defeat and subjugation by a foreign invader. Rising against the general apathy, Herlock denies defeat and leads an outlaw crew aboard his starship Arcadia to undertake daring raids against Earth's oppressors. Their primary oppressors are the Mazone, a race of organic plant-based alien women who explored Earth in the mythic past and are now back to reclaim it.
Captain Harlock: The Classic Collection has finished publishing and it has 25 Chapters. It is also Known as: 宇宙海賊キャプテンハーロック, Space Pirate Captain Harlock
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. 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
13. 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
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. 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
9. Mirai no Futatsu no Kao
Midway through the 21st century, an integrated global computer network manages much of the world's affairs. A proposed major software upgrade - an artificial intelligence - will give the system an unprecedented degree of independent decision-making, but serious questions are raised in regard to how much control can safely be given to a non-human intelligence. In order to more fully assess the system, a new space-station habitat - a world in miniature - is developed for deployment of the fully operational system, named Spartacus. This mini-world can then be "attacked" in a series of escalating tests to assess the system's responses and capabilities. If Spartacus gets out of hand, the system can be shut down and the station destroyed... unless Spartacus decides to take matters into its own hands and take the fight to Earth.
The Two Faces of Tomorrow has finished publishing and it has 24 Chapters. It is also Known as: 未来の二つの顔, Mirai no Futatsu no Kao
8. 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
7. 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
6. Space Ship EE
"I am inside a spaceship...outside is deep space. The name of my spaceship-- Spaceship EE."
It is 2038 CE. Noshi Hyoda is a 23-year-old office worker facing existential despair. Will she escape her world of apathetic oppression? Where can she go? What shall she do? Perhaps the answers lie in the stars beyond...perhaps not... (manga updates)
Space Ship EE has finished publishing and it has 1 Chapters. It is also Known as: Space Ship EE
5. 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
4. 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
3. Tokeijikake no Ringo
Short story collection of a variety of more mature Tezuka work.
Chapter 1
A Nazi faces a firing squad, but does he have a way out of it.
Chapter 2
Alone in space a man and a robot fall in love, but tragedy happens. Can miracles happen?
Chapter 3 - ClockWork Apple
A bustling town is suddenly quiet. Where are all the people? Has it been cut off from the rest of the world?
The story "Clockwork Apple" was borrowed from the book, before the movie was made, but has very little to do with the book either as Tezuka admits to writing it without reading Clockwork Orange.
Chapter 4
A man and a cabbie share horrifying stories with each other on the way to their destination.
Chapter 5
Chic hipsters fall in love but one of them is hiding a secret.
Chapter 6 - Yellow Dust
Vietnam vets hold a class of children and there teacher hostage.
Chapter 7 - Curtains
An assassination attempt but who is really behind it all?
Chapter 7 - Return Ship
Humans traveling space encounter another ship in dire need of help. Given the situation will man be his at best or at his worst?
Tokeijikake no Ringo has finished publishing and it has 8 Chapters. It is also Known as: 時計仕掛けのりんご, Clockwork Apple, Tokei Jikake no Ringo
2. Terra e...
In the far future, humans have destroyed their homeplanet, Terra, by carelessly messing with the enviorement. In order to preserve the life of their homeland, Terra, humans have evacuated this world in order to spread life unto other planets. Humanity, now ruled by a super computer that controls the birth of children, sees the emergence of a new human race called the "Mu," whose telepathic powers have alarmed the System running all of humanity. The Mu, now hidden from the rest of humanity, have one dream, to return home, to Terra...
To Terra... has finished publishing and it has 28 Chapters. It is also Known as: 地球へ…, Toward the Terra..., Towards the Terra..., Terra he...
1. A-A'
A volume of short sci-fi shoujo stories all featuring a new race of humans called Unicorns. The major theme in all of the stories are about human emotions. As the characters in the story try to interact and relate to these Unicorns who lack a lot of the natural emotions humans normally feel.
A, A Prime has finished publishing and it has 4 Chapters. It is also Known as: A-Prime, A, A Prime, A Dash, A'
